Friday, May 25, 2007

ABC of Malayalam Blogs

Malayalam Blogs

Where to Find

Google Malayalam-Blog List : Based on Google's Malayalam-Blog search. Most recent 100 entries on the first page. Lists almost all Malayalam Blog posts published to-date. Devised by Cibu (under refinement).

Pure Malayalam Blogroll: Recent Malayalam Blog entries based on Google's blog search, developed by Evuraan. Entries are filtered for inappropriate content.

Malayalamblogs.in Catergorized list of blog entries to-date.

Malayalam Blog Aggreagator: Recent entries in the Malayalam Blog World from Chintha.com

Malayalam Blog Portal: Wiki based blog portal run by reader input.

Chootappam: A blog with recent entries in Malayalam Blogs

Feeds: From Keralaclick.com

Poya Varam: Last week's entries categorized by Deign according to subject

Pinmozhikal: Collection of comments left at every Malayalam Blog by their readers. Contains a blog roll too.

Kerala Blog Roll: A mixed list of Malayalam and English blogs

Tapioca: Search for Malayalam keyword. Google search with Mozhi input is another option.
The following description on reading and writing is for Windows Internet-Explorer users. Linux users please visit Peringodan's blog. Firefox users please visit Ralminov's blog, Evuraan's article and Batherian's tip.

How to Read

Download the latest unicode font AnjaliOldLipi and save in Windows Font folder.
Restart the Computer. In Internet Explorer go to Tools, Internet Options, Fonts, Select Malayalam from the pull down menu and select AnjaliOldLipi as the font.
In fact, any Malayalam unicode font including the default font Kartika, shipped with the Windows should do the trick. However, Kartika being the modern lipi, most people prefer AnjaliOldLipi.

How to Write
Go to Start, Control Panel, Regional and Language Options, Languages (tab) and select Install files for complex script and .....

Visit any blog site ( Blogger or blogspot.com or worldpress.com etc etc )and start your own blog.
Choose any of the four options mentioned below for text input.
a) Use Mozhi Keymap
Using Mozhi Keymap for Malayalam writing is the easiest way. After downloading and installing, you will see a diamond on the right hand bottom side (taskbar) of the desktop. Click on it and click on the Malayalam letter 'ka'. The diamond will change to 'ka'. From now on anything you type on the computer will be in Malayalam.

Tip: Use Notepad for typing and save text as UTF-8 document. Copy paste the text into blogger window. This is faster and safer than direct input.

b) Use Varamozhi
Another option is to use Varamozhi for writing. Download and follow the instructions. Don't forget to use the Export to Unicode option.
c) Use Varamozhi Online or Ilamozhi
Use Varamozhi Online by Peringodan or Ilamozhi by Deign if you have restrictions in downloading software to your computer.

d) Use Inscript Keyboard
Above three options use the technique of transliteration, that is, malayalam letters being generated from combinations of English letters. This means, one has to learn English letters first to type in Malayalam letters. In inscript keyboard, each Malayalam letter gets a key assigned in the keaboard. Visit Ralminov's blog for details.

Help

Tips on setting your blog. Read Adithyan's suggestions too.

Problems? Read FAQ 1, FAQ 2, Wakari's instructions in Malayalam

Here is a quick reference to help you with the letters. You will also need this help to write Koottaksharams.

Advanced setup such as font embedding can be found in Ralminov's blog.
How to Get Listed
Readers come to know about the existence of your blog and publication of new entries in your blog by visiting the several blog rolls mentioned in the Where to Find section.
If your blog has enough Malayalam content it will automatically get listed in the Thanimalayalam blog aggregator and Google's blog search. However, it might take a few days for Google and therefore Thanimalayalam aggregator to find your blog after you publish it for the first time. You can expedite this process by submitting your blog here.
To get listed in the Chintha.com blog roll send an email to malayalam blog aggregator AT chintha dotcom
To get listed in the Kerala blog roll visit this site http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~mp/contact.shtml

To get listed in the blogroll maintained by Sreejith send an email to sreejithk2000ATgmailDOTcom

To participate in the comment aggregation program Pinmozhikal, set the comment send address in your blog as pimozhikalATgmailDotcom

What Else?
Blog Responsibly: Blogging provides one of the freest medium of expressions. However, the blog service providers and the blog rolls are bound by the rules of the countries they operate in. In addition, blog rolls are hosted by individuals and they might have their own conditions for a blog to be listed . For example, here is a link to the terms and conditions for pinmozhikal and thanimalayalam blog aggregator.
Protect Your Privacy: Identity theft is billions of dollars worth illegal activity. You can reduce the chances of getting victimized by withholding your private data such as name, address and birth date from your blog and comments.
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How to Solve the Font Issue

For some of the readers, the chillu letters will appear as letter+chandrakkala, instead of the proper chillu. If this happens,
Make sure that you deleted any old AnjaliOldLipi font from the Windows font folder and installed the latest one.
If step 1 did not solve the problem, it could be because you have an older version of usp10.dll file in the Windows/System32 folder. Download and unzip this file. Eventhough, this is an exe file you can unzip it. You will find a usp10.cab file. Unzip that too to get the usp10.dll file. Remember the location you saved it.
Download and run this program. You will be asked the location of the new usp10.dll file.
After installation cancel the Windows warning and choose to keep the new file.
Restart the computer.
If everything went alright, you should be able to read the proper chillu in the sentence below. Else, you might still have an older version of usp10.dll somewhere in your computer. Do a search for usp10.dll and check the version of the other files (right click, properties, version). It should be 1.47 or later. If not, at this point, just replacing all of them with the new version and restarting might work. Please read the comments below. If nothing works...

samayam kalayatha oru malayalam blog thudanguu ...

yankandpaste from :http://malayalam-blogs.blogspot.com/

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