I just received this email, and wanted to post it as a warning to other interpreters, especially those who have recently entered the field:

Hello,
I am Donard Cius. I am an English speaking Spanish. I will be coming over to US on holidays from 20th of September to the 9th of October.2009 for a 21 days vacation with my Spanish wife, daughter and son and they only speak Spanish. We will require the services of a Spanish interpreter for 5 hours daily X 21 days. Please acknowledge if you can offer this service and give me a price quote. We will like to pay in advance of our visit so we can be assured of an escort during our shopping and sightseeing. An early reply will be appreciated.
Thanks.
Mr. Donard Cius

This is an old scam. The writer is laying the bait by saying he’d like to pay in advance. The unwary interpreter provides a quote and “Donard” sends a check for more than that amount. The interpreter writes back and mentions the overpayment, whereupon “Donard” says something about a stupid accountant and asks for the excess money to be wired back to him, inviting the interpreter to keep some of it in payment for the trouble. The interpreter deposits what appears to be a cashier’s check at the bank and wires the extra money to the client. Then the bank calls to say that the check is a fake. By that time, the interpreter’s money has gone and there is no way to reach the swindler.

Tony 
 

One of the things we learned at yesterday’s festive and highly informative AATIA member meeting was that a nasty new computer worm is set to take over the world - or the cyber part of it, anyway - on April 1st. Well, maybe. Some have speculated that Conficker worm will prove to be the world’s biggest April Fool’s joke. Microsoft, however, is taking the threat very seriously: it’s offering a $250,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for putting this bit of malware into circulation.

So, it’s probably best to take precautions. Get instructions from Microsoft on how to protect yourself. And follow AATIA Database Coordinator László Eösze’s advice: update, update, update, update!

Freelance Switch, a website devoted to freelancers of all stripes, offers ten tax deductions that you shouldn’t overlook.

Tax time can be especially stressful for freelancers: despite paying estimated tax payments throughout the year, it’s rare that a freelancer doesn’t still have to come up with some money for April 15—or come up with a long enough list of deductions.

There are quite a few deductions available to freelancers that may not seem obvious when you first sit down with all those 1099s and receipts. But as long as you have the right documentation, you can write off plenty of deductions you may never have thought of.

Guess what – there are many more translation-related blogs out there besides the AATIA blog! Here is a small sample:

NOTAS TERMINOLOGICAS. Terminology Notes (and more) from the Spanish Translation Service of the United Nations, New York.

Thoughts On Translation. By Corinne McKay: American Translators Association-certified French to English translator.

Transblawg - A weblog by Margaret Marks on German-English legal translation.

Brave New Words. A blog about translation, language, literature, and other related topics.

Translating is an Art. A weblog about translation and language.

From Our Lips to Your Ears.  How Interpreters are Changing the World.

About Translation. Information, news and opinions about professional translation.

An occasional series about utilities that make your work easier.

Program: Convert

Price: Free

Available from:  http://joshmadison.com/article/convert-for-windows

Operating System: Windows 95, Windows NT 4, Windows 98, Windows 98SE,  Windows ME,  Windows 2000, Windows XP,  Windows 2003, Windows Vista (32-bit & 64-bit), Linux/UNIX/anything that runs Wine

Description: Convert is a one-trick pony, but it does its trick well: converting units of measurements. I often deal with source documents using gallons, pounds, inches and degrees Fahrenheit that need to be converted into liters, kilograms, centimeters and degrees Celsius. Simply select the appropriate tab (such as Volume, Distance or Temperature), click on the two units and enter the appropriate number for the source unit.

Hurricanes, fires, floods, burglaries, computer viruses, overheating motherboards, malfunctioning hard drives all threaten one of the most valuable assets you own as a translator. I do not mean your computer, but rather the data saved on your computer - glossaries, translation memories, previous translations, customer lists, etc. The question is not whether data loss will strike, but when.

Here are a few tips to help you set up a data backup routine:

1. Automate your back-up. This means that you should let a program run backups at regular intervals (I would recommend daily) rather than having to remember to do that yourself. Also, these programs can perform incremental backups that only save files changed since the last backup. Many external hard drives (see below) come with a backup program, but you can also use paid programs or  freeware such as SyncBack.
2. Buy an external hard drive. These devices are getting so cheap, with terabyte drives selling for less than $150. They are generally easy to set up and often include backup software. There are even models for laptops that only require a USB connection and do not need to be plugged into a wall socket.
3. Believe in redundancy. This means that you should no trust a single backup solution. What if your external hard drive fails at the same time as your computer? What if there is a bug in the backup software? Using a mix of methods will make your data safer.
4. Don’t keep all your data at home. You should consider storing data away from your office, e.g. keeping DVDs you burned at a friend’s house or in a safe deposit box (and remember to replace these regularly - a 6 month old backup won’t be that useful).
5. Go online. There are numerous online backup services such as Mozy, Carbonite, Adrive and others that store your data for a monthly or annual fee. Many even give you a more limited version of the storage program for free.
6. Use your e-mail. If you have a web-based e-mail service such as YahooMail or Hotmail, simply enabling the option "Save your sent messages" will create an archive of the work you sent to translation agencies and direct clients. Recovery would be more cumbersome than with an online backup, but it’s free.
   

Registration is now open for the Tools for Translators workshop, to be held on Saturday, September 6th.  This all-day, two-part workshop, presented by translator Jost Zetzsche, will offer expert advice on which software tools you’ll need to save time and boost your productivity, the best way to use these tools, and which popular tools you can do without.

The morning session will provide general information on how to get the most out of your computer, while the afternoon session will focus on specific translation environment tools (TEnTs), such as Trados and Déjà Vu. Participants may attend just one session or both. ATA-certified participants will earn three continuing education points per session.

In addition to working as a translator and a localization consultant, Jost Zetzsche publishes The Tool Kit, a biweekly computer newsletter for translators, and is the author of The Translator’s Tool Box: A Computer Primer for Translators. He has given similar workshops to translator groups all around the country, always to rave reviews. Most recently, Jost was one of the presenters at the ATA Translation Tools Seminar in Boston. For those who missed that event, this is your chance to get the same information right here in Texas - at significantly lower cost!

Don’t miss this opportunity! Download a flyer for more information and sign up today!

Questions? Contact AATIA Workshops Coordinator Laura Vlasman.

The website Safemanuals.com offers free downloads of thousands of manuals and users guides for domestic appliances, computer hardware, digital cameras, and more, including brands ranging from Acer to Zyxel. This is handy when you cannot find that paper copy of a manual you are sure you put somewhere, but it can also serve as a great resource for translators.

Take, for instance the multilingual manual for an Olivetti ECR 5300 cash register — nice for French, German, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, Danish or Swedish translators working on such a subject.

The files are in PDF format, and besides going through a pretty standard CAPTCHA routine, the download is easy. So far, the site has been translated into Spanish and French, with other languages coming "soon". The homepage claims that the site has over 800,000 documents, with more being uploaded.