One of those useless but fun links to waste your time with.
It translates back and forth a phrase you put in different languages. As you can expect, the final outcome of a phrase after 10 or 25 translations turns awfully wrong, related, or cryptic.
"Allegro is a cross-platform library intended for use in computer games and other types of multimedia programming."
Allegro is a video game platforms and two books.
"Cats are popular pets among programmers."
Between dogs and cattle programmers welcome.
"Matthew Leverton is our supreme dictator"
Matthew Clifton, the dictator, the main objectives.
I think I've found my new signature generator. 
Bad translator -> compile error
"Acting is not just doing! It is who you are being and what you are experiencing that causes you to do - to need to act. Then doing turns arounds and changes your being. But doing without being is lifeless."
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Nice job Matthew...
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I knew Douglas Adams was evil!
The long dark teatime of the soul -> Keep the spirit of Darkness
The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy -> Twin Negative Universe Guide
This is oddly fun when you're bored.
"Stop screwing around, distracting me, and get some work done!"
...54 translations later we get:
"Devil's guide to work!"
"All your base are belong to us"
25 Translations:
"All our bases are"
Oddly enough, after something like 15 translations, the phrase didn't change at all. 
Dustin: The last one is pure awesome. 
I like the white suit. 
It kind of reminds me of Rufus Shin'ra. 
There's a monkey in my soup -> Monkeys Deep Dish
I knew Douglas Adams was evil!
The long dark teatime of the soul -> Keep the spirit of Darkness
Did I miss one, or is that one of the Dirk Ghently books?
It's a Dirk Gently book.
Back in the '50's, an early translator changed "Out of sight, out of mind" to "Invisible idiot". I believe it was one translation of English to Russian.
This web page changed it to "You see, the mood" after 10 translations.
You know I should be doing something useful at this very moment ?! D:<
All @ 25 steps
Caramel fudge is my favourite!
Candy is my favorite dish!
Little red riding hood should keep an eye out for the wolf.
Little Red Riding Hood in the dark for a little walk.
To be or not to be, that is the question.
This is a problem.
I think I've found my new signature generator.
The best thing about a boolean is even if you are wrong, you are only off by a bit.
It makes more sense, but it is ok, thanks.
Yes well, legibility and correct punctuation might not be "street"... but that's how I roll motherfucker.
Maybe it's a good outcome, the law is clear on Wall Street ... But this feature.
Speaking of Doug Adams, is hot pink used as a mask in allegro because it makes a good SEP field?
"OOP programmers are like magicians, we don't reveal our methods."
Turns to:
"Net product, look at the issue."
All of the below have gone through the word masher for 10 translations.
In all 10 languages artists to use these words.
I am Mildly Annoying Man!
I hate to disappoint you!
Speaking of Doug Adams, is hot pink used as a mask in allegro because it makes a good SEP field?
Adams, Doug said, as a bright pink face mask, Allegro in September, a good place?
Lobster is not kosher.
Omar is not fair.
It is a bat!
Bar!
Bah humbug!
Fraud Pooh!
Aliens helped humans in the past, but were interpreted as gods. (No, I do not believe the ancient astronaut theory.)
Who help the party in the past, but I see God.
I put in "I should get back to work." and after 10 translations it said "I returned to work." .
I thought I'd give it a try with these:
"Belligerent monkeys with computer skills can create anything given enough time."
...25 translations later we get:
"Computer skills are not enough against the monkey."
"Belligerent monkeys with axes."
...10 translations later we get:
"Giraffe pocket."
"I'll charge 100% interest and if it's not fully paid by next Friday... I break your legs."
...25 translations later we get:
"A total of 100% on Friday ... You're breaking my leg."
[edit]
I'll charge 100% interest and if it's not fully paid by next Friday... I break your legs."
...54 translations later we get:
"On Friday, nearly 100 percent ... Akavunja feet."
What the hell are "Akavunja feet"?
10 translations later we get:
"What the hell does not Akavunja?"
More fun than a spellchecker >.< !
Original text:
"I am hungry and I need something to drink. Perhaps I should go to the grocery store and buy something."
...10 translations later we get:
"I am hungry, no water to drink. Maybe I should go to the store."
At first, I thought "Heh, that actually makes sense" ... But... eh, I do have water.. its not like I live in some African desert heh
Water's for washing, Pepsi(TM)(Nectar of the Godz) is for drinking.
Pepsi sucks translates to pepsi dog dirt after 25 translations. I did see pepsi shit in there somewhere.
I got "Wash and Pepsi (TM) (nectar HP) of drinking water."
What happened, everyone got bored of debating about religions and decided to chill out?
25 Translations later:
The stupid religion decided to freeze negotiations?
EDIT: Maybe we can pass Piccolo's posts and they will come out as perfect english and make sense!
Maybe we can pass Piccolo's posts and they will come out as perfect english and make sense!
I actually used to run his posts through Opera's spell-checker before I'd try to read them. It improved them most of the time, but even the best spell-checker wouldn't have been able to decipher some of them.
Original text:
"Machine translations are useful for getting a general idea about what text written in a foreign language means. However, "general idea" isn't exactly accurate; the translator literally translates (word for word) the text which often results in gramma"
...54 translations later we get:
"Tool and machine translation. Mental text sex 'in (ASCII), generally"
Megabytes are where I keep my Data.
Bytes of time, where I am
(\ /)_____#_____####__# (O.o)¯¯¯#¯¯¯¯¯#¯¯¯#¯¯# (> <)__####__####__####
becomes:
(\ /)_____#_____####__# ()¯¯¯#¯¯¯¯¯#¯¯¯#¯¯# Light (> <)__####__####__## #
I'm the juggernaut, bitch!
I am a dog attack!
Scorpions are predatory arthropod animals of the order Scorpiones within the class Arachnida
Scorpio man, arthropod and hunger
Wild killer whales are not considered a threat to humans, although there have been cases of captive killer whales killing or injuring their handlers at marine theme parks
This is a killer of wild animals in danger of humanity, but the orca in captivity as a marine park, is killed or injured
What would really be interesting to see is performing the exact same thing (translating a sentence back and forth X times) with real, human translators to see whether they fare significantly better than computers at this or not.
What would really be interesting to see is performing the exact same thing (translating a sentence back and forth X times) with real, human translators to see whether they fare significantly better than computers at this or not.
I fully support this study, so long as I don't have to contribute to it in any way beyond expressing my support for it.
Heh, we're a pretty international community. We could play a game like that, but I wouldn't know how to organize it.
I mean, we'd need 2 different people that speak the same language, so one single person doesn't make "fake" translations from English to X Language and back. They'd be biased to turning it to the original phrase. (As long as the original phrase remains a secret to all other participants, to keep the suspense)
I approve Jakub's idea. Would anybody like to participate?
Would anybody like to participate?
I would, but I only speak one language. 
Does the bad translator site use a specific sequence of languages? If so, we'd need to recreate that.
Would anybody like to participate?
Sure.
Apart from Dutch and English, I shouldn't have too much trouble translating a sentence from German or French.
Actually, if the phrase is something very simple, and involves food and/or beverages, I can probably translate it from French.
Ooh, I'd like to participate.
Dutch, English, Japanese.[1]
I'd suggest first tallying the translators and then writing down a roster.
It would be ideal if a translator only showed up once in the roster, but I think we would get a very short chain then.
Does the bad translator site use a specific sequence of languages? If so, we'd need to recreate that.
OK, it starts out with Afrikaans
References
- Don't worry I will use a dictionary, contrary to when I usually post here
OK, it starts out with Afrikaans
Could you or our other Dutch posters translate from Afrikaans at least?
Yes, but then subtleties will be lost and certain words are bound to be mistranslated.
Oh wait...
Could you or our other Dutch posters translate from Afrikaans at least?
Yes.
I fully support this study, so long as I don't have to contribute to it in any way beyond expressing my support for it.
Becomes (after 54 translations):
No common problems.
The order of the languages would be alphabetic.
Well, this is what I have in mind:
1) List up all participants, their languages of choice, etc.
2) Count and order the languages, and assign them to each person.
3) It'd all be a PM(or email) chain. I would send to each of you who you're expected to pass the phrase to, and their task.
4) Send the original phrase to the first translator, and the chain would start.
5) When the chain comes back to me, I'll post the final result.
Maybe I should start a new thread to organize things better.
I don't know how we could get to an agreement for saying which phrase to translate. Should it be a full paragraph? A single phrase?
An example. Of course everyone is assumed to know English .
Mr. A - Dutch
Mr. B - Dutch
Ms. C - French
Ms. D - French
A receives the phrase. He translates it to Dutch, and he sends it to B.
B translates the phrase back to English, and sends it to C.
C translates to French. He sends it to D.
D translates it back to English. He sends it to me, and I post the final result.
Any suggestions?