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.

எனது நண்பர் திரு. சிவாபிள்ளை சமீபத்தில் ”மொழிகளுக்கான ஐரோப்பிய விருதை” பெற்றுள்ளார். அவரை பாராட்ட லண்டனிலுள்ளத் தமிழமைப்புகள் ஒரு விழாவை போன வாரம் மிகச் சிறப்பாக கொண்டாடினர். அவர்களுக்கு என் மனமார்ந்த நன்றி!

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.

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. E-Kalappai - This is another variation of Keyman and is widely popular in blogosphere.
6. Azhagi - Works well, supports multiple keyboard formats. Unfortunately only the paid version supports input into Microsoft Office and other applications.
7. 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:

• Enabling Tamil Inputs and Fonts
• Indic Languages in Microsoft Software
• Read multiple encoding Tamil pages in Firefox
• Indian Language Open type fonts

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 - கறுப்பு உடையில் நயன்தாரா அழகாக வந்து போகிறார், சண்டை காட்சிகளில் வேகமாக செய்து அசத்துகிறார்.  எவ்வளவு யோசித்தாலும் இதைத் தவிர வேறு ஒன்றும்  ஞாபகம் வரவில்லை.

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.

சுமார் இரு வாரங்களுக்கு முன்பு மக்கள் தொலைக்காட்சியில் என்னை 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!

Video: TNCV Interview in Makkal

One 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. The full list of 2007 winners can be found here.

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.

Many times I am asked on how to enable Tamil Unicode support (both display and Keyboard) in many Operating Systems. I have written posts on how to do with Windows, but today I found this well written article from Wikipedia that gives step by step instructions. The article includes steps for most Operating Systems including Windows, Mac and many variants of Linux and applications.

In Web today there are plethora of Encoding used for Tamil including TAB/TAM (Tamilnadu Govt. standard), TSCII (popular 8bit), TUNE and more. For each of these sites you need to download and install respective fonts, definitely a pain. Recently I found this Firefox Addon that aims to solve this problem. After downloading and installing this addon "Adhiyan" - press Alt-2 (for TSCII), Alt-5 (for TAB) and it changes the text in the page to Unicode. So without installing the respective fonts, you can read all the text in Unicode. Since it finds and replaces characters in the webpage, not all pages come out correctly. But still a very handy utility.

Many times people ask me on how to setup Non-English Languages (specifically Tamil or Hindi) in Windows. They get confused on the jargons - LIP/MUI, etc. So far either I demoed the whole thing to them in one of my presentations or referred them to Microsoft BhashaIndia website (Incidentally this was developed by Vishwak for Microsoft).

Now my good RD Colleague Scott Hanselman in his usual brilliance has posted this which demystifies the whole topic. Though he talks of Chinese Language, it is relevant to all non-english languages.

Apart from this post, check out these Microsoft websites:
Downloads for languages (BTW, I want to ask someone in Microsoft.com on why should this be inside /industry/government channel), which includes many of the Indian Languages including Hindi, Tamil & Telugu; FAQ on Windows XP LIP

இது ஒரு விடுதலை மனப்பாங்கோடு உருவான மென்பொருள் ஆவணத்திட்டம். இதன் அடிப்படை கொள்கை வாசகம்: "ஒரு சமுதாய முயற்சியாக, முன்னோடியான பன்னாட்டு பயன்பாட்டிற்கு உகந்த , அனைத்து முக்கிய அடிப்படை செயலிகளிலும் இயங்கக்கூடிய அலுவலகப் பயன்பாட்டுச் செயலித்தொகுப்பை உருவாக்குவது மற்றும் இத்தொகுப்பின் அனைத்து செயல்பாடுகளையும் மற்ற செயலிகளிலும் பயன்படுத்திக்கொள்ளும் வகையில் திறவூற்று ஆணையின் கீழ் API களாகவும் XML சார்ந்த கோப்புப் படிவமாக அளிப்பது ஆகும்"

The above paragraph is taken from Tamil OpenOffice page, but this post is not on OpenOffice or its translation in particular. I have just taken this as an example to make few observations I see in many technical documents in Indic Languages. Most of these documents seems to be literal translation from English, done by a non-native speaker of the Indian Language in question. Somehow when you read these you don't get the feel of reading it in your mother-tongue (Tamil).

For example, I am not able to relate very well to விடுதலை  being used to mean "Freedom" (as in Free to do what you want in the Open Source sense of the word). I checked in LIFCO’s Great Dictionary for “Free” and it says “not restrained, not bound, சுயேச்சையான”. Instead of விடுதலை, சுயேச்சை seems to be more suited for Free.  Look at திறவூற்று being used to mean "Open" (Open API's) I would have preferred to have திறந்த. Also notice how the second sentence in the paragraph has about 39 words. Yes 39 words in one sentence - can't it be broken into easily digestible smaller sentences.

Google, Live Search and Yahoo! have all  been supporting Unicode text searches for years. Using them you can type a tamil word in Unicode and search. Google also gives you a Tamil User Interface if it detects your Browser Language setting to be"TA" or "TA-IN".

The constraint in using them were, you needed to have a Tamil IME pre-installed in your machine. Microsoft provides its IME for Tamil free with Windows XP, Vista and more through their BhashaIndia Website, my favourite has always been my good friend Malaysia Muthu Nedumaran's Murasu Anjal due to my bi-lingual typing, Apple bundles Anjal now with its Tiger OS and above, Fedora Core 6 bundles a free Tamil IME. But inspite of all this, if you need a no-install way to use Tamil search here is a new site that is build on top of Google API that allows Tamil Unicode input through English typing. Check it out.

My family owns The Little Flower Co. - a South Indian book Publisher. Apart from LIFCO Dictionaries, our popular titles includes Hindu Sloga books, Personal development and other vernacular titles.

Last month, while I was in America I was thrilled to learn that our title "How to Cook" (a South Indian Cook Book) featured in Saveur magazine. Saveur has listed How to Cook  as one of their top 100 Favorite List of foods, restaurants, drinks, people, places and things. 

 

(Image Courtesy: Saveur Special Issue)

"How To Cook" is also available in Tamil Language as "சமைப்பது எப்படி" ?

If you are doing Webpages in Indian Languages like Tamil, Hindi, Punjabi, etc. and you want to embed dynamic fonts (fonts that are shown without being installed in your PC) you need two items:

1. A tool to create Dynamic Fonts (EOT) - this can be done by the free Microsoft WEFT Tool. Netscape's Dynamic Font technology Bitstream has been discontinued few years back.
2. Apart from WEFT, you need the actual Open Type fonts for the language. Unfortunately the fonts that ship with Windows XP or MS Office or MS BhashaIndia.com sites are copy righted and cannot be used without explicit license from Microsoft. So you need free Indian Language fonts to do this.

Govt. of India has released free Indian Language Software and Fonts CD for about 10 languages (and growing) in its ILDC.in website. You need to register here and download the fonts for the particular language you want.

Related Links:

• Read about my presentation on stage during the release of Tamil Free Software CD here
• Microsoft Office 2003 in Tamil Language

சில்லுனு ஒரு காதல், சூர்யா ஜோதிகா நடித்த இந்தப் படத்தை ஓரிரண்டு மாதங்கள் முன்பு பார்த்தேன்.சூர்யா ஜோதிகாவின் திருமணத்தின் பொழுது வெளிவந்தது மட்டுமே படத்திற்கான விளம்பரமாக அமைந்தது.படத்தில் கணவன் மனைவி உறவை/அன்பை ஆழமாக அதே சமயம் இயல்பாக இயக்குனர் சொல்லியுள்ளார், மற்றபடி படத்தைப் பார்த்தப்பொழுது என்னை எதுவும் மிகவாக கவரவில்லை.

படத்தின் பாடல்களை பிறகு தொலைக்காட்சியில் பார்க்கும் பொழுது, பாடல் ஒளிப்பதிவு மிகவும் நெர்த்தியாக தெரிகிறது -குறிப்பாக "நியுயார்க் நகரம்" பாடல் மிக அழகாக Editing செய்யப்பட்டுள்ளது.ஒரு காட்சியில் சூர்யா வலதுப்பக்கமாக வெளியேரினால் அடுத்த காட்சியில் ஜோதிகா இடதுப்பக்கமாக தோன்றுவார், ஒருவரில் (கணவன் சூர்யா) இருந்து மற்றவர் (மனைவி ஜோதிகா) வருவது போல் மிக நெர்த்தியாக தொழில்நுட்பத்தைப் பயன்படுத்தியுள்ளார் இயக்குனர் கிருஷ்ணா

இதைத் தவிர பாடல் சிடியை தினமும் வண்டியில் கேட்டப்பொழுது "நியுயார்க் நகரம்" பாடலும், "அம்மி மிதிச்சாச்சு" பாடலும் என்னை வெகுவாக கவர்ந்தது. இதில் "நியுயார்க் நகரம்" பாடல் முழுவதையும் கவிஞர் வாலி ஆங்கில கலப்பிண்றி (காபி பொன்ற ஒரிரு தவிர) இயல்பான தமிழில் எழுதியுள்ளார் - குறிப்பாக டயரியை (Diary)  நாட்குறிப்பு என்று அழகாக சொல்லியுள்ளார். ஒவ்வொரு முறையும் அந்த பாடலை கேட்கும்பொழுதும் ரகுமான் குரல் மனதை வருடாமல் விடவில்லை.  

The other day I wanted to watch a movie and searched for theatres in Chennai, where I can book tickets online. After about 10-15 mins, all I could find was just two theatres offering tickets online. Satyam Theatre and MayaJaal. I am not sure where in Online world the others are hiding. If you know about any other Chennai Theatres for which you can book tickets online, please post in the comments below.

Continuing my story, I booked the tickets in MayaJaal and went for Sillunu Oru Kaadhal, starring Jyothika and Surya before marriage. The story of course was about a married couple and the emotions/bonding between them. A good to watch (though not great) movie, great photography and nice songs. When I was searching this movie in the Internet I was surprised to see a page for it in Wikipedia - these days everything is available in Wikipedia

Update: Prakash has suggested posted in comments links to do online booking for Abirami and Sangam, Ega & Casino.

Let this Diwali - the festival of light, bring peace and prosperity for everyone.

Today in the supplement of one the tamil newspapers carried a piece that the English word "Cash" came from Tamil "Kaasu". "Kaasu" means smaller money - coins. European merchants travelling to India and China, have taken this word to Europe and it was later adapted as "Cash" in English.

The Tamil word in turn is believed to have its influence from Sanskrit word "Karsha" - which denotes weight of precious metals like Silver and Gold.

Anyway I am proud as a Tamilian that the most important word in English has its origin from my mother tongue

Today all FM Radios in Chennai were talking only about the birthday of Dr.ABJ Abdul Kalam - Hon'ble President of India. He is a great self-made man and I am big admirer of him. Born today (15-Oct) makes him a Libran (I do come up with such great discoveries once in a while ) and it is a great feeling to know I share the same Sun Sign with him.

As a responsible citizen, I casted my vote for the ongoing Localbody elections in Chennai (Tamilnadu). Though localbody elections are not high-profile, they have the most direct impact for citizens.  

Last 3+ parliament/assembly elections that I voted have been on Electronic Voting Machines, but I was surprised that today it was paper based.  May be they don't have so many voting machines.

India Image is a portal to access all of Government of India websites.

I always admire Dr. A.B.J. Abdul Kalam, especially in his role as President of India. The admiration is more because he is a worthy man of the post and he got there through sheer hard-work and not by birth. I am also glad for him being the President, because with him all Indians now have a worthy role-model. Think about it, today if I were to show someone in public-life as a role-model (someone to see up to and grow like) to my 3 year old son, it certainly cannot be any of the existing Politicians (State and Central). Beyond a shade of doubt, it can only be Dr.Abdul Kalam.

And he is a big change influencer, but he doesn't try to change the grown-ups (he will not have the time to do it in his tenure) but he seeds good-thoughts and nurtures the young who in turn will grow to make the changes. His interest and energy for students is infectious. I salute you Sir for this.

Anyways, I started this post to write that the President's Website has recorded 1 Million (10 Lakhs) hits on a single day (August 15) and over 12.7 Million (127 Lakhs) hits in a month (August 2006). Indians are very patriotic especially on the Independence day, I suppose!.

I am delighted today – Hon’ble Minister Mr.Dayanidhi Maran (Govt. Of India, IT & Communication) mentioned my name in his speech today in Tamil New Encoding Conference (a.k.a TUNE).

The context is this - a conference that is happening currently today by Govt. Of India (Information Technology) and Tamilnadu Govt. to discuss about an Alternate 16-bit encoding for Tamil. I wrote about this alternate encoding a year back (TUNE) and my views on the same in my blog.

Since I came to know this conference earlier, this Monday (28th Aug) I wrote to Hon’ble Minister and IT Secy (TN Govt) to let them know about a common man views on this. When I sent it I had no expectations that this will be read by them (or) acknowledged by them due to the overwhelming responses they will be getting from different quarters.  Surprisingly on Wednesday, I got a call from Mr.Maran’s office (New Delhi) and minister spoke to me directly for a minute and acknowledged my letter – and he even summarized the issue I have raised precisely. He invited me to attend the event today. My honest appreciations to him for his amazing energy levels.

Today in the inauguration of the conference Hon’ble Minister while talking about the issue in question – both pro and cons and he mentioned my name. Saying that “Mr.Venkatarangan” has written to me with his views and I have invited him to say his views here. Thanks Sir!

Technical Committee's Report
Here is an update to the day's event published in "The Hindu" by Prof.Anandakrishnan who chaired the Technical Committee.

தமிழில் வெளிவரும் வார இதழ்களில் நான் அநேகமாகப் படிப்பதும், எனக்கு பிடித்ததும் வாசகர்களால் ஆவி (a.k.a Ghost) என்று அன்பாக சொல்லப்படும் - "ஆனந்த விகடன்" பத்திரிகை.

27/08/06 தேதியிட்ட ஆவியில், சத்குரு