i'm old .. and a bit forgetful but in younger days, i came across a dos program that 'predicted' word combos from the dictionary correspoinding to the numbers being punched from the numeric keypads
now-a-days, with the T1 dictionary in cellphone, typing sms is pretty fast .. and lesser key strokes are a real boon when will this be done on keyboards ? logic would be .. use a pencil ! ha haa .. ok .. here are the detials .. use a pencil or permanent ink marker .. and write the abc on the numeric keypad's 2, def on 3, and so on .. like the cell phone the s/w should interpret the numerical inputs and suggest words .. like it does in sooo many places (autofill in browsers, save-as box in OS, sms in cellphones) user would just choose the right one there is 'fast type' s/w for dos or windows which helps quicker inputs imagine speed typing in localisation scenarios .. all those matra-ing .. and conjuncts and loooong words .. pc will do the hard work ..peekay (be good) ----- Original Message ----- From: "Indranil Das Gupta" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: "Prof. Ashoke Ranjan Thakur" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Prof. Venkatesh Hariharan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Tamal Sen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Dr. Nagarjuna G." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Prof. P. K. Das" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Dr. Bula Bhadra" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, August 06, 2004 8:56 PM Subject: [ilug-cal] A walk across The Digital Divide - An experience > Hi, > > Over the last one and half years, I have been experimenting with the > idea of Localized Low Cost Computing and interacting with end-users to > see if and how The Digital Divide can be crossed. During this time I > have often been pleasantly surprised by the adaptive capability of our > people living on the wrong side of the Divide. > > Day before yesterday was something special that I will remember for very > long time. Here's that story [1] from my blog. > > <BLOGPOST> > > Today I reached WBUT at 12 O'Clock. Palashendu and the rest of the > Redhat Team was supposed to come down for a meeting with "The Boss". On > my way over, I was worried that without Sayamindu, Soumyadip or me being > around to switch on the LTSP server, our Santhali L10N colleagues may be > sitting in the lab without being able to get any work done. > > Boy! was I surprised when I reached there... they were busy, with > fingers flying at their designated terminal! Intrigued as to who may > have set them up, I asked them only to find that the younger one among > our volunteers - Ajay Hembrom had done it! > > Seems that by watching us go over our daily business at the lab, they > had quietly picked have out what all they needed to switch on and in > which order. Quite a few things actually - the main switch board -> the > power up LTSP server -> switch on another switch board -> switch on the > power strip supplying the 100MB/s switch connecting our LTSP terminals > -> switch on their terminal and bootup into their localized desktop. > > Some may wonder what is really so extraordinary... well for one, they > are using computers for the first time in this lab. It took me a lot of > patience and nearly 10 days to get them to understand that they really > needed to press the <enter> key after entering their login ID and then > again after entering their password. From their perspective it was the > computer which was being stupid... asking them for their login and > password, which they were entering and still the darned beast would > foolishly sit idling waiting for who knows what! > > Make no mistakes, they are intelligent people, only that being on the > other side of the Digital Divide, computers and IT happened to have > largely passed them by. This last one month has been their first > up-close and personal interaction with computers. > > Once more, I found myself wondering over the innate intelligence and > adaptive vitality of our people. I wish some of the armchair-preachers > of "technology to the masses" who banter endlessly about the > user-friendliness of technological interfaces, had been with me at that > moment. > > </BLOGPOST> > > cheers, > --indra. > > > References: > > [1] http://blogs.randomink.org/node/view/106 > > > > > -- > To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the body > "unsubscribe ilug-cal" and an empty subject line. > FAQ: http://www.ilug-cal.org/node.php?id=3 > -- To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the body "unsubscribe ilug-cal" and an empty subject line. FAQ: http://www.ilug-cal.org/node.php?id=3
