My YouTube Channel

Earlier today, in examining my Google portfolio, I discovered I had a YouTube channel, with one video. However, YouTube wouldn't show me the video, until I verified my account. Upon doing so, YouTube promptly deleted my video.

I have no idea what the 14 minute video, entitled "reasons_to_reject_win7" contains.

Slightly more annoying, is that there is no indication of that video, when I log into YouTube on my desktop, but it was displayed when I logged in on my phone.
 

Core Software

A core set of 25 programs will cover 80% of the needs/requirements of the typical computer user, in either an office, or a home setting.

Core software:
* Text editor;
* Calculator;
* File Manager;

* Word Processor;
* Spreadsheet program;
* Presentation program;

* Database engine;
* Database client;

* Graphics display program;
* Audio display program;
* Video display program;

* Graphics editor;
* Audio editor;
* Video editor;

* IRC client;
* IM client;
* VOIP client;
* VP client;
* FTP client;
* P2P client;


* Web browser;
* Email client;

* Contact manager;
* Calendar program;

* eBook reader: ePub, PDF, LIT, Mobi, etc.

96% of the software requirements of the typical user, be it in the office or in the home, can be met with a repository of roughly 500 programs.

MX Linux

In the middle of December, frustrated by the umpteenth system crash that day, I wiped Xubuntu from my laptop. At the beginning of 2016, I used Linux Mint, dropping it, when I got tired of multiple system crashes per day.

Given the error messages I've seen from both Xubuntu, and Mint, my conclusion was that SystemD was responsible for the crashes.

Thus, my requirements are:

* Does not use SystemD;
* XFCE Desktop;


Going to DistroWatch, I noticed that MX-Linux 16 had been released a few days earlier, and that it met my primary requirements.  I installed it, then started using my laptop.  With increasing trepidation, I used my computer as I normally did.  Individual programs (^1) crashed, but when they did so, they didn't take the OS down with them.  I kept waiting for the OS to crash.  It finally crashed, when I opened an extremely resource hungry program so many times, that neither Swap Memory nor RAM was available.


Other than not crashing, the biggest difference between MX-Linux and Xubuntu is that a right mouse click on the desktop has several options that require root. LibreOffice 5.3 stores palettes in /opt/LibreOffice/share/palettes, making the ability to open Thunar as root, from the desktop, extremely useful.

Something else I've noticed, is that Thunderbird isn't playing games, claiming that folders are not available, and requiring me to click on the error message, to deliver the email to the inbox, and then clicking on ">Tools >Run Message Filters." With half a dozen emails per day, that is barely tolerable.  With three to five emails per minute, that is completely unacceptable.




For more information about MX-Linux, go to https://mxlinux.org/.



In all, I'm much happier with MX-Linux, than I was either either Linux Mint, or Xubuntu, a month after installing them.


^1: I tend to use beta versions, rather than stable versions of software.  As such, program crashes are not unexpected.

According to Translate.Google.Com

The following paragraph is written in English, according to Google Translate.


Добро пожаловать на страницу проекта Templet - облачного сервиса параллельных вычислений Самарского государственного аэрокосмического университета!
Templet – это шаблон, лекало, модель для построения параллельных программ. Работа сервиса Templet основана на следующих принципах: 


 Here is a screenshot of the page I was looking at.

Here is the screenshot of what Google Translate displays, when requesting the translation:  URL  http://templet.ssau.ru/.

And here is how Bing translates that page.

Not that I like Microsoft, but if their stuff translates pages that Google won't.

Um, Really?!?!?!

ISO 639-3 lists 7,776 languages.

Ethnologue (http://www.ethnologue.com/enterprise-faq/how-many-languages-world-are-unwritten) claims that of their currently listed 7,105 living languages, 3,570 have a developed writing system, and 698 are unwritten, with no knowledge about the writing system, if any, of the remaining 2,839 languages.

SIL lists 451 languages as having died in the last millennium, and 116 languages as having died more than a millennium ago. Inasmuch as primary consideration is given to languages that have been reduced to writing, it probably is a gross underestimate of the number of languages that are either dead, or extinct.

The most recent UBS Translation Report I've found, is from 2007.  As of 31 December 2007,  the Bible (Protestant Canon) had been completely translated into 438 languages. The Bible had been either completely, or partially translated into 2,454 languages.

Wycliffe Global Alliance, which is arguably the largest organization translating the Bible, claims that as of 1 October 2014, the Bible (Protestant Canon) had been completely translated into 531 languages.  The Bible has been completely, or partially translated into 2,883 languages. Furthermore, there is active translation work in 2,195 languages.

ISO 15924 lists 199 writing systems, of which 35 are not included in the Unicode Standard.

The breakup of the Iron Curtain validated Max Weinrich's maxim: A language is a dialect with an army and a navy.

By defining one IETF Language Tag, as one language, one might be able to avoid the dialect/language difference, and the language/writing system difference. By way of example:

• TUR-Latn-TR;
• TUR-Arab-TR;
• TUR-Cyrl-TR;

Those tags are for the same language (Turkish), used in the same country (Turkey), using the Latin Writing System, The Arabic Writing System, and the Cyrillic Writing System, respectively.

And that is how Windows 8.1 claims to support almost 7,000 languages.

A11Y Tools

Earlier today, I got to thinking about devices for those with A11Y requirements.

Speech2Text4Keyboard Input

• Voice input;
• Listen to voice;
• Convert to text;
• Send text to system as if a keyboard;

ASL2Text4Keyboard Input

• Video input;
• Watches video for ASL;
• Convert to text;
• Send text to system as if a keyboard;

Text2ASL4Video Display

• Screen reader reads console input;
• That input is broken into words;
• "Known" words are displayed as a person talking, using ASL;
• "Unknown" words are displayed as a person spelling words out in ASL;
• "Query Mode" can be enabled, to add more "known" words;

Eyes2Keyboard Input

• Video Camera watches;
• Eye Movements are converted to Dasher images;
• Dasher sends text to system, as if a keyboard;

Touchscreen Reader/Presser

• Video Camera watches;
• OCR software watches video input;
• OCR software outputs text;
• Screen reader reads text;

• Voice input;
• Listen to voice;
• Convert to instructions;
• Camera guides the prong in moving to the selected item;
• Prong on device extends out to press the selected item;

Additions to the Hardware

• 10 Key Keypad;
• Joystick;
• Firing button;
• Trackball;
• Camera;

These would be used if the vocabulary could not differentiate between a keyboard value, and something to be written.

Or maybe just to be used as supplemental aids;

• Bluetooth;

Make it a Bluetooth enabled keyboard.

Existing Software

• Sphinx3: voice recognition;
• Dasher: predictive text input;
• Eyegazer: eye-tracking;
• Orca: screen reading;

Needed Software

• ASL2Text: This examines photographs for ASL signs, and outputs the corresponding word;
• Text2ASL: This displays a picture of a person making the appropriate ASL gesture;
• Prong Guidance Software: This is the hard one. I suspect that there is code from a robotics project that can be converted/modified/re-used, that will do this. Worst case scenario is to write the dumb pigeon scenario;

Platform

This is the type of one-off job, that Arduino's were designed for.

Devuan

There is a new startup Linux distro in town:
Devuan.

https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dng

The theory is that it is Debian, but without SytemD.

The people behind it are still working on what infrastructure is needed, before development can start.

So what is the topic that has the greatest discussion?
Release Names.

A few people are trying to determine what hardware is needed, and where to locate it.
A few more are trying to decide what should be included.

In retrospect, what they greybeards should have done, and perhaps are doing, is create a public list that they all but ignore, and a private list for discussing infrastructure, and what the distro will include.

Then, when the beta release is ready, announce it, and go fully public.