Translating Japanese to English

I currently work for Sony and that means I interact with a lot of Japanese people as well as documents written in Japanese. One of my coworkers moved from Tokyo to Los Angeles to help with her English skills. Unfortunately she still lacks a bit of confidence. Sometimes she will start with a document in Japanese and then use a translation program like Google Translate to convert it to English. Today I found myself needing to review several of her documents even though they had not been translated.

At Sony we need to be careful as to what translation services we use. While it is probably not a problem to use Google Translate, some of our documents contain company secrets and so we have set up our own large language model (LLM) artificial intelligence (AI) service to help with translation. This keeps outside services from being able to review our documents and being able to deduce some of the projects we are undertaking.

Our private LLM is based off similar technology to ChatGPT and so some of the things I have tried will work on that publicly available service.

I logged into our LLM and selected what type of help I wanted. Some of my choices included General, Image, and Document as well as Translator. Naturally I selected the last one and it presented a dialog area where I could ask questions and it would provide a response. I started with, "Translate the following from Japanese to English:," and then copied and pasted a Japanese phrase from the document I needed to review. Before spitting out an answer, the LLM asked me to provide some context such as the intended audience. I mentioned it will be used for internal documentation and then it provided a translation. The English matched my expectation of what should be in the document and so I copied the text into the original document under the Japanese text.

Next I typed, "Translate:," followed by another Japanese phrase and the LLM replied with, "Certainly, here is the translation." It was so polite I wanted to start all of my requests with, "Please." I stopped myself from using such pleasantries knowing that the machine doing the work would ignore them. I also tried just copying and pasting the Japanese text without indicating I wanted it translated. Most of the time, the LLM would translate for me. Several times it responded with something along the lines of, "I'm sorry I don't know what to do." Simply prepending the phrase with, "Translate," would be all the instructions it needed.

I translated three or four documents rather quickly and could review them. The translations seemed clear and concise. I shared what I had done with my colleague and she is happy I took the initiative to get something done instead of waiting for her. She can now review the work done by the LLM and make sure it matches her initial intent.

My experience with Large Language Model AI impressed me today. I prefer to write my own documentation and so there are not a lot of other uses for the technology. It did do an amazing job translating a very difficult language like Japanese to English and is now my favorite technology for such jobs in the future. Should you need translation services, I highly recommend giving it a try.

More BSOD Issues But My Laptop is Fixed

Yesterday my IT department reached out to me via chat and provided instructions on how to get my laptop back from the dead because of the CrowdStrike BSOD. I immediately responded that I knew what to do but did not have administrator access for my laptop. A minute or two later, the contact provided me with a new login with admin privileges and the corresponding password. I am keeping that information should I need it in the future.

I rebooted my laptop into safe mode and logged in using the new credentials. As it is the first time anyone has ever logged into the machine with that user name and password, Windows had to set up a number of things with a lot of restrictions because of running in safe mode. It took about 5 minutes to complete. Unfortunately I experienced a new set of issues to overcome.

I had hoped I could just go into the command-line tool to navigate to the directory with the offending file. Unfortunately I couldn't get it to load. I had to right-click on the Windows menu and bring up the File Explorer. I put in the explicit path in the navigation field and successfully entered the directory. Then I scrolled down to the "C-00000291 . . ." file and right clicked on the file name. One of the options in the menu is "Delete" and I clicked it. Then just to be sure, I emptied the Recycle Bin as I didn't want anything to try and recover that file. The final step was a reboot. Then my computer came up without issue.

I made sure to thank the IT person and let him know my computer revived from the dead and I could start working. He thanked me for the confirmation and moved off to another system to restore.

The fix for getting the CrowdStrike problem is actually fairly simple on paper. The problem comes from Microsoft Windows and how it is impossible to fix without having someone log into each individual machine to remove a single file. That further gets complicated by various configurations like safe mode not being able to send output to the monitor on a DisplayPort or a new user with administrator privileges logging into a machine for the first time. So when you wonder why Delta Airlines can't get their machines back up and running quickly so you can fly home from a vacation, hopefully my journey has provided you with some understanding.

BSOD Update with a Twist

Today I came across a friend with a computer experiencing the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) caused by the CrowdStrike update on Friday. He and I are both computer experts in that we work solving computer problems on a daily basis. We both knew the steps to deal with the problem once we got the computer to boot in safe mode. The trick was figuring out how to get it up in safe mode.

The computer in question had two ports to connect to monitors but only had a single monitor. One port had an HDMI interface while the other had a DisplayPort interface. They are slightly different but have somewhat similar cables. As luck would have it, the monitor for the computer only had a DisplayPort cable and so that is what the computer used. Unbeknownst to us, when Windows tries to boot in safe mode, it cannot talk to the DisplayPort and has to use the HDMI one.

The way to recognize this is that the computer will reboot twice and on the third time nothing will be displayed. Hitting the return key will cause the computer to reboot and try to do 3 more reboots before going dark again. My friend and I tried a number of ways to force the machine booting into safe mode but that only brought the blank screen.

On a whim, I suggested we remove the DisplayPort cable and try to boot using an HDMI monitor. This means we had to grab a TV from another room and bring it into the same room as the computer. We also had to completely unplug the DisplayPort cable from the computer and connect the HDMI cable. Once we did that, we went through the required three reboots and on the third time got the computer running in safe mode. We deleted the offending file and rebooted the computer. It worked well. Furthermore we just unplugged the HDMI cable and re-inserted the Display-Port cable. We didn't have to shut down the machine or change any hardware settings. The original display worked fine and we could use the computer.

If you find yourself getting to the third reboot and a blank screen, you may just need to try an HDMI cable instead of a DisplayPort one. My hope is that this advice helps someone out there still experiencing trouble.

The Windows Blue Screen of Death

This morning I woke up and headed down to my office in the basement. I knew something was wrong when I saw a light as I walked down the darkened stairs. It came from my work laptop and that is not normal. I figured an update happened overnight and that turned out to be the case. Then I looked at the screen and saw the dreaded Windows Blue Screen of Death or BSOD for short. I only have one meeting on Friday's and so I followed the on-screen instructions to try and get the laptop ready for that 11am appointment. With no luck, I stopped playing before I did some damage to the laptop and went for my morning bike ride.

That last sentence probably is worth repeating: I stopped playing before I did some damage to the laptop and went for my morning bike ride. Often times when experiencing a computer problem it is best to take a step back and think through ALL of your options before proceeding. During my ride I figured that I probably was not the only one experiencing this issue and I should figure out how to check my work e-mail to see if there might be a memo about the problem.

Fortunately there is a website I can go to on my personal Mac. It took some hunting around but I found it and had no fewer than 5 e-mails telling me about the problem and that there is a fix. My company, Sony, also sent an e-mail to my personal e-mail account telling me to file an IT ticket with our internal help system. I did.

This is not an isolated issue. CrowdStrike is a security vendor that a lot of companies use to help secure their computers. Last night they sent an update that caused the BSOD for not just a number of Sony computers but also airlines, banks, and government offices. There is a simple workaround to get your computer back from the dead. The only catch is that you have to have administrator privileges for your computer. Sony has locked me out so I can't delete the file. Should you have administrator privileges, here are the steps to get your computer working again:

1. Boot your computer in Safe Mode. This means letting your computer try to reboot 3 times and then it will bring up a screen that asks you to Troubleshoot or turn off your computer, among other options. Use the arrow keys to select "Troubleshoot." At the next screen, select "Start Up Settings" and choose option 4 or 5 which boots the computer in safe mode. Here are Microsoft's instructions.
2. Once your computer is up and running, open the command-line tool. Usually you can go to the search bar at the bottom of the screen and type "cmd" which will bring up the command-line tool.
3. Change the working directory to the right one using: cd C:\Windows\System32\drivers\CrowdStrike
4. When I try to change directories I get an "Access Denied" error but if you don't get that error you are in the right place to delete the offending file which can be done with: del C-00000291*.sys*
5. Reboot your computer and you should be good to go.

Hopefully this helps you get back on your computer. Unfortunately I need to wait until I hear back from my IT department. Too bad it isn't winter or I could totally get away with going skiing. Instead I will work on something else that I can do with just e-mail and limited network access to the office.

Different Vacations

For the past year I have been training to climb Mt. Rainier. Now that the trip is over I find myself with a lot of extra time in the evenings and on weekends. This is both a blessing and a curse. While the training for climbing a mountain overwhelmed my schedule, it provided a needed focus in my life. While I have another vacation approaching, it is much less physically demanding.

In September I will be headed to Disney World with two of my grandchildren and wife. I am making sure to keep up on my evening walks so we won't get tired by all the walking we plan to do. I am also leveraging online resources to help plan the event. With Mt. Rainier, I utilized a lot of material from the Uphill Athlete. With Disney World, there are a lot of YouTube videos to help with the preparation. Fortunately most of the work can be done on the computer while relaxing on the couch.

Tomorrow starts a week of getting on the Internet early and making dining reservations to maximize my grand-kids' time with princesses and themed meals. It won't be nearly as physically draining as waking up early and hiking a thousand vertical feet. To be honest, I miss the physical preparation.

I had a friend ask if I am going to let my physical fitness decline now that my Mt. Rainier trip is over. I don't think I can as I have come to enjoy being able to walk up hills faster than I ever have before. As soon as we get some early season snow, I plan to hike up Alta with my skis and do my best to avoid rocks on the way down. There are also a lot of mountain peaks in the area that we couldn't climb earlier in the summer because of dangerous snow. The snow is all but gone and so my wife and I plan summit some of them in the coming days.

Ultimately I need another physical vacation in the next year to train for. Do I pull out my bike and plan for a century ride (that would be 100-miles in a single day) or try for another mountain? My wife has asked about doing Mt. Whitney in California or perhaps Mt. Adams in Washington. Ultimately I have worked hard to achieve this fitness level and while I have joked about sitting on the couch for the next 3 months, I'd prefer to continue improving my fitness.

Learning From Failure

We are often told that we learn the most from our failures. While it may be true, that doesn't make failure easy to deal with. This past weekend my wife and I attempted to summit Mt. Rainier in Washington. We have been training for a year and both felt prepared to make the 9,000 vertical-foot trek up the mountain reaching a height of 14,410 feet. As you can guess from the title of today's entry, we didn't quite make it.

We signed on with the RMI guide service at the end of last summer and then trained relentlessly to make our goal. I would say that I bordered on over training every week. During the process of our lengthy hikes, I developed a nasty case of Plantar Fasciitis. In the course of the year, I have tried a number of remedies and the one that seems to work the best is good old fashion stretching. I guess I need to add that to my daily exercise list. Who knew? Probably about every exercise instructor on the planet. Now I have first-hand experience in why stretching is important.

My wife and I felt very prepared for the climb and had a workout schedule that had us increasing our long hikes progressively higher each week. Often times we would have to cut our distance short because of snow. In hindsight, we should have embraced the snow and continued upwards with crampons and ice axes. Instead we turned around, hiked down, and then back up to reach our vertical goal. As part of the training from RMI before starting our climb, they taught us how to walk up and downhill safely in the snow. As an avid skier, I thought I had those skills already. I didn't but now I do.

On one of our last hikes preparing for Mt. Rainier, we hiked to the top of Mt. Olympus in Utah. It is a hike of about 4200 vertical feet over the course of 3.5 miles. The last quarter mile is more of a rock scramble than a hike and rock climbing skills come in handy. You go up about 700 vertical feet in that short distance and that turned out to be incredibly useful as there is a similar section on Mt. Rainier, only much longer and sketchier.

So what went wrong? We started hiking Mt. Rainier at around 10am on Friday morning and hiked about 5,000 vertical feet up to Camp Muir over the course of 4 miles. We knew about that as that is what we trained for. The whole team took a nice pace that we all felt we could keep and made it to our stopping point at about 3pm. Then we got some food and rested. Some of us even fell asleep. Then at 10pm our guides came into our bunkhouse and told us to get ready for the push to the summit. Unfortunately, I never trained for that. I probably should have as there is a mental element I didn't quite anticipate.

We started hiking up the Cowlitz Glacier and about 100 yards later, I had a wind gust blow me off the trail and onto the ground, spraining my ankle in the process. I jumped right back up and didn't tell anyone about my ankle as I didn't want to end my climb that early. We continued up to the Ingraham Glacier where we took our first break of the night. The guides asked how we felt and I wanted to continue.

Next came Disappointment Cleaver, an aptly named feature on the mountain. For those that don't know, a cleaver is an outcropping of rock that cuts a glacier in two. Imagine a shark fin slicing massive blocks of ice as they slowly work their way down the mountain. A cleaver has the advantage that you are walking on solid ground instead of ice and snow. Unfortunately that rock is crumbly and very unstable. It made the rock scramble on Olympus look super easy. We fought our way to the top of the cleaver and had our second break of the night. I felt spent. I tried to eat a Snickers bar as I needed calories and food. My stomach politely informed me not to put anything else in it or I would experience a Technicolor burp. Who can't finish a Snickers bar? Well this is one instance I couldn't. When the guides asked me if I could continue, my stomach said no, my ankle said no, and before I could stop my mouth, it said no loud enough for the guides to hear. I had reached my high point of the trip. I had thought everyone else had too as the winds gusted into the 50 mile per hour range. The guides almost made that the high point for the entire group. Fortunately for the others, they persevered to the top.

In hindsight I know I could have made it to the top. Getting all the way to the bottom safely is a different story. If I had gone to the top, my other team members would have gotten to see a helicopter rescue and that isn't good for anyone. Instead I safely made my way back to Camp Muir with several other climbers and a guide. I waited for the rest of the team to descend and then headed all the way back to the parking lot. Fortunately I could glissade below Camp Muir which is a fancy way of saying I slid down on my butt. It is a highly effective means of travel on snow and I highly recommend it. I don't think my ankle could have made it down without it.

The final lesson I learned from this adventure is that I need to be in better fitness condition. While I exercise a lot and am in better shape than 98% of the general population, I really need to be better than 99%. Upon hearing about our adventures, my daughter now wants to give it a shot. Perhaps I will try to improve my fitness and accompany her. If not, I may give up mountain climbing and enter a few pie eating contests instead.