PlecoDict and Adsotrans: The Power of User Generated Content
I purchased a PlecoDict license last week and have been using PlecoDict seemingly non-stop on my Palm since. PlecoDict is a Chinese-English English-Chinese dictionary manager, flashcards and character recognition tool. I bought the professional version, which comes with the ABC Chinese-English Dictionary and the capability to install add-ons, such as freely available Pleco-formatted dictionaries.
To complement the ABC Dictionary, I installed the Adsotrans user-generated dictionary, which contains a lot of technical and pop-culture terms not found in the ABC Dictionary. For example, I had need to look up the word 网关 the other day. 网关 is not in the ABC Dictionary, but it is in Adsotrans. 网关 means gateway, as in the device my computer connects to to get online. Another example, I showed Shrek in my classes this week. “What’s Shrek’s Chinese title?” I asked myself. Thanks to Adsotrans, I now know, 《怪物史瑞克》.
The ABC Dictionary is excellent for everyday words, but when it comes to tech or pop-culture, that’s where user-generated material really shines. Any frequent user of Wikipedia knows this.
May 29, 2007 at 8:11 pm
I had my eye on both lately, but I’m too cheap to buy the stuff….yet. Also I need a palmtop first. On the other hand we already have a electronic translator, but it would be cool with a Danish-Chinese-Danish one, and those are not yet buyable. So I look for an alternative, but they all seem pretty expensive.