ProZ.com Translation Forums

Machine Translation (MT) | Firefox has a free, fast, offline, machine translator | Clarification: open the about page

ezpz — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 09:50:00 +0000

Forum: Machine Translation (MT)
Topic: Firefox has a free, fast, offline, machine translator
Poster: ezpz
Post title: Clarification: open the about page

I am aware of the webpage translation feature.
I was pointing specifically to this about page:
about:translations

There were convoluted ways to try and use it as a Google-Translate-like machine translator, e.g. by making a a Html file with your source text, dragging-dropping into Firefox and using the "translate webpage" feature (like an Intranet as you said).

Now you can forget all of that.

Open the above about page and you can simply copy-paste your source-text to get an instant machine translation.

Machine Translation (MT) | Firefox has a free, fast, offline, machine translator | Yes

Samuel Murray — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 09:45:00 +0000

Forum: Machine Translation (MT)
Topic: Firefox has a free, fast, offline, machine translator
Poster: Samuel Murray
Post title: Yes

This feature has existed for a number of years now. The translation quality is adequate for making sense of what a website says. It's a bit of an odd thing, though: the machine translator runs entirely offline but it translates web pages. I think this may be useful for intranets.

Machine Translation (MT) | Firefox has a free, fast, offline, machine translator

ezpz — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 09:36:00 +0000

Forum: Machine Translation (MT)
Topic: Firefox has a free, fast, offline, machine translator
Poster: ezpz

[url removed]

On the address bar, enter:
about:translations

You will see a form similar to Google Translate, DeepL, etc.
It runs locally on your machine, and therefore it also runs offline.
Obviously it's free, as well as open-source.

For those of us that don't use online Machine Translators due to privacy concerns, and don't have computers fast enough to run OpusCatMT or the newfangled LLMs, this is a very good option for quick, basic MT that you can copy-paste into your CAT/Word-processor and speed up your translation work process without an internet connection.

To download the language packs, open Settings, General, scroll down to Translations, download both languages you want to translate FROM and also TO.

(I think it uses English as the "Rosetta stone", so translations between language pairs not involving English are markedly lower quality). (Still this is incredibly useful even if just for type-setting, number formatting, and copy-pasting without formatting).

[Edited at 2026-09-18 09:39 GMT]

AI for translators and interpreters | Data fear and IP leakage doubt with frontier AI labs | The keyword is "Intuition"

kd42 — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 09:35:00 +0000

Forum: AI for translators and interpreters
Topic: Data fear and IP leakage doubt with frontier AI labs
Poster: kd42
Post title: The keyword is "Intuition"

Dumb coders are the last people on Earth who can understand intuition

[quote]Researchers at Princeton gave AI agents six days and $3,000 in compute to try to produce an original research breakthrough on two unpublished papers submitted to a top AI conference. The agents handled every coding task on their own, without human help.

Then the papers' human authors reviewed the finished work as conference judges. Both got rejected. One got a flat "Strong Reject," with reviewers calling the science aimless and pointing out it added no new value to the field.

The AI could execute the plan. It couldn't tell whether the plan was worth executing in the first place. Researchers call this missing piece "scientific taste," the judgment and intuition that turns a technically correct answer into a good one.[/quote]

Off topic | my gmail allert | Does Proz offer this option, yet?

Eva Stoppa — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 08:59:00 +0000

Forum: Off topic
Topic: my gmail allert
Poster: Eva Stoppa
Post title: Does Proz offer this option, yet?

"setting up 2FA for the email address you connect to your most important accounts."

But does Proz.com offer a 2FA, yet? Would be interesting to know.

Scams | info@ecwpress.ORG - scam | Same here...

Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 07:44:00 +0000

Forum: Scams
Topic: info@ecwpress.ORG - scam
Poster: Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Post title: Same here...

I was targeted for the first time this morning.

Scams | Fraudulent messages impersonating ProZ.com staff | a current example

Zea_Mays — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 07:06:00 +0000

Forum: Scams
Topic: Fraudulent messages impersonating ProZ.com staff
Poster: Zea_Mays
Post title: a current example

Yesterday I was notified by a client agency that "Phrase has notified us about a mandatory security update.", today they sent an email saying they have identified suspicious activity, adding the timeline for the Phrase password reset.

Scams | Flood of fraudulent e-mails from Gmail accounts | .

Asso Kork — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 02:56:00 +0000

Forum: Scams
Topic: Flood of fraudulent e-mails from Gmail accounts
Poster: Asso Kork
Post title: .

Not necessarily a recent problem. But it has gotten more frequent recently. And with the constantly developing AI, they also keep getting a bit more convincing every time... Except for the 2 giveaways – unreasonably high price offers and Gmail addresses

Business issues | How do you track retainer balances (words/hours) with recurring clients ? | You can develop such a tool

jyuan_us — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 22:42:00 +0000

Forum: Business issues
Topic: How do you track retainer balances (words/hours) with recurring clients ?
Poster: jyuan_us
Post title: You can develop such a tool

[quote]conquerorWor (X) wrote:

I'm exploring the idea of a small tool just for this, and I'm trying to figure out whether this is a real pain point or if I'm inventing a problem that doesn't exist.
[/quote]

You can develop such a tool but you may not get more than 10 people who need it in the entire translator community.

Scams | Flood of fraudulent e-mails from Gmail accounts | @Asso

Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 21:32:00 +0000

Forum: Scams
Topic: Flood of fraudulent e-mails from Gmail accounts
Poster: Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Post title: @Asso

Thank you, but this is by no means a recent problem. I’ve been spared lately, but about two/three years ago I too was flooded with far-fetched offers, always for large volumes, extremely well-paid translation jobs, which referred to my Proz profile in extremely complimentary terms, praising lavishly on my qualities as a translator – which, given how exaggerated it was, raised a whole host of red flags. Many of these ‘potential clients’ didn’t have Gmail addresses but were actually cases of identity theft, some of which looked very authentic. You can never be too careful!

Off topic | my gmail allert | How password alerts work:

Andrea Capuselli — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 20:44:00 +0000

Forum: Off topic
Topic: my gmail allert
Poster: Andrea Capuselli
Post title: How password alerts work:

Hi Gregor,

The Google alert doesn't necessarily mean that your ProZ.com password was leaked from ProZ.com.

Google and other password managers can flag a password based on the password itself. For example, if the same password has been exposed in a breach involving another service, or if it is a commonly used password, it may trigger a warning regardless of which site you've saved it for.

If you'd like to check whether the password has appeared in any known data breaches, you can use the password checker at Have I Been Pwned. For security reasons, please don't share the password with us or post it publicly.

As of now, ProZ.com is not aware of any data breach that could have exposed or leaked our users' passwords.

Changing the password is nevertheless a good precaution, particularly if you have used the same password elsewhere. I recommend using a unique password for ProZ.com and for other important profiles, and setting up 2FA for the email address you connect to your most important accounts.

Chinese | 泰晤士(TIMES)四合院儿 | 春卷、饺子和包子

ysun — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 19:30:00 +0000

Forum: Chinese
Topic: 泰晤士(TIMES)四合院儿
Poster: ysun
Post title: 春卷、饺子和包子

“春卷”仍是 spring rolls，“饺子”和“包子”仍然是 dumplings。

有人主张“简单音译全部中国文化事物名称”。我认为，管它如何翻译，先吃饱了再说！吃撑了再来慢慢琢磨如何翻译！

[img] [url removed] [/img]

Chinese | 泰晤士(TIMES)四合院儿 | Buddha Jumps Over the Wall

ysun — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 19:12:00 +0000

Forum: Chinese
Topic: 泰晤士(TIMES)四合院儿
Poster: ysun
Post title: Buddha Jumps Over the Wall

前不久，我经过 Costco, Waltham, MA，就进去转了转。中秋节将至，所以那里卖广州酒家的月饼毫不稀奇，但我发现那里居然还卖“佛跳墙”！

坐井观天、孤陋寡闻的“农村时尚姐“、“甲亢哥”一定会认为，“佛跳墙”必须译为汉语拼音 fótiàoqiáng，才能彰显民族自信、破除崇洋媚外的心理！但若他们来美丽国看一看，就会知道满不是那么回事儿！

[img] [url removed] [/img]

Off topic | my gmail allert | Well...

Gregor Trebec — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 17:04:00 +0000

Forum: Off topic
Topic: my gmail allert
Poster: Gregor Trebec
Post title: Well...

It was sent from no-reply@google accounts, mailed by gaia.bounces.google.com

Off topic | my gmail allert | contact support

Zea_Mays — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 16:52:00 +0000

Forum: Off topic
Topic: my gmail allert
Poster: Zea_Mays
Post title: contact support

Who has sent you that message? There was a real issue with hacked accounts (from an external exploit), so this message may be related to it. Contacting support would help getting some clarity.

Scams | Fraudulent messages impersonating ProZ.com staff | @Andrea

Zea_Mays — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 16:50:00 +0000

Forum: Scams
Topic: Fraudulent messages impersonating ProZ.com staff
Poster: Zea_Mays
Post title: @Andrea

Thanks for taking this seriously, Andrea!
I was rather concerned about all those ProZ users who might receive fake messages from those hacked accounts. It may be important to alert them about the risk.

[Bearbeitet am 2026-09-18 06:43 GMT]

Scams | Fraudulent messages impersonating ProZ.com staff | Email communication

Andrea Capuselli — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 16:21:00 +0000

Forum: Scams
Topic: Fraudulent messages impersonating ProZ.com staff
Poster: Andrea Capuselli
Post title: Email communication

Thanks for following up, Zea. I understand the concern, and we have been actively addressing the situation.

We have contacted users who were identified as having been contacted by the scammers. Where an email address associated with an account appears to have been compromised, we have also placed communications directly in the user's ProZ.com account, so that they can see the information independently of their email.

On the site side, we have also put additional administrative filters and other measures in place to identify and prevent this type of activity. At this point, the situation appears to be under control, although we will continue monitoring it.

Regarding a site-wide email: while that can be appropriate in some security incidents, it would not normally be the measure we take in a situation like this, particularly when the issue appears to involve external email accounts rather than ProZ.com account credentials. Targeted communication with affected users, combined with in-account notices and site-side measures, is more appropriate here.

Thanks again, and don't hesitate to contact us via the Support Center if you receive any suspicious communications, within ProZ or outside of it.

Off topic | my gmail allert

Gregor Trebec — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 16:06:00 +0000

Forum: Off topic
Topic: my gmail allert
Poster: Gregor Trebec

Hi,

Today in my Gmail I received an allert that my Proz's password is compromised and found on the internet. :o
Or Gmail is lying, or Proz is not telling you everything. I think I will change the pass.

Localization | German: Use of Sie/du for localizing a learning platform | at your own risk

Zea_Mays — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 15:05:00 +0000

Forum: Localization
Topic: German: Use of Sie/du for localizing a learning platform
Poster: Zea_Mays
Post title: at your own risk

This may sound a bit rude, but if you were a native German speaker, you wouldn't need to ask this question. Cybersecurity is a highly sensitive and technical topic, and "a lot of jokes and metaphors" implies a perfect grasp of the target language.
Edit: Not to mention the aspect of gender neutrality, which is often a key requirement.

[Bearbeitet am 2026-09-17 16:57 GMT]

Localization | German: Use of Sie/du for localizing a learning platform | IKEA

CafeTran Trainer — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 14:05:00 +0000

Forum: Localization
Topic: German: Use of Sie/du for localizing a learning platform
Poster: CafeTran Trainer
Post title: IKEA

[quote]Annalisa Magnani wrote:

Dear Community,

I am carrying out my first localization job and I am being asked to post-edit and localize a learning platform on the topic of cybersecurity for the German market.
The original platform is in Italian, the tone is very informal and the scripts include a lot of jokes and metaphors. Still it’s a learning platform meant to be sold to external companies.
Would you use the Sie or the du form in German? The company would like to keep the tone informal and young but is it too impolite in German?

Thank you for your help! [/quote]

Personally, I'd use the Sie-Form, but IKEA style is also possible:

Hej! Du hast die Kontrolle über deine Informationen und Daten
Wenn du uns durch Anklicken von "Alle Cookies akzeptieren" deine Einwilligung erteilst, greifen wir (Ikea Deutschland und unsere Partner) auf Informationen (z.B. Gerätekennung, Browserinformationen, Werbe-ID) und Daten (z.B. IP-Adresse) in deinem Endgerät zu und speichern Informationen (z.B. Cookies) in deinem Endgerät,  um unsere Webseite zu optimieren, um sie für dich zu personalisieren, um Kundensegmente zu bilden und um dir relevante Werbung auf Drittseiten und in sozialen Medien anzeigen zu können.

Business issues | How do you track retainer balances (words/hours) with recurring clients ? | And gvmt tells us to put our business data on the cloud to better control us 😔

Li-Hsiang Hsu — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 13:50:00 +0000

Forum: Business issues
Topic: How do you track retainer balances (words/hours) with recurring clients ?
Poster: Li-Hsiang Hsu
Post title: And gvmt tells us to put our business data on the cloud to better control us 😔

Zenfirst, a French treasury management and electronic invoicing software provider, has been hit by a data breach. A hacker is claiming possession of data belonging to approximately 4,400 users and prospects, as well as invoices containing personal and accounting information.

Source: [url removed]

Scams | Flood of fraudulent e-mails from Gmail accounts

Asso Kork — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 13:43:00 +0000

Forum: Scams
Topic: Flood of fraudulent e-mails from Gmail accounts
Poster: Asso Kork

I just wanted to warn other translators about what seems to be a noticeable increase in scam job offers targeting ProZ members.

Over the past few weeks, I have been receiving at least one such email almost every week. They usually come from random Gmail accounts and specifically mention having found my profile on ProZ. The sender then compliments my experience and qualifications, sometimes rather excessively, before offering a supposedly urgent translation project.

There are usually several obvious red flags: unusually high rates, very short deadlines for relatively large projects, vague information about the company or client, and communication from a free Gmail address rather than a corporate domain.

The messages are becoming reasonably convincing at first glance, especially because they refer to ProZ and sometimes mention details that can easily be obtained from a public translator profile.

One recent example asked me to contact [email removed] . A quick check showed that this domain/email address has already been associated with translation job scams.

I would therefore recommend being particularly careful with unsolicited job offers that mention your ProZ profile, especially when the offer seems unusually generous or urgent. Before accepting anything, it is worth checking the company, domain, email address and ProZ Blue Board, and searching for reports from other translators.

Perhaps others have noticed the same recent increase in these messages?

Localization | German: Use of Sie/du for localizing a learning platform

Annalisa Magnani — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 13:26:00 +0000

Forum: Localization
Topic: German: Use of Sie/du for localizing a learning platform
Poster: Annalisa Magnani

Dear Community,

I am carrying out my first localization job and I am being asked to post-edit and localize a learning platform on the topic of cybersecurity for the German market.
The original platform is in Italian, the tone is very informal and the scripts include a lot of jokes and metaphors. Still it’s a learning platform meant to be sold to external companies.
Would you use the Sie or the du form in German? The company would like to keep the tone informal and young but is it too impolite in German?

Thank you for your help!

Scams | Fraudulent messages impersonating ProZ.com staff | Still no ProZ message received

Zea_Mays — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 12:21:00 +0000

Forum: Scams
Topic: Fraudulent messages impersonating ProZ.com staff
Poster: Zea_Mays
Post title: Still no ProZ message received

[quote]Zea_Mays wrote:

[quote]Andrea Capuselli wrote:

We have removed the spam messages that were reported in the Powwow section. Thanks Zea and María Teresa for reporting them.

Michele, as I mentioned above, the issue seems to be users who have had their email accounts hijacked. This happened externally to ProZ.com —ProZ.com does not store your email's login information in any way.

We continue to investigate and are taking measures to contact users that may have been affected. Thanks everyone! [/quote]

What ways are there to contact users if their email accounts have been hacked? Anyway, I think it would be important to let _all_ users know what happened, to report such messages and to make sure their passwords are strong. Only 0.001% of users read the forums. [/quote]

Marketing for language professionals | Free marketing sessions for language professionals at International Translation Day event | @Angela

Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 10:57:00 +0000

Forum: Marketing for language professionals
Topic: Free marketing sessions for language professionals at International Translation Day event
Poster: Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Post title: @Angela

Something’s wrong when even the Proz team, upon posting a new thread, find that it appears as a duplicate… :sad:

Translation Theory and Practice | Tip of the day: Add -ai to your internet searches | Thanks to you, Phelippe

Eva Stoppa — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 08:54:00 +0000

Forum: Translation Theory and Practice
Topic: Tip of the day: Add -ai to your internet searches
Poster: Eva Stoppa
Post title: Thanks to you, Phelippe

...I learned something new. At last I know what thalictrums are.

Business issues | Something is rotten... | On the other hand,

Eva Stoppa — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 08:36:00 +0000

Forum: Business issues
Topic: Something is rotten...
Poster: Eva Stoppa
Post title: On the other hand,

How reliable are good ratings on the other hand, when in the comment section, I read -- and this is something I literally read on here -- "Payment was slow, but came prompt"?

For me, a slow payment would never justify a good rating. But maybe that's just me.

Money matters | Lack of work, makes me cry... | Opinion: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg

ATIL KAYHAN — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 08:05:00 +0000

Forum: Money matters
Topic: Lack of work, makes me cry...
Poster: ATIL KAYHAN
Post title: Opinion: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg says AI labs have strong responsibility and incentives to ensure safety of their own models rather than depend on government regulation.

[url removed]

Money matters | Lack of work, makes me cry... | Recursive self-improvement (RSI) of AI is the core concern

Li-Hsiang Hsu — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 06:20:00 +0000

Forum: Money matters
Topic: Lack of work, makes me cry...
Poster: Li-Hsiang Hsu
Post title: Recursive self-improvement (RSI) of AI is the core concern

What is much discussed and “worried” now is this so-called RSI. It is basically a feedback loop where an AI system becomes capable of improving its own capabilities, or helping to design and build the next, more powerful generation of AI models, without any human input.

While fully autonomous RSI is not yet a reality so far as I know, a partial form of RSI is already happening across the industry. AI models are now doing a meaningful share of the research and engineering work to create their successors.

Yet Amodei's worry (or his obsession) is not about the progress itself, but about the pace of progress. He’s afraid that this recursive feedback loop could sharply accelerate AI capabilities, potentially leaving safety research (alignment, interpretability, and testing) far behind for frontier labs.

So the link between the use of RSI and the pace of progress is real. And the danger of RSI without safety control is real too. But if safety control could potentially pace the AI race, at least, in the American AI frontier context, or at least, in Anthropic’s case, safety and pace don't actually have any internal link.

In other cases, particularly regarding Chinese labs, while State control (including safety control) is a major issue and a constant priority of the CCP, these actors are unwilling to slow their pace, nor will they do so under unilateral pressure from abroad. Consequently, if an agreement on safety standards were to be reached with China, it would certainly not be about "slowing down" the pace of development. Unlike (safety) control, “pacing” isn’t a concern to them whatever.

Furthermore, Xi will certainly not accept blackmail, threats, or unilaterally imposed values as a basis for any agreement. So that will be a tough negotiation esp. given that China is gaining technological independence and successfully producing chips of good enough quality.

That said, before that agreement is achieved, China will implement its own control methods and safety standards; US frontiers will need to find ways to ensure AI safety. For now, there are two paths open to them: adopting David Sacks’s approach, by internalizing a sense of responsibility, or following Amodei’s by slowing the pace.

Here’s David Sack’s response:
[url removed]

Money matters | Lack of work, makes me cry... | It's a good idea to seek an agreement with Xi. But for when?

Li-Hsiang Hsu — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 04:24:00 +0000

Forum: Money matters
Topic: Lack of work, makes me cry...
Poster: Li-Hsiang Hsu
Post title: It's a good idea to seek an agreement with Xi. But for when?

[quote]ATIL KAYHAN wrote:

In a gathering of CEOs in Washington this week, American business leaders disagreed with Donald Trump that potential AI risks are exaggerated, and they recommended that Trump works with Xi Jinping to address the threats AI is posing.

[url removed]
[/quote]

If fast AI development is going to cause harms, and AI is going to kill humanity, will we stop that before Trump and Xi even achieve an agreement?

That said, this effort is still worth a try. But things aren't going to be smooth. In Trump's trade negotiations, we have seen that China does not yield to any threats, blackmail, or any unilaterally imposed values. It's going to be a very hard job to have an agreement with Xi on this subject.