Paivakil

Judicial Reforms

2008-10-11T17:35:00.000+05:30

The work load

Let us face it, the Indian Judiciary is simply unable to cope with the number of cases coming up before it.

And the biggest problem is that I do not have statistics to back up that statement.

It is not that statistics are not available; but that it will not be published. By the judiciary itself, that is.

Oh. Yes I have had access to them; on conditions though. What is the need for that secrecy?

Public have a right to know the number of cases pending before the judiciary. And for how long. And what the judiciary is doing about it.

For one, I know that the judiciary is doing something to reduce pendency, by increasing the number of courts. But the polity would not permit it. How is the public to know, unless the information is available unhindered?

Just consider this fact. The Cochin Campus of Department of Legal Studies, Kerala University, as it was then, conducted a study on the pendency of cases before the High Court of Kerala. The scholar who conducted the study went on to become a teacher of law, and retired from service. This study found around eight thousand cases being filed before the High Court of Kerala per year. That was in late 1970s.

In 1994, when I entered the profession, the number of writ petitions alone was around 13,000. In the year 2008, for the month of October, around 25,000 writ petitions have been filed. The number was close to 40,000 in the year 2006 and 2007,

In 1994, when I entered the profession, the number of criminal cases coming up before a typical Magistrate in Ernakulam was around 1800. Today it is above 4000.

4000 cases before the Magistrates? So what is the time he gets to deal with each case? IF he works 350 days a year (that is right, no holidays), he can finish a little more than 11 cases a day. So, if he works 12 hours a days (no - the Magistrate is not a human being to whom the 8 hour working day rule applies - he is a judge who has dispose off litigation as fast as possible) he gets approximately 1 hour to deal with a case,

One hour to go through the charge sheet, examine witnesses, listen to arguments, write a judgement, pronounce the judgement, and of course, arrive at the sentence.

Legislating away litigation

The typical reaction has been to ask the litigant not to file a case. OF course, we lovingly call it "alternate dispute redrssal".

The wise option would have been to increase the number of courts. And the judiciary has umpteen proposals to do that. Only that such proposals which enable to politicians some publicity are approved. Like a proposal to set up a court in the law minister's (or his crony men's) constituency.

We need to get rid of the political shackles on the number of courts and where there are to be set up. That is very important to have a proper and working judiciary.

Last modified: Sat Oct 11 16:17:51 IST 2008

Judicial Reforms

2008-02-09T13:58:00.001+05:30

Getting the Judiciary To Work

Kerala, and some other states in India are facing a strong demand for more benches of the respective High Courts at various places.

How wise is the demand? Are more benches of the High Courts justified?

The main grievance is that people have to go all the way to state capitals, where the High Court Benches are situated to seek redress for their simple grievances. Most of the litigation involves simple writ jurisdiction, where for some reason or other, ordinary courts do have an effective remedy.

The politicians have been consistent in raising the demands - There is a demand for High Court bench in Northern Karnataka, and Trivandrum (the only state capital without a High Court Bench. And the High Courts have been been consistent in refusing. There is even a demand for constituting benches of the Supreme Court in South India.

One thing the politicians forget when they argue that "people cannot be expected to go to state capitals for fighting writ petitions" is the simple fact that writ jurisdiction is in the nature of extra ordinary jurisdiction, a fundamental guarantee protected to "WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA", by ourselves, in our constitution. The constitution has given the politicians the right err.. and obligation (through the legislature) to make laws defining ordinary jurisdiction of ordinary courts.

But every time a new law is made by the legislature, we find some provision in it, which bars jurisdiction of ordinary civil courts.

This forces the public to resort to the extra ordinary jurisdiction vested only in the High Courts under article 226 and 227, and often, Supreme Court.

A simple way out would be to confer writ jurisdiction on the ordinary courts - the District courts, at the very least. There is provision in the constitution itself enabling both the Union and State governments to enact laws defining jurisdiction of ordinary courts.

In later posts, I will elaborate on this.

Got a New Car

2007-06-29T21:18:00.001+05:30

Got a WagonR

We took delivery of our new car yesterday - a Maruti WagonR, LXi, Silver colour.

Here is the long story of how we arrived at this choice.

Because Sujatha will be doing most of the driving, her opinions counted a lot. I researched and got details on models, short listed the various variants, and the final decisions were taken together.

First, for safety reasons, we did not even consider LPG variants. And CNG is not available in Kerala right now, so we had to confine our options to petrol versions only. Diesel was out of question because we will not be driving much, and I know from experience that diesels deteriorate pretty fast, if not used regularly.

We had initially decided on the Xeta and even had got the loan sanctioned. Xeta is a great car - great options, features and comforts. It is a big car, good interiors, good a/c, spacious, compact for city driving, and is at the lowest end of the price spectrum for the same number of features. We are a big family, and that certainly influenced our initial choice of Xeta.

That Indica is used as a taxi, was a plus from my view point, since presence of a huge fleet of Indica taxis meant easy availability of spares and service 5 years down the line. However, its taxi image did its own undoing. We wanted a colour which is not used as a Taxi, and the only such colour we could find was Blue. But, the dealers were dithering on giving a definite time line for delivery. We had been ignoring the plenty of negative feed back about the Indica.

Much of the negative feed back against the Xeta was from the web, but I was wary of those, since several (NOT all) stories seemed like deliberate plants by the competition. Good reviews in favour of the competition too did not since convincing, since more than one person seemed to post identically worded reviews at seemingly different periods of time. The lesson I learnt was that one should NOT go by info on various internet fora alone, in choosing one's car and its accessories. But, the state of Indica's website was a factor which weighted much with me when I decided to drop it -- apart from the color issue, that is. One should try the indica.tatamotors.com website (tataindica . com is a squatter). You are FORCED to sit through a looongish flash video for the Indigo - another, more expensive model based on the Indica. The problem with this lousy, flash based web design was manifold. The correct site, indica.tatamotors.com, was not even in the first 5 in a google search for the words ``Tata Indica''.

The navigation, once the flash video finally ended and redirected me to correct page, was horrid. There was no way I could riht click on a link and open it in a new tab. (I want to compare the information on various pages simultaneously, and tabbed browsing offered by Mozilla is great). I finally decided to invoke the ``If you cannot make a website which I can easily access, you are not competent to make a product which I can use'' rule, about which I have written else where on this blog. Of course, google shows results from tatamotors.com, but there is no link from tatamotors.com to indica.tatamotors.com. (I have deliberately omitted the http:// from the above urls - the webmasters, if any, at tatamotors are paid for, I presume, creating good web sites, which they certainly have failed at. And I am not going to help them gain proper ranking for that site.)

True, the Xeta has plenty of features, the specifications were juicy, the finish was good, the test drive was comfortable, and Xeta is not Indica, so bad feed back about Indica does not properly apply to Xeta; and Xeta was initially launched in the GL* variants, and then Tatas upgraded them to GV* series; before switching back to the GL* variants. The interiors have vastly improved between the initial GL* series, GV* series and the current GL* series. Besides, several people, including a neighbour gave me good feed back about the XETA. And no other car - repeat - no other car gives you the same features and small comforts in the interior at the same price as an Indica.

We had also considered at the Chevy UVA - because it was backed by Chevy, and the good warranty, but were not willing to place the same trust on their Spark due to its small size and Daewoo origins. The Chevy sales persons did not even call us back when he learnt that we are looking to buy the UVA as the first car!!! Given that attitude, I have actually decided not to consider chevy again.

Santro was not at all considered - mostly due to a negative rating for back seat comfort by several magazines - we are a joint family, with 5 members. If back seat comfort and pricing (which is slightly in the Xeta than in the WagonR) is not an issue, a buyer can consider Santro. Another negative we found in Santro is spare prices, servicing and resale value. (We were willing to take risks on these issues with Xeta, but not with Santro). Of course, Power steering on Marutis is best, because only Suzuki (seems due to a patent) has Electronic power steering; all others use Hydraulics. Santro Xing looks good and sporty, like the Xeta, but I do not think the same about the other models from the Hyundai stable.

Palio was ruled out for same reason as Santro. Fiat is not very quick when it comes to selling and upgrading its products in India, a fact demonstrated in the huge gap between the Uno and launch of Palio and between the several upgrades to the Palio itself. Besides, the Tata sales persons were not keen to sell the Palios - probably because we approached them with the Xeta, and we were keen on the Xeta initially.

Alto, which we were considering initially, lost due to its small size; and the Estillo (No, I will NOT call it a Zen) looks like an ugly bug. Swift was out of our range, and looks as ugly as the Estilo in both of our eyes.

There is no particular reason we choose the WagonR, it is only that other cars got excluded one by one. Thus, WagonR won more by default than on merits, in spite of its ugly and boxy looks, high price, etc.,

On the 2nd day of purchase, I do not find anything justifying the 80K more we have paid over the Xeta GLS. My main grouse at the moment with the WagonR is that unlike the Xeta, there is no provision for speakers in the front doors and in the rear. I am not sure if there is wiring for audio provided; the rear seats are folding; but are not split. The internal light is not as bright as in the Xeta; but those are only cosmetics.

Oh well; I will give more feed back, as we keep using it, and get used to it. But I like being driven around than driving myself; so my reviews will be from a very different perspective. So, stay tuned.

Web Standards

2007-05-08T08:39:00.001+05:30

This is for the Marketing honchos, CEO and CIOs out there.

I am not going to buy products from you, if your web site offers
information in flash. Flash is a content delifery format heavy on
bandwidth, resource hungry, and most important of all, it NOT A
STANDARD.

In flash, I cannot control what I want to see. I cannot control the
font sizes, I cannot control the screen area, and flash looks
different on my two computers - one is a 15inch monitor, and the other
is a 17 inch one.

I cannot control popups, I cannot get links to different pages to open
different tabs (I use mozilla); and if I cannot control the way I get
infoamtion.

The reason I rely on the internet err... YOUR website is that your
salesmen are ... well ... just salesmen. They do not know about your
products, they do not have the time, patience or knowledge to deal
with my questions about specifications and performance of your hitech
products.

Do not tell me that html is bad. I am pretty good at web designing
myself, and know what is achievable.

If your business is ignorant about how to design good web pages, you
have no business selling hitech products.

And just to warn you - last time I shopped for mobile phones, I did
NOT buy a nokia hand set because their navigation menu was in flash /
javascript and that was not working properly in my Mozilla firefox.
And I had no reason to purchase a product from a manufacturer who did
not know what the W3C is. (If you are a Marketing manager / CEO, W3C
means the world wide web consortium, and if you are CIO and did not
know that, please change jobs NOW).

New Blog

2007-05-01T15:39:00.001+05:30

I am starting a new blog at http://fizzard.blogspot.com/

Do not ask me why I chose a strange name. The names I wanted were
already taken (and the horrid guys are not even using it!!!).

This blog is now going to talk only about strictly personal matters.
All contentt relating to law, free software, technology etc will now
go there.

Fundamentalism

2007-04-21T15:07:00.001+05:30

Why do fundamentalists restrict social activity?

Ever wondered why fundamentalists are against all kinds of entertainment? They are against music. Videos and images are a strict no-no. Painting is frowned upon. Nobody should even mention drama and dancing.

Ever wondered why?

That gives people more time to spend on religion. Since religious activity is already controlled by fundamentalists, this translates into spending more time listening to religious tirades.

Cool, is it not?

That is why they also target economic activity -- tourism, trade, businesses run by non -- natives in an ethnic area, anything which makes the public dependent on them, at least, render the common man unemployed or under employed. The less than optimally employed people then turn to these organisations, and all the economic difficulties faced by the victims is of course, put on ``others''.

Debian

2007-04-16T09:51:00.001+05:30

Upgrading Sid!!!

Of late, Debian's sid was getting boring -- no breakages, no -- uninstallable packages, no broken dependencies, no unstable packages, no excitement. Life was getting a bit dull and dreary.

And then it happened -- Etch was released. That means the ``testing'' -- sym link is moved to point to ``stable''. Which means ``testing'' and ``unstable'' aka. Sid are ready for developers to play around with. A stable release is the time when major upgrade to ``sid'' happen.

And I having been using Sid for a looooong time now - close to 7 years. the usual procedure has been to install a minimal ``Woody'' package and edit the /etc/apt/sources.list file to point to Sid. And I had to reinstall once - two years back, when at 2.00 am, I did a sudo rm /root/ * -rvf (yes, I still remember the command; and if you have not noticed, the problem was caused by the space before the *). That was the only problem with Sid I could not manage.

Right now, I did an apt-get update, and find that Sid now has version 2.5 of GNU libc6. And that means major updates to several packages are in the offing. Indeed, version 2.6.20 of the Linux kernel is in, which promptly installed and rebooted into. There is a marked improvement in performance -- this a PIII chugging along at -- 800 MHz with 256 megs of ram!!

And yes, major updates means an occassional broken dependency, which may last for a few weeks even, and that is likely to break several things, and I am keeping my fingers crossed - I never had a broken system due to broken dependencies, and hope I will not have a broken system now.

If you want to know when you installed your Debian, do this:-

 luser@desktop:~$ ls /var/log/installer*

And this is what I get:-

 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 95871 2005-06-19 02:49 /var/log/installer.log -rw-r--r-- 1 root root  3401 2005-06-19 02:49 /var/log/installer.timings

That should tell you a couple of things about your install process!!

Fundamentalism

2007-04-15T21:03:00.001+05:30

Fundamentalism

I was reading an article about rise of religious fundamentalism in Pakistan in the ``The Hindu'' Magazine today, For some reason, the article reminded me of a post on a mailing list about the large proportion of religious fundamentalists among the ``nerds'' a.k.a. scientists. The post on mailing list was a forward from this blog entry.

What is common between the two?

I will attribute both behaviours to lack of social awareness.

The society is made up of individual human beings. Individual human beings are imperfect. Therefore, the society will be imperfect. This is a fact which most people (even me, till about 10 years back) will find very difficult to digest. Scientists live and work in a very small, tightly knit, and most importantly, homogeneous, community, among similarly thinking people, with similar education, social and cultural values. And yes, they are an isolated lot. Isolated from the society, its diversities, imperfections, chinks and all.

Fundamentalism, irrespective of caste, creed or religion it stands for, too breeds in a similar background. Whether it be in the numerous ``shakhas'' or ``madrassass'' or wherever else the training is imparted.

Uniformity, regularity, homogeneity, and singularity tend to be very efficient --- in the short term. In a society consisting of imperfect human beings with diverse needs, these qualities will quickly breed factionalism and bigotry.

That is what Pakistan is suffering from ever since their Independence. It was first the ``West"" versus the ``East''. Then it was about the ``mohajirs'' - the muslims who migrated from India hoping that Jinnah would actually deliver. Then it was between the shias and sunnis.

And this is the fate that will befall India if we succumb to religious dogmas.

You will first support your religion.

Then they will say that you do not belong to your religion if you do not attend the weekly meetings.

Next, you will be told that you have been following the wrong religion because you do not worship ``<ideal god>''.

You may be be able to hold our against a few more distinctions. Then, ultimately, you will be told that you, like ``them'', will have to leave the country.

A strange floppy problem

2007-03-29T10:55:00.001+05:30

I have two machines here, both exlusively running Debian
Gnu/linux. Multiboot is between various versions of the gnu/linux
kernel. (yes, I know that kernel is not a part of the GNU project, but
GNUS does not allow me to utter the name of the kernel in isolation -
that is a bug which I am going to report).

The problem - floppies do not work on both machines.

Both machines read, files show up, no file is truncated, dosfstools
and dosfsck / fsck.vfat does not report any problem, but copying /
reading files from the floppies is always giving me problems. The cp
command says there are problems reading the files, and fails.
ometimes, I can use the media after running dosfsck.

This is not likely a hardware problem, because occassionally, the same
floppy in the same drive can be read /written to without any problem.

But the same media / floppies read all time in other machines (the
ones running any OS from Microsoft).

Why?

Gnokii and Samsung mobile

2007-03-26T12:48:00.000+05:30

I got a DSU 7 cable for my basic Samsung SGH - X 160, and found that
xgnokii can communicate with it. The port has to be set to ``ttyUSB0''
and model is ``AT'' in $HOME/.gnokiirc.

gnokii can read SMSes and the phone address book. Have not tried other
things yet. Command line gnokii fails most other options, so I guess
I may not be able to set the wallpaper and other tricks.

Free Software

2007-03-20T08:46:00.001+05:30

Conflict of Interest in the Free Software Community

Conflict of interest is a rather simple concept. It happens when your decisions in one capacity is influenced by your interests in a different capacity.

Suppose you are the secretary of your apartment's owners' society, and in your day job, you work as the marketing manager of a paint manufacturer. You have a conflict of interest when your society is discussing which manufacturer's paint is to be purchased for next year's maintenance; and your employer (and at least one other competitor) makes the same quality of paint.

Another example situation is like this - you are the owner of a restaurant; and also a committee member of the restaurant owners' association. You come to know that a particular organisation is looking out for prospective restaurant owners to operate the cafeteria for its employees. What happens when you approach the prospect introducing yourselves as a representative of the restaurant owners' association, make a proposal on behalf of the restaurant owners' association, and then go on to enter into the final contract with that prospect in your personal capacity?

You have just misused your position of trust, in which you were placed in your capacity as office bearer of the restaurant owners' association.

It makes no difference if you did this in your capacity as the officer of your employer; or if instead of the restaurant owners' association, it was a charitable society; even if it is permitted to enter business contracts.

When people indulge in such acts, not only are they doing something unethical, they are also bringing a bad name to entire community they are part of. The problem is not merely occupying posts carrying conflicting roles; but exercise of you position in both organisations / capacities for gain of one organisation and such exercise of your power and/or capacity being detrimental to the interests of the other organisation.

People in all walks of life are placed in such situations; but in certain situations, the law forbids people having conflict of interest from occupying certain offices.

And I am saying this here because I have come across certain people in the free software community occupying such positions of conflict and using their positions in community organisations for obtaining business for their personal organisations.

This conflict of interest has severely impaired progress of the free software movement in India. More than one person I have come into contract has asked me ``why is organisation X so ineffective in its stated objectives?'' and almost, as if answering their own questions, pointing out the organisations involved.

I hope the people concerned realise that they are being watched by the community.

A survey

2007-03-15T09:42:00.001+05:30

Which is the best archrivalry of them all? This is today's Slashdot
poll. See

http://slashdot.org/pollBooth.pl?qid=1396&aid=-1

Emacs v. VI leads with 26% votes.

Pirates v. ninjas is not very far back, with 25%.

The rest are far.... far.... behind.

Dell

2007-03-14T10:00:00.001+05:30

What I want from Dell

Dell's attempts to woo the Free Software community have been astounding, and they are now running a survey on what they should prioritise on.

For one a good start, Dell asked the community, instead of asking a consultant to do this. But, the ``hangover'' of proprietary days is still there, even in the survey. I think Dell does not understand the difference between a kernel and an operating system.

Saying that about a leading manufacturer of hardware sounds far-fetched, but some of the questions on the survey - like ``Which language should we prioritise on?'' just demonstrates it.

For me, all Dell needs to do is simply to ensure that every part of their hardware - the video card, sound cards, Lan cards, MMC/SD card slots, WiFi/BLueTooth / InfraRed / Firewire ports, Modems, web cams, finger print readers, etc are supported in the Kernel.

The prohibition against changing partitions is another problem with Dell's, (and almost all other laptop manufacturers) warranty terms. Dell should ensure that users have the freedom to partition disks and install the distro of their choice. If the users do not know how to do this, they wont do it, and Dell need not enforce ignorance through a warranty nullification clause.

And if users know how to do this, they will not bother Dell with support calls about such issues.

One problem Dell may have to face is in the application software arena. People will keep on asking ``how do I use the thumb drive'', ``why is my digital camera not working'' etc., and Dell should have (preferably more than one) mailing list and / or some web based fora devoted to answer such questions.

For all this, Dell need not have huge support team to deal with customer queries / support requests; all it will need is a team of core developers who will integrate drivers and software specific to Dell hardware into the Kernel; and a few knowledgeable people who will do the support thorough e-mail /web fora.

It certainly will help if Dell does install a basic distro while shipping their systems with working X and a GUI desktop (GNOME/KDE/ICEWM - I do not care); and all the device drivers and user interface software for the hardware, but Dell should not invalidate the warranty if the user reinstalls another distro.

And yes, like HP, Dell should hire a few Free Software hackers.

What will Dell get in return for all its efforts?

I do not know about you, but if they get their act together within a reasonable time (say 3 months), and make it available in India, I may choose a Dell notebook / laptop. Here is what I am looking for - 1 GB Ram, 120GB (or more) Sata HDD, a 64 bit processor, Wifi/bluetooth/IR port, SD/MMC card reader, integrated webcam and speaker, 15 inch monitor, 4hr + battery backup; and, yes - GNU/Linux compatibility.

But, if the drivers are not there in Debian's Main section, or Fedora (which means, binary drivers will not do), I am not going to touch the systems with a barge pole.

Licensing

2007-03-10T15:01:00.001+05:30

``... and any future version.''

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

People looking at source code of software under the GNU GPL will have come across the above text very frequently. Most other software licenses also contain such phraseology.

Several people, including so called legal experts have been quick to ask -- how can software be licensed under a license which does not exist?

I am attempting to answer this enigma here.

First, let us have a look the dictionary meaning of the term ``license''. Here is one from WordNet.

  license       n 1: a legal document giving official permission to do something            [syn: {licence}, {permit}]       2: freedom to deviate deliberately from normally applicable          rules or practices (especially in behavior or speech)          [syn: {licence}]       3: excessive freedom; lack of due restraint; "when liberty          becomes license dictatorship is near"- Will Durant; "the          intolerable license with which the newspapers break...the          rules of decorum"- Edmund Burke [syn: {licence}]       4: the act of giving a formal (usually written) authorization          [syn: {permission}, {permit}]       v : authorize officially; "I am licensed to practice law in this           state" [syn: {licence}, {certify}] [ant: {decertify}]

I could write a few megabytes worth of (plain) text about the term ``license'' as it is used in copyright law; but for our purpose, it would be sufficient to note that sense 1 above is a good definition; and for Copyleft licenses, both 1 and 2 will hold true.

Thus, when you license software, what you get are certain permissions and those permissions are different from what you would get under the copyright law if you owned that copy.

In a copyleft Free Software license like the GNU GPL, what you get is freedom from the restrictions imposed on you by the copyright law, and the terms on which you get the freedom are specified in the license. When this license says that you have the option of using a future version of this license, it means that you can choose whether to use the software under the yet-to-be-released license. Of course, you can make choice only when the next version of the license is released. Obviously, if the next version is not to your liking, you opt not to use the updated version of the license.

There is absolutely no reason why a court of law will not accept this proposition. It should be remembered that the terms of the license grant do not change unilaterally. The grantor (copyright holder) has to choose to issue the subsequent version of the license. Once the new version of the license is in place a user can decide whether the terms of new license are beneficial to him or not.

After all, copyleft is for protecting the user.

This situation is more similar to buying something on credit and the seller says ``you can choose to pay me the price prevailing on the day you repay me''. The crucial term is ``you can choose''. If the buyer finds that the price of the goods is higher at the time he chooses to pay, he can choose to pay the price prevailing at the time of sale, or if the current price is lesser, the buyer can choose to pay the current price.

Me?? Nerd??

2007-03-10T14:12:00.001+05:30

Me?? Nerd??

This is what they say:--

Overall, you scored as follows:

10% scored higher (more nerdy),

0% scored the same, and

90% scored lower (less nerdy).

What does this mean? Your nerdiness is:

Supreme Nerd. Apply for a professorship at MIT now!!!.

And gave me this pic:-

Ah!!!

Interview

2007-03-08T21:02:00.000+05:30

അത് എഷ്യാനെറ്റ് സംപ്രേക്ഷണം ചെയ്യുന്നുണ്ട്.

യാഹൂ - വെബ്ബ് ദുനിയാ കൂട്ടു ബ്ലോഗ് മോഷണത്തെകുറിച്ച് ഈ പാവത്താനുമായുള്ള കൂടികാഴ്ച ഏഷ്യാനെറ്റ് ന്യൂസ് സംപ്രേക്ഷണം ചെയ്യുന്നുണ്ട്. ഇത് എഴുതുംമ്പോള്] വാര്]ത്ത രണ്ടു പ്രാവശ്യം കാണിച്ചിട്ടുണ്ട്.

ഇത് എഴുതുന്നത് ൨൦൦൭ മാര്ച്ച് മാസം ൮നു സന്ദധ്യ ൮മണി ൪൫ മിനിറ്റ്. .

What next in Malayalam Computing

2007-03-04T10:10:00.001+05:30

What next in Malayalam computing?

Now that a significant amount of progress has been made on encoding standards issues, time is now ripe for anybody interested in Malayalam language deployment to think about what else is required to enable impeccable support for Malayalam.

Here is my take, in no particular order of preference:-

Assigning accelerator keys to various menu items - like "ctl=s" for save.
Compiling a list of pre-fixes and suffixes for wordlists.
Arriving at some sort of consensus on basic characters to constitute conjuncts.
More keyboard layouts.

Thankfully, some of the more fundamental work - like locale definitions and collation orders -- have been done for us by the Swatantra Malayalam Computing, a project by FSF India.

And unfortunately, the FSF-I project was a sponsored project, (with funds coming from Government of India) and once the funds ran out, the project got orphaned. It took the enthusiasm and hard work of one group of people to get things going.

Personally, I do not want my contributions to increase the currently available mass of non-standard Malayalam data. I guess my stand is vindicated by the infrequent posts in the Unicode's Indic mailing list, stating things like "plenty of Malayalam is already out there on the web, what is wrong with that, and fixing problems with the standards will render that data bad etc.?"

While expressing my thanks to that group (Praveen, Anivar Aravind, etc) for their contributions, for the rest of you out there - please see the list above - feel free to add to it.

Changing settings

2007-03-03T21:31:00.000+05:30

Dear Readers, I am afraid I have to change the settings of this blog. While anonymous and unmoderated comments are welcome, obscenity and name calling is not; and I have noticed two such comments. Reluctantly, I am changing the settings to disallow anonymous posts. This will be a temporary change, and I hope to be able to change the settings back as soon as possible.

Free as in Freedom

2007-02-28T08:48:00.000+05:30

From: "Mahesh T. Pai" <paivakil spam spamgmail dotcom>

To: Murali D. <MuraliDe maps mapsleft to right at gmaildot remove this space com>

Subject: Free Software

Dear Sri Murali,

I just came across an interview with Mr. Umashankar, MD of ELCOT done by you.

I am reading the online version of The Business Line, and the article is reported on

 http://www.blonnet.com/ew/2007/02/19/stories/2007021900130400.htm

I have been following several of your writings, probably ever since you have been writing for The Hindu, and have viewed the immense research you put in behind your articles.¹

However, in the above article, there is more than one gaping error, and I hope you will correct at the earliest.

I take the liberty of quoting (what I consider as) erroneous part here:-

A brief description of Open Source (OS), for the lay reader. Open source software (OSS) means the source code of the software is open for viewing and editing. The users have the freedom to edit the source code, rename it and use it as they wish. This is contrary to proprietary software, which does not allow the buyers/users to look at the source code.. Open source should not be confused with free software. Open source software can be priced too. Free software is not priced at all. The similarity between the two is that both OSS and free software enable the users to view and modify the software code. Commencing mildly with the Linux operating system in the early 90s, today OSS controls major systems in the world. This includes the day-to-day use open office software on the desktops to the operating system for the most powerful mainframe computers of the corporate world..

I am very well aware that you are writing for the lay reader, and would like to point out that you would have been correct, had you left out the comparisons with the concept of ``Free Software'' in its entirety.

There is a very specific term in vogue for software which comes free of cost - ``FREEWARE''.

``Free Software'' is software which assures users of their freedoms, and the term ``free'' in ``free software'' means ``free as in freedom''.

In fact, people can, (and do) charge money for free software; please see http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.html.

Also, please see the section titled ``How is `OpenSource' related to `Free Software' '' on http://opensource.org/advocacy/faq.php

Another grave inaccuracy in your article is about ``it all starting with Linux''.

I hope this link will provide with adequate information. http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20050509140911151

With Warm Regards, Mahesh.

-- Mahesh T. Pai <<>> http://paivakil.blogspot.com/ ``Those willing to give up a little liberty for a little security deserve neither security nor liberty''

¹ Should have been ``..viewed with much resepct ...''

Blog Theft

2007-02-10T13:40:00.000+05:30

Blog Theft

``Kariveppila'', is the Malayalam word for what is sometimes referred to in culinary recipes as ``Bay Leaves'' or ``Indian Bay Leaves'', but are actually curry leaves.

Kariveppila is used while cooking the dishes, and are usually one of the first ingredients which go into a dish while cooking; it is also served, but never consumed. They are discarded while eating. But, no Indian dish (particularly thosecooked in oil bases) would taste the same without curry leaves.

The indispensability of the curry leaf, and the practice of discarding it has given rise to referring to some people (and/or their contribution) as ``Kariveppilas''. They are indispensable, do all the work and once they are utilised to the maximum, they are discarded.

The reason I say all this is because Yahoo! India^TM has started its Indian Language content service, and the contributors are being treated as Kariveppilas.

Allegations (with proof) are flying around in the blogosphere about how bad Yahoo!^TM is, and why they ought to be sued. And Yahoo!^TM's response has been to silently remove the infringing content. While writing this, I has double checked Yahoo!^TM's copyright policy, and all it talks about is how to approach Yahoo!^TM if its users violate copyrights. Nothing -- not even -- a word about Yahoo!^TM's contents violating others' rights!!

Going by evidence available on blogosphere, Yahoo!^TM is not alone in plagiarising content. Other portals too are doing it.

People keep on cringing ``we live far away, and cannot sue the corporates, what will we do??'' and in my opinion, it is the ``we cannot sue'' attitude that lies at the root of the un-authorised contenting copying problem.

Most blogs are licensed under one of the several Creative Commons licenses. Some, like this, are not licensed at all. What people should do, if you are serious about your works being subject matter of unauthorised copying, is, instead of raising the bogey of legal proceedings, first, insist on compliance with the license. if any. If you did not attach a license to your published copyrightable work, it cannot be copied / reproduced at all, except as ``fair use''.

Remember, you attached a license to your work with the intention that the license terms are complied with, and the other person cannot use your work except in compliance with the license terms. So, when somebody violates your copyright / license, insist on license compliance. If your license allows copying, you obviously intended that your work be copied, and what you want is that your work should be copied. If the license terms reserve any rights (most sensible licenses do), your best bet is to insist on the infringer comply with your license. In most cases, particularly in case of blogs, you only wanted you be attributed when your work is reproduced, and that is a trivial relief to raise threats about litigation at first go.

So, before raising crying yourselves hoarse about litigation, crimes, courts, law, damages, bad ethics of the infringer and all that, stay level headed, polite, and ask for compliance with the license.

Else, you end up like ``kariveppila'', a Malayalam blog whose recipes have been plagiarised by Yahoo!^TM's Malayalam language service. When the blogger complained, Yahoo!^TM removed the post, without even an apology. People tried to rationalise this behaviour, attributing it to content providers. But, the action of removing the blog helped nobody - least of all, the blogger. The fact remains that Yahoo!^TM had considered the recipe good enough to be published as its own; and insisting on its continued publication, with proper attribution (because the kariveppila blog is licensed under a creative commons non-commercial, attribution license) would have served the purpose (of the license) far better than any litigation will.

However, we should never hesitate to sue an infringer who refuses to provide proper attribution (or comply with the license terms). And merely taking down the infringing work from the web site is only mitigating the liability, it does not absolve the infringer from liability.

Of course in electronic media, a published work under a permissive (preferably, a strong copyleft) license is far better than a work without a license at all, since electronic media allows, encourages and requires, (as a matter of technical ease of use) making of copies. Copyleft licenses ensure that people making and distributing copies redistribute the same rights as those granted by the copyright holder. Not having any license at all means the work cannot be copied.

Which now brings me to the license of this blog -- time to re-licence it.

2007-01-01T10:17:00.000+05:30

2007 പിറക്കുംമ്പോള്‍

മലയാളം സ്വതന്ത്രമാകുന്നു

ഏഴ് വര്‍ഷം മുമ്പ്, ഒരു വക്കീലിനെ സംബന്ധിച്ചിടത്തോളം കംപ്യൂട്ടര്‍ ഒരു ഹൈടെക്ക് ടൈപ് റൈറ്റര്‍ മാത്രമായിരുന്നു. കൊടതിയിലേക്കുള്ള ഹരജികള്‍ ടൈപ് ചെയ്ത് ഈ കംപ്യൂടറില്‍ തന്നെ പ്രിന്ട്ും ചെയ്യേണ്ട ഗതികേടായിരുന്നു അന്ന് - കാരണം പല കംപ്യൂട്ടറുകളിലും പലവിധത്തിലുള്ള സോഫ്ട്ട്വേറുകളാണ് ഉപയോഗിച്ചിരുന്നത്.. മലയാള ഭാഷയെ സംമ്പന്ധിച്ചിടത്തോളം കടലാസിലേക്ക് അക്ഷരങ്ങള്‍ പകര്‍ത്തുവാനുള്ള ഉപാധി എന്നനിലയില്‍ നിന്ന് യതാര്‍ഥ സ്പെല്ല് ചെക്കിംഗ്, സോര്‍ട്ടിംഗ് എന്നിവ നടപ്പിലാക്കി നമ്മുടെ ഭാഷയില്‍ "അസ്സല്‍ കംപ്യൂട്ടിംഗ്" സാദ്ധ്യമാക്കിയതിന് നമുക്ക് ഒട്ടനവധി വ്യക്തികളോടും സംഘടനകളോടും കടപ്പാട് ഉണ്ട്.

ഇതില്‍‍ ഏറ്റവും പ്രാധാന്യം അര്‍ഹിക്കുന്നത് സ്വതന്ത്ര സൊഫ്ട്ട് വേര്‍ പ്രതിഷ്ടാനം തന്നെ. കേരള സര്‍കാരില്‍ നിന്നും ലഭിച്ച ഗ്രാന്‍റ്റ് അവര്‍ ഗ്നോം എന്ന സോഫ്ട്ട്വേര്‍ കൂട്ടത്തിന്‍റെ മലയാളീകരണത്തിന് നിയോഗിച്ച വ്യക്തികള്‍ക്ക് ശംബളം നല്‍കുവാന്‍ ഉപയോഗിച്ചു. ആ പ്രോജക്റ്റിന്‍റെ ഭ്ഗമായാണ് ഗ്നൂവിന്‍‍റെ ഭാഗമായ libc6 യില്‍ സൊര്‍ട്ടിംഗ്, കൊള്ളേഷന്‍, ലോക്കേല്‍ ഡെഫിനിഷനുകള്‍, എന്നീവ നടപ്പിലായത്. തികച്ചും ആ പ്രോജക്റ്റില്‍ തങ്ങളുടെ സമയവും അധ്വാനവും തികചും സൌജന്യമായി വിനയോഗിച്ച വ്യക്തികളും ധാരാളം.

സ്വതന്ത്ര സോഫ്റ്റ് വേര്‍ പ്രതിഷ്ടാനത്തിന്‍റെ പ്രോജക്റ്റില്‍ ഉപയോഗിച്ചത് ടക് (TeX) ന്‍റെ ഭാഗമായി ലഭ്യമായിരുന്ന ജെറൊന്‍‍ ഹെല്ലിംഗ്മാന്‍റെ മലയാളം എന്ന പേരില്‍ തന്നെ അറിയപ്പെടുന്ന ഫോണ്ടുകളാണ്.

സ്വ. സോ. പ്ര. ന്‍റെ പ്രോജക്റ്റ് സര്‍കാര്‍ ഗ്രാന്‍റ്റിനൊപ്പം നിലച്ചുവെങ്ങിലും യാതൊരു സാംമ്പത്തിക സഹായവും ലഭിക്കാതെ, കാംക്ഷികാതെ, സിബു. സി. ജോണിയുടെ വരമൊഴി പ്രോജക്റ്റ് ഇന്നും നില കൊള്ളുന്നു. ഗ്നോം മലയാളീകരണത്തോളം; അഥവാ, അതിലും പ്രാധാന്യം അര്‍ഹിക്കുന്നതാണ് വരമൊഴി, കാരണം അത് നമുക്ക് തന്നത് അന്നു വരെ (ഇന്നും) നിലവിലുണ്ടായിരുന്ന 256 ബിറ്റ് എന്‍കേഡിംഗുകളെ അടിസ്ഥാനമാക്കിയുള്ള മലയാളം ഭാഷയിലെ ഡാറ്റ യൂണീകോഡിലെക്ക് മൊഴി മാറ്റം ചെയ്യുവാനുള്ള ഉപാധിയാണ്.

രചന ഫോണ്ടുകളുടെ സ്വതന്ത്ര ലൈസന്സിംഗാണ് (2) മലയാള ഭാഷയുടെ പുനരുജ്ജീവനത്തിന് ആക്കം കൂട്ടിയ അടുത്ത ചുവടു വെപ്പ്. ചില്ലാക്ഷരങ്ങളെ സംബന്ധിച്ച് രചന അക്ഷരവേദിയുമായി എനിക്ക് യൂണികോഡ് ലിസ്റ്റില്‍ നടക്കുന്ന അന്തമായ സംവാദങ്ങളിലെ അഭിപ്രായ വ്യത്യാസങ്ങള്‍ എന്തൊക്കെ തന്നെ ആയിരുന്നാലും മലയാളം ലിപി പുനരുജ്ജീവിപ്പിക്കാന്‍ രചന വേദിയിലെ അംഗങ്ങള്ട നല്‍‍കുന്ന സംഭാവന പ്രശംസാര്‍ഹം തന്നെ.

കെവിന്‍റെ അജ്ഞലി ഫോണ്ടുകളെ കുറിച്ചാണ് അടുത്തത് പറയാനുള്ളത് "serif" ശൈലിയിലുള്ള രചന ഫോണ്ടുകളും "sans-serif" ശൈലിയിലുള്ള അജ്ഞലി ഫോണ്ടുകളും എന്തു കൊണ്ടും മലയാളം ഭാഷയ്ക്ക് മുതല്‍ കൂട്ടാണ്. അജ്ഞലി ഫോണ്ടുകളുടെ കുറ്റമറ്റ എന്‍കോടിംഗ് ബ്ളോഗര്‍മാര്‍കിടയില്‍ അവയെ കൂടുതല്‍ പ്രിയംകരമാക്കുന്നു.

ഏറ്റവും ശ്രദ്ധേയമായ വസ്തുത സ്വതന്ത്ര ലൈസന്‍സ് പ്രകാരം ല്ഭ്യമാക്കിയിട്ടുള്ള സോഫ്റ്റ് വേറുകള്‍ തന്നെയാണ് ഏറ്റവും പ്രചാരത്തിലായിട്ടുള്ളത് എന്നതാണ്.

കംപ്യുട്ടിഗിലെ മലയാളത്തിന്‍റെ ചുവടു വെപ്പുകള്‍ എന്ത് അര്‍ഥത്തില്‍ കണ്ടാലും തുടക്കം മാത്രമാണ്. പ്രബുദ്ധരായ നമ്മള്‍ വെബ്ബിലും അല്ലാതെയും നല്ല മലയാളം ഉപയോഗിക്കണമെങ്കില്‍ ഇനിയും ബഹു ദൂരം പിന്നിടെണ്ടതുണ്ട്. ഓ. സി. ആര്‍, ടെക്സ്റ്റ് ടു സ്പീച്ച്, സ്ക്രീന് റീഡറുകള്‍‍, തെസൊറസ്, എന്നിവ ഇനിയും യതാര്‍ഥമാകുവാന്‍ ബാക്കിയാണ്. യൂണികോഡ് ലിസ്റ്റിലെ "കൂട്ടായ്മ" എല്ലാ അര്‍ഥത്തിലും ഇവ യതാര്‍ഥമാക്കുന്നതില്‍ നമ്മള്‍ പിന്തുടരും എന്ന് പ്രതീക്ഷിക്കാവുന്നതാണ്. ഇവയെല്ലാം ഒരു സ്വതന്ത്ര ലൈസന്‍സ് പ്രകാരം തന്നം ലഭ്യമാകുമ്പോള്‍ നമ്മുടെ കൂട്ടായ്മ അവയിലെ ന്യൂനതകള്‍ പരിഹരിക്കുവാന്‍ ശ്രമിക്കുകയും തന്‍‍മൂലം മികച്ച സോഫ്ട്ട് വേറുകള്‍ നമുക്ക് ലഭ്യമാകുകയും ചെയ്യും. മേല്‍ പറഞ്ഞ കൂട്ടത്തിലെ ചിലതെങ്കിലും പുതിയ വര്‍ഷത്തില്‍ തന്നെ സാദ്ധ്യമാകും എന്ന് നമുക്ക് പ്രാര്‍ഥിക്കാം.

2006-12-28T19:27:00.000+05:30

The Reliance / Essar-Hutch merger and patents

Why patents are a failure in technology

As the financial world is going ga-ga over Reliance Communication's offer to take over the Hutch-Essar GSM network, very little is being said about why this is happening. The managements will, of course, talk about only financial aspects. The fact is, Reliance has been dabbling with moving over to GSM for a while. People are also talking about differences with Qualcomm, the provider of CDMA technology.

While it is possible to brush off the move as a pressure tactic on royalty profiteering, (if you do not toe our line, we will not do business with you). the fact that this is the best real world example of how technology patents are getting inefficient.

Patents are, for jurisprudence, ``Statutory rights'', which means you have them because the law grants them; unline right to life and personal liberty, which are considered ``natural'' or ``fundamental'' rights. While deciding scope of protection to be granted to statutory rights, legislatures have immense freedom and discreetion; and unlinke the judiciary, legislatures are under no obligation to justify their decisions.

Thus, legislative decisions can be rather ``arbitrary'' in a loose sense. One of my favourite exampe of this ``loose'' arbitrariness is the law of Limitations, which (for example) specifies 3 years as the period for instituting suits for recovery of money lent. In exercise of its ``loose'' arbitrariness, the legislature decided that this should be precisely 3 years; but it could have chosen 5 or 2 or 4 years.

In a similar fashion, while deciding scope of ``statutory rights'', the legislature has immense freedom; and this freedom is often manipulated by the people with access and ability to influence the legislators. The privilege of access and influence over legislators is often politely called ``lobbying''. Unfortunately, in a democratic world, interests which have only little or small financial burden due to proposed legislative moves will fail (most often, be inable) to respond to such lobbying; resulting in the legislation overprotecting the successful interests.

The legislation governing intellectual property regime has fallen prey such over protection.

And Reliance Communication, in spite of its Billions of Rupees of investment in CDMA technology is now a prey to this situation.

Whatever the rival interests on the CDMA war would say, for consumers like me, the fact remains that choice of handsets is limited if we decide to choose a CDMA provider. And as long as this remains the situation, consumers are not going to exactly flock to CDMA mobiles/fixed sets.

And the shrewed technicians they are, the Ambanis know the pulse of the consumers, and will take the right decision. For them, the investments in CDMA can be ``written down'' as depreciation and other expenses.

But, very few will talk or be ever aware of the harm caused by episodes like this, and attribute such harm to technology patents.

Parasites

2006-12-25T16:35:00.000+05:30

ഇത്തികണ്ണികള്

ഗ്നു സ്വ. അ. പ. ന്രെ (സ്വതന്ത്ര അനുവാദ പത്രം) പുതിയ പതിപ്പിനെ സംബന്ധിച്ച് റിച്ചാര്ഡ് സ്റ്റാള്മാനുമായുള്ള സ്വകാര്യ സംവാദത്തിനിടക്ക് ഞാന് അദ്ദേഹത്തോടു ചോദിച്ചു - രചിയിതാവ് തന്റെ പ്രോഗ്രാം സ്വ. അ. പ. പ്രകാരം പ്രകാശനം ചെയ്യുന്നു എന്ന് അവകാശപ്പെടുകയും എന്നാല്‍ സോര്സ് കോഡ് നല്കാതിരിക്കുകയും ചെയ്താല് സ്വാതന്ത്രയങ്ങള്ക്ക് അര്ഥമില്ലാതാവുകയും ഇപ്പോള് നടപടികള് ഒന്നും എടുക്കുവാന് സാധിക്കുയില്ലലോ? എന്ന്. അദ്ദേഹത്തിന്റെ മറുപടി വളരെ ചുടുലമായിരുന്നു. "അവര് ചെയ്യുന്നത് സ്വ. അ. പ. പ്രകാരം അനുവദനീയമാണ്. പക്ഷെ അവര് ചെയ്യുന്നത് ചതിയാണ്. ചതിയന്മാരെ സമുഹം തിരച്ചറിയുകയും അകറ്റിനിറുത്തുകയും ചെയ്യും" എന്നാണ് അദ്ദേഹം പറഞ്ഞത്. അവര് സ്വതന്ത്ര സോഫ്ട്ട്വേര് സമൂഹത്തിന്മേല് ഇത്തികണ്ണികളാണ്. കേട്ടപ്പോള് എനിക്ക് സംശയമായിരുന്നെങ്കിലും അത് സത്യമാണ് എന്ന് മനസ്സിലാകുവാന് അധികം താമസമുണ്ടായിരുന്നില്ല.

ഇതു പറയുവാന് കാരണം പഴയ ലിപിയുടെ തിരച്ചുവരവിനായി അശ്രാന്തം ശ്രമിക്കുന്ന ഒരു കൂട്ടത്തിനെ ഉപയോഗിച്ച് സ്വന്തം സാമ്പത്തിക-കച്ചവട താത്പര്യങ്ങള് വളര്ത്തുവാനുള്ള ഒരു വ്യക്തിയുടെ ശ്രമമാണ്. ആ കൂട്ടായ്മയുടെ സത്പേര് ഉപയോഗിച്ച് ഒരു ഓപറേറ്റിംഗ് സിസ്റ്റം ഇറക്കുന്നു എന്ന വാര്ത്തയാണ് ഒരു സുപ്രഭാതത്തില് മലയാളികളെ സ്വീകരിച്ചത്. അന്ന് മലയാളികള് ഒന്നടങ്കം സന്തോഷിച്ചിരിക്കണം. എന്നാല് ആ സന്തോഷം അധികം നാള് നീണ്ടു നിന്നില്ല. കാരണം വാര്ത്തക്കും പൊതുയോഗത്തിനും ശേഷം ഇപ്പോള് അതിനെകുറിച്ച് ഒന്നും പറഞ്ഞു കേള്കുന്നില്ല. സ്വതന്ത്ര സോഫ്റ്റ്വേറിനെ അടിസ്ഥാനമാക്കിയുള്ള അവരുടെ സോഫ്റ്റ്വേറിന്റെ സി.ഡി. പ്രകാശനം ചെയ്തുവെങ്കിലും അവര് നടപ്പിലാക്കിയ വ്യത്ത്യാസങ്ങള് ഇതുവരെ പൊതുവില് പ്രാപ്യമായ ഏതിങ്കിലും ഒരു വേര്ഷന് കണ്ട്റോള് സിസ്റ്റത്തിന്റെ വെളിച്ചം കണ്ടിട്ടില്ല. സ്വ. അ. പ. പ്രകാരം അവര് ചെയതത് അനുവദനീയമാണ്, പക്ഷെ സമൂഹത്തോട് അവര് കാണിക്കുന്നത് ചതിയാണ്. ആ ചതി സമൂഹം തിരച്ചറിഞ്ഞു. ഇപ്പോള് ആരും അതിനെ കുറിച്ച് സംസാരിച്ചു കേള്ക്കുന്നില്ല. സദ്ഉദ്ദേശ്യത്തേടുകൂടി ചെയ്യുന്ന പലതും ദുഷ്ട ബുദ്ധിക്ള് തട്ടി എടുക്കും എന്നതിന്റെ ഉദാത്ത ഉദാഹരണമാണ് ഈ സംഭവം.

ഇതു പറയുവാന് കാരണം (ഗ്നു) ലിനക്സ് ഓപറേറ്റിംഗ് സിസ്റ്റത്തില് ഇപ്പോള് ചില്ലുകള് നല്ലവിധം കാണാമല്ലോ, പിന്നെ എന്തിനാണ് അവക്ക് പ്രത്യെകം കോഡുകള് എന്ന ചൊദ്യവും അതിനുള്ള കെവിന്റെ മറു ചോദ്യത്തിന് യുണീകോഡ് ലിസ്റ്റിലെ നിശ്ശബ്ദതയുമാണ്.

നേരത്തെ പരമാര്ശിച്ച പത്ര വാര്ത്ത ശരിയാണെങ്കില് ഏതു ലിനക്സിലാണ് മലയാളം കൃത്യമായി കാണുന്നത് എന്ന കെവി യുടെ സംശയത്തിന് ഒരു മറുപടി ഉണ്ടാകണമായിരുന്നു. അത് ഇതുവരെ ലിസ്റ്റില് ഉണ്ടായിട്ടില്ല. കെവിക്ക് സ്വകാര്യമായി മറുപടി കിട്ടിയിട്ടുണ്ടെങ്കില് അത് പ്രസക്തവുമല്ല - കാരണം മറ്റുള്ളവരുടെ അധ്വാനത്തിന്റെ ഫലമാണ് ഗ്നൂ ലിനക്സ്. അതില് മാറ്റങ്ങള് വരുത്തി വിതരണം ചെയ്യുമ്പോള് ആ മാറ്റങ്ങള് സ്വകാര്യമായി വയ്ക്കുന്നത് അനുവദനീയമല്ല - ചതിയുമാണ്.

യൂണീകോഡ് ലിസ്റ്റില് കാണുന്ന സംവാദങ്ങളുടെ അടിസ്ഥാനത്തില്‍എനിക്ക് നേരത്തേ തന്നേയുള്ള ചില സംശയങ്ങള് ബലപ്പെട്ടു വരികയാണു്. എന്തു കൊണ്ടാണ് ചില്ലുകളുടെ കാര്യത്തിലെങ്കിലും മൈക്രോസോഫ്ട്ട് അവര് തന്നെ പറയുന്ന സ്റ്റാന്ഡേര്ഡുകള്ക്കു് വിപരീതമായി ചില്ലുകള് നടപ്പിലാക്കുന്നത്? (പ്രത്യേകം http://www.microsoft.com/typography/otfntdev/indicot/images/ind_haln2.gif കാണുക) എന്തുകൊണ്ടാണ് സ്വതന്ത്ര സോഫ്ട്ട്വേര് ഉണ്ടാക്കുന്നവര് - സ്വതന്ത്ര സോഫ്ട്ട്വേര് പ്രതിഷ്ഠാനത്തിന്റെ ഭാഗമായ പ്രോജക്റ്റുകളില് പോലും - മൈക്രോ സാഫ്റ്റിന്റെ (മനപൂര്വ്വം?) പ്രസിദ്ധീകൃതമായ ഓപ്പ്ണ് ടൈപ്പ് നിലവാരങ്ങള് നടപ്പിലാക്കണമെന്ന് നിര്ബന്ധം പിടിക്കുന്നത്? എന്തു കൊണ്ടാണ് മൈക്രോസോഫ്റ്റ് അവരുടെ തെറ്റുകള് തിരുത്താമെന്ന് പറഞ്ഞിട്ടും അത് ചെയ്യാതിരിക്കുന്നത്?

ഇതില് ഏറ്റവും വിതിത്രമായി തൊന്നിയിട്ടുള്ളത് ഒരേ വ്യക്തിയില് നിന്നും ഉള്ള ഈ 1 2 3 കത്തുകളാണ്.

എന്തു കൊണ്ടാണ് ആദ്യത്തെതും രണ്ടാമത്തെയും കത്തുകളിലെ അഭിപ്രായം മൂന്നാമത്തെ കത്തില് മാറിയത്? എന്തു കൊണ്ട് ബൈജു ആ മനം മാറ്റത്തിന് കാരണം പറഞ്ഞിട്ടില്ല?

സാധാരണ നിലക്ക് ഈ ചോദ്യങ്ങള്ക്കു് പ്രസക്തി ഇല്ല, പക്ഷെ ഇന്ഡിക്ക് ലിസ്റ്റില് ആവര്ത്തിച്ച് ഗ്നൂ ലിലക്സിലെ മലയാളം നടപ്പിലാക്കലിനെ കുറിച്ചു മാത്രം എന്തു കൊണ്ടാണ് ഇപ്പോള് ചോദ്യങ്ങള് വരുന്നത്? ഇത് ഉത്തരം കിട്ടാത്ത ചോദ്യമായി നിലകൊള്ളുന്നു.

Bandhs

2006-12-21T00:24:00.000+05:30

It was yet another bandh a.k.a. hartal the other day; and I was forced to stay home. There was no transport, and even private vehicles were scarce. While people would prefer to decry the hartals / bandhs, they serve a very good purpose -- fuel, and therefore, emissions, are saved for every vehicle which stays in the garage on that day.

Like the way they have it in some Western countries, we should have state sponsored ``vehicle holidays'' once in a while here. That should help conserve petroleum, and of course, keep pollution.

Yet another change - why I missed foss.in

2006-11-27T22:07:00.000+05:30

Finally, I have made it to Ernakulam. After nine months of wandering about in Northern Malabar - Payyannur and Iritty, I am now posted Ernakulam. Sweet as it may sound, I also meant that I had to skip my talk at foss.in.

The transfer from Iritty to Ernakulam meant that I could not, with any certainity, say where I would be on any day in the last two weeks. Being at Iritty also meant that I had no access to the net. The office fo the Assistant Labour Officer does not have even a phone - let alone a computer. This, in turn, meant that I could not prepare the slides, and reluctantly, I had to ask the organisers to remove my talk.

I hope I could be there next year.

The move back to Ernakulam also means that I may be able to spend more time for FSUG-Kochi. The user group does not have much activity nowadays, -- it used to meet at my house for a few months -- but I hope to be able to change that in a few more weeks' time.