Re: [Freebangfont-devel] UniBangla

[Sajed Chowdhury]

Deepayan Sarkar wrote:
[...]
> very common with BIOS. I hope this is more due to ignorance then
> intentional.

I'm not involved with BIOS, but as a Bangladeshi I have to say that people in
the "IT-field" here definitely have a "ghoti-phobia".  This has increased
lately with the news coming out that Microsoft hired "experts" from West
Bengal to verify the accuracy of bengali support in Office 2k3.  Our local
"experts" then became infuriated that they weren't even consulted.  Companies
that sell fonts and add-ons for MSWord are dreading that their livelyhood
will
soon be threatened to extinction.  Articles have come out in IT magazines
bearing headlines that lament "Bangladesh-er bangla bhasha Bharat-er
dokholay"
etc.  Bangladeshis are being warned about the dire consequences of consuming
Microsoft's "Indian-flavored" bangla.  I'm guessing that there will be a
boycott of Office 2k3 as the product nears release and subsequent
availability
of pirated copies (unless Microsoft manages to keep that from happening).
Coincidentally perhaps, BIOS was formed around the same time Office 2k3 was
initially announced, and IT magazines have published multi-page articles
about the "noble" effort of BIOS, some hailing it as our response to the
"Gates-Buddhodev conspiracy" (credit goes to Mustafa Jabbar for coining that
phrase, does that guy deserve to be our leader or what?).  With that backdrop
in mind, I think BIOS would rather not loudly acknowledge having much of any
influence of Indian origin.

Also, I find it amazing that BIOS doesn't even have a public mailing list.
Apparently they're not too bothered that they might be perceived as an
invite-only project.  And perhaps they don't want anyone to just lurk around.
Which, I'm grateful that FBF allows me to do.

regards,

Sajed Chowdhury

"And those who know what's best for us
must rise up and save us from ourselves"
-Rush