Meedan puts machine translation into practice
A new website uses computers to translate everything between English and Arabic (and vice versa) to create a real cross-language site The Meedan wesite has been launched today, and we've covered the story in News translation website Meedan aims to improve Arabic-English relations . The site also has a YouTube video to explain how it works. An article published last year -- Will web users join forces to break the online language barrier? -- mentioned Meedan in another context, because it planned to use the Worldwide Lexicon (WWL) project's open source system. In the end, it didn't. Meedan's content and community manager George Weyman, based in London, told us: "it has some advantages, but right now we're using IBM's Machine Translation engine and the IBM Transbrowser " -- a browser-based tool for creating a translation layer on the web. IBM's sytem isn't open source, but Meedan's data -- its 'translation memory' of over 3m words -- is available to other translators. Weyman says: "the translations that are done with the Transbrowser are part of our agreement with IBM that makes sure all those translations are open source." This isn't true of some other web-based translation services, which are open access but not open source data services. The 'translation memory' is important because having a corpus of texts in two languages allows you to apply statistical techniques to improve a translation engine. One of the leading open source statistical machine translation systems is Moses , whch is funded partly by the European Commission. The project is being led by Philipp Koehn at the University of Edinburgh, and he's just written a book about the topic
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Meedan puts machine translation into practice
HP boosts computer industry with rising profit
The technology industry breathed a sigh of relief on Wednesday, after the world's largest computer manufacturer, Hewlett Packard, announced a 20% jump in quarterly profit. The Californian company said that revenues and income had risen significantly from this time last year, in what many saw as the strongest sign yet that the economic slump's impact on technology spending was almost over. Revenues for the first quarter of 2010 were up 8% to $31.2bn (£19.9bn), with profits rising to $2.3bn - up from $1.9bn a year ago. The company also said it was expecting more signs of recovery in the coming year, with projected earnings narrowly ahead of expectations. "HP is well-positioned to outperform the market," said chairman and chief executive Mark Hurd, who has worked to cut costs at the company since taking over in 2005. The growth largely came from HP's computer and printer manufacturing businesses, as consumers - who had been reticent about purchasing during the downturn - started buying again. While figures released by industry analysts Gartner suggested that shipments in western Europe were flat, the company experienced what Hurd called "accelerating market momentum". That could be partially due to the impact of Microsoft's Windows 7, which launched last autumn and gave many PC manufacturers a boost by encouraging shoppers to purchase new hardware. The company's services business - which expanded significantly in 2008 with the $12.6bn purchase of EDS - did not enjoy a revival, however, with revenue falling by 1%. HP's results will please investors and analysts, but they have not been without its costs. The company has cut tens of thousands of jobs in the past two years, including 25,000 as a direct result of the EDS acquisition, and plans a further 8,600 by October. Last month more than 1,000 HP staff who work for the Department of Work and Pensions took strike action in protest at job losses. Shares rose marginally in after hours trading, to 50.12.
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HP boosts computer industry with rising profit
Converting data from PDF files to Excel spreadsheets
John Haworth wants to reliably convert a lot of data from PDF files to Excel for spreadsheet analysis. I receive a lot of data in PDF format and it would be very useful to reliably convert it for spreadsheet analysis. Currently I print files then OCR scan and save them in Excel. It needs time-consuming scrutiny to ensure reliability. John Haworth There are lots of ways to get data from Adobe PDF files into Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, and several of them should work better than the one you are using. However, I'm not sure any of them will avoid the need for "time-consuming scrutiny to ensure reliability". The best way to do that is to get whoever publishes the data in PDF to send it to you in Excel format, or in another common format such as csv (comma-separated values). Any process that involves a conversion will generally involve some level of checking, though you should be able to decrease the level as the system proves itself. Since PDF-to-Excel conversions are economically significant (possibly saving hours of re-keying and checking), there are commercial solutions such as Cogniview's PDF2XL -- which might be your best bet -- and Blue Label Soft's PDF to Excel Converter 2.4 . A search will find more. However, before buying anything, you should try some of the free online solutions, such as Nitro's PDF to Excel Online . Zamzar, a site that offers a very wide range of conversions , has recently added PDF to Excel. Before that, you could have used it to convert PDF to text and then loaded it into Excel using the Text Import Wizard -- a process that could well be more accurate than your OCR. Incidentally, if the files are commercially sensitive, you should consult your IT department first
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Converting data from PDF files to Excel spreadsheets
In praise of… the Que reader
Ten years ago two Cambridge professors, Sir Richard Friend and Henning Sirringhaus, decided to venture into business together. The world-class experts in electronics joined up to form Plastic Logic – a fresh venture that focused on a new idea: electronic books . While the public has taken a long time to warm to the concept, the intervening decade meant there was plenty at stake when the company finally unveiled its first product, the Que , at last week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Fortunately, it immediately proved a success and stood out as one of the few truly innovative technologies on display . Simple to use, easy to read and light as a feather, the Que's e-ink screen looks and works like touch-sensitive paper – and feels more powerful than competitors like Amazon's Kindle. It is not without its problems – including the speed limitations of e-ink, which make it feel like an early 1990s computer, and a high price tag of at least £400 – but the Que marks a significant advance, nonetheless. While it isn't clear how long Plastic Logic will be a leader in ebooks – particularly since Apple looks set to unveil its own competing device at the end of this month – it is exciting to see a British company at the vanguard of innovation once again. The company might be headquartered in the heart of Silicon Valley, and it is not yet clear when the ebook will be launched in the UK, but it is heartening to see that the spirit that drove the UK's technology industry to new heights in the 1980s is still very much alive. Consumer Electronics Show (CES) Ebooks Gadgets guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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In praise of… the Que reader
Science Weekly: Seth Shostak of Seti discusses the search for alien intelligence
Seth Shostak , senior astronomer at Seti (the search for extraterrestrial intelligence) , discusses the latest developments in the project. The topics covered in this extended interview include what form signals from an alien civilisation would take, what ET might look like, the day Seti astronomers thought they had made contact, and what a confirmed signal would mean for planet Earth. Post your comments below. Join our Facebook group . Listen back through our archive . Follow the podcast on our Science Weekly Twitter feed and receive updates on all breaking science news stories from Guardian Science . Subscribe free via iTunes to ensure every episode gets delivered. (Here is the non-iTunes URL feed ). Alok Jha Andy Duckworth Seth Shostak
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Science Weekly: Seth Shostak of Seti discusses the search for alien intelligence
Removing rogue security software
Tim Symonds is getting demands for money from a PC security program that he didn't knowingly install and can't now remove I seem to have part-downloaded a Personal Security system scan, and boxes keep popping up telling me to pay $74 (£46) for security because they have already detected serious viral threats to my computer (which my up-to-date Norton antivirus apparently hasn't). It won't delete and the pop-up tells me "this is only a trial offer and the delete settings have been disabled". Tim Symonds Getting users to install rogue security software, which might be disguised as a video codec update, is a popular scam. Most of these programs can be removed by Malwarebytes , and Bleeping Computer has full removal instructions for this one. After you've cleared it, go to Windows Update and make sure your software is up to date, and change all your web passwords. Anyone who has paid for fake security software should contact their card supplier's fraud department and ask for the payment to be cancelled. Microsoft Windows Data and computer security Computing Jack Schofield guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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Removing rogue security software
It’s now time for e-government policy to take the spotlight
As the EU prepares the next stage of its eUnion action plan, it's time for e-government to step out of the shadows Early in 2006 I was at one of those off-the-record Whitehall briefings beloved by ministers when the subject of online tax returns came up. Our host – quite a senior politician, though no household name – agreed with a journalist that in future it may be a good idea to provide more government services via the web. Cue much whispering between minister and minders as I pointed out that not only was this already official policy, but the government had just celebrated reaching its target of making 100% of public services available online. At the time, I was a little indignant that a minister could be so ignorant of a target that had been the focus of five years of hard work, especially by local authorities. He had a point, though. In itself, putting bureaucratic processes on the web is about as significant as changing the colour of official stationery, and about as likely to improve services or cut costs. There was no particular reason why this minister should have noticed – I doubt he was a web user anyway. Nearly four years on, it's a bit harder to take refuge in that kind of ignorance. E-government policy has migrated from the IT department into two quite distinct political philosophies, which as much as anything are likely to define the difference between the two main parties at the general election. The battle is between those who favour a joined-up set of proactive public services, supported by a comprehensive national data infrastructure and those who would, well, just let citizens get on with it. Call it the difference between the " transformational " and the " power of information " agenda. Although both terms were coined by the current government, they reflect opposing philosophies. And it's fairly obvious which political party falls naturally into which camp. It is likely to be even more obvious after this week, when the UK is due to sign up to the next stage of Europe's e-government "action plan" at an EU ministerial conference in Malmo, Sweden . The action plan's theme of creating an "eUnion", with citizens' data flowing freely between member states's IT systems, will no doubt give the Conservatives a field day. My bet is that the ministerial declaration will not go as far as the eUnionists would like, and that it will contain at least a reference to "power of information" ideas. The same, I think, will go for the next version of the UK's e-government strategy, expected to be published shortly.
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It's now time for e-government policy to take the spotlight
Asus UL30 notebook review | Technophile
The Asus UL30 notebook is liberating and well worth considering if you can get over the keyboard layout The Asus UL30 notebook lasts longer than some of today's smartphones, and at a penny under £600, there may not be much difference in the price. Indeed, Carphone Warehouse is now offering a version of the UL30 free with a USB dongle and 3GB of mobile broadband for £40 a month on a two-year contract. Asus says the UL30A's 8-cell battery lasts "up to 12 hours" with Windows 7, depending on how you use it. Set its Power4Gear software to the Battery Saving plan, lower the brightness of the glossy 13.3in LED screen, turn off the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios and you get more than 12 hours. Even using Wi-Fi, the power drains slowly, so I reckon you should get 10 hours. Frankly, I stopped looking. For someone who is used to carrying a laptop with spare battery and charging both after each day's use, it's liberating. The UL30 (from UnLimited) is one of this year's "thin and light" notebooks based on Intel's CULV (Consumer Ultra Low Voltage) chips . The first models included the Acer Timeline series and MSI's X340, and I tried an early UL30A that originally had Vista installed. Asus says there will be versions running 64-bit Windows 7 to exploit the 4GB of memory, and a UL50 with a 15.6in screen. The long battery life comes from the ultra-low-voltage 1.3GHz Core 2 Duo (SU7300) processor, which is much faster than an Atom chip, or a Core Solo (SU3500). On the Windows Experience Index, the baseline score is 3.9 for the Intel 4500MHD integrated graphics, but the processor (4.0), memory (4.8), gaming graphics (4.9) and hard drive (5.6) all rate higher. It easily runs HD videos on the 1366 x 768 widescreen. Other features include a multi-touch touchpad, webcam, card slot, Ethernet, HDMI and three USB ports. There are downward-facing twin Altec Lansing stereo speakers on the bottom. A brushed aluminium top helps protect the screen. The main drawback is the keyboard layout. The "isolated keyboard" (well-separated flat keys) feels good but has a column of extra keys to the right of the large backspace and Enter keys. I still keep hitting them by mistake.
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Asus UL30 notebook review | Technophile
In the net with the Canon EOS5D MkII
The second video filmed by Guardian photographer Dan Chung entirely on a Canon EOS5D MkII camera shows its high-definition quality in a film about a Chinese basketball hopeful
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In the net with the Canon EOS5D MkII