Author Topic: Babylon discount (Read 30061 times)

cyberdiva · « **Reply #25 on:** July 19, 2011, 01:30 PM »

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.

Curt · « **Reply #26 on:** July 19, 2011, 02:55 PM »

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.clickcutt...c/help/autotools.htm

cyberdiva · « **Reply #27 on:** July 19, 2011, 06:38 PM »

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.

Curt · « **Reply #28 on:** July 19, 2011, 06:45 PM »

it doesn't monitor the clipboard, but the mouse!

cacoder · « **Reply #29 on:** July 19, 2011, 07:15 PM »

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).

cyberdiva · « **Reply #30 on:** July 19, 2011, 08:00 PM »

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.

cyberdiva · « **Reply #31 on:** July 19, 2011, 08:03 PM »

it doesn't monitor the clipboard, but the mouse!
-Curt (July 19, 2011, 06:45 PM)

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.

Curt · « **Reply #32 on:** July 30, 2011, 05:02 AM »

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.babyl...ditemid=13&nav=0

I can recommend WordWeb Pro... http://wordweb.info/

cyberdiva · « **Reply #33 on:** July 30, 2011, 08:50 AM »

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?

Curt · « **Reply #34 on:** July 30, 2011, 12:17 PM »

-because of you I have now upgraded to Firefox 5, but
on my computer, Babylon 9 doesn't work with FF 4 or 5.

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #35 on:** July 30, 2011, 02:30 PM »

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.

cyberdiva · « **Reply #36 on:** July 30, 2011, 03:49 PM »

-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 (July 30, 2011, 12:17 PM)

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.

steeladept · « **Reply #37 on:** July 30, 2011, 05:44 PM »

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 (July 30, 2011, 02:30 PM)

Unfortunately that has been my experience too.

urlwolf · « **Reply #38 on:** July 31, 2011, 05:11 AM »

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...

Shades · « **Reply #39 on:** July 31, 2011, 07:45 AM »

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 (July 31, 2011, 05:11 AM)

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).

cyberdiva · « **Reply #40 on:** July 31, 2011, 08:58 AM »

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?

Shades · « **Reply #41 on:** July 31, 2011, 10:22 AM »

@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.

cyberdiva · « **Reply #42 on:** July 31, 2011, 06:33 PM »

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.

Curt · « **Reply #43 on:** July 31, 2011, 08:21 PM »

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.

Curt · « **Reply #44 on:** December 26, 2011, 08:59 AM »

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.babylo...D=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?

cyberdiva · « **Reply #45 on:** December 26, 2011, 11:44 AM »

Curt, I just went to the Babylon web site and what I found there was "Last Sale for 2011 - 35% Discount." Perhaps they'll go back to 50% in 2012?

Curt · « **Reply #46 on:** December 26, 2011, 11:55 AM »

-just click my link in my previous post, it works okay in 3 of my browsers

cyberdiva · « **Reply #47 on:** December 26, 2011, 12:35 PM »

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.