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Post of the week

Supporting Nias language on Android smartphones and PCs

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Nias traditional wear (Photo: Private archive) The pain and beyond If you have ever typed a lot in Nias language, you must have felt the pain I had had with it. Whether you type on a smartphone screen or on a PC keyboard, the keyboard does not feature the characters ö and ŵ which are frequently found in Nias vocabulary. The existing solution is cumbersome to carry out. On a smartphone keyboard you would get those characters by long-pressing the letter o and w to get letter ö and ŵ respectively. On a PC people usually use the combination shortcuts (like Alt+1945 or whatever). And if you have ever typed long texts in Nias language, you must have known that both solutions are not convenient at all and they basically slow down the typing flow. But that's only one side of the story. Looking further it seems that Nias language is virtually absent from the Internet and social media. People with Nias mother tongue and others with Nias language skills don't communic
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My First App on Google Play Store

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Nias Language Pack on Google Play Store I never thought that my first app on Google Play Store would be a language pack of a keyboard app. But that's what has happened. Instead of creating my own keyboard app, which would need extra promotion in order to reach wider audience, as a beginner in Android programming I think I better create Nias language support in an existing keyboard app AnySoftKeyboard. On the latter stage I can write my own keyboard app and may be contribute to SwiftKey or Gboard. As I get more programming skills, I could add more independent apps to the project. Since it's conception the Nias Keyboard Project was always meant more than only a keyboard app. It has other related projects like Nias dictionary (spelling and grammar), Nias use in social media and Nias story telling app etc. that would encourage Nias speaking people to write stories in Nias. But I need to start somewhere, at this is it. It's live and searchable. Nias language p
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Streaming media files to the sexy Pure Sensia

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Have you been looking for ways how to stream your media files to your digital radio like the sexy Pure Sensia ? Then you aren't alone. I'll show you in the following how I did it in simple way. First, what is the requirement? Well basically nothing, provided that you use Ubuntu like me. I also take for granted that you have a WiFi for internet connection and all your media files (Music, Pictures and Videos) are already kept safe in your PC/laptop.
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Umlaut and Sterling signs on US Keyboards

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I write email and reports in English, German and Indonesian. And it annoys me that there are no German umlauts, EURO and Sterling signs on the US keyboard of my laptop (Asus UL20A). I'd been looking for ways how to map those characters on the keyboard, but no simple solution was around. Until I stumbled upon this solution from Lars Michelsen . And it's so simple! Thank to Lars! Here how I did it following the instruction from Lars:
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Bye bye Ubuntu?

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I've been an Ubuntu user for almost ten years now. I love its simplicity, light, fast and user-friendly approach. Sometimes I try Fedora and SuSE, but somehow both of them have always had problem here and there with my laptop (first Toshiba PM500 and then Asus UL20A ) and they never convinced me to move away from Ubuntu. Therefore I've always recommended Ubuntu to my friends and all of them haven't regretted it.
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New ROM new improvement of battery life. Excellent!

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I'm very happy with the latest update of Android. First Google updated my Nexus One a few days ago via OTA. Suddently I saw Gingerbread 2.3.6 (GRK39F) took control of my phone. I was wondering, what was new in this version. I didn't see any. But here it is:
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Film review: Winter's bone

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As if life hadn't been hard enough in the rural area of Ozark Mountain, the 17 year old Ree was suddenly left behind alone by her disappeared father to take care of her mentally ill mother and two younger siblings. Then Ree started a dangerous journey to look for her father, who was, apparently, killed by a drugs gang. The plot can be boring due to its slow pace, especially in the beginning. But gradually the story intensifies. For sure it is not a thriller, but the plot makes one feel the winter's cold. And the film does it slowly, until one feels it in the bones. Debra, the director, demonstrated that without sophisticated technology the plot itself can be a very effective tool to achieve the same. It was surely not an easy job for Jennifer Lawrence (Ree) to keep the film "alive" until the end. Yes, the whole film relies totally on her "solo" performance. But Jennifer proved that she was up to the difficult task. The film is probably not to everybody&
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