Philips recently had a Simplicity event, where they showcased a number of concept products that may or may not make it into the real world in the future. To go along with the event, Philips also setup a voting board for a number of discussion topics. One of the topics currently under discussion is whether e-books are a good idea. You can pick a side and argue out your position or vote on the arguments of others.

With paper books, you are pretty much stuck. On the other hand, e-books - with the right combination of software and open formats - may soon prove to be just the solution to keep you reading and learning in the new language. And, with the language learning market attracting billions of dollars, you can be sure somebody will find a way to make the best of the possibilities offered by e-books.

This is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but I could not avoid noticing the differences in phrases I am learning in Spanish as compared to the ones I was learning in French. Both language classes spent a first couple of weeks with Name, Surname, Workplace, Street address, Phone number and suchlike. No surprise there, even though I don’t normally rattle out my full details at the first meeting with a stranger. However, I distinctly remember also having to divulge my marital and parenthood status in the early French classes (e.

Caroline McCarthy has gone to Wired’s Caroline McCarthy has gone to Wired’s (for CNet’s News.com) and, apparently, saw only flashy cool products, that ultimately will not be useful. I was at the same show and my feeling were completely opposite. I saw robotic seals that are used in Japan for therapeutic purposes. I saw an interactive robot that was encouraging kids to persevere with speech therapy. I even saw the LifeStraw, a device that allows to save lives by purifying water at a cost of 5$ per year?

I always feel impressed by translators. Recently, I have finished reading the english translation of NightWatch and it was very well done. I have read the russian original a number of times and could not see how a translation could make it justice. Yet it did and did it well. Congratulations to Andrew Bromfield on that one. Today (30th of September) is an International Translation Day. I want to say a delayed thank-you to those people who allowed me to read Pippi Longstocking, The Three Musketeers and Don Quixote de la Mancha in my native Russian by translating those works from Swedish, French and Spanish correspondingly.