Hari's Corner

My apologies for the lack of update. Since my laptop has gone for one of its (now) routine service visits, I couldn't access the file to upload.

Will definitely update this week if possible if I get it back on time.

Because my laptop has decided to take a hike again. I was sorely tempted to give up the struggle on the previous occasion but decided that buying a new laptop was not a decision to be lightly taken.

I truly believed that the issue was resolved last time, but within a month of getting it fixed, it has developed the exact same problem. While I appreciate the extended warranty, my gratitude is starting to wear thin as I keep getting the motherboard issue over and over again. It leads me to believe that the service replacement parts are sub-par in order to cut costs.

Actually I'm trying hard not to swear right now as I type this. For shame, HP. I'll never buy your crappy laptops again.

Social networking has always alternatively fascinated and amused me. Fascinated, because I always wonder how such sites manage to attract so much traffic and get so many millions of people to waste an incredible amount of time when they could be productive in a hundred other ways. And it has amused me equally for the same reasons. Because I can see that posting status updates on Facebook or Twitter can be extremely addictive, giving one a false sense of importance altogether and boosting egos with the number of "friends" and "followers" one gathers.

I actually don't mind the technology so much. It's how people use it that has got me wondering whether it actually is serving any purpose at all. I guess a lot of people have incredible amounts of free time to key in several updates in the middle of a busy day. What's more, most of these updates are self-centered and self-absorbed. Not many people seem even remotely interested in what the other person is saying. Rather, it feels like a bunch of people standing around in a public park and talking aloud at the same time and not paying the least attention to the others. Multiply that by a hundred thousand and you get the idea of online social networking. Communication is one-sided and trivialized. I think that's what Twitter and other social networking sites have encouraged: trivialization. The 140 character limit of Twitter is a sign of that. The focus has entirely shifted from the message to the medium.

There's nothing really special about Twitter or any other social networking medium. Most people would realize this after they got over their initial enthusiasm for something new or different. Good old (!) e-mail has always served its purpose and is an extremely robust medium of communication, being decentralized, standards-compliant, open and available to all. You aren't tied down to a single provider either. Most importantly e-mail is personal and private. I wonder why people suddenly think that's no longer a useful attribute of communication. It's been ages since I received a single (non-spam/non-automated) e-mail from anybody and what's more, I find it more and more difficult to get people to respond by e-mail. Maybe I should get out a piece of paper and pen and start writing letters instead and see where that takes me.

As usual, published a little ahead of schedule. Enjoy!

I've finally created my own font, using my scanned handwriting as reference. Obviously there are a few issues like spacing between glyphs that need to be refined, but otherwise I'm quite satisfied with the results. It's not pro quality, but then I'm not looking for customers.

I used the excellent FontForge tool to create this.

It just occurred to me that I might have to re-letter my comics with my own font or a Free/Open Source font if I intend to publish it later as a book. Although this is rather an ambitious plan at this stage, I do think that "The Legalease" has the potential to grow into something big.

Currently I am using freeware font "DigitalStrip" available at Blambot, but the license is somewhat restrictive regarding commercial usage. I know that the license permits independent/small-time publishers to use them for profit without a license fee, but I'd rather use something that is compliant with Free Software guidelines.

Rather than worry about the license and royalty issues at a later stage, I thought why not re-letter them right now, when I haven't yet reached 10 episodes?

So if anybody can suggest any Free/Open Source comic-type font which will suit my purposes, let me know. Otherwise, I'll have to open up FontForge and see what I can whip up.