A gamble...
May. 2nd, 2002 09:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexpgpSo this translation I'm doing for client M is a Russian standard, but next to the standard number is a reference to an ISO standard. So off I go to look up this standard and...
...I find it on the ISO website (good news). I can only get it if I buy it (bad news), and it's CHF 80 (about $50).
So I have to ask myself if I'm feeling lucky. No doubt, the Russian version of the standard is going to have its... departures... from anything in the ISO inventory. Will it be worth it?
This issue came up once before, when I was doing the steel tank specification. I didn't buy the appropriate standard then (mostly because it was way too expensive). Should I risk it?
I decide to give it a whirl. I enter all my data, but fail to note that - despite the fact that I am buying an electronic version of the standard - the ISO site insists on sending it to me via snail mail.
Say what, bro'?
Fortunately, the system rejects my attempt to buy the standard, saying it can't deliver it by mail, and suggests I resubmit my purchase request, but with delivery effected by DSL this time.
No, thank you.
A few more minutes of web-surfing uncovers the availability of the document from the ANSI web site, for $50. I enter the appropriate info and download the 189 KB file almost immediately.
As I suspected, the Russian document and the ISO standard differ, and it's easy to see that the difference is significant. However, a closer examination shows sentences and occasional short paragraphs are identical.
So the determination of whether the $50 was worth it will come at the end of the project, when I'll have to figure out just how much time the document (which is a "killer" reference) will save me. I figure it's saved me at least 10 minutes (maybe 15) so far, and I'm 3 pages into the thing.
But I've done about as much as I can do, today, so there I'll leave it.
Cheers...
...I find it on the ISO website (good news). I can only get it if I buy it (bad news), and it's CHF 80 (about $50).
So I have to ask myself if I'm feeling lucky. No doubt, the Russian version of the standard is going to have its... departures... from anything in the ISO inventory. Will it be worth it?
This issue came up once before, when I was doing the steel tank specification. I didn't buy the appropriate standard then (mostly because it was way too expensive). Should I risk it?
I decide to give it a whirl. I enter all my data, but fail to note that - despite the fact that I am buying an electronic version of the standard - the ISO site insists on sending it to me via snail mail.
Say what, bro'?
Fortunately, the system rejects my attempt to buy the standard, saying it can't deliver it by mail, and suggests I resubmit my purchase request, but with delivery effected by DSL this time.
No, thank you.
A few more minutes of web-surfing uncovers the availability of the document from the ANSI web site, for $50. I enter the appropriate info and download the 189 KB file almost immediately.
As I suspected, the Russian document and the ISO standard differ, and it's easy to see that the difference is significant. However, a closer examination shows sentences and occasional short paragraphs are identical.
So the determination of whether the $50 was worth it will come at the end of the project, when I'll have to figure out just how much time the document (which is a "killer" reference) will save me. I figure it's saved me at least 10 minutes (maybe 15) so far, and I'm 3 pages into the thing.
But I've done about as much as I can do, today, so there I'll leave it.
Cheers...
