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Learn the Net News--a free weekly service from Learn the Net.com
http://www.learnthenet.comVol. 2, No. 19 -- Week of May 21, 2000
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Welcome to Learn the Net News.
Have you planned your vacation yet? A surf on the Web is the perfect way to save time and money before you leave hone. We've put together a step-by-step guide, from finding the perfect destination to learning the local lingo. So what are you waiting for? The lure of the open road or an exotic locale awaits you.
Every ten years, the U.S. Census Bureau takes a head count across America, amassing a wealth of demographic information about the population. Guess what? All of this data is available for free. Besides painting an intriguing portrait, it can be a gold mine for small businesses. Find out how to make the most of this public profile.
Internships are a wonderful way to get your feet in the door to learn about a company or organization that you may want to work with in the future. Discover the ins-and-outs of interning and how to get one with our Web Tour this week.
Point your browser to
http://www.learnthenet.com.------------------------------------------------
"Top Ten Things You Can Do on the Net This Week" include:
1. Enjoy live views of Mt. Fuji, Japan:
http://www.cammunity.com/viewcam.jsp?camid=6592. Learn about the regional cooking of Africa:
http://www.geocities.com/NapaValley/Vineyard/9119/i_african_cooking.html3. Make an apple head doll:
http://craftycollege.com/room/miniclass/apple-i.html4. Go out and watch some birds:
http://www.enature.com/guides/select_birds.asp?curGroup=Birds5. Listen to classic Broadway showtunes:
http://www.broadway.com/showtunes/sections.cfm?ssection=showtunes6. Enjoy shimmering online auroras:
http://www.exploratorium.edu/auroras/7. Discover the playful pet of the day:
http://www.petoftheday.com/8. Improve your spreadsheets with an Excel tutorial:
http://einstein.cs.uri.edu/excel97/excel.html9. Compare your brain with other mammals:
http://www.neurophys.wisc.edu/brain/10. Shape up with a 3-D fitness program:
http://www.getfit.com/dispatch.jsp?zone=interactiveFitness&page=start
What's your favorite site? Let us know.
mailto:comments@...------------------------------------------------
One of the best things about the Internet is the ability to easily communicate with people all around the world. At Learn the Net, we hear from people from over 100 different countries. While many of them write in English, we also get messages in Spanish, French, Portuguese…well the list goes on. How do we deal with this polyglot situation? First, some background…
Remember the pin worn by the Star Trek crew that lets them speak with alien life forms? For decades, computer scientists have tried to develop a universal translator-- software that automates translation. Their worthy efforts have met with limited success so far. The complexity of grammar and nuance of words makes the translation process especially difficult. Machine translation does work fairly well for text that doesn't have a lot of shading--technical documents, for instance. For other kinds of text, the results can seem more like poetry.
Still, getting the gist of a message is better than nothing at all. To translate our messages, we use a free service from AltaVista called Babel Fish. It offers a way to translate between a number of different language pairs, say English to Spanish or French to English. It's not perfect, but it does the job. Give it a try and see what you think. Click on the "Translate It Online" link on our home page or this link:
http://www.learnthenet.com\english\toolbar\translate.htm
I wouldn't recommend the service for any translation where accuracy is critical. In that case, a human translator is the way to go. Isn't it reassuring to know that we humans are still useful--at least for now! If you are interested in this subject, be sure to read an in-depth article in last month's issue of Wired magazine (
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.05/translation.html).-----------------
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Michael Lerner
Publisher
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