[backstage] Re: IM Persian news bot
I really have to get something better than my cheap VPS seems just minutes after posting this, the server has some DNS issues and can't see the outside world.Sorry about this, will update you when it's solved... On 3/7/06, Mario Menti [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Following a conversation with Dan Brickley, who pointed me to Ian Forrester's post on BBC Persian being filtered in Iran (see http://www.cubicgarden.com/blojsom/blog/cubicgarden/culture/?permalink=BBC-Persian-filtered-out-of-Iran-what-can-we-do.html), I am now running a first version of a Persian (Farsi) news bot, along similar lines as the newsflash bots. As Dan suggested, this could be one additional means of bypassing the Iranian firewall... Currently the bot is only running on MSN, and although I managed to get the right-to-left issue to work using the official MSN client (in my case Windows Live Messenger beta), it seems that not all 3rd party clients support the X-MMS-IM-Format field (where I set the R-to-L orientation), so for example Trillian ignores it and displays the messages incorrectly L-to-R. I haven't tried other clients yet. I don't speak/read Farsi or Arabic, so can't really tell if the content is ok (although I compared it visually to what's on the BBC website to get some idea). I use the nearly-full-text feed at http://feeds.bbc.co.uk/persian/index.xml (I believe Ian set that up?), and have noticed some strange HTML tags in the feeds, all of which (rightly or wrongly) also make it into the bot messages.. in addition, the menu-type texts are all in English for now, and should really be translated. The bot is on MSN as [EMAIL PROTECTED]. Once you join, you'll get the 10 most recent news headlines from http://feeds.bbc.co.uk/persian/index.xml every hour, to which you can respond with a number (1 to 10) to see more details for the news headline you're interested in (I decided to change this from the way the English news flashes work due to the feeds containing much more text, so it wasn't practical to send all news details in one message). No guarantees as to bot uptime etc, but as ever, feedback appreciated!Mario.
[backstage] Re: IM Persian news bot
Back now... touch wood! Some iptables screw-up, hoping it will stay up..Mario.On 3/7/06, Mario Menti [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:I really have to get something better than my cheap VPS seems just minutes after posting this, the server has some DNS issues and can't see the outside world. Sorry about this, will update you when it's solved...
[backstage] RE: IM Persian news bot
From: Mario Menti [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 07 March 2006 14:40To: backstage@lists.bbc.co.ukCc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Ian ForresterSubject: IM Persian news bot Following a conversation with Dan Brickley, who pointed me to Ian Forrester's post on BBC Persian being filtered in Iran (see http://www.cubicgarden.com/blojsom/blog/cubicgarden/culture/?permalink=BBC-Persian-filtered-out-of-Iran-what-can-we-do.html), I am now running a first version of a Persian (Farsi) news bot, along similar lines as the newsflash bots. As Dan suggested, this could be one additional means of bypassing the Iranian firewall... Sounds like a good idea;)I'll let the Persian service know, as they might be very interested in your news bot. Currently the bot is only running on MSN, and although I managed to get the right-to-left issue to work using the official MSN client (in my case Windows Live Messenger beta), it seems that not all 3rd party clients support the "X-MMS-IM-Format" field (where I set the R-to-L orientation), so for example Trillian ignores it and displays the messages incorrectly L-to-R. I haven't tried other clients yet. Interestingissue, I'm trying it in Gaim whichhas great Unicode and multiple language support.I don't speak/read Farsi or Arabic, so can't really tell if the content is ok (although I compared it visually to what's on the BBC website to get some idea). I use the nearly-full-text feed at http://feeds.bbc.co.uk/persian/index.xml (I believe Ian set that up?), and have noticed some strange HTML tags in the feeds, all of which (rightly or wrongly) also make it into the bot messages.. in addition, the menu-type texts are all in English for now, and should really be translated. Maybeif I speak to someonein the Persian service they might be able to let you know if it looks and reads correctly. Can you let me know whattags your getting as I might be outputting too much.The bot is on MSN as "[EMAIL PROTECTED]". Once you join, you'll get the 10 most recent news headlines from http://feeds.bbc.co.uk/persian/index.xml every hour, to which you can respond with a number (1 to 10) to see more details for the news headline you're interested in (I decided to change this from the way the English news flashes work due to the feeds containing much more text, so it wasn't practical to send all news details in one message). --- Ok I've tested your bot and it seems to work really well.It would be great to get this on othernetworks. I think we may have someone from Jabber who could help on this list. In Gaim the Persian text is correctly displayed right to left and English text is left to right. It looks great!
Re: [backstage] RE: IM Persian news bot
* Ian Forrester [EMAIL PROTECTED] [2006-03-07 15:49-] Following a conversation with Dan Brickley, who pointed me to Ian Forrester's post on BBC Persian being filtered in Iran (see http://www.cubicgarden.com/blojsom/blog/cubicgarden/culture/?permalink=BBC-Persian-filtered-out-of-Iran-what-can-we-do.html), I am now running a first version of a Persian (Farsi) news bot, along similar lines as the newsflash bots. As Dan suggested, this could be one additional means of bypassing the Iranian firewall... Sounds like a good idea ;) I'll let the Persian service know, as they might be very interested in your news bot. Yes, this looks great. Nice work Mario! Whether this approach actually gets adopted is probably beyond the scope of this list. I'm interested in what the Persian service think of it... I posted a screen grab at http://www.flickr.com/photos/danbri/109247073/in/photostream/ Currently the bot is only running on MSN, and although I managed to get the right-to-left issue to work using the official MSN client (in my case Windows Live Messenger beta), it seems that not all 3rd party clients support the X-MMS-IM-Format field (where I set the R-to-L orientation), so for example Trillian ignores it and displays the messages incorrectly L-to-R. I haven't tried other clients yet. Interesting issue, I'm trying it in Gaim which has great Unicode and multiple language support. Good to see the I18N support in these tools getting exercised... I don't speak/read Farsi or Arabic, so can't really tell if the content is ok (although I compared it visually to what's on the BBC website to get some idea). I use the nearly-full-text feed at http://feeds.bbc.co.uk/persian/index.xml (I believe Ian set that up?), and have noticed some strange HTML tags in the feeds, all of which (rightly or wrongly) also make it into the bot messages.. in addition, the menu-type texts are all in English for now, and should really be translated. Maybe if I speak to someone in the Persian service they might be able to let you know if it looks and reads correctly. Can you let me know what tags your getting as I might be outputting too much. I saw some p and img/ , strong /p and even p/ in one article, amongst other fragments. The bot is on MSN as [EMAIL PROTECTED]. Once you join, you'll get the 10 most recent news headlines from http://feeds.bbc.co.uk/persian/index.xml every hour, to which you can respond with a number (1 to 10) to see more details for the news headline you're interested in (I decided to change this from the way the English news flashes work due to the feeds containing much more text, so it wasn't practical to send all news details in one message). --- Ok I've tested your bot and it seems to work really well. It would be great to get this on other networks. I think we may have someone from Jabber who could help on this list. Yup, Jabber should at least have clean I18N. For Persian in particular I think Yahoo IM would be good; anecdotally, it seems more popular than MSN in Iran. I don't know of any hard stats though. So this is definitely a cool piece of technology. I wonder now whether it risks getting generic IM blocked in Iran... Dan In Gaim the Persian text is correctly displayed right to left and English text is left to right. It looks great! :) - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
