Where Did Jill Go????

In response to the countless emails that I have received, I have not gone anywhere...I am still involved in the fight against terror...I didn't die...and no, the Jihadi's didn't "get" me!!

So where have I been?  Taking a well deserved and much needed break from the Arabic forums.  After more than three years of researching terrorist threats,  literally 7 days a week, I simply got burned out. It is very difficult to stay focused when you see so much hatred against the country that you love, day in and day out.

So when will I return at full speed?  Around the third week in July, after my honeymoon! I am getting married in a few weeks, and that folks is where much of my energy has been focused.

BUT...

There will be some changes...The "RAW" translations of the threats that I find on the Arabic forums may get a little more 'raw'...And, I will apologize in advance for that.  It seems that Tarjim (Ajeeb), the translation software that I was previously using has decided that they don't care if they have customers in the United States that want to translate Arabic to English.  The Ajeeb software, according to a spokesperson in their Washington, DC office, was originally created for translating English to Arabic...and the spokesman went further to tall me that they didn't really care if they had any American subscribers.

Take a look at  some of the changes that Tarjim has implemented to discourage Americans from using their translation service:

1. They no longer accept ANY credit cards, or payment service (PayPal, etc). They explain this by saying that too many Americans were using their service and then reversing the credit card charges

2. Tarjim used to charge  $100.00 for a years subscription of their service or 500,000 words, whichever came first. (In my case, I  could easily use up the 500,000 words in a months time) Now, they are charging $1000.00 for one million words!  

Yes, you read that right...they are charging $1000.00 for what would have cost $200.00 a few months ago.

3.Although Tarjim has offices in the United States...the ONLY way to pay for their service is by doing a money transfer to EGYPT using the following instructions:

The following is taken from Tarjim's subscription page:

• Tarjim is an automatic translation service to translate text and web pages from English into Arabic and vice versa. The annual subscription cost of $1,000 entitles you to translate up to 1 million words. The account can be accessed by multi-users at the same time.
• You can subscribe to the service by a bank transfer to the following account:
  Bank Name: Egyptian Commercial Bank (ECB)
  Branch: Heliopolis - Nazeh Khalifa St., Cairo - Egypt
  Account Name: Sakhr Software Co.
  Account Number: 10011657
  Swift Code: ECBAEGCA
  ECB correspondent: Bank of New York
  
• After completing the bank transfer, fill the following form so we can activate your account within 1 working day from receiving the payment and send a confirmation mail to you. (Note: Weekend is Friday and Saturday.)

NO THANKS Tarjim (Sakhr Software Co.)!!!!  

Anyone that is stupid enough to do a $1000.00 wire transfer with this company deserves to get ripped off...you will have no recourse. AND based on their history of double charging for translated words (meaning that you may translate 10 words with their service but had 20+ deducted off of the words that remained on your subscription. You complain...they would never respond.

That is only one of the changes...the rest will all be pleasant!!!

Take care...I'll be back in less than a month!

Jill