Douglas Adams, genius writer of HITCHHIKERS GUIDE TO THE GALAXY in book form, on the radio, and on TV, was faced with the same problem which faces all sci fi writers at some point, who bring aliens into the mix: how do we get them talking with humans? Well, rather than try to go a serious route, he invented the
BABEL FISH - a tiny organism which is placed inside the ear and automatically translated any language into the one that the wearer knew. Well, a few years back
Altavista.Com (still the second best search site on the net, next to Google) decided to bring their own version of the Babel Fish to the Web, with
Babelfish.Altavista.Com This little wonder will translate between any number of languages, and will either let you type in the text yourself (directly or via an onscreen "world keyboard" if you need to use Greek or Cyrillic characters) or submit a whole website and let it translate the whole page for you.
The Babel Fish (often referred to as simply "The Fish" by folks in the know) is invaluable for seaching thru the non-English portions of the web. It opens up corners of the internet that previously were only available to the multilingual, and ensures that no obscure movie rumor is safe from your eyes. It is also useful for communicating with bilingual friends, and/or adding a little extra-english dialogue to stories or scripts. Just keep in mind that The Fish is not completely intelligent and looks at words and not context. It is possible to fool it, so always check the translation with a real person before presenting it in your PhD paper, or similarly important application.
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