Archive

Archive for 2011

Using geolocation information in photos for documentation?

2011/10/26 Leave a comment
  1. During documentation writing today, I noticed that my WlGallery suddenly (?) started displaying the geotags in pictures taken with my Palm Pixi which I set a long time ago to store (and share) location information. I t looks like this has started working  earlier, but gone unnoticed. pixi-wlgallery-geotag I also looks like it uses cell tower triangulation, not GPS data (when the latter is not available?): pixi-wlgallery-geotag2 At such a granularity, this feature can not be useful for generating documentation. But maybe for excursions?
  2. But seems still a bit iffy, on the Pixi side of things: I am pretty sure that previously, I could not see geotags in my photos, even though I tried several image metadata viewers. Also, the Pixi does not always add geotags: is this limited to pictures taken when there are network connectivity issues?
  3. Also seems like editing operations in wlgallery, including create panorama, “eat” the geotags in the output image….
Categories: e-infrastructure, GIS, mobile-phones, Notes, service-is-documenting Tags: , , ,

LRC assistant responsibilities: A checklist (on reception desk next to your screen)

2011/10/26 Leave a comment


For larger view, click “Full screen”windows in lower right corner. Mote that the sheet with LRC assistant responsibilities is handily posted right under your screen at your work station – refer to it as needed,

reception-desk-responsibilities

Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff, checklists, e-infrastructure, e-languages, e-learning, Reception-desk, service-is-hr-managing, service-is-library, training

More SDL Trados Online Training

2011/10/25 Leave a comment
  1. Need to get up to speed with SDL technologies like Trados or MultiTerm in our translation programs, or recapitulate what you learnt for a job interview? We have recommended SDL’s online training archive before.
  2. Here are some highlights form their archive for our purposes:
    1. Translators’ Introduction to SDL Trados Studio 2009: Discover the key features and benefits of SDL Trados Studio 2009 for translators.
    2. A sneak peek at SDL Trados Studio 2011: Take a sneak peek at some of the new features in SDL Trados Studio 2011 before it is released this Autumn.
    3. Discover SDL Trados Studio 2009: Learn more about translation memory technology to help your translation projects get completed faster than ever before!
    4. SDL MultiTerm 2009 for Beginners: Join us for an overview of SDL MultiTerm 2009, the latest terminology management version.
    5. Introducing SDL Passolo 2011: Discover the exciting new features within this latest release of SDL Passolo.
  3. To view these webcasts, you will need their player.
Categories: training Tags: , , , ,

How to power on iMacs

2011/10/22 Leave a comment
  1. How to turn on: look for the power-button which has been placed on on the rear. Can’t jump on the table? Here is a photo: CIMG0041
Categories: iMacs Tags:

Sample of how students use the foreign language TTS (text-to-speech) in the LRC

2011/10/21 Leave a comment

Last week, I noticed this student in the LRC working on a speaking assignment in her SLA class. First, she wrote a draft of her presentation. She then had the Deskbot TTS wizard (in the lower right of her screen) read out the draft to her. She recorded her version, modeling after the Deskbot’s pronunciation. Then she had the Deskbot read out the draft again, to compare with her own recording.

Look for the little guy in the lower right corner of the screen with the cartoon bubble over his head.

I favor the use of the Deskbot TTS (a Windows XP technology) as an easily accessible speaking dictionary, including during face-to-face teaching, when students may otherwise be too shy to make an utterance because they are not sure about the pronunciation of a single word, or even ask the teacher to pronounce it for them. Prosodically, the deskbot TTS leaves many things to be desired. Let’s hope that Windows 7 will enable us to set up more advanced TTS support in the LRC.

Categories: Absolute-Beginner, audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, Beginner, English, French, German, Intermediate, Italian, Japanese, Korean, learning-usage-samples, Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian, software, Spanish, Speaking, Videos Tags: ,

How to use the online Portuguese pronunciation help to generate phonetic alphabet transcriptions and text-to-speech

2011/10/20 1 comment
  1. Go to http://www.co.it.pt/~labfala/g2p/
  2. Write or  paste your text into the textbox:“Grafemas”
  3. Choose your preferred phonetic alphabet (IPA, SAMPA) and other options.
  4. Press button: “Converter” to see results.
  5. Press button: “Sintetizar” to hear results.
  6. Like so:
  7. demo-portuguese-Conversor-de-Grafemas-para-Fonemas
  8. Or click here to view a demo (requires Windows Media Player) with audio (download requires Windows Media Player). Our example was:
    1. Input: Tudo bem? É o jeitinho brasileiro. Oí, árbitro! Cadê o penalty? Não, não posso faze-lo.
    2. Output: tˈudu bɐ̃ĩ ˈɛ u ʒɐitˈiɲu bɾɐzilˈɐiɾu oˈi ˈaɾbitɾu kɐdˈe u pˈenalti nˈɐ̃ũ nˈɐ̃ũ pˈɔsu fˈazɘlu
Categories: Absolute-Beginner, audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, Beginner, e-languages, Intermediate, learning-materials, Listening, Portuguese, Screencasts, service-is-training, Speaking, training, websites Tags: , , ,

LRC Assistant Start of Year Training: The Screencast

2011/10/19 Leave a comment

Click here to view a sample LRC assistant training presentation.

Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff, Screencasts, training, workshops

How to link screencasts from MS-SkyDrive

2011/10/19 Leave a comment
  1. I am trying to replace – in the routine cases that do not need post-editing, but where speed is of the essence – my practice to post-process my screencasts in MS-Expression Encoder (installed on one machine only) and upload the result with a page to load a Silverlight Control – all hosted on my MS-Windows Azure portfolio.
  2. Much easier and quicker would it be to store screencasts in MS-SkyDrive (mapping to drives in MS-Windows enables a more robust drag and drop than the still browser-specific web version on live.com), and top take advantage the embed links provided.
  3. Unfortunately, WordPress.com, my blogging platform,  does not support iframes with videos from MS-SkyDrive.
  4. However, by linking to the URL in the embed code, to open in a new window (with the inelegant instruction to “click on the thumbnail that opens”; if it loads slow, the thumbnail ALT displays essentially the same),: linking-screencasts-thumbnail
  5. I can get the  user to an MS- Silverlight control which loads:linking-screencasts-silverlight-player
  6. and plays the video: linking-screencasts-silverlight-playing
  7. more user-friendly and robustly (This has been tested to work on MS-Windows 7 with IE9 and Firefox 3.6) than distributing the bare WMVs of my screencasts directly.
Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-manager, documentation, e-infrastructure, Media, service-is-documenting Tags: , , ,