Syntax Wizard Finnish translation software

Machine translations have developed at a fantastic pace during the last decade. It has taken me over 28 years to make software for translating the Finnish language, and now, the translations far exceed the expectations I had when I began back in 1990.

Special thanks to yle.fi/uutiset. Thanks to their comprehensive, diverse articles, I have been able to tweak the software on a daily basis.

When I lived in Finland it saddened me to see so many Finnish persons, struggling with the English language. It is for these people I have made the software. The translations can be trusted to be both accurate and 100% confidential. The software translates without the internet, so confidential texts stay confidential.

I suppose I could continue tweaking for another two or three years, but at the ripe old age of 71-years-old, I feel the need to stop, to turn the computer off and try to apply myself to composing some music, a dream I had to put on hold in an effort to finish the software.

If all goes well, I will retire in about 18 months and move back to Finland. All this Brexit has been, and is, driving me crazy.

Have a nice day

David

Blast from the past

Today my old friend Taisto announced that a computer quiz game, which I made for the PC in about 1984, has been put in the Finnish game museum and National Gallery. It brought back a lot of memories. The NERO 2000 quiz game was the first of it's kind in Finland. Taisto took care of the marketing and I think we sold over 7000 in about 3 months. It was an exciting time which led me to making programs for teaching English, dictionaries and ultimately the Syntax Wizard for translating Finnish to English (at that time I was told I was crazy in that a computer could never translate Finnish).

We were pioneers, friends and had a great time. Thanks Taisto and also Juha and his team.

Now with ten grand-children and the possibility of becoming a great-grandfather looming, I am looking forward to returning to Finland.

Computers in Finnish schools

About 30 years ago I was making software to help Finnish people learn English.

Finland being what it is, I decided to demonstrate the software to a team from the education board. Naturally hoping to get some kind of recommendation.

After the demonstration the four-person group said they could not recommend the software for two reasons:

In their opinion:

1. It is not possible to learn using a computer.
2. There will never be computers in schools.

Disillusioned, I decided to sell the software copyright rather than waste my time trying to market it.

Strange. A few months after selling the copyright the software was winning awards. Perhaps  being owned by and marketed by a Finnish name helped.

Nowadays, Finnish decision-makers are younger and have more foresight. But, I suspect the horses have already bolted.

Hi all

The latest version of the syntax wizard translation software is now ready to download from the server. 

I have been working on it every day and this new version is more developed than the last one which I published last March.

Some of you will probably notice that I have added more pages which can help you to learn some professional vocabularies. Learning the words is not only fast but also fun, and free.

Getting tired now so.....

Have a nice day

David 

Finland is calling

Hi all

Still developing the software and now I can see that it will never be finished.

With luck, we will be moving back to Finland next Autumn. I don't miss the cold winters but I do miss my warm friends and relatives.

Almost 70 years old - where have the years gone. Well no complaints from me. I have been lucky to have had a good life, certainly not rich, at least not financially. 

When I get back to Finland I will need about 10 hours of teaching work per week. So if anyone knows of a company or college which needs an English or VB teacher - please let me know.

Have a really good day

David

Syntax Wizard 25th anniversary

I started the Syntax Wizard program in August 1990, so this month it will be 25 years old. This also means I have been working on it, developing it, for 25 years and about 7 days a week.


It would be so nice to say that it is finished, but, the truth is it will never be finished. It can of course be further developed, but the translation quality is already far better than I could have expected, so I have to read and check very many pages of Finnish text just to find something worth changing. At the age of 68-years-old, it would be nice to step back for a while and perhaps that is what is on my mind.


It has been an interesting project and provided me with so many interesting challenges.


Life here in England is OK, but I often feel myself yearning to return to Finland. Is the grass on the other side of the hill becoming greener. Perhaps it is.


I feel humbled that my friends in Finland and Russia have kept in touch with me. These are true friends.