Montenegro: A New Country Brings New Localization Challenges
Last year, Montenegro split up with Serbia, becoming an independent country, as well as the 192nd member of the United Nations. This has created a bit of a headache for …
Software Localization
Microsoft Vista Upgrades to Unicode 5.0
Microsoft has played a major role helping to establish Unicode as a global standard. Microsoft first migrated to Unicode for its Windows 2000 operating system. In doing so, it cleared …
Quechua Has Friends in High Places
Quechua is the language of the Incan Empire and is spoken by roughly 10 million people throughout South America, the majority of whom live in Peru and Bolivia. Recent developments …
Google Desktop in 28 Languages
Google Desktop began as a simple application that would let you search your computer’s hard drive as quickly as it searches the Internet. And, best of all, it was free. …
Tips for Creating Bilingual Software and Web Sites
I got an email last week from Chris Wood, one of the authors of “Bilingual Software Standards and Guidelines in Wales.” I realize that this may not sound like the …
An Inside Look at the Globalization of Windows
Robert Scoble has taped an interesting interview with Michael Kaplan, who’s the technical lead in charge of the globalization of the upcoming Windows Vista OS. If you’ve got a half …
Lionbridge Completes 120-Million Word Translation Project
Lionbridge announced recently the completion of software localization for the new Microsoft Visual Studio 2005. This project entailed the localization of the user interface and documention, which included an estimated …
DITA Becomes a Standard (Now What Is It Exactly?)
The standards organization OASIS recently approved Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) version 1.0 as an OASIS Standard — a “status that signifies the highest level of ratification.” So what exactly …
Go Global With Microsoft
If you’re a tech who develops Microsoft apps for the world, you probably already know about Microsoft’s TechEd event in June. But if not, they have a Global Development & …
StarOffice Learns a Few More Languages
Sun says that it localize its StarOffice software suite into five additional languages over the next year, which will include Russian, Polish and Dutch. The software is currently available in …
Gmail In Emerging Markets
Richard Koman for SiliconValley Watcher writes about the potential of Gmail in developing markets. The greatest reason why I think Gmail has a good shot at popular usage is Google’s …
Software in Emerging Markets
Localization industry organization LISA has posted an interesting Q&A with Ori Redler, co-founder of software vendor RedleX, which has developed a word processing application for the Mac that supports such …
Microsoft Lite is Late
The Wall Street Journal documents Microsoft’s efforts to profit from developing markets while battling piracy. As I’ve mentioned before, Microsoft’s response over the past decade to a piracy-prone market has …
While Microsoft Fiddles (cont.)
Red Hat Linux is now avaailable in Bangla (also known as Bengali). Bangla is the official language of Bangladesh, a country with more than 140 million people. Why Bangla you …
OpenOffice Swahili Launches While Microsoft Fiddles
While Microsoft focuses on its “strategic markets” the rest of the world is making do with open source software. And they’re doing quite well, thank you very much. There is …