ProZ.com translation contests »
21st translation contest: "The tides of tech" » English to Dutch

Competition in this pair is now closed, and the winning entry has been announced.

Discussion and feedback about the competition in this language pair may now be provided by visiting the "Discussion & feedback" page for this pair. Entries may also be individually discussed by clicking the "Discuss" link next to any listed entry.

Source text in English

Boom times are back in Silicon Valley. Office parks along Highway 101 are once again adorned with the insignia of hopeful start-ups. Rents are soaring, as is the demand for fancy vacation homes in resort towns like Lake Tahoe, a sign of fortunes being amassed. The Bay Area was the birthplace of the semiconductor industry and the computer and internet companies that have grown up in its wake. Its wizards provided many of the marvels that make the world feel futuristic, from touch-screen phones to the instantaneous searching of great libraries to the power to pilot a drone thousands of miles away. The revival in its business activity since 2010 suggests progress is motoring on.

So it may come as a surprise that some in Silicon Valley think the place is stagnant, and that the rate of innovation has been slackening for decades. Peter Thiel, a founder of PayPal, and the first outside investor in Facebook, says that innovation in America is “somewhere between dire straits and dead”. Engineers in all sorts of areas share similar feelings of disappointment. And a small but growing group of economists reckon the economic impact of the innovations of today may pale in comparison with those of the past.

[ … ]

Across the board, innovations fueled by cheap processing power are taking off. Computers are beginning to understand natural language. People are controlling video games through body movement alone—a technology that may soon find application in much of the business world. Three-dimensional printing is capable of churning out an increasingly complex array of objects, and may soon move on to human tissues and other organic material.

An innovation pessimist could dismiss this as “jam tomorrow”. But the idea that technology-led growth must either continue unabated or steadily decline, rather than ebbing and flowing, is at odds with history. Chad Syverson of the University of Chicago points out that productivity growth during the age of electrification was lumpy. Growth was slow during a period of important electrical innovations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; then it surged.

The winning entry has been announced in this pair.

There were 3 entries submitted in this pair during the submission phase. The winning entry was determined based on finals round voting by peers.

Competition in this pair is now closed.


Entries (3 total) Expand all entries

Entry #26554 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Netherlands
Winner
Voting points1st2nd3rd
6615 x42 x22 x1
Entry tagging:
  • 4 users entered 14 "like" tags
  • 4 users agreed with "likes" (12 total agrees)
  • 3 users disagreed with "likes" (4 total disagrees)
+1
prijken weer logo’s
Good term selection
Hans van Leeuwen
Dat is een teken dat er weer fortuinen vergaard worden.
Flows well
Excellent ​decision t​o start a ​new senten​ce here.
Kitty Brussaard
-1
1
genieën
Good term selection
Kitty Brussaard
+1
1
We bedienen onze telefoon met een touchscreen, doorzoeken in een oogwenk grote bibliotheken en kunnen op duizenden kilometers afstand een drone besturen
Flows well
Excellent ​idea to av​oid ending​ up with a​n even lon​ger senten​ce than th​e source b​y starting​ a new sen​tence here​ in order ​to list th​e various ​examples.
Kitty Brussaard
insiders
Good term selection
Kitty Brussaard
+2
op een laag pitje staan.
Good term selection
Kitty Brussaard
+3
op sterven na dood
Good term selection
An elegant​ translati​on
Kitty Brussaard
Over de hele linie
Good term selection
Valery Van Kerrebroeck
+1
innovaties die gebruikmaken van
Good term selection
Excellent ​decision t​o avoid th​e more lit​eral trans​lation sol​utions '(a​an)gedreve​n door' or​ 'aangejaa​gd door' h​ere.
Kitty Brussaard
+1
rekenkracht
Good term selection
Geale de Vries
-1
1
uitspugen
Good term selection
Kitty Brussaard
-2
2
‘Ja, dat zeiden ze tien jaar geleden ook al.’
Good term selection
Kitty Brussaard
+2
Maar de geschiedenis leert dat er geen sprake is van een gestage toename of afname van technologische ontwikkelingen. Nu eens gaat het snel en dan weer langzaam.
Flows well
Kitty Brussaard
+1
1
De groei verliep langzaam aan het einde van de negentiende en het begin van de twintigste eeuw, een periode met belangrijke elektrische innovaties, en schoot vervolgens omhoog.
Flows well
Kitty Brussaard
Entry #27097 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Netherlands
Robbin Besselink
Robbin Besselink
Netherlands
Voting points1st2nd3rd
355 x46 x23 x1
Entry tagging:
  • 3 users entered 7 "like" tags
  • 3 users agreed with "likes" (4 total agrees)
  • 3 users disagreed with "likes" (4 total disagrees)
-3
2
vullen zich opnieuw met
Good term selection
An elegant​, non-lite​ral soluti​on.
Kitty Brussaard
+2
in resorts rond bijvoorbeeld Lake Tahoe
Good term selection
This is an​ improveme​nt of the ​source whi​ch wrongly​ suggests ​that Lake ​Tahoe itse​lf is a re​sort town/​city.
Link: https://en​.wikipedia​.org/wiki/​Lake_Tahoe
Kitty Brussaard
+1
uitvindingen
Good term selection
Kitty Brussaard
+1
1
bloeien
Good term selection
opbloeien:​ mooie woo​rdkeuze
Edith van der Have
dramatisch en dood
Flows well
I like the​ maintaine​d allitera​tion
Geale de Vries
-1
1
meestal met hoge pieken en dalen gepaard gaat, in plaats van rustig door te kabbelen.
Good term selection
Kitty Brussaard
De groei verliep tijdens de periode van belangrijke elektrische innovaties aan het einde van de 19e eeuw en het begin van de 20e eeuw ook eerst erg traag, om daarna juist een enorme sprong te maken.
Flows well
Kitty Brussaard
Entry #27098 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Netherlands
Voting points1st2nd3rd
1805 x28 x1
Entry tagging:
  • 2 users entered 3 "like" tags
  • 4 users agreed with "likes" (5 total agrees)
+4
1
bakermat
Good term selection
Edith van der Have
bedrijvigheid
Good term selection
Edith van der Have
+1
1
Een innovatiepessimist zou dit als een 'valse belofte' af kunnen doen.
Good term selection
Kitty Brussaard