lawgon

I joined twitter - no, I have neither lost my mind nor entered my second childhood. My conference management app needed the functionality to tweet, so I had to get an account to test my code. I have not tweeted, will not tweet and the only tweets you see there will be tests.

A is a good guy. A member of the FSF and a faithful reader of the scriptures. Always falls asleep accompanied by the soothing voice of an RMS lecture. He is also a kickass developer of GUIs and releases his software under the GPL v3.

B is bad - a heretic. Has never read the scriptures and thinks GPL is restrictive of freedom. He is a kickass developer of backends and has no use for GUIs - a real old time Emacs groupie.

C is ugly - an evil proprietary software developer. Knows nothing of of open source and a great believer of software patents. His company markets slick looking proprietary shrink wrapped packages.

B has developed a fantastic application, but has only a CLI. B doesn't care. He has enough takers for his app who use it as a backend for their apps. B licenses it under the new BSD license.

A offers to develop a GUI for B's app and asks B to switch the license to GPL. B declines and asks A to fork it. A forks it, renames it, licenses it under the GPL, and builds a classy looking GUI on it. People flood to download A's app. A, not being a backend guy, periodically pulls code from B's app and updates his app with it.

B of course, cannot take code from A's app so sits and gnashes his teeth but is helpless to do anything else. Being a dutiful programmer, he answers all A's queries on his mailing list. B is happy.

Then C sees B's app and immediatly offers to buy it and employ B at a huge salary. B refuses and tells C to go ahead and use the code as long as he changes the name (in accordance with the new BSD licenses). C does so, spends a few lakhs and builds a slick looking GUI and starts minting money selling the package. Whenever he has problems he posts them on B's mailing list. B is unable to answer many of C's questions because C is reluctant to show him the relevant code snippets. Or if he shows them he obfuscates the code so much that B cannot determine whether it is a typo in the obfuscation or a bug. C in desperation gets into the habit of paste binning his snippets (making sure that the expiry time is very short) and B is able to debug a lot of C's code. C then moves to version 2 of his package and has a brainwave - he donates his version 1 GUI to B's project. B is thrilled because though the GUI is slick looking it is full of bugs, quirks, backdoors and all the other crap that comes with proprietary software. And there is nothing an old time hacker like B likes more than squashing bugs, ironing out quirks and closing backdoors. B has a ball, and so does C and his developers who grab all the changes and apply them to version 2.

A, meanwhile is not happy. B has started integrating his backend more closely with his shiny new frontend - which means A has to work much harder to modify B's new code to his GUI. His app becomes less popular and a lot of his users shift to B's app.

C also finds his sales dropping off and realises that with his wide support network he can make more money supporting B's app than in developing and supporting his version 2. So he calls a press conference and hands over version 2 to B and dedicates a set of his developers to help maintain it. C's business improves, his developers become better programmers as they are exposed to the Open Source methodology and mentored by a kick ass developer. And for his generosity, he is honoured by the local Rotary club too.

Moral: the good go to heaven, but the bad and the ugly flourish on earth.

upgraded to FC11 and shifted back to KDE from gnome (gnome sucks big time). I had shifted to gnome in FC10 because KDE did not have a graphical network management tool. The KDE in FC11 has such a tool, so I am now quite confortable. The biggest headache in gnome was that I used KDE apps a lot and could not set the default browser to firefox, so had keep cutting and pasting urls which is a huge PITA.

MIT gate is the great meeting place of Chromepet. Everyone passes that way. And there was this old woman sitting on the steps of the bakery and frying bajjis. Good custom. So good that another old couple started frying bajjies in front of the temple. Good custom for them also. Then came a gang from Madurai (or somewhere south). 4 of them, young and hard working with a huge variety of bajjies. The bajji war was on. In fact, in the evenings there were so many people eating bajjis that there was no place on the road for traffic. Then one fine day the southern gang vanished. In their place a big notice: 'Bajji Master wanted'. The old people are still in business - and there is now more room for traffic.

I see this again and again. A guy volunteers to do something - maybe help out in running a golf tournament or pitch in to design a site. And, at a crucial moment the guy vanishes. Either doesn't do the job or does it in a half baked way which entails double the work rectifying what he has done. Question him? Hey, this is voluntary work - its up to me to decide what to do and how much to do. Sheesh.

blame my daughters for it:

http://picasaweb.google.com/abineshv/OOTYSUMMERGOLFMEET2009PRIZEDISTRIBUTION#5342237988938555858

after a long gap I have been doing some coding. I revived AVSAP and updated it to run on current platforms. Maybe someone will actually start using it ;-) In case anyone is interested it is a financial accounting application I had developed and released in 2003. People at that time found the installation so difficult that no one used it. Times have changed and installation is now much easier. In case anyone is interested, it is here:

https://svn.nrcfosshelpline.in/public/helpline/branches/avsap/

also my conference app was chosed for the up coming Indian Python User's conference and had to do a lot of frantic work to get it ready for use. It is now ready to roll - and the great thing is I have got a designer to make it look good. (He hasn't started yet so it still looks crappy). The prototype is here:

http://greenchilly.in/

The 30 year saga has come to a close. Prabhakaran was arguably one of the greatest military geniuses of the era. His failing was political. Successful guerilla leaders were also expert at building up a united front with a fairly wide spectrum of support. The classic example was Mao. Prabhakaran failed miserably here - he was unable to distinguish between friends, enemies, potential supporters and neutrals. And it was this rank terrorist aspect of his operations that lead to final defeat. He wiped out a whole generation of moderate (and some pretty radical) Tamil leaders and any one of his own cadre who was perceived to oppose him. His biggest blunder was the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi - his movement was doomed the moment he did this. It took 18th years, but the end began then.

The LTTE had a number of firsts - not all of them laudable. They invented the suicide belt bomber. They were also perhaps the first guerilla army to field an air force, navy and even submarines. This showed great creativity and resourcefulness among the cadre. It is a real pity that one man was allowed to subvert this into rank terrorism.

I had contacts with many Eelam supporters back in the 1970's and at that time their cause was genuine as Tamils were being treated as 2nd class citizens. That is: the Eelam Tamils, as the plantation Tamils had no rights at all. After 30 years of killing and suffering, I hope that at least this is rectified. I wonder. Chauvinism is a terrible thing - hats off to the Indian voter for showing the local chauvinists their place. If I believed in God I would pray for the Tamils of Eelam. Maybe readers of my blog would?

how does one prevent choking? I choked 4 times in the last 6 matches and ended up second runner-up (meaning no prize) on each occasion when I had the trophy for the asking. After being a chronic wooden-spooner, it looks like I have to work on making winning a habit.

fake IPL player is doing a good job. A little overdone - but then that is probably necessary considering the blockheads he is challenging.

virtualenv rocks - how did I exist without it?

don't usually watch TV, but being unwell and unable to concentrate on anything, I watched a fair amount. Two full movies - both strangely enough on the same theme. One on a bunch of ghetto kids forming a swimming team and winning a tournament. And the other on a bobsled team from Jamaica. Old fashioned stuff, but enjoyed it. And then that IPL match that ended in a tie. The only good thing about IPL is that one can watch good players play without worrying about loyalties. Like Mahela Jayawardene - or even Shane Warne.

after six years, I finally won a trophy. Yes, I am the proud winner of the Bejois trophy played today - not only do I get a cup, but also a bottle of bejois brandy. Actually I had high hopes of winning until the 17th hole. My approach shot was 150 yards to the green, so I pulled out my five wood and clouted the ball - it went 190 yards, 40 yards over the green and I thought - that is the end. I scratched the hole. Then I was 3 on on the 18th, put my first putt 4 feet off the hole. Was lining up my second when some idiot walked up to me and apologised for hitting his second shot while we were on the green. Fscked up my putt and I finished with a six. ok, well played but didn't win - bejois was sponsoring so free booze. I don't normally drink brandy, but if it is free, why not? While I was having lunch, the Golf Captain walked in and announced that I was the winner. W00000000t.

a good friend of mine is planning to give up pork for the rest of her life. unfortunately for me she is incredibly pretty, and my wife and daughters read my blog. anyway, I panicked and bought enough pork to last us for the next 4 weeks. Maybe she will come to her senses?

I had been very happy with this modem for a long time. For the last month or so, the connectivity has been so bad as to be virtually unusable. I cannot even get on the website to complain - or pay my bill for that matter. If this doesn't improve I must start searching for a new provider. And it's not just me - a lot of people have found the service has gone to the dogs.

the other day I read a blog post where a person was planning to marry a guy from Pakistan. I suddenly realised that I have never met a person from Pakistan - never even *seen* a pakistani! Then I decided to check from which country I have met at least one person.

Asia - Nepal, Tibet, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Japan, Korea, Iran, Iraq.
Europe - England, Scotland, Ulster, Ireland, France, Sweden, Finland, Slovenia, Romania, Russia, Greece, Germany, Holland
Africa - Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa
America - Canada, USA, Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela
Australia and New Zealand

thats it.

after agonising over this for months I have finally decided to accept Microsoft's offer to join them as a consultant in their anti-foss department. Sorry guys, they made me an offer I could not refuse.

since everyone and his aunty has blogged about slumdog millionaire, people are look askance at me and muttering behind my back for not blogging about it. Unfortunately I have yet to see it. So all I can say is that my girls liked it and my sister did not. Anyway, now that I have blogged about it, I can go ahead and do something useful.

Here is a sample of the problems appearing in current tamil translations. I am analysing the translation of an article by Stallman. The English is here:

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/why-free.html

and the Tamil is here:

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/why-free.ta.html

In analysing this I will give the English (S), the Tamil (T), translation of the Tamil into English (TT) and my comments (C).

I.

S: Why Software Should Not Have Owners

T: மென்பொருட்கள் ஏன் உரிமையாளர்களைக் கொண்டிருத்தலாகாது

TT: Why it is not possible for software to have owners

II.

S: The copyright system grew up with printing—a technology for mass production copying. Copyright fit in well with this technology because it restricted only the mass producers of copies. It did not take freedom away from readers of books. An ordinary reader, who did not own a printing press, could copy books only with pen and ink, and few readers were sued for that.

T: பதிப்புரிமைச் சட்டம் அச்சுத் துறையோடு வளர்ந்தது. இத் துறை மிகப் பெரிய அளவில் நகலுற்பத்தி செய்வதற்கான ஒரு தொழில்நுட்பமாகும். மிகப் பெரிய அளவில் நகலெடுப்போரைத் தடுப்பதால் இத்தொழில்நுட்பத்திற்குப் பதிப்புரிமை பொருந்துகிறது . வாசிப்போரின் சுதந்தரத்தை இது தடை செய்து விடவில்லை. அச்சகம் எதையும் நடத்த இயலாத சாதாரண வாசகர் புத்தகங்களை பேனா மையின் துணைக் கொண்டே நகலெடுக்க முடியும். இதற்காக சிலர் வழக்குகளை சந்திக்க நேர்ந்ததுமுண்டு.

TT: copyright law grew along with the printing sector. This sector is a technology for making copies on a very large scale. Copyright is suitable for restricting those who make copies on a very large scale. This did not restrict the freedom of readers. Ordinary readers who were unable to run any kind of press could only make copies with the help of pen and ink. For this a few people had to face lawsuits.

C: Note the last sentence. Stallman meant that no one would bother to file a suit against a person who made a handwritten copy of a book. The translation is completely different.

III.

S: * Massive propaganda saying it is wrong to disobey the owners to help your friend.
* Solicitation for stool pigeons to inform on their coworkers and colleagues.
* Raids (with police help) on offices and schools, in which people are told they must prove they are innocent of illegal copying.
* Prosecution (by the US government, at the SPA's request) of people such as MIT's David LaMacchia, not for copying software (he is not accused of copying any), but merely for leaving copying facilities unguarded and failing to censor their use.

T: * தங்கள் நண்பருக்கு தாங்கள் உதவுவது உருவாக்கியவருக்கு அடிபணியாதச் செயல் என்றத் தீவிரப் பிரச்சாரம்.
* உடன் பணிபுரிவோர் குறித்து துப்பு கொடுப்போருக்கு பரிசளிப்பது.
* சட்டத்திற்குப் புறம்பாக நாங்கள் செய்கிறோம் என்பதை அறியாமல் செய்தோம் என்பதை நிரூபிக்குமாறு கோரப் பட்டு (காவல் துறையின் துணையுடன்) பள்ளிகளிலும் கல்லூரிகளிலும் அரங்கேற்றப் படும் சோதனைகள்.
* நகலெடுத்ததற்காக அல்ல மாறாக நகலெடுக்கும் வசதிகளை காக்காமலும் அதன் பயன்பாட்டைத் தடுக்காமலும் சென்றமைக்காக எம்.ஐ.டியின் டேவிட் லாமசியா போன்றோர் மீது வழக்குத் தொடுத்தமை. (மெ.ப.கூ வின் தூண்டுதலின் பெயரில் யு.எஸ் அரசு செய்தது.)

TT: * Intensive propaganda saying that it is an act of disobedience to the creators to help one's friend
* Rewarding people who sneak on their co workers.
* Raids (with police help) on schools and colleges demanding that people prove that they are doing this illegally without knowing what they were doing. (the wording here is obscure - this is the closest I could get to it)
* (this point is extremely well translated)

Nitpicking? maybe. After all it is more or less what Stallman has said. But it is not a translation. For example, Stallman always talks in active voice and uses 'you' and not 'one'. The translation has changed everything to passive voice and uses 'one' and 'one's' instead of 'you' and 'your'.

The solution? Take things more seriously. Consult experts. The best debugging tool for translation is to get someone to translate it back into the source language and ask the author to comment on this. Of course Amachu is a dedicated person and far more conscientious than the general run of translators into Tamil who only care if the output is politically and grammatically correct and obscure to the common man.

I love doing translation - although I haven't done any for a long time. When I joined NRC-FOSS, I had ambitious schemes of translating a heck of a lot of things into Tamil to start with and Kannada later. Also of getting other people to do it too. I should have known better!

The first thing a translator needs is humility. He has to struggle with the urge to impose his views on the text and strive to convey not only the letter of what he is translating but also the spirit, tone and context. This is fairly easy when the source and target languages are from the same cultural background - like from Tamil to Kannada and vice versa, but very difficult when the two languages come from totally different cultures - like English to an Indian language.

The second thing a translator needs is total fluency in the source language - this is far more important than fluency in the target language. After all, he can always get experts in the target language to propose solutions from which he can choose. But if you are not fluent in the source language - and of course, in the domain, you are sunk.

The third thing a translator needs is an itch for perfection. The kind of feeling that he cannot sleep if something is not perfect.

And the one thing a translator does not need is the itch to value the purity of the target language above the accuracy of the translation.

Of course, I am not going into technical details like consistency - translating the same word the same way throughout the work and suchlike.

Which brings me to the thorny subject of translating into Tamil. In Tamilnadu, there are two types of Tamil - ordinary tamil which is a rich and ancient language with hundreds of dialects. Incredibly poetical and amazingly rich. In my recent trip to Madurai, I often stopped to ask directions and was thrilled by the variety of dialects, from the rude hodgepodge in the Nilgiris, the almost-kannada at Sirumugai and the increasingly mellow and rounded sounds as I progressed South. Ordinary Tamil is growing by leaps and bounds, pulling in words from english, hindi, urdu and coining it's own idiom too. I once blogged about the all-prevalent OK-vaa. You can hear it on TV and in the movies and read it in the popular press. But, to write in ordinary Tamil is politically incorrect. People have been beaten up for it - prominent authors have been driven into exile outside Tamilnadu or compelled to write under pseudonyms for it.

- aside - some things are impossible to translate - 'snowflakes on my nose and eyelashes' - snow has never fallen in Tamilnadu. There is no word for it.

My first experience with the idiots who claim to be defenders of Senthamizh was when Devanur Mahadeva asked me to review a Tamil translation of his collection of short stories. (Mahadeva is a prominent dalit writer in Kannada - a language that is mercifully free of pedants.)

Anyway, I looked at the manuscript. There was a short story titled 'Daambaru baruvaru'. This was written in the dialect spoken by the Holeyas in Nanjangud. (Holeya is a scheduled caste - and Mahadeva is a member of this caste). Mahadeva, being a dalit, is not apologetic about his origins. Rather, he revels in them. OK, there was a kid in this story who used to wander around the village draped in a shawl. 'Shawl' in urdu is 'duppatta', which is also used in Kannada. So the villagers used to call him 'dupatti commissioner', which is a pun on 'deputy commissioner', who is the official in charge of the district. So how do you translate this into Tamil? In Tamilnadu the head of a district is the Collector. The politically correct translator translated this as 'Maavata Aatchi Talaivar' - which of course removed all the humour and context of the story. I communicated with the translator and told him: look - this is written in the Nanjangud dialect of a particular scheduled castes community. You should translate it into the Dharmapuri dialect of the same community in Tamil. (Dharmapuri is the district in Tamilnadu adjoining Nanjangud.) Wow! Fury! I was accused of insulting the dalits of Tamilnadu and saying they were incapable of writing 'good' Tamil. I gave up. I explained the situation to Mahadeva - he understood. Then I opted out.

My second encounter with the defenders of Senthamizh is my experience with Amachu and the translation of Stallman's essays. Getting late now, will continue.