Lifelong learning - but not for me!

A while ago I was not amused about a few things happening around me. This actually happens quite often, but most times I just try to ignore it. That time however things went a bit beyond that thin red line that should not be crossed and I was not very calm when I wrote an article regarding all that. I have calmed down meanwhile, and as usually I try to see things from their funny side. So I deleted the old article and wrote this new one...

I am not sure if you have heard of "lifelong learning". It is all the rage in Taiwan now - at least officially. The government supports it, because they hope that way they will get wiser citizens. The education industry supports it, because it means more money for them. 終身學習 is the term used in Chinese, and a slightly different, but more sarcastic translation could be "learn until you die". (death by learning?)

Being immersed in the education industry, I find it remarkable how members of this industry, while urging everyone else to "learn" (whatever that means) until their last penny is spent, they themselves refuse to learn even those things they would need to properly do their job, not to mention anything else. Let me give you an example.

Almost every person working in an administrative office in our "organization" demands to have a computer on their desk. (or right under it, to save space and collect more dust) But it is almost impossible to find any user of an administrative computer willing to learn anything related to the use of that computer. This approach has a number of advantages for the user in question:

- Getting something done takes longer, so the person seems very busy while not actually doing a lot.
- A lot of work can be rejected by simply saying "I don't know how to do that." or "That's computer-related work. That's not our responsibility."

So when an office has to key a lot of student informations into the administrative system, they can come and say "Hey, we may be responsible for these student data, but we are using a computer to key these data in, we are keying them into a database on a network, so all of these computer thingies clearly show: This is something the computer centre should do! We need the CC to support us, they should key this in!"

...and their wish was fulfilled... I am not joking here, I was there when that happened and the guy sitting next to me at the CC had to key in all those data. Cunning, isn't it? Do you now understand why it is so important not to learn?

You might think that those users will at least know basic computer usage, so at least their daily work gets done. Right... That's why they file a trouble ticket with the CC, requesting a student helper to be sent over to install "Office", because their computer is missing Word, Excel and Powerpoint. The problem is, all administrative computers got their software installed by copying an image to their harddisk, and that image contained both OpenOffice and Microsoft Office.

So our student helper went over to their office, clicked on "Start - Programs - Microsoft Office" and there they were. "Oh, there they are..." Right, why should you click on "Start" if you want to start using that computer. And how should you know that after only eleven years? Microsoft introduced this menu only in 1995, with Windows 95. If nobody told you, how should you know? But of course you "can" Windows...

Windows... So, supposed you have a computer only used for playing audio and video files, which are usually brought along on flashdisks, what would you have to do to play such a file? Start the computer, plug your flashdisk in, select the action you want, and then doubleclick on your file. Hmm...

How about a computer running Linux? Linux would have the advantage of offering desktops in multiple languages, so people who do not understand Chinese are still able to navigate around and (even more importantly) can read system messages. What steps are necessary here? Pressing the power button, plugging your flashdisk in and then (Gnome will automatically show the contents of your flashdrive) doubleclick on your file.

That's three simple steps, two of them would be necessary on any computer anyway. But would you believe how much energy people are willing to invest into a fight so they don't have to "use" Linux? ("Use" here means the three steps above. This is not an administrative computer, it belongs to an AV lab.) And the reason they give? Well, they don't want to "learn another system". Of course... Learning to click onto an icon is very difficult indeed and takes years of practice...

Now, you may ask if I shouldn't give them the "age bonus", because learning becomes more and more difficult at higher ages. Indeed I would, but... What if the people refusing to plug their flashdisks into a Linux machine are younger than me? What if they are considered "highly educated" and "intelligent"?

My mother (who naturally is even a bit older than me) is in contrast not considered "highly educated". But strangely, she never had trouble using HC CAOS, Amiga Workbench, DOS, Geos, Windows (in various incarnations), Linux (with all kinds of desktops, including fvwm2), OS/2 or now OS X. If she wasn't more than 9000km away, maybe I could ask her to "teach" some icon clicking around here...

But why do I worry, when some Taiwanese do not even need to be able to write Chinese on a computer. Yes, that's right. "I can't write Chinese on a computer. But I want one. And I want a student helper to do all the work." And this too was granted...

So, the next time someone tells me I have to use Zhuyin IME, I will just smile and leave that person standing there. After all, a lot of people around here want other IMEs installed, always claiming "This is the only IME I can use." If you can, so can I.

To be honest, in some way I can understand the "I do not and will not understand this" fellows. When I started administrative work at the CC right when I started teaching at this organization, I knew barely that you needed to tell your computer where to find a DNS server, and I had heard of proxies. But other than that I could only fix the "usual" computer (mostly hardware and Windows) problems.

But I had to learn. Because nobody else around me knew, I had to understand DNS. (That's when I found out how crappy Bind is.) I had to understand proxies, Apache and more. And with every new piece I learned, my work (but unfortunately never my pay) increased. I tried to draw the line at web sites - and "failed". Would you believe that 4000 Taiwanese (some of them with a sheet of paper claiming they are experts on this field) expect one German interpreter to set up a web server and create one (or more) web sites - including content, of course, and that content has to be in Chinese and has of course to be made out of thin air. So one German is expected to write content in Chinese for 4000 Taiwanese who do not quite know how to do this themselves? Yes, I too found that quite interesting at that time...

OK, so because it is text that will be used on the web, people can not write it - because that's a "homepage", not just some regular text, and "I can not homepages." Right. But they should be able to create documents properly, with fields, paragraph styles, perhaps even as a document template. Or not?

At one point, the CC planned to do training "for OpenOffice". We had convinced the people in charge that OpenOffice was good for us, because it was free of cost. I know, I know, there are more costs involved. But what do you expect from people buying bubble jet printers "because they are cheaper"? So we (I) did some text processing training, disguised as "OpenOffice training".

Every office had to send at least one delegate. (order from high above) Some sent a student helper, because their own time was too precious. I had 33 names on the list, 17 showed up the first time. There were five sessions, and the fifth time my audience consisted of: three people, one of them a student helper.

Well, maybe they all knew about all that already? Hmm, then why have I not seen a single document created by any of our offices using a field or styles? Maybe it's because of the weather, or because of the mosquitoes, but maybe it's just because nobody knows how to do it.


Apologies if you expected something constructive or helpful in this article, but I did state in the beginning that this was a rant... OK, feeling a bit better now, time for something constructive again...

翻譯軟體： OmegaT （翻譯記憶）

你雖然可以花多一筆錢買Trados，但是也許你先要了解這種軟體好不好用，所以一開始不想花太多錢。或者你是學生，根本沒有太多錢可以花。或者你發現，自由軟體其實蠻不錯，本來就做得到你需要的。

反正，我在這裡想介紹OmegaT，一個我認為真不錯的翻譯軟體。它是Java軟體，所以你電腦上沒有裝Java，你沒有辦法執行它。如果你不確定你電腦有沒有裝，你可以下載包含Java的套件。目前的官方版本還沒有安裝程式，你只要下載ZIP檔，然後把裡面的檔案解壓縮到適合的地方。在Windows，你要點OmegaT.bat啟動它。

啟動之後，我們先要建立新的方案（project）。一個方案只適合用在一個語言方向（例如英翻中），但是可以包含幾個文件。一個方案的文件會共用翻譯記憶跟詞庫。建立方案的時候，軟體想知道一些設定：


最重要的是原語言跟目標語言的設定。因為一個句子包含比較完整的意思，我們最好也要選sentence-level segmenting。（等一下就能看到這是什麼，先相信我，OK？）你先最好不要進去"Segmentation" － 這個也請你相信我。那邊都已經設好，需要修改的可能率很低。而且，你最好先多了解這個軟體才要考慮修改這些設定。

你會發現OmegaT在方案的目錄下想建立另外一些目錄。平常沒有必要改這些。在source files有原來的（原語言）文件，這些不會被修改。Translation memory是翻譯記憶檔案，而在glossary可以自己放詞庫檔案。我們翻完的文件會在translated files (target)裡面出現。設完之後，我們的方案當然需要文件。


我已經加一個原語言文件：pigs.txt。（我猜你應該知道這個故事。等一下你會了解為什麼我這裡要用它。）OmegaT能處理普通的文字檔、HTML、ODT，而最近好像也開始支援XLIFF跟OOXML。 (Grrrrrrr...)


主要的視窗之後可能變成如上的樣子。好像不太精彩：沒有3D，沒有敵人，沒有其它槍可以選... 而且，fuzzy matches視窗跟glossary視窗（目前看不到）也都沒有東西，我是不是還要自己動手翻？

是。一開始，這種軟體對你不會是很大的幫助。但是你用它越久，它幫助越大。目前我們最好先高興地發現它在原語言的文件裡好像有把標題獨立出來。標題就是第一個segment，第一個分段。Segment 0001 跟 end segment之間我們可以寫目標語言版本，上面（綠色）都會有原語言版本。


這裡可以看到分段裡面，原語言跟目標語言的句子都在。我寫完目標語言版，現在可以刪除原來的句子。我其實也可以一開始直接刪除，因為上面會有無法刪除的原語言版本，但是我個人比較喜歡翻完才拿掉原來的句子。不過，到這裡好像還是沒有特別的“動作”，軟體還沒有幫我任何忙。好吧，繼續翻...


Ooops，軟體終於睡醒了！這裡發生了什麼事？我目前翻的句子比較像我之前翻的另一個句子。OmegaT認為之前的句子像目前的44%，籃色的詞是跟目前的句子不同的地方。Hmm，然後呢？

然後我有選擇：我可以不理軟體的建議。（別忘記你有這個選擇。）我可以把之前的目標語言句子插入目前的分段。(Ctrl-I) 或者我可以把目前分段裡面的原語言句子換成之前的目標語言句子。(Ctrl-R)

不過，44%還不是很高的數字，而如果我們看籃色的部分多大，不管我們決定哪一個選擇，都還需要一些手工。但是我們其實也剛才開始，所以就繼續翻吧！


Voila! 這個比較有趣。OmegaT發現已經有兩個句子像目前要翻的。最像的當然排第一名，因為如果我要用記憶裡面的句子，它應該是第一個選擇。只有兩個詞不同，像度80%，相當高。我個人這次會選取代，按Ctrl-R，把第一個目標語言句子放進分段，然後修改那兩個不同的詞。

也許你現在了解為什麼我要剛好用這個故事：這裡有一些重復的句子，只有少數的詞不同，所以我們這麼快就可以看到效果。如果我用OmegaT更久，它會記住更多我翻的句子，給我更多，更方便的選擇。此外：軟體雖然會幫你記住很多句子，但是我也想建議你記住它的快速按鍵。這樣工作才真快...

到現在我們好像一直沒有看到glossary（詞庫）這個視窗。其實，OmegaT可惜不是完美的軟體。這不能算是錯誤，只是使用者介面的問題，但是... 你可能不小心把三個視窗其中一個或兩個關掉，然後不知道怎麼再叫回來，所以可能沒辦法正常工作。放心，只要到Options - Restore Main Window，它就會還原視窗的排版。


現在我們終於也可以看到glossary視窗，而它好像也有意見。OmegaT可以使用一個詞庫，一個簡單的辭典。這種檔案原則上是簡單的文字檔，每一行有一個原語言的詞跟一個目標語言的詞，中間用tab隔開，像這樣：


這種檔案的名稱可以自己定，但是副檔名要用"utf8"。如果你把這個相當小的詞庫跟上面glossary視窗的建議，還有剛要翻的句子比較的話，你應該會發現軟體沒有提到bricks的翻譯。原因很簡單：我的詞庫裡面只有單數的brick，但是句子裡面有復數的bricks。所以，最好要注意這一點。（雖然你的母語不會特別分...）

我當然可以中間停，把軟體跟電腦關掉。下次啟動OmegaT我只需要開之前的方案，它就會告訴我每一個文件的進度：


翻完一個文件，你要到Project - Create Translated Documents，軟體就會在目標語言的目錄(target)裡輸出目標語言的文件。原來的文件一樣還在source目錄裡面，沒有被改過。

這樣好用吧！而且，你不用花幾萬塊的錢...

Conference fun (NKFUST)

It's always fun to see a school with "technology" in its name running into problems with said technology, our school (After almost seven years, General Affairs is still unable to let the bell ring on time - or at all...) is no exception. But this time the topic was translation and interpreting (even though they called it "interpretation"), not technology in language teaching, so let's ignore that.

This was the first time some of my students went with me, and although one of them had pretty high expectations and was a bit disappointed later, I still think the day was not wasted for them. I was in fact surprised to see so many students on the list, even from more northern schools. (Though, funnily, they had not put my name on that list...)

There were bits of theory presented that were not too closely related to my job, and maybe next time I should really prepare a camera and snap photos of attendees sunken into deep self-reflections (as long as I am not too busy self-reflecting myself), but there were a few presentations that kept even my students very awake.

Something I really like about conferences at NKFUST: Foreigners are not considered idiots speaking only their native language, and people do not care what language is used in presentations, questions and answers. If you want to attend such conference or a certain presentation, you have to be able to understand more than one language, otherwise you're at the wrong party, period.

翻譯軟體： 翻譯記憶 (Translation memory)

在台灣，如果有人提到“翻譯軟體”，大部分的人應該會想到一個軟體：Dr. Eye。它不錯 － 當一個辭典。而它就是一個辭典，電子化的辭典。我幾年前也用過，那時候發現技術方面（例如電子）的詞還蠻多，蠻正確。

當一個電腦上的電子辭典，Dr. Eye可以提供一些“方便”：自動地把文章的詞翻成另一個語言。因為有這個方便，一些教翻譯的老師們好像不太喜歡Dr. Eye。他們覺得，這樣不是學生翻的。不過，Dr. Eye也只是一個方便一點的辭典，它沒有辦法取代人。

在我的周邊，不少人（老師們跟學生們都一樣）雖然不這麼認為。他們覺得只要有一個“比較好的翻譯軟體“，就會變成一個很勵害的翻譯！夢想... 如果真的可以，那為什麼還要教筆譯？電腦技術還沒有那麼發達。如果你自己不行，你用什麼軟體也沒有關系。

但是（電子）辭典不是唯一對翻譯（還是該說“筆譯”？）有用的軟體。我認為更重要的是“翻譯記憶”(Translation Memory)。你的老師沒有提過這種東西？Hmm,（在台灣）教微控制器的老師們好像也比較少會提到8051之外（例如AVR、 MSP系列）的晶片。不過，我現在跟你介紹這個東西，然後你自己決定要不要用。

翻譯記憶不會讓你覺得自己突然變成超人。如果我不懂一個詞，我可以查辭典，它會告訴我另一種語言的版本。所以，我突然“知道”一件之前不知道的事情。不太懂的人當然根本不會發現辭典剛給他的版本完全不對，他還是有“超人感”。翻譯記憶不會這麼騙你。

如果你想用翻譯記憶，你必須在這個軟體裡面翻你的文章。一開始，你不會發現任何好處或幫助，但是軟體一直在學。它會記錄你翻的每一個句子 － 原語言跟目標語言。然後，它一直會比較你目前翻的句子會不會比較像它之前記錄過的句子。

如果軟體發現比較像的句子（平常也會告訴你像百分之幾），它會提醒你之前有翻過的句子跟翻譯版。你現在可以自己判斷要手動“模仿”同樣的部分，然後把不同的地方再翻或者用軟體提到的句子直接取代目前的句子 － 而後來修改可能需要修改的地方。

你用這種軟體越久，它越有幫助。它會“學”你的風格：你翻錯，它也“學錯”。不過，不用但心，你後來當然還可以教它正確的版本。那為什麼我會覺得這種軟體對筆譯重要？它不會做你自己不會做的，但是它會讓你的工作越來越輕鬆。

而且，如果你要翻同樣題目的文章（不管是技術文件或小說系列），軟體會知道你之前把一些“特殊“（也需在辭典裡根本找不到）的詞、詞組或句型翻的如何，所以你這次可以用提同樣的方法。如果你真的了解翻譯，你應該知道需多時候可以用幾種方式翻。翻譯記憶幫你避免每次在目標語言用不同的版本。

你現在可能問為什麼這種軟體要處理完整的句子，而不是像Dr. Eye跟你提每一個你之前翻過的詞。原因很簡單：不管是口譯或筆譯，我們翻的不是一個一個詞，做翻譯的時候我們把人在一種語言表現的意思轉到另外一種語言。在目標語言我們可能要用不同的詞，甚至完全不一樣的句型，重要的是意思。而最小的，提供比較明確意思的單位是句子。

講了這麼多，我好像還沒有提出任何具體的軟體。好吧：如果你有錢，或者你真的要靠筆譯生活，你可以考慮買Trados。很多“專業”的筆譯在用它，但是它真“不便宜”。在台灣，我聽過超過五萬的報價，包含教育訓練。而對“社會組”的人來講，不要花教育訓練的錢，你也不用花軟體的錢 － 你不會知道怎麼正確使用它。

不過，這個軟體不管多好，它還是有一些限制：你必須用Windows，你必須用Word。雖然很多“社會組”的成員因為不太了解技術相關事情，所以就用廣告叫他們用的軟體（Windows跟Word），所以還有另外一些這方面的軟體：Wordfast (shareware)跟Wordfisher (freeware)，但是我還是比較喜歡不會那麼限制我的軟體。

如果你想用免費、公開、多平台的軟體，你可以參考OmegaT。它是獨立的軟體，可以處理幾種檔案格式。如果你想多了解它，你可以自己摸摸看，或者等我下一篇文章寫完...

PWN 2 OWN - Linux 贏了

不知道你有沒有聽過CanSecWest？那是一個資通安全研討會。不是像教育部喜歡玩那種無聊的資通安全遊戲，而是真的討論，會影響我們電腦、資料、網路使用的安全問題的研討會。那邊也有一個比賽，叫PWN 2 OWN。（不知道什麼是PWN？）這次有三台電腦：一台Macbook Air，跑OS X 10.5.2，一台Lifebook，裝Windows Vista SP1，跟一台Vaio，裝Linux - Ubuntu Gutsy。你可以拿到那台電腦的帳號，然後目的是屈機，得到可以完全控制這台電腦的權限。

第一天只可以透過網路連接。如果當天有人成功，可以得到兩萬美金，也可以把那台筆電帶回家。（所以PWN2OWN...）不過，沒有人成功。第二天可以坐在那台電腦前，使用它的軟體，可以上網到“特別”的網站等。獎金是一萬美金，電腦一樣可以帶走。那天Macbook Air失敗了。（Safari的問題）

第三天也可以自己安裝軟體，那時候Vista因為Adobe Flash的問題被入侵。有人得到5000塊美金跟一台Fujitsu的筆電。唯一沒有讓人屈機的系統是Ubuntu Gutsy的電腦。Hmm， 你需不需要一個比較安全、穩定、不會限制你、很方便使用的作業系統？（我有沒有說它是免費的？）Well, get it!

華語 - yes!

我想大家應該還記得教育部把台灣使用的標準語言開始叫成“華語”的新聞。當時教育部還有另外公告一些措施，而好像不一定每個人會喜歡那些措施。我也不一定喜歡教育部所做的事情（例如“資通安全”...），但是這次我贊成，我甚至還高興。為什麼？

台灣人在語言方面使用的名稱蠻亂。你不覺得？可能是因為你習慣，因為你從小就一直聽到這些名稱，說法等。但是我們看一下之前人家怎麼稱呼這個語言。身為外國人，我常聽到人家問“你會不會講國語？”這個問題還比較正常，不過 － “國語”是什麼？它是國家的語言。所以，在日本它是日語，在英國是英語等。

在台灣你可能還不會注意，因為這裡的國語就是現在叫華語這個語言，但是如果你在英國用華語問一個人他會不會講國語 － 請問，你問他哪一種語言呢？他的“國語”好像是英語... 所以，“國語”不是一個很萬用的名稱。

另外呢？“你會不會講中文？”一樣是一個常聽到的問題。不過... 如果我要認真回答的話，我必須說“不會”。為什麼？很簡單：我不會“講文”。我可以寫文，但是不會講。我會講話，會講語言，但是不會“講文”。你沒有從這個角度看過，是不是？因為你從小就一直習慣...

那我們看一下“對面”的人怎麼說。他們好像用蠻像的語言，也有其它用同樣字的語言，所以他們怎麼解決了呢？所有的“地方言”（是不是地方言是別的問題）叫“話”。如果對他們用“語”的名稱，也許有人會想那是另外的語言，不只是地方言。那，如果是另外的語言，是不是... 剛因為北京政府不想聽到這種想法，地方言是“話” － 廣東話，上海話等。

也有相當台灣“國語”的名稱：普通話。這個名稱其實也不會表示是哪一種語言，只是普通的話。不過，中國早就有相當“華語”的名稱：漢語。所以，”漢語拼音“的意思是那是標準語言（標準發音）的拼法。名稱本身沒有說用什麼字拼。

不過，我們回到台灣吧。雖然，如果繼續比較下去，你可能有更多的機會發現台灣在語言方面的用詞多亂，但是我們不用比較，我們直接看台灣的用詞就可以發現不少矛盾。你有沒有發現，在台灣很多語言有兩個名稱：日語跟日文、法語跟法文等。為什麼？啊，一個是講的，一個是寫的。Hmm... 為什麼其它語言不會這樣分？而且，為什麼要分？不是一樣的語言嗎？而且，你有沒有發現：有英語跟英文，德語跟德文，但是你自己的“中文”沒有“中語”？（而且“台語”沒有“台文”這個"對象"）可惡的人可能說那是因為你沒有話說 － 但是還好我不是可惡的人...

你也許沒有注意，但是這個分別造成相當大的麻煩，因為讓很多人誤會一些事情，例如語言跟文字的分別。在台灣，很多人認為語言跟文字是一體的，但其實不然。平常，每一種文字並不只有某一種特定語言在使用。

不相信？請問，“文字”是什麼語言？有人回說那是“中文字”，所以很多人會說那是華語，但是... 如果我現在說那個要唸"moji"，因為是日語？一樣的字... 或者"also"怎樣？“英文字”，對不對？抱歉，我說那是德語，而它的意思是“所以”。

但是德語不是有那種“特殊”的字嗎？像"äöü"？沒錯，德語因為發音的關系需要比英語多一些字。但是文字還是一樣，而且都不是什麼“英文字”或“德文字”，是羅馬字。羅馬字是這個行球上作流行的文字。

我們在台灣為了寫華語平常用的字其實也不是什麼“中文字”，而是“漢字”，漢族的字。而且，不只有華語在用：日本也在用，韓國有用過，越南也是。或者我們來看看蒙古：他們原來有自己的字，以前也用過漢字，但是現在用西里爾字。那個也不是“俄文字”...

所以，這個“某某語”跟“某某文”的分別不太好，造成誤會，也造成麻煩。（“英文名字”...）其實，只有“字”這個字已經夠麻煩。很多人會說“字”就是相當英語的"word"。當然，因為我們一個字在英語就變成一個"word"，對不對？

真的嗎？請問，“書” － 一個字，對不對？好。那，“書法” － 一個字還是兩個字？怎麼沒有聽到聲音？如果你覺得這些只是奇怪的外國人想出的，而字當然是"word"的意思，可不可以引證“辭海”（這裡剛好有1988年的）？它認為字是“代表語言的一種符號；（例）文字”。

所以，“字”這個名稱，不管是哪一種語言的文字，只代表我們眼睛看到的“圖片”，只是文字的造型，但是完全不管那個“符號”有附什麼音或意。羅馬字有造型跟音，沒有意思，幾個字拼起來才變成一個詞。所以“字”代表的只是外觀、造型、圖像，就像"L"這兩條線或"F"這三條線。這兩個“字”只是那幾條線的意思。

或者針對漢字來說，雖然每個漢字有它的造型，有它的唸法，有它的意思，但是“字”代表的只是其中的“造型”。如果要代表意思，那個好像叫“詞”或“辭”，但不是“字”。例如“日”是一個字，也是一個詞 － a character and a word。字的部分只是四劃／五條線。詞的部分是天／太陽的意思。

不過，在台灣誰真的在乎？

所以我高興教育部終於開始整理語言方面的一大團亂...

學生車禍地理訊息系統 - Accident GIS

我知道我是口譯，所以我不應該做這種東西，但是有時候我就忍不住... :D 這次為什麼有做出這個呢？

我們學務處雖然會記錄車禍，但是第一，他們知道的車禍只是學生通知教官的，第二，他們只會記錄每月多少次車禍，多少人受傷，然後公告這些數字。不過，他們不會記錄（或至少不會公告）車禍是誰的錯，也不會公告哪裡發生。

我覺得這對學生不太有用，所以考慮做出這個GIS (Geographic Information System)。Google幾年前已經開始提供GMaps，但是近一年多才終於有台灣的地圖資料。GMaps的API好像也還一直在變化中，但是平常的變化是增加，不是減少。如果你自己也想“玩”一下，可以先看官方的blog。

如果你覺得那些都好複雜（就像對一些人開啟一台非Windows電腦一樣“複雜”），不用擔心，我在這裡會告訴你一個很簡單的方法。你知不知道Google Docs？這個服務原來只要讓你在線上建文件或工作表，後來人們發現其實可以把這文件經過分享連結到Gmaps － 或者其它服務。

意思是，我只需要一個HTML檔，放在我的web server，改一些連線的資料，然後永遠只需要在工作表裡面加資料，不用再動HTML檔。有沒有興趣？那我跟你說怎麼做。

我們先需要HTML檔，所以我們最好到我的GIS，在那邊按Ctrl-U（view page as source），然後存檔。之後你當然需要一個適合的地方可以放這個檔案。這可能是一個小小的網頁空間，但是也可能是你自己的伺服器。決定這個位置之後你必須申請自己的Gmaps key。你要在你的網站使用GMaps的地圖，你先需要有連接的key。

下一步：工作表。我們在Google Docs建立新的工作表。請建這些欄位（在第一行每個欄位寫一個名稱）： rank, date, long, lat, acc, resp, text，就像這個圖：


說明：rank是排名位置，每次比行少一個。rank決定在網頁上列的順序。date是日期，當然。你可以用別的寫法，但是這個比較簡單使用，也可以很容易讓電腦以日期排序。acc是學生車禍時的交通工具。我原來想用漢字，但是GMaps在這裡好像還不支援。所以我用簡單的數字：1＝走路，2＝腳踏車，3＝機車，4＝汽車。resp要表示車禍責任：1＝對方，2＝學生。而在text可以寫簡單的車禍說明。

還有兩個：long跟lat。這個是地理位置，我們會用一個工具讓我們知道這些數據：getlonlat。你可以在地圖上找車禍的位置，點那個地方，就可以知道數據。

因為我們網頁要讀工作表的資料，我們必須分享它。（所以，不要記錄太私人的資料！）請點"Publish"，然後"More Publishing Options"（更多發佈選項）。我們要把檔案格式改成Atom，然後做出URL。那個URL會有這個格式：http://spreadsheets.google.com/feeds/list/[spreadsheet key]/[worksheet id]/public/values

我們需要的是spreadsheet key跟worksheet id。有這兩個，我們回到原來的HTML檔。請你把var param_wsId =的數據改成自己的worksheet id，然後把var param_ssKey =的數值改成自己的spreadsheet key。

之後只有兩個地方還要修改：一個是地圖下的說明。你可以完全刪掉或修改一下。另一個地方在HTML檔的下面。如果你不想知道有多少人有誤打誤撞到你的系統，你可以把一整段刪掉。如果你想用Google Analytics，你最好建一個帳號，然後把我的code換成自己的。

就這樣，這麼快就可以有一個學生車禍GIS。如果有改善的建議，可以在這裡提出。對了，你可能有發現，雖然我在半年前已經做出來了初期的版本，但是我的GIS裡面卻沒有很多資料。沒錯，這就是我們學校的特色：沒有人對任何事情有興趣。希望你的學生不會這樣。

Epson CX5900與Linux

剛上個在一台Linux電腦(Ubuntu Gutsy)裝了一台Epson CX5900。最近，如果你辦中華電信固定IP的ADSL，他們送這台CX5900。之前有試過幫一個學生在他電腦（一樣Ubuntu Gutsy）裝他的曾品 － 一台較便宜的噴墨印表機。我忘記是哪一台（C90?），但是那時候找不到適合的驅動程式。所以，我這次有點懷疑會不會有一樣的問題。

不過，整個事情還蠻順利：幾個月前，某一個CUPS的更新有提供相當大的變化。之前你可能自己從一個列單選你的印表機，然後選要用哪一個驅動程式等。現在，你只要把印表機插上去，CUPS馬上全部都做好（如果CUPS知道那台印表機），使用者可以按OK就好。（當然也可以改設定）

所以，列印部分完全沒有任何問題。不過，還有掃描功能。掃描器在Linux還是一個比較麻煩的地方。需多廠商不想開放他們掃描晶片的規格，所以沒有辦法寫相當的驅動程式。第一次啟動xsane的時候，它也沒有找到CX5900。不過，我在這裡找到解決方案：

首先，你必需在/etc/udev/rules.d/45-libsane.rules加這兩行：

# Epson CX-5900
SYSFS{idVendor}=="04b8", SYSFS{idProduct}=="082e", MODE="664", GROUP="scanner"

這樣udev會知道這台掃描器。然後還要告訴sane有這台掃描器，所以在/etc/sane.d/epson.conf加這一行：

usb 0×04b8 0×082e

把印表機的USB線拔掉再插，你就可以掃描...

No more "English names", please

So you are teaching English. And of course you have given all of your students "English names" - if they didn't already have one. I would like to ask you a question, if you don't mind (and actually even if you do): Why?

Why would someone who is not wanted by FBI, CIA and NBA for something like wearing the wrong t-shirt want a second or even third and fourth name? What is the advantage of that? Running from a marriage?

So you are teaching English. That means you have a certain understanding of English, as well as a certain understanding of language in general, right? Mind if we have a walk? Not through the park, through language. You might want to take your jacket, we may be away for a few minutes...

I'm sure you have heard this example sentence: "The book is on the table." Boring, I know... But let's have a look at some aspects of this sentence which you might not have thought about before. So how does someone know that the book is on the table? Oh, yes, because you said so, of course.

But how does someone know what a book is, and what a table? Talking of that: What is a table? How does it look like? Can we agree that it is (I quote Wikipedia, even though there is no citation for this) "a form of furniture composed of a surface supported by a base, usually four legs"? Sounds sensible, doesn't it? And you noticed that I spoke of "a table", using an indefinite article? So there are a few of them...

For the book we can probably agree on a lot of printed papers bound to one another at one side? So looking back at the example sentence, what we actually want to express with it is "there is a bunch of printed papers being joined on one side, which is currently located on top of a surface that is supported by one to four legs". Sounds pretty complicated, but this is what we mean, what we think of when we say "the book is on the table". (I don't want to dive into the other elements of this sentence now, the nouns are work enough.)

Btw, I think you did tell your students that both "book" and "table" are nouns? And I suppose you remember that nouns are used to name "things". Did I just say "name"? Seems to be: If we can't name something, how do we want to talk about it? However, these nouns seem to apply not just to a single object, but to a whole class of identical or at least similar objects.

So when I hear the word "table", I'm sure that the table I imagine has a colour different from yours. Mine is really shiny, btw. But still, both are tables. So a noun has a semantic component, a meaning, something we think of when we hear that word.

You may have noticed that also here in Taiwan they have tables and books, though they name them slightly differently: "zhuozi" (桌子) for tables and "shu" (書) for books. And this is where dictionaries enter the game: A dictionary basically lists the words used in two different languages for the same things, having the same meanings. So a dictionary is basically just a table pairing words with identical meanings, but belonging to different languages.

And what has all this got to do with names? Well, I would like to ask for your name now, but since that is slightly impossible, let us assume please that your name is "Mike" - a nice, typical "English name". A question: What does it mean?

You never asked yourself that question? I'm sure you will be filled with pride when I tell you the meaning: Who is like God. There are however a few problems with this...

First, Mike is short for Michael, which is a name that comes from Hebrew. So much about the typical "English" name. And second, while some of them were nice fellows, I have not met a single Mike in my life who made the impression he would be in any way related to a God.

So, let's suppose we want to translate your name into another language. Translation means we will transfer a meaning, and the meaning here would be "godlike". (You don't play Quake, do you?) No, wait, if the meaning in English is "godlike", why are you called "Mike" then? Your name should already be the English translation of a Hebrew word!

Confused? Naturally. You may have noticed that names too are nouns, but they are somewhat "special", in English called proper nouns. And these may have a meaning, but that meaning is usually not related to the person a name is assigned to. Doubt? I am not into golf, but the last time I saw an image of Tiger Woods he did not quite look like either a cat or some shrubbery.

Another question: Have you ever met someone from France or have you perhaps been there yourself? How many of the French you met have an English name? Or perhaps Italians? Or Germans?

I am German, and when I tell people that I don't have an "English name", their next question usually is "So what is your German name?" Unfortunately, I don't have such either. My name comes from Scandinavia, is pretty popular in Norway or Sweden. So is it a Swedish name? Or a Norwegian one? Or better a "Scandinavian name"?

Do you understand Chinese? Then you should know that the term used in Taiwan for "English name" is "yingwen mingzi" (英文名字), which means a name written in English. You will never hear the term "yingyu mingzi" (英語名字), which would mean a name spoken in English - this term simply does not exist.

And when Taiwanese speak about "German names" they will call them "dewen mingzi" (德文名字), not "deyu mingzi" (德語名字). So the whole "English name" business is not about the language, it's about the letters the name is written in. I never needed a "Russian name" when I visited the Soviet Union, neither did I need a "Japanese name" when I was living in Japan. (Though I had one, for "special" situations.)

I had just one name until I started to study Chinese. And why did I need a "Chinese name" then? Two reasons: One is computers (Our school's administrative system is even in 2008 unable to process my real name.), the other is the strange phenomenon that Taiwanese can handle thousands of Hanzi, but are often unable (lack of practice, I'd say) to remember the few Roman characters needed for a European's name.

You see, my name is Olaf (Please don't apply English pronounciation to it, OK?), and if I went to Russia now I would just write my name as Олаф - same name, just a different script. In Japan it became オーラフ, and here in Taiwan it could be written as 歐拉夫. (But it isn't.)

It is the same name every time, just in a different script. There is no translation, only transcription. This is how names should be dealt with, and this is how names are dealt with in most parts of this planet. But there is a small island, 394x144km "large"...

And why are things so different on this small island? Quite a few people probably do not like to hear this, but many (most) Taiwanese got a few concepts regarding language wrong, and the really sad thing is that even most of the "language experts" you may encounter are following those wrong concepts. So the people who are supposed to teach language actually teach a few (basic) things incorrectly - and that is not restricted to English, it applies to Chinese too...

One concept that people here in Taiwan do not like to accept is that there is a spoken language and there is a script (characters) chosen for that language. These two are separate items, not a couple married for eternity.

A lot of countries have changed the characters they are using through the course of history. I could not quite read my grandmother's handwriting, because she only wrote partially in Latin script. Vietnam and Korea used to use the same characters as China. Vietnam now uses Latin script, while Korea developed its own.

Mongolia had to get along with Hanzi when it was part of China, now they use Cyrillic script, the same as Russia. And here comes another problem with most people in Taiwan: While they may have heard some of these, they do not actively know. What they know is this:

"I have learned Chinese. The characters I use to write Chinese are therefor 'Chinese characters' (zhongwenzi 中文字). I have learned English. They use different characters. Those are ‘English characters' (yingwenzi 英文字). There is a country nearby called Japan. I have not quite learned their language, but they use different characters. Those are 'Japanese characters' (riwenzi 日文字, sometimes also ribenzi 日本字 - characters of Japan). And there is another country nearby called Korea. They too use different characters. Those are called 'Korean characters' (hanwenzi 韓文字 - or hanguozi 韓國字, characters of Korea)."

Just look at how most people in Taiwan call the language they speak: "zhongwen" (中文). That is "written Chinese". I don't know about you, but I don't speak written text, I only write it. Funnily, there is usually a pair of names for each language, like "fayu" (法語, spoken French) and "fawen" (法文, written French), "riyu" (日語, spoken Japanese) and "riwen" (日文, written Japanese), but this does not apply every time.

There is no "zhongyu" (中語) as someone might expect to accompany "zhongwen" (中文). So, basically, people here in Taiwan only speak a written language... Yes, I know, there is "guoyu" (國語), but what is that? It's the "national language". There are classes with the same name in Japan, teaching - yes, Japanese.

The word used for Taiwanese however is "taiyu" (台語), and there is (Surprise, surprise...) no "taiwen" (台文). The same applies to "American English", now all the rage in Taiwan: There is "meiyu" (美語), but no "meiwen" (美文). (Hmm, does that mean Taiwanese think Americans can't write?) If you should happen to go to the PRC, you may notice that people there care a bit more about correct terms related to language. Though, fortunately, MoE recently decided to call the Mandarin used in Taiwan "huayu" (華語), so at least we finally have a spoken language.

Anyway, in language classes in Taiwan, the message is that there is a language and that language is intrinsically tied to its characters. And that's just not true. Latin script, the characters I am using right now, is the most widely used writing system on this planet. Lots of languages rely on this script, just look at the map.

So why would Taiwanese want an "English name"? Because foreigners can not read their name the way they usually write it: in Hanzi. So, wouldn't it be OK then if Taiwanese knew how to write their name in Latin script? Yes, that is exactly what is needed, but...

You see, due to all the misunderstandings regarding language I mentioned above, transcription systems are not seen as such in Taiwan. "Transcription" would mean that I write the same word (in this case a name) in different characters. For most Taiwanese, Latin script is "English" (since that is the only foreign language using Latin script they learned), so for them a transcription becomes a translation. This is incorrect, but very widely believed in Taiwan.

And unfortunately, nobody really wants to learn any romanisation system. In Japan, people learn Hepburn, so they know how to write their names in Latin script. In the PRC, people learn Hanyu Pinyin, so they too know how to write their names in a writing system many people will understand.

In Taiwan however, the government does not only need to invent their own "system" to emphasize their uniqueness, they do not even bother to teach it at any school. If you do not teach it, who will be able to use it then? So it will be business as usual: Students will still ask "The new foreign teacher can not read Chinese. Can you give me an English name?"

OK, so far I have tried to show you the "scientific evidence" for the whole "English name" game being wrong. Confronted with these facts, the answer I usually get from Taiwanese (and some foreigners) is that it doesn't really matter and that "it's OK if we know it" (我們知道就好。) - so it does not matter if others do not know those names. It seems however, that none of those people ever had to do a certain amount of interpreting.

I am an interpreter, teaching interpreting now and I can torture my students easily with "English names". Even if someone knows who is behind "Twinhead" (and only few know), they usually never have heard of "Powermax". And although they should know a bit about universities in Taiwan, almost nobody knows where exactly "Formosa university" is located. And I didn't even start with people's names...

Let's assume that of the 23m people roaming this small island only ten per cent have an "English name". If your name is indeed Mike, could you please use your divine powers to tell me the English name of Xiao Wanzhen? You don't know? Why?

Oh, no problem, just look it up in a dictionary! After all, dictionaries are there to help you with translations, aren't they? OK, my heaviest dictionaries only hold close to 100,000 records, so I wonder how the 2.3m "English names" (plus their equivalent "Chinese names") should fit in there, but how should I know, I'm just a foreigner living in Taiwan...

But even if there was such a dictionary (or better: a directory), it would need to be updated constantly. Did you notice how quickly people switch their "English names"? What you probably did not know: Even companies and other organisations can relatively easily change their "English name", while it is quite a hassle to change the "Chinese name". The message here: That "English name" is crap anyway, only needed for foreigners, let them guess...

And guessing (or better resigning) is what you end up with if you are an interpreter. But not only then. Imagine this: When I was working in an electronics company in Taizhong, we had a sales guy who suddenly changed his name one day. "Hey, can you call me Elvis now? I don't like my previous name any more..." I can not remember his previous name, but let's say it was Peter.

So "Peter" was known to a few foreigners at other companies. They exchanged business cards, and two months later one of them wants to call Peter. He changed his name a month ago and right after that a new guy came into the company. Peter/Elvis is not there and the new guy answers the phone. He never heard of a "Peter", so he tells the foreigner after a short check that there may have been a Peter before but that there is none now...

And this goes on and on. So if your students ask you for an "English name", please, just don't do it! If you want to teach your students something, teach them a real spelling alphabet, so people on the phone actually know whether that was a "b" or a "p" or a "d" or... And teach them romanisation of Chinese, preferably Hanyu Pinyin, since this still is the international standard (ISO-7098:1991) for writing Chinese in Latin script and may also help them when they go abroad. Otherwise they sit there in another country and have to use English in their correspondence with their parents...

Sorry, our walk took a little longer, but I hope it was worth it...

社會組科技須知 - 檔案格式 6 （壓縮檔）

這次我不想談很多。你想壓縮太大的檔案？還是想把幾個檔案放到一個壓縮檔？那，一樣的問題：要解壓縮的人會不會有辦法……

目前最流行的壓縮格式（多平台）好像是ZIP。我希望你不會還在違法使用沒有注冊的爛Winzip... 拜託，有不少比它強多的免費軟體！（放心，其中一些會有華語界面）

其實，我原來決定要寫關於壓縮檔的文章主要有一個原因：拜託，拜託，拜託，不要把ZIP檔改成EXE檔！拜託你不要做那麼超笨的事情！你不覺得這樣很笨？好吧：

你有一個文件，說是RTF或也許甚至DOC。RTF是每一個文書處理軟體可以處理的格式。DOC也有很多軟體在很多平台可以處理。不管是Windows、Linux或OS X，都有辦法處理這些檔案。你覺得檔案太大，要把它壓縮。OK，每個桌面作業系統會有辦法解壓縮你的ZIP檔。

但是突然你覺得”嘔，我要給大家一個很方便的檔案，它還會自己解壓縮，只要點兩次就好了！“ Hmm，是不是該說一聲”恭喜“？你剛把所有非Windows的使用者排除。或你覺得把一片文章改成一個Windows的執行檔會有什麼結果？

不過，這還不是你唯一的成功。也許你還沒有發現（因為不在乎或不知道這種事？），但是不少組織不會接受有可執行附加檔的e-mail。原因很簡單：避免中毒。

而且，不只是e-mail。我在我們學校計中工作的時候有在proxy當掉所有在Windows可執行的檔案。這個措施之後，學校的行政電腦突然幾乎沒有中毒的問題……

但是，人事室跟學務處突然會不太高興：一些專家有把那些單位需要的一些文件（當然是DOC）改成可執行壓縮檔（EXE）放在網路上。厲害……

所以，下次壓縮檔案的時候能不能也先動頭一下？你動頭一次，之後很多人不需要搖頭……