Pod#156 - Zeerak Ahmed - Revolutionizing Urdu typing while blogging about music!

Zeerak Ahmed is a #smartguy. We have managed to bamboozle him into coming on the show. The idea was to talk about his great music blog/newsletter and accompanying playlists under the heading of Hamnawa. And we did. But what the main chunk of the conversation turned out to be was about masterplan to revolutionize (my allegations, not his) the Urdu typing interface in the modern age.    Discussions about language, aesthetic obsessions with fonts, the flaws and troubles that are unearthed in trying to fix this and more ensue!   Things discussed in this episode:   00:00 Intro 03:12 We’re going to talk about Zeerak’s WHOLE LIFE LGS JOHAR TOWN 07:24 Why did he choose to study Computer Sciences, the rise of big tech careers 13:23 Was there any culture shock when he moved from Lahore to the US? Big things, small things 20:33 How and why he got into software design The Urdu Keyboard Idea "Matnsaz"- attempting to refine and revolutionize the Arabic/Urdu keyboard: 23:05 What is the idea - autocorrect for Urdu and perhaps more languages 26:13 How the idea happened - lack of Urdu on the internet, the Gutenberg Press 29:10 Beginning: ALL URDU WRITING ON THE INTERNET IS WRONG, our obsession with fonts, who’s on the team, creating a labelled data set 34:18 What the product is, how testing has been going, possible applications 36:52 Zeerak’s personal and familial connection to Urdu, Pakistan’s attempts to finalize printing process and insane compromises 39:57 Obsessions with fonts and how the region’s languages developed printing techniques, talking about Nastaliq’ 43:55 Schools & official languages in Pakistan being English vs Urdu - is this related?? 48:33 Possible and hopeful applications and impacts of the keyboard Hamnawa, his monthly newsletter on new Pakistani music: 54:17 What it is, and how the idea came about 59:48 Adding depth to the scene, documenting the participants and progression. Why is it important? 1:08:21 Why does Zeerak write about music? 1:14:02 Ali complaining about the podcast not being popular 1:19:15 What tech progress should NOT be made/we are getting old 1:22:50 Outro LINKS:  His Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zeerakahmed/  His Twitter: https://twitter.com/zeerakahmed   matnsaz.net aka The Keyboard Project (he doesn't call it this)  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/matnsaz_net/  Twitter: https://twitter.com/matnsaz   hamnawa.net  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hamnawa_net/  Twitter: https://twitter.com/hamnawa_net  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/gopyek4heuirx7fhapzd86orn   Support the podcast by becoming a monthly patron on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/tprpod) or send a one-off token on Ko-fi (https://ko-fi.com/tprpod)!   Find all our previous episodes on SoundCloud, Spotify & Apple Podcasts and follow us all on Twitter! Links to everything below!  SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/tprpod Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6PvTahp... Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tprpod/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TPRPod  Ali: https://twitter.com/themaholupper Rizwan: https://twitter.com/RizwanTakkhar Sarkhail: https://twitter.com/Sarkhail7Khan