From: crispen@NETSQUIRREL.COM
Reply-To: TOURBUS-Request@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
To: TOURBUS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
Subject: TOURBUS -- 30 APRIL 1998 -- PEOPLE'S POLL/PPT97 FOR MAC/BABELFISH
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_________ ____________ ________ __________ _____________ ___ _
/ | / | | / | \
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| Get the facts from Search Engine Watch! |
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\____________________________________________________________________|
/ \ / \ / \
\___/ \___/ T h e I n t e r n e t T o u r B u s \___/
TODAY'S TOURBUS STOPS: PEOPLE'S POLL / PPT97 FOR MAC / BABELFISH
PEOPLE ONLINE'S MOST BEAUTIFUL POLL
http://www.pathfinder.com/people/50most/1998/vote/
HANK THE ANGRY, DRUNKEN DWARF
http://linux.zim.com/hank/
POWERPOINT 97-98 CONVERTER FOR MACS
http://www.microsoft.com/macoffice/freestuff/powerpoint/impconv.htm
CRISPEN'S POWERPOINT PRESENTATIONS
http://netsquirrel.com/classroom/
BABELFISH
http://babelfish.altavista.digital.com/
ALTAVISTA LANGUAGE TRANSMORGRAFIER
http://www.archive.org/%7Eart/babelphone.html
Each year, the online edition of People magazine conducts a poll to
determine the 10 most beautiful people in the world. As a matter of
fact, between now and May 8th you can take part in this year's poll by
pointing your Web browser to
http://www.pathfinder.com/people/50most/1998/vote/
The tentative results of this year's poll (as of a few moments ago)
are quite humorous. In third place, with 4,885 votes, is the X-Files'
Gillian Anderson. In second place, with 7,241 votes, is the Titanic's
Leonardo DiCaprio. In first place, with a whopping 161,113 votes is
"Hank the Angry, Drunken Dwarf." [And no, I am not making this up.]
A picture of Hank the Angry, Drunken Dwarf can be found at
http://linux.zim.com/hank/
This whole thing stated as a joke when a bunch of people (with Hank's
consent) started circulating emails to their friends asking them to
cast write-in votes for Hank. Fortunately, the folks at Time Warner
(the mega-company that owns People magazine) seem to have a sense of
humor about all of this: Hank's name was added to the official online
ballot a few hours ago.
Now for the bad news: this poll is only for the _ONLINE_ version of
People's "most beautiful people" awards. In other words, I wouldn't
count on Hank knocking Leo DiCaprio off of the cover of this years
"most beautiful people" edition of People Magazine. :(
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And now, on with the show ...
-------------------------------
POWERPOINT 97 CONVERTER FOR MAC
-------------------------------
Alert TOURBUS rider Larry Hull recently informed me that Microsoft
offers a free PowerPoint 97-98 Import Converter that will let Mac
users view PowerPoint 97 or 98 files on Macs running PowerPoint 4.0.
The free converter is available at
http://www.microsoft.com/macoffice/freestuff/powerpoint/impconv.htm
And, as a quick reminder of why we started talking about all of this
in the first place, you can still find all of my PowerPoint
presentations on my Web site at
http://netsquirrel.com/classroom/
---------------------
FUN WITH TRANSLATIONS
---------------------
I actively look for ways to waste time on the Net. Our next stop
proves that.
You may remember that in Dr. Bob's January 13th TOURBUS post he talked
about Alta Vista's free translation service called "Babelfish." You
can find Babelfish on the Web at
http://babelfish.altavista.digital.com/
What makes Babelfish so cool is that not only will it translate Web
pages from one language to another (just type in the Web page's
address), it also translates any words or phrases you type in. In
fact, Babelfish will translate from
English to French French to English
English to Spanish Spanish to English
English to German German to English
English to Italian Italian to English
English to Portuguese Portuguese to English
While the translations are not perfect -- the translations are done by
a computer that sometimes misses the subtle meanings of words -- I
think we will all agree that Babelfish is an extremely useful and
powerful Internet tool.
That's the end of the serious part of this post. Now for the fun
part! :)
If you _really_ want to have some fun, try this:
1. Type in a paragraph or two into Babelfish's text box;
2. In the pull-down menu at the bottom of the page, select a
translation setting (English to German, English to Spanish,
etc.);
3. Click on the translate button;
4. When the translation appears on your screen, copy the
translated text (drag your mouse across the words and then go
to edit --> copy);
5. Click on the words "New Translation";
6. When the Babelfish main page appears on your screen, paste the
translated text into the page's text box (click inside of the
text box and then go to edit --> paste);
7. In the pull-down menu at the bottom of the page, choose the
translation setting that will "reverse" your translation (If
you translated your paragraph from English to German, select
"German to English" to un-translate it); and
8. Click on the translate button.
For example, to test out Babelfish, I typed in a quote from Bertrand
Russell
If there were in the world today any large number of people who
desired their own happiness more than they desired the
unhappiness of others, we could have a paradise in a few years.
and then translated it from English to German and then back again into
English. Here are the results:
If it gave in the world, today, each large number of the people,
which required their own luck to more than it, which required
unhappiness of others, could we a paradies in some years have.
Much clearer! You'll soon discover that mundane communication like
memos from your boss, unsolicited email advertisements, and even
ordinary Web pages takes on a whole new meaning when it is translated
and untranslated. :)
By the way, if you don't want to go though all of the steps I outlined
above, there is a Web page that will do all of this for you. The page
is called the "Alta Vista Language Transmorgrafier" and it can be
found at
http://www.archive.org/%7Eart/babelphone.html
Type in the text you want "transmorgrafied," select the language of
the original text, and then select the different languages your want
your text translated into. You can select up to five different
languages.
You're going to have to experiment with the transmorgrafier a few
times to get the hang of using it. You're also going to have to be
patient ... the translations take a while to complete, and it is not
uncommon for the transmorgrafier to "time out" while waiting for a
response from Babelfish. :)
That's it for this week (and is it just me, or was the WEIRDEST post
yet?). Have a safe and happy weekend!
TODAY'S TOURBUS STOPS: PEOPLE'S POLL /
PEOPLE ONLINE'S MOST BEAUTIFUL POLL
http://www.pathfinder.com/people/50most/1998/vote/
HANK THE ANGRY, DRUNKEN DWARF
http://linux.zim.com/hank/
POWERPOINT 97-98 CONVERTER FOR MACS
http://www.microsoft.com/macoffice/freestuff/powerpoint/impconv.htm
CRISPEN'S POWERPOINT PRESENTATIONS
http://netsquirrel.com/classroom/
BABELFISH
http://babelfish.altavista.digital.com/
ALTAVISTA LANGUAGE TRANSMORGRAFIER
http://www.archive.org/%7Eart/babelphone.html
--------------------------------
TODAY'S SOUTHERN WORD OF THE DAY
--------------------------------
POLICE (adverb!). To satisfy.
Usage: "If it polices the court, kin we take a recess?"
You can find all of the old Southern Words of the day on the Net at
http://www.brigadoon.com/~crispen/word.html (and eventually at their
new home at http://netsquirrel.com/word/)
=--------------------------------------------------------------------=
For info on my book "Atlas for the Information Superhighway"
Visit http://www.brigadoon.com/~crispen/atlas.html
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Archives on the Web at http://www.TOURBUS.com
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.~~~. ))
(\__/) .' ) )) Patrick Douglas Crispen
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{o_, \ { **NEW** crispen@netsquirrel.com **NEW**
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_( ( )_.' Warning: squirrels.
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