Daily Archives: Thursday, September 26, 2013

  • GNOME 3.10 released

    Steve WoodsLinux, Open Source, Tech

    Yesterday the GNOME project announced the release of GNOME 3.10, the latest version this popular desktop for GNU/Linux.

    This latest release in the GNOME 3 series includes many new features, applications and bug fixes, as well as enhancements and updates to many existing applications.

    Introducing the release, Allan Day of the GNOME Design Team said, ‟GNOME 3.10 is a significant upgrade for our users and developers will benefit from new features in the application development platform. Our contributors did an incredible job and have created a really exciting release.“

    Highlights for GNOME 3.10 include:

    • Experimental Wayland support;
    • A reworked system status area, which gives a more focused overview of your system;
    • Three new applications (which are technology previews): Maps, Music and Software;
    • Three new additions to the core set of GNOME applications: Notes, Photos and Weather;
    • ‟Software“, which provides an easy way to browse and install applications;
    • New geo-location features, such as automatic time zones and world clocks;
    • The ability to set a custom image on the lock screen;
    • High-resolution display support.

    GNOME 3.10 screenshot

    For developers, there are new GTK widgets, a geo-location framework that will allow location-aware applications and the ability to define composite widgets using XML.

    As stated above, GNOME 3.10 also introduces initial Wayland support. This represents a major technological step forward for GNOME and will enable the project to fully adopt the next generation display and input technology in the future.

    Full details of the changes in the new 3.10 version of GNOME are set out in the release notes.

  • Guardian latest media outlet to confuse translators and interpreters

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Media, Tech

    The Guardian, immortalised in Private Eye as The Grauniad for its error-prone typographical propensities, now reveals its errors are not restricted to orthography.

    The home page of today’s online edition has a link to an item on machine translation and online translation tools. The perils of machine translation is a topic which has also featured on this blog (posts passim).

    However, the link to the report is illustrated by an image depicting interpreters at work, as the following screenshot shows.

    screenshot from Guardian website

    This means The Guardian is now the latest media outlet in the UK willing to employ illiterates who can’t tell interpreters from translators along with the likes of the BBC (posts passim) and the Bristol Post (posts passim).

    This blog has a handy illustrated guide on the difference between these two sorts of linguists should employees of any of the above organisations need enlightenment.