http://www.tacticaltech.org/asiasource/blog
Freeing perspectives with local solutions... Arab Eyes makes a dent
Mohammed Sameer of Cairo, Egypt -- who'll be 24 in March 2005 -- is actually a
graduate from the faculty of pharmacy and has been using Free Software since
the late 1999. Today, he's one of the team of ten or so enthusiasts who are
working to make computing more relevant to millions using the Arabic script
across the globe.
Called 'Arabeyes', the project could benefit a large pool in West Asia. "I
suppose (it would potentially benefit) all people using Arabic or Arabic-script
languages, in Middle East and the Urdu-speaking people (of South Asia). Then,
there are people speaking languages like Pashto too(using a similar script),"
says he. "This could be a pool of maybe 400 million people," says he.
As of now, where has Arabeyes reached?
Sameer says it has currently "100% Arabised" Gnome with quality assurance, and
has touched about 99% in terms of KDE Arabisation, but has to pass through the
quality assurance team team. Open Office1 has been completely translated, and
they are now working on Open Office2. FireFox?, translation is there too, and
they are waiting for Mozilla's CVS account.
That's regarding translation.
Regarding software, a team-leader called Nadim Shaikli is one of the core team,
with the aid of another member, introduced Arabic to Vim. Currently they're
re-working on 'Akka' project (which basically a software layer on top of the
console so that people can read and write Arabic). Another project is Bicon,
which is supposed to replace Akka when completed.
"We are trying to create an Arabic spellchecker, Duali. But it's still not
complete," says Sameer.
What does he see as the major tasks sill to be completed?
"We had (taken up work on) a live CD to show Arabic work. The original
maintainer isn't free. I took maintainership, but nothing has been completed
yet. I have to finalise various projects and we need to complete whatever we're
doing. Then, we should try to be more involved with testing various products
for Arabic support," says he.
Basically they see themselves as try to fix what's missing.
"I don't think we have much things technically missing. But what I see as
really annoying is that we're missing some important standards. For example, we
don't have a standard on how to normalise various Arabic letters -- diacritics,
the some small marks on the letters. We don't know whether we're supposed to
write dots below a letters or not. These are some small things, but they're
really annoying," he says with the frankness of a techie eager to do a good
job, as against the attitude of a salesman proffering a flawless product.
How did he find the Arabeyes team?
This team was implementing an Arabaic console application called 'Akka'. It
uses corba to do a client-server. It was then that he found Arab Eyes. Then,
they started working on the QaMoose? Project. "It was basically an online
dictionary, since we then didn't have an open source dictionary," says Mohammed
Sameer. (20A)
"It was a CGI script or Perl with the whole interface, where we could input
Arabic and English terms, so it would ease various translations of software,"
he recalls.
They also feel the need for a standard for sorting.
Their team is just around ten-members strong. (There are over 500 registered
users, but approx 10 are very active, on a daily basis.) Could such a small
group make such a difference to how so many people do their computing? "Two
people, (Free Software Foundation guru) Richard M Stallman and (the father of
the Linux kernel) Linus Torvalds could change the life of millions. They were
two; we are around ten. If they can do this, I hope we too can achieve
something," says he, with cautious optimism.
Asked why the Arab would could simply not take the option of using
proprietorial software, Sameer laughs: "That's a religious question," says he.
"We're really focussing on open source software."
Sometimes, Free/Libre? and Open Source Software works better. Says he: "We have
various GUI tools and text editors that can align writings to the right or
left, according to the script used. These use the bidi algorithm."
(*)nix also uses Unicode. This means one can write document which uses multiple
languages without any problem.
SOUTH ASIA AND URDU: Sameer says he had been contacted by people from South
Asia too, who wanted a solution for the Urdu language that is also written
right-to-left. Unfortunately, he says, they lost contact.
Says he: "At Arabeyes, we would like to know the state of Urdu. I think Farsi
(from Iran) would also benefit from this work, the Farsi people have been very
helpful for the last few years."
What's his tip for those wanting to work in the field of localisation? "They
should really understand the language needs, and then, they will start hunting
around for what's missing and what's not. And then, I don't knkow.... I'd
really be glad to help anyone," he adds.
Sameer has been using computers "since I was in primary school" when his
Attari-manufactured computer was used to program Basic. Says he: "My father
helped me. He knew this was the thing I loved. I just graduated and worked for
the Pharmacy qualification. I don't know anything about it," he adds.
Sameer is one of the admins responsible for the website and various activities
of Egypt's user groups. Egypt has two major LUGs, Eglug and Linux-Egypt.
Sameer can be emailed at msameer at foolab.org or msameer at eglug.org
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Frederick Noronha (FN) Nr Convent Saligao 403511 GoaIndia
Freelance Journalist P: 832-2409490 M: 9822122436
http://fn.swiki.nethttp://fn-floss.notlong.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://goabooks.swiki.net * Reviews of books on Goa... and more
Dear Friends,
This article mentions mostly Apple devices,DVD region
codes are really problem for people like me.Beware
FYI
--arky
Tuesday, February 1, 2005
Apple restricting DVD region-changes -- voluntarily!
-- UPDATED
http://www.boingboing.net/2005/02/01/apple_restricting_dv.html
Apple's DVD players are subject to restrictive rules
laid out by greedy Hollywood studios that don't really
care if they piss off Apple's customers, since that's
Apple's lookout. However, I've just discovered, to my
amazement, that Apple imposes its very own
restrictions on its DVD players over and above those
imposed by the studios: that's right, Apple
voluntarily treats its customers worse than the
studios say it has to.
In the crazy world of DRM for DVDs, there's this idea
that a Hollywood studio should be able to tell you
where you're allowed to watch a DVD after you buy it.
They accomplish this with something called "Region
Codes." Discs have region-codes and players have
region-codes. If you have a Region 1 disc (US and
Canada) and a Region 2 player (Europe), and you put
the disc in the player, the player will reject it.
But what happens when you take your laptop from New
York to London? You're in Region 2, but you bought
your device in Region 1. Can you buy a disc in London
and play it on your computer?
Yes and no. When a computer manufacturer gets a
DVD-decoding license from Hollywood's licensing cartel
(the DVD Copy Control Association or CCA), it is
allowed to make players that can change regions up to
five times.
What's more, once the region-switches have run out,
computer companies can reset your counter at a service
depot a further five times. That means that you get 25
region-switches. This sucks pretty bad: I moved from
San Francisco to London with hundreds of Region 1 DVDs
and now when I buy a movie in the shop, it's Region 2.
That means that if I watch a movie from my US
collection once a week, and once from my UK connection
the next week, I'll run out of region switches in
three months. Three months after moving to the UK,
I'll have to throw out half my DVDs.
So, basically, I don't watch my DVDs. Sometimes,
though, I'm weak, and I tune into one and squander one
of my precious region switches. Now my nearly-new
Powerbook has only one switch left out of its initial
five, and so I brought it to Apple to get them to
reset the counter. It needed service anyway (I'm on my
fifth or sixth screen replacement for the defect in
the 15" machines that causes the "white blobs" to
obscure the display), so it seemed like a good time to
do it.
I know that Apple is allowed to do this. How do I
know? Well, when EFF went to the Copyright Office and
asked it to give us an exemption to the DMCA to make
tools for watching out-of-region DVDs, Time-Warner
showed up and told us this:
"And, the way it works, and I apologize because
it's a little bit complicated, the consumer can set it
five times. After the fifth time that they've reset
it, they do have an ability to reset it again, but
they have to bring the drive to an authorized dealer
or an authorized service representative, who can then
authorize an additional set of five changes, and then
they can bring it back for a second, for a third,
fourth and fifth set of authorized changes. So you can
change it 25 times in total, but you have to go back
for each set of five. You only get the first five when
you buy the ROM drive itself."
That was Dean Marks, from AOL Time Warner. Straight
from the horse's mouth, testifying to the US
government.
But when my Powerbook was ready for pickup, Apple left
me a voicemail saying that they couldn't reset my DVD
player, that doing so would void my warranty.
When I went into the Apple Store in London to get the
machine, I asked about it. I wanted this in writing:
if they had a policy that said that they couldn't fix
my region-counter, I wanted to be able to tell Dean
Marks about it the next time we went to the Copyright
Office and ask him why Apple thought it couldn't reset
my counter.
Apple refused to put it into writing. They refused to
let me record them telling me they couldn't fix my
Powerbook. They wouldn't even put in writing that they
were referring me to the legal department. Eventually
I spoke to the manager, who promised to get back to me
the next day.
The next day, he did. He told me that he'd spoken to
legal and that they wouldn't put anything in writing.
However, they did have some documents on their website
they printed for me that talk about DVDs.
1. DVD Player: About DVD-Video Regions, last
modified July 16, 2004, technical contributor J Scalo.
This document describes the different regions, saying
that after five region-switches, "the drive is
permanently set to use that region, and you cannot
make any more changes."
Interestingly, this also contains something
labeled APPLE EYES ONLY that says that
On Wallstreet and PDQ (PowerBook G3 Series
M4753), the number of region code changes remaining is
not stored in the firmware of the DVD drive but rather
in the DVD extension and NVRAM. This information
should absolutely not be conveyed to the customer.
In extreme customer satisfaction situations
you can reset the region change count by following
this procedure:
1. Reset PRAM/NVRAM by pressing
Fn-Ctrl-Shift-Power while the computer is turned off
2. Startup with system extensions off.
3. Restart with system extensions on.
Note: This procedure resets some of the
customer's custom settings.
After following this procedure, the region
change count for the drive is reset to five.
In later PowerBook models, the region count
is stored in the firmware of the drive and cannot be
reset with this procedure.
2. Changing the region code of your DVD drive, last
modified on January 23, 2004. This document says that
you can only change your region code five times.
"After that, the region code is set permanently and
you cannot change it."
So there's two things going on here that I'm pretty
pissed off about:
1. The studios have screwed the electronics
companies with this region code business and I have to
throw out my DVDs or buy an extra Powerbook or
something
2. Worse, though: Apple has a policy about
region-changing that is more restrictive than it has
to be: they're playing for the other side. This really
stinks and makes me wonder why I should keep on buying
Apple hardware.
Lots of Apple execs read Boing Boing. If you have a
reply on this, email me and I'll be happy to discuss
it with you.
Update: Many of you have written to point out that VLC
plays out of region DVDs on a Powerbook. That's nice,
but it doesn't work reliably on my Powerbook.
Update 2: Thanks for all the tips on how to hack my
Powerbook or change its firmware. I'm afraid that I'm
not in the market for this, though, tempting as it is,
as I've been informed that using these tools will void
my warranty.
posted by Cory Doctorow at 03:46:39 AM permalink |
Other blogs commenting on this post
=====
____________________________________
/\ \
\_| Rakesh 'arky' Ambati |
| Bangalore (INDIA) |
| Homepage: http://arky.port5.com/ |
| _______________________________|_
\_/_________________________________/
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail - Easier than ever with enhanced search. Learn more.
http://info.mail.yahoo.com/mail_250
Hi all,
I have got a chance to train the teachers of the nearby [NIT
Calicut, where I'm doing Btech] higher secondary school for IT @
school as part of NSS programme. In Kerala we have succeeded in
including the GNU/Linux as an alternative to M$ non-free OS, but the
most schools stick to Window$ because they didn't get any training in
the free OS. Yeasterday I showed them the Redhat's GNU system, they
were seeing it for the first time
[http://www.livejournal.com/users/pravi/7566.html]. They found it very
interesting and they found it as easy as Window$.
It is very important that they get a chance to use the free
alternative. If it is already in the curriculam then they won the
first step [those who want it can use it]. If it is not there then
your primary goal should be to get it included as part of the
curriculam. The next step is to make sure they get to know how to use
it, confidently.
Other thing is to let the students know that there is an alternative
exists which don't keep them divided and helpless.
More on my experience on my blog
http://www.livejournal.com/users/pravi/5152.html
So the students, especially the school studets should be our primary
target to have a free (as in freedom) future......
Regards
Praveen A
8th Semester Btech EEE
NIT Calicut
--
"There is no system but GNU, and Linux is one of its kernels."
A proud GNU user
http://www.gnu.orghttp://www.edathanattukara.com
My Weblog at http://www.livejournal.com/users/pravi
Visit me at http://www.pravi.tk
Rediscover the web ! Get firefox at http://www.getfirefox.com
Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments
See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html
5th February (Saturday)::Chennai
================================
1:00 PM : Anand Babu talks about "Hacking GNU/HURD"
at CSD#320, Electrical Sciences Block, IIT Madras.
Poster:
http://www.geocities.com/cyborg4k/anandbabu.feb.5.2005.pdf
8:15 PM : RMS arrives at Chennai Airport to proceed to Vellore.
6th February (Sunday)::Vellore
==============================
9:30 AM - 12:30 PM : Inauguration of FSF-TN and Keynote Address by RMS
The Swatantra schedule includes:
*Lecture on "High Powered Computing with Free
Software" by Anand Babu
*Talk on "Free Software Movement in India" by
Nagarjuna
More details at http://www.swatantra.info
7th February (Monday)::Chennai
==============================
12:00 Noon- 1:45 PM : RMS visits MIT, Chrompet
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM : RMS Lecture on "The Danger of Software Patents"
at the Central Lecture Theatre, HSB, IIT Madras
Poster:
http://www.chennailug.org/meeting/info/eml-rms-color.pdf
6:20 PM : RMS leaves from Chennai Airport to Hyderabad
This is a reminder about the RMS Talk at IIT-M on 7th. Please note
that the talk has been advanced an hour earlier to 3:00 PM. Links to a
couple of posters are also available.
-------- Original Message --------
Hello All,
Extramural Lecture by RMS @ IIT-Madras :-
=======================================
Topic : "The Danger of Software Patents"
Speaker: Richard M Stallman (RMS)
Time : 15:00 - 17:00 Monday February 7th 2005
Venue : Central Lecture Theater (CLT),
Opp to Open Air Theater (OAT),
HSB, IIT-Madras.
Posters: http://www.chennailug.org/meeting/info/eml-rms-bw.pdf
: http://www.chennailug.org/meeting/info/eml-rms-color.pdf
Abstract of the talk :-
Richard Stallman will explain how software patents obstruct software
development. Software patents are patents that cover software ideas.
They restrict the development of software, so that every design
decision brings a risk of getting sued. Patents in other fields
restrict factories, but software patents restrict every computer user.
Economic research shows that they even retard progress.
About the speaker :-
Richard Stallman launched the development of the GNU operating system
(See http://www.gnu.org/ and http://directory.fsf.org/GNU/) in 1984.
GNU is free software: everyone has the freedom to copy it and
redistribute it, as well as to make changes either large or small.
The GNU/Linux system, basically the GNU OS with Linux kernel added, is
used on tens of millions of computers today. Stallman has received
the ACM Grace Hopper Award, a MacArthur Foundation fellowship, the
Electronic Frontier Foundation's Pioneer award, and the the Takeda
Award for Social/Economic Betterment, as well as several honorary
doctorates (See http://www.stallman.org/).
ALL ARE WELCOME :)
Bye :)
--
Bharathi S
_______________________________________________
To unsubscribe, email ilugc-request(a)ae.iitm.ac.in with
"unsubscribe
" in the subject or body of the message.
http://www.ae.iitm.ac.in/mailman/listinfo/ilugc
> logic is backported to pre-computer era, we should not have had
> computers at all. After all computers have taken off millions of jobs
Well said Raman. Richard Stallman used a similar argument in a recent interview - http://kerneltrap.org/node/4484
Here is a quote from the interview,
"Suppose somebody developed an AI and no programmers were needed anymore. Would this be a disaster? Would all the people who are now programmers be doomed to unemployment for the rest of their lives? Obviously not, but this doesn't stop people from exaggerating the issue."
Vijay
--
______________________________________________
Check out the latest SMS services @ http://www.linuxmail.org
This allows you to send and receive SMS through your mailbox.
Powered by Outblaze
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/68901/skype-for-linux-and-mac-os-x-released.html
Skype for Linux and Mac OS X released
Luxembourg based, free internet telephony company Skype has introduced
versions of its VoIP software for the Mac OS X and Linux platforms.
Amongst the other features included in the free download are a global
contact directory, cross platform instant messaging, file transfer and
end to end encryption.
`We encourage all Mac OS X and Linux users to experience the cost and
quality gains with version 1.0 Skype software,` said Niklas Zennstrom,
Skype CEO and co-founder.
`We will remain committed to innovation and will continue to expand
platform choice.` Zennstrom along with partner Janus Friis were also
the driving force behind the p2p network Kazaa.
The widespread adoption of broadband and the prospect of being able to
call almost anywhere in the world for almost nothing has led to the
boom in VoIP products. Although initially seen as a toy for geeks,
some of the world's biggest companies now realise that they can slash
the cost of telecoms with cheap VoIP systems. Even some of the world's
biggest telcos like BT are realising that internet telephony is the
future and is planning to rollout voIP services over the coming years.
The company claims to have more than 23 million registered users, and
says it is signing up more than 130,000 new users per day.
You can download the software from the Skype site.
http://www.skype.com/
--
"There is no system but GNU, and Linux is one of its kernels."
A proud GNU user
http://www.gnu.orghttp://www.edathanattukara.com
My Weblog at http://www.livejournal.com/users/pravi
Visit me at http://www.pravi.tk
Rediscover the web ! Get firefox at http://www.getfirefox.com
Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments
See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html
Yesterday we had discussions about the FOSS model and its various
aspects. Tojin analysed the economic aspect and he says
---
There are so many people working in the proprietary software industry
and if there is only FOSS out there so many people are gonna lose
jobs. Now both proprietary and free software needs service and so the
effects cancels. The jobs of developers will not be there and the
economy suffers. He argues that only if the money changes hands the
country benifits. Also he thinks it is sinister about the way
GNU/Linux is distributed, he says it has made so complx that they need
to go to experts everytime.
He is not thinking about the obvious advantages. In a country like
India we cannot afford to pay a huge amount of money on softwares.
They are completely ignoring the points of technical fitness of the
software developed. They still think of the FOSS as something like
this
>> A company develops a product and give away that for free (download)
and asks how the developers get money ?
They completely ignores that FOSS is a process not a product in which
lots of people around the world and it is centered around the end
user.
Other argument is that anyway we are getting windows and linux free
(pirated in case of windows) and all things that could be done with
windows can be done with windows and there is no point in moving away
from windows.
They don't think piracy is not a problem, as long as they don't come
to you and arrest they think they are safe. It is like you don't
hesitate to steal if you are sure you won't be cought. Also they
neglect the social aspect (but the former point nullifies this).
Anyway you are ready to give it to your friend so the social aspect
doesn't matter anymore.
the discussion continues ....
Some one give me an answer to the economic aspect (the loss of jobs
and affecting the economy)
PS: You can join the discussion at LJ
http://www.livejournal.com/~pravi/7240.html
--
"There is no system but GNU, and Linux is one of its kernels."
A proud GNU user
http://www.gnu.orghttp://www.edathanattukara.com
My Weblog at http://www.livejournal.com/users/pravi
Visit me at http://www.pravi.tk
Rediscover the web ! Get firefox at http://www.getfirefox.com
Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments
See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [Fsf-tn] [GLV] February 5, 2005, AB - "Introduction to Hacking
GNU/Hurd"
Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2005 09:41:15 -0800 (PST)
From: Shakthi Kannan <cyborg4k(a)yahoo.com>
To: Fsf-tn(a)gnu.org.in
Greetings!
Confirmation and announcement of the February 5, 2005
session (part of GNU/Linux Vidyashram) by Anand Babu
on "Introduction to Hacking GNU/Hurd" at CSD#320,
Electrical Sciences Block, IIT-M at 1300 HRS IST.
You can view the poster from here:
http://www.geocities.com/cyborg4k/anandbabu.feb.5.2005.pdf
Looking forward to the session,
K Shakthi
=====
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
K Shakthi
Specsoft (Hexaware Technologies), ASIC Design Center
http://www.geocities.com/shakthimaan
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Read only the mail you want - Yahoo! Mail SpamGuard.
http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail
_______________________________________________
Fsf-tn mailing list
Fsf-tn(a)gnu.org.in
http://gnowledge.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fsf-tn