Enough Already

It's been that kind of week...

In our Oracle Time Tracking system (you know, the place that we book the hours to the various projects we are working on for recording and billing purposes), we have a brand new functionality: "Suggested Time Card."

And it is ....well...somewhat helpful. At least it helps because I don't have to search for all the project billing numbers if it in fact is suggesting them accurately.

But this week I had to laugh at the suggestion. Take a look.



According to my staffing in Oracle for this week, I should have worked 83 hours.
Granted, at the end of the day, sometimes it feels like you have worked a 16 hour day (and in fact this week I did hit 12 hours one day), but thankfully this is not currently my real life.

The ironic part...is that I just heard from a colleague that the system is not calculating "utilization" correctly. So if you are booked 83 hours and you only work 48 (as in my case), it calculates your utilization at only about 55%. ARGH!!!!! (Yes, anyone who is a consultant or an attorney knows why this is a problem...)

iPhone + Google Translate = Awesome

Just came across an article mentioning that an app for Google Translate just came out for the iphone. For free, of course. And to make it even more interesting, the app lets you speak the words you want translated. Already loaded with tons of languages, it was an OBVIOUS immediate download. It's not perfect, but still already pretty damn impressive.

And at least so far, with my limited tests, seems to work like a charm.

Examples here.
First tests:
I wanted to see if it could understand my "Americanized" German accent. Started out with an easy one. I said "Ich habe schon gegessen." And it got it.






















Second test didn't go as well. I wanted to check and see if it would get my umlauts...so said "Was denkst du darüber?" The app heard:






















So I tested it without the last word: "Was denkst du?" And there it had no problem:






















Thought maybe if I try again a really CLEARLY say the umlaut....and indeed, second time it was ok:






















Finally, decided to test out a bit of chinese. But this time english to chinese. So said: "I have eaten." Yup, looks good. And what's awesome is that the app will also read you the results if you also press the little speaker icon.






















And then I got curious - would the app be able to tell if I asked a question? So I said: "Have you eaten?" And results show...no, app can't tell...because there should have been the word "ma" at the end of the results below...Hey, Christian - please download and test it out - tell me what else you discover on the Chinese language translation. :-)

___________________________
Next day...

Oh my - just read another article about the Android equivalent...

"The iPhone app, however, lacks a few features that the Android version boasts: namely SMS translation and the experimental Conversation Mode, which is supposed to allow you to talk with a nearby person in another language."

HEY GOOGLE - PLEASE ADD!
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And later this evening:
I belatedly wondered how it would translate "curse" words...
So told the app "**** you!" in English. :-)
It translated it into "German" too: Funny that it bothers to use "Sie" rather than "Du" when cursing at me...

Cocktails, The Unexpected

Coincidentally came across two cocktail recipes today that made me look twice. I would never make either of them myself, but could imagine trying both of them in a bar. I know a few people who like to mix cocktails, so maybe they would be inspired enough to try one or both of these out for me and tell me how they were. :-)

The first: The "Cold Night In" which I just read about in the New York Times. It's a grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup cocktail made with rum. Sounds crazy, but looks beautiful.

If you don't want to make it yourself, apparently you can go try it out here: Clive’s Classic Lounge, Chateau Victoria Hotel, 740 Burdett Avenue, Victoria, British Columbia

and the second,

The "Moogarita" - a beef stock and tamarind concoction that sounds...unusual. But interesting.

Waiting for reviews.