by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2010/07/01 07:01 -04:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2010/07/01/10032130.aspx
So I got into the papers from the conference.
There were some pictures, and the guy working at the front desk delighted in finding them and saving them for me.
I have no idea why. To whatever extent I may be dashing (a point I will often fervently argue against!) I don't think these pictures necessarily prove it (though Sri apparently disagrees on that point so I won't quibble)....
Now the picture in The Hindu was different, as there was an interview. This made the picture's flaws more forgivable. :-)
I didn't know those guys back there had a camera! Now the whole world has proof of my expired tags (at least there is no goofy smile!)
Now if you look at the guy second from the left in the front row, he was very unhappy with my keynote (and told me so afterward), though he was much much happier with my full presentation later in the day.
I'll blog about that another time....
Anyway, the interview was about a totally different subject, you can read it here:
“Tamil computing must be naturalised for average user” by M. Soundariya Preetha
Conventional wisdom and past history has taught me to be wary of the press, but she entirely proved to me that the experience can also be great if you have the right people and paper involved!
Her questions somewhat spontaneously gave me a chance to talk about something I am pretty passionate about in regard to computers and technology in India, and the conversation ended up dominating the interview -- we really do need to lower the bar to use technology if we want to give more people the opportunity to use it....
I mentioned that I had said a very similar conversation with Poongothai (IT minister Poongothai Aladi Aruna) who agreed on the importance and mentioned initiatives in Tamil Nadu going on now and in the near future as well, but during the interview she might have thought I was name dropping. It wasn't intentional on my part, and I wasn' t trying to make political points (I think I am just a little starstruck by some of this!).
And I mentioned a few times the issue of us wanting feedback, so I'm glad she included it.
If you know Tamil and are running XP, Vista, or Windows 7, then why not try the Language Interface Pack? :-)
People who install any of the cool free things we provide should tell us what they think. We need input!
I must admit that thinking about all of my history with Tamil over the last ten years (and the last few years in particular) in retrospect, I ended up having real impact on government language policy for a government that puts a lot of importance of language, in ways that I never even realized when it was happening. Which, now that I think about it, is the only way I would ever have wanted it to occur. I want to solve problems without wielding power in the process of them being solved! :-)
In any case, M. Soundariya Preetha proved to me that the press doesn't always mess with the story. Sometimes they interview and then report. :-)
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