It's not just a news broadcast. For instance, after running through news of day, today's program included features on Amtrak, a "faerie festival" in Glen Rock, PA, an interview with international financier George Soros, hotels and motels which have decided that advertising themselves as "American Owned" is a good business idea (I wonder if that's true and if it's something that can be extrapolated down to one of my home businesses?), and Cuban piano player Ramon Sosa. It's eclectic. And you never know when they will introduce you to something that makes sense for your business venture (like that "American owned" thing).

Morning Edition is ATC's "little sister," celebrating 20th anniversary of its debut this year. ME gives you same mix of news and features in morning. Hear them both (as well as other NPR programs) here:

http://www.npr.org

The World: When my British in-laws came to visit they were shocked at how provincial America's news coverage is, focused almost entirely on what is happening in United States.

There's a whole world out there, folks -- and Brits are used to getting news on all of it from incomparable BBC. Well, this radio show brings a little of that comprehensiveness to good ol' US of A.

Co-produced by "Auntie Beeb," radio station WGBH and Public Radio International, "The World" is a fascinating mix of news and in-depth reports on events cultural, political and economic... in *all* Earth's hemispheres. I especially enjoy their daily "Geography Quiz" (and am ashamed at how rarely I manage to come up with correct answer!)

If it all sounds a little dry -- trust me, it's not. Catch it here:

http://www.theworld.org

To Point: This is talk radio at its best. I remember watching host Warren Olney when he was a reporter at some of L.A.'s local TV news stations. But as TV news became more about ratings and less about substance, Olney retired from that medium and moved on to Southern California's largest public radio station, KCRW.

This show got its start as an in-depth look at conditions that led to violence that followed Rodney King verdicts in L.A. A master at handling calls from people with differing viewpoints, Olney has kept this program on air for 10 years, covering just about every issue of importance to residents of Southern California.

Olney has also been hosting this national version since October 2000, in which does same for "hot-button issues" that face U.S. as a whole.

http://www.moretothepoint.com/

As operators of home businesses, many of us tend to close ourselves off as we focus on needs of our families and our finances. While focus is good, it can result in a kind of tunnel vision that can prevent us from seeing that next big thing. Don't let that happen to you! If finding time to get out there, to read, and to learn is a problem, you can fill in gaps simply by turning on radio.

Some translators and agencies might be positive to providing their service for free. There are numerous examples of shareware and freeware software where professional translators have been generous. Mozilla is a good example of such a co-operative effort.

The object of project is to develop multi-lingual software in which end result will consist of our executable files linked to our table(s) of text. The specific text file shipped with product will be in language of user’s choice. An alternative option is to store each translation in a specific language file and when user installs software they specify their language preference. Thus routine that reads text records needs to identify language needed and isolate itself to that language.

And of course you need to test resulting language versions. This is best performed by speakers of specific languages you’ve decided to implement. Testing under language versions of operating system might also be worthwhile.

Character constants are a special case. For example, software might need to determine that a particular key has been pressed from a selection. Assume menu selection includes Open, Save, Find, Copy and Paste. The routine in program might look something like:

switch (myInputString[0]) { case ‘Open’; DoOpen (); break; case ‘Save’; DoSave (); break; case ‘Find’; DoSearch (); break; case ‘Copy’; DoCopy (); break; case ‘Paste’; DoPaste (); break; }

The code above is efficient and concise, but it is difficult to translate. The various constants (Open, Save, Find, Close, and Paste) have to be replaced with data items that have been loaded with equivalent constants from specific language file being used by user.

What are potential pitfalls? A common problem is that space required by text on screens or reports differs between languages. For example phrase ‘enter name and address’ is 22 characters. In German equivalent phrase would be ‘Geben Sie ihr Name und Adresse ein’ which is 34 characters. We’re often faced with problem that translated language requires more screen and report space than equivalent English. So test carefully that truncation doesn’t occur. And consider cosmetic appeal of resulting screen or report.

There are some legal aspects that you need to research. Obviously every country makes its own laws. In Germany, for example, there are quite restrictive laws that disallow anyone to make claims that a product is better than another company’s product. Not to forget that United States also has export laws. Encryption algorithms are an obvious example. So do a little research, and if you are using a translation agency then ask for advice.

Copy protection, upgrades, error reporting are all issues that will broaden if you want to sell software offshore. You also need to take account that date format, paper sizes, currency symbols, sort order and addresses might differ, and lets not forget that majority of world uses metric system for weights and measurement.

The translations don’t have to perfect. In saying this I am not suggesting you lower your standards. But most people appreciate that you have taken trouble to translate text, and will overlook odd mistake. And let’s be realistic, English used in your software will likely have odd typo anyway.

Organising a marketing agreement with a local distributor can also provide a useful resource not only for product’s language development, but in ongoing product promotion and support.

Microsoft provides an extensive resource available on their web site. There are several very helpful news groups that you can subscribe to and a number of books are devoted to topic of software localization.

I hope this has given you something to think about.