Yahoo! Babel Fish Vs Google Translate : A Case in Point

I was planning/dreaming to create and host my website and had some grand ideas for it. I started off by trying to setting up an apache server on my old faithful Lenovo Z60m and Ubuntu Hardy Heron. I was facing a rather obscure error in Apache 2.2.9 configuration.

configure: WARNING: Unrecognized options: --enable-rewrite, --enable-speling

Now that was weird and I started sifting through tonnes and tonnes of google results to find a solution. I came upon a Spanish version of Ubuntu forum that seemed to address my solution but the google's corresponding translated page was not available.

So I decided to have it translated through one of the free translators available.
The spanish text was as below

Hola:

Lo primero que debes hacer es instalar los que se llaman Fuentes o de
Desarrollo (devel), que son los que tienen librerias de compilacion y
dependencias para casos como el tuyo, trato de ver que modulos debes
instalar, pero intenta con lo que te dije.

Ademas para instalar desde las fuentes como estas haciendo debes tener



instalado C++ y todas sus librerias.

I first tried on Yahoo! Babel Fish and this is what I got!

Hello: First that you must do it is to install those that are called Sources or of Development (devel), that is those that has bookshops of compilation and dependencies for cases like yours, treatment to see that units you must install, but tries and so I said to you. Furthermore to install from the sources since these doing you must have installed C++ and all bookshops.

It was living up true to its name. I was Babel I could not make out anything out of it.


Then I tried Google Translate. Lo and behold! What I got out of it made sense and it was actually well constructed!

Hello:

The first thing you should do is to install so called sources or
Development (devel), which are the libraries of compilation and
units for cases like yours, I try to see that module should
install, but try what you said.

In addition to installing from sources such as these you have done
C + + installed and all its bookstores.


Encouraged by these results I tried out a few more :

TranStar:

Hello: The first thing you should do is to install so called sources or Development (devel), which are the libraries of compilation and units for cases like yours, I try to see that you can install modules, but what we try I told you. In addition to installing from sources such as doing you must have C + + and all its bookstores.

Athropolis.com

Hello:

The first thing that you must do is to install those who are called Sources or of
I develop (devel), that are those who have bookstores of compilation and
dependencies for cases as yours, I try to see that you owe modules
to install, but it tries with what I said to you.

Also to install from the sources how are you doing you must have
installed C and all his bookstores.

translation2.paralink.com

Hello:

The first thing that you must do is to install those who are called Sources or of
I develop (devel), that are those who have bookstores of compilation and
dependencies for cases as yours, I try to see that you owe modules
to install, but it tries with what I said to you.

Also to install from the sources how are you doing you must have
installed C and all his bookstores.

Dictionary.com Translator

Hello:

First that you must do it is to install those that are called Sources or of Development (devel), that is those that has bookstores of compilation and dependancies for cases like yours, treatment to see that units you must install, but tries and so I said to you.

Furthermore to install from the sources since these doing you must have installed C++ and all bookstores.


It turned out that the Google Translate was more accurate and more 'english' (for want of a better description) than the rest. But one must bear in mind that the context is highly technical and specific to a rather narrow field of computer science and the tiny experiment is no true test at all. Hence any inference drawn from this is in no way representative of the general corpus of data and does not reflect the true capabilities of the translators. Disassociations apart, now I know where to go if I need a technical page to be translated ;) .