Michael Basler's Internet Home

Work in...	...and beyond
Scientific/Technical Translations	Cinema
Theoretical Physicis	Flight Simulation
	Playing the Piano

General contact:

For more detail on my life, please refer to my Resume. The Impressum contains further possibilities for contact as well as legal matters.

Photo: Foto Gebhardt Jena

Scientific/Technical Translations (since 1997)

Main fields of translation:

Patent applications in the fields of computer hardware/software, electronics, technology in general, physics.
Text books as well as popular science books in the fields of physics, mathematics, astronomy (including typesetting e.g. with LaTeX, it required).
General technical texts like manuals, standards etc.
Website translation / localisation (HTML/CSS) notably Sites comprising technical/scientific contents

Language combinations: English (rarely Russian) and German. More detail can be found on my
Translation Business Page.

I can look back onto more than 1500 translated patent applications or specifications for various agencies and patent attorney's offices. Here are a few of the of books I translated up to now:

S. L. Sallas, E. Hille, Calculus, Einführung in die Differential- und Integralrechnung, Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, Heidelberg, Berlin, Oxford, 1994, ISBN 3-86025-130-9. (out of stock)
from the American, translated together with T. Lange and K. H. Lotze; Original Title: Calculus, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1990.

A didactic masterpiece, enclosing just the necessary basics to comprehend Calculus. All less important stuff is omitted, but a lot of examples are presented. Contrary to some other "lower level" introductions all proofs are given, or at least sketched.

Earned 5/5 possible stars by users at Amazon.de!
Jeff Foust, Ron Lafon: PC @stronomie: Unendliche Weiten auf Ihrem PC, mitp-Verlag, Bonn, 2000, ISBN 3-8266-0618-3 (out of stock)
from the American; Original Title: Astronomer's Computer Companion, no starch press, San Francisco, 2000.

The book aims at showing links between astronomy and (mostly) Personal Computers. It helps in localizing astronomy stuff on your PC as quickly and simply as possible. After a concise introduction to astronomy, the book gives a comprehensive outline of Internet resources like Web Sites, Newsgroups, Online Services, Search Engines, and goes on with planetarium programs, satellite tracking software and observational programs. Included is a CD-ROM with numerous freeware, shareware and demo programs, pictures from the Hubble telescope, and more.

Paul A. Tipler, Gene Mosca, Physik für Wissenschaftler und Ingenieure, Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, Heidelberg, 2004, ISBN 3-8274-1164-5 (2nd German Edition)
from the American, translated together with R. M. Dohmen, C. Heinisch, W. Kuhn, A. Schleitzer, and M. Zillgitt Original Title: Physics for scientists and engineers, W. H. Freeman and Co., New York and Basingstoke 2003.

Tipler's book is pretty much a (if not the) Standard Physics Text for Engineering students. It is clearly written and famous for its numerous examples and applications. Engineering students have been working with it ever since the first German edition became available in the 1990s. This new edition is one of the up-to-date four-colour representations excelling in plain examples, try-it-yourself-examples, put-it-in-context-examples, practice problems, and much more.

New translation of most recent 6th English Edition as well as accompanying practice book ist just in work and scheduled to appear in 2009.

Book covers with kind permissions from the publishers.

Theoretical Physics at Friedrich Schiller University Jena (1978-1997)

I was working at Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany, from 1978 to 1997. During this time, I was mainly performing research in the following three fields (for additional information just click the pictures):

Non-Abelian Gauge Field Theories (1978-1984) (Graphics: Wikipedia.de, PD)	Cosmological Particle Production (1984-1992) (Photo: Wolfgang Kloehr - Fotolia.com):	Two-dimensional Josephson Junction Arrays (1992-1997) (Own graphics)

Here is a list of my Scientific Publications as a pdf file.

Cinema

Films and cinema have been a fascinating topic during all my life. I stood in a long queue for tickets for My Fair Lady with unforgettable Audrey Hepburn in the 1960s. I remember performances of Sergej Bondartschuk's Masterpiece War and Peace on 70 mm/Todd AO screens - now being history - in the 1970s. And I recall wonderful art house films like Fanny and Alexander by famous director Ingmar Bergman from the 1980s, now available on DVD - finally.

Click on the DVD cover to the r.h.s. for some
Feature Films I'll probably always stay in love with.
Cover: Ingmar Bergman: Fanny and Alexander, DVD available from The Criterion Collection- thanks for the kind permission. Further detail on the film page.

My Website Susanne-Bormann.info is to inform on German actress Susanne Bormann who started acting at the age of 8 already. Susanne excelled as desperate Patty in Andreas Dresen's famous film Nachtgestalten (1998). She's perhaps best known as blonde angel Britta in Liegen Lernen (2003). In addition, she gave stunning performances on stage in Neil LaBute's the shape of things in Nuremberg (2005-2007) and as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet at the Freilichtspiele Schwaebisch Hall in 2007/2008.

Flight Simulation

I've always been interested in the world of flight, planes and airports. This way, it was love at first sight when I detected Microsoft Flight Simulator 4 in a shop someplace back in 1991.

Even if there's still a gap to a full motion simulator which I had the pleasure to try in Frankfurt once: The experience is truly overwhelming, and with recent PC technology it comes closer and closer to "the real thing". This is much more than a game. The screen shot shows my home town Jena while I am banking in a Cessna 172 in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004.

Screen shot taken from Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight, permitted within Microsoft's copyright rules. Includes Scenery Germany 4 by Aerosoft, with kind permission.

Playing the Piano

As a school boy, I got a basic piano education, but perhaps I didn't fully realize what value it is at that time. Today, playing the piano is one of the things I really enjoy.

My favourite piano composers are Csajkovskij, Chopin and particularly Robert Schumann (to the right, with his wife Clara). Beyond that, I enjoy all good music, starting from classical compositions via film music up to (I confess) decent and original rock music.

Piano Photo: Kurt Duchatschek - Fotolia.com
Photo Clara and Robert Schumann: de.wikipedia.org, PD

I am a member of local "Friends of School of Music and Arts Jena" and maintain the corresponding Website.

Online since: 1997
Latest update: 11/15/2008