တွေးမိတွေးရာ (My Musings)

If you want to read Burmese blogs and websites written in Zawgyi without having to install Zawgyi font, you can install Myanmar Converter plugin for Firefox by Keith Stribley. It will convert Zawgyi encoding to Unicode 5.1 encoding.

You will then be able to view the sites with Unicode-complaint Burmese fonts (from Windows 8) or Padauk and others.

I noticed that Windows 8 had support for the following languages:
BurmeseMonEastern Pwo KarenWestern Pwo KarenS'gaw KarenPa'OAsho ChinLisu One annoying thing I want to point out is the typing order for vowel "ေ"[ei] and consonants. If you have learned how to write Burmese, you know that we write vowel [ei] (ေ) first and then a consonant, for example, ေ [ei]+ က[ka̰]. The Burmese and Mon keyboards on Windows 8 want you to type the consonants first before you type the vowel: က [ka̰] + ​ေ[ei]. Please note that consonant + vowel is the correct order in which the characters are encoded. When we type in vowel [ei] first, the smart keyboard is reordering it to be saved after the consonant. Of course, there are other keyboards that support typing vowel ei first.

It's so unnatural for me to type vowel [ei] first. I switched back to Keith Stribley's keyboard, myWin. It's linguistically better in my opinion. I installed Ekaya-0.1.9_x86.exe because somehow 64-bit versi…

From Wikileaks about the copper mine at the center of recent protests in Burma.

In the beginning, it was between a Canadian company and the Burmese mining enterprise:

Myanmar Ivanhoe Copper Co., Ltd. (MICCL), a 50/50 joint venture between Canadian-owned Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. and state-owned Mining Enterprise-1, began operations in Burma in 1994.

Canadians wanted out because of "the GOB's continued interference in operations, refusal to pay Ivanhoe its share of profits, and unreasonable demands for increased taxes" (I have no idea what GOB is; Government of Burma?):

Canadian-owned Ivanhoe Copper Co. continues to negotiate with state-owned Mining Enterprise-1 (ME-1) and a consortium of three Chinese companies - WanBo Copper, Norinco Copper, and Aluminum Corporation of China (Chalco) - for the sale of its joint venture company, Myanmar Ivanhoe Copper Co., Ltd. (MICCL).  According to MICCL Acting Director Glenn Ford, Ivanhoe plans to sell its share of MICCL to ME-1 for $100 mill…