New Technology Reviews!.: Language

TypeSmart Keyboard Beta translates text as you enter it

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<img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="191" mce_src="http://img847.imageshack.us/img847/4486/screenshot1319675758410.jpg" src="http://img847.imageshack.us/img847/4486/screenshot1319675758410.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px;" width="324" />There’s a lot of options out there for Android keyboard apps, and a lot of them are good choices, too – Swype, Swiftkey, 8pen, and my personal favorite, Thumb Keyboard, among many, many others. I came across one today that offers a relatively novel feature: it automatically hooks in to Google Translate to allow you to input text in any supported language. TypeSmart Keyboard is still in beta, and free for the moment. If you have to translate between multiple languages often, it’s definitely worth a look.</div>
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It works like this: simply type a word or phrase into a text field in the normal way, or use Android’s voice input via the Microphone key. Then hold the Microphone key, tap “Translator,” and select your to and from languages. TypeSmart then sends your text to Google Translate and retrieves the translation, foreign characters, punctuation and all. Even for those of us who are native speakers or bilingual, this could represent a significant time savings versus using the official Google Translator app, or even hunting down the special characters that populate your language of choice.</div>
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TypeSmart supports most of the advanced features that soft keyboard junkies are used to: multiple layouts, haptic feedback, text prediction, spelling correction, et cetera. It even features Locale settings and themes for the hopeless tweaker. The developer Comet Apps hasn’t said when the beta program will end, or how much the app will cost when it goes gold, but for those of us who frequently use multiple languages every day, it could be a godsend. You can check it out now in the Android Market.</div>
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TypeSmart Keyboard Beta translates text as you enter it

There’s a lot of options out there for Android keyboard apps, and a lot of them are good choices, too – Swype, Swiftkey, 8pen, and my pe...

Retweet and Sexting make Oxford Dictionary

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A host of new tech words, including Retweet and Sexting, have been added to that bastion of our treasured lexicon, the Oxford English Dictionary.</div>
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Also among the 400 new words to appear in the twelfth edition of the dictionary since 1911, are words like Woot and Cyberbullying.</div>
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The new words made the cut after being entered into a database of over two billion contemporary websites to test how widely they were being used.</div>
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Definitions</h4>
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1. Cyberbullying (noun): The use of electronic communication to bully a person<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">;</span></div>
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2. Retweet (exclamation, informal): Used to express elation, enthusiasm, or triumph<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">;</span></div>
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3. Retweet (verb): Repost or forward a message on Twitter;</div>
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4. Sexting (noun, informal): The sending of sexually explicit photographs or messages via mobile phone<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">;</span></div>
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5. Textspeak (noun): Language regarded as characteristic of text messages.</div>
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The makers of the dictionary have also deemed Jeggins - often-too-revealing leggins with a denim effect - and Mankini - always-too-revealing male swimwear with a spandex effect - worthy of inclusion.</div>
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Retweet and Sexting make Oxford Dictionary

A host of new tech words, including Retweet and Sexting, have been added to that bastion of our treasured lexicon, the Oxford English ...

Crux360 raises the bar for iPad 2 Bluetooth keyboard cases

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Just yesterday, I reviewed the Qmadix Portfolio case for iPad 2 and was favorably impressed. It's too bad I didn't wait a day, because I could have done a smackdown between it and the new Crux360 (US$149). Both keyboard cases are a sign that manufacturers are doing their homework, listening to consumers, and producing innovative new designs to protect and enhance the iPad 2.</div>
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Design</h3>
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The Crux360 comes in an attractive box that when opened, reveals the case wrapped in a reusable monofiber drawstring bag. Power is provided to the keyboard's lithium-ion polymer battery through a standard micro-USB to USB connector that can be plugged into an iPad 2 power brick or any Mac or PC USB port for charging. While charging, a bright red LED just above the keyboard glows; it's helpful, but you can't tell when charging is done if you have the lid of the case down.</div>
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The Crux360 is a hard shell keyboard case, not a soft leather portfolio like the Qmadix. It can be used in four different modes: laptop mode, where the keyboard and iPad work together as a mini-laptop; movie mode, propping the screen up in landscape orientation for easy video viewing; tablet mode, where you're using the iPad in its native mode; and carry mode, in which the case is closed and protecting the iPad from scratches and dings.</div>
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The hard shell of the case has a soft-touch finish, meaning that it is easy to grip and not likely to slip out of your hand. The hinge that connects the "screen" portion of the case with the keyboard is the namesake of the Crux360, as it will rotate through a full 360</div>
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Crux360 raises the bar for iPad 2 Bluetooth keyboard cases

Just yesterday, I reviewed the Qmadix Portfolio case for iPad 2 and was favorably impressed. It's too bad I didn't wait a day, ...

The Top 8 Web Development Highlights of 2010

<div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" class="alignright size-full wp-image-486697" height="225" src="http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/8524/developernews9111829.jpg" title="developer-news" width="225" /></div>This year brought quite a few headlines of note to the developer world. While we each have our favorites, from new releases of classic tools to astounding announcements from tech companies, here in no particular order are a few stories that stood out to us this year.<br />
In the comments, we’d love to know what stories stood out most to you this year, partly to indulge our sense of gratuitous end-of-year nostalgia and partly to help us hone our coverage for 2011, when we hope to bring you more fascinating web dev news than ever before.<br />
What were your favorite dev-related headlines of 2010?<br />
<hr /><h2>1. The Release of Rails 3.0</h2><hr />Early in February, the Ruby on Rails core team took the wraps off <a href="http://weblog.rubyonrails.org/2010/2/5/rails-3-0-beta-release" target="_blank">Rails 3.0</a>, a long-awaited release of the popular Ruby framework.<br />
Rails creator David Heinemeier Hansson wrote on the Rails blog, “We’ve had more than 250 people help with the release and we’ve been through almost 4,000 commits since 2.3 to get here. Yet still the new version feels lighter, more agile, and easier to understand.<br />
“It’s a great day to be a Rails developer.”<br />
<hr /><h2>2. Salesforce’s Acquisition of Heroku</h2><hr />Earlier this month, Salesforce bought Heroku for a staggering $212 million, giving another token of legitimacy to the growing Ruby community as well as to cloud-based programming tools.<br />
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said at the time, “The next era of cloud computing is social, mobile and real-time… Ruby is the language of Cloud 2, and Heroku is the leading Ruby application platform-as-a-service for Cloud 2 that is fueling this growing community. We think this acquisition will uniquely position Salesforce.com as the cornerstone for the next generation of app developers.”<br />
<hr /><h2>3. Facebook’s Release of HipHop for PHP</h2><hr />In February, Facebook rolled out <a href="http://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/358" target="_blank">HipHop</a>, an internal open-source project intended to speed up PHP for large-scale applications.<br />
HipHop isn’t quite a compiler. “Rather,” wrote Facebook engineer Haiping Zhao, “it is a source code transformer. HipHop programmatically transforms your PHP source code into highly optimized C++ and then uses g++ to compile it.”<br />
The project was the culmination of two years of work by a small team of engineers; in the end, it got a thumbs-up from PHP creator <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/rasmus-lerdorf-php-hiphop-facebook.php" target="_blank">Rasmus Lerdorf</a>, who said, “”I think it is a cool project and it will certainly be a good option for some sites.”<br />
<hr /><h2>4. The Rise of Node.js</h2><hr /><a href="http://nodejs.org/" target="_blank">Node.js</a> has been around for a couple years, but 2010 was the year awareness and use of the JavaScript framework really blew up.<br />
Commits have <a href="https://github.com/ry/node/graphs/impact" target="_blank">grown</a>, as has the number of committers. Traffic to the project website has steadily climbed through the year, and downloads for Node.js from GitHub have predictably grown, as well.<br />
As the organizers of the annual Node Knockout wrote, “It’s at the bleeding edge of a technology stack that allows developers to blur the lines between software, the web and the new like never before.”<br />
<hr /><h2>5. Microsoft’s Release of Visual Studio 2010</h2><hr />The latest version of Microsoft’s Visual Studio, a big release by any standards, launched this year to impressive reviews from all corners of the web. <i><a href="http://www.infoworld.com/d/developer-world/infoworld-review-visual-studio-2010-delivers-182" target="_blank">InfoWorld</a></i> said the release “marks a major advance in functionality and ease,” and <i><a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/02/25/visual_studio_2010_rc_review/page2.html" target="_blank">The Register</a></i> wrote, “It is hard not to be impressed by Microsoft’s tool suite.”<br />
The IDE was overhauled, completely rewritten from the ground up. Support for Silverlight was added, and Microsoft also took this opportunity to release F#, a new programming language developed by Microsoft Research.<br />
<hr /><h2>6. Facebook’s Release of the Open Graph API</h2><hr />Facebook and social app developers have long wrestled with Facebook integration for third parties. In the spring at its f8 developer conference, Facebook rolled out a brand new model for tapping into the social web, and it did so to unprecedented fanfare.<br />
Dubbed the Open Graph, Facebook’s changes brought instant gratification and familiarity for Facebook users as they surfed the web — and they brought a fast and easy way for devs to integrate with the social network, as easy as a single line of HTML in many cases.<br />
<hr /><h2>7. The Android/Java/Oracle Saga</h2><hr />What a year it’s been for Java! Not only is the language a key part in the programming stack of the fastest-growing mobile OS out there; it’s also the star of a big, potentially spendy lawsuit between two of the giants of the tech industry.<br />
Sun, which developed the language in-house back in the dark ages, was acquired by Oracle. That deal became official in January, and Oracle wasted no time in getting litigious with Google over that company’s use of Java in the Android platform and the Dalvik virtual machine that stands in for the JVM on mobile OSes.<br />
The lawsuit began in August with Oracle claiming that Google “knowingly, directly and repeatedly infringed Oracle’s Java-related intellectual property.”<br />
Google quickly countered that it was shocked — shocked! — that Oracle would make such claims over an open-source technology. It followed with the assertions that Oracle’s patents are unenforceable and that if there had been “any use in the Android platform of any protected elements” of Java, Google itself “is not liable” due to the face that such violations would have been committed by third parties and without Google’s knowledge.<br />
We’ll continue to keep an eye on the lawsuit and on Java’s role in the Android platform throughout 2011.<br />
<hr /><h2>8. Apple Declares War on Flash</h2><hr />Tensions between Apple and Adobe ran high this year, beginning in January when the iPad launched without support for Flash. Then in February, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs told employees why: “No one will be using Flash. The world is moving to HTML5.”<br />
These were the words that launched a thousand blog posts. Throughout the spring, the two companies waged a war of words — and one sweet antitrust inquiry with the Department of Justice over Apple’s banning of Flash for iPhone app devs.<br />
Steve Jobs dropped the bomb of the year in a passive-aggressive missive on Flash in which the Apple co-founder stated that Adobe’s programming technology “no longer necessary” and waxed hypocritical about open technologies.<br />
But while he may have been passive-aggressive and hypocritical, he also may have been right. With HTML5 making a strong showing early in its lifetime, it was only a matter of time before a public figure of Jobs’s stature would make a statement or two about the death of Flash.<br />
Of course, this tension has made for a convenient cozying-up between Google and Adobe along the way.

The Top 8 Web Development Highlights of 2010

This year brought quite a few headlines of note to the developer world. While we each have our favorites, from new releases of classic tools...

Hackety Hack: A gift to aspiring Ruby programmers

<img align="right" alt="" border="0" hspace="8" src="http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/2889/hacketyhacklogo.png" vspace="8" />As a perpetual programmer wannabe, I'm always on the lookout for new tools that make the mysteries of coding a little more accessible. Much to my dismay, most programming tutorials that I've come across assume some prior knowledge or that you're transitioning from some other language. So, I was delighted to discover <a href="http://hackety-hack.com/">Hackety Hack</a> just now (thanks to <a href="http://www.chrisamico.com/">Chris Amico</a> for the tip). It's a fun new Mac app that aims to teach Ruby programming basics to complete beginners. <br />
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<a href="http://thechangelog.com/post/2458293763/hackety-hack-1-0-learn-programming-with-ruby"> Hackety Hack 1.0 just launched</a>, and in the true spirit of of the holidays, it's open source. From what I can see so far (after playing with it a bit), users can browse through some beginner level lessons, including basic Ruby and basic Shoes, or explore some of the sample programs listed. After making some progress, users who register on the Hackety Hack site can upload code to the website as well. There's a handy "Ask a question" feature on the site, too. <br />
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Given how hard it can be for beginners to get their feet wet, I really appreciate efforts like this to make learning more accessible. For anyone looking for more beginner Ruby resources, there's also Chris Pine's online book <a href="http://pine.fm/LearnToProgram/"><i>Learn to Program</i></a> (via <a href="http://takaaki.me/">Takaaki Kato</a>) <br />
<h6></h6><a href="http://thechangelog.com/post/2458293763/hackety-hack-1-0-learn-programming-with-ruby">Source</a>

Hackety Hack: A gift to aspiring Ruby programmers

As a perpetual programmer wannabe, I'm always on the lookout for new tools that make the mysteries of coding a little more accessible. M...

iOS 4.1 quietly added Cherokee language support

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.tuaw.com/media/2010/12/sequoyaharrangedsyllabary.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img align="right" alt="" border="0" hspace="8" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.tuaw.com/media/2010/12/sequoyaharrangedsyllabary.png" vspace="8" /></a></div><br />
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The Associated Press reports that <a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_IPHONE_CHEROKEE_LANGUAGE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT">Apple has quietly incorporated Cherokee language support into iOS</a>. Cherokee tribal officials were worried about the demise of the Cherokee language as the tribe aged and its younger members increasingly adopted the English language -- and iPhones. However, instead of seeing technology as a threat, Cherokee tribal leaders opened talks with Apple three years ago about including native support for the Cherokee language in iOS.<br />
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This fall, Apple replied to the Cherokees' request and announced that it was adding the Cherokee language to the roughly 50 languages supported by iOS. Apple's announcement was a surprise to Joseph Erb, who works in the Cherokee Nation's language technology division. He told the AP, "There are countries vying to get on these devices for languages, so we are pretty excited we were included." <br />
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The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherokee_language">written Cherokee language</a> was created over 200 years ago when a blacksmith named Sequoyah converted the spoken Cherokee language into text. Use of the language has diminished in recent decades. Only 8,000 of the 290,000 members of the Cherokee tribe still speak the language -- a number the tribe hopes to increase with a little help from Apple.<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_IPHONE_CHEROKEE_LANGUAGE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT">Source</a></span>

iOS 4.1 quietly added Cherokee language support

The Associated Press reports that Apple has quietly incorporated Cherokee language support into iOS . Cherokee tribal offici...

Word Lens: an augmented reality language translator for iPhone

<BR>Word Lens is one of those apps that grabs your attention the first time you see it in action. Created by Quest Visual, it is an iPhone-based optical character recognition (OCR) application used for language translation. In real-world usage, it will translate a foreign language sign in an instant using your camera. Word Lens uses OCR to single out the letters in an image captured by your camera. It identifies letters, builds the words and looks them up in its built-in dictionary. Once the words are identified, translation from one language to another is easy. Translation is not perfect, but it is good enough to get the basic understanding of the translated words.<BR>Word Lens is similar in functionality to Google Goggles, which also lets you translate words within an image. Word Lens, though, has a leg up on its competition as the image processing and translating is done on the phone, in real-time. Google Goggles relies on Google's servers for the translation, which slows down the translation time and requires you to have an internet connection. <BR><BR>Word Lens is now available on the App Store for you to try. The core app is available for free, and language pairs (English/Spanish) are available as an in-app purchase. At launch, the app only supports English to Spanish and Spanish to English translations. Additional languages will be added in future versions. If you don't want to buy a language pack, it is worth a download as the app includes two demo modes. The reverse mode will reverse the letters in an image, and the erase mode will white-out the words. <BR><BR>Word Lens requires iOS 4.0 or later and a video camera. It is compatible with the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS or the 4th generation iPod touch. You can see Word Lens in action after the break.

Word Lens: an augmented reality language translator for iPhone

Word Lens is one of those apps that grabs your attention the first time you see it in action. Created by Quest Visual, it is an iPhone-based...

Swiftkey Android keyboard goes HD, adds new tongues and improved language prediction

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeQtMM9tFq47bOr1XX1MMrIdC9ts-nKKBebCG9mVYFs8EEetai8R4RxmXF9JvcNF0IYzFHAfv8n5o1qoMlwGZ-tGctqQeVtblYyrbUo6KaHaYyHncI6KkKtmf8oi0w18OG_2UX6XSezAM/s1600/swiftkey-hd-android-screen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeQtMM9tFq47bOr1XX1MMrIdC9ts-nKKBebCG9mVYFs8EEetai8R4RxmXF9JvcNF0IYzFHAfv8n5o1qoMlwGZ-tGctqQeVtblYyrbUo6KaHaYyHncI6KkKtmf8oi0w18OG_2UX6XSezAM/s320/swiftkey-hd-android-screen.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Even the most loyal Android user is bound to kvetch about the stock keyboard at some point or another, and while Swype has definitely grabbed the hearts of a good many Froyo users, Swiftkey remains our third-party keyboard of choice. After escaping beta just a few months ago, TouchType has just outed an 'HD' build that's designed to cope with many of the higher-resolution displays being used on today's gargantuan Android phones. Moreover, we're guessing that this was done to look a bit better on devices like the Galaxy Tab, and there's no denying that the new design elements are a real step forward. Aside from the makeover, the app is also gaining five new languages (Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, Danish, Norwegian and Polish), improved language prediction quality and a new US layout that nixes accented characters. For those who've yet to try it, the latest version can be tested for a full 31 days, after which you'll be coerced into ponying up $3.99 for the real-deal. Hit the source links below (or the QR code shown here) to give it a go.

Swiftkey Android keyboard goes HD, adds new tongues and improved language prediction

Even the most loyal Android user is bound to kvetch about the stock keyboard at some point or another, and while Swype has definitely grabb...

Language Identification Tools

<P> <a title="#jsArticleStepImageCredit1 rel=thinbox><IMG title="></A></P><br /><P>Don't guess at an unknown language, use a language identification tool.Find the language of any document with free language identification tools. Correctly identifying foreign words is the first step to translating and understanding a text when corresponding with pen pals or <a class="StrongLink"" href="http://www.ehow.com/business/">business</A> contacts from other countries. Free online websites and software you can download for <a class="StrongLink" href="http://www.ehow.com/computers/">computers</A> offer efficient, fast and accurate language identification tools; they can also identify similar languages when dealing with uncommon dialects.Online Tool: Google Language DetectionThe free Google language detection tool is part of Google's online translation services which automatically translates any text which is typed or pasted into the empty box. The Google API software supports 57 languages including Yiddish, Welsh and Urdu and offers a variety of detection and translation services, such as searching for websites in specific languages and offering another blank box in which you paste or type the website address, or URL, to find the language. This is especially useful for sites which do not permit users to copy texts. Remember to use as large a portion of text as possible, since Google tells us,"The accuracy of the automatic language detection increases with the amount of text entered." Find the Google language detection tool by directing your browser to the Google homepage and selecting the "translate" option from the drop-down menu.Online Tool: What Language is ThisMore sophisticated and secure tools for recognizing foreign languages are also available online. For private correspondence and sensitive business documents, ''What Language is This" offers a service which does not send the text across <a class="StrongLink" href="http://www.ehow.com/internet/">the Internet</A>, avoiding the chance it could be intercepted. Text detection all takes place within your Internet browser. To use this service, simply cut and paste, or type into the blank box a section of text and press the "Go" button for an instant identification of a language. Disadvantages of this service are a weakness in recognizing some Chinese pinyin script, although it does correctly identify Indic languages. The "What Language is This" tool supports 57 languages including Polish, Esperanto, Ukrainian, Arabic, Icelandic and Afrikaans.Desktop Tool: Polyglot 3000Polyglot is a user-friendly desktop based language recognition tool for computers using Windows 95, 98, NT, ME, XP, 2000, 2003, 2008, Vista, and Windows7 operating systems. This means it requires no Internet access to run. Supported languages number over 400 and include many less common ones, such as Sanskrit. The free download takes approximately five minutes, is available from their Website and requires 2.1 MB of free disk space. Custom setting include quick searches for common languages only. References <a href="http://www.translation-guide.com/language_identification.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Translation-Guide: Language Identification</A> <a href="http://www.androidtech.com/html/google_translate.php" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Andriod: Google Translate</A> <a href="http://whatlanguageisthis.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">What Language Is This?: Home</A> <a href="http://www.polyglot3000.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Lika Soft: Polyglot 3000</A> <a href="http://translate.google.com/support/?hl=en" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Google Translate: Help</A> <a href="http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=EN" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Google: Language Tools</A> <ABBR title=""></P></ABBR>

Language Identification Tools

Don't guess at an unknown language, use a language identification tool.Find the language of any document with free language identifica...

Technology and the Changing Language

<br />		<p>New vocabulary accompanies the march of the technological development of computers, mobile phones, and more. The sheer size and volume of our technological vocabulary, new and old, is notable. As the impact of computers on our lives is tremendous, computers naturally impact on our language too.</p><p>But lest we forget, access to the Internet varies from country to country and within each country. Only 2.5 percent of the population in Uganda have access to the Internet; in Nigeria the figure is 11 percent; in Brazil the figure is 50 percent; in Ecuador 1.1 percent; in South Korea the figure is 77.3 percent; in Nepal those with access is 1.4 percent; in Germany 67.7 percent of the population has access; the figure is 45.9 percent in Greece; in Yemen 1.4 percent of the population has access while 72.8 percent in Israel have access (Figures from Internetworldstats on the Web). People traveling in cyberspace remain the few in some places, while in others, they are the many. Given that only some of the global population has access, it is unlikely that those without access use the same vocabulary that those with access do.</p><p>In the United States, approximately three quarters of the population has access to the Internet at home. Only 38 percent of Americans in rural areas have broadband. That is compared to 57 percent in cities and 60 percent in suburbs (Figures from Cetfund on the Web), and this distinction between those with and those without access has generated a new term, the digital divide. The digital divide may be a specific term relating to the gap between those who have computer and Internet access and those who do not, but the term is only one in a series of terms that has been used for describing the haves and the havenots and the insured and the uninsured.</p><p>A significant number of technical terms, such as digital divide, are not newly coined words. These terms are words with new meanings such as spam, download, vaporware, surfing, zip and virus. Spam, for example, is the name of a canned Hormel meat product, which I suspect many avoid as if it carried the plague. According to Wikipedia, Spam is made of chopped port shoulder meat with ham, salt, water, sugar and sodium nitrite, and sales of Spam have increased in the current economy. The bottom line for computer spam is something you do not want, junk, something to trash.</p><p>Technical language can be subdivided into term categories. We could talk about Internet, hardware, software, and technical terms. We could also have a list of technical acronyms and the non technical acronyms that abound in email messages. I imagine that many of the Internet, hardware and software terms would be familiar to computer users.</p><p>Suppose we look at the term multitasking. The term originally referred to a computer that could perform several tasks at the same time. As words are apt to do, multitasking soon morphed from one meaning to another. From a computer term, multitasking became a general term that was applicable to individuals performing more than one task at a time. The ability to multitask is generally a prerequisite for getting an office job in today's offices.</p><p>One of my favorite terms is motherboard, which is the main circuit of your computer. From what I know about technical terminology, using either the word mother or father is not the norm. Motherboard first appeared in a 1971 British article with the term daughterboards, which were secondary boards. These daughterboards have disappeared from technology, and fatherboards, sonboards and auntboards have not been generated. What I find intriguing is that the that the term has stayed and remained central to the computer. This "mother" functions well and is in command of our systems.</p><p>Technological terminology is a gold mine of words and language change, and we hope to present more ideas in the near future.</p>	<br />	<br />		<br />			<br />				<br />					<br /><br />						<p>At <a href="http://aaronlanguage.com/personnel.html" target="_new">Aaron Language Services</A>, we provide Japanese to English and other translation, proofreading, and online English coaching to a primarily Japanese client base. Our site also offers many resources to ESL students, including Japanese language support and our sushi pages with many pictures of different kinds of sushi and explanations. If you are interested in editing texts in medicine and the hard sciences and have expertise, please click the link above to find out about working with us.</p>					<br />

Technology and the Changing Language

New vocabulary accompanies the march of the technological development of computers, mobile phones, and more. The sheer size and volume of...