As a follow-up to my earlier post on Languages and Locations, maybe it just a coincidence, or maybe somebody in Google actually read my post and acted on it.
Fact is, all of a sudden, the Blogger toolbar at the top of my blog (which was previously in Portuguese) is now in English!
Well done, Google!
Some of the most memorable photographs ever taken have been war images from the likes of Robert Capa, Don McCullin and W. Eugene Smith (to name some of my own heroes). The current conflict in the Middle East is also producing some outstanding photography, in spite of the obvious preference of the US media for images that glorify the combat and the combatants.
The capacity of an image to move a viewer greatly exceeds that of words, written or spoken. Yet today I found a quotation that seems to me to express perfectly the futility of war, a quotation that deserves to be displayed alongside the most telling images.
You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.
- Jeannette Rankin
This one has been annoying me for some time now.
Every browser (i.e. Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc.) has a setting allowing the user to specify their preferred language. Indeed, you can also specify additional languages so that a site can display itself in the first available language in your list. A simple mechanism, understood by all browsers and all web-servers.
More recently, a number of clever geeks have started selling software which locates you, the internet surfer, geographically, according to your current IP number - that being the "coded address" used by the internet to make all the magic happen. Being able to tell that a website visitor it located in Portugal is useful to some sites, in a variety of obvious ways.
Unfortunately, as with every technology, this new capability is already being abused and misused. Microsoft themselves are guilty of misusing it: if I go to look for some technical information on their site, chances are I'll be shown the required document in Portuguese (since I am physically located in Portugal), even though my browse setting clearly states that my preferred language is English and the document is obviously available in English.
Google are also guilty, both on their search site, which regularly tries to make me use their facility in Portuguese, and also on their blogging site, where this blog is hosted. The little tool bar at the top of my blog insists on remaining in Portuguese, in spite of my browser setting AND my stated preference in the blog settings.
This is a clear case of geeks being thrilled with a new toy but failing to think the problem through properly. Come on Microsoft and Google (and countless others) - use the established mechanism for choosing the language and confine your use of that ever-so-clever new geo-location toy to choosing which of your many servers should send me the requested page IN THE LANGUAGE I HAVE SPECIFIED!
Are you an adrenalin junkie? Do you like to jump out of airplanes or scuba-dive with sharks, just to get your blood pumping? Perhaps you're the more passive type: do you watch scary movies to get a buzz?
Well, I just came across an alternative. Right here. No white water rafting or crocodile wrestling required: just spend a few minutes to watch this video. I guarantee you'll be frightened.
Sorry - been off the air for some time thanks to a particularly nasty throat virus for which my doctor says we must thank Eastern Europe.
 
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