Thursday, April 15, 2010

An Open Letter to Palm

Dear Palm,

I love webOS. I really do.

I don't go a day without telling someone how great it is.

I bought my Prē on launch day on Sprint.
I have sold at least 6 more since then.

And I'll continue to do so.


Now can you do something for me?

I've sent multiple e-mails and tweets to you, and have received no reply.

I want to translate webOS into Klingon.

Officially.

Oh, I'm capable of putting my own phone into Klingon. But that's not good enough anymore.

You see, there are several third-party apps out there that I would also love to translate.

But first, they need the OS to auto-detect the language.

Which is where you come in.

Just send me the strings.json files, and I'll begin right away.

I won't even charge you. I'm volunteering.


If you didn't already know, webOS has more Klingon apps than any other mobile platform.

And I've already provided translations to devs who don't use the auto-detect feature.

Other devs have been kind enough to make sure that their apps work with the native Klingon writing system.


I have been overwhelmed with the amount of support that I've received from other webOS devs.

Now I need suport from the company that made webOS possible.

Thank you,

Michael Roney, Jr.
Professional Klingon translator and webOS dev

p.s. Both Macs and Firefox recognize Klingon as a language. The iPhone auto-corrects "klingon" to "Klingon".




nom qaS yIn. Hoch yIjon!
Life moves fast. Don't miss a thing.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Let's show @Evernote just how many "a lot" is! #tlh



On April 10th at 1:26pm ET, Evernote sent out the following via Twitter:

Evernote keeps adding new language support and language-related features: http://bit.ly/ajtFDs
Following the link, you come across the following line

If you would like to help translate Evernote into your language, then join our Translation Program »

Of course I want to join the Translation Program.
I'll gladly donate my time and skills to bring Evernote into Klingon.
Especially since they have a webOS app ;-)

I ended up on their Contact Us page.

While I don't have a copy of my initial message, it went something like this:

I would *love* to help translate Evernote into Klingon.
I would especially love to for that translation to end up on the webOS app, but of course I'll translate more than just that.

I received this reply:

Hello Michael,

Unfortunaly we don't have such plan. We translate Evernote into languages where there is a lot of users.

Thank you!

Irina Soshinsky
Evernote Corporation


I'm not sure which hurt more; the rejection or the grammar.

I replied thusly:

I think you mean "where there are a lot of users".

How many is "a lot"? I will start gathering names.


Evernote:

I am very sorry, but for now we don't have such plan - translate Evernote into Klingon language.

Thank you again.


Again with the grammar. And the rejection.

So, this begs the question: How many is "a lot"?
(and did mentioning the webOS app hurt? They haven't released an update in a while. And we need one.)

When Sophos released their Klingon anti-virus last year, they had a lot of downloads.
(I've been unable to track down the exact number.)

I've released a few Klingon-themed webOS apps, and I would say that they have had a lot of downloads. (Klingon solitaire has 1630)

They already have the infrastructure set up for adding additional languages.
It's not like I'm asking them to take on a massive project.

So, let's let Evernote know that there are a lot of Klingons in the world!

Send Evernote a message letting them know that you want Klingon!

tlhIngan maH!

Once again, the Contact Us link.

And for those of you a little more bold, the support address that replied to me.


(And for reference, it's Case 93795)

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Old habits die hard?

The other night, we ate dinner out on our back deck.

It was a nice night, and we were enjoying the stars.

At one point, Ireland decided that instead of closing just the screen door, that she needed to close the glass sliding door as well.

My first thought was "But we won't be able to hear the phone!"


My phone is in my pocket.

We don't have a "house phone".

I don't even remember the last time we had a land line.


*thinks*


2006. We had a landline in 2006. For a few months.

And I never used it.

Time before that would've been early 2004 before I got married and still lived with my parents. Not that I used their phone much as I got my first cell in January of '04.

How far back does this go?

And why in the world is my daughter closing a door triggering a reaction that we're going to start missing calls on a phone we don't have?

Old thought processes die hard.






--Sent from my Palm Pre

Saturday, April 3, 2010

A quick note to my fb friends

I'm not really here.

It just looks like I'm on Facebook.
But the truth is, I'm seldom on facebook.com

In fact, I'm not even writing this note on fb.

I'm composing an e-mail on my phone which will get sent to Blogger and then sucked into fb.

My status updates are sent through my phone to Twitter and then sucked into fb.

While you may see me as Available to chat; that's again because of my phone.

My phone is always on-line. And so I'm almost always shown as Available.

And when I do interact with fb, it's usually through the fb app on my phone.


There are times, that I actually log on.
But it's usually just to follow up on a comment.


So don't be surprised that I'm not joining your army or babysitting your sick seal.

And don't be offended if I didn't respond to your late night chat; I was probably sleeping.


While I love all y'all, I just don't have time to sit in front of my laptop playing on fb.

-Michael Roney, Jr.
Professional Klingon translator
webOS dev
http://twitter.com/roneyii

--Sent from my Palm Pre