Enjoy non-suicidal letter shape on your mobile / cellphone

[javascript]

This topic was imported from the Typophile platform

Enjoy non-suicidal letter shape on your mobile / cellphone. Why use a
suicidal shape k/K on the 11th english language letter, see:
http://Kalphabet.googlepages.com, when you could use a non-suicidal
letter shape alternative i.e. क/क in lower and upper cases? [choose
UTF-8 on your internet browser’s character encoding if you are unable
to see the new shape]

That is exactly what I did by using Symbian S60 v5 operating system
mobile / cellphone. I had been searching for an easy font alteration
on the mobile / cellphone in Britain. I had searched Android
operating system phones and there was either (1) rooting the phone
which required some technical ability and also involved some risकs or
(2) contracting or buying the expensive Samsung Galaxy S range or a
few other Samsung models which has the font alteration capability.
There was something also technical with option (2) as the Samsung
mobiles / cellphones used Google Play / Android marकet and this
involved certain technical abilities because I could not simply upload
a .ttf font from the PC.

Thus I opted for a much easier solution and this was purchasing a
cheap Symbian S60 v5 operating system mobile / cellphone when I learnt
that alternating the font was easy and could be done by a newbie. The
mobile / cellphone for font alteration mentioned were: Noकia 5800,
5233, 5230 and 5235. I only had to copy 4 times on the PC my chosen
font containing the non-suicidal letter, i.e. the BBT font ( download
it for example from here http://www.archive.org/details/BbtFont -
choose Regular or Italic ) and then only change each file name to
(note lower case / upper case file name letters) s60snr.ttf,
s60ssb.ttf, s60tsb.ttf and S60ZDIGI.ttf.

Then I either had to:
(1) on a Memory Card create 'Resource' named folder and in it the
'Fonts' named folder and put the s60snr.ttf, s60ssb.ttf, s60tsb.ttf
and S60ZDIGI.ttf files there - restart the phone.

or

(2) connect the mobile / cellphone to the PC in Mass Storage Mode,
search for the 'Resource' named folder in the internal mobile /
cellphone file system and in it the 'Fonts' named folder and if there
was not one there - create the 'Fonts' folder. Transfer the
s60snr.ttf, s60ssb.ttf, s60tsb.ttf and S60ZDIGI.ttf to the 'Fonts'
named folder. Restart the mobile / cellphone.

I chose this method (1). I found the process easy and really prefer
the non-suicidal letter shape on the mobile / cellphone. The only
thing that I as a newbie have not been able to do is alter the default
Noकia image at booting though I have put the non-suicidal letter
sticकer (see post mentioning sticकerbooक) on the Noकia name which is
on the phone case front and put blanक sticकers on the Noकia name which
is on the reverse and on the battery due to larger size sticकer
unavailability and also it was convenient.

2 Pictures showing non-suicidal font on the mobile / cellphone:

HTML for Websites:

IMG Code for Forums & Message Boards:

URL for E-Mail & IM:
http://tinypic.com/r/21kb75v/6

http://tinypic.com/r/aeqnoj/6

Direct Linक for Layouts:
http://i47.tinypic.com/21kb75v.jpg

http://i47.tinypic.com/aeqnoj.jpg

[John Hudson]

I salute your dedication to this nuttiness. I'm also pleasantly surprised to find out just how funny this joke remains even as another year rolls around.

[quadibloc]

I hadn't noticed any of these posts for so long, I had thought the individual behind this had gone away or given up or taken his quest to another forum.

While I don't think we'll ever modify our alphabet in this way - because the rationale is simply unpersuasive to that great majority of Latin alphabet users who are not of the Hindu faith - I could see how the goal might be achieved through a more subtle approach.

Perhaps the Armenian alphabet has no "suicidal" shapes of this type in it. And it has room - used in Eastern Armenian - for the extra consonant sounds found in Chinese (particularly in the Shanghai dialect, where English b, d, and g are also present)... and in Sanskrit. So this alphabet could be recommended on the more apparently rational grounds of promoting global unity and world peace.

If we can't all speak the same language, at least we can share the same typewriters.

[John Hudson]

the rationale is simply unpersuasive to that great majority of Latin alphabet users who are not of the Hindu faith

I'm reasonably sure that it is also unpersuasive to most Hindus.

[hrant]

Forsooth, some years ago the Chinese nation, weary of its cumbersome and inefficient writing system decided to replace it wholly and across the board, and after many months of consultation and contemplation settled on Armenian as the best possible choice. Unfortunately things went south when the Chinese government requested that Armenia promptly send 15 million teachers.

hhp

[quadibloc]

@John Hudson:
I'm reasonably sure that it is also unpersuasive to most Hindus.

That may be. But the rationale would at least be sufficiently intelligible to them that they might at least debate its merits.

@Hrant:
That was a good one, quite a chuckle!

[pica pusher]

Speaking of "sufficiently intelligible"... Can anyone explain what the heck is going on here? Or is this a very clever troll?

[hrant]

It's a human, and a kind one.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/48413419@N00/5224762001

hhp

[quadibloc]

@pica pusher:
As I understand this, the OP broke away from the Hare Krishna movement as an individual because he lacked confidence in its new leadership after the death of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

The Hare Krishna movement, or ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) is, basically, a denomination of Hinduism or a faith organization within that religion. (I had a binaural test record that referred to them as "Buddhists", so apparently some confusion about Eastern religions exists.)

On his web page, he explains that an ancient battle between Gods and demons took place at the junction of several rivers; and that this event was so significant that the shape of that junction of rivers provokes suicidal thoughts in people. This involves an invisible river, called the Saraswati, but apparently the tradition of people in India committing suicide at a place of pilgrimage in Allahabad was real enough.

[John Hudson]

My favourite part of the whole thing is that one of the rivers creating this suicidal shape is invisible. We could perhaps ease Javascript's concerns by saying that the letter K is actually made up of four strokes, one of which is invisible, so its visible shape is not representative of its true shape, and hence its true (non-suicidal) meaning.

Hrant, did you take money for that job?

BTW, if you enjoy this, don't miss this.

I find it alternatively delightfully imaginative and depressingly stupid that all this time after the development of philology, palaeography and systematic linguistics people are still inclined to assign magical significance to the mundane phenomena of of writing. Writing is wonderful, but because it is made by this animal called human, not because it reveals occult knowledge or works as sympathetic magic on the psyche.

[hrant]

did you take money for that job?

Yes - a modest amount, but not bad for two glyphs. And the experience -plus party conversation value- I consider priceless.

hhp

[John Hudson]

Didn't it feel a bit like being paid to babysit someone's imaginary child, presuming that you don't actually accept the claim that the shape of the letter K provokes suicidal thoughts?

[quadibloc]

I have noticed that he (now?) claims on his web site that A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Praphupada had ordered that the shape of the letter K be altered on ISKCON publications; since that wasn't done on issues of Back to Godhead magazine published during his lifetime, I can only conclude he made that request shortly before his passing.

This would have a precedent; the Ballards printed the I Am magazine with purple ink because they were against the colors black and red. Summit University, on the other hand, has no such scruple.

[John Hudson]

...I can only conclude he made that request shortly before his passing.

Or that he did it invisibly.

[hrant]

John: Much easier than babysitting a real child, trust me.

hhp

[John Hudson]

Point.

[quadibloc]

@John Hudson:
BTW, if you enjoy this, don't miss this.

I tried visiting his web site, and I got a virus warning.

I thought you might have been referring to this:

http://www.meru.org/Press/Atlantisrising.html

[pica pusher]

It all maकes sense now! Thanक you.

[quadibloc]

But I've been insistent that Devanagari is so different from Latin that it maկes no sense to intermix letters from those scripts. Gujarati, as it uses disconnected letters, would be a better choice; and Armenian is better yet, as it is different enough so as to have a letter with different topology for the consonant in question, and yet related enough so that it can be unified in design.

[hrant]

John, funny - but maքes would be better. :-)

hhp