John Sterne interview with Damian Scattergood on his career in software localisation (with occasional interjections from Allen Higgins who also worked at Symantec).
In part 2 of the interview John Sterne talks with Damian about his move into software localisation at Symantec’s Irish subsidiary in Ballycoolin Business Park, Blanchardstown and ultimately, co-founding STAR Translation with Paul Quigley in 2002.
Notes:
STAR Translation Services - https://www.star-ts.com/
L10n and i18n = Localisation and internationalisation.
Symantec Corporation (now dissolved) underwent continuous transformation over its lifetime. Organised as a portfolio company Symantec grew continuously through numerous merger/demerger/acquisitions over its lifetime, culminating the 2000s with its own acquisition/split by Broadcom in 2019. Part of the previous entity is currently styled as Gen Digital Inc.
Peter Norton Computing was acquired by Symantec in 1990. Symantec had its own product branding for its dev tools (THINK C, THINK Pascal) and productivity software (Q&A, ACT, PC Anywhere). Symantec continued to use “Norton” and Peter Norton’s image as a brand identity for its trusted utility product lines. These included products acquired through the Peter Norton acquisition: Norton Commander, Norton Utilities, and Norton Backup, but they also employed the Norton brand to AntiVirus and utility/security products that were developed internally or added through licensing, mergers, and acquisitions in later years.
The Norton brand also lives on as Norton 360, a privacy and security product and services business. https://ie.norton.com
Listen to this background article on the history of Symantec on “The History of Computing” Podcast by Charles Edge.
https://thehistoryofcomputing.net/the-history-of-symantec#
Acknowledgements
This episode was recorded in conjunction with the Techarchives.Irish project led by John Sterne. The TechArchives project collects and preserves accounts of the social history of technology in Ireland.
The goal is to create a public record of actions and events that might otherwise be forgotten.
We want to convey what it was like to work with the technologies of the past – as a computer user, a software developer or a project participant, sharing our memories and recollections of relevant people and organisations, products and services, successes and failures.
Music
Title: Voltaic Fluctuations
Artist: Ben Prunty
Source: https://www.benpruntymusic.com/
License: Non-transferable license. Permission granted by Ben Prunty
Cover Art
Title: Complex collage
Artist: Allen Higgins
Source: vignette_version.pptx
License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Podcast License
Design Talk (dot IE) CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
The license can be viewed at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
By taking part you give permission for your voice to be recorded, for the recording to be edited, and for it to be posted and published as a podcast.
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