well, I haven’t been on here in a while due to my graduation yesterday and senior trip during the past week. However, when I got home, I tried to use my alta vista translator. I have tried using it on aol and internet explorer, but nothing ever shows up. Is anyone else having these problems with alta vista? What other translators can I use? thanks. 
tipi
According to babelfish.altavista.com", tipiwoo did say:
bien, no he estado encendido aquí en un rato debido a mi graduación ayer y al viaje mayor durante la última semana. Sin embargo, cuando conseguí casero, intenté utilizar mi traductor de Alta Vista. He intentado usarlo en AOL e Internet Explorer, pero nada muestra siempre para arriba. Cualquier persona otro se tiene estos problemas con Alta Vista? Qué otros traductores pueden yo utilizar? gracias.
I think it’s just acting flaky–when testing it I sometimes had to try four or five times to get it to work–but keep hitting the back key and tell it to translate again, and it should eventually work.
Make that really flaky. It took about 20 tries, and a variety of error messages, to convert the spanish version of tipiwoo’s message back to English:
*well, been I have not ignited here in awhile due to my graduation yesterday and to the greater trip during the last week. Nevertheless, when I obtained caretaker, I tried to use my translator of Alta Vista. I have tried to use it in AOL and Internet Explorer, but nothing always shows for above. Any person another one has these problems with Alta Vista? What other translators can I use? thanks. *
Online Dictionaries and Translators has a good list of free sites–be sure to give it enough time to load everything.
GO Translator Service looks pretty good.
I don’t speak Spanish, so tell me, are these translations sensible? What I keep seeing with machine translations is word for word translations which are half gibberish when you read them.
So, which languages work?
FORGET Alta Vista. I’m a translator and the few times I’ve tried it, I found it to be of absolutely no use whatsoever, even for basic information.
On the other hand, Go Translator Service seems indeed pretty efficient, judging from the few sentences I typed in. It definitely has its limits (computerized translation still has a long ways to go generally, although much has been done with texts of a repetitive nature such as weather bulletins, for example), but it certainly can be of assistance for those with ‘uncomplicated’ linguistic needs. Much appreciated whitetho. May use it myself at times…
The English-to-Spanish translation that whitetho made using a translation was about 75% comprehensible. The translation back was total gibberish in English, of course.
Expecting that kind of translator to do a creditable job on any but the most basic kind of work is like expecting a two-year-old child to toddle out onto the track and do a graceful ten-foot polevault.
Sometimes you can get really hilarious results using babelfish to translate passages into spanish and then back into english…especially if the original text is full of typos or grammatical mistakes.
Live a Lush Life
Da Chef
Reading this thread, I got to thinking about that old story about how supposedly “Out of sight, out of mind,” translated from English to Russian and back to English became “Invisible maniac,” and was curious to see what Babelfish would do with it. The results weren’t that funny, I still had to grin:
English to French to English:
Out of the sight, of the spirit.
English to German to English:
From sight from understanding out.
English to Italian to English:
From sight, the mind.
English to Portuguese to English:
It are of the sight, it are of the mind.
English to Spanish to English:
Outside Vista, the mind.
Thought the last one was especially amusing considering Babelfish is on Alta Vista
“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy
Lets try a translation of what Altavista returned in Spanish (not using Altavista, but actually translating)
well, I haven’t been on fire here for a while, due to my graduation yesterday and to the big trip during final week (actually: Last week in Sp. is “semana pasada,”). However, when I achieved home-made, I tried using my translator by Alta Vista. I’ve tried using it on AOL and Internet Explorer, but nothing shows always for up. Another person other have made himself these problems with Alta Vista? What other translators are I to use? Thank you.
I guess it almost comprehensable. I wouldn’t use it though.
Charlie–
It’s good to hear you haven’t been on fire for a while. I guess thos fire safety courses really helped.
I remember once standing in line at the supermarket and picking up Reader’s Digest (does anyone buy it, or do we all just read it in line?) and saw the following anecdote (here’s the gist of it):
A group of people were touring Russia after it was opened to tourists, and their guide was showing them around a factory and proudly proclaiming how productive the workers were. One of the tourists asked, “What would happen if a worker didn’t meet his quota?” The guide replied, “He would be shot.”
A very subdued tour group returned to the bus, only to be met by a frantically running guide, who said, “I have been checking my dictionary, and I meant he would be fired, not shot.”
Live a Lush Life
Da Chef
On the other hand, if you needed a pole vaulted and the only one available was a two-year-old you’d probably be pretty happy with whatever the result was.
If you want great literature automated translation is not the way to go. If you receive a letter that says “Caro senhor, é meu prazer informá-lo que que seu tio Roy lhe deixou 2 milhões em seu testamento. Responda por favor imediatamente.” and want to know whether or not to toss it even babelfish would be handy.