tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Oct 30 22:52:47 2003

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My first post to this list; typing with true Klingon letters

Christian Einfeldt ([email protected]) 

Hi,

This is my first post to this list.  I have been watching Star Trek 
since I was a kid, and have seen all of the movies, etc.  I also 
currently follow Enterprise.  

Indeed, the fact that I am such a huge ST fan is one of the reasons 
that I was suggested as a logical candidate to post this email to this 
list.  I volunteer for a non-profit group called OpenOffice.org, or 
OOo for short.  OOo would like to give your group, and in fact, the 
world, a free office-suite computer program called OpenOffice.org 
(yep, the name of the group is the same as the software program) which 
will hopefully permit you to write Klingon in the actual Klingon 
characters which appear at this link:

http://www.evertype.com/standards/csur/klingon.html

Please be advised that this email is not spam, and I am not selling 
anything.  Rather, I am proposing to offer you a tool to enhance your 
enjoyment of using the Klingon language.  

OOo, the software product, is basically the same thing as the familiar 
Microsoft Office, except that our product is now free, and always will 
be free.  Have you heard of Linux?  Linux is an operating system, like 
Windows, and OpenOffice.org is an application, like Microsoft Office, 
which runs on top of the operating system.  Please forgive me if the 
foregoing seems annoyingly simple.  I want to make sure we are all on 
the same page.  

To let you know that OOo is legitimate, and that our offer is serious, 
I am pasting below a copy of an email exchange between Wil Wheaton 
(yes, THAT Wil Wheaton, the guy who played Will Crusher on Star Trek's 
The Next Generation (ST TNG).

Why do we do this?  Why does anyone volunteer for anything?  To make 
the world a better place.  Really.  No kidding.  

In fact, I believe that there is a huge cross-over between ST (all 
series and movies) and open source software, such as Linux and 
OpenOffice.org.  (For the benefit of the non-trekkors on the OOo 
discuss list, here's a short history of Star Trek)  As you folks on 
the [email protected] list certainly know, at the time of Star 
Trek, The Original Series (ST TOS), Earth had gone through nuclear 
world war, and was in the middle of a sort of dark ages, when Dr. 
Zefram Cochran creates the first warp engine, thereby attracting the 
attention of the Vulcans, resulting in Earth's first contact with a 
non-Terran intelligent species (the Vulcans).  

First Contact results in a type of renaissance on Earth in which 
nation-states became a thing of the past, and Terrans rapidly 
developed a peaceful, equitable society which eventually gave rise to 
Jonathan Archer's first Enterprise ship, followed later by James Kirk 
(excuse me for mentioning that name on a Klingon list, but remember 
what Spock said, "Only Nixon could go to China!!!!)  and then later by 
Jean-Luc Picard, etc. 

So by the time that James Kirk comes on the scene, Earth is such a 
peaceful, prosperous place that, centuries later, a disdainful (and 
notorious) Ferengi named Quark complains in an off-handed comment that 
"oh, yeah, Earth, what a disgusting spinning blue-green ball of 
bliss..." or something along those lines.  (Ferengis are driven 
largely by lust for acquisition of wealth, which they have elevated to 
an elaborate religion).  

Okay, so we Terrans are not there yet, but 25 million people or so use 
OpenOffice.org, and thousands of volunteers dedicate hundreds of 
thousands of hours per week (or so I'm guessing) to the coding and 
marketing of this wonderful word-processing spreadsheet draw and 
presentation software package called OpenOffice.org.  In other words, 
we're having a global party, and you're invited!  

Seriously, I sometimes tell people if you wonder what the world would 
look like if people really cooperated across borders in a peaceful 
project designed for the improvement of humankind, look at Linux and 
OpenOffice.org.

Okay, so now you're getting worried.  Is this a cult?  No.  Do I have 
to contribute time or money?  Not if you don't want to.  Will my email 
address be sold? no, although our discuss list is indexed on Gmane and 
Google, so whatever you say will be very much in the public domain, as 
will this email.  

Wil Wheaton and the other 20,000 people or so who read the OOo discuss 
list would like to invite you to assist us in generating a way for 
Star Trek enthusiasts to communicate with each in Klingon with the 
Klingon characters given at the above site (or whatever characters the 
Trekkor community feels are the best or "truest" rendition of Klingon 
characters.  

I have noticed on this list that you occasionally communicate with each 
in Klingon using English language letters.  What we are offering to 
you is to take the next step, if you would like, and help us help you 
type Klingon characters with your ordinary keyboard.  Now I am a 
simple end user, and an attorney by trade so I am over my head here in 
understanding just exactly how the Klingon will be rendered.  I do 
know that OOo can type in many, many different languages, many of 
which do not use an English keyboard.  Perhaps eventually some company 
will start manufacturing Klingon character keyboards, and you will be 
able to type directly into Klingon from a Klingon keyboard.

Some of the languages which are already "localized" to OpenOffice.org 
include the following:  Turkish, Japanese, Russian, Slovenian, 
Chinese, and the list goes on and on.  We would like to invite you to 
help us put Klingon on that list.  Here's the list:

http://www.openoffice.org

If you are interested, please feel free to either just reply to this 
email, as I am subscribed to your list, or email me directly at 
[email protected], or join the OOo discuss or marketing lists by 
subscribing here:

http://www.openoffice.org/mail_list.html

Either way, thanks for your consideration of our proposal!  

Here is the paste from Wil Wheaton's reply to our request for his 
support of our Klingon localization project.  BTW, we are also hoping 
to eventually do Vulcan, as well as several of the languages from Lord 
of the Rings, if you know anyone who is interested in that saga.

[Marketing] Re: Vulcan & Klingon translations of the leading Free 
Office suite...

From: 
Sam Hiser <[email protected]>


To: 
Wil Wheaton <[email protected]>


CC: 
"OpenOffice.org "Marketing List <[email protected]>, l10n 
Lang Localization List <[email protected]>


Date: 
Yesterday 09:24:27


On Tue, 2003-10-28 at 20:33, Wil Wheaton wrote:
> Oh my god. I love OOo.
> 
> I will do ANYTHING for you guys. Did you know I wrote my first book 
> using OpenOffice.org 1.0.1? I'm using 1.0.2 to finish my rewrite on 
my 
> current book, and my kids to all their homework on it. We're a linux 
> family, and OOo is our only word processor.
> 
> I'll do whatever you'd like for the translations (which I think are 
> brilliant, by the way) but I don't know jack about the actual 
> languages. I suspect all I could do is pose for some corny pictures, 
> and maybe endorse the translation, but let me know what you want. I 
> adore OOo, and I have jumped at any chance to let people know how 
> wonderful it is. I even gave a talk at my local LUG about how great 
it 
> is.

I knew you were a geek family ;-)
> 
I dont know JACK either about the translation process and I'M 
publishing
on it (it's pretty involved, but it's going to save Planet Earth so 
it's
worth it).

Perhaps our Trek-entusiasts (or any OOo Marketing Contributors who are
curious to learn and work on translation) can discuss with you ways 
they
think you can help.

Christian?, Louis?  Should we have a mailing list for this, or would it
be better for Wil to provide the area on his site?  We need space, then
we can /. the thing in order to gather the motivated Earthlings.

What we need to do is get all the hackers who love Star Trek and who
love the idea of Klingon & Vulcan versions to get together and once we
organize enough people we can then plug that group into the "l10n"
(Localization) Project where they can get the support and resources to
build the Glossaries and do the translation work (there's about 21,000
word strings that need to be changed; then it needs to be compiled).

Perhaps Wil you can cast around the various CASTS to find other true
Trek alums who are also interested.  As a fair weather Trekkie, I think
if Nemoy were on board, we would blow the galaxy with this!

Please be aware that this is a PR play as much as anything and we are
going to leverage it for publicity.  So please BAIL now, if it's not
something you're up for.  If you are Wil-ling, then we would make you a
global spokesperson for OOo and go the distance...whatever you'd like 
to
do.    

This would be a good opportunity, perhaps, to test the Web-based
translation tools that Janos Noll created for the Hungarian translation
of OOo.  Also I hear that the Slovenian translation project has some
neat tools.  Perhaps we can use them or help them be GENERALIZED for
ours and other future purposes.  

> 
> Idea: take the "replace" option in a menu, and switch it with 
"reverse 
> the polarity."

LOLOL

Regards,
-Sam


> 
> /geek
> 
> Bye,
> 
> Wil
> On Saturday, October 25, 2003, at 07:07  PM, Sam Hiser wrote:
> 
> > Hi wil-
> >
> > Thanks for an amusing blog.  It has VOICE.
> >
> > I have no idea about your acting career or Trek and make no 
apologies
> > for that, but some of my colleagues at Openoffice.org
> > (www.openoffice.org) were fantacizing about having some hardcore
> > Trekkies get together to translate OOo 1.1 into both Vulcan and
> > Klingon...and thought yo might be intrigued.
> >
> > [Translation of the office suite: That would mean the menus, 
messages,
> > wizards, help, spellcheck etc of the office suite would be very
> > user-friendly to Vulcans and Klingons who are inclined to write 
memos
> > and whitepapers using a PC -- all those Vulcans & Klingons who dont 
use
> > vi or emacs, that is.]
> >
> > Lord knows what this would accomplish in the Willie-Lowman Warp, 
but it
> > would probably juice the lizzard of a few Star Trek fans and make 
for a
> > crazy booth at the conventions.
> >
> > We're working on getting Mr. Sulu (George Takai, himself) involved 
and
> > the road of course leads to Mr. Priceline one day with no 
limitations 
> > on
> > who can join the mad party...and I'm told it's a large family.
> >
> > For now, if we get a real thread of discussion going, there might 
even
> > be a mailing list people can join. Whatta-ya-say, Wil?  It might be
> > interesting.  Or you might recommend that this could take place in 
your
> > Soapbox Community??
> >
> > After completing the translation (which would take a few months) 
the
> > NEXT STEP is contacting Paramount and getting a product placement 
on 
> > the
> > Holodek.
> >
> > Kind regards to you and your lovely family.  Keep it light.
> >
> > -Sam
> > -- 
> > Sam Hiser
> >
> > Marketing Project
> > OpenOffice.org
> >
> > [email protected]
> >
> > *************************************************************
> > OpenOffice.org 1.1:
> >
> > The world's #1 fastest growing office suite
> > on Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Starship Enterprise and other 
platforms...
> >
> > ...and many languages:
> > http://l10n.openoffice.org/localization_responsibilities.html
> > *************************************************************
> >
> >
> --------------------------------------
>      WIL WHEATON DOT NET
>    May Peace Prevail On Earth
> --------------------------------------

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