Margaret Marks has blogged progress on the project to build a “single central terminology database for all the institutions, agencies and other bodies of the European Unionâ€. I followed her instructions to check out the database, but couldn’t even raise the site.
Online Vietnamese Dictionary
For an online Vietnamese-English and Vietnamese-French dictionary, go here. You can browse the resource, but the site has not been globalized, so peripheral information is only in Vietnamese.
Search me
If anyone has managed to miss the ongoing search wars saga, here’s a few handy links. On the commercial front, Google is (at last) looking at PC-based search , as is Microsoft. On the R&D side, Finnish organizations seem to be taking the high ground in Europe for next generation ‘semantics-based’ searches. For the more geek-minded, David J. Brown explains why search is so hard, in the wake of Anna Patterson. But you won’t find out much yet about cross-lingual search platforms or the need for a fundamentally multilingual mindset towards the R&D agenda.
Aynu localization of OpenOffice
One of the more recent localization efforts for OpenOffice has been into Aynu. Or more traditionally, Ainu. Googling for this pre-Nihongo language in Japan gives 1,100 or so hits for Aynu and 23,000 and more for Ainu. There’s an interview with the team, one of whom, Hiroyuki Yokoyama, is also a committed Esperantist. OpenOffice must surely be one of the very few software suites that has been (partially?) localized into Esperanto.
NLP Masters opportunity for non-Europeans
Jeff Allen has drawn attention to an International Masters in Natural Language Processing with grant, for students who have already received a BA degree (3rd year level university degree) and would be interested in studying in Europe in an International Masters in Natural Language Processing. They will have a grant of 1,600 euros per month for 2 years. They will spend 1 year in one university and the second year in one or 2 other universities (1 semester each) from a line-up of Alicante, Barcelona Autonomous University, Munchen, Venezia, Wolverhampton, Besancon, Faro, Warsaw. Condition: Non-Europeans only!
The limits of executive English
Article originally from Associated Press on executive linguistic skills.
Languages-on-the-web portal
Thanks to languagehat for news about a new mega portal called Languages on the Web. Vast array of links to what they call ‘linguistic websites’, with a penchant for language learning stuff. Will they end up competing with this forthcoming near homonym?
Only 300 years before intelligent searching
In a CNET.com interview, Google technology director Craig Silverstein was asked when he thought advanced artificially intelligent search (such as “search pets” or agents) will happen. His answer:
I think that understanding language is kind of the last frontier in artificial intelligence, and then talking to a computer will be just like talking to a reference librarian, because they will both be equally knowledgeable about the world and about you.
The big difference, and this is where the search pets come in, is that the reference librarian will understand emotions and other nonfactual information that even a fully intelligent computer may have trouble with.
In terms of timing, I typically say about 200 to 300 years. I think it is probably closer to the 300th year end of it. But if it ends up being closer to the 200th year, I would not be around in any case, and I will not be able to have anyone gainsay me.