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  • From rock bottom to new beginnings: my journey through the early 2020s

    The 2020s have undeniably been one of the most challenging decades in recent memory, perhaps second only to the Cold War era, or even WWII. Born in 1993, I didn’t experience the WWII or the Cold War firsthand, but I’ve certainly felt the full force of the early 2000s, the 2010s, and especially the turbulence of the 2020s. Even though we’re just halfway through, the decade has already tested me profoundly.

    In early 2020, the COVID pandemic turned our lives upside down. Overnight, I transitioned from a routine office worker to remote work with no preparation whatsoever. Initially, the adjustment was tough—I developed unhealthy habits, notably becoming excessively sedentary due to reduced physical activity. However, one positive aspect emerged: I realized the absurdity of commuting two hours daily when remote work was feasible. This realization reshaped my working life, and I’ve continued to work remotely ever since.

    By 2021, things had begun to stabilize. I overcame my initial remote work struggles and became comfortable with this new normal, although pandemic-related travel restrictions remained challenging. The year also marked a significant turning point when my aunt proposed starting a business in the United States. This idea became a major focus for me, occupying significant mental bandwidth for the following two years.

    In January 2022, this dream began taking tangible shape. I traveled to Boston, established our Delaware company, and started preparations for relocating to the U.S. by August. Interestingly, just two weeks before the planned move, I met my Oli, my future wife.

    However, the excitement of launching a business came with immense stress. In September and October 2022, I worked tirelessly—up to 18 or 19 hours daily, losing weight rapidly due to intense stress and exhaustion. Despite substantial investment—over $50,000 in franchise fees alone—the business struggled to generate sufficient revenue. Hiring reliable staff was an enormous challenge, exacerbated by my visa situation, forcing me to operate within restrictive conditions.

    The strain culminated when, after returning briefly to France to reset my visa status, I was unexpectedly denied entry upon my return to the U.S. A grueling 12-hour interrogation led to the cancellation of my visa waiver due to suspicions of unauthorized employment. Suddenly, I found myself back in France with no job, no luggage, and few resources.

    Forced to reassess, I sought employment urgently to stabilize financially. After initial setbacks, including unsuccessful attempts at various jobs, I ultimately returned to my previous company, filling the position I’d left months earlier.

    In January 2023, my aunt went back to France and won’t come back as she’d also be at risk of facing visa complications. Together, we waited in France, managing our U.S. business remotely and maintaining operations at approximately $3,000 monthly, hoping to secure new visas by June.

    In June 2023, I went to the U.S. Embassy with my aunt with hopeful anticipation—we were ready for our visas to be approved and eager to continue building our business in the United States. Unfortunately, things didn’t turn out as planned.

    Our visa applications were rejected. The embassy cited concerns that we hadn’t provided sufficient evidence of strong ties to our home country—ties that would compel us to return after our visas expired. Essentially, they treated our business visa application similarly to how they review applications for tourism or short-term visits. The rejection felt abrupt, unfair, and devastating—especially considering we had invested heavily in this project.

    Financially, the blow was significant. Collectively, we had spent more than $160,000, and personally, I had invested around $90,000 into setting up the business—obtaining licenses, meeting certification requirements, and keeping ample cash reserves for running expenses. To have it all dismissed in a brief 15-minute interview felt surreal and painful.

    With our visas denied, we urgently needed a new plan. Keeping the U.S. business was no longer viable; it made sense to sell quickly, even at a substantial discount, simply to recover some portion of our investment. My aunt recommended a realtor friend in Chicago who had experience not only with properties but also businesses. We entrusted him with the sale.

    Weeks went by with little progress. Interested buyers were scarce—and understandably so. Our business had been inactive for months, generating zero revenue while we continued incurring fixed costs like electricity, internet, utilities, and annual company fees. Keeping it closed yet “operational” was costing us roughly $3,000 a month—a relentless financial drain that was unsustainable.

    After several unsuccessful attempts, the realtor returned the keys. We then had an emergency meeting to assess our options. It was clear we faced an impossible choice: continuing to lose thousands of dollars monthly on an inactive business, or paying another $800 plus additional fees to officially close it down. Ultimately, we decided the best path forward was simply to walk away—even though this meant becoming tax delinquent with the state of Delaware and losing our entire investment without ever having opened our doors.

    From an outside perspective, this entire experience felt like a cruel joke—or worse, a scam. We did everything by the book, followed all rules and requirements meticulously, yet found ourselves locked out of both the country and our own investment. By the end of June 2023, the feeling of loss, disappointment, and frustration was overwhelming. It felt like rock bottom.

    But, as they say, when you hit rock bottom, the only way left is up. During this challenging period, my relationship with Oli continued to grow stronger. She had already proposed marriage, and I had asked for some time to think. In August, after careful reflection, I said “yes.”

    We planned a beautiful vacation together spanning late September and early October—a memorable and joyful break from the hardships we’d recently endured. During those special weeks, our daughter was conceived, marking a beautiful new beginning amidst the turbulence.

    Today, looking back, it feels like everything unfolded exactly as it needed to—perhaps not smoothly, certainly not painlessly—but ultimately guiding me toward an unexpected and profoundly meaningful new chapter of my life.

    The end of the year 2023 turned out to be another major turning point in my life. When meeting Oli in August 2022, we began envisioning our future together—a shared life, marriage plans, and discussions about how many children we hoped to have. Those were beautiful, exciting conversations that deepened our connection and strengthened our commitment.

    However, turning these dreams into reality wasn’t without its challenges. The paperwork required for her to come live with me here in France was extensive. Even if we wanted to marry as early as September 2023, administrative procedures meant we’d have to wait at least six months just to complete the necessary paperwork. By the time we finally filed everything in December 2023, we knew we wouldn’t receive an official response until June 2024 at the earliest.

    In the meantime, life continued to unfold beautifully. In March 2024, we celebrated our traditional betrothal ceremony—a deeply meaningful and emotional moment for both of us and our families. Then, in June, we joyfully welcomed our daughter into the world, forever changing our lives in the most wonderful way. Finally, in November 2024, we officially held our civil marriage ceremony, completing another critical step towards building our future together. Immediately afterward, we initiated the transcription of our marriage certificate, laying the groundwork for Oli’s immigration to France.

    On the professional front, however, 2024 presented new obstacles. My employment contract at the renowned red-and-black bank, where I’d worked nearly three years, was set to expire in May 2024 and wouldn’t be renewed except under exceptional circumstances. With mutual understanding, the bank and I parted ways amicably, marking the beginning of a challenging job search.

    I quickly discovered I’d re-entered the job market at an exceptionally difficult moment. Competition was fierce, standing out had become increasingly challenging, and many experienced professionals—including myself—were forced to consider roles involving salary cuts. For over six stressful months, I searched extensively for a suitable position.

    Eventually, my persistence paid off. I received a compelling offer from another company willing to increase my salary by 20%. When I approached my managers at my current job to give the required three-month notice (customary in France), they fought vigorously to retain me. Recognizing the difficulty of hiring skilled professionals, my employer surprised me by immediately matching the new company’s offer.

    Finding myself in an unexpectedly advantageous position, I decided to stay. After a tumultuous period of uncertainty, it felt rewarding and reassuring to be recognized and valued professionally.

    Reflecting now, 2023-2024 was truly transformative—a year filled with tremendous ups, challenging downs, and beautiful new beginnings. From marriage and fatherhood to job change, it’s clear this journey was never straightforward, but it led me exactly where I was meant to be.

  • Optimised Malagasy Keyboard (version 3.0)

    This blog post is the follow-up post about this older post from 2016: Finding an optimised keyboard for Malagasy

    I wrote that post back in November 2016 about how inefficient the AZERTY keyboard — currently in use by most Malagasy people — was. It has an abysmal performance and may even lead to finger joints problem after extensive use over the years.

    Feedback from first versions

    After spending a few days iterating over layouts, I came up with a first version that scored really well with the test corpus, and even used it for a couple years, but besides it being not popular at all, it suffered some flaws:

    • Accented characters in Malagasy are OK, but accented letters in French, which is also used by most Malagasy people using a computer, were severely lacking
    • Programming was hard as some characters such as the anti slash were not present.
    • Money symbols like the Euro or the Pound were absent. While not a major inconvenience, their absence can sometimes be felt when writing in about the UK (use of Pound Sterling) or France (which uses Euro), for instance.
    • The characters “<” and “>” were not type-able on certain keyboards, including the laptop I was using back in 2017.

    After having spend a couple years getting used to the first iteration and noting its flaws, I have come up with another version, which takes some improvements suggested by Ian Douglas (see comments on the older post).

    Version 3

    So this Keyboard basically is a major change compared to the previous iteration, as several keys have been moved or swapped. Most notably

    • The U key is now moved to the right-hand side of the keyboard. U is not used in native words
    • The Apostrophe and Double quote has been moved to the left side of the keyboard. The most common word using the apostrophe is amin’ny which would allow us here to type it by alternating left and right hands.
    • the accented O has its own key. Like accented letters in French, Ô is not a considered a separate letter but it’s often used.

    Analysis Results

    When accessing the analysis results, we have the following winners:

    The heatmap for the Version 3 is as follows:

    The row usage is as follows

    Below is the hand usage for our sample text based on Sarasara Tsy AmbakaIt heavily favours the left hand against the right hand as Malagasy uses a lot of vowels, which are all on the left hand side of the home row right below the user’s fingers.

    The piechart above is obtained by having the left thumb hit the spacebar. We can swap that with the right thumb and have the result below for the Malagasy v3:

    Hand usage is not a lot more balanced. Space bar accounted for roughly 13% of all keyboard hits in the sample text I used.

    On multilingual typing

    The most used language pair in Madagascar when it comes to multilingual typing is Malagasy and French, or more likely French and Malagasy. Office workers use most often French as a work language, and use Malagasy for other everyday communication. When it comes to bilingual usage, here is how the Malagasy v3.0 keyboard performs. The tests were made with a 5,000 character text in French appended with another 5,000 characters in Malagasy. Informational density per character is higher in French than in Malagasy: in French we have an average of 6 characters per word whereas in Malagasy we are closer to 10. Nevertheless, the passage has been truncated.

    Here are the detailed results. I will present the most interesting parts here.

    The v3 is still the winner here, but as you can see, the difference between the winner and the second no longer seem to be significant, so let’s use another metric:

    In the table above, we have the distance covered by our fingers dancing on the keyboard, in centimetres, the less, the better.

    Let’s start with the loser here, the AZERTY layout (will this AZERTY-bashing post ever stop?), with over 33,000 centimetres for ten thousand characters, where the left pinky and the index fingers travel a lot. If these were metres and not centimetres, that’s 75% of a marathon.

    A surprising-but-not-so-surprising contender here is the BEPO layout which already has some notoriety and nice total distance of 17,241 centimetres which makes writing 10,000 characters look less like a marathon and more like 40%, of a marathon. Good runners could run 40% of a marathon on a weekday after a day of work.

    Malagasy v1.0 also gets away with 16,765 cm

    Malagasy v2.2 and v3 are all quite close to each other with respectively 15,901 cm and 15,299 cm. Version 3 has some nice keymaps allowing it to type some keys that were absent in version 2.

    On shortcuts

    We office workers like to use shortcuts. The most famous being Ctrl+A (select all), Ctrl+C (copy), Ctrl+F (search in file), Ctrl+K (cut line after cursor), Ctrl+N (new file), Ctrl+S (save), Ctrl+U (cut line before cursor), Ctrl+V (paste), Ctrl+X (cut), Ctrl+Z (cancel last action),

    Where do we stand about these for the Malagasy Keyboard v3?

    Well, here we gotta use both control keys, of use two hands if we don’t want to do that.

    Conclusion

    Finding the optimal combination is very much a work-in-progress, but the version 3 has already come a long way. I especially need to find a way to re-balance right hand and left hand usage, but that won’t be easy given how we use vowels.

    See also

  • Tahirin-kevitra: Ordinatera, solosaina, saikintsaina, atidoha milina, …: iza amin’ireo ?

    Ity lahatsoratra eto ambany ity dia famintinana ny lahatsoratra hita tao amin’ny tranonkala taloha haisoratra.org ary nosoratan’i Solonavalona Andriamihaja tamin’ny taona 2004

    Ordinatera, solosaina, saikintsaina, atidoha milina, …: iza amin’ireo ?

    Misy zavatra na hevitra vaovao mbola tsy fantary ny tontolo malagasy kanefa miditra amin’ny fiainany ankehitriny noho ny fifaneraserany amin’ny tontolo ivelany. Ny ankamaroan’ireny zavatra na hevitra ireny dia avy amin’ny tontolon’ny siansa na teknolojia na varotra na hafa, manana anarana manokana avy amin’ny teny fiaviany, ohatra: automobile, téléphone, ordinateur, charme, ambition izay samy avy amin’ny teny frantsay na koa: computer, mobile, internet izay avy amin’ny teny anglisy. Anarana inona no tokony hilazantsika malagasy an’ireny zavatra na hevitra ireny ? Misy paika tokoa arahina amin’ny famoronana tenivao ka avy amin’ny ohatra iray no iaingantsika. Ny ohatra raisintsika eto dia zavatra iray tena fantatra sy fampiasa eran-tany, lazaina amin’ny teny frantsay “ordinateur” na ny teny anglisy “computer”.

    1. Zava-misy, anarana mifaninana Maro tokoa ny anarana mifaninana ankehitriny ilazana io fitaovana io ary tsy mbola misy tena raikitra anefa amin’ny teny malagasy: ordinatera, solosaina, saikintsaina, atidoha milina, . . . Hojerentsika tsirairay manaraka eto ny fanohanan’ny ankolafin’olona miaro azy ireo.

    2. Paika famoronana teny vaovao: “solosaina” Ny mpahay teny sasany no manolotra ny anarana hoe: “solosaina”, miainga avy amin’ny fandrafetana mitovy ireto teny maro ireto: solovolo, solonify, solokaratra, solomaso. Anarana vaovao tokoa no noforonina, mampiseho ny maha malagasy sy ny fisian’ny teny malagasy. Ireo fitaovana vaovao ireo dia misolo ary heverina hahavita ny asan’ny zavatra soloiny. Tsy marina mandrakariva anefa izany ho an’ireo fitaovana voalaza etsy ambony ireo fa marina indraindray ihany, marina ho an’ny sasany, diso ho an’ny hafa:

    • solovolo: marina io satria mahasolo ny volo niala na notakonana raha ny bika aman’endrika no vokatra takina amin’ilay solovolo ;
    • solonify: marina koa io eto satria manao ny asan’ilay nify niala io fitaovana napetaka io ;
    • solokaratra: marina koa io eto satria tena karatra vaovao mitovy amin’ilay taloha very, ny anarany fotsiny no lazaina hoe solony ;
    • solomaso: tsy marina io eto satria tsy misy maso niala ka nosoloina eto. Raha izany no izy dia ny maso tavoahangy no fitaovana marina, mahasolo fotsiny ny endrika saingy tsy mahita, tsy mahasolo ny voamaso niala. Ny solomaso eto dia fitaovana ivelany, manova ny asan’ny maso mbola samy tavela daholo, ahafahana mijery lavitra na akaiky ;
    • solosaina: tsy marina koa io eto satria tsy misy zavatra niala, tsy misy saina niala ka nosoloina fitaovana vaovao ; ny vontoatin’ny asan’ny saina dia ny famoronana, ilay fitaovana vaovao anefa tsy afaka mamorona na ampidirana “lozisiela” aza ao anatiny, ny hany tombony dia ny fanaovany haingana kokoa ny asa nampanaovina azy. Tsy mety izany ny voanteny noforonina ;
    • saikintsaina: mitovy amin’ny fanazavana etsy ambony, tsy afaka misaina akory ny fitaovana, na antsoina hoe “saikintsaina” na “lefitry ny saina”, anarana fiantsoana fotsiny izany fa mijanona ho fitaovana foana izy ;
    • atidoha milina: marina ny fanoharana saingy lava loatra ny fampiasana voanteny roa ka tsy mety. Ny paika famoronana tenivao nampiharina teto dia ny famoronana amin’ny teny malagasy voanteny vaovao milaza ny asa takina amin’ilay zavatra vaovao avy amin’ny teny vahiny.

    3. Paika fanamboarana – fanagasiana ilay teny vahiny: “ordinatera”

    Matetika ny teny vahiny resahina eto ho an’ny tontolo malagasy dia ny teny anglisy, teny fifandraisana laharana voalohany eran-tany eo amin’ny sehatry ny siansa, teknolojia na varotra ary efa fantatry ny malagasy nanomboka 200 taona lasa izay ; na koa ny teny frantsay izay fantatsik koa nanomboka 100 taona lsa izay.

    Fantatra tsara ilay voanteny vahiny:

    • fantatra ny abidia ampiasainy sy ny fomba fanoratra azy ;
    • fantatra koa ny fomba fanonon’ny tompon’ilay teny azy. Ny atao amin’ity paika ity dia ny fanamboarana ny fomba fanoratra sy ny fomba fanonona ilay voanteny vahiny: tsy misy fanamboarana na misy fanamboarana kelikely:
      1. Raha tsy misy fanamboarana mihitsy, tsy misy fanovana na ny fomba fanoratra na ny fomba fanonona dia findramana mivantana no atao. Ohatra: eng internet: mlg internetVita izany raha toa:
        • mitovy ny abidia roa tonta: ny abidia anglisy na frantsay dia abidia mampiasa tarehintsoratra latinna miisa 26. Raha ampiana ireto tarehintsoratra 5 ireto ny abidia malagasy ankehitriny: c, q, u, w, x dia azo tanterahina ny findramana mivantana tsy asiam-panovana ;
        • miezaka ny malagasy ny hanonona amin’ny fomba farany izay akaiky indrindra ilay voanteny amin’ny fomba fanonon’ny tompon’ilay teny azy. Azo atao koa izany.
      2. Raha asiana fanamboarana kely, fanovana kely tsy mihataka lavitra loatra ilay voanteny vahiny mba tsy hahavery ny soratra sy ny feo ka ho mora amin’ny malagasy mandrakariva ny hamantatra ilay voanteny loharano na eo amin’ny soratra na eo amin’ny feo. Raha ny ohatra noraisintsika no ampiharana an’izany dia izao no azo: fr. ordinateur: mlg. ordinatera eng computer: mlg kompiotera / kompiutera
        • ny soratra eto, ho an’ny roa tonta, avy amin’ny teny frantsay na teny anglisy dia tsy mifanalavitra loatra amin’ilay teny vahiny loharano. Azo tanterahina koa izany raha asiana fanamboarana ny abidia malagasy ankehitriny, ampiana ny litera 5 efa voalaza: c, q, u, w, x.
        • ny feo indray dia tsy lavitra loatra ny feo amin’ny voanteny vahiny loharano saingy nogasiana kely amin’ny gadona malagasy. Eto dia tsy anjarantsika malagasy no manontany hoe inona ny dikan’io anarana io amin’ilay teny vahiny loharano. Rehefa ekena io ka fantatra mazava ilay fitaovana na hevitra dia vita ny raharaha. Na izany aza, ho an’ny teny anglisy dia “computer” no anarana ifaneken’ny mpiteny anglisy rehetra iantsoana sy anondroana io fitaovana io. Ho an’ny teny frantsay indray dia voanteny vaovao noforonina tamin’ny 1955 io tao amin’ny Faculté des lettres frantsay ao amin’ny Oniversiten’i Paris. Izany dia vokatry ny tolokevitr’ilay mpampianatra frantsay, Pr J. Perret, noho ny fangatahan’ny kompania amerikana malaza IBM (International Business Machine), mpamorona indrindra ireny fitaovana ireny ary mitady ny handikana amin’ny teny frantsay ilay anarana anglisy “computer” amin’ny anarana hafa noho ny teny “calculateur”. Ny tolokevitr’i Pr J. Perret dia ny teny “ordinateur”, fitaovana “mpandahatra, mpandamina”, sampan-teny avy amin’ny fototeny “ordre”. Nankatoavin’ny IBM io ary naparitany amin’ny tontolon’ny mpampiasa informatika miteny frantsay.

    4. Fehiny Azo ampiasaina daholo ny paika anankiroa arakaraka ny voanteny loharano sy ny zava-misy amin’ny vanim-potoana iray, izany anefa dia tsy misy fitsipika hentitra hoe ity paika ity na izaroa. Ho an’ny ohatra nohadihadiantsika teto: fr ordinateur / eng computer dia tsy misy maha ratsy ilay paika voalohany raha mahafeno ny fepetra takina amin’io tranga io ilay teny noforonina: tsy mahafeno izany anefa ny teny hoe “solosaina” noho ny antony efa voalaza. Ilay paika faharoa dia mailaka kokoa sady ahafahana mamorona sampan-teny iray na maro: ity no tena manavaka azy ary midika ho tombontsoa lehibe. Azo isafidianana izany ireto: fr ordinateur: mlg ordinatera eng computer: mlg kompiotera / kompiutera

    Raha ny zava-misy eo amin’ny tontolon’ny mpampiasa informatika miteny malagasy dia ny fiaviana teny frantsay aloha no hita sy heno ; ilay fiaviana anglisy tsy mahazatra firy. Noho izany, ilay fiaviana frantsay izany no aroso eto, nogasiana ny fanoratra ary ny fanonona dia amin’ny feo sy gadona malagasy: fr ordinateur: mlg ordinatera.

    Nosoratan’i Solonavalona Andriamihaja

  • Dokotera avy any Lhasa: Sasin-teny

    Rehefa nivoaka ny bokin’i Lobsang Rampa voalohany Maso Fahatelo dia nisy resabe nafana be izay mbola mitohy hatrany. Ny fifandirana nataon’ny mpanoratra fa nanoratra ny fiainany “tamin’ny fomba manokana” ny lama Tibetana iray, ary raha ny marina dia nibodo tanteraka ny vatany taorian’ny lozam-pifamoivoizana kely iray, dia tsy dia azo inoana fa hinoan’ny mpamaky maro any Andrefana. Ny sasany, mahatsiaro tranga mitovy amin’izany tamin’ny lasa, na dia tsy avy any Tibet aza, dia naleony nitana saina misokatra. Ny hafa, ary azo inoana fa izy ireo no tena maro an’isa, dia nisalasala an-karihary. Na izany aza, maro amin’izy ireo, na manam-pahaizana manokana any amin’ny Farany Atsinanana, na mpamaky tsotra izay mankafy boky tsy mahazatra, dia nisavoritaka tamin’ny fahaizan’ny mpanoratra mazava tsara ny lohaheviny, ka nanokatra varavarana lehibe tamin’ny ampahany mahavariana sy tsy dia fantatra loatra amin’ny boky. izao tontolo izao, ary noho ny tsy fisian’ny firaketana ny fahaiza-manoratra teo aloha. Azo antoka fa tsy nisy afaka nanaporofo ny zava-misy marina.

    Ny Mpanonta ankehitriny dia mino fa, na inona na inona tokony ho marina amin’ilay raharaha (raha azo fantarina foana), dia rariny raha ny Maso Fahatelo sy ny Dokotera avy any Lhasa ankehitriny dia tokony ho azon’ny besinimaro, raha tsy noho izy ireo boky tena mahafinaritra momba ny ny fahamendrehany manokana. Amin’ireo olana lehibe sy fototra avoakany, ny mpamaky tsirairay dia tsy maintsy mandray fanapahan-kevitra manokana. Dokotera avy any Lhasa no nosoratan’i Lobsang Rampa. Tsy maintsy miteny ho azy izany.

    Sasin-tenin’ny Mpanoratra

    Fony aho tany Angletera dia nanoratra ny boky Maso Fahatelo iray izay marina, nefa niteraka fanehoan-kevitra be dia be. Nisy taratasy avy tamin’ny lafivalon’izao tontolo izao, ary ho valin’ny fangatahana no nanoratako ity boky ity. Dokotera avy any Lhasa.

    Ny zavatra niainako, araka ny holazaina ao amin’ny boky fahatelo, dia mihoatra lavitra noho izay tsy maintsy iaretan’ny ankamaroan’ny olona, traikefa izay tsy mitovy afa-tsy amin’ny tranga vitsivitsy teo amin’ny tantara. Tsy izany anefa no lohahevitr’ity boky ity izay miresaka momba ny fitohizan’ny tantaram-piainako.

    Lamà Tibetana aho izay tonga tany amin’ny tontolo tandrefana nanaraka ny anjarany, tonga araka ny nambara mialoha, ary niaritra ny zava-tsarotra rehetra araka ny nambara mialoha. Indrisy anefa, ny olona tandrefana dia nijery ahy ho toy ny curio, toy ny santionany izay tokony hatao ao anaty tranom-borona ary aseho ho toy ny hafahafa tsy fantatra. Nanontany tena aho hoe inona no hitranga amin’ireo namako taloha, ny Yetỳ, raha azon’ny tandrefana izy ireo — araka ny ezak’izy ireo atao.

    Tsy isalasalana fa hotifirina sy hofenoina ary hapetraka ao amin’ny tranombakoka sasany ny Yetỳ. Na dia izany aza dia miady hevitra ny olona ary milaza fa tsy misy manify toa an’ny Yetỳ izaho manokana dia hafahafa tsy inoana fa ny olona tandrefana dia afaka mino ny fahitalavitra, sy ny sambondanitra an’ habakabaka izay mety manodidina ny Volana ary miverina fa tsy manome voninahitra an’ny Yetỳ na “Zavatra manidina tsy fantatra,” na, raha ny marina, izay rehetra tsy hain’izy ireo tazoniny eny an-tanany ary potipotehiny mba hahitana izay mampandeha azy.

    Saingy ankehitriny dia manana asa goavana aho amin’ny fametrahana ao amin’ny pejy vitsivitsy fotsiny izay naka boky iray manontolo teo aloha, ny antsipirian’ny fahazazako. Avy amina fianakaviana tena ambony aho, iray amin’ireo fianakaviana lehibe indrindra ao Lhasa, renivohitr’i Tibet. Be dia be ny zavatra tian’ny ray aman-dreniko holazaina teo amin’ny fitantanana ny firenena, ary noho ny maha ambony ahy dia nomena fiofanana mafy aho ka, noheverina, tokony ho mendrika ny hisolo toerana ahy. Avy eo, talohan’ny fahafito taonako, araka ny fomba amam-panao efa napetrakay, dia naka hevitra tamin’ireo Pretra Mpanandro tao Tibet mba hahitana izay karazana asa hosokafana ho ahy. Andro maromaro talohan’ny nandrosoan’ity fiomanana ity, fiomanana ho amin’ny fety lehibe iray izay hahatongavan’ireo olom-pirenena ambony rehetra, ireo olo-malaza rehetra ao Lhasa hihaino ny anjarako. Farany dia tonga ny Andro Faminaniana. Feno olona ny taninay. Tonga nirongo fiadiana ny mpanandro niaraka tamin’ny ravin-taratasy sy ny sariny ary ny zavatra tena ilaina rehetra amin’ny asany. Avy eo, tamin’ny fotoana nety, rehefa naorina ho amin’ny fientanentanana mafy ny rehetra, dia nanambara ny zavatra hitany ilay Lehiben’ny Astrologer. Nambara tamin’ny fomba manetriketrika fa tokony hiditra ao amin’ny lamaseria aho amin’ny fahafito taonako, ary hampiofanina ho mpisorona, ary ho a. mpandidy mpisorona. Maro ny faminaniana natao momba ny fiainako, raha ny marina dia voasoritra ny fiainako manontolo. Tena tsapako fa tanteraka daholo izay nolazainy. Hoy aho hoe “alahelo” satria ny ankamaroany dia loza sy fahasahiranana ary fijaliana, ary tsy manamora izany rehefa fantatry ny olona rehetra fa hijaly.

    Niditra tao amin’ny lamaseria Chakpori aho tamin’izaho fito taona, nandeha irery teny an-dalana. Teo am-pidirana aho dia notazonina, ary tsy maintsy niaritra fitsapana mba hijerena raha toa ka mafy loatra aho, nahery vaika tamin’ny fiofanana. Nolalovako io, ary navela hiditra aho. Nandalo ny dingana rehetra aho tamin’ny voalohany, ary tamin’ny farany dia lasa lama sy abbot aho. Ny fitsaboana sy ny fandidiana no tena zava-dehibe tamiko. Nazoto nianatra an’ireo aho, ary nomena ny toerana rehetra hianarana faty. Finoana any andrefana fa hoe tsy manao na inona na inona amin’ny vatana mihitsy ny lamas any Tibet raha toa ka mila fanokafana izany. Ny finoana dia, toa, fa ny siansa ara-pitsaboana Tibetana dia tsy misy dikany, satria ireo lamas mpitsabo ireo dia tsy mitsabo afa-tsy ny ivelany fa tsy ny anatiny. Tsy marina izany. Ny lama tsotra dia ekeko fa tsy manokatra vatana mihitsy fa mifanohitra amin’ny finoany. Saingy nisy ivon’ny lamas manokana, izay iray tamin’izy ireo aho, izay nampiofanina hanao fandidiana, ary hanao asa izay mety ho mihoatra ny sehatry ny siansa tandrefana.

    Amin’ny fandalovana dia misy koa ny finoana any andrefana fa ny fitsaboana Tibetana dia mampianatra fa ny lehilahy dia manana ny fony amin’ny lafiny iray, ary ny vehivavy dia manana ny fony amin’ny lafiny iray. Tsy misy zavatra mampihomehy kokoa. Ny fampahalalana toy izany dia nampitaina tamin’ny vahoaka tandrefana avy amin’ireo izay tsy manana fahalalana marina momba ny zavatra soratany, satria ny tabilao sasany resahin’izy ireo dia mifandray amin’ny vatana astral fa zavatra hafa mihitsy. Tsy misy ifandraisany amin’ity boky ity anefa izany.

    Tena mafy tokoa ny fiofanako, satria tsy maintsy nahafantatra ny taranja manokana momba ny fitsaboana sy ny fandidiana aho, fa ny Soratra Masina rehetra koa, satria, ankoatra ny maha-lama ara-pitsaboana ahy, dia tsy maintsy nandalo ara-pivavahana ihany koa aho, amin’ny maha-mpitsabo. pretra voaofana tanteraka. Noho izany dia nilaina ny fianarana sampana roa indray mandeha, ary izany dia midika hoe fianarana avo roa heny noho ny salan’isa. Tsy nijery izany tamin’ny fankasitrahana lehibe aho!

    Saingy tsy ny zava-tsarotra rehetra izany, mazava ho azy. Nanao dia maro tany amin’ny faritra ambonimbony ao Tibet aho—4.000 metatra ambonin’ny haabon’ny ranomasina i Lhasa—nanangona zavamaniry, satria nifototra tamin’ny fitsaboana amin’ny zavamaniry ny fiofanana ara-pitsaboana, ary tao Chakpori dia nanana karazana ravin-kazo 6.000 isan-karazany foana izahay. Mino izahay Tibetana fa mahafantatra bebe kokoa momba ny fitsaboana amin’ny zavamaniry noho ny olona any amin’ny faritra hafa amin’izao tontolo izao. Ankehitriny rehefa nitety an’izao tontolo izao imbetsaka aho dia nihanatanjaka izany finoana izany.

    Nandritra ny diako maromaro tany amin’ny faritra ambonimbony any Tibet dia nanidina papango manainga olona aho, nisondrotra teo ambonin’ireo tampon-tendrombohitra avo be, ary nitazana ny ambanivohitra. Nandray anjara tamin’ny fitsangatsanganana tsy hay hadinoina tany amin’ny faritra saika tsy azo nidirana tao Tibet, hatrany amin’ny faritra avo indrindra amin’ny Havoanan’i Chang Tang aho. Nahita lohasaha mitokana lalina teo anelanelan’ny tsefatsefaky ny vatolampy izahay, anisan’ny iraka, ary nafana, nafanain’ny afo mandrakizay teto an-tany, izay niteraka rano mafana niboiboika sy nikoriana tao amin’ny renirano. Nahita tanàna matanjaka koa izahay, ka ny antsasany nibaribary teo amin’ny rivotra mafana tao amin’ilay lohasaha miafina, ary ny antsasany kosa nalevina tao anatin’ny ranomandry mangatsiatsiaka. Nazava be ny ranomandry ka tazana ny faritra hafa tao an-tanàna, toy ny tamin’ny rano madio indrindra. Saika tsy nisy na inona na inona tamin’io faritry ny tanàna rava io. Ny taona dia nikarakara tamim-pahalemem-panahy tokoa ireo tranobe. Ny rivotra mangina, ny tsy fisian’ny rivotra, dia nanavotra ireo trano tamin’ny fahapotehana. Nandeha an-dalambe izahay, ny olona voalohany nandeha tamin’ireo arabe ireo nandritra ny an’arivony sy an’arivony taona. Nirenireny tamin’ny sitrapo izahay namakivaky trano toa niandry ny tompony, mandra-pijerenay akaiky kokoa ka nahita taolam-paty hafahafa, taolam-paty, ary avy eo dia fantatray fa tanàna maty ity. Nisy fitaovana mahatalanjona maro izay nanondro fa ity lohasaha miafina ity dia fonenan’ny sivilizasiona lehibe lavitra noho ny ankehitriny eto ambonin’ny tany. Voaporofo taminay fa olo-dia izahay ankehitriny raha oharina amin’ny olona tamin’izany fotoana izany. Fa ato amin’ity boky faharoa ity dia manoratra bebe kokoa momba an’io tanàna io aho.

    Fony aho mbola kely dia nodidiana manokana izay antsoina hoe fisokafan’ny maso fahatelo. Tao anatin’izany dia nisy tapa-kazo mafy, izay nototoina tamin’ny vahaolana raokandro manokana, natsofoka teo afovoan’ny handriko mba hanentanana ny fihary izay nanome ahy hery bebe kokoa amin’ny fahitana. Teraka mazavamaso (clairvoyant) aho, ary niavaka be izany. Rehefa taorian’ny fandidiana dia tena mbola nazavamaso nihoatra ny tokony ho izy, ary hitako ny olona miaraka amin’ny avelo (aura) manodidina azy, toy ny voarakotra amin’ny lelafo miovaova. Avy amin’ny aurany no nahafahako namaky ny eritreriny; inona no nanjo azy ireo, inona no fanantenany sy natahorany. Rehefa nandao an’i Tibet aho izao dia miezaka ny hahaliana ireo dokotera tandrefana amin’ny fitaovana iray ahafahan’ny dokotera sy mpandidy rehetra mahita ny aura maha-olombelona amin’ny maha-izy azy, miloko. Fantatro fa raha hitan’ny dokotera sy ny mpandidy ny aura, dia afaka mahita izay tena mahakasika ny olona iray izy ireo. Ka amin’ny fijerena ny loko, sy amin’ny rindran-damina amin’ny tarika mihetsika, ny manam-pahaizana manokana dia afaka milaza mazava tsara ny aretina mahazo ny olona iray. Ambonin’izany, azo lazaina izany alohan’ny hisian’ny famantarana hita maso ao amin’ny vatana ara-batana mihitsy, satria ny aura dia mampiseho porofo momba ny homamiadana, ny raboka, ary ny fitarainana hafa, volana maro alohan’ny hanafihany ny vatana ara-batana. Noho izany, amin’ny fananana fampitandremana mialoha momba ny fiantombohan’ny aretina ny dokotera dia afaka mitsabo ilay fitarainana, ary manasitrana azy tsy misy diso. Ny alaheloko sy ny alaheloko lalina dia tsy liana mihitsy ny dokotera tandrefana. Toa heverin’izy ireo fa misy ifandraisany amin’ny ody izany, fa tsy hoe saina tsotra fotsiny, toy ny mahazatra. Ny injeniera rehetra dia hahafantatra fa misy corona manodidina azy ny tariby mihenjana be. Toy izany koa ny vatan’olombelona, ary zavatra ara-batana tsotra fotsiny izay tiako haseho amin’ny manam-pahaizana manokana, ary mandà izany izy ireo. Loza izany. Fa ho avy amin’ny fotoana. Ny loza dia maro ny olona tsy maintsy mijaly, ary maty tsy misy antony, mandra-pahatongan’izany.

    Ny Dalai Lama, ny Dalai Lama fahatelo ambin’ny folo, no mpiaro ahy. Nanome baiko i Fie fa tokony handray ny fanampiana rehetra azo atao amin’ny fiofanana sy ny traikefa aho. Nanome toromarika i Fie fa tokony hampianarina ahy ny zavatra rehetra mety hipoitra ato amiko, ary toy ny nampianarin’ny rafitra am-bava tsotra dia nampianarina ahy ihany koa ny hypnozy, sy ny endrika hafa izay tsy ilaina lazaina eto. Ny sasany amin’izy ireo dia resahina ato amin’ity boky ity, na ao amin’ny The Third Eye. Ny hafa dia nihinana zava-baovao, ary tsy mampino ka tsy tonga ny fotoana ho azy ireo, horesahina.

    Noho ny herin’ny fahazavamaso dia afaka nanampy be dia be ho an’ny Masinaindrindra aho tamin’ny fotoana samihafa. Nafenina tao amin’ny efitranony aho mba hahafantarako ny tena eritreritra sy ny fikasan’ny olona iray avy amin’ny aura. Natao izany mba hijerena raha nitombo ny kabary sy ny eritreritry ny olona indrindra tamin’izy ireo mpitondra fanjakana vahiny nitsidika ny Dalai Lama. Mpandinika tsy hita maso aho raha nisy delegasiona sinoa noraisin’ny Fahateloambinifololehibe. Mpandinika tsy hita maso ihany koa aho, rehefa nandeha nijery ny Dalai Lama ny Anglisy iray, saingy tamin’ny fotoana farany dia saika lavo tamin’ny adidiko aho noho ny hagagako tamin’ilay akanjo niavaka nanaovan’ilay lehilahy, izay no fotoana nahitako akanjo eoropeana voalohany indrindra !

    Naharitra sady sarotra ny fiofanana. Nisy fotoam-pivavahana tao amin’ny tempoly natrehina nandritra ny alina sy nandritra ny tontolo andro. Tsy ho antsika ny halemem-pandriana. Nihorona tao anaty bodofotsy izahay, ary nandeha natory tamin’ny tany. Hentitra tokoa ny mpampianatra, ary tsy maintsy nianatra sy nianatra ary nametraka ny zava-drehetra ho fitadidiana izahay. Tsy nitazona kahie izahay, natao ho fitadidiana ny zava-drehetra. Nianatra taranja metafizika koa aho. Niditra lalina tao aho, fahazavamaso, fitsangatsanganana astraly, telepatia, nandalo ny zavatra rehetra aho. Tamin’ny dingana iray nanombohako dia nitsidika ireo lava-bato sy tonelina miafina ao ambanin’ny Potala aho, ireo lava-bato sy tonelina izay tsy fantatry ny olon-tsotra na inona na inona. Toetran’ny sivilizasiona efa hatry ny ela izy ireo, izay saika tsy ho tsaroana, mihoatra ny fitadidian’ny foko, ary teo amin’ny rindrina no nisy firaketana an-tsoratra, firaketana an-tsary momba ny zavatra mikoriana eny amin’ny rivotra, ary ny zavatra nidina ambanin’ny tany. Tamin’ny dingana iray hafa tamin’ny fanombohana dia hitako ireo vatan’ny goavambe voatahiry tsara, folo metatra ary dimy ambin’ny folo metatra ny halavany. Izaho koa dia nalefa tany am-pitan’ny fahafatesana, mba hahalalako fa tsy misy fahafatesana, ary rehefa niverina aho dia Fahatongavanofo Ekena, ary nahazo ny sata maha-abbe. Saingy tsy te ho abbe aho, nifatotra tamin’ny lamaseria. Naniry ny ho lama aho, izay afaka mivezivezy, afaka manampy ny hafa, araka ny voalazan’ny faminaniana fa hataoko. Noho izany dia nohamafisin’ny Dalai Lama mihitsy aho ho laharan’ny lama, ary Izy no nifamatotra tamin’ny Potala tao Lhasa. Na dia izany aza dia nitohy ny fiofanako, dia nampianarina karazana siansa tandrefana, optika, ary taranja hafa mifandray aminy aho. Saingy, tamin’ny farany dia tonga ny fotoana niantsoana ahy indray ho any amin’ny Dalai Lama, ary nomena toromarika.

    Nilaza tamiko izy fa nianatra izay rehetra azoko ianarana tany Tibet aho, fa tonga ny fotoana tokony handrosoako, handao izay rehetra tiako, izay rehetra nokarakaraiko. Nilaza tamiko izy fa nisy iraka manokana nalefa tany Chungking mba hanoratra ahy ho mpianatry ny fitsaboana sy ny fandidiana any amin’io tanàna sinoa io.

    Narary am-po aho rehefa niala teo anatrehan’ny Masinaindrindra, ary nankany amin’ny Mpitarika ahy, ilay lama Mingyar Dondup, ary nilaza taminy izay tapaka. Avy eo aho dia nankany an-tranon’ny ray aman-dreniko mba hilaza amin’izy ireo koa ny zava-nitranga, fa tsy maintsy handao an’i Lhasa aho. Nandeha ny andro, ary tonga ny andro farany nandaozako an’i Chakpori, rehefa nahita an’i Mingyar Dondup mivantana farany aho, ary nivoaka ny tanànan’i Lhasa, ny Tanàna Masina, hankany amin’ireo lalantsara tendrombohitra avo. . Ary rehefa nijery ny lasa aho dia tandindona ny zavatra hitako farany. Fa avy amin’ny tafo volamenan’ny Potala dia nisy papango nanidina samirery.

     

    Doctor From Lhasa nosoratan’i T. Lobsang Rampa tamin’ny taona 1959, nodikain’i Terakasorotany avy amin’ny teny anglisy

  • On the state of things

    Malagasy culture/history on Malagasy Wikipedia

    Unlike English, French or Chinese, Malagasy is practically unused as a medium of international communication. And those foreigners who have a good command of Malagasy are interested in the national culture much, much more than the average Joe; or have acquired it as part of a very specific training to eventually spread Christianity in Madagascar. Thus it is more than justified to center our interest on Malagasy culture on one hand, specifically because a lot of the upper class people in Madagascar have been schooled in international schools and thus tend to ignore the very culture of the country they live in, or at least not to give it as much weight as it deserves.

    That might seem very inward-looking in our vision of the sum of human knowledge, but our culture is poorly documented especially online (and surprisingly even more so in its original language) as most of it is done through oral transmission, thus in that regard there truly is a deadline.

    While on the other hand, popular culture, science and technology can always be translated from English or French, and doing so correctly requires special vocabulary knowledge which the average Rakoto doesn’t always have, and written resources to mitigate that lack of knowledge are rare.

    Malagasy on Wiktionary

    Following a discussion that had been made on Wikimedia Metawiki (which is basically a wiki to talk about other wikis), the Malagasy Wiktionary was targeted by a so-called “small-wiki audit” which aims to assess, as it names implies, the quality of the content in a small wiki. What is meant by “small” here is the community. I used to be the only contributor there, and made a very extensive use of bots to fill the wiki with as much content as possible. I had done so by implementing a parser coupled with a basic machine translation engine.

    The effort was spread over 8 years, and a lot of mistakes were made in the process. The conclusion of the discussion was that all the content with the exception of already-created Malagasy were going to be deleted. Such deletion was mostly complete by 2021.

    In the meantime, NLLB (for No Language Left Behind) — a project by Meta (Facebook), which is a new technology for machine translation targeted at lesser-documented languages — was published and I swiftly adopted such technology to create foreign-language entries, with supervision.

    On Artificial Intelligence

    Since the end of year 2022, generative AI has been the hottest topic in the tech world since the first iPhone and the smartphone revolution that ensued. The public has been mostly hyped by the impressive capacity by Stable Diffusion to generate images in seconds where a commissioned artist would take days, or OpenAI’s ChatGPT ability to respond to users’ questions and to compose prose in seconds where poets or compositors would also have taken days. ChatGPT has changed the tech world quite a lot since 2022 where it was made publicly available.

    Generative AIs power an ever-increasing panel of apps and aims to commoditize drawings, paintings, and images by taking in a prompt and outputting an image. In addition to it’s closed-source nature, the sheer size of the model (176 billion) makes it impractical to be run on commodity hardware.

    Unfortunately, I have the impression that ChatGPT has been dumbed-down I think by an ever-increasing amount of rules on sensitive topics it’s not allowed to give a decisive answer on. Following this, I’ve been more attentive to its small competitors like LLaMA and other models that I won’t name here that could run on a beefed-up laptop (for what it’s worth, the one I’m currently using now has 48GB or RAM) and can run without limitations on controversial topics.

    It is said that the human brain has between 150,000 to 300,000 billion synapses, and we could need a similar number of “parameters” to achieve something that looks like a whole-brain emulation (WBE). The current GPT-3 is 3 orders of magnitude below that number. Given the current trend which is to gain 2 orders of magnitude every 2 years, we could bet on WBE being practical by the end of the decade. Fantastic times await ahead!

  • Tantara: Dokotera avy any Lhasa

    (Nohavaozina farany tamin’ny 20 Jolay 2024)

    Ity tantara ity dia dikanteny malagasy ny boky Doctor From Lhasa izay nosoratan’i T. Lobsang Rampa 1959. Anisan’izay novakiako tamin’ny mbola tanora haka Bac tamin’ny 2011 izy ity, ary mbola ananako amin’izao fotoana izao. Izy ity dia tantaran’olona iray izay nonina tany Tibet, ka nifindra monina ho any Sina hianatra ho dokotera. Nitranga teo aloha ary nandritra ny Ady Lehibe Faharoa ilay tantara ka hodikaina eto amin’ny teny malagasy ilay izy.

    Hitsidika ny pejy

    Ireo toko efa voadika:

    • Sasin-teny (vita)
    • Toko voalohany (eo am-pandikana)
    • Toko faharoa (mbola hatao)
    • Toko fahatelo (mbola hatao)
    • Toko fahaefatra (mbola hatao)
    Read more: Tantara: Dokotera avy any Lhasa
  • Using GPT-2 for Malagasy

    Long ago I became interested in natural language processing. From 2010 until 2014 I had been actively developing various programs to increase content coverage of the Malagasy Wiktionary. The result now is 5.9 million words in 4,100 languages.

    From 2014 to this day, I have been researching ways to improve and perfect the quality of translations as provided by the bot. In 2018, the OpenAI community had released a language model used to generate news-like articles. Those generated articles were so believable that the consortium had refrained to release the full model until the end of 2019, as there were fears that fine-tuning the full model could lead to fake news or dangerous propaganda to  be published en masse. As a result, they were only released once detection techniques were accurate enough to tell generated and non generated articles apart.

    Once the full model was released, I began fine-tuning the model on Malagasy language text. The target was to generate news-like articles from the existing corpus scraped from 4 major news website, resulting in 49 MB of training data. In comparison, the English language model was trained using 40 GB of data.

    Scraping Malagasy language sources

    On the internet, data sources and diversity for Malagasy are relatively scarce compared to English or any other European language. The main reason for that is that most Malagasy sites use French as their publishing language. As a consequence, the sources used were daily newspapers such as NewsMada, Madagascar Tribune, Aoraha, la Gazette de la Grande Ile. It is worth noting that two of these newspapers are bilingual so article had to be filtered.

    Filtering out French articles

    The next task was to detect and remove French language articles since we are training the model to generate Malagasy and not French.

    How?

    Since we’re basically both using the Latin alphabet, using Unicode to our advantage won’t do the job. Language detection using machine learning, while attractive, is clearly overkill and will further divert us from our goal.

    Instead, to keep things simple, I relied on the single biggest difference between written Malagasy and French.  Our version of the Latin alphabet rules out the letters C, Q, U, W and X or other accented characters like É or È. In other words, all native Malagasy words won’t contain any of these.

    I also fetched all French words and inflections to be spot on every single time. And in less than 100 lines, I could filter out anything French.

    Using GPT-2

    As expected, training takes time and space. Lots of it. Model for checkpoints take 1.3 GB and is saved on-disk every 50 iterations.  At 21,000 iterations, further progress seems hard, but this is what it can generate (article below does not exist):

    ANTSIRABE: SARONA TANTERAKA NY FITAFIANA MPANAO SINTO-MAHERY | NEWSMADA

    Par Taratra sur 08/12/2019

    Nandray ny asa famonoana ho faty ny zandary nandray anjara tamin’ny fanafihana nitafiana mpanao
    sy toeram-piantsonan’ny taxi-be nandritra ny fanarahan-dia, tao amin’ny kaompania Ambositra,
    faran’ny herinandro teo, ka nanao ny fanarahan-dia.

    Tsiahivina fa efa nisy ny nahafantarana fa nanafika mpandraharaha an’ilay mpandraharaha ny
    tao Andranohazo Antsirabe. Raikitra ny fitifirana ka vokatry ny fanarahan-dia avy hatrany ity mpandraharaha
    ity. Tsy fantatra mazava hatrany na ny sasany aza tambajotran-javatra malemy na koa raha tsy izany
    mitohy na miaro ny kolikoly rehetra na mpanao sinto-mahery na manana ny anton-diany

    Conclusions

    Should we go further with our model,  we would end up creating a “thismalagasynewsarticledoesnotexist.com” website to host them all. Source code is present on Github along news anticles as training data, which for copyright reasons, cannot be made public.

    Another use for a good-enough model would be to illustrate the Malagasy Wikitonary with unique examples for word usage.

  • Finding an optimised keyboard layout for Malagasy

    In the 21st century, people type. They type a lot.

    Office workers and the Jane Doe’s and John Doe’s from all over the world, speaking various languages, type on electronic keyboards. An average typist types 30-40 words per minute. It mostly depends on their typing language and the layout they use. The best typists can achieve speeds up to 100 words per minute.

    The current keyboard layout in use by most Malagasy language speakers puts whoever who wants to write in Malagasy at a huge disadvantage. It is impossible to write quickly in their language without stressing out their hand muscles. A typical malagasy sentence is quite often longer than a French one due to word length. Depending on the text sample, It may vary from 7% longer (compare the first 10 verses of the Chapter 1 of the Gospel of John) to 20% longer for more complex texts. A text that had required 10 hours to be written in French will easily take 11 up to 14 hours for Malagasy. At the scale of a company, or even a country, that is a huge waste of time, mostly due to a legacy that has lost all its relevance as keyboards do not have the same constraints as typewriters.
    To tell you my story: since I’ve got my Samsung tablet, I’ve almost never used the default Samsung keyboard. So what did write my text messages with? I’m using my own keyboard layout; I’ll show you why and how.

    A quick review on Malagasy uses

    Before I get to the point, let’s see on what my fellow Malagasy citizens type their Malagasy language text with:

    azerty.jpg
    Fig. 1: AZERTY keyboard, made by French as an imitation of the American QWERTY

    This, ladies and gentlemen, is the layout that is currently being used and known by most of the 24 million people in Madagascar. No need to say that their fellow citizens who have emigrated to France also use it.
    The problem is that layout is not suitable for Malagasy. At all.

    heatkey.jpg
    Fig.2: Heat map on an AZERTY keyboard used to type in Malagasy.

    The heat map above has been generated using the Malagasy version of the Rainilaiarivony Wikipedia article. As a Wikimedia contributor, I’ve had the pleasure to type it… using the AZERTY keyboard. It was really a pain, and it looked like you did a lot of effort only to get less than the English version from which I had been translating.

    azerty1.jpg
    Fig. 3: In an AZERTY keyboard, when typing in Malagasy, your left pinky travels A LOT

    That is also felt by my fellow citizens, a lot of whom have taken bad writing habits like writing SMS. That habit is sometimes taken to a new level, so that an unexperimented reader may find difficult or even impossible to read a text written in that SMS-style writing.
    Even though most people browse the Web in French or English far more often than in Malagasy, using the QWERTY/AZERTY layouts is a pain, even if this is all we have, and even if this is what most people will ever know. Even if it’ll never have the success of the traditional layouts, I’ll give my two cents for a layout optimised for Malagasy language

    Solutions

    To palliate this strong disadvantage given to Malagasy regarding keyboard typing speed. I’d been using the German Neo keyboard layout. This was an already good alternative to the QWERTY which I’d been using for 4 years, but it was still sub-optimal, as my left little pinky is above a letter that is never used in Malagasy, my mother tongue.

    neo
    Fig. 4: German Neo Layout (see: neo-layout.org)

    While looking for a solution to my problem I’ve discovered patorjk.com. From a given text, this website basically calculates which keys are most hit while the text is typed. From those keys’ position, a rating will be given. That rating takes into account for 1/3 the distance your finger had moved, how you use your fingers for 1/3 and how you often you have to switch fingers and hands while typing for 1/3. The higher the rating, the lower your hands will have to travel to type the text; so mechanically you’d be less tired typing the text in an optimal keyboard than in a standardised one.
    So for our Rainilaiarivony text, there are the rating for the keyboards:

    rating
    Fig. 5: Layout ratings

    The loser here is clearly the AZERTY, used by most of my fellow citizens. The standardised  Dvoraks are good candidates for typing Malagasy, and maybe we should consider those keyboards since they are widely supported in modern operating systems.
    Here is what the programmer Dvorak looks like:

    dvorak.jpg
    Fig. 6: Programmer Dvorak Keyboard

    Setting the Malagasy Optimised Layout

    First version (7 November 2016)

    The Dvorak score was impressive at the first sight, but the Dvorak was not the optimal layout for Malagasy. The one which the algorithm had found optimal was the following one:

    malagasy1.jpg
    Fig.7: Algorithmically generated Layout from patorjk.com (some keys’ positions have been frozen for more practicality)

    That layout looks pretty decent but the keys are put in a little bit messy way. On the basis of that keyboard, the German Neo and the arrangement of a bunch of standard ergonomic keyboards I’ve come out to the following layout:

    malagasy
    Fig. 8: Own-made keyboard (the Malagasy Keyboard)

    I’ve rerun the analysis on the same Rainilaiarivony article on that keyboard and a couple others. Here are the ratings:

    ratings2
    Fig. 9: Ratings of the Malagasy keyboard layout on the basis of the Malagasy version of the Rainilaiarivony

    Well, to say the least, it looks like I’ve done way more than what the algorithm had succeeded to find. I’m pretty sure the layout I’ve designed is not very far from the perfect Malagasy-optimised Dvorak. Let’s go further into the report and see the row usage comparison.

    row-usage.jpg
    Fig. 10: Row usage comparison.

    Yes, the AZERTY is an absolute typist horror when it comes to Malagasy.
    The use rate of the home row for the our Malagasy keyboard is not very far from the optimal/personnalized layout generated by the algorithm.

    version 2 (13 November 2016)

    ergo1
    Fig. 11: Hot keys on the second attempt.

    Well, after a few day testing the keyboard layout I’ve got on the first attempt, I’ve felt some mandatory re-tuning of the optimised keyboard. That implied moving some keys to get the hot ones (the ones I have to hit most to type down my text) right under my index and my right middle finger. Since the left finger almost always type vowels, I’ve made them stay as most as possible at the home row unless you want to type some foreign words – in which case you’ll have some gymnastic to do.

    ergo3.jpg
    Fig.12: Finger usage of various keyboards.

    As shown in fig. 12, the total number of hits in the Rainilaiarivony article is distributed as such: ~53% for the left hand and ~47% for the right hand. This excludes the thumb hitting the spacebar.

    ergo4.jpg
    Fig.13: Second attempt’s rating.

    We’re getting better. Though the article is the same, I’ve switched to selecting the article from its HTML form. Since working on the article over and over again may constitute some bias, I’ve tried using some text samples from the Sarasara Tsy Ambaka.
    I took quite a huge text sample (containing ~260,000 characters). It took a while to process but it takes out much of the bias related to the Rainilaiarivony article. The results still makes our Malagasy optimised keyboard the best layout ever to exist for the Malagasy language (cf. figure 14)

    ergo5.jpg
    Fig. 14: Layout ratings comparison.

    I have to note that the calculated optimised layout gets closer and closer to the one I’ve designed, at least for the home row. Have a look:

    ergo6.jpg
    Fig. 15: The calculated layout. Looks a bit familiar, right?

    As of this second version, we have an fairly optimised layout for Malagasy language, i.e. you’ll gradually type faster as your hand muscles get used to the new layout. Even for typing other languages such as French, this layout surpasses the AZERTY as the latter keyboard layout had been initially made to avoid the jamming of typewriters.

    My conclusions

    I may never say it much enough: the AZERTY keyboard is the absolute worst keyboard to type Malagasy with. Even the QWERTY does better. The Dvorak is a pretty good candidate for a widespread “more ergonomic” layout due to its presence in all modern widespread operating systems, but there is better.
    Even if the French have designed the BÉPO layout for their language, it has failed to replace the omnipresent and inherited AZERTY slow layout. There is only one person I know who uses it on a daily basis. We also have to add to the fact that BÉPO has been around since 2008 and the Klavie Malagasy (“Malagasy Keyboard”) has only been written about just now, in 7th November 2016. As heavy as it is, the legacy left by AZERTY is highly likely to continue to be used in Madagascar probably for decades as long as keyboard typing exists, even if we relevantly know that the AZERTY layout is totally unsuitable to write French let alone Malagasy.
    Right now I’m typing this article in English on a QWERTY keyboard. I’m planning to translate it to Malagasy as it gets more complete in order to reach more of the target audience.
    I’ve already implemented that layout on my tablet so I’ve got all the time I need to adapt my fingers from the old Neo layout to the new Klavie Malagasy.

    Updates

    v2.1 as of 19 December 2017

    Attached a PDF file containing the test corpus. A slightly better version has been proposed in the comments (thanks Ian!); and even though it has lower score than the v2.0, it has a really awesome idea of putting the T on the home row.
    To better track all the changes, the project now has its own repository on Github. Long live open source!

    Resources

  • Fomba fandraisan’anjara dimy amin’i Wikibolana

    Ity lahatsoratra ity dia dikanteny amin’ny teny malagasin’ny lahatsoratra nosoratako tamin’ny teny anglisy vao andro vitsivitsy izay.
    Mandray anjara tamin’i Wikibolana aho nanomboka tamin’ny taona 2010. Lasa fahazarana ilay izy: isam-bolana,isan-kerinandro, isan’andro, ary isa-maraina na isa-kariva, dia alefako ny mpitety tranonkala ijerena izay zavatra nitranga teo amin’i Wikibolana, ary mijery ny zavatra izay azoko atao mba hanampiana votoatiny be kokoa.
    Tsindraindray dia tena manam-piniavana ny hanampy fampahalalana iray amin’ny pejy maro aho ka mandany ora maromaro manoratra fandaharana hanampiana izany amin’ny fomba faran’izay haingana.
    Ary tsindraindray aho dia tena tsy tia handray anjara, ka mijery ny fiovana farany sy mijery ireo pejy izay mety nosimbaina aho, na mijery ireo pejy novain’ny mpikambana hafa.
    Na dia izany aza, dia betsaka ireo fomba fandraisana anjara ao amin’i Wikibolana. Dimy amin’ireo no ho atolotra eto:
    (1) Manoratra pejy amin’ny tanana. Zavatra mora indrindra atao na dia zavatra mahavizaka indrindra amin’ny voalaza aza. Manomboka nanoratra pejy amin’ny tanana (amin’ny alalan’ny fitendry) avokoa ny mpandray anjara rehetra, ary mety ho toa izay hatrany mandritra ny telopolo taona. Amin’ny 2045, dia ho lasa tola ny Wikipedia na i Wiktionary amin’ny endriny ankehitriny raha tsy efa manova ny votoatiny ho azy.
    Alohan’ny hitrangan’izany dia ho betsaka dia betsaka ny asa atao. Na dia izany aza, dia afaka mampitombo ny habetsaky ny asa vitanao ianao amin’ny alalan’ny fianarana manoratra fandaharana. Rehefa hay tokoa izay dia:
    (2) Manoratra fandaharana manoratra pejy izay mety ilaina ahitsy rehefa aty aoriana. Mora izany, ka niezaka tamin’izany aho nandritry ny telo taona. Rehefa mandeha ny fotoana dia betsaka ireo pejy voaforona, ka na dia kely aza ny taham-kadisoana dia lasa betsaka ireo pejy misy hadisoana. Ekena izany, fa betsaka noho izany ireo pejy tsy misy hadisoana. Rehefa ampiarahana amin’ny rakibolan-teny mitovy hevitra sy fahaiza-manodina teny voajanahary (Natural language processing) dia afaka mampamaritra teny tsy afaka dikaina amin’ny fiteny tanjona ianao.
    (3) Manoratra fandaharana mamaky gazety ahitana ireo teny sy pejy tsy misy. Rehefa feno ny rakibolana dia mihasarotra hatrany ny fahitana teny vaovao hoforonina. Mety tsy hanam-piniavana ny hamaky lahatsora-gazety am-polony ianao, ka manorata fandaharana hamaky azy ireo ho anao ary maka ireo teny tsy ampy ho anao. Rehefa vita izany dia manorata fandaharana mitady ireo teny nakambana rehefa ary hanampy azy ireo ao amin’i Wikibolana. Ny lenta eo ambonin’izany karazam-pandaharana izany dia mpitady teny mivantana mamaky fahan-tsoratra avy ao amin’i Twitter ohatra, ary mametraka ireo teny rehetra tsy mbola voafaritra ao amin’i Wikibolana amin’ny faran’ny andro.
    Zavatra iray ny mianartra manoratra fandaharana, fa zavatra roa samihafa ny fanampiana fampahalalana ary ny mahafantatra hoe fampahalalana inona no tsara ampiana. Rehefa mitsiry ny hevitra, na misy angona mikasika ny teny mahaliana eo am-pelantanana dia manorata fandaharana hametrahana ireo singam-pampahalalana ireo amin’i Wikibolana. Ataovy am-panajana ireo zom-pamorona izany.
    (4) Mitety rakibolana ary manampy teny tsy fahita matetika. Mahaliana anao ve ny etimôlôjia? Am-pianarana teny vaovao ve ianao? Misy ao amin’i Wikibolana ve ireo teny ireo? Aza misalasala fa ampio ireo teny ireo. Atao am-panajana zom-pamorona foana izany. Azo heverina hoe asan’ny tena ny fakana teny maro avy amin’ny rakibolana maromaro, fa aza mandikadika foana ny famaritan-teny. Nanao izany aho ary saika voatory noho ny fitarainan’ny tompon’asa. Raha havanana amin’ny haranitan-tsaina voatrolombelona (AI) sy fahaiza-manodina teny voajanahary ianao dia manorata fandaharana mandika fehezanteny.
    Mahery ny fandaharana. Betsaka ny fotoana ilaina amin’ny fanoratana fandaharana tsara, ka tsy vonona ny hianatra izany ny ankamaroan’ireo mpandray anjara, ka inna ny atao?
    (5) Manorata amin’ny Wikibolana amin’ny teny nibeazanao. Raha atokantsika ny teny angisy dia soratana anaty fiteny 170 ny Wikibolana. Betsaka amin’ireo no manam-pejy latsaky ny iray hetsy. Vokatry ny finiavako ny hamorona ny rakibolana lehibe indrindra amin’ny teny malagasy ny haben’i Wikibolana malagasy amin’izao fotoana. Raha tsy teny anglisy no eny nibeazanao, dia mianara teny vahiny ary ampio ny teny ampiasainy, na ao amin’ny Wikibolana na aiza na aiza. Raha tsy mahaliana ana ny fianarana teny vahiny dia ampio ireo tenin-jatovo tsy mbola hita amin’ny teny nibeazanao.

  • Five ways to enrich Wiktionary

    Since 2010, I’ve been contributing to the Malagasy Wiktionary.
    It has become a habit now: every month, every week, every day, and almost every morning and evening, I turn on the web browser to check what’s going on on Wiktionary, and what I can do to add further content.
    Some days, I get so interested in adding some pieces of information that I feel like writing a program to add it in the next hours.
    And some days, I don’t feel like contributing, and them I’m just looking at the recent changes to check if pages have been vandalised in my absence, or if some pages have been fixed by other users.
    Still there are several ways to contribute to Wiktionary. Here are five of them:
    (1) Write pages manually. This is the most basic yet most tedious work to do. This is how everyone start, and this will is how most of us will contribute probably for the next 30 years. In 2045, Wiktionary or even Wikipedia in its current form will probably become obsolete or be self-editing.
    Before this happens, you’ve got to put in a lot of work. Still, you can increase your efficiency by learning to write code, then:
    (2) Write a program that writes pages that you may need to fix. Simple, since the last three years, I’ve been concentrating on how to do this. But as time passes a lot of pages get created, and even with a lot rate of error, you end up with thousands of pages of potentially wrong information. OK, but you also end up with even more pages with correct information. Coupled with synonyms dictionary and advanced NLP you can have it write definitions of words that can’t be translated directly to the target language.
    (3) Write a program that reads newspapers to find the words to be created. With a very complete dictionary it gets difficult to find missing words. You won’t have the will to read dozens of newspaper articles every day, so have a program read them for you and find all missing words for you. After that, write a program to detect all compound words and add them to the Wiktionary if you feel like it. The next-level of this kind program would be an almost-real-time word scraper which analyses text flow for e.g. Twitter and lists all missing words at the end of the day.
    Learning to code is one thing, but adding information and know what piece of information to add are two different things. Whenever you have an idea, or interesting lexicographic datasets under your eyes, get to code and add those bits of information to the Wiktionary. Do so in compliance with copyright laws.
    (4) Navigate through dictionaries and add exotic words. Passionate about word etymology? Are you learning a language? Do the words not exist in Wiktionary? Feel free to add them. Always do so in compliance with copyright laws. Compiling several dictionaries and definitions may be attributed as original work but never do verbatim copy of word definitions. I did this one time and almost get sued because of a complaint of a copyright owner. If you feel you’re good enough in AI and NLP, write a program to reformulate and translate the sentences.
    Code is strong, code is powerful. It requires a lot of time to write good one. It requires a lot of time to become good at coding, and not everyone feels like learning it. So what to do?
    (5) Contribute to your native language Wiktionary. English put apart, Wiktionary is written in 170 different languages. A huge number of them have below 100,000 pages. Malagasy, my native tongue, has 3.75 million only thanks to my efforts in trying to create the biggest dictionary in Malagasy that has ever existed. If your native language is English, get interested in other languages and add new words in them, be it at the English Wiktionary or elsewhere. What, you are not passionate about languages? Add obscure English slang terms then.