My Three Things: Software

This is the first in My Three Things series of posts that wish to make about things I like most. The first is about software that make difference in my life, that make me feel good. Here we go:

1. Mozilla Firefox: Lets me browse more in less time. No pop-ups. I control what I see on web pages. I can customize the UI to suite my needs and get the most viewing-space for web pages. I can extend its functionality using extensions. I also use nice looking themes to different sometimes. “Smart keywords” is another nice feature: I search Google, Answers.com, Wikipedia, and look up meanings in OALD without first going to those sites.
2. Vim: Makes me feel like I’m at home. Puts the power in my hands. Yet takes no space in my precious screen-real-estate.
3. Xara Xtreme: Makes graphics fun for me. Easy and intutive to use.

These are great tools. One thing that feels good to me is first two are already free-software developed in open-source methodology. And, the last one has just became one.

Lekhini improves

లేఖిని యొక్క కొత్త వెర్షన్ రెడీ!

మార్పుల సారాంశం:

• కొత్తరూపం, మరింత ఆహ్లాదకరం, తాజా అనుభూతికై
• తెలుగు లిపికి వెనువెంటనే కన్వర్షన్ (Well, it’s not truly on-the-fly. But on-the-jump. That is, the text is transformed as you enter each word. Space, fullstop, and newline also trigger the conversion.)
• మరింత సరళం (Usability Improvements మీ సందేశం టైప్ చేసి టాబ్ నొక్కండి చాలు. క్రింది పెట్టెలోని సందేశం అంతా సెలెక్ట్ చేసుకోబడుతుంది. కాపీ చేసి మీ బ్లాగులోనో, మెయిల్లోనో, మరో విండోలోనో పేస్టు చెయ్యడమే తరువాయి.)
• మరింత వేగం (శుద్ధమైన కోడ్, ప్రామాణికమైన డిజైన్)

ఇప్పుడే ట్రై చెయ్యండి. మీ సలహాలు, సూచనలు నాకు వ్రాయండి.

I am very thankful to Kishan for letting me use his computer (whenever I want) and for his great support for whatever I do. We may have different views on whether the intro box on the right side above the character chart should exist at all. But, that’s a different issue!

Lekhini makes difference

Users say that. Excerpt from Gtalk with Swathi (posted with permission):

What is Lekhini?

Someone outwitted Gmail

Nothing is immune. (తాడిని తన�?నే వాడొకడ�?ంటే వాడి తలని తన�?నే వాడింకొకడ�?ంటాడ�?!)

Even the “More options” does not show anything.

Lekhini launches

I am very pleased to announce the launch of Lekhini (లేఖిని), a simple online Telugu script generator. It transforms your input (in RTS) into Unicode. The script generated in Lekhini can be used in the following places:

• e-mails
• web pages & blogs
• instant messaging
• and wherever there is Unicode support

Lekhini is based on Padma (పద్మ), another text transformer that works for most of the South Indian languages and supports more input and output formats. While all the hardwork is of the Padma developers, I just tweaked it to make it simple and easy for users.

Lekhini’s objective is to be a simple Telugu script generator. In the process of buiding it, I cleaned up some of the things in Padma that are not always required or that are a bit overwhelming to novice users.

The following are the advantages of my simplification:

• No need to scroll down in search of a text box to type in (The input box is right on top. Just type in after the page load.)
• You do not see options and settings that you never use (You will see just what you need.)
• The 3-window operation (type in one, copy in another, and paste in yet another) has been reduced to 2-window operation. (type and copy in one, and paste in another).
• An RTS Translitelation Chart beside your typing area—easy reference (to know what to type to get what).
• No more Yahoo ads

Go, play with it. If you find it useful, recommend it to your friends. Your feedback is welcome (veeven at gmail dot com).

Update 2006-03-19: Lekhini has improved.

Never before in the World’s Cricket History

Toughest challenge! Greatest reply!! Congrats South Africa.

By the way, how many World Records have been broken in this historic match? I recall the below:

• Highest total score in an ODI. (872 runs RSA vs. AUS in Johannesburg; earlier record: 693 runs IND Vs. PAK in Karachi)
• Highest run-chase by a team (target 434 runs).
• Highest runs in by a team in an ODI: South Africa (438 runs).
• Worst bowling figures by a bowler in an ODI: (Mick Lewis, 113 runs in 10 overs).

Add more if you can.

Newsvine goes live!

Newsvine is open to the world now. Read their bolg entry for more info.

Here is my column at Newsvine.

1 Million Articles in English Wikipedia!

English Wikipedia now has more than one million articles! All in just about 5 years span. All wikipedias (more than 200 languages) put together have nearly 3.4 million articles.

Read Wikimeida press release about the event.