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Wadiwallah

A blog by iFaqeer
about life, technology and getting by in Silicon Valley

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

"Installing Urdu" (or other script) on Windows XP  

I just posted the following on a few blogs I contribute to. It is specific to Urdu, but should apply to other scripts like Devnagri (for Hindi), Arabic, Farsi, etc...

I have made a lot of noise along the way about blogging in Urdu and I promised instructions on how to install Urdu as a language that your Windows XP machine can handle. Here are the instructions, from the website of the Center for Research in Urdu Language Processing in Pakistan:

http://www.crulp.org/Downloads/read_me_xp.txt

Once you have followed those instructions, you can use Urdu not just for blogging, but for pretty much anything you now use English and the English script for on your computer. And as I have said before, no, it is not the same as using InPage or some other editor to write Urdu, but using Urdu all the time. With the InPage solution (which is wonderful for "kitaabath" and page layout), what you have to do is convert your text in to a graphic and put it on your website or page, etc. But with this procedure, you can actually write directly in your HTML file, or Word document--or even while chatting with people over Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger or other IM client!

First published on Urdu ke Naam

Friday, September 16, 2005

Heckuva Deal!  

This has got to take the cake for cool devices...or just a sign of the times...

http://newspaperads.mercurynews.com/ROP/ads.aspx?advid=32664&adid=2010274&subid=8681972

Personally, I think I will wait till I have an urgent need--or we get up to about a terabyte for that price ;)