cre8d design

The Internet is great but there’s still a long way to go before some traditional boundaries are broken down even more. I’ve been thinking about what it means to be New Zealander online recently - especially after meeting Lee Lefever on his world trip - and a after some recent-link-ups to posts on this blog. Perhaps there are solutions out there, already, for either of these two main issues I often face online.. if so, please let me know!

• Location - while we’re all brought together online and location isn’t such a set back as it used to be for rapid communication, many web services are still US-centric. Some recent examples which were frustrating me: Google maps, iTunes (yes, while it’s elsewhere, it’s not here…really) and Google Video. I guess main reasons for these not being developed for elsewhere are economics, demand and copyright.
  • A couple of notes on copyright: iTunes is still a legal saga here where the law does not allow for any format shifting - i.e. it’s technically illegal for me to make a back-up copy of my CDs, copy CDs I own onto my computer or MP3 player. In fact, if you see a person listening to their iPod here in NZ, they’re most likely breaking copyright laws.
    Secondly, territory is still guarded fiercely in many areas. DVDs cannot usually be released here until after the TV networks have finished screening the series (unless it’s shows like Alias where they’re a few seasons behind and perhaps they don’t care about the impact of a DVD release). So the Desperate Housewives DVD came out here the day after the final episode screened here - less than a week before Christmas and even though the DVD had been out for months in the US, let alone about six months since the season finished airing in the US. Phew! Oh yeah, no legal TV/movie/video downloads here unfortunately.
• Language - the trend for a while was having multi-lingual sites. This is fine if all your content is pretty much static - you set up multiple language files with the variables sitting in them, then change the library to use based on the user’s preferences (or browser language settings).
  This gets a lot tougher when it comes to blogs. Having had a bit of a break from writing a personal blog, one thing I’ve been amazed at are the number of non-english bloggers/sites linking up to my posts. I’ve even had a few IM conversations with non-native english speakers as a result of my blog recently. Babelfish is helpful, AJAX Translator is nice but they both require you to open a new tab and either enter in the URL or text to be translated. It’s a bit of a hassle and interrupts your flow. Translate Firefox extension is the best thing I’ve found so far - it combines the Google and Babelfish translation engines and provides a “Translate” option under the Tools menu.
  There’s a couple of improvements that I’d love - not having to guess the language I’m translating from (saves a couple of guesses) and automatic translation to my preferred language while I surf the net. Is that too hard to ask?
  The current situation is a bit better with IM - thanks to this YahooTranslatingProxy. I’m sure more and more IM translation services will make foreign language conversations seamless - hopefully one for MSN Messenger shortly.
• And others… e.g. format - “sorry your browser is not compatible” is not so common as it used to be (thankfully).