Archive for the 'Tech Chomps' Category

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

Believed 4 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 4 months, 2 weeks 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]

PayPal opening up to developers… Possibilities and challenges

Believed 6 months ago in Tech Chomps. 0 Comments

Dear readsfolk,

PayPal, the e-commerce division of eBay, is opening up to developers on November 3rd. I happened to chance across a cool video of the announcement on TechCrunch…

Opening up to developers do mean a lot of possibilities. Like TechCrunch comments, the scenes shown in the video may not happen in the near future, but it is definitely a start, and we can look forward to it.

I would definitely love to see a time when I could walk into a shop and pay using my PayPal id.  Now that would truly be cashless shopping! And of course, it does increase physical security – you can walk around with no money, or credit cards…

Throwing it open for developers could see fantastic ideas being visualised. It might be the first time that such a big ecommerce venture is opening up, and it does take the idea of developing way beyond iPhone apps.

However, it does throw open a lot of security related questions, especially since we are talking about the most sensitive sector here – banking. For example, if PayPal is serious about the fingerprint scanning shown in the video, either they will have to develop an entirely new system of authentication and encryption, or they will have to form an addon system, which will supply the username and password to the existing system on verification of the fingerprint. But then, another level of system adds on to security risks, and if this system is hosted by somebody else (which would probably be, in the case of developers) then how safe is our authentication details? And therefore, our money?

These are challenges which PayPal will have to address, but I’m hoping that they will! Lets see, and hope for a PayPal future ;)

Times when I wished I had…

Believed 10 months, 1 week ago in Tech Chomps. 2 Comments

I walk the lanes and see two kids in ragged clothes watching a cartoon channel in the display TV visible through the high glass panes of an electronics shop. One of the shop assistants, irritated that these ‘ragged’ kids wouldd spoil the ‘image’ of the shop, switches the channel. The kids look on longingly, sad.

I visit a friend’s house after so long. I’m there to spend some time talking to him. His TV is on… And his eyes are glued to it.

I have a literature exam in 3 hours. The man downstairs has chosen this unique moment to keep his TV on full volume, and disappear from the scene, to fight with his wife.

These are times when I wished I had, a Micro Spy Remote! I haven’t seen or used one, but the blog Only Gizmos’s description is way too tempting! You can control, turn off, mute, or do any crazy thing with any television in the locality…

*zap* Channel changes back to Cartoon Network.

*zap* TV turns off. My friend thinks its jinxed, and chucks it, decides to talk to me instead.

*zap* TV muted… Literature in peace!

And how did I come across this? Only Gizmos has this competition on, for bloggers, in connection with their 2nd anniversary, to blog about one of their posts, and win prizes. And one of the prizes they’re offering IS a Micro Spy Remote! Now you know me, I would have just walked off, but the spy remote was just irresistable, I HAD to blog about it!

Oh, BTW, this is an entry for that competition… Thanks to this competition, I learnt about the Micro Spy Remote, and something else which is really really awesome. I’ll post a blog on that later, after I’ve had discussions with a few friends of mine :) Hint hint, its got something to do with artificial intelligence! Adios for now!

UPDATE (17th May, 09): I’ve won the competition! w00t! *zap* *zap* *zap*! Can hardly wait for the awesome remote :) So cool! Thank you so much, Only Gizmos!

Offline Gmail – Gmail with Google Gears

Believed 1 year, 1 month ago in Tech Chomps. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

In a very recent stunning move, Google has integrated Gmail with Google Gears, ergo, you can now access Gmail offline using the Google Gears functionality. If you have Google Gears enabled, you can read through your mail, send new mail, archive, label, delete mail etc. all offline. Gmail will automatically sync all offline actions when you go online.

 

With offline Gmail, you can -

  • Read new mail (which are downloaded while syncing)
  • Send mail (which will be sent the next time you connect to the internet)
  • Do actions with mail, like delete, archive, label etc.

Gmail blog explains:

Once you turn on this feature, Gmail uses Gears to download a local cache of your mail. As long as you’re connected to the network, that cache is synchronized with Gmail’s servers. When you lose your connection, Gmail automatically switches to offline mode, and uses the data stored on your computer’s hard drive instead of the information sent across the network. You can read messages, star and label them, and do all of the things you’re used to doing while reading your webmail online. Any messages you send while offline will be placed in your outbox and automatically sent the next time Gmail detects a connection.

To enable Offline Gmail, log in to Gmail, go to Settings  > Labs, enable the Offline Google option, and click Save. Now reload Gmail, and you will find a small link in the top links bar saying “Offline 0.1″. Click it, and follow the instrucions.

Known limitations

The mail synced cannot be selected as of now. Its done automatically based on an algorithm developmed by Gmail, which decides which mail to download, and which not to. The contacts manager will also be unavailable in Offline mode. Attachments can’t be added to mail which you send. The search results will be limited to the local cache.

And if you have too many attachments in recent mail, watch out! :)

Requirements

You will need a browser supported by Gmail Labs and Gears: Internet Explorer 7.0+, Firefox 2.0+, Safari 3.0+, and Google Chrome. You will not be able to use Gmail Labs in Internet Explorer 6.

 

Theres also this handy option called Flaky Connection which you can use if your connection is not that fast, or is unstable (like a wifi with very low connectivity) which will put Gmail into semi-offline mode. You can work on Gmail, while syncing takes place whenever net is available.

Read the official announcement : http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/new-in-labs-offline-gmail.html

Doubts? Check out this comprehensive overview and announcement by Google System blog.

Implications

I don’t see much fire around this handy little tool. Hasn’t anyone yet noted the implications of this new Labs feature of Gmail? It will render most desktop mail software worthless if you have Gmail. As soon as Contact Manager is also included in the offline content, and selective syncing is enabled, and attachment support included, Offline Gmail will work as good as, if not better than, most desktop mail clients.

Not to mention, Offline Gmail looks spiffy fine with Chrome. Very neat, clean, the awesome Gmail Web 2.0 interface, and most of Gmail functionalities offline!

This is indeed a victory milestone for Google and Gmail. Another step closer to that completely online operating system rumour triggered by the launch of Chrome.

Pat on the back to the awesome people behind this development at Google. You’ve been doing an awesome job these days folks! :)