Translator Boomerang

Over on DonationCoder.com, mouser just released a new version of Translation Boomerang. This uses Google's free web-based translation service to translate a statement or word into up to 9 languages and back to English. If you have never heard of it or used it, it's a must try program.

This is not a serious translator...it's quite funny!

The following is the output, step by step, from English to each language and back to English, for 5 loops. The first line is my original English phrase. The last line is the farthest thing from the first that I could have imagined.

Available for wild sex.
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Available for wild sex.
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Available for the wild sex.
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Available for the wild sex.
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Available for the wild sex.
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Land available for sex.
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The land which can be utilized because of characteristic.
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The ground it could be used because of quality.
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Because it can use local quality.
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Because it can use local quality.
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Because it can use local quality.
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Since it can employ local quality.
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Since it can employ the local quality.
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Since that it can use the local quality.
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It can be used to the local quality.
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As for that it can use for local quality.
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The tube printed style of writing hazard it will be able to use a local quality to that.
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Editorial dangerous pipeline to India using local quality.
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Editorial dangerous piping to India with local quality.
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Publishing dangerous pipe to India with local quality.
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Dangerous pipe of edition towards India with local quality.
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Dangerous tube of the edition towards India with local quality.
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Dangerous pipe of the edition for India with local quality.
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The risk of pipeline quality of the local edition of India.
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Danger of quality of pipeline of the Indian local section.
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Question danger of pipeline of humane local profile.
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Charities pipelines, may local image.
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Next dear ear lines, know local picture.
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The considered following lines of the ear, know the picture local.
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Considered afterwards lines of the ear, know people of the country of image.
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The lines later on considered of the ear, know people of the country of the image.
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The lines later in the considered one of the ear, know peoples of the country of the image.
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Lines later in one ear, and knows people in a country profile.
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With one ear later as for line, knowing people of profile of country.
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In the line the tube printed style of writing or is knowing 1 return route and the people of the profile of the nation in.
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The Bank is one of the editorial was printed circuit and the people of the whole country's image.
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The bank is the editorial was print plate and the people of the complete picture of the country.
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The bank is the publishing one was plate of the impression and the people of the complete picture of the country.
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The bank is of edition was flat impression and people of the complete image of the country.
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The bank is of the edition was flat impression and people of the complete image of the country.
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The bank is of the edition was smooth impression and person of the complete image of the country.
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Bank of Edition impression smooth and full picture of a country.
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Edition impression of the country being smooth, the bank of complete image.
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The impression which the smooth nation sells, the bank of the image which is complete.
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Impression of a national marketing, banking image is completed.

Have you ever been in love?

Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses, you build up a whole suit of armor, so that nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life... You give them a piece of you. They didn't ask for it. They did something dumb one day, like kiss you or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so simple a phrase like 'maybe we should be just friends' turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It's a soul-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. I hate love.

--Neil Gaiman

The very first time I ever read that, I felt as if someone had been spying on my innermost thoughts & feelings and was exposing all the darkest places of my soul, for all the world to read.

Dreams can and do come true

I officially became a 'professional' programmer! A professional gets paid for what they do...doesn't matter if they know what they are doing, or if they can do it well, or how much they get paid...they are still technically a professional if they get paid for it.

Over on donationcoder.com there is a coding snacks forum where people submit requests for small utility applications that would take an hour or less to create. I spotted one that would be a quick request to fill...all I would have to do is add a few lines of code to an existing application I had already written. It was for a stopwatch that would either stay always on top, or min to tray, that could be controlled with a global hotkey. I had already made one that stayed on top and could be minimized to the tray...just needed to add the hotkey to it and the request would be filled.

I didn't do it for money...didn't expect to get any either. But when I announced that the request was filled and posted a download link, about 5 minutes later I got an email from mouser, the guy that runs the site. He put $0.50 in my micropayments account in appreciation of my work! The next day, someone else I don't even know added another $0.10!

I know this isn't much...and most people would laugh at an amount so small, but it meant a lot to me. Another $0.40 and I will have made my first dollar as a programmer. And this wasn't because people HAD to pay me...it was because they WANTED to. I think that makes it even more special to me.

I will frame that first $1 when I get it and treasure it forever...it means that much to me. It's a personal goal accomplished...a dream fulfilled.

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Follow up: April 27, 2006:

I recieved another 100 credits today, so now I have gone past the $1 mark :-D

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Follow up: Friday, June 2, 2006:

When I originally made this post, and the previous follow up, I thought the scale for donation credits was same as US currency and that 100 credits was $1...turns out I was very wong. 10 credits = $1...so it wasn't $0.50 that mouser gave me, but $5.00! And that $0.10 I thought I got the next day was really $1...and the additional 100 credits was $10! WOW!

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Follow up: Saturday, September 9, 2006:

I have recieved my first dollar, signed by mouser. It is now in a frame, hanging above my desk. :-D

Damn! Coffee is expensive!

Are You Flushing One Million Dollars Down the Toilet?

According to this article, giving up a coffee habit can make you a millionaire. I know it may be hard to believe, but it's true.

I once read book a called More Wealth Without Risk that said if you started investing a dollar a day when you got your first job around age 15-16, that by the time you were old enough to retire you would be a millionaire. Even at minimum wage, that's an affordable investment. Only $7 a week.

A little bit can go a long way when you add it all up.

This same book also suggested that parents, instead of starting a college fund for their children when they are born, start a retirement fund for them. It will make them wealthy when they are older. Much more wealthy than the college education will.

And instead of killing yourself to pay for college for all of your kids, make it a goal to have enough money in your retirement that you won't need them to take care of you financially. Don't be a burden to your children and help them not to be a burden to theirs.

Kids will grow up and somehow make it on their own, eventually. Even if it's a struggle for them, they will make it. Having that retirement fund that you started when they were born will make sure that struggle won't be in vain.

Now don't you wish your parents had started a retirement fund for you the day you were born?

Linux vs Windows

"The thing I hate about an argument is that it always interrupts a discussion."
-- GK Chesterton

This is especially true in technology themed chatrooms.

Recently a programmer was engaged in a discussion about .net programming and how much he loved it and the whole idea of it. There are a few in the room that share his feelings for .net...and a few that don't.

One such guy that didn't share that point of view, decided to twist the discussion into an argument, claiming that Linux was superior to Windows and anything Microsoft could churn out. Of course the programmer didn't agree with him and started making some very valid points to support his own point of view. This ended up becoming a personal attack war with the Linux guy verbally attacking the Windows/.net programmers of the room.

The host of the room, the .net programmer he was mainly aiming his attacks at, ended up having to ban him for awhile, so the Linux guy could go cool off.

Instead of the Linux guy doing that, he hit the room's forum and proceeded to carry on with his attacking there, at which point the host of the room ended up having to delete his posts and was accused by the Linux guy of censorship.

A few days later I came across this little gem:

"The Unix/Linux community is very supportive. Think about your favorite sport and then imagine the team with the most rabid, loyal fans. Linux users are pretty similar except that if you show up at the game cheering for Microsoft, they will 'flame' you (post nasty messages on their forums about you) instead of beating you up in the parking lot."

(read full page...)

I guess Windows is better than Linux...at least Windows won't give you a case of rabies. :-P