Story of Human Language – great introductory audio course on linguistics

By arafalov, on September 29th, 2007%

As part of doing a PhD in Computational Linguistics, I need to understand both computers and linguistics. I am fine with computers, but linguistics is not my strong point. Unfortunately, many of the linguistics books and resources are quite dry.

So, I was really happy to discover an audio course . . . → Read More: Story of Human Language – great introductory audio course on linguistics

4 comments   Computational Linguistics, General Education, Language Acquisition

3 new language-learning websites

By arafalov, on September 26th, 2007%

These are new style language-learning websites that are trying to leverage community and/or new capabilities allowed by the internet:

SpanishSense – they have podcasts, PDFs, daily emails and a lot more. This site has been done by the same people who have been doing really successful ChinesePod for several years now. It looks very slick.
LiveMocha – they . . . → Read More: 3 new language-learning websites

One comment   Language Acquisition, Spanish

Not so progressive JavaScript enhancement

By arafalov, on September 8th, 2007%

As part of The Rich Web Experience, Fairmont hotel – where the conference is held – offers free WiFi. You have to enter username/password on the first post-connect page and then it unlocks browsing capabilities.

I love WiFi. I have an HP PocketPC that has WiFi built in. I was fully prepared to read my mail, do . . . → Read More: Not so progressive JavaScript enhancement

One comment   web2.0

The Rich Web Experience – day 1

By arafalov, on September 7th, 2007%

I am currently at The Rich Web Experience 2007 conference. It is interesting to compare it to JavaOne conferences I have been to in the past.

To start, RWE is much smaller. It is about 400 people as compared to 15 thousands at JavaOne. This obviously makes scheduling logistics and eating arrangements simpler, but there is also . . . → Read More: The Rich Web Experience – day 1

3 comments   Java, web2.0

Unravelling the black magic of bureaucracy

By arafalov, on September 1st, 2007%

Arthur C. Clarke once famously wrote “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”. In the same vein, many people feel that any sufficiently established bureaucracy is like a black magic, sorcery even. Certainly, it often takes skills out of this world to follow the logic of modern tax return instructions.

Bureaucracy often has its place and . . . → Read More: Unravelling the black magic of bureaucracy

2 comments   Computational Linguistics, My PhD research