English translation: "whizz kids" and "a real crackerjack"
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French to English translations [PRO] Tech/Engineering - Computers (general) / slang
French term or phrase:"brutes épaisses" and "balaise"
Context: computer experts
Donc j’ai deux-trois personnes que je connais qui sont des brutes épaisses en MS ou en Outlook ou dans un domaine précis MS…
Interviewer :
Donc vous avez un réseau de spécialistes, « lui il est super balaise en Outlook »…
Explanation: There are loads of possibilities. These are two that suit the context IMO.
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 19 mins (2006-02-03 20:18:25 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
"Ha oui, en passant, ne prevoit pas de faire carriere dans ce domaine, car apres 3 ans dans la vie active, seul un ou deux de mes amis travaillent encore dans ce domaine (et c'etait vraiment des brutes épaisses en prog), les autres sont soit chomeurs, soit développeurs d'applications de gestion..." http://archives.jeuxonline.info/fils/142500.html
If you go to google uk and select uk pages, you'll find loads of references to whizz (or whiz - both spellings are accepted) kid (sometimes hyphenated) and crackerjack.
Thanks, I forgot to say this is for a British audience.
Automatic update in 00:
Answers
17 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +1
brutes épaisses / super balaise
whizz kids / a real crackerjack
Explanation: There are loads of possibilities. These are two that suit the context IMO.
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 19 mins (2006-02-03 20:18:25 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
"Ha oui, en passant, ne prevoit pas de faire carriere dans ce domaine, car apres 3 ans dans la vie active, seul un ou deux de mes amis travaillent encore dans ce domaine (et c'etait vraiment des brutes épaisses en prog), les autres sont soit chomeurs, soit développeurs d'applications de gestion..." http://archives.jeuxonline.info/fils/142500.html
Flo Demolis France Local time: 07:53 Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 4
Grading comment
Thanks, this is just what I'm looking for.
And thanks to the other aces who answered.
Explanation: Wow! Until seeing these examples, I would never in my wildest dreams have imagined that "brute épaisse" could ever mean anything but "real thicko", "thick as two short bits of wood", with overtones of physical violence.
I wonder if the people using the term as in the question - and others like them - actually understand what the words mean ...
On second thoughts, maybe it's the equivalent of "geek", meaning a sort of social no-hoper (Clark Kent without the bum-hugging leotard), therefore negative, who happens to be really hot shit in some very specific usually technical field, so therefore becomes a positive thing.
xxxBourth Local time: 07:53 Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 51
The translation workplace 
