Jianjun's Blog

iTranslate.cn is launched today as the new dedicated domain for Jianjun’s blog. From now on, all new blog entries will appear under the new domain with current web site as a backup. Please feel free to bookmark the new domain and subscribe to its feed. In 2008, I will try to concentrate on my blogging and bring to you articles covering translation, i18n, culture and many other subjects!

Cheers!

Jianjun

Referred by a friend on Seesmic, the other day I tried out ooVoo (http://ooVoo.com) on my desktop. It’s an application similar to Skype, but features a lot more video functions. Besides one-on-one video chats and calls, you may also hold group video conversations with up to 6 ooVoo participants and 6 phone participants.

Have you ever been craving for a function on Skype to record phone calls? With ooVoo, not only can you do that, but also with the videos of both parties! It’s something like you see on a TV interview, with both the host and the distant party video windows showing up on the screen.

Another step forward beyond Skype is the ability to record video clips, which you can post to your blog, embed on your web site or send to your friends as an E-mail attachment. If you want something fancy, there are also hundreds of effects from Webcammax included to enhance your video. Use distorting mirror effects to surprise your friend, or put on a mask to fake Harry Potter.

The beta release promised free phone calls to any landline or mobile numbers in the US and Canada through March 1st, 2008. I made a few calls and the sound quality is quite satisfactory.

ooVoo web site is currently partially localized into several languages, including Simplified Chinese. The client software is available in these languages too. I evaluated its Chinese translation in the software, while the general translation is good – much better than Skype’s, there’s still room to improve.

For example: “Click Record to Start” is translated into 单击“录制”以开始录制, the character 以 is redundant and the repetition of 录制 sounds stiff. It could be rendered as 单击“录制”键开始 (Click Record button to Start) – I added “button” because there’s only a Red button on that screen instead of text “Record”. This small change could make Chinese users “feel” easier when using the software – or if you really want to emphasize Start Recording: 单击“录制”键开始录像 (Click Record button to start recording), this way a repetition can still be avoided.

Of course, you can’t expect ooVoo beta to be perfect. For example, it lacks some useful features Skype has. The public chat function on Skype is something I can’t dispense with. In my daily job, localization team members use it to facilitate communication on issues during i18n. A temporary group chat is not as convenient when such work lasts for a long time or on a regular basis. ooVoo could also interfere with other video recording software. When it is running in the background, you could lose your voice in another video recording process.

Feel free to add me on ooVoo: zjjtrans

In recent years, more and more imported holidays are celebrated unofficially by young people in China – Christmas, St. Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day – to name just a few. Of course, without understanding the real meaning behind these special days, most young guys simply indulged themselves in merrymaking.

Christmas has become a day for boys and girls to spruce up and hang out and drink and eat together. St. Valentine’s Day, however, due to its ambiguous translation as 情人节 (in Chinese, 情人 or lover could denote an extramarital affair) distracts people from its real meaning of expressing care and love among family members and close friends. Today on Seesmic I asked a question regarding St. Valentine’s Day and a few friends replied to the thread. Let’s see what they say about this day:

What are the two cents of yours?