May 10, 2020

New Website, Manjari v1.800 and More: SMC Monthly Updates April 2020

New Website, Manjari v1.800 and More: SMC Monthly Updates April 2020

New Look for SMC Website!

SMC website now runs on a modernized tech stack. Latest redesign enables dark mode and makes the website localised and mobile friendly. New website is available on IPFS as well

The website migration was carried out by Santhosh Thottingal, Jishnu Mohan, Aashik Salahudeen, Balasankar C and Joice Joseph.  Suggestions, improvements, comments are welcome.

Blog Theme Updated!

SMC Blog with latest theme.

The blog itself has been updated to a new Ghost theme called Editorial. Anivar Aravind was responsible for this. We welcome community contributions to make both the website and blog better in terms of design as well as content.

Latest Version of Aksharamazha App Released

Akshara Mazha preview.

Jishnu Mohan released v2.0.0 of Akshara Mazha, live wallpaper application for Android on  play store. Latest update features

  • Less distracting characters
  • Better text arrangement
  • More Malayalam fonts
  • UI improvements for preference screen
  • Support for newer Android versions

IndicKeyboard v3 beta Released.

Indic Keyboard released beta v3 for testers. In this release, Jishnu Mohan added emojis as per unicode 12 definitions and made miscellaneous crash fixes.

Beta version can be obtained from Play store beta channel. We urge testers, hobbyists and enthusiasts to test and report bugs.

Manjari Version 1.800 Released.

The text Kerala Sarkar(കേരള സർക്കാർ) is in Manjari font.

Manjari version 1.800 released. The popular Malayalam font has released with tabular number and slashed zero open type features along with bug fixes.

Manjari version 1.800 released
Manjari with Tabular numbers> This was originally written by Santhosh Thottingal [/author/santhosh/] and published at Thottingal.in [https://thottingal.in/blog/2020/04/11/manjari-new-version/]. A new version of Manjari Malayalam typeface is available now. Version 1.800 [https://gitlab.com/smc/fonts/manjari/-/tags/Version1.800…
Santhosh ThottingalSwathanthra Malayalam Computing

Corpus of Kerala Chief Minister Press Releases

Santhosh Thottingal made a Malayalam corpus out of Covid-19 press releases and announcements by Kerala Chief Minister's official Telegram channel. Split into sentences, the content is since 6 June 2017 to 19 April 2020. The corpus is available at SMC Gitlab Repo.

text/CMOKerala · master · SMC / Corpus
Malayalam Corpus by Swathanthra Malayalam Computing
GitLab

SAAS vs FOSS

Kailash Nadh wrote an insightful article titled "സാസോ ഫോസോ?". His observations helped understand how distinct they are amidst Saas Vs FOSS discussion happened.

സാസോ ഫോസോ?
സ്വതന്ത്രസോഫ്റ്റ്‌വെയർ അധിഷ്ഠിതമായ തനതായ സാസ് സംവിധാനങ്ങൾ വലിയ തോതിൽ നിർമ്മിച്ചു സാങ്കേതികസ്വയംപര്യാപ്തത കൈവരിക്കാനുള്ള ഊർജിതമായ നടപടികളാണ് ഇനിയുണ്ടാകേണ്ടത്.
Kailash NadhSwathanthra Malayalam Computing

Privacy and Security in The Time of Covid-19

Security and privacy are serious concerns these days, more so in this time of difficulty. A lot more people have started working from due to COVID-19 and most are doing it for the first time. Members of SMC community shared advisories on  on protecting from online fraud and other possible manipulations. Hrishikesh KB shared his knowledge here  while Anivar shared his expert opinion on Privacy, surveillance and health data to different news media.

SMC and Indic Project Endorsed a Representation to Ensure Privacy During COVID-19

Swathanthra Malayalam Computing, Indic Project with various organizations and individuals endorsed a representation to the Prime Minister's Office and various central government ministries on May Day opposing mandatory use of Aarogya Setu app. The representation ask ministries to ensure the privacy of health workers and volunteers who are active in COVID-19 alleviation programs.

Workers of a digital world unite to advance privacy, dignity and autonomy!
This May Day, IFF and a diverse group of individuals and organizations write to the government to ensure that privacy, dignity and autonomy of workers is not compromised during the COVID-19 crisis.
Devdutta MukhopadhyayInternet Freedom Foundation

SMC signed Joint Letter on Concerns Over Privacy in Wake of Corona

With support from SMC and other non-profit organizations, SFLC opened #ProtectHealthPrivacy portal to help public to express their concerns over the unwarranted and excessive collection and processing of personal data.

Stop exposing our Private Data: No Surveillance Without Due Process – final

The portal is up for individuals and organizations to demand that Government of India do collection and processing of data in the following manner

  1. Time bounded
  2. Necessary and Proportional
  3. Transparent and Accountable
  4. Secure
  5. For the Limited Purpose of public health and combating COVID-19.

Fixed Grandham project deployment.

Balasankar C updated outdated TLS certificate for Grandham Project. He also fixed issues in its deployment as well.

Other News