Scam Alert

Although of course you technically don't know if a translation or interpretation offer is a scam until you have been scammed, this one seems to be pretty obvious. We will go out on a limb here saying it's a scam, so please be careful. We are very concerened about the increase in fraudulent inquiries that our colleagues have been receiving. We also receive quite a few, and wanted to share this one with you. It's come from several names and e-mail addresses: Auto-Check Ltd Special Recruitment Agency (n31@gmx.co.uk) and Charlene Chuang (chuangcharlene@yahoo.com). The text is as follows:

Hello,
I will like to use this medium to introduce our agency to you, we are into special recruitment for our clients that require special and personal services.

We read through your profile and decided to enquire from you, if you will be able to do the service for our client whom will be needing your service in the united states for interpreting service comes july 25th 2010.

I will like you to send me all your resume so that we can do our credit check to the below ellen.klein@live.com, and know if you will be the right person for the client so that we can proceed.

Also I will like to know your number of hours you do embark on a job and your hourly charges and also if you can travel within the states in the united states as well

Thanking you in anticipation.

Cheers

Mrs Ellen Klein
Head,Recruit Dept
e.mail:ellen.klein@live.com
Auto-Check Ltd
Special Recruitment Agency
345 South Deeside Road,
Blairs,Aberdeen,
AB12 5YP
447565410064

The Facebook Security Debate

We are both big social media enthusiasts, and the marketing opportunities for small businesses are simply incredible. Web 2.0 has changed the way we market ourselves and reach new customers -- all mostly for free (well, there's the cost of our time). While the pros outweigh the cons, security is a huge issue, especially with Facebook, which has been getting a lot of well-deserved negative coverage as of late. The topic is complex and concerning, and Facebook is certainly guilty of setting its default security setting to much less privacy than one would like. Sure, the user can change the settings at any time, but we agree with many Web 2.0 experts that the default settings should be more private than public. The power of Facebook, which is about the hit the 500-million user mark, is undeniable, but the company also has a tremendous responsibility. They are making positive changes, but there's still a lot to be done. We get asked about security during our Web 2.0 workshops quite a bit, and it's something ever user needs to think about.  Our recommendations include checking your privacy settings on a regular basis (as they can be changed with system upgrades without your knowledge) and to not post anything that you'd rather not see on the cover of next morning's newspaper.We recently read a great article on Facebook's security debate in the European issue of Time. We highly recommend you read Dan Fletcher's well-researched article to get a better look at this issue.

Translation Image of the Week

We were delighted when we spotted this simple stone plaque on a downtown Amsterdam plaza a few weeks ago while in town for a conference. We just have to add that every single Dutch person we met was completely multilingual. It's no surprise that many of the great translators we know are Dutch. By contrast, try ordering a coffee in three languages (excluding German) in Vienna and see what happens (answer: you probably won't get your coffee). Here's to images with words being more powerful than words alone.

Twin Translations Meets Twin Translations

Just when we thought that our business name, Twin Translations, was quite original and unique, we met....translating twins who had also chosen Twin Translations as their business name. Smart girls! We had the pleasure of meeting Melanie and Nicole Pieringer at the University of Granz (Institute of Translation Studies) in Austria, where Judy gave her Entrepreneurial Linguist workshop. The charming twins, in their first year of their translation degree after having finished their degrees in English at the University of Salzburg, came up with the name Twin Translations for a school project and even had tri-fold brochures made. Impressive job, Melanie and Nicole. We hit it off at the workshop on the hottest day of the year (see picture). Because of the 90-degree heat (and no A/C), the twins were smart enough to wear swimwear under their clothes (if Judy hadn't presented, she would have done that, too). Since our Twin Translations company has been around a lot longer and we own the domain name, Melanie and Nicole have graciously agreed to think of a different business name. We appreciate it -- we'll help brainstorm. Here's to translating twins and best of luck to Melanie and Nicole!

Blog Redesign

After almost two years of blogging here at Translation Times, we decided it was time for a facelift (no Botox required). We looked at many other blogs, and especially liked Sarah Dillon's clean, beautiful layout with all the Web 2.0 elements. Our IT guru Thomas Gruber did a fantastic resdesign, added some categories to the top navigation for easy access to the topics we write about the most, and added some new elements. We are very happy with the result. Others seem to agree, as Kwintessential just included us in the Top 10 Translator Blogs list, which mentioned that they liked our brand-new layout. Thanks for the honor. What do our readers think? Do you like the new layout?

Flash Player Security Warning

Our IT superhero, Thomas Gruber, would like all our readers to know about this serious Flash Player security issue. He equals it to the worst-case scenario (think BP oil spill). He's a pretty laid-back guy, so this is quite serious. It should only take you a few minutes. Basically, Adobe just came out with a list of problems, 29 in total, that allow code to install viruses (don't ask us about the techie details on this). There have already been reports that some not-so-nice people are  cheerfully taking advantage of this, and Adobe highly recommends getting the newest version of Adobe Flash Player and Adobe AIR.

Here is how to fix this:

Adobe Flash Player

Adobe recommends all users of Adobe Flash Player 10.0.45.2 and earlier versions upgrade to the newest version 10.1.53.64 by downloading it from the Adobe Flash Player Download Center or by using the auto-update mechanism within the product when prompted.

For users who cannot update to Flash Player 10.1.53.64, Adobe has developed a patched version of Flash Player 9, Flash Player 9.0.277.0, which can be downloaded from the following link.

Adobe AIR

Adobe recommends all users of Adobe AIR 1.5.3.9130 and earlier versions update to the newest version 2.0.2.12610 by downloading it from the Adobe AIR Download Center.

Link: Entrepreneurial Linguist Book Review

We know, we know: it's been quiet on the Translation Times front the last week or so. That's because we have both been to four countries (Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria), where Judy had the chance to speak at five conferences. It's been an exciting and busy June thus far! A conference report is coming up. In the meantime, we wanted to share a quick link to Sarah Dillon's fabulous There's something about translation blog, where she was kind enough to review our Entrepreneurial Linguist book. Thanks, Sarah! We highly recommend her beautifully designed blog, so be sure to add it to your RSS feed.

Of Peanuts and Monkeys

Thanks to Twitter, we just heard about a like-minded movement/blog that is encouraging all linguists to stop working for, well, peanuts. We couldn't agree more: we could have written the blog ourselves! The tone of the blog is funny and straightforward: if you think you are getting paid too little, stop accepting those jobs. Of course, the realities of the marketplace are complex and challenging, and individual situations vary greatly. However, this is a message we cannot hear often enough: let's professionalize our profession by charging adequate and fair rates for our highly specialized services, by working with our colleagues, and by refusing to work under conditions that do not do our expertise and education justice.

The No Peanuts Statement of Principles includes:

1. Don't lower your rates. Just don't do it.
2. Stop panicking. There is enough work for all of us. And yes: there is enough work at livable rates, too.
   
3. Take charge of the vendor/client relationship.
4. Abusive working conditions? Don't take the job -- you run your own business, after all!
5. Use online resources to research your potential clients.
6. Boycott abusive clients.
   

We are grateful for the No Peanuts movement for keeping the ball rolling -- thank you! Check out the blog and endorse the movement.

Disposable E-Mail Addresses

Our almost-weekly technology tip comes, as always, from our IT superhero Thomas Gruber. Today's topic is so-called disposable e-mail addresses. There are a variety of uses for them, including using them to get free stuff online, such as e-books or free software. While we love taking advantage of free stuff, and thank the many people who make the products available, we are increasingly weary of giving our business e-mail addresses. One never knows if our e-mail addresses could be sold or otherwise used in ways we don't approve of. Plus, spam messages are likely to increase when downloading freeware, and we don't read spam -- we read books (clever, but it's not really our own line). One way around this is to simply get a free e-mail address (Gmail, Yahoo, etc.) and use that one for non-essential messages. The better option is to get a disposable e-mail address, which are is only valid for a short period of time. Does it sound too good to be true? It's not. Thomas recommends 10-Minute Mail, Meltmail, and the hilariously titled SpamGourmet.

Too Many Open Browser Tabs = Bad

Today's technology tip comes, as always, from our IT superhero Thomas Gruber, who has long been on both our cases about having too many broswer tabs open (we use Firefox). Judy is especially guilty of this. Thomas just sent us information that too many open tabs, in addition to slowing down your processes and loading times, could also leave one very vulnerable to phishing attacks (hackers trying to mine one's confidential data by posing as legitimiate websiste, including banks). This might finally be incentive enough for Judy to start closing tabs when she doesn't use the page and just open it again as needed. Read this page for a lot of important information about this subject, but it's a bit techie even for technology lovers like us. The bottom line: close the tabs of your browser to ensure online safety.