#mattbramowicz

Ackuna (http://www.ackuna.com) the free community-based website that provides a free, more accurate language translation alternative to Google Translate and other machine translators, has recently undergone some design changes.

For those of you unfamiliar with Ackuna, once you register, you can post text you need translated into any language. Other users, if they know that language, can help you out and post their translation. Other users can vote those responses up or down, or leave comments about them.

For people who translate, there is a badge and ranking system, so it encourages them to provide accurate help. You can also choose to follow members, and create your own little communities within the system. The new design now features clearer and easy to follow instructions on how to use the site.  The sidebar also features recent activity by users and a current news feed for the site.

For more information on Ackuna, visit Mashable and The Pulse Network, or simply visit www.ackuna.com!

Business Language – is it all just mumbo jumbo?

Business language. It’s a constant bugbear of office life.

“Let’s have an all-hands meeting to get some valuable face-time and de-layer the table stakes!” your boss may say.

You on the other hand nod and smile, while secretly thinking “What the…?”

The rise of this type of corporate jargon has left many employees not only confused, but disgruntled as they try and work out what on earth these terms actually mean. And even when they manage to decifer this type of office gobbledygook employees are loathe to use them for fear they’re not using the terms correctly.

With that in mind, we thought we’d come up with the five most popular corporate jargon phrases and have a bit of fun at the same time. So read on – by the time you’re finished you’ll be able to identify the right “window of opportunity” to slip them in – or better still not use them at all!

#1 – Blue Sky Thinking

Ahh, “blue sky thinking”, officially the UK’s most unpopular business phrase according to the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB). Essentially it suggests the emptiness of the skies, like when someone embarks on it they are thinking without preconceptions. However, if you’ve got a manager who likes to use this phrase it’s probably first up on your meeting buzzword bingo sheet. Do workers even need to dabble in a bit of blue sky thinking anyway? If you’re a creative person you probably do it without needing to be told to do it. It’s a classic example of a pointless piece of workplace jargon.

Obama Bad Translator

Voice algorithms spot Parkinson’s disease

Parkinson’s is a devastating disease for those living with the condition and currently there is no cure.

Diagnosis can also be slow as there are no blood tests to detect it.

But now mathematician Max Little has come up with a non-invasive, cheap test which he hopes will offer a quick new way to identify the disease.

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Language Technologies are the Missing Piece in the Puzzle in Europe’s Digital Agenda

On 19 June 2012, over 160 key players of the Language Technology (LT) industry met in Brussels for the first LT-Innovate Summit.

The event showcased new technologies in LT, fostered investment opportunities, but most importantly, it successfully conveyed the message that Language Technologies are the missing piece in the puzzle of the EU’s strategy for the Digital Single Market.

Philippe Wacker, Secretary General of LT-Innovate stated: “A multilingual infrastructure is as important for Europe as a broadband infrastructure!

“Making content produced in any language available to 500 million Europeans is the real opportunity in the decade ahead.”

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Start growing your mullet and dust off the flano – ‘‘bogan’’ has been added to the latest edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).

The OED, which bills itself as ‘‘the accepted authority on the English language’’, saw fit to include the slang term on a list of new words included in a quarterly update of the hallowed tome.

The Oxford defines a bogan as a ‘‘depreciative term for unfashionable, uncouth, or unsophisticated person, especially of low social status’’.