During the past two days I’ve been at this year’s conference of TransAlpine Chapter (TAC) of the Society for Technical Communication (STC). It was hosted by HERMES SoftLab here in Ljubljana. Since I work quite a lot on translating KDE and other open source software and sometimes also help with documentation I sure thought it would be interesting to attend the conference. One other reason for me to be there is that, as of late, I’m more and more thinking about how it would be to have a career in technical communication (translating, writing documentation and all things related). At first it looked like I wouldn’t be able to be at the conference because the attendance fee (195€) was quite high for a student. Luckily Linux Users Group of Slovenia (Lugos) stepped in and sponsored me.

The conference itself was well above my expectations. I anticipated to meet more or less older and more reserved people, but it turned out they are relaxed, fun, overall cool and in average younger than expected. The talks were also very interesting and they covered a broad range of subjects. Just goes to show how wide the spectre of technical communicators’ knowledge can be. To me the three most interesting presentations were:

Pictures and profits: how visual information design and simple usability studies can save your company millions by Patrick Hofmann

Very interesting how creative you often must be to convey some mesage or concept in a graphical way. A lot also depends on culture an end user comes from. In the end all makes users of documentation happier, because it is easier to understand. This, together with reduction of messages to translate, can save companies a lot of money.

Brave new world: How one writing team moved to DITA-based authoring by Helen O’Shea

DITA is not only a new XML format for technical documentation. It also brings a new way of thinking in topics as basic and complete chunks of information. Topics can later be assembled into different deliverables like books and online help. During this presentation I was constantly thinking how DITA could be used for documentation in KDE. Is there need (and will) for another conversion?

Improving the quality and usability of error messages by Katarzyna Kostorz

Yet another presentation where I was thinking about how all that was said could apply to KDE. First we were shown some examples of bad and good error messages and what are the properties that make them bad or good. Next we could see how error messages are handled by IBM. Not only is the short version shown in GUI, the longer explanation and possible further actions to be taken (by different type of users) are all part of the documentation.

At the end of the conference I was asked if all that I’ve learnt has scared me away from thinking about being a technical writer. I answered that I don’t get scared so easily. Quite the opposite, I can now say that I’m interested in a technical communication career even more. STC membership application is already filled out and ready to be sent across the Atlantic Ocean.

Congrats to the organisers for such a great conference. Hopefully I will be able to meet all the people once again next year.

Tags: transalpine chapter, tac, society for technical communication, stc, technical communication, technical writing, documentation, translation, dita, kde

For the last couple of weeks I’ve been very busy. Like many other people all around the world I’ve also been working hard to make the first release of KDE 4 series as good as possible. About three hours ago KDE 4.0.0 has finally been tagged and is now getting ready to be officially released on January 11th.

In addition to occasional bug fix here and there I’ve mostly been testing and reporting bugs. But by far the largest part of my contribution to this release is translation into Slovenian language. Our team managed to get 63% of KDE 4.0.0 translated into Slovenian. Not bad at all for our small country and small team. We currently hold 23rd place on the list of top translation teams.

I’ve been using pre-4.0.0 KDE as my main desktop ever since our KDE Education metting in Pariz in the beginning of December. During this past month it was improving very fast and was usable just fine. Sure there were a few features and settings missing (and still are in the final version), but nothing that big. There are also some rough edges and a few bugs left, either known or still hidding, but that can be expected for a release with so many changes all around. There is already a lot to like about this new series of KDE 4 and what I like the most in KDE 4.0 is the new gorgeous artwork (icons, widget style, sounds), the idea behind Plasma desktop shell and the cool new applications (like Okular, Gwenview, new games, new educational applications). And with such a solid foundation in place we can expect a lot more cool stuff in the future.

While you are waiting for your favourite distribution to provide packages of KDE 4.0.0 and before you go writing a review about it, be sure to read these two blog posts: talking bluntly, KDE 4.0 Review Reminders and this podcast: The Linux Linux Tech Show - Episode 226. And remember, KDE 4.0.0 is not for everyone. It is for those who like cool new technology and who like living on the bleeding edge. It is also for you if you are an active user of software and not just a passive user. Now is a great time to help change the history and help make the dream become true. In any case KDE 3.5 is still here and it is still an excellent desktop environment and no one will force you to start using KDE 4.0. It’s all your choice.

Tags: kde, kde4, desktop, translation, slovenia, free software, open source, linux

Last weekend (on Saturday, 17th of May 2007 to be exact) I’ve officially become a member of Linux User Group of Slovenia (LUGOS for short). I must say it was about time as I do quite a lot of work for Linux, like translating software, testing, bug reporting, spreading the word about it and helping new users. So joining my local Linux user group was only natural. This happened while I was attending the 11^th meeting of LUGOS. It was my first LUGOS meeting and I must say it was quite fun. We talked about accomplishments in the past year and made some plans for this one. During the meeting we had some nice snack and after it we also had a cake. The first event that LUGOS is preparing for 2007 will be dedicated to all people who are interested in translating and localising free and open source software into Slovenian language. People who will come will be able to see how our work looks like, see some presentations and take part in workshops. Currently the planned date is 21^st of April. I hope to see many people, I’m sure it will be fun. Oh and by the way, this year LUGOS is celebrating its 10^th anniversary, so: Happy anniversary LUGOS!

Tags: linux, lug, lugos, slovenia, translation, events

Ko je bratranec Matej postavljal svoj blog, ga je seveda želel imeti v slovenskem jeziku. S samim WordPressom ni bilo težav. Vsa zahvala za prevod WordPressa v slovenščino gre Simonu Rozmanu. Sicer prevoda za različico 2.1 še ni na voljo, a prevod za različico 2.0.7 posloveni tudi veliko večino različice 2.1.

Druga komponenta, ki jo je bilo treba posloveniti, je bila tema. Matej si je za svoj spletni dnevnik izbral temo Connections Reloaded 1.5, za katero pa še ni obstajal slovenski prevod. Nič, pljunil sem v roke in temo pač prevedel v slovenščino. Za osnovo sem vzel paket s francoskim prevodom in ga naučil govoriti slovensko. Rezultat vam je na voljo za prenos:
Tema Connections Reloaded 1.5 za WordPress v slovenščini

Za uporabo temo odpakirajte v mapo wp-content/themes in jo nato izberite v nastavitvah za WordPress > Predstavitev > Teme. Da delujejo povezave na vrhu strani je potrebno še ustvariti nove strani z vsebino: O avtorju (o-avtorju), Arhivi (arhivi), Povezave (povezave) in Stik (stik). V oklepajih so nizi, ki jih morate pri ustvarjanju strani uporabiti za nastavitev Žeton objave (Page Slug).

Upam, da bo še komu prišla prav. Če opazite kako napako ali manjkajoč prevod, mi kar sporočite spodaj v komentarjih.

Značke: blog, bloganje, internet, wordpress, slovenščina, prevod, prevajanje

Ever since 1^st January 2007 our new national currency here in Slovenia is the all mighty Euro (€), which is the official currency for most of the countries in the European Union. For the last two weeks we could still pay with our old and trusty currency – the Slovenian tolar (SIT). But from this day forward the transitional days are over and the Euro is the only currency left. Each country has their own design of one side of the coins. Here are the images and descriptions of Slovenian Euro coins.

I myself and most of the people didn’t have any problems with the change. I guess we are all used to changing our national currency. It has happened a couple of times in our recent history. Hopefully, Euro is here to stay for a long time. Plenty of time to loose my first Euro coin and find one

Oh and by the way, the translations and source code for KDE desktop and KOffice are already updated. You can expect the new Euro ready versions to be released in just a few days.

Tags: slovenia, euro, tolar, money, europe, kde, koffice

Firefox is an amazing web browser on its own. But there are also a lot of cool extensions that make it even better. Daniel Glazman (you should know him as the author of the excellent and free website authoring application Nvu) is just about to release another awesome Firefox extension. It will bring VoIP internet telephony service OpenWengo right into your favourite web browser. For a visual preview check out this screenshot. To actually start using it you will have to wait for a little bit more. So be sure to regularly check Glazblog (or this article/my blog). Oh and I’m glad to report that I have already translated it into Slovenian language.

What is OpenWengo?
OpenWengo is an open source project, initiated by the French company Wengo, itself backed by neuf telecom. Their goal is to provide a standards-based VoIP platform - they are committed to providing unlimited free telephony and enhanced features to their users, while promoting innovative usage-driven services.

Tags: mozilla, firefox, voip, internet telephony, openwengo