Firefox's translation feature needs to be suppressed on pages that already have an official target language version

Recent versions of Firefox have a "translate this page" function that pops up if it detects that the webpage is in a language other than the preferred language indicated in your settings.

They need to figure out a way to stop this from automatically popping up when an official version of the page exists in your preferred language.

 

For example, if I, with my default English settings, end up on the French version of the federal government's COVID wastewater monitoring dashboard, a conspicuous "Translate this page" bubble pops up front and centre. 

This is a problem, because an official English version of the page exists. You can access it by clicking the English link on the top right. And the automatically translated version is never going to be as good or as authoritative as the official English version.

Screenshot of linked page, with the English link at the top right highlighted

 

People outside of translation/language intersection spaces don't always know that pages with multiple language versions exist, but they are common, especially in institutional (government, education, etc.) spaces that provide official information.

 

Firefox's translation feature needs to avoid distracting these uninformed users from the existence of the official multilingual versions that they may not even know to look for.

So how do you do that from a programming perspective?

Preliminary idea to build on: what if the translation feature could detect the name of the target language in the target language? If the user has English set as their default language, it detects the word "English" on the page. Perhaps it could highlight it? Perhaps the translation feature could say "An official version may exist"?

This wouldn't catch every instance. Some websites use abbreviations (en, fr, de, es, pl) and some websites use flags. However, there may be a finite number of ways that these are coded, or commonalities to the scripts used to switch the language, or indicators in the metadata.

Another possibility would be to have the pop-up appear elsewhere on the page (maybe towards the bottom left of the visible portion?) so it's less likely to cover the link to the official version. 

In any case, however well-intentioned this automatic translation feature is, it needs to avoid making it difficult to find the official version of the page in the target language.

Books read in October 2023

 1. Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea's Elite by Suki Kim

How to respond to recipe requests when you don't use recipes

Dear Miss Manners: Cooking is one of my passions, and I love to share my food with others. And while I love positive feedback, I am sometimes taken aback by the automatic request for a recipe as soon as someone compliments something I’ve made. Unfortunately, I do not use recipes. I am an intuitive cook, who many times throws things together. I have explained several times to these people that I do not use recipes, but continue to get asked.

I am not a curmudgeon, and not trying to keep my creations’ ingredients secret; I just don’t have the time, energy or memory to remember everything that went into a dish. What would be a good response to the constant, “This is delicious. Recipe, please!”?

You could easily shut down these requests for recipes by describing the preparation method in a way that works for yourself, in your capacity as an intuitive cook, despite the fact that you know this won't be informative for people who need a recipe to make this kind of food.

 

For example: "Grab some flour and an egg or two, mix it up until it looks good, shape it into the right shape, and bake it until it's done. Then you can add your fillings or your toppings or whatever you want and customize to your heart's content!"

Is this useful to someone who would ask for a recipe? Of course not! And also, it's all the information you have about the process you followed to make the food. 

A couple of rounds of this kind of answer will be far more dissuasive than actually telling them you don't have a recipe.

(Source: I come from a long line of intuitive cooks and have no cooking intuition myself.)

How to get a wax cork out of a winged corkscrew

A while back, I had a bottle of wine (I forget the brand) with a wax cork.

The internet told me to open it with a corkscrew just like I would a regular cork, which worked nicely.

Problem: the wax cork got kind of smushed and misshappen and stuck in my winged corkscrew, and the internet had no useful advice on how to remove it.

So, for future googlers, here's the solution: hot water.

I boiled some water in the kettle, put the corkscrew with the stuck cork in a glass measuring cup that I knew could handle boiling water, and poured the water over it. This softened the wax cork enough that I could easily manipulate the shape and get it off the corkscrew. 

 

You might be able to do this with your hands or you might need whatever tools you have around to grab/pull/cut/manipulate, but in either case make sure you wear oven mitts or something similarly heat proof on your hands, since metal corkscrews and metal tools conduct the heat from the boiling water.

Crucial questions to answer in your Zoom meeting invitation

1. How interactive is the meeting?

 

Are attendees just listening? Or are they expected to participate interactively? Or are they permitted to ask questions etc., but can also sit there listening quietly? Should attendees expect to be asked to move/second/vote on things?

 

2. What's the camera etiquette?

 

Is this the kind of meeting where the norm is to have your camera on? Or is this the kind of meeting where they forcibly turn off attendees' cameras and mute their mics? Or do people turn their cameras on to talk but turn them off the rest of the time to save bandwidth? Or do people genuinely not care?

For me, the difference between a meeting where I have to be on camera and interacting (and, therefore, do enough beauty labour to avoid hindering my credibility) and a meeting where I can be off-camera and multi-tasking with vision therapy changes the logistics of literally my entire day. I'm sure I'm not the only one. 

If you calibrate expectations and make sure everyone's on the same page, you'll have a better meeting for everyone.

"And also" is the key to appreciating the little things in life

I blogged previously about the idea of "and also", which helps reconcile the fact that we live in a complex and imperfect world. 

 

I'm also finding lately that "and also" makes the idea of living in the moment/looking on the bright side/appreciating the little things in life more palatable.

 

For most of my life, the conventional wisdom I've received has been "Yeah, the world is on fire. But look on the bright side - we have delicious peaches!"

Which makes no sense whatsoever! The fact that it's peach season cannot possibly mitigate the fact that the world is on fire!

But consider: "The world is on fire. And also, we have delicious peaches."

Clearly, the sensible thing to do is eat and savour the peaches!

It doesn't claim to fix, mitigate, or outweigh the problem. It is simply another thing, separate from the problem, that comes with a logical course of action.

 

Some days, that makes it easier to get through the day.