DonationCoder.com Forum
Other Software => Found Deals and Discounts => Topic started by: Curt on March 22, 2007, 08:56 AM
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For several years I've been using Babylon, and I find it to be maybe THE best and fastest dictionary at the market, so this add comes with my warmest recommendation. Avanquest has now taken up Babylon, and will for the next 48 hours offer Babylon at only £25, compared to the normal price £45.
Find this secret link (http://www.avanquest.com/go.htm?tr=AQ_UK_EM_BAB_0307&url=https://shop.avanquest.com/store/add.php?i=9371736&cc=BABYLON&rs=7&rs2=AQ_UK_EM_BAB_0307&preflanguage=1&prefcurrency=GBP) at http://web.avanquest.com/ML/2007/Babylon/AQUK/12/Babylon_0307.htm
Don't forget to check out all the small but free add-on dictionaries (http://www.babylon.com/gloss/glossaries.php) as well.
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ] (http://www.babylon.com/) [ You are not allowed to view attachments ] (http://www.babylon.com/Dictionaries-Glossaries)
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Don't forget to check out all the small but free add-on dictionaries (http://www.babylon.com/gloss/glossaries.php) as well. -Curt
You should know that one of the free dictionaries you can have for Babylon is Moby Thesaurus:
dexterity:
ability, acuity, acuteness, address, adeptness, adroitness, airmanship, aptitude, aptness, art, artfulness, artisanship, artistry, astuteness, braininess, bravura, brightness, brilliance, canniness, capability, capacity, clear thinking, cleverness, command, competence, control, coordination, craft, craftsmanship, cunning, deftness, dexterousness, dextrality, dextrocularity, dextrorotation, diplomacy, efficiency, effortlessness, esprit, expertise, facility, finesse, flair, genius, giftedness, gifts, grace, grip, guile, handiness, horsemanship, ingeniousness, ingenuity, keenness, knack, know-how, marksmanship, mastery, nimbleness, nous, proficiency, prowess, quickness, readiness, resource, resourcefulness, rightness, savoir-faire, savvy, seamanship, sharp-wittedness, sharpness, shrewdness, skill, skillfulness, sleight, sleight of hand, smartness, smarts, smoothness, style, tact, tactfulness, talent, technical skill, technique, timing, touch, virtuosity, wit, wizardry, workmanship
-Moby Thesaurus
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looks like a really nice all around tool - i'm going to give it a look.
(though im positive it wont have nearly the power that mobysaurus has for use as a pure thesaurus -- no program i've seen is better at exploring synonyms than mobysaurus (http://www.mobysaurus.com)).
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looks like a really nice all around tool - i'm going to give it a look.
(though im positive it wont have nearly the power that mobysaurus has for use as a pure thesaurus -- no program i've seen is better at exploring synonyms than mobysaurus (http://www.mobysaurus.com)).
-mouser
Babylon has a lot more than nearly the power requested, but it is not a thesaurus only, so I am not sure if such a comparison would be fair. Babylon is a dictionary and a thesaurus and a translator. My Babylon is 470 MB and will wait for a second before loading. A beginner's version may be some 20 - 100 MB and will show up at once.
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Just a screenshot of Settings:
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just to clarify, i didn't mean that babylon wasn't a super powerful program, only that if you are looking for the most powerful and feature packed pure thesaurus, designed for exploring synonyms, mobysaurus is the one :)
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just to clarify, i didn't mean that babylon wasn't a super powerful program, only that if you are looking for the most powerful and feature packed pure thesaurus, designed for exploring synonyms, mobysaurus is the one -mouser
Understood. :up: (only, I would not look for a thesaurus only).
It's just that when you are in love, no-one can tell or imply anything 'bad' about your loved one... :-[
I've tried mobysaurus several times, and I still like Babylon better. :-*
As a foreigner to the American version of the English language, it is very often imperative to me to have the full explanation. Mobysaurus is quite good, but I would never want to be without the Webster's set. And even then, I will often want to also have a translation.
Babylon with Moby Thesaurus only is just as fast as mobysaurus - and just as informative - but then of course there is no need to have a program you must pay for, when you can have mobysaurus for free. But when you need both a dictionary and a thesaurus and a translator, there really is none as fast as Babylon.
However, I think WordWeb Pro 5 is quite good, too.
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Edited: Only now I realize this is the "Found Deals and Discounts"-thread, but this post is not really about any discounts...
It's just that when you are in love, no-one can tell or imply anything 'bad' about your loved one... -Curt
-my "love" for Babylon has been cooling down ever since version 5 or 6 - I just haven't found anything better (and I have several of the kind). One problem regarding Babylon is that they launch major upgrades just as often as Ashampoo!! This year is no exception: After 11 months with Babylon 8, Babylon version 9 is ready. And bloody expensive it is. Well, kind of; it's a Lifetime license, (or Monthly Subscription: $9.7). At least this will be the last upgrade needed, but man, the upgrade is $71 !! Bundled with the Oxford Dictionary + Thesaurus set it is "merely" $77 , which may be okay for a lifetime license, I guess. Normal full prices are $118 (or $128 incl Oxford). But as I said, it is a lifetime license, so in theory this should be the last upgrade needed...
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You should know that one of the free dictionaries you can have for Babylon is Moby Thesaurus-Curt
Moby Thesaurus. This version has been thoroughly revised and contains 30,260 root words, with 2,520,264 synonyms and related terms.
http://www.babylon.com/free-dictionaries/reference/dictionaries-thesauri/Moby-Thesaurus/66382.html
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I wonder how much they revised Moby Thesaurus for Babylon?
Is it better then the original?
If so they should kick back the revision to the author of Moby Thesaurus.
And be able to implement it in the original Moby Thesaurus.
Or has that been done already?
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-"they" will do nothing. Moby is a "community created content", so "someone" has altered Moby, to make it fit Babylon, but Babylon themselves will do nothing for a freeware dictionary...
Answers from Moby (inside Babylon) has this little text underneath the answer:
Source: Moby Thesaurus, which is part of the Moby Project created by Grady Ward. In 1996 Grady Ward placed this thesaurus in the public domain.
-Moby in Babylon
Edited:
Sorry, I didn't understand your question before "answering":
Read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby_Project
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Thanks Curt. :up:
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Edited: Only now I realize this is the "Found Deals and Discounts"-thread, but this post is not really about any discounts...
It's just that when you are in love, no-one can tell or imply anything 'bad' about your loved one... -Curt
-my "love" for Babylon has been cooling down ever since version 5 or 6 - I just haven't found anything better (and I have several of the kind). One problem regarding Babylon is ... -Curt
Still cooling further down...:
Babylon doesn't work inside Firefox 4 !!
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Edited:
But WordWeb 6 does :)
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-my "love" for Babylon has been cooling down ever since version 5 or 6 - I just haven't found anything better (and I have several of the kind). One problem regarding Babylon is that they launch major upgrades just as often as Ashampoo!! This year is no exception: After 11 months with Babylon 8, Babylon version 9 is ready. And bloody expensive it is. Well, kind of; it's a Lifetime license, (or Monthly Subscription: $9.7). At least this will be the last upgrade needed, but man, the upgrade is $71 !! Bundled with the Oxford Dictionary + Thesaurus set it is "merely" $77 , which may be okay for a lifetime license, I guess. Normal full prices are $118 (or $128 incl Oxford). But as I said, it is a lifetime license, so in theory this should be the last upgrade needed...
-Curt
Hi, Curt. I came back to this thread thanks to your current message about Babylon not working with Firefox 4. :( This is very distressing news to me, though presumably they're working on a fix? At any rate, I'm curious about what you've said above. I LOVE Babylon--version 6 has been immensely helpful to me as a resource for Spanish/English translation. But I don't understand what you mean by a lifetime license. Do you mean that each upgrade will be free if you have a lifetime license? That's normally what I think of, but you then said "so in theory this should be the last upgrade needed..." Do you mean the last upgrade you'll have to pay for, or is Babylon not planning ever to upgrade again?
I've been concerned about whether Babylon 6 will work on Windows 7 64-bit (I've just ordered a new computer), but now I see there are issues even with version 9. Hmmm.... I don't think I have any need for version 9 if version 6 will work on Windows 7 64-bit. Do you or anyone else know about whether version 6 OR version 9 will work on Windows 7 64-bit?
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Thanks for coming back, cyberdiva ;-)
I merely meant that in theory I shouldn't need to pay for their next upgrade. When I keep saying "in theory", it is because deep down in my heart, I kind of don't trust them. Sad thing to say, but I have been their customer for most of a decade and I don't think they care about making the best program, they are merely in it for the money, so they keep upgrading for no other reason than to make you pay again. I don't see any improvement at all from version 6 to version 9, in fact I wish I have kept version 6...
I have no idea if any of them will run on 64-bits, sorry.
But I believe Babylon sure is going to upgrade to version 10, and so on, soon!
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just came in:
Dear Curt
Thank you for taking the time to write us.
My name is Sharon from Babylon Technical Support Team and this is further to your previous response regarding your case.
Internet Explorer 6 and 9,Google Chorme 10 ,fireFox 4 are not able to make Babylon work.
Our program developers are working on it in order to fix the issue.
Please accept our apology for any inconvenience.
Please download and install Internet Explorer 8 latest version to fix this issue:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/worldwide-sites.aspx
Downgrading from IE9 to IE8
1.Close all programs, click Start and click Control Panel.
2.Click ?Uninstall a Program? under Programs category.
3.Click ?View installed updates? option in the task pane.
4.Now select Windows Internet Explorer 9 shown under Microsoft Windows updates and click Uninstall and follow the instructions on the screen.
IE9 uninstall process lasts for minimum 3 minutes and you will be able to access Internet Explorer 8 as usual after restart.
Note:We recommend users to create a restore point before uninstalling IE9 because whenever you want to try IE9 you can get it through system restore option in windows.
Please tell me, how it works.
If I can be of further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me again.
Kind regards
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Thanks, Curt, for your reply and for all the interesting information about Babylon Pro. As far as I can tell, there's no reason for me to upgrade from Babylon 6 to to Babylon 9 (or any other version) unless Babylon 6 won't work with the new computer I've ordered, which runs Windows 7 64-bit. I think I'll give it a try before even contacting Babylon. My experience with their customer support has been very mixed, and I share your distrust of what they say. That's why I don't even think I'll bother to ask them whether version 6 will work on Windows 7 64-bit.
Of course, if the upgrade price were more reasonable, I might not be so reluctant to upgrade (though there's still the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" consideration). But apparently it will cost me at least $71 to upgrade, and perhaps more if they're going to charge me extra AGAIN for the Vox Advanced Dictionary Eng-Spa-Eng, which I paid extra for when I bought Babylon back in 2006. Even with the extra, the total then came to $63.50 (for my new copy, not an upgrade). It bugs me that they now want $71 (or more) just to upgrade.
I LOVE my version of Babylon Pro, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed (though that makes typing rather difficulty :) ).
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I LOVE my version of Babylon Pro, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed-cyberdiva
-that is the very point, isn't it. It is a really fine program, and Babylon has been a good and trusted tool for me, so I keep hoping for the best. But Babylon is not merely a program, but also a company in the hands of merchants.
To test your final comment, this was typed with my fingers crossed... ;-)
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hmm... beside using WordWeb Pro 6 instead of Babylon 9, I have found this Babylon addon for Firefox 4: Babylon Dictionary Word Search :: Add-ons for Firefox (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/babylon-dictionary-word-search/). It works surprisingly snappy, (mark, and press Alt+y or click the icon), and gives me answers from Babylon-English, Wikipedia English, WordNet 2.0, and Webster's Unabridged 1913. It puts me on a virtual e-diet, but I am positively surprised.
Edited:
Many more languages are of course at your disposal. In the one and same file.
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Thanks, Curt, for this information. I can see how it could be very useful, but probably less so for me. Much of the time, the words I'm looking for aren't in my browser but elsewhere. Also, from what I could tell from the web page link you provided, the add-on uses Babylon's dictionaries, whereas what I find most useful for me are the much more extensive listings offered by the Vox Spanish/English dictionary that I bought as an extra when I purchased Babylon. The Vox gives me a much better sense of the many ways in which a word is used, as well as an impressive listing of expressions using the word. I haven't found any other dictionary that I like as much, which is why I'm hoping to be able to continue with Babylon on my new (and as yet undelivered) computer.
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@Cyberdiva:
In case Babylon does not work on your Windows 7 64 bit PC, get a tool to virtualize the application, so it can be used as a portable application. Cameyo is the one I used to do this trick, but there are others.
I Use a small and very efficient tool called SQLtools to handle Oracle databases and it works fine on Win2003 and lower. Now I have to run Windows 2008 R2, which is 64-bit and my tool doesn't work anymore.
When virtualizing the application a complete setup is created inside the resulting executable, including folder structure, registry, etc.
As it is contained inside it's own environment, just the way the application likes it, the application will work without problems in whatever Windows version it is used.
What to do:
1 - Get Cameyo (there is a freeware version)
2 - Preferably install Cameyo on a 'fresh' Windows XP installation. Some versions of Windows 7 64-bit come with a virtual-PC based XP for backwards compatibility. that is one option you could use for this.
3 - Cameyo warns you when you are able to install Babylon in the virtual PC. Do so.
4 - When you are done installing, use the 'Finish' button from Cameyo.
5 - Cameyo will start making a second snapshot of your system and stores the differences as created by the Babylon installer
6 - After Cameyo is finished you will have one executable file that stores the complete Babylon installation (I do not know how big the installation of Babylon is, so I can not tell how big the resulting executable will be).
7 - Run the executable in Windows 7 64-bit.
That should be it.
It worked out beautifully for me, at least. Hope this info/tip will be useful in case Babylon 6 doesn't work in Windows 7 and you don't want to activate the virtual XP resource hog all the time.
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Shades, thanks VERY much for the tip and instructions about Cameyo. Certainly if the virtual XP option is a resource hog, it wouldn't be acceptable for my needs, at least not for Babylon, which I use very frequently. Hence, I'll definitely keep Cameyo in mind as a possible solution if I can't get Babylon 6 to work on Windows 7 64-bit.
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Edited: Only now I realize this is the "Found Deals and Discounts"-thread, but this post is not really about any discounts...
-my "love" for Babylon has been cooling down ever since version 5 or 6 - I just haven't found anything better (and I have several of the kind). One problem regarding Babylon is that they launch major upgrades just as often as Ashampoo!! This year is no exception: After 11 months with Babylon 8, Babylon version 9 is ready. And bloody expensive it is. Well, kind of; it's a Lifetime license, (or Monthly Subscription: $9.7). At least this will be the last upgrade needed, but man, the upgrade is $71 !! Bundled with the Oxford Dictionary + Thesaurus set it is "merely" $77 , which may be okay for a lifetime license, I guess. Normal full prices are $118 (or $128 incl Oxford). But as I said, it is a lifetime license, so in theory this should be the last upgrade needed...
(see attachment in previous post (https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=7852.msg234852#msg234852))
-Curt
I just paid $35.75 to upgrade to babylon 9.
Go to http://www.babylon.com/products/upgrade.html. Click Upgrade Now. And append &voucher=NLCPRO8CEL100M45P to the url and press <enter>. Good luck.
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-thanks, cacoder!
You sure took your time to make your first post, so a very belated Welcome! here at DC :-)
Which browser do you use? Babylon promised that they would write me when Babylon was fit for IE9 and FF4. Now we have FF5 coming and I still haven't heard from Babylon.
I am getting used to WordWeb Pro, but I would prefer to use Babylon.
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I just paid $35.75 to upgrade to babylon 9.
-cacoder
Hmmm...that's really interesting, but what do you get in Babylon 9 that you didn't have but did want in Babylon 6? I love Babylon 6. I was afraid that it wouldn't work on my new computer running Windows 7 64-bit, but it does. More or less. ;) What doesn't work is highlighting a word and bringing up Babylon to translate it. But I was having problems with that feature even on my old WinXP computer. More than half the time, Babylon wouldn't see the right word, so I got into the habit of writing the word into Babylon and then getting it to translate. The translate feature is excellent, especially with the Vox Advanced Sp-Eng-Sp dictionary, which gives lots of idioms and phrases.
Of course, if Babylon 9 could work more seamlessly with Win 7 64-bit, that might be a reason to fork over $35.75. BTW, when I clicked on the website link you provided, it said "Upgrade to Babylon 8" not 9. ??
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-yes, version 8.
Upgrading to Babylon 9 / Oxford 9 seems to be $65 / $71
@cyberdiva: If you (use an extension to) auto-copy any dbl-clicked word, you would just have to paste that word into your translation box. It would be a time saver, I think.
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Thanks, Curt, for your response. Cacoder did say that he upgraded to version 9, not 8, for $35.50, but the link he provided seems to be for upgrades to version 8. That's why I asked the question.
I appreciate your suggestion about the auto-copy extension, but I assume it's only for text in Firefox, yes? Much of the stuff I read in Spanish is not in a browser, so I'm not sure how useful the extension would be for me.
I'd still love to know what advantages there would be in upgrading to Babylon 8 or 9 from version 6. Most of the extras they list as new features are of little interest to me.
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I don't remember any new features...
An application like Click Cutter is very useful, regarding auto-copy&paste. However, it has been several years, since I last tried it - I don't know if it will work on a 64-bits; it *looks* as if it hasn't been updated since XP.
http://www.clickcutter.com/sec/help/autotools.htm
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Thanks, Curt. I've bookmarked Click Cutter and may give it a try, though I do worry about interference between it and other apps that monitor the clipboard, such as ClipMate and Surfulater. I guess I can try it and see.
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it doesn't monitor the clipboard, but the mouse!
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I did upgrade to version 9, even though the upgrade page initially said version 8 upgrade. This was what I put in the cart: Babylon 9.0 - Upgrade Lifetime License
I found that mouse activation Ctrl-R Click stopped working in babylon a while ago. After I upgraded today, it has worked again in firefox 5.0.1, and somewhat in IE. Recognition used to work better though. The old interface was better; it was more light-weight and it showed all the dictionary icons in the definition window and I could click a dictionary icon to get at a dictionary easily. Now I have to scroll through the window to see all the dictionaries. So overall, it has been a downgrade, except to make mouse activation work again (less well than before nonetheless).
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Thanks, cacoder, for your helpful account of your Babylon upgrade. It sounds as if the pluses and minuses balance out in the move to version 9. In that case, I think perhaps I'll stay with version 6, which I really like except for the fact that I now have to write or paste the words into Babylon.
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it doesn't monitor the clipboard, but the mouse!
-Curt
Yes, i guess you're right. Thanks. If I get really fed up with having to spoonfeed Babylon, I'll probably give Click Cutter a try. I'm glad to know about it. I'm not too worried about its working with Win 7 64-bit, since just about all the programs I've moved from my WinXP machine work on the new computer, too. I was really surprised to see that.
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Babylon 9 has long at last been updated. 6 months it took for this new version to be launched. They built inn an OCR scanner, but... unfortunately it didn't change anything. I am not going to use Babylon, (ever?), because it still doesn't support Firefox 4. So much for a lifetime license. Something is seriously wrong inside that company.
http://support.babylon.com/index.php?_m=downloads&_a=viewdownload&downloaditemid=13&nav=0
I can recommend WordWeb Pro... http://wordweb.info/
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Curt, what you and cacoder have said convinces me to stay with Babylon 6. I'm wondering, though, about your statement re version 9 not supporting Firefox 4. Perhaps I missed it, but is there a reason you don't just move to Firefox 5?
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-because of you I have now upgraded to Firefox 5, but
on my computer, Babylon 9 doesn't work with FF 4 or 5.
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There is an important lesson I learned a long time ago:
Avanquest = The place were software goes to die
They only have interest in taking money - once they buy a title the development is pretty much dead.
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-because of you I have now upgraded to Firefox 5, but
on my computer, Babylon 9 doesn't work with FF 4 or 5.
-Curt
Curt, I asked the question simply because cacoder seemed to indicate that his copy of Babylon 9 does work on Firefox 5. As you know, I have Babylon 6 and have no way to know first-hand how later versions perform. :(
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There is an important lesson I learned a long time ago:
Avanquest = The place were software goes to die
They only have interest in taking money - once they buy a title the development is pretty much dead.
-Carol Haynes
Unfortunately that has been my experience too.
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I wonder what people think of lingoes. It does the job. I'm also stuck with babylon 5, which I don't use because they wanted money even to retrieve my lost license. The greedy bastards. Lingoes it is for me...
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I wonder what people think of lingoes. It does the job. I'm also stuck with babylon 5, which I don't use because they wanted money even to retrieve my lost license. The greedy bastards. Lingoes it is for me...
-urlwolf
Lingoes is quite nice, I use it only in off-line mode, which hampers the translation of full texts, but for translating word by word it is great because there are a lot of (free) dictionaries you can download. Besides this it is free, portable and works like a charm on Win7 (64-bit).
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Thanks very much, urlwolf and Shades, for this recommendation. I've been looking for something to put on my netbook, since my Babylon 6 license is only for my desktop. (Indeed, as I was in the process of transferring Babylon to my new desktop, I got a message from Babylon claiming I was using it on too many computers. I explained to them that I was merely transferring it to a new computer, and they gave me a new license # and told me the old one would expire in a week. This seems fair enough, and it sure beats the nasty response they made to urlwolf!)
Shades, is there some reason you use Lingoes only in off-line mode?
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@cyberdiva:
If you must know...that particular PC is not connected to any network...and I want to keep it that way.
As I use the PC to write to my Paraguayan girlfriend, it forces me to think more about what I say and not take the easy way out by writing in English and use Lingoes (that in turn can use Google or other web-based translation service) to do the complete translation for me.
My girlfriend only speaks Spanish (Latin-American) and Guarani...my level of Spanish is not that high I'm afraid to admit. Most of my days are spent talking/writing in English, Dutch and German...so that is not helping my studies of Spanish. Guarani I am not even going to try: that is a really "hellish" language to learn (which is spoken only in Paraguay, it is a very 'rich' language though and I understand from the Paraguayans here that the language is excellent for telling jokes).
Ah well lets expand this post with a travel tip for the time you might end up in the 'campo' from Paraguay. Never say: ejapiro, because people cannot translate its meaning even when they speak Spanish fluently, but it is highly offensive.
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Hi, Shades. Thanks for your response. I wondered whether perhaps you distrusted Lingoes, but I see that's clearly not the case. I've now downloaded and installed it on my desktop to try it out, and I think I will go ahead and put it on my netbook. It's not as good as Babylon Pro, but with the Vicon Spanish-English and English-Spanish dictionaries, it's better than I'd expected. And the price is certainly right. :)
Muchas gracias otra vez.
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Lingoes is fine :-) However, it is worrying that nothing regarding Lingoes has been updated since 2010. It was updated for Firefox 3, and then we heard no more.
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Both the Babylon site and the program have been updated. However, Babylon 9 still doesn't work with Firefox (8.01). My reason for posting is that Babylon right now is offering a 50% discount (and why wouldn't they), but you better first TEST IT!
https://store.babylon.com/index.php?store_id=52&ui_template=121&voucher=LSTSALPRO50P&type=2724&trid=PUCPRO8LARE9AENG&uid=39739056&affilID=55555&trkInfo=[TType%3A260910_oldcnd][dw%3A1][organic_word%3Awaterpas][textlink%3Agkn19880]&vid=1272619788-3447543158&lang=1&template_id=6
-wow, that is a long address! Does it even work? :tellme:
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Curt, I just went to the Babylon web site (http://www.babylon.com/) and what I found there was "Last Sale for 2011 - 35% Discount." Perhaps they'll go back to 50% in 2012? :)
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-just click my link in my previous post, it works okay in 3 of my browsers
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You're right, Curt, your link works and carries the same message, except that it says 50%. Duh. That seems so typical of Babylon--the left hand often doesn't know what the right hand is doing. If I had more time now, I'd be tempted to try version 9, though I'm quite happy with version 6 except it doesn't have the ability to define words when I right-click, or whatever it was I used to do. I'd like to have that capability back, though if Babylon 9 still doesn't work in FF 8.0.1, it surely won't work in later versions. Thanks very much for letting us all know about the 50% offer. One of these days, I may give Babylon 9 a try. I doubt that this is the last we've seen of 50% discounts.