A while ago I wrote about some articles about me that I’d found in Romanian publications. As they were in Romanian, I couldn’t really tell what they were saying.
A couple of months ago, a Romanian fellow named Vasi was kind enough to provide a translation of the two articles. Here’s what he wrote about the Romanian Computerworld article:
The original news:
Ce-o mai fi cu Waldo?
Un adolescent de 17 ani din Virginia, Waldo Jaquith si-a propus sa realizeze un
jurnal Web al escaldarii sale in Muntii Apalasi, cu ajutorul modemului celular.
Din pacate, incercarea, fara a fi compromisa complet, intampina dificultati
deoarece, in timpul ascensiunii, ecranul laptop-ului a fost deteriorat, astfel
ca Waldo a lansat in home-page-ul sau mesajul “laptop is dead. Kaput”. Sponsorii
tanarului incearca sa-i procure un nou laptop. Intre timp, el tine un jurnal
scris de mana.
Translated:
What’s the news on Waldo ?
A 17 year-old teenager from Virginia, Waldo Jaquith, proposed himself to keep a
Web log of his Appalachian Mountains climb, all by using a cellular modem.
Unfortunately, his attempt — without being completely compromised — is now
facing difficulties, since his laptop’s display was broken during the trip.
Therefore, Waldo displayed on his homepage the message “laptop is dead. Kaput”.
The sponsors are trying to get a new laptop. Meanwhile, he’s stuck using a
hand-written log.
Vasi also translated the second, more mysterious and lengthy article, paragraph-by-paragraph.
The first link is a homepage, where the author put up some articles he wrote for
a printed magazine. The specified article speaks about young folks, basically
teenagers, who managed to have their names recognized in the IT business.
Nothing very unusual until now, but the difference is they did this without any
help from ‘the system’; their achievements were all obtained by working
individually, with dedication, while fighting the oppresive (closed-source :] )
restraints of today’s educational system(s).
The persons mentioned in the article are: a 16 year-old girl, who managed to
come up with a faster encryption algorithm which not even the “grown-ups”
managed to understand very easily, and Rasterman, the creator of Enlightenment
window manager and other nice user interfaces.
The part speaking about you:
Webmasterul in pantaloni scurti
Waldo Jaquith si-a cistigat primii banuti la virsta de 15 ani, construind pagini
de Web pentru diversi muzicieni care doreau sa-si faca reclama pe Internet.
Afacerea a prosperat, la fel si autorul ei care devenea, cinci ani mai tirziu,
adica astazi, unul din membrii importanti (“chief technologist”) ai firmei High
RezSolutions, specializata in crearea paginilor de Internet.
The webmaster in shorts (gymshorts, short pants, not the underwear type :)
Waldo Jaquith won his first money at the age of 15, by building web pages for
some musicians that wanted to advertise on the Internet. His business evolved,
and so did his author, which became, five years later, today – that is, one of
the main members (“chief technologist”) of the High RezSolutions company,
specialised in web page creation.
Iata un tinar intreprinzator, se va zice. Da, dar acum cinci ani, cind Waldo isi
incepea cariera, Internetul era si el la inceputurile sale. Nici astazi nu este
prea usor sa inveti web-design de calitate, cu toate ca documentatia, slava
Domnului, sta gramezi peste gramezi, carti s-au publicat destule iar cursuri
pentru doritori sunt la tot pasul. Insa acum cinci ani, aproape nimic din toate
acestea nu exista; cine voia sa invete atunci web-design o facea aproape
exclusiv prin efort propriu, iar acest lucru traseaza, parca, diferenta dintre
simplul spirit de intreprindere si altceva, de o calitate mai subtila si, in mod
sigur, mult mai rara…
Now there’s a young man with initiative, you might say. Yes, but five years ago,
when Waldo was starting his career, the Internet was also in his first years.
Even today, learning quality web-design isn’t very easy, even if the
documentation for it, thank God, is abondant, there are plenty of books and
specialised training for those who want. Five years ago, almost none of these
things existed; those who wanted to learn web-design did it almost exclusively
by their own efforts, and this draws the line between simply having initiative
and something else, much more subtle and, certainly, much difficult to found…
Un personaj interesant, acest Waldo Jaquith, a carui pagina de Web proprie ii
este o oglinda fidela a activitatii profesionale. Atita doar ca, la cei douazeci
de ani ai sai, nu are de gind sa mearga la facultate, si trateaza subiectul
acesta chiar cu o oarecare nepasare. Pe cind cei de virsta lui lustruiesc
bancile amfiteatrelor prin colegii si facultati, Waldo isi vede linistit de
treaba, transfomind web-designul intr-o meserie banoasa.
An interesting character, this Waldo Jaquith, who’s own homepage is a perfect
mirror of his professional activity. It’s just that, at his twenty years, he
doesn’t consider going to college, and even treats this subject with some
disregard. While those at his age are wearing out desks in colleges and
universities, Waldo keeps working calmly, making web-design a money-rewarding
business.
Inca un geniu tinar care se manifesta mai degraba in ciuda sistemului decit
datorita acestuia? S-ar parea ca da, iar lista n-a ajuns deocamdata la capat.
Another young genius who manifests himself mostly against the system than
because of it ? It seems so, and the list hasn’t reached it’s end yet.
Weird, huh? Thanks very much, Vasi, for translating this for me. Maybe I should go to Romania and live off the kindness of strangers, who have apparantly taken to me.