Avro came to give freedom to write Bengali on the Internet
At that time, a high school student, programmer Mehdi Hasan Khan released the Unicode-based Bengali writing program Avro on March 26, 2003, the Great Independence Day. This small program starts writing Bengali directly to e-mail and various websites. Initially, many users received Avro via e-mail.
Mehdi has been doing computer programming since he was studying in Class IX at Dhaka’s Ideal School and College. In 2001, he passed secondary school and was admitted to Notre Dame College. In an interview with Prothom Alo in 2018, Mehdi Hasan Khan said that in February 2003, he went to the Ekushe Book Fair of Bangla Academy and one day saw the stall of Bangla Innovation through Open Source – Bios. Mehdi said, ‘I saw the first Bengali website without “adulteration” in that stall. I also saw Bengali writing in unicode. They also saw a whole operating system called Unibangla. But it’s for Linux.’ Back home, Mehdi took down their open type font. But saw it is for Bengali Linux. Bengali should be written by clicking on the character chart with the mouse. Not available for popular operating systems Windows. So he thought of creating Bengali writing program himself.
Using the popular programming language of that time, Visual Basic, he wrote Unicode-based Bengali software, which will work on Windows. On March 26, 2003, he released the software called Avro. Mehdi likes the word Avro after checking the dictionary. Avro means sky. Unicode, as well as being free to use. So Mehdi chose the synonym of sky. Mehdi also published a website so that everyone can collect avro directly from the internet. Its name is omicronlab.com. He took the name Omicron from Muhammad Zafar Iqbal’s book ‘Omicronic Transformation’.
The first version of Avro had the Vijay Bangla keyboard layout for typing. Mehdi himself made Avro Easy to type Bengali easily without memorizing the keyboard. It was the era of online forums. So a forum was opened on Omicron’s website. Avro was joined by Rifat Un Nabi, Tanbin Islam, Shabab Mustafa, Omar Osman—and later Sarim Khan. They all started working for Abra as volunteers.
Avro is gradually joined by Avro Easy, National, Prabha, Munir Optima, Uni Vijay (since 2011 it is missing) Bengali keyboard layout. Currently version 5.6.0 of Avro can be downloaded from Omicron’s website. It is still free to use. Avro’s slogan is, ‘Language should be open.’
Mobile transaction service cash launched
One of the most popular mobile transaction service cash operations in the country. On March 26, 2019, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the cash at Ganabhaban in the capital. The Prime Minister’s account is opened using Electronic KYC (Know Your Customer), which was recently introduced by Nadg. In the inauguration ceremony, the Prime Minister opened his account in cash by paying Tk 10,000 in cash. From that account, he sent that 10,000 taka (send money) as cash to the then Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, Mustafa Jabbar.
Reminiscing that time, Mustafa Jabbar told Prothom Alo, ‘I had an account in cash before doing the E-KYC check to create cash customers. The Hon’ble Prime Minister brought his handbag from the second floor of Gana Bhavan to open his own account. From there, he handed over 10,000 taka to cash officers. When the account was opened, he accepted and sent the money as my cash. That money is still stored as my cash.’
Jahidul Islam, Head of Media and Communication of Naqd, told Prothom Alo that Prime Minister gave 20 notes of 500 taka to Naqd’s founder and CEO Tanveer A Mishuk as ad money to open the account on the day of inauguration. Tanveer A Mishuk still keeps those notes as a memento of the first transaction.
Bangladesh Postal Department has a stake in cash. According to the agreement with the postal department, the private company Naqd Limited is managing the cash. From the beginning till now, 51 percent of the total income of this cash is received by the postal department and 49 percent by cash limited. Now the number of registered customers in Naq is more than 9 crores. More than 1,350 crore rupees are transacted daily through cash. Cash is the first to launch ‘e-KYC’ account opening by scanning the digital national identity card through the app.
Google’s first doodle about Bangladesh published
Google, the largest website for finding information on the Internet, has published a doodle for the first time on the subject of Bangladesh. Google changes its logo on special days for various reasons. It is known as Google Doodle. In the first hours of the great independence day of 2013, Google Doodle about Bangladesh was published. In that doodle, a family can be seen walking along a field holding the red-green flag of Bangladesh. When the mouse clicks on the doodle, the text ‘Bangladesh Independence Day 2013’ appears in English.
Larry Page Born
Lawrence (Larry) Edward Page American businessman, computer scientist, Internet entrepreneur and co-founder of Google was born in San Francisco, California. He is best known for co-founding Google with Sergey Brin. He was the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Google from 1997 to 2001. He left the post of CEO to another Google founder, Eric Schmidt. Later, when Alphabet Inc. was formed as the parent company of Google, he served as the CEO of Alphabet from April 2011 to July 2015.
Larry Page’s net worth is $12,500 million as of March, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. And according to Forbes magazine, his wealth is 12 thousand 280 million dollars. Larry Page is currently ranked ninth in the world’s richest people list. He has invested in two flying car startups, Kitty Hawk and Opener. Larry Page, a graduate of the University of Michigan and a graduate of Stanford University, is the co-author of PageRank, Google’s search ranking algorithm.
HP’s David Packard dies
David Packard, co-founder of computer maker Hewlett-Packard (HP), has died after several weeks of illness. He founded HP in a garage in Palo Alto with Stanford University teammate William (Bill) Hewlett. HP’s development later became known as Silicon Valley. HP’s first product was an oscillator. This device was used in Disney’s popular film Fantasia. Since then HP has been a trusted name in the manufacture of personal computers, laser printers, calculators, accessories and laboratory equipment. Born on September 7, 1912 in Colorado. From 1969 to 1971, David Packard served as Deputy Secretary of Defense in the administration of then US President Richard Nixon.
Melissa virus spread worldwide in one hour
Melissa virus spread in computers worldwide in one hour via e-mail. It is considered to be one of the fastest spreading viruses in the history of viruses. Melissa was only active for five days after the outbreak. 100,000 computers were infected. Melissa hit the e-mail systems of large corporate organizations such as Intel and Lockheed Martin, and the organizations were forced to shut down their e-mail systems. Melissa’s targets were all computers running Microsoft Word and Outlook Express e-mail software. Melissa was bombarded with e-mails containing urgent messages. After opening the e-mail and clicking on its list.dot attachment, the computer was infected with Melissa.