Midnight Oil

[Powderworks] how grouse!

Gerald F. McDowell gfmcdowell at sbcglobal.net
Tue Dec 9 23:02:24 MST 2003


On Wed, 10 Dec 2003 01:08:35 +1100, Jeff McLean <jeffm at jeack.com.au>
wrote:

>so i go to google.  nothing - just some spanish pages.  so i decide to 
>go to the babelfish translation site, and translate desconocido from 
>spanish (apologies to all you bored shiteless spanish speaking indivs 
>out there.)  what does it tell me?  it translates as "stranger."  how 
>unreal!  did the oils set this up deliberately, or is it a common thing 
>in the music databases?

Depends on the database.  A lot of the online databases (freedb, for
instance) get their info from music fans.  You type in all the track
names, etc. and the submit it to the database.  I've done this on
several CDs myself.  It lets you enter in whatever genre you want.  I
usually just pick "Easy Listening" for a little bit of irony, but you
can type in other stuff, too.  My guess would be a fan out there
decided to see if anybody would catch it

On a different note, I love typing in goofy sentences in Babelfish,
translating them to a different language, and then back to English.
Here's a few to try:

This toast is incorrectly alphabetized.

John Ashcroft Is Hiding In Your Bedroom

I'm miserable working for Wal-Mart

Scatalogical themes are pretty good for this little game, as well as
the televangelist Rod Parsley.  Man, I love cheap enteratinment.

slainte,
Gerald