When you press the Option key, persistent keys appear in orange.
The keyboard is one of the translators’ most valued tools and one that can also be problematic. While past trends on the PC side have moved in the direction of hypertrophied ergonomic command centers, Apple has chosen a different philosophy in keeping with its primary goal of simplification. Aligned with the chicle key design introduced with the black and white Intel MacBooks, the compact keyboard is now the de facto standard on all models, whether integrated to the laptops or distinct for the desktops. Less is more on that keyboard: gone is the numeric pad and many absent keys are easily accessed via a combination with the “fn” key. Continue reading »
Written by Yves
A friend, recent switcher and member of our user group recently emailed me to ask if he should install some kind of security software on his new MacBook. For his virtual PC installation, this goes without saying, but on the Mac side, what am I to tell him? I kept that idea in the back of my mind until I read about the Pwn2Own contest, part of the CanSecWest digital security conference held in March in Vancouver. Constestants were to choose a platform, Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and most smartphones, and demonstrate a winning attack. Charlie Miller won $5,000 and a MacBook.
The big headline out of that affair was that a Mac using Safari had been “cracked in seconds”… Still, how did that relate to installing security software on a Mac? Thankfully, AppleInsider found an interview of Miller and beautifully summarized the facts. Continue reading »
Written by Yves
Pages and Numbers, the core applications of iWork, are now at version 4 and deserve a new review. Is the Apple Office suite ready to compete with the top tier of the market? When Pages (Word replacement) and Numbers (for Excel) were added to Keynote (for PowerPoint) to form iWork, the comparisons were not favorable, although Keynote was superior to PowerPoint in many respects from the start. Pages and Numbers were more like a modernized version of AppleWorks split in two, minus the drawing tools. The combo didn’t feel like a real Office contender. Continue reading »
Written by Yves
A thirty-some group of really attentive people sat through my ATA presentation “From Blogs to Wikis” that I gave last Saturday, November 4th. Looking back at all that we covered in the 75-minute barrage of chattering I gave, I salute your steadiness.
All that is regarding Web 2.0 and all the new services available to us on the Internet is very exciting to me. I hope I carried some of that passion to you who attended. Moreover, I hope you will subscribe to this feed and start adding others to your Google Reader page, or some reader of your choice.
You can download the presentation by clicking the format of your choice: Flash—reads in your browser, you must click the slide to go forward; QuickTime movie—requires QuickTime to play, includes all animations and you also need to click to progress; and PDF, where each completed slide is one page. Continue reading »
Written by Yves
\\ tags: web 2.0
The recent inroads made by the Mac platform could be easily measured by the strong attendance that welcomed TransMUG’s Mac panel on November 1st at the ATA Conference. Although its number could seem confidential in that gigantic room, it’s in fact 50-some translators who were present to listen to (from left to right) Yves, Catherine, Christine, Emmanuel, and Michael, sharing personal experiences, information and tips regarding working on a Mac as a translator in a PC-centric world.
Between the strong interest shown by the professionals attending for a secure and pleasant platform, and the many shortcomings regarding Vista perceived by people on the market for a new machine, this produced a strong choir for a discussion about Macs among translators. And considering the many Macs one could already spot in the hallways of the Conference, it almost looks like most of our work has already been done, even before the panel!
The whole panel joins me to warmly thanks all who attended, stayed overtime for the questions and answers section, and came to discuss with us after-while. As promised, we are posting the PDF of the presentation that you can download here. Wishing you all good computing.
Written by Yves
\\ tags: fusion, mac, office, parallels, purist, remote desktop connection, translation tools, virtual machine, wordfast
