Naveen's Blog

My post on Telugu Rendering and Writing in Windows XP has been attracting lot of people from Google as it is on top for that search term. After enabling Telugu language support in Windows, the next thing comes into mind is a dictionary that can show the meaning in Telugu for English words.  People landing on that page often ask me about English-to-Telugu dictionary software to install on their PCs for offline usage as most of the English-to-Telugu dictionaries are online.

There are two English-to-Telugu dictionaries that I know.

1. Telugu to English Dictionary developed by Dileep and Pradeep

This is the first dictionary I have come across.  It comes with an inbuilt Telugu phonetic writer too. You can do English to Telugu and Telug to English searches.

Features:
* English and Telugu words can be searched
* Meanings of the words can be edited
* Words that doesn’t exist in database can be added by user
* Searched words will be stored in history
* An additional tool random word is given to display random words at configurable time interval
* An additional tool Telugu writer is given to write words in Telugu
* Configurable keyboard hotkey is added
* Search on hotkey enabled
* Word search includes results displayed from Wiktionary.Org

Get it here: http://dict.miriyala.in/ | Mirror-DropBox

2. Nithya English-to-Telugu and Telugu-to-English Dictionary

This is an English-to-Telugu and Telugu-to-English database for a dictionary lookup progoram called GoldenDict.

First, you need to install the GoldenDict program and then you need to install the above databases to work.

The advantage of using this program is a featured called Scan popup. You can find Telugu meaning for a word in any application. Just hover the mouse on a word and an instant popup shows up the meaning in Telugu.  Click here for a screenshot.

Installing:
1. Download the GoldenDict latest version on Downloads Page at http://goldendict.org/download.php
2. Get the dictionaries HERE.
3. Install GoldenDict.
4. Copy the databases into the GolenDict installation folder (C:\Program Files\GoldenDict if you are running Windows XP)
5. Click Edit>Dictionaries
6. In “Files” tab, click “Add…” button on the right and select the installation folder where you dictionaries are available (C:\Program Files\GoldenDict in case you are using Windows XP).
7. Click the button “Rescan Now.” Once you press this button, it will add the dictionaries.
8. Close the program and restart.
9. You now will see two red book icons added along with Wikipedia button on the Navigation Bar.

10. Click on them to activate.
11. To enable the “Scan Popup” facility click on the “Scan Popup” button from navigation menu.

If you are having problems with installation, post them in comments. If you know any other working English-to-Telugu dictionary, let me know so that I can add to this post.

If you are carrying a mobile, you might have already experienced the annoying calls from the telemarketers. If you are a credit card user or if you have taken a loan, then the number of calls you receive will increase and sometimes you will become mad. Some of the telemarketers even don’t ask if it is the correct time to call and go on explaining about the product they are selling. If you say “not interested,” still they ask you to listen what they are telling, which is really annoying. Sometimes, we even get repeated calls though we asked them not to call again.

I have two friends who are really good at making fun out of these calls. They enjoy those calls with funny answers to their questions and at the end of the call, the telemarketer will feel that their sales pitching is a waste of time.

One of my colleagues, Billa Ashok, is one of those two guys. We cry out of laugh listening to the conversation he will have with these telemarketers. Recently, a guy called offering personal loan and Ashok put him into conversation for half an hour asking for 1 lakh loan. The guy explained everything without asking about the Ashok’s profession, salary, and savings. He explained all the document requirements, monthly EMI, etc. and at the end he asked how much salary Ashok is drawing. Ashok told him that he is drawing around Rs. 4000 after all cuttings (just to make himself not eligible to apply for the 1 lakh loan). The loan guy hanged up the phone and eventually disconnected listening to the salary figure. He occasionally records the conversation in his Nokia mobile, which has the call recording facility.

For your information, Ashok is a young guy who is just recently married and is a medical transcriptionist.

Recently, a lady called Ashok from Country Club pitching for membership sale, which is priced at Rs. 1.5 lac, which only high-income people can afford. I don’t know how these people gather the mobile numbers. They should get the phone number of high-income group and not every Tom, Dick, and Harry. Telemarketers should politely ask about the profession first to make sure that they are pitching the right person to whom they can sell the product. If they find that the customer is not worth of pitching, they should delete the number, so that another associate would not waste calling the same customer again. The same lady called him two times and the conversation was hilarious. Below are those two conversations. Listen and enjoy! (These are in Telugu language).

Call #1: Ashok tells the telemarketing lady that he owns a rice mill and has two grown children. He even tries to sell rice to the lady. At the end, he asks the lady to call when he is not busy in the shop and when the lady asks how she will know that he is not busy, Ashok tells her to call to know if he is busy or not. She says okay.  Listen to the hilarious conversation.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Call #2: The same lady calls again. This times the lady offers a discount and asks in which profession Ashok is. He tells her that he runs cycle puncture shop. The lady asks whether he can afford to buy a membership at Rs. 36,000. He says that he is interested and he can sell the land he owns to buy the membership. At the end, he tell the lady that he will ask his wife and let her know because if he is not taking her permission, she will yell at him. Enjoy the funny definitions he has given to club, family entertainment, massage parlor, and restaurant & bar.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Call #3 & #4: This is a telemarketer call pitching for insurance product.  He tells the lady that he is a roadside balloon vendor.  As soon as he tells that he sells balloons, the lady says “Thank you…have a nice day” and tries to cut the phone.  He tries to continue the call…but she tells that she will call again with full details.  Her senior calls and carries on the conversation.  Again, he tells that he sells balloons and asks about the benefits of taking an LIC policy.  He tells her that he is investing the money in Chits and asks her to tell the benefits he gets if he invests in LIC.  She thinks that he is really a balloon vendor, so tells him to invest in chits and cuts the phone deciding that she can’t sell the product to him at any cost.  Enjoy the conversation in two clips.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

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Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

I will write a follow-up post on how to stop getting these telemarketing calls.  Until that, enjoy the funny audios.

Direct Link to MP3 files Call #1 | Call #2 | Call #3 | Call #4

Google has added English to Telugu, Tamil, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Malayalam, and Bengali dictionaries and vice versa to its Dictionary section. English-to-Hindi dictionary has been available for a long time. Go to http://www.google.com/dictionary and click the drop down menu and hover the mouse on English. It shows available languages menu and from there you can select the language.

If you want to check the English word for one of the above languages, hover your mouse on your language and it opens another right-side menu where you can select Your Language>English. Use the Google Indic Transliteration Tool to type the word in your language phonetically and paste it into the Google Dictionary text box and click “Search Dictionary.”

If you are logged in, you can bookmark the searched words for future reference and also you can hear pronunciation of the English words.

It is really good especially the “Related Phrases” section. Now, I can easily find the exact Telugu meaning for an English word very easily. Thanks Google!

Today, I have added three tools to my blog:

• YouTube Video Downloader:  You can download the YouTube videos into your system in FLV format.  Later, your can convert it into AVI, MPEG, Quicktime, or WMV.  Check it to know how?
• Google PR/Alexa Trank/Backlinks Checker:  This one checks PR, Alexa Rank, and Backlinks for a given domain in Ajaxy way.
• English to Telugu Convertor:  Just type the Telugu words in English and it will convert them into Telugu on the fly.

Have you ever looked at the web pages in Telugu? e.g.: Wikipedia in Telugu. Cluttered Telugu rendering makes you leave the pages immediately. Until I have known about enabling the Telugu Indic script in Windows XP, my situation was also same. Now, I enjoy reading TeWiki (Telugu Wikipedia) and also BhashaIndia’s Telugu version run by Microsoft. See below images before and after enabling the complex script in XP.

TeWiki before enabling the complex script support

After enabling:

BhashaIndia Before:

After:

So, we will see how to enable the Indic script support in Windows XP. Open the “Control Panel” in Windows XP and select the “Switch to Classic View” on the left side. Select the “Regional and Languages Options” Then go to the second tab “Languages” and select the check box “Install Files for Complex Script and Right-to-Left Languages (Including Thai).” Make sure that you have the XP installation dump in your system or installation CD with you. It requires the fonts to be installed into the system from the CD. Once you have done, restart the system, and now you can see the Telugu websites in a readable form.

Refer to my Orkut scrapping in Indian languages post and using that you can scrap in Telugu also. Use Lekhini or English to Telugu Converter hosted on my blog to type in Telugu, then copy and paste it into your blog or on any webpage. You can paste that into messengers to talk in Telugu.

In Telugu Wikipedia, there are lot of articles are pending for translation into Telugu. If you want to enjoy and learn while translating, then go to this page.

Happy Telugu Writing! — ఇక తెలుగులో వ్రాయండి!

These days I am heavily experimenting with GreaseMonkey scripts. This week I found few good scripts. I have already started explaining these scripts with my LiveLeak post.

Second in the series is an Orkut Indic transliteration script, which enables writing scraps in Telugu, Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, and Malyalam. This script actually calls the Google’s Indic Transliteration module and shows the tool below the scrap box. It is very nice and transliterates almost exactly.

For this we need Firefox, GreaseMonkey extension for Firefox, and Scrapbook Transliteration script.

Read my previous post about installing GreaseMonkey in Firefox. Now go to the Scrapbook Transliteration Script on Userscripts.org and click on the black button “Install this script.” GreaseMonkey instantly recognizes it and comes up with a window asking for confirmation. Click “Install” and you are done. Now go to your scrapbook and you will see “Show Indic Transliteration” link below the scrap box.

Click to open the window and go on typing the words in English and it will on the fly converts them into the selected language.

When you finish typing, copy and paste it into the scrapbox and hit “Post Scrap.”

Update Dec 06, 2008: Orkut now supports typing in Indic languages.  No need of this extension.

I have been looking for a long time for Sira to be available to watch online. After watching Grahanam, I eagerly searched for the Sira video, but in vain. All these are art movies and may not be of much interest for the cinegoers.

Sira won the `Best Antiterrorism Message Award’ at the Idaho Panhandle International Film Festival. It is a surrealistic movie, which is tough to understand.

What is Surrealism?
“20th-century literary and artistic movement that attempts to express the workings of the subconscious and is characterized by fantastic imagery and incongruous juxtaposition of subject matter.” – The American Heritage Dictionary.

This Wikipedia article explains it at a length with lot of resources.

I found an interesting discussion on the movie at DesiVidoes.Net (page is no longer available).  I liked the explanation by Siri.
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