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When Dr.Santosh Babu (IAS), Managing Director of ELCOT invited me to present in this
year CETIT Conference, I had not known much about the event. Then searching on the
Internet, I learned that “CETIT
2010 is the second year of the conference-***-exhibition on e-Governance organized
by FICCI in association with ELCOT.
CeTIT claims to provide an opportunity to take stock of the practice and the promise
of digital technologies on e-Governance”. This certainly sounded interesting, so here
I am.
This year program happened yesterday and today in Chennai Trade Centre. I presented
on the topic of “Relevance of Unicode
to e-Governance”, this was part of the session on “Back Office” Chaired by Prof.M.Anandakrishnan (Chairman,
IIT Kanpur).
In my brief talk (~10 Mins) I was keen that I didn't confuse audience with too much
engineering detail on Encoding. At the same time I wanted to demystify Unicode and
what it is, importance of a single uniform encoding, where we are in terms of acceptance
of Unicode by various State Governments & Govt. of India. That I think I achieved.
(Download
the presentation as a PDF from here, the PowerPoint
version can be got from Docs.com)
My earlier presentation on UNICODE
for Tamil can be seen here.
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I have written in the past about lack
of Tamil unicode rendering support in all popular smartphones (iPhone,
Windows Mobile, Nokia). This week one of my colleague who uses a Windows Mobile 6.0
(HTC branded) phone showed me SkyFire browser.
SkyFire is a free mobile browser that uses a proprietary proxy server technology to
encode all Web contents (Text, Images, Videos, Flash, Silverlight) at their server
that gets rendered in the Mobile client. Because of this technology the individual
device limitations don’t affect their ability to render any language.
(Mobile IE not able to render Unicode Tamil)
 
(Windows Mobile running Skyfire displaying fine Unicode Tamil web pages)
SkyFire is a great technology and seeing Tamil being rendering seamlessly makes me
happy. But I am sceptical on the success of SkyFire – First, Mobile devices processing
power are increasing every day to support iPhone Safari like true desktop browsers
itself without need of a proxy server; Second, I don’t see a viable revenue model
on how SkyFire will make money to run the operations especially the high server costs.
Nevertheless a cool technology for now. If you have a Windows Mobile give it a try,
better than waiting for IE 6.0 in Windows Mobile or WM 7.0 :-)
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 Recently
I was checking out one of Nokia's entry level phone (Rs.2000) - Nokia
2626. The phone had "Hindi" letters printed on the keyboard,
so I was doubtful whether it will have Tamil fonts. I launched the built-in browser
and went to INFITT website (HTML
page in Unicode), it said loading and processing for over 2 minutes; but I was delighted
finally to see the page display properly in Tamil (you can see the image in right).
This means that this entry level device has 1. Unicode support, 2. Tamil Unicode font,
3. Rendering support for Indic languages in particular to Tamil. This proves
the present
Unicode system for Indic languages does work even on the most basic/low-end devices
and processors. So the reason Tamil Unicode is not yet supported widely on all phones
especially high-end Windows Mobile, iPhone, Blackberry & Nokia Smartphones is
not because of any technical limitations, but a lack of interest from the manufacturers
to ship Tamil (Indic) support. It is mostly got to do with the wrong assessment by
them, that all Smartphone buyers in India can read and care only about "English" and
not their mother tongue.
References: Hindi
support in mobile devices in India.
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Like any other Indian I was devastated at what happened in Mumbai
on 26th Nov 2008. Watching Television over the last 4 days it was a mixed feeling
of Anger, Scare, Sorry & Disappointment. I pray for the departed souls to rest
in peace and for almighty to give strength to the families that lost their loved ones
and for the injured for speedy recovery.
Since lot has been reported about the incident around the world, I was not sure whether
I too should be writing about this. Then I decided that every Indian has to raise
his/her voice against this atrocity, so here is what I feel on this:
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Indian Political establishment, the government & the intelligence machinery have
failed spectacularly once more. There is no point in blaming the
present Central or State Government for this, this is a failure of government at all
levels over the last two decades - ever since the fall of "Cold War" and
the raise of "Global Terrorism"
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Over the decades, time and again Indian Government and Indian Civil Service
have shown by their non-action that they don't value the loss of a life especially
of a ordinary Citizen. For them only the lives of Political Party Chiefs,
Ministers and their immediate family members lives have any value
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I just can't come to terms on how easy it was for the Terrorists to come into India
without being stopped and how easy it was for them to smuggle huge arms and ammunitions.
Does India have any coastal guards and navy worth mentioning?
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Though I felt the operation by security forces was very slow, we should commend them
for handling it skillfully with no civilian lives lost due to their firing, for not
using disproportionate gun power and for capturing one terrorist alive
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I am at loss on why our security forces don't seem to be taking advantage
of technology. For two days they kept saying they don't know the number of
terrorists and where they are inside the buildings. Why didn't they use any Infra-Red
Scanners, Motion Detectors, Satellite Sensors and the other modern fighting gadgets
we see the American Armed Forces using skillfully in Iraq?. Does Indian Armed Forces
have any of these or just like everything else in Indian Government was the budgets
allocated for these swindled by Corruption?
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Without these modern gadgets how does Indian Armed Forces dream about fighting even
a conventional battle - with the changing world order wars are fought nowadays in
Cities and not in deserts. Are these gadgets too expensive for India to buy, I don't
think so especially when treasury can spent US$14 Billion (INR 70,000 Crores) on the
famous farm waivers and for issuing government bonds for subsidizing "Fuel"
- both of which yielded Political capital
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Though it is purely symbolic I still welcome the resignation of Central
Home Minister Mr.Shivraj Patel
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Though I don't agree with American & George Bush policies on their International
Policies and Iraq War. Still due credit should be given to them for protecting their
country (USA) in the last 8 years. After the devastating
9/11 there have been no major Terror Attacks with in the United States. In
a sense they skillfully moved the battlefield of the Global war on Terror from being
within USA borders to outside USA
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As an Indian, I feel ashamed that we still don't have any Crisis Management Infrastructure
in India as Mr.Ratan Tata rightfully pointed out. We don't even have the basics like
a US "911" helpline in India. I am not sure how many people who got stuck
inside the hotels knew who to call for help - I certainly don't know
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India needs all the help it can get especially from US, Israel and other countries
with huge expertise on fighting terror. Now is not the time to trumpet how great Indian
Scientist are, or on how great our technology is, or being self-reliant, etc. But
I am afraid our civil service will ensure this opportunity is missed to work with
the world to our advantage by their outdated bureaucracy. A fine example of this happened
today when the FBI
was detained for hours in Mumbai Airport
One of my friends sent me a nice email summarizing on what he feels will happen from
here which is worth reproducing here on his own words: "I really don't want
any more cries of "Indian resilience", peace and harmony. Indian resilience
is nothing but casual indifference if not directly affected. We'll go back to watching
our stupid soaps and reality shows once the real-life "reality show" of
the terror attacks are over. A few discussions over dinner and drinks and we're done.
We're mostly peaceful and harmonious people - but the ones massacring us aren't. So
these kind of displays don't really do anything. What we need now is a strong
government with a strong anti-terror law. One that can have the guts to take out terrorists
wherever and whoever they are...Till then, I will remain cynical and angry"
Having said all this I am still an optimist at heart and that is the reason I have
a photograph of the NSG team on the start of this post. Finally, I salute
the brave men and women from Mumbai Police, National Security Guards & Army who
lost their lives in the battle.
Bookmarks:
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Video - NDTV's
Randeep Nandl explaining what an alleged terror suspect may be telling Indian
authorities about the planning of the Mumbai attacks
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Attack in India - Summary
by NewsWeek, Summary by New York Times
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We're
all Bombayites today by Vir Sanghvi
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BigB on the anger
of the ordinary citizen and on complete
loss in faith in the system and in the governance
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போன சனிக்கிழமை குடும்பத்தோடு நாங்கள் ஸ்ரீமுஷ்ணம் கோயிலுக்குச் சென்று இருந்தோம். ஸ்ரீமுஷ்ணம்
என் பாட்டியின் பிறந்த ஊர், ஆனால் இதுவரை நாங்கள் பலர் அங்கேப் போனதில்லை. இந்த முறை
உறவினர் ஒருவர் அழைப்பை ஏற்று அங்கே போயிருந்தோம், நல்ல தரிசனம் கிடைத்தது.
வைஷ்ணவத்தில், இந்தப் பூலோகத்தில் சுயம்பக்த (சுயம்பு, தான்தோன்றி, Natural, Not man
made) ஷேத்ரங்கள் (புனிதத் தலங்கள்) என எட்டு ஷேத்ரங்கள் பெரியவர்களால் கூறப்பட்டுள்ளது.
அதில் ஸ்ரீமுஷ்ணம் (துயத் தமிழில் திருமுட்டம்) விசேஷமான
ஒன்று, விருதாசலத்திலிருந்து இருபது கிலோமீட்டர் தூரத்திலிருக்கிறது. சென்னையிலிருந்து
விருதாசலம் 220 கிலோமீட்டர் தூரம் - NH45ல் சென்று விழுப்புரம் தாண்டியப் பிறகு உளூந்தூர்பேட்டையில்
இடது (Left) பக்கம் திரும்பி 20 கிலோமீட்டர் செல்லவேண்டும்.
இங்கே இருக்கும் புஷ்கரணி (குளம்) - பூமியை பெருமாள் (விஷ்ணுவின் அவதாரமான பூவராக சுவாமி
தூக்கும் போது பெருமாளின் வேர்வையிலிருந்து உருவானதாக ஐதிகம் (நம்பிக்கை). இங்குள்ள ஸ்ரீ
வராஹ பெருமாளை (மூலவர்) வேண்டினால் சொத்து ஸம்பந்தமான தடைகள், பிரச்னைகள் விலகும்,
பூமி/சொத்து இவை கிடைக்கும் என்பது ஐதிகம். அதுப்போல குளத்தின் அருகிலிருக்கும் அரசமத்தின்
அடியில் சேவைத் தரும் அஸ்வத்தநாராயணனின் (ஸ்ரீ நரசிம்மர் சுவாமி) சந்நிதிச் சென்று பிரார்த்தனைச்
செய்தால் குழந்தைப் பாக்கியம் கிடைக்கும் என்பதும் ஐதிகம்.
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போன சனிக்கிழமை குடும்பத்தோடு நாங்கள் ஸ்ரீமுஷ்ணம் கோயிலுக்குச் சென்று இருந்தோம். ஸ்ரீமுஷ்ணம்
என் பாட்டியின் பிறந்த ஊர். ஆனால் இதுவரை நாங்கள் பலர் அங்கே போனதில்லை. இந்த முறை உறவினர்
ஒருவர் அழைப்பை ஏற்று அங்கே போயிருந்தோம், நல்ல தரிசனம் கிடைத்தது.
வைஷ்ணவத்தில், இந்த பூலோகத்தில் சுயம்வக்த (சுயம்பு, தான்தோன்றி, Natural, Not man made)
க்ஷேத்ரங்கள் (புனிதத் தலங்கள்) என எட்டு க்ஷேத்ரங்கள் பெரியவர்களால் கூறப்பட்டுள்ளன.
அதில் ஸ்ரீமுஷ்ணம் (தூய தமிழில் திருமுட்டம்) விசேஷமான
ஒன்று, விருத்தாசலத்திலிருந்து இருபது கிலோமீட்டர் தூரத்திலிருக்கிறது. சென்னையிலிருந்து
விருத்தாசலம் 220 கிலோமீட்டர் தூரம் - NH45ல் சென்று விழுப்புரம் தாண்டிய பிறகு உளுந்தூர்பேட்டையில்
இடது (Left) பக்கம் திரும்பி 20 கிலோமீட்டர் செல்லவேண்டும்.
இங்கே இருக்கும் புஷ்கரணி (குளம்) - பூமியைப் பெருமாள் (விஷ்ணுவின் அவதாரமான பூவராஹ ஸ்வாமி)
தூக்கும்போது பெருமாளின் வேர்வையிலிருந்து உருவானதாக ஐதிகம் (நம்பிக்கை). இங்குள்ள ஸ்ரீ
வராஹப் பெருமாளை (மூலவர்) வேண்டினால் சொத்து சம்பந்தமான தடைகள், பிரச்னைகள் விலகும்,
பூமி/சொத்து இவை கிடைக்கும் என்பது ஐதிகம். அது போல குளத்தின் அருகிலிருக்கும் அரசமத்தின்
அடியில் ஸேவை தரும் அஸ்வத்தநாராயணனின் (ஸ்ரீ நரசிம்ஹர் ஸ்வாமி) சந்நிதி சென்று பிரார்த்தனை
செய்தால் குழந்தை பாக்கியம் கிடைக்கும் என்பதும் ஐதிகம்.
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I am glad to be doing this post. Our INFITT Chair
Dr.Kalyanasundaram has been awarded the prestigious "Sundara Ramasamy Award for Tamil
Information Technology" on 18th May, 2008, in a function held at the University of
Toronto, from the Canadian Tamil's initiative TAMIL LITERARY GARDEN. Sundara Ramasamy
(Sura) award citation mentioned few of Dr.Kalyan's numerous contributions in the area
of Tamil fonts, development of font encoding standards such as TSCII, Project Madurai
and INFITT. Pioneer Dr. K. Srinivasan of Montreal was the first recipient of this
award last year.
It was one of several Awards given out that day. Well known Tamil writer and translator
Lakshmi Holmström received the main "Lifetime Achievement Award for 2007", also known
as Iyal Virudhu. Prof. George Hart III of Univ. Califoria, Berkeley and Mr. Padmanabha
Iyer of UK were earlier recipients of the "Iyal Viruthu" awards.
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எனது நண்பர் திரு. சிவாபிள்ளை சமீபத்தில் ”மொழிகளுக்கான
ஐரோப்பிய விருதை” பெற்றுள்ளார். அவரை பாராட்ட லண்டனிலுள்ளத் தமிழமைப்புகள்
ஒரு விழாவை போன வாரம் மிகச் சிறப்பாக கொண்டாடினர். அவர்களுக்கு என் மனமார்ந்த நன்றி!
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?????? ??????? ?? ??????? ???? ?? ????? ???????? ?????????????. ????? ???? ???????????
???????????? ?????????????? - ???????? ?????? ???, ????????? ????? ??????, ????????????
??????? ????????, ?? ????????????? ????. ??? ???????????? ???? ???????? ?????????
????????.
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இன்றைய தினத்தை மத ஒற்றுமை நாள் என சொல்ல வேண்டும் போலிருக்கிறது. இன்று அனேக மதத்தினரின்
பண்டிகைக்கள் நடைப்பெறுகிறது - இஸ்லாமிய மிலாடி நபி, கிறுஸ்துவ புனித வெள்ளி, இந்துக்களின்
பங்குனி உத்திரம், வட இந்தியர்களின் ஹோலி. உலக ஒற்றுமைக்காக நாம் அனைவரும் பிராத்தனை
செய்ய இதுவே சிறந்த நாள் போல்.
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The most common question I get about Tamil Unicode / Tamil IT is how do I input Tamil
text in Windows?. Over the years my answer has varied and if you ask others
it certainly varies between individuals and their choices. There are plethora of choices
now available:
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My first in the list will be Murasu
Anjal. If you are using Windows 2000 or older this is the best software
out there. Rock Solid and supports multiple keyboard formats, has convertors for various
encoding and the paid version ships with high-quality Tamil Fonts. Unfortunately my
good friend Muthu Nedumaran hasn't updated Anjal for Windows Vista and x64 platform.
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Inbuilt IME in Windows 2000, 2003, XP & Vista. The upside to this is that OS out
of box solution and downside it supports only ISCII layout.
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Microsoft's
Indic IME 1 (v5.0) from BhashaIndia.com. The upside is that it supports multiple
keyboard styles, downside it is buggy and not works in all software.
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Keyman
software and plug-ins for Tamil. The upside is that Keyman is a very popular IME
framework that support hundreds of languages. Downside the plug-ins are made by individuals
as voluntary effort and may not be without errors.
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E-Kalappai -
This is another variation of Keyman and is widely popular in blogosphere.
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Azhagi - Works well, supports
multiple keyboard formats. Unfortunately only the paid version supports input into
Microsoft Office and other applications.
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Finally, this is what I am using nowadays - NHM
Writer. This software is from my another friend Badri Seshadri's publishing firm
New Horizon Media. Thanks to NHM you have a free Tamil Keyboard Software (less than
1MB download) that works in Windows XP, 2003, Vista & Vista x64. It works across
applications as it uses Windows Text Services Framework (TSF)
My earlier blog posts on related items:
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இரண்டு வாரங்களுக்கு முன் பொங்கல் விடுமுறையில் இந்தப் படத்தைப் சத்யம் திரையரங்கத்தில்
பார்த்தேன். இந்தப் படத்தைப் பற்றி ஒரே வரியில் சொல்வதானால் இப்படி சொல்லலாம்:
“அதிக பொருட்செலவில் அழகான ஒளிபதிவில் முழுவதும் மலேசியா நாட்டில் எடுக்கப்பட்டுள்ள
மிகச் சுமாரானப் படம்”.
ரஜினி நடித்த பழையப் பில்லா படத்தை நீங்கள் ஏற்கனவே பார்த்திருந்தால் தயவு செய்து இந்தப்
படத்தைப் பார்க்காமல் இருந்து உங்கள் பணத்தை மிட்சம் செய்யலாம். இயக்குனர் விஷ்ணுவரதன்
ஒன்றைக்கூட மாற்றவில்லை - சுத்த ஈ அடிச்சான் காப்பி.
நான் கொடுத்தக் காசுக்கு ஒரே ஆறுதல் - நயன்தாரா அழகாக வந்து போகிறார், சண்டை காட்சிகளில்
வேகமாக செய்து அசத்துகிறார். எவ்வளவு யோசித்தாலும் இதைத் தவிர வேறு ஒன்றும்
ஞாபகம் வரவில்லை.
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I have been a member of an organization called INFITT from
its inception around 2000. INFITT (International Forum for Information Technology
in Tamil) a global, non-governmental, non-profit organization registered in California,
USA. In Tamil known as "உத்தமம்" (உலகத் தகவல் தொழில்நுட்ப மன்றம்). Its main objective
is to promote Tamil computing worldwide by bringing together professionals of Tamil
IT, enthusiasts, Research Scholars and ordinary Tamils, so that Tamils can enjoy the
benefits of all IT developments natively in Tamil environment.
Over the years I have participated in various working groups and activities of INFITT.
Last year I was nominated as Chair to WG02 (Working Group 2 working on Tamil language
related items with Unicode) and as Interim Vice-Chair. I am happy to write that now
in 2008, we have successfully completed our elections at all levels (General Council
and Executive Council) in a professional & transparent manner. I am honoured by
the members for electing me unanimously to serve as their Vice-Chair for the period
2008-2009. I would like to thank all the members and Chair Dr.Kalyan for this honour
through this post.
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சுமார்
இரு வாரங்களுக்கு முன்பு மக்கள் தொலைக்காட்சியில் ஏன்னை பேட்டி எடுத்தார்கள். ஒரு இருபது
நிமிடங்கள் ஒடிய இந்த பேட்டியில் என்னால் முடிந்த அளவுக்கு பிறமொழி கலக்காமல் தமிழியில்
பேசினேன். எனக்கு தாய்மொழித் தமிழ் என்பதால் தமிழில் பேசுவது கடினமே அல்ல. ஆனால் அலுவலுக்குக்காக
தொழில்நுட்பங்களை ஆங்கிலத்திலேயே பேசிப்பழகியதால், தமிழில் கணினி மற்றும் செல்பேசி முன்னேற்றங்களைப்
பேசுவதில் சிறு தயக்கம் அவ்வளவு தான் :-).
இந்த நிகழ்ச்சி நாளைக் காலை 8 மணிக்கும், மாலை 11 மணிக்கும் ஒளிப்பரப்பாகிறது. மறக்காமல்
பாருங்கள்!
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of my good friend and well wisher is Mr.Siva Pillai, Computer Officer of Goldsmiths
College, UK. It is interesting on how we got acquainted. That was way back in 1996/97
when we were both members of a Tamil IT Interest email group. Then in 1998 when I
visited London I was treated to be a guest in Siva's house. From there over the years
our two families have become good friends.
Coming back to this post, I am happy to learn last week that Siva has won a well-deserved
award - it is a European Award for Languages for this year. This was for his work
on the Tamil Primary Language and Family Learning Project which has made a significant
impact on parental involvement in education and learning of the Tamil language in
the Downham (UK) area.
You can read full article
here published this month in the CiLT
UK Magazine where Siva Pillai describes the project's development and continuing
success.
People who know Siva including me are certainly not surprised for this well deserved
award for him. Even at the age where he has grandkids, his energy levels have to be
seen to be believed. Above all his passion to help children (குறிப்பாக புலன் பெயர்ந்த
தமிழ் குழந்தைகள்) to learn Tamil language is infectious. He has several works to his
credit on this topic, including the recent project for Learn
Tamil - through English (Primary)were he helped the founders.
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