How to advertise machine translation (not)

I saw an ad for a machine translation system and thought it would be interesting to try it out. Machine translation is supposed to be getting better and better as it makes ever more sophisticated use of statistical algorithms, making it more effective than free methods like Babelfish. So I tried translating a paragraph at the program's website. The instructions read:

1)Enter your Source Text (up to approx. 500 words)
2)Select the Source & Target languages from the drop down [sic]
3)Select the dictionary & formality for the translation
4)Press Translate'
5)After 5 translations you will be asked to register, this is free and provides you with a 14 day trial of XXXXX award winning software.

Here is the result, and here is the result of running the text through Babelfish. Can you tell which is which?

The space between stars is not empty; in him there is tenuous matter, formed by a mixture of gas and solid particles, mainly hydrogen and helium, and dust particles, which can be cold, it warms up, or very hot. This matter forms giant clouds, that can be cloudy dark cloudy brilliants or. First they can be of emission (they are fed on the near star energy and they return it to emit) or of reflection (they only reflect the light of stars that is near them); the dark nebulas form of colder and dense gas, and block the light of the stars that are behind them; this way its presence is detected. From the very cold gas mixture and little dust is the molecular gas. Of this one new stars can be formed: the cloud begins to be contracted, helped by the mutual attraction of the particles that form it; the density of the part of the cloud that undergoes this call gravitational collapse increases until it consists of a very dense nucleus that will form a star.

The space between stars is not empty; in him there is tenuous matter, formed by a mixture of gas and solid particles, mainly hydrogen and helium, and dust particles, which can be cold, it warms up, or very hot. This matter forms giant clouds, that can be cloudy dark cloudy brilliants or. First they can be of emission (they are fed on the near star energy and they return it to emit) or of reflection (they only reflect the light of stars that is near them); the dark nebulas form of colder and dense gas, and block the light of the stars that are behind them; this way its presence is detected. From the very cold gas mixture and little dust is the molecular gas. Of this one new stars can be formed: the cloud begins to be contracted, helped by the mutual attraction of the particles that form it; the density of the part of the cloud that undergoes this call gravitational collapse increases until it consists of a very dense nucleus that will form a star.

Right. Then I noticed the not-so-small print at the bottom of the XXXXX website: “Note that this is ‘Raw’ Machine Translation and does not represent XXXXX ‘Next Generation’ Machine Translation Quality.” I guess you have to at least register for the trial period if you want to actually see what the program can do.

Word lookup / ¿Cómo se dice...?

Visitors to this blog over the last couple of weeks have been looking for the meaning or translation of the following: basto, morado, rude, cliente consentido, workmanlike finish, brown, life, cínico, pull an allnighter, brown hair colors, December, November, October, mundo, de nada, corn, purple and de viaje.

Here are the meanings:

• basto (unless they actually meant "vasto")
  
• morado; see also this post
  
• rude in Spanish, or how to be rude in Spanish
  
• cliente consentido = preferred customer
  
• workmanlike finish = acabado artesanal, acabado de calidad
  
• brown; see also this post
  
• life
  
• cínico; see this post
  
• desvelar; see this post
  
• brown hair colours; see this post
  
• December, November, October; see this page
  
• mundo
  
• de nada; literally "it's nothing" but means "you´re welcome". See this page for "hello", "thank you" and "you're welcome" in several different languages.
  
• corn
  
• purple; see also this post
  
• de viaje = on a trip; traveling
  

Tip of the Day: Detouring Around Writer's Block

I knew this tip already, and you probably did too, but yesterday I wasted too much time websurfing and waiting for inspiration while not wanting to remember it. If stuck at a sentence near the beginning, just mark it as pending and move on. The next sentence is too hard, too? Repeat and move on. Eventually a sentence is reached that is so trivial and basic that it's doable. That seems to loosen the block. What's more, when I go back to the pending sentence(s) after finishing the text, they are much easier to wrestle with after I have been immersed in the text and the subject.

Writers know this, too. One writers' version of the tip is "Start with the second paragraph [or the second chapter]."