Vietnamese Language Tools: Developing Keyboards and Spell-checker

Mentoring Mozilla Vietnamese localization team to develop Vietnamese keyboard and spell checker for Firefox OS. We built and tested Vietnamese keyboard during Mozilla Vietnam L10N sprints in Hanoi. We will integrate this into Firefox OS after Mozilla UX team improves the keyboard design to accommodate large set of alternative character keys.

Lewtds created Vietnamese spell checker using the Ho Ngoc Duc's word list. The Vietnamese language processing work is very limited. We haven't found any good data to that create a frequency list for the Vietnamese spell checker. Any pointers would be much appreciated.

Please read the Mozilla FirefoxOS keyboard documentation to learn more about developing keyboards in your language.

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Toshiba NB200 Netbook won't boot up

My Toshiba NB200 netbook freezes on BIOS splash screen. Looks like the netbook was shipped with a faulty motherboard. Unfortunately I can't do BIOS update as suggest in this post. Removing the Hard drive, RAM has no effect.

Am not ready to throw away the laptop. Wonder if anyone has a better solution.

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Google Apps Script for Google Sites

Google Apps Script started as functions for Google Spreadsheets. Today Apps Scripts have evolved into powerful development environment for extending Google Apps. Google Apps Scripts are written in JavaScript programming language.

Last week I attended the Google Apps For Education Summit in Hanoi. The event featured few tutorials about Google Apps Script. It seems that there is a need for simpler tutorials for teaching Apps Script programming.

Earlier this year I wrote these Google Apps Scripts Web Apps to fetch a RSS feed or web page, parse it and display its content. You can embed these Apps Script as gadgets in your Google Sites pages.

The more technically savvy readers will find the example code helpful in learning user interfaces(UI) development with Html Service and Ui Service. You might also want to read XML parsing with Google App Scripts tutorial as well. Please do refer to latest Google Developer documentation as Apps Script API change over time.

Daily Buzzword Google Apps Script

Google Apps Script to parse and display wordcentral.com's Daily Buzzword RSS feed.

Web App URI: https://script.google.com/macros/s/AKfycbwi3vmklN73Al0tXrtQIvfzwl6G3cGOBsTrY-0s1XQvN-zUhLw/exec | Source Code: https://github.com/arky/DailyBuzzword-AppScript

Daily Words Google Apps Script

Google Apps Script to parse and display wordsmith.org A Word A Day RSS Feed

Web App URI: https://script.google.com/macros/s/AKfycbwbMrEhTkn-E3gqAMu7aS5PoMAOHYD62BnGpZFTGPxAY8aCsYW4/exec | Code: https://github.com/arky/awad-AppScript

How to add Apps Script Gadget in your web page?

First go to the page you want to add the Apps Script gadget. Select Apps Script item under Insert menu. In the next dialog box, copy and paste the Apps Script Web App URI into the provided textbox and choose select. The Apps Script Gadget will appear in your webpage.

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Micro USB Host Mode OTG Cable for Samsung Mobile Phones

In this blog I talk about technology world as built. Android phones are most selling smart phones all over the world. These phones and tablets are increasingly used for watching videos and listening to music. Transferring multimedia content on to your device is painful. The software tools made by phone vendors such as Samsung Kies have problems. Android MTP and Bluetooth software leaves a lot to be desired, making large transfers fail intermitingly. Developers like me use command-line MTP tools or use Android SDK's ADB program for transferring files.

For everyone I suggest buying a OTG cable that makes life easier. This cable allows you to connect USB devices to your phone and transfer files with ease. I brought this OTG cable in Hong Kong for $15 HKD (about US $2). Tested this cable with Samsung Galaxy S2 mobile phones running Android Gingerbread and Jellybean with couple of 8GB USB drives.

You might need to install a file browser like ES File Explorer File Manager app on your phone to easily navigate to attached USB device and copy files to internal memory. You can watch the video of below.

You can pick this OTG cable in your local computer store or order one from Deal Extreme (dx.com). For more other interesting Samsung phone accessories have a look at Samsung Galaxy S2 Accessories For Presentations post.

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Winning Djangojet Photo Contest

Summer sun shines on the green meadow full of dandelions and the huge Djangocon circus tent. The fantastic setting of this conference had one flaw. The roar of airplanes from the nearby airport overhead.

The ever creative conference organizers announced a photography contest dubbed 'Djangojet'. The contest required us to capture the picture of Jet planes and share it on instagram with #djangojet hashtag. My photograph bagged the prize.

I took this picture with Samsung Galaxy S2 smart phone while waiting in line for lunch. It captures the people enjoying the sunny day around the Django circus and the airplane in the bright blue sky.

You don't need fancy camera to take a good picture, your smart camera phone can do the job well. The composition and the story makes a good photograph.

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Efforts continue to promote Firefox Maithili

Maithili is the native language 34.7 million people in Northern India and Eastern Nepal. In college I would try to follow the friendly banter in Maithili listening for similar sounding words in Hindi. It was only later while working on computational linguistics that I truly appreciated the richness of the Maithili language.

Firefox Maithili was released last year, making it 78th language to be added to Mozilla localization. The challenge of localization does not end after translating and shipping Firefox.Today Mozilla Maithili Localization team continues their efforts to promote Firefox Maithili by organizing workshops.

Maithili is not only a language, it is also a source of rich wisdom – Mr. Ajay Kumar Jha

On 29th May 2013, Mozilla Firefox Maithili workshop was organized by community of Maithili Computer developer working under Bhasha Ghar, a group of volunteers working for small languages having less resources. Mozilla Firefox Maithili workshop was a full day workshop where the community working with Mozilla along with some experts of Maithili language sat together to discuss the issues and challenges related to Firefox Maithili.

Read the complete Mozilla Firefox Maithili Workshop Report May 2013

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African Network For Localization (ANLoc) Conference 2013

Traveled to Johannesburg, South Africa, to attend African Network For Localization (ANLoc)'s Terminology and Localisation in Africa and Beyond Conference earlier this year. It gave me an opportunity to learn the history of African languages in cyberspace and meet the people behind various multilingual initiatives. The conference brought together language professionals, academics and open source developers to learn about terminology development and localization platforms.

Language is the key for unlocking the potential of Africa. The African Network for Localization (ANLoc) is a non-profit that supports African language technology development. The ANLoc partners were instrumental in the numeration and standardization of 100 African languages. The ANLoc partners and sub-projects developed Unicode fonts, keyboard input systems, translation tools and terminologies for African languages. They also devised training programs for building sustainable volunteer driven localization communities.

The conference featured technical talks, break-out sessions and brainstorming sessions. There were in-depth discussions on the various facets of multilingualism in cyberspace in context to African languages, the challenges of translating computing terms in African languages, the use of machine translation methods and the development of linguistics resources such language dictionaries and terminologies. The conference organizers maintained a good balance of discussions, along with practical hands-on workshops. The size of conference made interactions easier. It was good to meet Mozilla localization contributors from over 10 African languages during this event.

ANLoc's project localized widely used open source Mozilla Firefox web browser in many African languages. The ground realities of mobilizing and sustaining communities in Africa are apparent. Finding contributors is difficult. Most contributors refrain from volunteering due to economic reasons. The overall economic development and access to digital technologies is limited to few regions in Africa. The availability of Internet has improved but the cost is still prohibitively high. I shared my community building experiences from similar resource constrained environments across the world.

Identify, Engage, Empower: Tools for Community Building

Participated in break-out sessions on developing style guides for localization and Mozilla localization processes.

The FirefoxOS localization sprint was organized as part of the event. The localizers worked in groups to translate Mozilla FirefoxOS mobile operating system using Pootle web translation platform.

Talked about Android Internationalization and adding African language fonts and keyboard support to Android. Android currently supports few major African languages: Swahili, Amharic, Zulu and Afrikaans, but more African language coverage is needed. Cheap Android devices are flooding the African market. Today, the first internet experience for many is not on a desktop computer but on mobile phones. Mobiles play a great role in accessing information and even transfering money.

The brainstorming sessions were very interesting. The problems discussed were both at an economic and social level. These problems are similar in nature to the countries where I have been working for the past few years.

The lack of availability of African local content on the internet was a major hurdle. The African diaspora spread across the world and few local governments and non profit organizations were involved in developing local language content. The tide seems to be turning now, with increasing availability of the Internet on mobile phones. Social media and user generated content is now bridging the gap.

This conference gave me a framework for my future activities in Africa. I'll be traveling to East Africa to participate in Tech4Africa Nairobi Tech Day and organize localization hackathons. Such events will help us work on Mozilla Firefox in some of the major languages and help build sustainable Mozilla communities in Africa.

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