Monthly Archive for October, 2009

Finally ICANN approves International Domain Names! Truly global information boom starts now…

Believed 10 months, 1 week ago in Political contemplations and Tech Chomps. 0 Comments

A few years back, I began contemplating on the effect Internet could really have on the global population, if it was completely made available in local languages… Having a website in a language was one thing. But for a person speaking a language which follows a non-Latin text, the experience would either be absent, or quite unempowering. Because you needed the Latin script to do a lot of things, one of the main ones being typing in the URL of the web page.

There existed a space for inclusion. Inclusion of millions of people into the information revelation boom powered by the internet. And all that was required to harvest this space was an empowering experience – the expanding of domain name ranges to other languages and scripts. In simpler language, the possibility to type in a web page URL in a non-Latin-script language.

And today, I read via TechCrunch that ICANN (an international non-profit society which regulates the Internet) has decided to move ahead with Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs), or domain names in different languages. *applause required here, and I contribute a standing ovation*

ICANN announced this on the last day of their conference in Seoul.

ICANN says that this is the most important decision by them, after eleven years of its inception. ICANN lauds this decision as biggest technical change to the Internet, in its forty years of existence.

This decision will now enable websites to have domain names in different languages. Thats an hundred thousand characters to chose from! As opposed to the existing 37 (A-Z, 0-9 and the hyphen). ICANN is introducing a fast track process to invite nations to apply for domain name extensions in their local language scripts. The first entries to the system would be introduced by mid-2010, said Rod Beckstrom, ICANN president, speaking to the media. How it will be played out, will be an interesting watch. Will domain names be bound to use one single language (Hindi, or Arabic, or English) or can it be a mix of two or more? We will have to wait and see…

The technology behind the different scripts being used will be a translation system, which converts the different languages into the right address. I’m not quite sure of what they mean by that, but I guess we’ll wait and see… But it is indeed, a lot of work. Reviewing each language application, researching into the language, building a translation system, and introducing the language, would be quite a task! I am now wondering how the applications will be processed, and if applications could get rejected…

But, this means a tremendous opening up of the internet… The web will now reach out to millions of people (estimated half the world’s population) who were earlier handicapped by the lack of local language domain names. With powerful translating tools, most of the information openly accessibly on the internet today can be accessed by any literate person now (literate in any language, that is).

What I did not know, then, and till today, is that ICANN has been working on it for the past nine years. Along with many others. And it was an idea from 1996… Long before I had even heard of computers… But I take a moment of silence to appreciate this huge move, and its possible tremendous impacts on our world.

I can imagine the impact this would have on my country. With over 3000 different languages, most of them not following the Latin script*, and most people not literate in English, the opportunity to use the local language to open a website is… quite something… And beautifully empowering.

Watch this video by ICANN, regarding the announcement… Its beautiful… Take my word for it!

Read more about IDNs on Wikipedia.

* – I did not know that there were certain Indian languages which used the Latin script! Thanks M for the info! He says that certain Indian languages, like Konkani, Mizo, and a few Naga dialects, do use the Latin script.

Toodles to where it all began..

Believed 10 months, 1 week ago in My Life My Voice and Tech Chomps. 0 Comments

I remember.

I was excited. I was at it for almost an hour now. I’m glad that my parents are in the other room. I wouldn’t want them to know that I was online for almost an hour! Dial up is so expensive! I hope it won’t show too much on the phone bill..

But its ok… Right now, its this moment that matters. This moment. I might be caught in lust, momentary infatuations.. Maybe I shouldn’t be doing it. But never mind, I can’t stop… Anyway I had done so much.. Why not do a little more and reach the.. end.. or the beginning..

I was excited. Every time the 56k connection lagged, I sighed, I prayed deeply to all Gods introduced to me by people around me. I was so close… so close..

And yesss! I was there! Wow! Amazing! For the first time… wow.. This is what I had always wanted to do.

I was excited. I called my best friend and comrade-in-action…

I was 11 years old.

I remember that time, when I was so excited. When I had made my first public online presence. With a huge URL which no one would know, or remember. Something like http://www.geocities.yahoo.com/geocities/users/….. And I had some ridiculous id, which I, then, thought was cool. Something like bwmo….. or something. But all that didn’t matter. All that mattered was that I was there, up there, on that huge being which I thought was so cool, which I wanted to get to know better, and conquer, which had become my latest companion, and my best friend in a world where I had none.

And it had all started with this service called Yahoo! GeoCities.

It has been a run since then. For almost half a year, racing with my friend to make the better website. Adding bouncing hippos, and falling snow, mouse overs, and colourful text.. It didn’t matter that no one knew about our ‘websites’. Did not matter that no one, but we ourselves, used or visited those ‘sites’. After two or three GeoCities websites, we moved on to other hosting firms, using software to make websites, as opposed to the web application, learning code, designing, making better websites, programming, making concept ideas for websites, designing and working on them, blogging..

But it all started with Yahoo! GeoCities. And I remember.

And my remembrance will it all be. Goodbye GeoCities. And thank you. For making my world for those many years. For making me live.

[For more information, visit Yahoo! Support Pages. If you want to see a website which was on GeoCities, visit the Internet Archive]

On Respect

Believed 10 months, 1 week ago in My Life My Voice. 0 Comments

I wish, I wish, that there was more love in this world. Because, love then gives birth to respect. And respect to humanity, and more love.

But what is respect? Or Respect?

Is it spending a moment of silence because of the death of someone close? Or is it being silent for a moment, or more, because you have nothing to say or speak or sound? Is it restraining yourself from blogging because a friend passed away? Or is it you had nothing to write, because a friend passed away?

Is it calling your father by a respectful name because you are expected and used to doing so? Or is it putting in your entire heart and body and soul and love into calling that name, because it means so much?

Is it fearing the powers of nature? Or is it loving Her, and being humble, before Her who is so humble?

Is it being humble? Or is it humbled?

Is it setting aside something you so wanted to do for somebody else.. Or is it not feeling like doing something you so wanted to do, for somebody else?

More questions that I put before you, my Love.

And while you’re at it, please also try to explain through life, what is love? Is it like artificial intelligence where the program is programmed to behave in every possible imaginable event is termed as intelligence itself? Or is it like intelligence, that which is unexplained and infinite?

Love you.

Bitches of the world

Believed 10 months, 2 weeks ago in Fictionalised Fact. 0 Comments

*apologies* :  I wished to post a few feelings after this long gap in blogging. But I need a different time, and mood, to put down those feelings. I’m sorry. I’m sorry, to the one(s) I wished to post it for. It will, I promise, however, be my next post. Titled “On Respect“. You may now, read..

—

Tufts of fur indulged into the dark aura, shed by buildings, on the scratched fence, challenging the warm moon’s light. A metronome of breath, soft stealthy sighs, entered the audic world reigned by night crackles, sneezes, window-muted televisions, and distant traffic rumblings. Paws pinched asphalt, mud, dust, and bits of stick and grass. An orange glitter in the north-nordic like luminescence. Tender eyelashes shut over the glitter, in a quick hug, and let the light shine again. A snout rose, wetness absorbing the olfactory feels of the dark.

“Rrrrr” she said.

A few more tufts shifted into the modern vision of western sereness.

And a few more.

And more.

Equally stealthy. Equally sighing. Equally adding on to the life energy flow. Beside them, the glass and wood window tried its best to mute a blaring Timbaland. “Oooh just what the dogs were looking for” the Apple Hifis screamed, fighting the mute resistance of white and transparence, quenching from the 160G black matt iPod classic snugly fitting in to its specially carved seat.

They looked up for a few minutes. Then they looked at each other again.

“Woof?” What is it?

“Rrrrr ruh.” There he is.

“Wuf?” Who?

“Rrhhh.” Him.

“Ruh ruh rarrr?” So what about him.

“Rr rahhrr woofen woof ruff woof rrrrrr.” He called them bitches.

“Rhrhhh ru?” Called who?

Quick shuffling of paws. Fast paw-sniffles through the fallen fall leaves.

“Rhheee!” Them.

“Bow!” WHAT!

“Rrrrrheeeee” Yesssss…

An eerie thunderclap of wicked drastic evilness sounded from canis larynxes.

Brown, black, and bitten tufts of hair rushing through the warm light. One behind another, paws outstretched, snouts wettened to attention, ears cocked and straight, canines ready for action.

Sisters, mothers, neighbours, they moved. Wives, lovers, widows, they moved. The power of feminity, they moved. As a unit. Clawing Mother Earth in their quest for revenge. Clenching bits, souvenirs?, nay, anger. Raw love flowing through them, Nature’s justice in action, claims to justify insults, insults insulting not egos, but very existence.

Red. Purple. Puke green.

Red. Black. Grey. Purple. Death blue.

Monotone images heaving up and down. Droplets of sweat impairing vision, raindrops on a car window. Hearts heaving, lungs beating, legs pounding.

Out to justify insults on their kind.

They found him. Terror glittered in his eyes. He slipped. He fell. He ran. Stumbling, precariously, clumsily, he ran. Fear slitting through his pitiful human body.

Rrrrrrahhhhaaaaaa. Bark bark. Bow wow. Grrrrrrrrrr rruf!

What did I do, what did I do… he screamed to the Mother, who now flowed through him, in his last tides. Whyyyy!

They heard him, echoing through the Mother.

How dare you compare us, US, Mother’s children, with those creatures, those inmentionable beings, whom we ashamedly call beings for lack of another word; they screamed back.

He heard. Mother told him. He could not believe it. But of course, human idiocies do not corrupt the soul at moments like that. So, he knew.

At that moment, the terror disappeared. But the inertia of a life of fear remained. He tripped. He fell.

They rushed over him, without a moment of increased frenzy, without a corrupt thought. Like a well oiled machine, programmed for stupid efficiency, but very very unmachinic, flowing rivers of life, they got him. Canines met cutanes. And then the flesh. And then, myosin and actin. Red blood flew. Chunks of humanness disappeared into wet nosed snouts. White teeth glared red. Ruffs, grrs, and bow wows, in quiet action. Screams, physical pain, blinding misery, in crazy final pleads. One of Hers connoisseured his nose.

He started to laugh. Ha ha ha ha. Pain, yes. But that was just maya. Mother flew through him. He was one. And in quiet understanding he laughed. Somebody dug in, between his thighs and groins. Tasty tasty joint cartilages.

Ha ha ha. He shouldn’t have done that, should he. Not have compared those lovely creatures, those beauties of Mother, with those… unbeings?

Ha ha ha.

Somebody loved the taste of his tongue.

Mmmm. Red blood in front of my eyes. Mmmmmmm. Fountains. Oooh. Red fountains. Red, purple, black, yellow, blinding lime green fountains. Mmmm. I’m sorry, oh Mother, oh love. I’m sorry, dear beings of self. Mother dear, here I come. Oh! I write about those unbeings? They merit a spot? Ah! Pardon, oh Mother dear. Pardon.

Someone bit into his armpit.