Semicolon Backyard

A lot of Mac users have been asking about how to use Dhivehi on their Mac’s. It maybe easy to set it up on Windows, but as for Mac its a little bit of work. Since we have been using this for a while, we thought it would be good to share it with everyone.

Following is a simple guide on how to setup Dhivehi on OSX Mountain Lion (10.8) or OSX Lion (10.7).

1 – Download & Install  ”Dhivehi Font & Keyboard Installer“.

2 – Go to System Preferences. Open Language & Text.

7 – Go to Input Sources. Type “Dhivehi” in search box at the bottom of the window. Tick “Dhivehi – Phonetic” within search results (as shown below) and close the window. ( If you dont see “Dhivehi – Phonetic”, try installing the downloaded file again. )

7 – Finally you are done. To switch between English / Thaana Keyboard layouts try the shortcut on the menu bar between power and sound icons. You can aslo use the keyboard shortcut (Control + Space).

 

To Microsoft Office users: 
There is not support for RTL languages on Office for Mac. You may need to use OpenOffice or any other word processing application which supports RTL to use thaana script.

Included Thaana fonts:

• Aa_Randhoo T - (This font was edited by Abdulla Waheed.  Defined by Hassan Hameed.  Thanks to Hassan Shujau.   Key remapping and editing restricted.  This version is dated 30th August 1995.)
• Aammu FalaRasmee - (Written by Abdulla Waheed;  Edited by Hassan Hameed;  Managed by Hassan Shujau.  Copyright, 1995.  Modification restricted without written permission.)
• Aammu FalaThedhu - (Created by Hassan Shujau and Ibrahim Waheed, Office of the President.  Assisted by Hassan Hameed.  All rights reserved.  Modification not allowed without written permission.  Copyright, 1995.)
• Aammu Hima Thedhu (Rasmee Kudhi is  CopyRight (c) 1994,  Created by Hassan Hameed with Hassan Shujau. All rights reserved)
• AKKO - (Unknown)
• Mv GroupX Avas Akuru  - (M.A.Gadir & Sappe)
• A_Bismillah - ((C) Copyright, May 1997.  Hassan Hameed.  Modification without permission is not allowed.  Please collect new and attractive Bismillah for future revisions.)
• MV Boli - (Digitized data © 2000-2001, Agfa Monotype Corporation. All rights reserved.)
• Mv Eamaan XP - (Developed by Aminath Eamaan)
• Mv Elaaf Lite - (M.A.Gadir for Sehga Soft. Tel 31 33 99)
• Mv Elaaf Normal - (M.A.Gadir for Sehga Soft. Tel 31 33 99)
• Faruma - (Created by Ibrahim Yasir,Calligraphy by Musthafa Mohamed, Assisted by Ahmed Asif. The President’s Office 2002. All rights reserved)
• A_Faseyha - (Calligraphy:  Abdulla Waheed, Office of the President;  Managed by Hassan Shujau;  Edited by Hassan Hameed;  November 1995;  All rights reserved.  Based on the 1968 Viyafaari Miadhu Aharee Number.)
• A_Ilham - (A_Ilham was initially started by Ilham as a GCE OL Project.  Completely revised by Hassan Hameed.  Calligraphy from Dhuroosul Akhlaaq.  Font remapping is not allowed.  Copyright 1996)
• Mv Iyyu Formal - (Design & Developed by M.A.Gadir. Helping you to communicate better. For comments contact : 7770770   Ver: August 2005)
• Mv Iyyu Nala - (M.A.Gadir for Sehga Soft. Tel 31 33 99)
• Mv Iyyu Normal - (M.A.Gadir for Sehga Soft. Tel 31 33 99)
• Mv Lady Luck - (M.A.Gadir, Sehga Soft. Tel : 31 33 99)
• Mv MAG Round Hollow Bold - (Gadir for Sehga Soft)
• Mv MAG Round Extra Bold - (Gadir for Sehga Soft)
• Mv MAG Round Bold - (Gadir for Sehga Soft)
• A_Raadhavalhi B - (Raadhavalhi is a modification of the script in the Radhavalhi published by Literary Council in 1979 and the Hebrew Miriam font.  Created by Hassan Hameed, August 1995.  Emphasis on readability for those used to normal fonts.  Bold version is a “hand)
• Raadhavalhi P - (Raadhavalhi is a modification of the script in the Radhavalhi published by Literary Council in 1979 and the Hebrew Miriam font.  Created by Hassan Hameed, August 1995.  Emphasis on readability for those used to normal fonts.)
• Raadhavalhi FP - (Raadhavalhi is a modification of the script in the Radhavalhi published by Literary Council in 1979 and the Hebrew Miriam font.  Created by Hassan Hameed, August 1995.  Emphasis on readability for those used to normal fonts.  Bold version is a “hand)
• MV Raadhavalhi - (Iruveli © 2010. All thaana glyphs used in this font have been borrowed from the A_Raadhavalhi font created by Hassan Hameed in August 1995. )
• Mv Radhun (Developed by M.A.Gadir in relation with Hassan Saeed and Abdulla Waheed  of Presidents Office. March 2005)
• Aa_Randhoo P - (This font is edited by Abdulla Waheed.  Defined by Hassan Hameed.  Thanks to Hassan Shujau.   Key remapping and editing restricted.  This version is dated 30th August 1995.)
• A_Randhoo - (This font is edited by Abdulla Waheed.  Defined by Hassan Hameed.  Thanks to Hassan Shujau.   Key remapping and editing restricted.  This version is dated 30th August 1995.)
• A_Reethi – (Calligraphy by Abdul Sattar , Abdulla Waheed , Musthafa Mohamed , Created by Ibrahim Yasir , Assisted by Ahmed Asif. Office of the President 2002. Key remapping & editing restricted)
• Mv Sehga Fubaru Fancy – (M.A.Gadir for Sehga Soft. Tel 31 33 99 )
• Thaana Unicode Akeh - ((C) 2000 Maldivian Internet Task Force. All fonts were created by the task force, only free and public domain fonts without any restricts were used to fill the gaps. Thaana Unicode Akeh . MITF Project Thaana.)
• Thaana   Bold Bold - (Unknown)
• Thaana Bold – (Unknown)
• Utheem P – (Created by Hassan Shujau and Hassan Hameed.  Key remapping and editing restricted. Calligraphy: Abdulla Waheed.  1995)
• A_Utheem – (Created by Hassan Shujau and Hassan Hameed.  Key remapping and editing restricted. Calligraphy: Abdulla Waheed.  1995)
• Waheed P - (Named after the Calligrapher, Mr Abdulla Waheed of the Office of the President.   Created by Hassan Shujau and Hassan Hameed.  Key remapping and editing restricted.  This version is dated 2nd January 1996.)
• A_Waheed - (Named after the Calligrapher, Mr Abdulla Waheed of the Office of the President.   Created by Hassan Shujau and Hassan Hameed.  Key remapping and editing restricted.  This version is dated 2nd January 1996.)

The Job

Beginning from a humble clinic which opened in 1987, ADK Hospital has grown to become the largest private hospital in the Maldives. As the first private hospital in the Maldives, ADK Hospital revolutionized health care and medical services in the country by setting high standards in the sector and by complementing the public health service and government hospital.

ADK Hospital commissioned the development of a modern website to Semicolon as a full-service project providing expert advisory, design and development services.

 

Bringing hospital information to your fingertips

From the get-go we focused on creating an effective web strategy for ADK Hospital.

Focus services on the project;

1. Online strategy
2. User research
3. Information architecture
4. Visual design and branding
5. Usability testing
6. Content strategy
7. Custom content management system
8. Web development

Aim: To improve access to hospital information through a comprehensive web design!

 

Key features

We wanted to bring out user-centric information to the forefront, seeking to strengthen existing customer service via a powerful yet simple and easy to use interface.

Part of this was achieved through the use of a quicklinks widget that is placed very prominently on the homepage and repeated on other major pages. The widget provides access to all common user tasks easily.

Duty schedule

Enables users to find what the duty schedules are for the doctors at the hospital, recording and updating changes to their schedules in real time. The schedule can be checked either by doctor, department, different for multiple dates, their status’ or room they will be seeing patients at.

Doctor search and index

The doctors directory allows users to search for doctors by name, department, specialty or qualifications. And, individual doctor pages allows user to view doctor details, their schedules, other members in their respective departments’, or simply request an appointment to the doctor directly.

Request appointment

The features allows users to request a booking for an appointment for your preferred date and doctor. Appointments can be requested directly on the homepage widget or direct from doctor profiles.

 

Find places within the hospital

Custom built map feature included as an interactive map to the hospital, allows users to be able to easily locate a certain room, counter or simply navigate the corridors of the hospital ease and without confusion.

 

Lookup memo

Feature allows users to check the latest token number and check the room the appointment is at. It also allows to see where the room is on the map and see which doctor the appointment is with.

 

 

Patient handbook

The Patient Handbook lets all you need to know as a prospective patient, a patient, a friend or family member of a patient, or a visitor. It provides further information about the facilities, services, hospital rules and patient rights.

 

Apply for jobs

The feature allows for the hospital to announce available vacancies and lets prospective job seekers apply for the jobs directly online.

TeamTalk, ADK Hospital’s online blog/magazine

Section features articles with latest news, tips, and updates written by doctors and hospital staff.

 

Responsive UI design – Making the site accessible from all devices.

To make sure the website was accessible to users on computers, tablets and smartphones we utilized Responsive Web Design techniques. This provides an optimal viewing experience – easy reading, navigation and functionality with a minimum of re-sizing  panning, and scrolling – regardless of the device type used for access.

 

Client Feedback

Upon delivery of the finished website, the management at ADK Hospital was very satisfied with what was achieved for the project. The Managing Director of the hospital, Mohamed Afaal commented:

“The current ADK Hospital website, developed by Semicolon, is one of the most informative and user friendly websites in the health sector of Maldives. It has been a great achievement to the Hospital this website was developed by a great team within Semicolon Pvt. Ltd.”

“It has been a good experience in the process of development. The designers and developers had a very flexible attitude while considering the very details of a good website. Hence, the outcome, has so far received only positive feedback. I believe that features like a logical road-map with in its design where the navigation in quite easy. The aesthetics is also great giving a very soothing look while keeping the feel of care reflecting the work of the organization.”

“One of the greatest strength of the ADK Hospital website today is real time integration. This perhaps was the hardest bit of work during the design process, but tactful skills of the developers led us to have almost a perfect product. This feature in fact gives the user a great advantage over any other Hospital’s website in the country by having the chance to interact with the hospital.”

 

User Feedback

Since the launch of the website, we are highly encouraged by the positive reactions from users of the website. One user described the site as “clean, simple well featured and complete” while another user simply said, “loved it”!

 

Technologies used

The following technologies were utilized to the ADK Hospital website.

• HTML5
• Javascript (jQuery framework, ajax)
• Various Javascript utilities: List.js, OpenLayers (with custom widget),
• Twitter Bootstrap
• Responsive design through CSS media queries (supports 3 resolutions: large resolution TV/Monitor, tablets and smartphones)
• Custom CMS built using PHP / Yii Framework

 

ADK Hospital live site

http://www.adkhospital.com/

 

The Sea House Maldives  Instagram photo competition has moved into its final round today.

You can catch the entries for the “Final Round of Cybershot at Seahouse Deck” here

Please LIKE to VOTE for your favorite photo!

You can also check out the full entries for the competition at #CybershotSeahouse on your Instagram App. Alternatively you can check out all the entries here on the competition website.

The winner of the competiton will win a Sony Cybershot HX200V from REEFSIDE CO.PVT.LTD

Competition powered by Semicolon.

This follows from a little chat Hamid Shafeeu and I had last night. Hamid suggested that the vowel diacritics written on the bottom of the letters in Thaana, the “ibifili” and “eebeefili”, should be moved to the top to make the writing look cleaner (and other reasons he offered that I can’t remember now). Anyway, the move requires minor changes and should be pretty apparent and easy to learn.

I’ve altered the FDL licensed ”Thaana Unicode Akeh” font by “MITF” to bring the ibifili and eebeefili to the top and laterally inverted them to differentiate from the abafili and aabaafili vowel diacritics. The resulting font which I’ve called “ThireeFili”, is available for download below. The font is free and is released under the Free Documentation License which it’s ancestor follows.

I do not particularly like how the two new fili looks but I think moving the bottom diacritics to the top definitely brings a readability improvement. What are your thoughts?

- ThireeFili TrueType font (Thireefili.ttf) - 19.3 KB

This post was originally published in Jaa‘s own blog on July 28th 2012.

We originally made this font as part of a April Fool’s gag we were going to publish this year. The font is a very rough first draft, so please excuse the inconsistent stroke widths and jagged edges. We intended on cleaning it up and improving it but have not managed to get around to it so far. We do not still have a firm grasp of the script but the font we are presenting here should be a great start. As far as we are aware, this is the first publicly available Dhives font.

Dhives Akuru is the script used in the Maldives until it was replaced officially by Thaana as the official script for Dhivehi. It is reported that Dhives Akuru continued to be used in some atolls until 70 years ago despite Thaana being made the official script in the 18th century. Dhives is derived from Brahmi script and, unlike Thaana, is written left-to-right.  Details on how the use and functioning of the script is hard to find. Luckily we found a gold mine on Dhives Akuru in the paper “Preliminary Proposal to Encode Dhives Akuru in ISO/IEC 10646” authored by Anshuman Pandey in 2010. It is not entirely possible to write Dhives without changes to the font engine(s) to handle the various forms, conjuncts and combinations of vowels and consonants that the script requires. We would definitely say it is a more complicated script than Thaana. For a thorough introduction to Dhives, we would highly recommend reading paper by Pandey.

 

Use:

Using Dhives with the font is pretty straightforward. We have mapped the characters phonetically like the popular Thaana keyboard mapping. Except for the several scenarios involving conjuncts and combinations, it is just like writing Thaana (or so we believe!).

 

Preview:

 

License:

The font is being released under the very liberal MIT license, so feel free to use, modify and distribute.

 

Download:

Dhives.ttf (23.2 KB)

 

We are pleased to release Imsaak webapp for iphone and a beta version of Android app for users. Imsaak app allows you to view Prayer Times for Maldives for the month of Ramadan.

With the limited time we had, we were able to come up with a minimalistic design and very limited features for the app. Since its already Ramadan, we didn’t wanted to wait till Apple AppStore Reviews the app and release it. It takes a bit of time. So we have released a WebApp for iPhone/iPad. And as for Android, we still have plan to fix the bugs and release it to Play Market. But for now, try  downloading the APK of beta version. What we have here is what was done in few hours.

Android: Download Imsaak Beta APK

https://www.dropbox.com/s/57gqmjvtzri4qqo/imsaak-beta.apk

iPhone/iPad: 

Adding the Imsaak App to your iPhone/iPad’s homescreen.

1. Open your Safari web browser and type in “http://semicolon.com.mv/imsaak/”
2. Click the arrow looking icon at the bottom
3. Select the “Add to Home Screen” option
4. Enter a name and wait a few seconds for the Imsaak icon to show up
5. Click “Add” and you’re done!

Thanks to @2deadfish and @muhammadhu for the idea.
Thank you for trying this app and hope this is useful for you. Do give us your feedback.

 

#tunaeffect is a Maldivian twitter directory and a platform for Maldivian twitter users to come together as a community. Aimed at becoming the trend creator in the local twitters sphere.

A project by semicolon with a lot of dedication by our developers @reallynattu and @ajaaibu

#tunaeffect is Built on Twitter API for seamless integration and is compiling a  comprehensive directory of all Maldivian Twitter Users, Grouping them in categories and professions for easy browsing. Most of all Users can identify current local trends and engage in community discussion while following the Maldives timeline.

The web-service which was launched on 20:10 20.10.2010  is still scheduled for a lot of new feature upgrades. By looking at the Maldives twitter timeline we can fairly say that the project #tunaeffect is a success as we understand that lots of users have been anticipating such a service and likes the current version.

Visit and get your self listed in #tunaeffect now www.tunaeffect.com

May the auspicious occasion of Eid , bless you with peace and bring joy to your heart and home.

Hope Love & Laughter, warmth & wishes joy and a Bouquet of Eid Wishes, jublications become a part of your eid and your life….!
EID MUBARAK

With the advancement of Technology, today the front desk of any company has become the homepage of their website. Most customer services, press communications and service inquiry is now provided online. Thus the creation of a complete web solution with attractive functionalities has become mandatory in taking the lead and shine bright in this competitive market. With the recent re-branding of the Airline Division of Island Aviation Service as Maldivian, need for an advance web solution arises. The IAS Management opens a bid in search of a potential web development candidate.

Semicolon yet an infant as a company, expressed interest into the project and our small but experienced team started research on what we could provide. We explored dozens of other airline websites. Focusing on whats common, keeping an eye on what was uncommon we took an interest on what was unique and started work on a mock (the very beginning of the product maldivian.aero). We consulted with the re-branding team of the Maldivian to get an insight in to their concept. Created half a dozen user interface explored and fixed what they lack resulted an output of two very fine user interface designs.

In the meantime we were also working to build Semicolon’s first Proposal for web Development. Our aim was to provide IAS with a proposal to develop a solution beyond their vision but as realistic and practical. A solution not only with an eye catching user interface but with functions, components and modules to provide a resourceful online services. A solution that will embark Maldivian into a journey towards the new generation of Web. A solution that will be enable easy interaction with customers, agents and staffs. We succeeded in impressing the bid evaluation team, and was awarded the contract on 13th August 2009.

We met with team Maldivian.aero very frequently first was to give indepth explanation of the product as described in the proposal and to gather detailed software requirement later was to give development updates. We built a software requirement specifications which was agreed by both parties kick starting the Development Project of Maldivian.aero. Then followed continuous phases of development and sleepless nights to meet delivery deadlines powered by lots and lots of REDbull (disclaimer: Too many redbull is not good). We had two delivery schedules one with dates defined as in the agreement. Another Delivery schedule of our own with couple of days ahead of the agreed date. Our aim was to meet all deadlines before it reaches and deliver the product on schedule.

Maldivian.aero is developed with PHP and JavaScript programing language, CSS to tailor the interface design and utilized MYSQL as a database. We focused on simple graphics and pleasant color schemes with the looks and feels of Maldivian as an airline career. We also provided functionalities to enable content management with ease and user friendliness and easily manage static pages and articles. Site also includes functions to manage splash images and offers, integration into Maldivian Internet Booking Engine, Routemap with Destination info, fleet configurations, customized newletter system and Content for Maldives section and destinations.

We had a great collaborative assistance from team Maldivian but stumbled upon some unexpected hurdles which delayed product finalization. Collaboratively we conducted an extensive testing phase. The website was launched to public on a small event held at IAS head-office by Managing Director of Maldives Airports Company, Mr. Mohamed Ibrahim on 20th December 2009.

At the end of this post we would like to thank the team Maldivian for the collaborative assistance provided. Our team is grateful to work with IAS and look forward for working together in a near future.

Environmental issues and climate change has long been a hot and a scary topic for all Maldivians. Our vulnerable environment has been the most treasured gift of Nature. The white sandy beaches, the crystal clear blue lagoons, the beautiful reef gardens and colorful sea life is the only natural resource we have got.

Around 100 luxurious resorts in Maldives are today serving our visitors a leisures vacation getaway, romantic honey moon spot and a calm and peaceful environment. But what about tomorrow ? The human actions has been threatening our environment and we now fear begin submerged due to side effects of global warming and climatic change. A prompt action is immediately needed to save our nation and other low lying islands from submerging .

The climate change not only threatens us to the extinction but other social and much larger problems exists with climatic change. Such as scarcity of Food and irrigation, flooding, and like all Maldives millions of other people could end up as environmental refugees. In short there could be a huge impact in the lives of mankind.

As this is an urgent issue today we are raising our voice to leaders of the world to help save our nation. But we believe change doesn’t come from actions of one man. So semicolon team will unite with thousand of other bloggers around the globe to raise our voice on Blog Action Day 2009. As Maldivians we who are on the front-line to be impacted in this war we are stepping in to the front-line to call out for the CHANGE.

Ps : If you are a blogger please join the BLOG ACTION DAY 2009 http://blogactionday.org/ and raise your voice against climate change on 15^th October 2009