PKI still exactly jumps, jumps

While performing my ritual vanity search today, I ran across something unexpected.  Last week, I wrote a short piece for C|NET about the future of PKI.  Apparently it has since gotten itself translated into Chinese and posted on the Taiwanese version of CNET.com.  This is the first time I’ve ever been translated into another language without my knowledge.  That’s pretty cool.  Now I just need a ghostwriter to write the original stuff, and Vastly Important Notes will be ready to dominate all tech media.  I’ll be bigger than John Dvorak.  They’ll name a keyboard layout after me.  It’ll offer the ultimate in efficiency – you never have to touch it.

Anyway, I can’t read Chinese so I ran the article through the auto translator at Alta Vista’s Babel Fish.  The results are righteous.  Here’s my favorite paragraph, formatted for clarity:

You?
Many people simply did not know that,
latter is the thunder
heavy rain is small.

I’m not sure what I was trying to say there, but I think we can all agree that, as far as tech writing goes, the style is unsurpassed.

Two serious questions:

(1) Is this fairly representative of the state of the art of computer translation?  I haven’t looked into the field for several years and would like to know how useful it has become for business applications. 

(2) If anyone can actually compare the original version to the (presumably) human translation into Chinese, I’d be very curious to get your feedback on the style and accuracy.  I’m especially interested to learn how they handled my (alleged) humor.  I’ll be traveling on business to that part of the world next week and would like to know whether to have the Chinese article precede me as an introduction.

To save you from navigating the link maze in this post, here is my original English version, the CNET.com Chinese version, and the Babel Fish automatic translation.

Thanks in advance!

[BTW, Having reread this post, I realized that it may sound like I’m bashing John Dvorak.  That’s not true.  I have the highest respect for his long standing punditry.  My foundational computer knowledge was heavily shaped by everything he ever wrote during the mid eighties, and I continue to be impressed with his recent columns.  For example, here’s a good one lamenting Bill Gates’ ascension into knighthood.  Although, had I written about that topic I don’t think I could have resisted proposing a new name for the man justly credited by the Crown as being, “one of the most important business leaders of his age.”  That name?   Wait for it…..

Sir Bootsalot.]