tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Oct 08 01:07:09 1994
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Re: K3
qSeroHS vayn had some nice things to say (in Klingon) about my program, K3,
which I imagine he picked up from ftp.kli.org. The post is timely, since
just yesterday I was demonstrating the current beta version, 4.0b, to the
Association of Machine Translation in the Americas (AMTA), in Columbia, MD.
It was a little awkward, addressing a room full of computational linguists
and professional MT developers, themselves debuting the cutting-edge MT
technology, with my modest little system.
The talk was successful, and well-received. The crowd enjoyed the
light-hearted approach I took; I was clearly not trying to belittle their
very serious work, just demonstrating that it's still possible to have some
fun in this sometimes too serious world.
There was even a USA Today article written about me and my parser, which was
in yesterday's (10/6) USA Today, LIFE section (Home technologies). Here's
what the article had to say:
Worf-Speak
Now that relations with Klingons have warmed to the point where they're
serving on Federation starships, it wouldn't hurt to get to know their
language a little better. _The Klingon Dictionary_ has been around for
years, but the Klingon Machine Translation Project is much more cutting edge.
The computer program, which translates Klingon to English, has been available
on the Internet for a couple of years. The latest version, written by
Georgetown University graduate student d'Armond Speers, will be demonstrated
at this week's Association for Machine Translation in the Americas meeting in
Columbia, Md.
Linguist Marc Okrand created the language for the movie _Star Trek III: The
Search for Spock_. The dictionary hit print the next year and was revised in
1992. "Klingon is such an unusual language. It's designed to be not like
any other language," Speers says. "So I designed the (translation) program
for my own education."
Speers gets fan mail from people who discover the program. And no doubt it
comes in handy for the Klingon Language Institute, which claims 750 members.
The program is available free at ftp.kli.org in the file
pub/Software/pojwi30.zip.
---end---
(Any typos there are mine)
Well, folks, that's it! It was pretty exciting being interviewed by this
fellow. He called me at the linguistics department, and left a message with
the secretary, which in itself created quite a stir! When I left for the
day, I told her, "If any other major national publications call for me, give
them my home number!" It was a real hoot.
Lawrence, I hope I haven't breached protocol or anything, with the mention of
the ftp site in the paper. I was given a table to exhibit the program after
my presentation, and I had my handouts, KLI brochures, and a handfull of
HolQeD's to sell (and they did!), thanks to Lawrence (the check's in the
mail), to whom I owe great thanks for his speedy reply. It was quite
amusing, being set up there next to such major, serious Machine Translation
packages, like MicroTac, Globalink, AppTech, Logos, PAHO, CompuServe, and
about 15 others. And, my table exhibit received as much traffic as all the
others!
I think my 15 minutes are up now, but it sure was exciting!
--Holtej