Hold Open The Glass Door...Please

YAB - Moved again

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 19:59:58 GMT

My blog has moved.. again. currently it is here: http://arrbee.wordpress.com. This is a request to the planet admins of the planets where the earlier blog was syndicated, to please update the feed to the following:

http://arrbee.wordpress.com/tag/planetarium/feed/

(This has already been updated for the Fedora Planet)

Thanks in advance.

More about the new blog...here.

The lost cities

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:38:50 GMT

Warning: Very long post, bit heavy with personal rants and may not be interesting for planet readers

I had read this blog post by Shobha De sometime before my planned trip to Guwahati and Shillong.

She writes:
There is very little pink left in the Pink City, which now resembles an ugly, impersonal,concrete urbanscape, devoid of any character or charm.

I had been anticipating before the journey that the memories of my childhood would be shattered beyond repair once I landed at Guwahati and then further pain awaited me at Shillong, where I was born and lived the first 10 years of my life. My ancestral paternal home was in Guwahati and most of immediate family (on both my father's and mother's side) lived in these two towns. My memories of Shillong are dotted with the beautiful meandering roads with pine trees on both sides, the blue city buses with their chimneys, walking to the Laitumkhrah market in the evening to collect the day's newspaper (we got them in the evening those days, and i learnt much later that newspapers generally come in the morning) and groceries. There was this Khasi lady who sold fish at the market and always insisted my dad to let her adopt me, as she did not have any daughter to pass on the family fortunes. I also remember getting lost while playing at the parking lot of the Nazareth hospital and at the ripe age of 5, walked myself home down mainstreet. Every sunday, it was a ritual to visit the Lady Hydari park, ride the swings and the slides, feed some chickpeas to the monkeys and bamboo leaves to the deer or feed the fishes from the wooden bridge over Ward's lake. There were some weeping willow trees in the park and daddy made me stand at a particular angle to take photographs. Every other week we also went to the State Library, where I used to choose from the rows and rows of Ladybird books in the children section. The year we decided to leave Shillong, we visted all these places and clicked pictures which are still in the family albums.

While Shillong was the daily grind of school, home, rains during school hours, Guwahati used to be the most fun place of this Universe. And the center of this Universe was the beautiful wooden cottage proudly announcing itself to be the residence of Advocate K.P.Bhattacharjee (later this has been changed to simply "Bhattacharjees"). The wooden gate opened into a quaint little garden which led to the biggest rooms, smelling of the incense from the thakur-Ghar and tamul (raw betel/areca-nut, smells foul beyond belief). Inside there was a courtyard and a verandah, where everyone used to sit cross-legged on the floor for meals at lunch and dinner times. A wooden staircase led to the other building, which was also made of wood and used to shake during the thunderstorms. Next to the thakur-ghar was the room with a magic black box - the telephone... oh yeah! When I had no corner to explore or trees to climb or worms to poke or goodies to stuff myself with, I would hover around the telephone waiting (and hoping and praying and sometimes scowling) for it to ring. This house also saw a steady stream of visitors - some came for a few hours and some came to stay for days. It never felt like a house where anyone seemed to live a regular life. It was forever 'festival time'. And the best part was the ride in the cycle-rickshaws, a loud announcement that we were now in the plains. We seemed to go everywhere on these massive cycle rickshaws. There were very few cars (Bijon-kaku had one and used to drive us to his house in it) and buses or any other vehicles. The only buses I seem to remember are the State transport buses that took us back to Shillong. The other important must visit place was the Shukreshwar Ghat, where I used to gape at the massive Brahmaputra river.

I had last been to Shillong in 1998 and to Guwahati in 2002. Those were the trips where my memories got their first jolts. Shillong had changed drastically. The city buses were gone, taxis were swarming the city and suddenly there seemed to be a lot of people everywhere. There was an ugly building in the middle of the city center and roads were dirty. And horror of horrors, there were buildings all over the place. I could not believe that the hill I was staring at from across my old house was the very same one, where we used to often see small fires burning amongst the thick cover of trees. It used to be difficult to spot the two lonely houses on the hill, because they had green tin roofs. The numbers had nearly reversed.

This time the roads seemed narrower. The buildings had grown bigger, uglier and spread in all directions. I visited my school, but no one seemed to be around and I dragged Sankarshan along on my pilgrimage from - old home - beat house - laitumkhrah police point - old school - Don Bosco square - the majestic 'White' Church (which btw has an ugly shade of grey-blue, but we still call it the White Church)-Nazareth hospital. Our plans to go visit the Lake and the Hydari Park were cancelled, perhaps to let my best memories still remain untarnished.

Our house at Guwahati had to be pulled down due to massive damages to the structure and in place of the cottage there stands a concrete building. And same goes for the rest of the locality. The hills around the town used to be visible earlier, but these days one would only get to see rooftops. The "wide" lane that led on to the house seems no bigger than an alley. The roads around the city are choc-a-bloc with traffic, wierdly piled malls and buildings add to the disfigurement and the green cover seems to be reducing very fast.

Like Shillong and Guwahati and Jaipur (and even Pune), perhaps there are more cities and towns in India which are shedding their identity and character to match up with the metro cities. Once inside an assembly line churned apartment home, one can hardly distinguish anymore which part of the country it stands in. And it does'nt seem likely to change anytime soon.

However, nothing can beat a homecoming. A generation has moved ahead and these days instead of songs emanating unexpectedly in my older Uncle's voice, the tinkle of my young niece's phone can be heard. But there still is the hulla-balloo of the "Bhattacharjee" residence. The food still tasted the same and my aunt continues to make sure everyone is well fed, goodies of every shape and flavour could be "accidentally" found in various jars around the kitchen, the visitors still trooped in at every hour, endless cups of tea floated in and out of the kitchen, more books and shelves have been added, heated arguments about politics, literature, movies, etc shatter the silence and the 'festival still continues'.

Dozen...

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 18:56:41 GMT

Its that time of the year again when frantic efforts are underway for yet another Fedora release. Version 12, code named Constantine. Due to a turn of events, this time I got to be part of quite a few intricate processes - involving schedules, process changes and some amount of coordination. All for the Fedora Localization Project of course. As per the Release Schedule, the translation deadline is today - 10th September 2009. However, this time the FLSCo and FLP have been coordinating with Fedora Engineering to help us review the translations directly on the User Interface, by building test packages before the final freeze. Thankfully, FESCo gave us a nod on this and probably right after the translation deadline ends we would be ready to start talking to the package maintainers to get started on the package builds.

Although working on each of these challenges have been mind-numbing at times and mostly late at night after long hours at the day-job, its been immensely satisfying and fun. Probably, I got to experience a very microscopic fraction of the many complications that are very much part of an OS release and I can only try hard to imagine the entirety of the challenges faced and wrestled to the ground each day by people like John Poelstra. There are lots of people all over the world working very hard and for them Fedora is very personal.

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 05:00:13 GMT

If I had the means, at this moment with a really heavy cluebat in hand I would have been looking for the person who was responsible for sending in McCullum to bat along with Gayle in the Superover yesterday and then choosing Mendis to bowl. C'mon guys, I am not so enlightened about the techniques of the game but is'nt it common sense to choose the guy who was batting like a man-possesed until one ball back and was prolly still in the tempo, instead of the Phoren Captain who has consistently been missing his beat. And Ajantha Mendis for the bowling! Waah! I am still wondering, if getting a spinner/slow bowler for the Superover (a potentially more explosive one than the Slog Overs[1]) was the most intelligent of moves, why did Shane Warne himself not come to bowl? Probably its another earth-shaking theory after the multi-captaincy one that only the KKR head honchos have figured out. I hope Sourav Ganguly keeps playing more innings like the one yesterday. He is the icon player and no one can ever replace him from that position for a Kolkata (Knightriders) team.

Meanwhile I completely agree with what GreatBong has to say about the Fake-IPL-Player.

[1] Slog overs : the final 10 overs (particularly the last five) in an ODI match during which batsmen play aggressively scoring at a very high rate. (from here)

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 04:45:17 GMT

Last night my dad called up to narrate a pretty disturbing incident. A senior lawyer colleague of his (an elderly gentleman of 80) was travelling between Kolkata and New Delhi for a case hearing, by Indigo Airlines. While boarding the flight, he managed to trip at the top of the stairs and stumbled inside the plane. A few bruises and cuts resulted due to the fall. After settling into his seat, he called for the stewardess and asked her if she could provide some First Aid. He was shocked when the stewardess replied that they did not have any facility to provide First Aid. He then asked for a band-aid. Not available was the answer. In a last attempt, he asked her if she could provide cottonwool and Dettol. Not available either. More than the cuts themselves, this conversation left him more battered.

Apparently my dad advised him to take a bus next time to Delhi.

I am not sure if this is a one-off incident or a regular thing. I sincerely hope so, as I especially like travelling by Indigo.

The Short(cut) story

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 13:57:43 GMT

The following is a mail written long time ago justifying the usage of the English shortcut keys for localized Bengali applications.

Hi everyone,

Deepayan Sarkar wrote:

I'm slightly confused about this. There are two types of shortcuts,
one in menu items etc (indicated by _ or & in the translated strings),
and one like CTRL-Q to quit an application. Which ones are we talking
about? The first type are activated by pressing ALT. Where does the
CTRL key come in? If we are talking about the second, I didn't even
know that they could be translated. Can they? How?

First up to clarify matters, this issue concerns the alt+hotkey combinations. the ctrl+key combinations as far as I am aware cannot be translated. atleast I have never come across it ever. Hence for saving a file: alt+f+s is different from ctrl+s.

Currently, I use a system with bengali locale and interface as my primary production system. The input method I use is IIIMF. This is an application specific input method switcher. Same goes for SCIM. i.e. these two do not change the keyboard for the entire system. Earlier I have used setxkbmap which was a system level input method switcher and looks like most people in the thread are familiar with this method.

What I have come across regarding alt+hotkeys during my regular work are as follows [along with details]:

==================
#1. Dysfunctional
==================

I will not call the hotkeys non-functional, but dysfunctional. Reason being:

@ IIIMF and SCIM

-> En shortcuts work as alt+en key even when the active keyboard is a bengali keyboard [ i use probhat] -> bn shortcuts like alt+bn key do not work even when the active keyboard is a bengali keyboard.

@ setxkbmap

-> bn shortcuts work as alt+bn key or alt+shift+bn key [in case of a character like ফ] with an active bn keyboard.

-> en shortcuts work as alt+key with an active en keyboard

additional info: ctrl+s types shortcuts [which cannot be translated] did not function with an active setxkbmap bn keyboard. but functioned with an active bn keyboard on IIIMF and SCIM.

===============
#2. Inconsistent
===============

Duplication of top-level menu hotkeys as well as submenu hot-key under the same top-level menu item. for e.g. in gnome-games mines বৈশিষ্ট্য -> পূর্ণপর্দা and বৈশিষ্ট্য -> পছন্দ both have hotkeys as alt+প.

========================
#3 Partial Implementation
========================

Now there are two offspins from this one.

@ gtk overrides [for gnome]:

this is specifically for the gnome desktop. as golum was kind of confused about it let me explain in detail. currently in gedit.po file Cut (_C) is translated as কাট করুন (_C), whereas in gtk+ file it is translated as কাট(_ট)। But when populating the menu items for gedit, in some cases instead of the translation being used in gedit.po file the one from gtk+.po file is being used. [http://runa.randomink.org/AnkurBangla/gedit1.png]. I use a .mo file compiled from the original .po file and the same thing looks as this image. [http://runa.randomink.org/AnkurBangla/gedit2.png]

@ application related:

this is for applications that do not have a text editor on its primary interface. Again using the example for gnome-games mines [alternatively same game]. this application uses alt+bn key hotkeys.

** IIIMF and SCIM: bn keyboard for this particular application cannot be activated, because there is no text entry box on the primary interface. hence alt+bn hotkeys do not work. alt+en hotkey works. a text entry box appears only when the user is allowed to write in his/her name for the score.

** setxkbmap: alt+bn hotkey combination works on the main interface as setxkbmap sets the system level keyboard to bn.

================================

The reasons for the above mentioned behaviour is unknown to me and I can only comment about them as observations from the perspective of a user. Whether geeky or not, one cannot assume the requirements of a user. sometime back while doing an installation on a test system i had to resort to the hotkeys due to a malfunctioning mouse. at that point of time the shortcuts on anaconda did not function as they were in english and the keyboard used during installation is en. and unlike the gedit solution I mentioned earlier, hacking on installers is not really an available option. This issue has been resolved and I mention this only to highlight the fact that requirements from users can be varied and at times maybe due to unexpected circumstances.

Secondly, the issue regarding consistency between KDE and Gnome. Barring contexts I guess issues for both the desktops ought to be dealt with separately. Yet, known issues in gnome can be used to reference any similar issues arising in KDE and vice versa. I guess kcontrol would be apt example in this case where multiple backend files are being used and consistency is a key element. Similar to the gedit+gtk scenario.

Given that we have come across multiple results, it might be a good idea to go behind the scenes to figure out where exactly things are going wrong. Whether using en shortcuts is a regressive step backward is somewhat fuzzy as of now. Currently, the bn shortcuts are comparitively more dysfunctional and inconsistent. If we need to implement bn hotkeys successfully, first we need to get our homework done and check in the inconsistency factor. Secondly, given the fact that most distros are shipping with IIIMF and SCIM as the default input method framework for localized versions can we afford to promote a bengali desktop that shows stark flaws on the primary desktop interface. [refer #1]. To conclude, imho, it is always better to provide a functional interface that would be open to change and improvement in the future rather than restricting usage in the present.

regards
Runa

Incidents of the day

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:24:51 GMT

WTF incident of the day

Ok.. so the following incident happened this evening.

I went to this computer peripheral shop, called Rainbow Peripherals in Behala market with my cousin to get a new keyboard for his computer. Since I had a few minutes to kill I thought of having a general conversation with one of the two guys manning the shop. Rough transcript below:

Me: আপনারা অ্যাসেমবল্‌ড কম্পিউটারগুলি যে বিক্রি করেন, তো এতে কোনো Linux ডিস্ট্রিবিউশন যেমন Fedora, Ubuntu... প্রি-লোড করেন কি? (Do you pre-load any Linux distributions likes Fedora, Ubuntu... in the assembled computer units that you sell?)

The guy: (Turns up his lip and Shakes head) না, একদমই নয় (Not at all)

Me: একদমই নয়? একটিও না? (Not at all? Not even one?)

The guy: দেখুন আসলে কি জানেন, Linux প্রোডাক্টটা কোনো কাজে সেভাবে ব্যবহার হয় না। সারা পৃথিবীতে হাতে গোনা কয়েকটা কোম্পানিতে এটা ইউজ হয়। কেউ তো বিশেষ ব্যবহার করেও না, কোমারশিয়ালিও কোনো সাকসেস্‌ হয়নি। কিছু স্টুডেন্টরা ইউজ করে কারণ তাদের কোর্সে পড়ায়, তা ছাড়া তো এটা সেরকম কিছুই নয়। (Well you see, actually the product called Linux is not used for anything at all. There are only a handful of companies in the world where it is used. No one uses it at all and commercially also it is not a succesful product. Some students use it because its part of their curriculum, besides its not really anything important.)

Me: :O (open-mouthed and dumbstruck at this sagely sermon)

(sankarshan and I used to patronize this shop earlier when we stayed in Kolkata, because during those days it was the only half decent computer peripherals shop in this part town.)

FTW incident of the day

After completing all the scheduled work for today, sankarshan treated me to a lunch at park street and then we went all the way to the Milan Mela grounds - a common fair ground developed by the West Bengal government - to visit the West Bengal handicrafts fair. This is my second favourite fair (after the Kolkata Book Fair) and this was my first visit in 5 years. Craftsmen were selling terra-cotta pots and lanterns (etc.), scrolls, jute products, hand embroidered sarees, Chhau masks, wooden dolls etc. Even delicate looking little camels, elephant and swans made out of the fish-scales were on display. I got quite a few little bits and pieces for our home in Pune and gifts for friends. A fun afternoon well spent.

Resurfacing with a tag

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 07:29:23 GMT

First up.. Wishes for a Happy Sankranti, Pongal, Lohri, Bhogali Bihu and all the nice things that are being celebrated today. I was up till nearly midnight last night trying my hand at making "pithe" (পিঠে). Nothing fancy, just the commong "churi-pithe" (চুড়ি পিঠে) that looks similar to "samosas", albeit flatter. Its called "Karanji" in Maharashtra. The fun bit was, I could not make the zig-zag design on them, when I tried the way I had seen my mum do it. So I had left that bit for later and went on with the stuffings. Later on, I picked one up again and this time I could do it, sort of okayish. The reason was, my mum was primarily left-handed and I am not. So I was trying to emulate what I had seen her do and failed miserably when I tried it the first time. The next time, instincts kicked in and voila! Anyways, pictures/procedures would follow soon on my recently started food-blog.

Well, things that happened since the last post include:
1. A whirlwind trip home and spending some nice time with daddy.
2. Saw the most obscenely big mall in South City, Kolkata (courtsey: ishita+surajit) and had some lovely food at Prince (courtsey: sayamindu)
3. A biker decided to dislodge the rear bumper of our car
4. Mad rush with finance management for the entire family (includes me+husband)
5. An enjoyable sprint for KDE 4.2 to complete the required bits translated
6. A potential Firefox 3.0.6/3.1 release for bn-IN
7. A one-day trip to Lonavala with ramkrsna, rakesh, kashyap. (Fultoo fun)
8. Started an itsy-bitsy terrace garden. Hopefully, by the end of the year it would grow much larger (and if those pigeons from the neighbourhood stop eating the plants)
9. Playing around with poterminology
10. Some more events, both in the personal and professional front that makes 24 hours seem just too short a time.
... can't remember the rest. Its been a bit hectic for a while and I just decided to gift myself around 2 hours of time today, to catch up on the pending things-to-do list. (An update in the blog update was one of them)

I might have put off writing this post, if Pike had not tagged me. Ok so here goes:

The rules:

Link to your original tagger(s) and list these rules in your post.

Share seven facts about yourself in the post.

Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.

Let them know they’ve been tagged.

Seven things:

/me once got lost in the streets of Shillong when she was in Kindergarten (but she figured out the way to get back home.. and thankfully one parent was home to inform the other parent, who was still searching frantically.)

/me secretly wished for specs since childhood. Result: stuck with a pair with complicated trappings since sometime of the end of the aforementioned childhood.

/me NEVER played/plays Holi, but likes coloring pictures even now!

/me does'nt know how to swim. (Although the school I went to promised that they would teach us how to)

/me has never lived in a hostel

/me is terrified of snakes (Even on television. I get nightmares just by the thought of them)

/me detests dill leaves and has learnt atleast 3 names (in sylheti, bengali and marathi) for it, to make sure she does not eat it by mistake.

Ok and now for my shikaars!

pradeepto

ramkrsna (This would be too interesting)

Barkha

santhoshtr

Mdious (In the hope that he makes a post in his now hibernating blog)

Ankita

Aanjhan

Note: Folks, feel free to break the chain. Its totally up to you. :-)

Fire It Up

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 13:53:00 GMT

Probably another hour to go before the blue flames leap up...

Meanwhile, read Stickster's wonderful message to the Fedora Community worldwide. Makes one feel so much at home with the Fedora Project.

Freedom, Friends, Features, First

Eight annas....

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:00:14 GMT

Looks like the Unicode Chart for Bengali does not contain the symbol for Bengali 8 annas (half a rupee).

The following 3 in this particular series for currency calculation are however available:

4 anna (quarter rupee) = U09F7 (Described as "BENGALI CURRENCY NUMERATOR FOUR")

12 anna (three quarter of a rupee) = U09F8 (Described as "BENGALI CURRENCY NUMERATOR ONE LESS THAN THE DENOMINATOR")

16 anna (one rupee) = U09F9 (Described as "BENGALI CURRENCY DENOMINATOR")

Could someone perhaps please validate if this is indeed the case.

Everybody rants...

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 11:49:53 GMT

i WANT to go on a vacation...

end of rant

Happens.. but I want to focus ahead

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 06:06:47 GMT

Much has been happening over the past few days that distressed quite a few of us. The West Bengal government announced a Bengali Linux Distro called Baishakhi Linux. Thats the news. The story behind news has already been blogged by Sankarshan[1][2] and Sayamindu[1][2]. As of now, the source code is still not available. As I had twittered already..it hurt us all, but did not surprise me. A specimen below:

Moving along...sometime back I had blogged about Glossaries for Bengali Localization that I was working upon. The work done has moved to a more permanent place now: ankur.org.in/wiki/WordCollections. Content is still in the process of being added. From our past 6-7 years of experience of translating User Interface messages, one of the primary requirements that emerges for such efforts is the understanding of the contextual importance of terminology. The current focus of this effort rests on the following criteria:

Identification of context specific terminology

Application genre specific (as against specific applications) content

Reusability of terminology across multiple projects

Modular segments for ease of extension and distribution

At this point of time, we (more hands are always welcome) are in the process of classifying the available terms (english) into appropriate sections and mapping translations. Along with Translation-filter (Kushal r0cks!!) we intend to ensure complete standardization of the bn_IN localized content.

Of many things and one

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 19:04:29 GMT

Long time since this page saw some activity. *sigh*. This could have been a post of many things, like:

How stress induced fatigue (my dad's words not mine) caused me to sleep for nearly 36 hours at a stretch

The updates to the Gnome Mango system done by Olav Vitters and account system documentation done by Christian Rose has made things so easy for us translators

The mad rush for KDE 4.1 Translations

The LC Python workshop conducted by ramkrsna, at our office in Pune. Rahul Sundaram followed up with a talk on contributing opportunities in Fedora

Our new car

The huge power and water shortage that happened in Pune and messed up our daily schedules

The much-delayed fun trip to Mumbai and about the time spent with Barkha and her family, the ride on the deccan queen, boat ride to elephanta, visit to mahesh lunch home, getting soaked in the rain at Juhu beach, riding back to Pune in an ambassador taxi amidst pouring rain

My views on why overt channel admins (the pronounced green medals, not the access lists) on irc channels in some open-source projects creates unwanted hierarchical levels.

Mozilla 3.0.2 translation sprint. Am waiting for a few bug responses at the moment, but hopefully that should not stop the inclusion of bn-IN this time.

But then let me talk about something thats really much more important. The other day Ani showed me the search feature on the KDE Translation Project website, that allows searching of a term/string in translated content. The setup in this case gets the content from a selected directory of the svn, runs a query for the search string and presents the output results (string and its translated version) with direct link to the source documents. A database is also involved somewhere in between the process.

So a few of us were talking about having a similar tool that would allow us to search strings on user-defined content locations and present the strings with the search items, corresponding translated content and pointers to the source document. And so evolved Translation-Filter, by Kushal. A nifty little tool, that does just what we need. Its still being worked upon, but at the moment what you can do with it is:

Define a custom location with multiple .po files

Provide a string to search in the defined location

Get an output with the original english string containing the search item,corresponding translated string and the source file name

Provide a list of strings to search via a plain text file

Save search results as .html pages

Use the tool from the command line and a basic GUI dialog box

The project is a part of Fedora already and Kushal has packaged it.

At this moment the benefits look huge. Primarily it will allow us to ensure consistency of bn-IN translated content across projects (the ones using .po files at the very least). Perhaps (as Sayam thinks) very soon we can make a web-based version of it too. So right now... kushal++ :D

Birthday Boys!

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 17:20:00 GMT

Wishing three good friends many happy returns of the day....

All Photos by ramkrsna

Gnome Mango - Some answers

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 06:43:25 GMT

I had made a post last week about the problems that quite a few of us were facing with Mango. Finally, after a lot of discussion on the gnome-i18n Mailing list, the missing bits of information came forth from Olav.

To summarize it:

For any language, not listed in the New Account Request interface on Mango, please send a mail to accounts at gnome dot org with the specifics of the case. A language can be missing from the Mango interface in any of the following cases:

Team co-ordinator does not have an account - it is mandatory for the team co-ordinator to have an account, to get listed on the New Account page. Since the co-ordinator has to vouch for new accounts within the team

A new team - Since the co-ordinator her/himself has to get an account to get listed on the page.

Error - Happens

The current documentation does not mention these cases and their solutions. I would not mind lending a hand in here, if the suggested editing requires for volunteers. (Its a wiki but given the special nature of information, its best to wait for an approval.)

However there is a small catch in all of this. The accounts at gnome dot org, queue handling also sees period of inactivity. Hence, perhaps that bit might need a little attention.

Thanks to everyone for the clarifications and help. Also, hope everyone has a good party at GUADEC. (Maybe next year I can make it to the GUADEC+aKademy event)

The King will be back..

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 06:31:10 GMT

An exhilarating match last night. Both deserved to win, but allegiances reign supreme. :-)

Meanwhile, I am still sleepy after watching the match till 2 in the morning (IST).

Picture: Wimbledon.org

Bitter Mango

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 16:53:15 GMT

Dear Lazyweb,

I have been stuck with a problem for quite sometime now. The new account system for getting Gnome SVN accounts - Mango - behaves a bit oddly at times. The following are the problems that I have seen happening in the past:

#1: There was no option to request an account as a Translator. It got fixed eventually.

#2: A voucher is required for a Translator, when she/he requests for an svn account. The voucher is essentially the Translation Team co-ordinator and to ensure that happens, the person requesting the account has to select the Translation Team from a dropdown menu in the New Accounts page. Sounds easy? Well not exactly, if your team is not present in the dropdown list.

#3: So up next, one has to file a bug against Mango to get the team listed.

#4: The team is not listed on the dropdown menu if the Team's coordinator does not have an account. Pretty valid. But then how does the co-ordinator request an account, if Mango is the way and the language team will not be listed until she/he actually has an account. Chicken-egg....gaah!

#5: And even if the co-ordinator does have an account, things might not be all that rosy. ( Kannada, Gujarati, Bengali-India have valid co-ordinators with existing accounts. In case of Kannada, the account stopped working for Pramod one fine day. Marathi has a somewhat similar situation.)

To be honest, I am completely frustrated. It is understandable, that with limited number of volunteer sysadmins things might run slow. However, the complaints need to be addressed some way or the other. Here in India, most of the language groups are close to each other and the problems come across too starkly.

I don't know if anyone from Gnome actually reads my mails to the mailing list (most linked above). I was really hoping that someone who could help out would read these words and do something about it. It would be much appreciated around here.

regards
Runa

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 12:32:22 GMT

(Since, I would be writing a bit more in response to the comments on my earlier post, I decided to make it into another post.)

Thanks Chris for dropping by. I hope to make it clear that I do not intend to point fingers at individuals, but rather the overall scheme of things where more often than not, the results take a backseat - much like red-tapism.

"Selection of locale specific search engine plugins, RSS feeds and services is a key part of trying to give that kind of good experience and I've been a big proponent of trying to make sure that we don't just have en-US selections in the UI of the locale versions. That doesn't serve the best interest of the user, but it does create some tough work for the localization teams. Some teams love this ability to customize the browser to their locale, and some find this extra work tiresome. Where we can find people that want to get involved with the research to find the top search engines and services we definitely want to try and add them as contributors to the localization teams to help distribute the work load. "

Regarding the above statement, I remember exchanging notes with Axel during Foss.in last year (a good 2 hours, he was kind enough to spare). Especially, about the fact that the standard productization process seems to go through lots of bends. For each language. Given the headstart a few languages had gotten, a natural assumption for l10n volunteers is that the processes would be streamlined into segmented divisions over the course of time. e.g. Pooling of alternatives for indic languages, which would probably share a few resources due to their geographical relevance (RSS feeds, start pages, searchplugins etc.). Re-inventing the wheel in this case is a (re)research overhead for all parties involved. e.g. the amount of time Mic spent chasing up rediff.com for their consent for bn-IN, would be spent again for another language. Instead, if approval for all Indian languages is gained from these Indian websites at one go, all other languages could simply walk-through the process. Same for the earlier mentioned leg-work regarding the First-Run pages. Imho, not too many language groups share such a huge geographical boundary and web-presence. But we do and perhaps merit a somewhat customized localization process. I have been waiting for the FFx2 productization process to reach its end, so that I can collate all the steps that I have completed and create a documentation (checklist with pointers), for other localization teams. Especially, the parts regarding the India-specific bits.

I do not intend to be given leeway by unexplained choices for an under-baked product. Rather I'd like to see things done with precision - from both ends - to be assured of a product cured of basic failings. I do agree in a way with Axel when he says - "The right thing is to get users a sustained on-line life with mozilla, the wrong thing is to make marks on the wall and just count languages."

"On-life sustenance" comes from the fact that the basic foundation of the product is strong enough to withstand the expectations from users. What those expectations can be is a matter of homework in the right direction. Marks on the wall always look good, but are not always in the deepest shade.

Secondly, about the messaging. I would agree that restricting the press coverage is not an option. However, correct packaging of the message is important. That is what I intended to convey. From my personal experience of having to explain how-open-source-projects-work, to various audience levels, I can say that the analogy to be used, differs widely. Mainstream media, to most extent do not understand the concept of "volunteer-driven-open-source-projects". Its a shade of gray, that does not belong to their black and white world. Passion-driven projects are the ones equated with NGOs or hobbyist groups (intended without a commercial motive). Hence, relative circumstances would probably play a huge part in customization of the jargon.

Thanks Seth for your comment and post. A review of the team standings and itemizing of issues would certainly help. Especially, if the flags can be identified and raised from the past experiences.

Motivation is not always the keyword

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 17:19:17 GMT

A recent article published in a leading daily here in India touched quite a few raw nerves. Besides talking about the presence of the Gujarati and Punjabi localized versions of Firefox in its latest version, the article somewhat prominently highlights the absence of quite a few other languages due to "a lack of motivation". Needless to say, there was quite a flutter amongst the volunteer-driven localization communities, who were quick to exchange notes on various mailing lists. So much so, that Chris Hofmann had to come forward with his apologies. Given all the hullaballoo, even I wanted to add my 2 paisa to the entire episode, in my own way.

First up, its important to understand how the Firefox Localization process works. It is rather different from most other localization projects and can pose quite a challenge even for old-hats. I shall try to summarize it, in the best way I can.

During the process of Firefox localization, two variants of localized components would surface:

A Language Pack: - This is essentially the translations of the user interface messages and can be downloaded as an add-on. In essence, it is like an additional appendage for the Firefox version that one is running.

An Official Build: These would be the translations+extra components (like the translations for the various default pages displayed by Firefox), which would be shipped as part and parcel of a Firefox release. ie. (using a similar analogy as earlier), it is like an arm that is part of the body since birth.

Each language shipped with Firefox, goes from the "Language Pack" stage to the "Official Build" stage in a phased manner. Unlike other translation projects (e.g. Gnome, Fedora), a new language is not included for the offical development version rightaway. Rather, one has to first work on the previously released stable version (so for Firefox 3, one needs to get the Firefox 2 source), complete all the translation and other tidbits, and only then would a language be accepted as official or as its called "productized".

This is where most of the fun starts. The tidbits include quite a few default pages for Firefox (Complete List is here). The pages are in English and provide the templates for the localized versions. Yet, while translating one has to ensure that the local effects are maintained. For eg. The FireFox First-Run page. Notice the links to "Hype Machine" and "Yelp". Now try figuring out the Indian equivalent for each of them. Yelp could be mapped to burrp.com. But after hunting all over the place for something similar to Hype Machine, finally it was decided to go with an internet Radio station instead. Enter RadioVeRVe. Same goes for search plugins etc. These bits and pieces of the productization part is tracked and submitted through various bugs, which are handled by different Mozilla Developers. I have been working on the Bengali India productization for quite sometime now. Bug id - 398992. As mentioned earlier its a Firefox 2 productization bug and there has been quite a bit of back-and-forth action on the bugs. There is a bug for Firefox 3 as well, but it would only come into effect once the Firefox 2 productization is complete. Bug id - 415575. So it might be a while before all the nitty gritties are worked out and issues finally ironed out. Since Rajesh and I have been closely working with each other, it is quite understandable why the newspaper article came as a mighty blow to him.

However, what I do find disturbing is the nonchalance on the part of the mainstream media before making such blanket comments. Little knowledge is always a bad thing. Especially in matters like community driven projects, which are to this day an unfamiliar or at best a hazy idea for most people watching things from outside the perimeter of the action. Perhaps it might have helped, if credentials of the commentator could have been judged prior to the interview, so that the messaging would have been drafted in a comprehensible format of the audience. Damage control measures are not always a way out. As are not single points of coordination and failures.

The Indian community of Localization volunteers are probably one of the most closely knit group of people. With a common culture and geographic proximity that bonds us at a personal level, friendships have been forged, experiences shared and help is always at hand. More than anything, its personal for us. Very very personal and its about time people understand it.

The Complete process of making an Official Firefox Build.

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 06:30:23 GMT

Looks like there would be lots of stories for me when sankarshan returns :D

More than a fair share?

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 04:48:21 GMT

Since the newspaper did not arrive this morning, I was trying to catch bits of the news on the television instead. While channel surfing I came across the Ellen Degeneres Show, and since there seemed to be some sort of cooking experiment going on, I decided to watch it. So Heidi Klum was making some sort of German meat-balls (kofta kind of stuff) and she was making quite a large number of them so that everyone in the studio gets to taste. Anyways, it was'nt all that interesting for me and I was about to switch channels when something bizzare happened. These two ladies started throwing the meat-balls at the audience! It was disgusting to say the least. I have never seen such disrespect for food. Also, the idea of throwing cooked koftas at people, when you intend to offer it to them (normally, on a plate/dish) for tasting, is a culture shock. Needless to say, most of the food ended up splattered on the floor or on people.

When it comes to matters about food/water/money, I am extremely cautious to ensure that there is nil-minimum wastage. These are extremely precious and there are lots of people out there who have to face huge hardhips to earn their fair share of them.

Watch the video and decide for yourself.

Lazy Saturday and the LC Meet in Pune

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 17:16:59 GMT

Woke up at 11 in the morning (after dad called). It was very windy outside and the doors kept banging shut. Half-dozing, managed to reach the SICSR for the Linuxchix Pune meet. A nice one and half hour of brainstorming and we have come up with an event for July 5th. A Python+Apache, hands on session. Also, Shubhra had a nice idea about putting together a 2-3 member team, who would be collating information about the insitutes where we might be able to conduct sessions (e.g. identify institutes and points of contact, do background check of the audience profile etc.). Shubhra and Smriti have volunteered to take on the role for now. The gory details from the meet would be posted by Shruti later.

All the girls were wearing sarees (and looking gorgeous), as they had to attend a lecture at 6 PM and formal attire was mandatory. They even roped in their Head of Department for the meet.

Was caught in the rain, while returning home. Its still raining and the temperature has dropped a few notches.

IRC nicks and LC Meet in Pune

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 05:12:38 GMT

Since sankarshan has gone out of town, its been pretty quiet around the house these days. To build up the noise levels, I have been watching movies from our collection. Started with the first part of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Well, the film series has been much talked about, so no point going all over it again. What I can say though is - too many familiar irc nicks are around. :D

A plane takes off from Heathrow - picture by Sankarshan

On a serious note, LinuxChix India - Pune group is meeting up this weekend for a CityMeet.

Date: 14th June (Saturday)

Time: 4 PM

Place: Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies and Research (The place where the Pune LUG meets happen)

Smriti, from SICSR has been co-ordinating this meet and has done a great job so far to put everything together. See you there.

Not much of a movie

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 18:36:30 GMT

Went to watch Sarkar Raj with Ramky and Matthew this evening.

Ho-hum! The entire plot could have been completed in half the running time of the movie. But then, someone decided to fill in the remaining time with inane dialogues. Mostly about moral resposibilities towards the people of the land and their development. Analogous incidents from the Godfather have been inserted as well (Apollonia's death, Salvatore Tessio's betrayal). The last 30 minutes were intriging, but lose pace somewhere 3 quarter's down the way. And the background score was loud. The chants of "govinda, govinda" when Shankar Nagre runs through the streets of Mumbai in Sarkar I, set the pace for the impending action. In Sarkar II, they overdo the sounds and follow it up with lame conversation. The saving grace is Amitabh Bacchan, especially when he takes charge of things. Aishwarya Rai looks pretty (Ramky told me that the sunglasses she was wearing was worth 4.5 crore INR....!!) and thats about it. Avishek Bacchan ends up looking comical, while trying to be menancing. GreatBong writes a nice review here.

It might be a good idea to wait for the television premiere of this film. Meanwhile, grab a dog-eared copy of The Godfather (and read it all over again).

Busy Week

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 11:49:07 GMT

So things were a bit busy for the past 2-3 weeks. Among the many things that happened, I took the Red Hat Certification exam and became an RHCT on Red Hat Enterprise Linux v 5. Shall try for an RHCE certification later some time.

Meanwhile, I am trying my hand at Publican, with some expert advice coming from mdious.