Posts by: John Yunker

Have you dined at the Translate Server Error lately?

By On May 8, 2009 · 1 Comment

File this post under Lost in (Machine) Translation.

This photo arrived courtesy of Gareth Morgan at Neovia Financial.

Apparently the proprietor of this restaurant in China decided to create an English-language sign using machine translation (MT) software and, apparently, the MT engine wasn’t working all that well.

So instead of “restaurant” we have “translate [...]

Continue Reading →

Per capita, Netherlands is the world’s ccTLD leader

By On April 29, 2009 · 1 Comment

The Netherlands, a country with just 16 million people, accounts for more than 3 million ccTLDs.

That’s an impressive ratio of people to domains — one ccTLD per 5.3 people — and it the highest ratio of any country with more than five million residents.

Germany comes in a close second, with a ratio of [...]

Continue Reading →

An iPhone app for lost souls

By On April 27, 2009 · 2 Comments

About six months ago, I began toying with the idea of biking to work. Driving from Seattle to Redmond is a minor nightmare because of traffic over the bridge. And I know there are people who bike all the time, so I figured I could do the same.

Big mistake.

On a Saturday afternoon one [...]

Continue Reading →

Is this the next language icon?

By On April 23, 2009 · 10 Comments

Does this icon say “language” to you?

It doesn’t to me.

But the OMC design studio feels so strongly about it that it has launched a web site to promote this icon as a global standard.

I applaud the effort and I fully agree that there is a need for such an [...]

Continue Reading →