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I’ve been using the Babylon Translation software on-off for many years and I think it’s a great tool. However there are some things which bother me a lot:

- My mother language is German and I noticed that quite a lot of articles are wrong in the German-English translation. Also some of the definitions seem to be completely wrong to me. It seems they didn’t really double-check their entries. I took the time to send them an email but it took them many weeks to even acknowledge my email. I estimate that I’ve found about 20-30 articles which are wrong, and about 2-3 wrong meanings in the German-English dictionary. If you need a reliable dictionary I recommend Oxford. Pity they don’t have a similar application, they could make a lot of money.

- Another thing I found is that their “perpetual licences” aren’t really “for ever”.  The support chat on the sales page seems to be single-mindedly concentrating on upgrading you to the new version which requires a new “perpetual licence”.  In the end I was forced to buy the third “perpetual licence” because on Vista the old version didn’t work properly.

- They also have an affiliate program but even though I made a lot of leads, I never made sale. I wonder why is that. You can set up the affiliate program to notify you by email when you’ve made a lead (a user downloaded the program) or a sale. You can’t set it up to only get an email when you’ve made a sale, which is really annoying if you constantly get emails about leads, when in reality you only want a notification email when you’ve made a sale.

Apart from that I think it’s a nifty tool, I wonder why there aren’t any other software companies which offer something similar. At least I don’t know any serious competitors.

The last book I’ve read was Felicity Lawrence’s book “Not on the label”. I’ve haven’t heard of her before but the title was kind of getting my attention so I chose to read it. It gives insight on what effect supermarkets have in today’s society. Now I shop a little bit different. If I can buy something from the local bakery I’ll go for that. Tesco’s bread always (so it seems) has some preservatives and quite a few of strange ingredients. Plus in supermarkets you kind of feel a bit anonymous. It touches on a many interesting subjects. For instance about illegal immigrants doing the hard work in the food industry and how they are being exploited.

The book explains CBP, something I haven’t heard about. It’s short for “Chorleywood Bread Process”. According to Wikipedia it was developed in 1961 by the Flour Milling and Baking Research Association at Chorleywood (a town in Hertfordshire) and the majority of bread is made in that way. The problem with this process is that the fermentation process is reduced to a very short time, which means the bread won’t taste as good and therefore more salt is used according to Felicity Lawrence’s book.

Another modern invention is “Modified Atmosphere Packaging” (MAP), which reduces the oxygen inside the package of vegetables in order to extend the shelf life. Felicity Lawrence says however that products might look fresh but actually lose vitamins as fast as without MAP. So it basically fakes freshness.

Supermarkets also sell a lot of products (everyday products like milk) below profit. In many countries this is forbidden or restricted by law, not so here in the UK. The problem with this is that it makes it difficult for smaller shops to sell these things. Supermarkets can basically drive smaller shops into bankruptcy that way and then raise the price again.

Felicity Lawrence writes for the Guardian and seems to know a lot about the food industry. She also seems to be a nice person, I’ve emailed her and she even answered. She said that she will soon release a new book.

Anyway her conclusion is basically that supermarkets have too much power and they abuse it. It’s a must read book because how you shop will affect everybody (including yourself).

Jeremy Paxman has chosen this book as the most memorable read of 2004:

“If you want to know why the food you buy in the supermarket tastes of cotton wool, or you want to find out how British agriculture has been ruined, read Felicity Lawrence’s Not on the Label. It’s a brave and depressing examination of the calamities caused by a policy laughingly called one of ‘cheap food’.”

Buy from Amazon.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chorleywood_Bread_Process
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modified_Atmosphere_Packaging

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/felicity_lawrence/index.html