Sailing through still uncharted seas, I found myself reading a chronicle by Luiz Fernando Veríssimo that had been published by Jornal do Brasil in November 1997 entitled “Insolência” (Insolence). Just like everything he writes, it was wonderful. It talks about word processing software, automatic translators and the sorrows of those obliged to deal with them. I highly recommend this text.
The chronicle was found on the opening page of a thesis about machine translation written by Carolina Alfaro. And to make it more interesting, she placed a “translated” version by Altavista Translation Service below the chronicle. I have not read the entire thesis, but it looks interesting and provides a general overview of the available translation tools.
It’s a shame that I didn’t have this chronicle with me over the weekend when someone asked whether we used automatic translators here at the office. This text would have been much more effective than the explanation I gave… =)
