Faisal Siyavudeen

Anwar Ali's new Malayalam poem: Near the Window in the Flat

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 13:29:56 +0000

Got a sneak peek of Anwar Ali's new poem ഫ്ലാറ്റിൽ ജനാലയ്ക്കൽ which he has now posted on Urumbinkoodu.

The nostalgia that it evokes is shocking. മലയാളം (ഭാഷയും നാടും) ഇന്നു നിൽക്കുന്ന ഇടം നന്നായി വരച്ചു കാട്ടിയിട്ടുണ്ട്. ഇംഗ്ലീഷ് വാക്കുകൾ കത്തികൾ പോലെ കോറുന്നു - എല്ലായിടത്തും ഇംഗ്ലീഷു നിറച്ചപ്പോഴും പരിക്കു പറ്റാതെ സൂക്ഷിച്ചു വച്ച കവിത മുറിഞ്ഞു കരയുന്ന പോലെ. Also, the simple little childrens' ritual of throwing fallen teeth onto the roof crawls out of memories, becomes a symbol of lonely childhoods and then suddenly grows into a huge motif of our collective loneliness as we throw our innocence into the unknown.

Type Malayalam on iOS

Sat, 09 Jul 2011 17:30:52 +0000

The KeyMagic folks are back with a bang again, making it work on jailbroken iOS devices. The Malayalam layouts are already part of the default KeyMagic installer, which means that you get the option to type in Malayalam if you just install KeyMagic.

Thant Thet has just come out with the iOS installer, and the Malayalam layout on iOS will have to tested by someone who owns a jailbroken iPhone. Volunteers, please.

Android should be the next target, I guess. Already, enough complaints have been raised that it is not possible to type Malayalam on Honeycomb. jKeyMagic, which should work on all Javascript supporting browsers might provide some solace till a proper solution is in place (Disclaimer: I have not tested jKeyMagic yet).

Type Malayalam on Mac OS X: Phonetically, Naturally

Sun, 20 Mar 2011 22:56:22 +0000

From the time I moved on the Mac, I have been rather upset with not having access to a good interface to type Malayalam on, though the reading problems were more or less solved by the excellent instructions on 33dots.com. I really missed Mozhi Keyman, and Google transliteration was not a very good replacement, as text had to be copied from the browser every time.

So, I was excited to hear from Harold James of Workers Forum about the new transliteration service, KeyMagic, and the Malayalam phonetic keymap for Keymagic created by Junaid. Junaid has created Malayalam keymaps, for both the phonetic scheme Mozhi and the native keyboard layout Inscript, to work with Keymagic, and he has a packaged installer for Windows.

Re-enable right click and copy-paste on OnlineSBI

Sun, 30 Jan 2011 22:52:21 +0000

I have been thoroughly frustrated by not being able to copy-paste payee account numbers and addresses into the SBI online banking website. Having to type everything by hand takes a long time, especially for a product of the cut-paste generation like me. On top of that, entering account numbers by hand is error-prone.

While I curse the feature, I can understand when my good friend @srijitm tells me that these features prevent people from inadvertently copying passwords (and other sensitive information) to the clipboard which can be accessed by someone else using the PC or through a hack.

Why Twitter Not?

Sat, 29 Jan 2011 09:58:32 +0000

I am back on Twitter, more than 6 months after I made a conscious decision to keep away from it for a while.

Being one of the earliest users at Twitter, I did not really feel the need for it until I left Cisco, its vast network of brilliant people, and the constant exchange of ideas and information. The move was multiple relocations rolled into one - the relocation from the swarming Cisco cloud to a decrepit 2-man office; from the confined yet anonymous, responsibility-free existence of a nuclear family in Bangalore to the satisfying, distraction-filled joint family existence back home; from the cutting edge of networking technologies to bleeding at the edge of biotechnology without formal training; from the comfort of concentrated technical work to the distractions of administering a start-up. This coincided with Twitter's bursting upon the global scene, the network effect finally taking it past that critical velocity below which new web startups live constantly resisting crashes and burn-outs. Cut-off from the IT network, Twitter was my saviour, my new link to my old world, which people kept calling the new world.

About

Mon, 03 Jan 2011 22:46:49 +0000

Entrepreneur.

Passionate about information technology, biotechnology and spaces where they meet. Believes that India is best positioned to deliver useful high-end technologies to the world at a low cost.

Co-founder of ubio Biotechnology Systems Pvt. Ltd., that aims to deliver affordable, accurate, accessible diagnostics for all.

Still has sweet, fleeting memories of a past life spent immersed in all things networking at Cisco, developing features for IOS VoIP gateway.

Interested in books, movies, photography, voip, networking, biotech, medical diagnostics, programming, and everything on the human mosaic.

ICICI Bank: Fraud and Prejudice

Sun, 25 Nov 2007 21:02:00 +0000

Today, ICICI Bank is perceived to be the face of successful private banking in India. But how many of us know that this success is built upon aggressive use of unethical practices? Here is an instance that came to my notice recently.

1. My cousin wants to open an account at ICICI Bank at Cox Town, Bangalore. She approaches the branch with all documents required for opening the account (the ones that are required for verifying her identity and address) and cash required for minimum balance. To her surprise, she is told that the bank allows opening a new account only if she produces a cheque from an existing account in another bank. But what if she does not have an existing account? Her surprise turns to chagrin as she is told that there is nothing the bank can do and that it is their policy. Of course, the bank has a simple solution for those who are desperate to open an account with them - open an account at a public sector bank (they dont have these policies), deposit your money there, get a cheque immediately, and present it at ICICI bank. Repeated questions about this convoluted procedure are met with the ultimate defence of corporate irresponsibility - "this is our policy, madam!".

ACT!

Thu, 28 Dec 2006 01:50:00 +0000

Cisco has a very good corporate social responsibility program called 'Day Of Service'. Under this program, employees can spend a day in helping out a social service institution and Cisco would contribute a reasonable sum to the institution for each hour spent by an employee.

The activities of one institution (Ashwini Charitable Trust, Bangalore) struck my mind while we were going through the list to decide where to go for this year's Day of Service, as their philosophy seemed very close to what I have been considering for some time.

Gulliver’s Travels

Mon, 25 Dec 2006 19:48:00 +0000

I just finished reading Gulliver's Travels.

Recently, I have been attracted to fantasy as a genre, driven by the popularity of 'Lord of The Rings' and 'Harry Potter', and by the complete diassociation it provides from the tyranny of logical reasoning imposed by a hectic work-life. I was planning to buy my first Harry Potter when I noticed the 'Gulliver's Travels' idling on my bookshelf. In my mind, this was the quintessential adventure story that fuelled some of my memorable childhood fantasies, an impression created by my first reading of the abridged reader when I was in primary school. I thought I will read it first before moving on to others in my reading list.

PDF creation tools

Sat, 08 Apr 2006 15:51:00 +0000

I love PDF documents. They give excellent print reproduction and are very convenient to distribute.

I have been using a free PDF writing tool called PDF995 for converting documents to PDF. It installs as a printer and can be selected from the Print dialog. It then asks for the file name to be used for saving the pdf doc, converts the postscript to PDF and writes the PDF file.

Sponsored version of PDF995 pops up a dialog box and a couple of web pages which connect to their web site to display promos. This is a little irritating, but I do not complain, the tool being free.