|
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited
Eochaid
Member since Jan-7-11
9 posts |
Jan-07-11, 09:46 AM (EST) |
|
"Strange German words from DJ..."
|
Hello! With buying myself a Kindle end of last year I finally convinced myself to take the plain text scripts of NXE and convert them into PDF, so that your text markups for computer text, shouting etc. would look a bit better. Works going fine, I'm almost done with Revelations in Real Time... But in chapter 7, "The Third Child", DJ says something that I do not understand in the context. Someone thanked him very politely using Japanese and he answers with "Ist nicht." That would be something like "is not" in English - as a native German speaker I just do not see the sense in that? It makes neither sense in the context nor as a standalone sentence. Seems to be the first bit in all of NXE that eludes my understanding Can someone try to explain what was meant by that? Sincerely, Eochaid |
|
Alert | IP |
Printer-friendly page | Edit |
Reply |
Reply With Quote | Top |
|
|
|
Eochaid
Member since Jan-7-11
9 posts |
Jan-07-11, 06:36 PM (EST) |
|
3. "RE: Strange German words from DJ..."
In response to message #2
|
LAST EDITED ON Jan-07-11 AT 06:49 PM (EST) Thanks for your explanations>What he was trying to say was, "It's nothing," but his German's not >very good. Do you mean the missing "s" at the end or the phrase itself? (His German, I gather, might be improving a bit in the near future, willing or not ;) >"It's nothing." is what I interpreted the line to mean to translate >as. I just couldn't get it. I was smoothly reading the text but his sentences felt like a mental full braking, followed by some gears rumbling in my brain and ending with an "eh?" >"Think nothing of it," or the french (assuming I remember from high >school) "C'est rien," are other idiomatic takes on the same concept: a >polite response to a thanks. Hmmmz. I see what you mean. I guess the problem here is that such idioms are probably present in most languages but they can't often be translated literally. In this situation, three other variations would spring to my mind before coming near his choice "Kein Problem" - no problem "Ist schon OK" - which would be "it's OK", with the "schon" quite difficult to translate; in addition, either the "ist" or the "schon" could be omitted without loosing meaning; and if you're after a bit more slang, you could even loose the t => "is' OK", which would be even identical to the english translation in both orthography and pronunciacion "Macht nichts." - literally "doesn't do/make nothing", but would be "Never mind" or "doesn't matter". Hmmmz... I think I'm quite tempted to make a slight alteration to the original script in this case to make it easier to understand. I'm planing to giving the converted version to some friends of mine (one of them introduced me to NXE in the first place) and I think they might trip over the phrase the same way as I did... Greetings, Eochaid
|
|
Alert | IP |
Printer-friendly page | Edit |
Reply |
Reply With Quote | Top |
|
|
|
|
Gryphon
Charter Member
10277 posts |
Jan-07-11, 07:31 PM (EST) |
|
4. "RE: Strange German words from DJ..."
In response to message #3
|
>Thanks for your explanations > >>What he was trying to say was, "It's nothing," but his German's not >>very good. > >Do you mean the missing "s" at the end or the phrase itself? The phrase itself - he was basically trying for the German equivalent of the English "don't mention it" or Spanish "de nada," but the idiom eluded him. The missing S was my fault. :) >(His German, I gather, might be improving a bit in the near future, >willing or not ;) Given that he's in for pretty much perpetual chiding about it until such time as it does, I expect you are right. :) >"Kein Problem" - no problem > >"Ist schon OK" - which would be "it's OK", with the "schon" quite >difficult to translate; in addition, either the "ist" or the "schon" >could be omitted without loosing meaning; and if you're after a bit >more slang, you could even loose the t => "is' OK", which would be >even identical to the english translation in both orthography and >pronunciacion > >"Macht nichts." - literally "doesn't do/make nothing", but would be >"Never mind" or "doesn't matter". Of the three, I like the third one best, for no reason I can really articulate. >Hmmmz... I think I'm quite tempted to make a slight alteration to the >original script in this case to make it easier to understand. I'm >planing to giving the converted version to some friends of mine (one >of them introduced me to NXE in the first place) and I think they >might trip over the phrase the same way as I did... Well, that's your prerogative, but keep in mind that he wasn't supposed to get the phrase right. It's there because, as you note, he has reason by then to be thinking more about the German tongue (erm, as it were) than usual, but he hasn't actually learned it very well yet. :) --G. -><- Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/ Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam. |
|
Alert | IP |
Printer-friendly page | Edit |
Reply |
Reply With Quote | Top |
|
|
|
|
Eochaid
Member since Jan-7-11
9 posts |
Jan-08-11, 06:47 AM (EST) |
|
5. "RE: Strange German words from DJ..."
In response to message #4
|
Good Morning! >>(His German, I gather, might be improving a bit in the near future, >>willing or not ;) > >Given that he's in for pretty much perpetual chiding about it until >such time as it does, I expect you are right. :) As long as he doesn't has to plunge into Upper/lower case rules for writing, he will be fine, I guess. I really like English - its shorter, easier to write, quite interesting to think in and if you're constantly watching movies and whole SciFi series in English and reading English books (from easy Butcher's Dresden Files to quite 'slangy' Pratchett's Discworld), then it even starts to be far cooler than German. ;) >>"Kein Problem" - "Ist schon OK" - "Macht nichts." > >Of the three, I like the third one best, for no reason I can really >articulate. I agree - as far as I can remember, there was once a German movie from the 70s with Heinz Erhardt (famous actor and comedian) where he used that in double form quite often as a running gag until most people around him in the movie started to use the phrase themselves - which they didn't like very much :) >>Hmmmz... I think I'm quite tempted to make a slight alteration to the >>original script in this case... > >Well, that's your prerogative, but keep in mind that he wasn't >supposed to get the phrase right. It's there because, as you >note, he has reason by then to be thinking more about the German >tongue (erm, as it were) than usual, but he hasn't actually learned it >very well yet. :) As you said in your post, the missing s should have been there - I'll just add it and leave it as it were. I guess it should be okay with that. Short other question: I've seen that you have the NXE script in some Apple format on your page - would you like my PDF version to add them? I would be glad if the work I put into the conversion could be put to some other use than my own, too (even if the current version does not contain the bonus theatre stuff...) Greetings, Eochaid
|
|
Alert | IP |
Printer-friendly page | Edit |
Reply |
Reply With Quote | Top |
|
|
|
|
Gryphon
Charter Member
10277 posts |
Jan-11-11, 07:45 PM (EST) |
|
7. "RE: Strange German words from DJ..."
In response to message #5
|
>Short other question: I've seen that you have the NXE script in some >Apple format on your page - would you like my PDF version to add them? I'd forgotten all about the Paperback archives. Rat did those, back in the day; I bet there aren't many users out there today who are looking to read NXE on their Newton MessagePads... I used to have a whole little prepared speech about portable device formats and why I didn't like to bother with them, but I'm too tired. Fighting off a sinus infection and I can't sleep with my nose plugged up, so I'm on about Hour 44 right now. And maybe the technology has finally advanced to the point where my beef with the principle no longer applies? Not sure. Tell you what, send me a sample (zgryphon at gmail) and when I can open both my eyes at the same time again I'll have a look and see what I think. I'm a bit fussy about formatting. It's one of my few concessions to anal retention. --G. i love this record, baby, but i can't see straight any more -><- Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/ Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam. |
|
Alert | IP |
Printer-friendly page | Edit |
Reply |
Reply With Quote | Top |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
trigger
Charter Member
1375 posts |
Jan-12-11, 11:18 AM (EST) |
|
10. "RE: Strange German words from DJ..."
In response to message #8
|
>Between the printing errors (not kidding, "This page contains no data" >trying to print, when there was a lot displayed on the screen), and >the color shifts, and the font embed issues if the font is even a >little off.... GAH! I think you're thinking about this too much. I admit, I've been going to epub for a lot of things these days in part because I'm getting old and my eyes are tired of looking at courier for fun, and then courier for work. It's a hazard of my profession since 90% of those people agree with you and therefore use the worse font ever for everything. I'm just as guilty which is why I feel I can gripe about it. So give me a PDF I can resize at will and a font that isn't comic or courier and I think it's a win. t. who knows someday her .txt files dating back to 1993 will need conversion. OMG I really can't believe I actually cut and pasted those back in the day. Trigger Argee trigger_argee@hotmail.com Manon, Maccadon, Orado, etc. Denton, never leave home without it. "I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me." - HST |
|
Alert | IP |
Printer-friendly page | Edit |
Reply |
Reply With Quote | Top |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Gryphon
Charter Member
10277 posts |
Jan-22-11, 12:49 PM (EST) |
|
21. "RE: Strange German words from DJ..."
In response to message #20
|
>Gryphon, could you confirm that you got the file from me by eMail? Yes I did. I can also confirm that I haven't had time to get into it in really great depth, though so far I've determined that it seems to work OK on my PC but not on my Droid, which doesn't seem to know the font that most of it is in. (As this is the most common failure state for PDFs in general, that's not really so surprising. :) More later, when I'm a bit further ahead on my schoolwork. --G. -><- Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/ Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam. |
|
Alert | IP |
Printer-friendly page | Edit |
Reply |
Reply With Quote | Top |
|
|
|
BobSchroeck
Charter Member
1750 posts |
Jan-11-11, 06:51 PM (EST) |
|
6. "RE: Strange German words from DJ..."
In response to message #0
|
LAST EDITED ON Jan-11-11 AT 06:52 PM (EST) >With buying myself a Kindle end of last year I finally convinced >myself to take the plain text scripts of NXE and convert them into >PDF, so that your text markups for computer text, shouting etc. would >look a bit better. Works going fine, I'm almost done with Revelations >in Real Time... Have you considered using Calibre (http://calibre-ebook.com/) to convert directly from HTML into MOBI format for your Kindle? I just got a Kindle of my own over Christmas and I've been using Calibre to transfer just about everything from plain text to stuff from the Pit of Voles (via the DeFFNetizer) into native MOBI format. ETA: Oh, and if Gryphon doesn't offer a place to post your work on the site, would you be so kind as to pass a copy along to me? I was just about to set about doing the same thing, but if you're already doing it... Hm. Maybe I should go to work on SOTS... -- Bob ------------------- My race is pacifist and does not believe in war. We kill only out of personal spite. |
|
Alert | IP |
Printer-friendly page | Edit |
Reply |
Reply With Quote | Top |
|
|
|
Eochaid
Member since Jan-7-11
9 posts |
Jan-16-11, 05:31 AM (EST) |
|
11. "RE: Strange German words from DJ..."
In response to message #6
|
Good Morning. Sorry for my delayed answer. I started working again last week after six weeks of off time - which resorted in my mind feeling a bit squishy in the evening. @Gryphon: I sent you the first book. @JFerio: I never did encounter problems you described. I printed my diploma thesis via PDF, which was the most complicated and colorful document I've made until today, and it worked fine. Everything else I did were mostly letters and some short stories via LaTeX. @all: I not really chosen PDF because I like the format (which I sort of do) but because it is available. I've done NXE with MikTeX - which left me in place of the lector and MikTeX in the job of the actual typesetter. I know that I don't know much about formatting, layouting and other stuff regarded to sort of professional looking books - so I'd rather leave that to a professional. And with TeX I can either get DVI, postscript or PDF - easy choice if you want others to read the file. I have calibre on my PC 'cause I needed something to convert a couple of classical books from LIT to something more useful but it did not occur to me to convert the PDF to MOBI for the Kindle because my PDF look quite well on its screen. I guess with a little fiddling you could even print it out on paper and have it made into a hardcover this way. I'll give it a try at conversion and take a look if the layout remains. That way I could probably provide HTML and MOBI version but I don't have an EPUB reader lying around (Kindle can't read it) - but I'm open for suggestions. Sincerely, Eochaid
|
|
Alert | IP |
Printer-friendly page | Edit |
Reply |
Reply With Quote | Top |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A Vile Gangster
Member since Feb-15-10
195 posts |
Jan-20-11, 01:37 AM (EST) |
|
19. "RE: Strange German words from DJ..."
In response to message #18
|
I'm taking sixteen cred-hours this term, while simultaneously building a new Phenom II-based battle-box and trying to get some modelling done...so I'm not investing a lot of energy in this project. I figure Calibre will convert the source files clean in one to three attempts this weekend, or I'll just continue to read them in their 'native' formats online. It would be super awesome to add high-grade multi-universal fanfiction to my kindle library, though. :) And now I'm off to watch my newly-arrived Buckaroo Banzai SE DVD. Life is really good, sometimes. ---- Now Playing: The Temper Trap -- Sweet Disposition (Conditions, 2009) A moment, a love A dream aloud A kiss, a cry Our rights, our wrongs A moment, a love A dream aloud A moment, a love A dream aloud... < THIS SPACE FOR RENT > |
|
Alert | IP |
Printer-friendly page | Edit |
Reply |
Reply With Quote | Top |
|
|
|
|
Zox
Charter Member
249 posts |
Jan-17-11, 09:20 PM (EST) |
|
16. "RE: Strange German words from DJ..."
In response to message #15
|
I just do this in vim::1,$s/\t/ /g :g/^[^ ]/-1j :1,$s/^ */ / :w new_filename.txt :q
Most of what it's doing is "joining" the lines within paragraphs, to let my e-readers (either a Sony Touch or an Ectaco Jetbook Lite) perform their own word-wrapping. It's not perfect--in particular, it tends to mangle the credit sequences. But it works pretty well for minimal effort. Also--isn't it about time to move this discussion to its own thread? This one's been pretty thoroughly hijacked at this point--and it's not really about NXE any more. :) --- Rob Madson, a.k.a. Zox http://lordzox.com/ It is said a Shaolin chef can wok through walls... |
|
Alert | IP |
Printer-friendly page | Edit |
Reply |
Reply With Quote | Top |
|
|
|
|
Eochaid
Member since Jan-7-11
9 posts |
Jan-19-11, 04:54 PM (EST) |
|
17. "RE: Strange German words from DJ..."
In response to message #16
|
>I just do this in vim: > > 8< 8< 8< > >Most of what it's doing is "joining" the lines within paragraphs, to >let my e-readers (either a Sony Touch or an Ectaco Jetbook Lite) >perform their own word-wrapping. I've done that by hand for the first couple of chapters until I noticed that my editor can actually replace all whitespace characters (tab, linefeed, etc.) with ease if you just copy'n'paste them into the dialog box. Shortened the rest of the work quite remarkably... >It's not perfect--in particular, it tends to mangle the credit >sequences. But it works pretty well for minimal effort. It also wreaks all parts where there is some computer text of sign or something similar with a predefined layout which depends on an exact number of spaces and line feeds (which was more or less my biggest argument against using HTML 'cause that tends to ignore more than a whitespace character at once...) >Also--isn't it about time to move this discussion to its own thread? >This one's been pretty thoroughly hijacked at this point--and it's not >really about NXE any more. :) Dunno. I think I'd like to discuss a bit about the fan-fiction-to-ebook-reader-conversion pro and cons - perhaps based upon the credits and first chapter von NXE as an example (on-topic! ;). NXE was and is the only fanfiction I've ever read, mostly due to the fact that I neither want to print some hundred pages of fiction nor like reading via PC screen. The first couple of times I've read NXE on my Palm m105 device (often during lectures at university) but over a decade of use its screen went to the place where loved electronic and multimedia gadgets go after their death. Hence the Kindle and with it a renewed interest in available fiction in electronical form. Greetings, Eochaid
|
|
Alert | IP |
Printer-friendly page | Edit |
Reply |
Reply With Quote | Top |
|
|
|
version 3.3 © 2001
Eyrie Productions,
Unlimited
Benjamin
D. Hutchins
E P U (Colour)
|