the sun's not yellow it is chicken

Month: February 2006 (Page 1 of 3)

I Say Tomaat, You Say Tomate

bilingual news

Pictured above is a screenshot of a site’s back-end I’m currently working on. Can you see what’s odd about it? Since you probably don’t know Flemish, I’ll tell you: each news item added to the site must be entered in two languages — Flemish and French.

Now, there’s many quirks and funny little bizarre idiosyncracies that come with living in a bilingual country such as Belgium. Cities have two names: one Flemish, one French. Depending on whether I take a left or a right turn to go shopping, I’ll be speaking Flemish or French. And so on.

But think about the consequences for people who have to build websites in this country. For every title, every product description, every error message, every button, every navigational item, there must be two versions. I suppose for the bigger shops (those that have copywriters, translators, programmers and graphic designers all working on their own little patch) that wouldn’t be a problem. If, like me, you work in a small shop, you become all these things rolled into one.

One second I’ll be typing away $error['noSuchProduct'] = array("nl" => "Dit produkt bevindt zich niet in onze catalogus", "fr" => "Ce produit ne se trouve pas dans notre catalogue") in my language.php file of epic proportions, the next I’ll be in Photoshop crafting two versions of my “check out” (kassa! caisse!) shopping cart button, whereupon I’ll be fiddling with the script that allows the visitor to select a language, and sets a browser cookie so he doesn’t have to select it again next time he visits. At times, it feels as if I’m juggling about 25 colorful balls up in the air, all of which need to be intercepted before they hit the ground.

Ugh.

Then again: I could have been living in Switzerland…

Doctor L.

It was at that exact time, having witnessed the ritual fertility dance as performed by the women of the local Ubuntu tribe, that Doctor Livingstone was heard saying:

Girl Interrupted

Just a little play in Photoshop! Take your pick…

Update! Girl Interrupted, black ‘n white:

girl interrrupted black/white

Girl Interrupted, Duotone:

duotone

Girl Interrupted, RGB-mode:

rgb

Update! Gabriela’s favorite:

girl interrupted 3

I sort of lean toward the duotone version myself.

Burt T.

Having survived Studio 54 and the Disco-Fever Seventies, Burt Tacoma recently had a look at his wardrobe and, in the privacy of his Quadrophonically Equiped Music Room With Mirrorballs And Wall-to-Wall Mirrors, exclaimed:

groovy

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