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And a SxS comparison of how much difference Nastaliq makes to readability !! (Article from Jang)

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Since I can't force people to adopt better standards, so instead I did the next best thing. A web extension that renders Urdu in Nastaliq so that you can have a consistent, beautiful font across all pages.

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However a lack of adoption of standard web practices and standards by Urdu developers means that a vast number of Urdu websites are rendered in some form of Naskh instead of Nastaliq

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The Urdu on the internet, however, is... not. It's written generally in Naskh, that looks like this (cc: @bbcurdu.bsky.social). This isn't because fonts aren't available. We have had urdu fonts since the 80s with Noori Nastaliq. The contemporary font space includes fonts like Mehr, Noto and Gulzar

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I can read Urdu that is on the internet, but the experience is jarring. The Urdu I encounter every day in newspapers, on signs, is written beautifully in Nastaliq:

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🚨 I am functionally iliterate when it comes to Urdu on the internet. So I made a couple of web extensions to render Urdu text into Nastaliq, to help readability For Chrome: chromewebstore.google.com/detail/osama... and Firefox: addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo...

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chromewebstore.google.com

You can download it for Chrome here: chromewebstore.google.com/detail/osama... and for Firefox here: addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo...

Osama's Word Saver - Chrome Web Store

Language Learning Tool. Instantly translate any word to English. Supports 100+ languages.

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Word Saver: An Illustrative Demo

And because I enjoy making videos, I made a short video demoing the functionality and the problem it solves. 3/n www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2B-...

youtube.com

YouTube video by Osama Khalid

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Problem: Everytime I come across a word in my L2 that I don't know, I find myself copy-pasting it into a translator and it breaks my reading flow. Solution: A tool that can instantly translate a selected word to my L1 using a keyboard shortcut, and it tracks of all the new words I look up. 2/n

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Word Saver: An Illustrative Demo (Short)

🚨 Weekend Project: I finally finished a small project I've been working on. A web extension to solve my personal language learning problem! www.youtube.com/shorts/XsAdZ... 1/n

youtube.com

YouTube video by Osama Khalid

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Reposted by Osama Khalid

ProPublica @propublica.org · 26/07/2025

ProPublica spoke to about 150 people who had lived in homeless encampments when cities cleared them out in “sweeps.” We distributed notecards so people could tell us about the toll in their own words. ➡️ This is what they wrote: projects.propublica.org/impact-of-ho...

Handwritten notecard. Prompt at the top asks: What object was most devastating for you to lose, and how have you been coping? Answer below: Dentures. Were thrown away and coping isn't somthing I can do. It’s made me feel ugly, unworthy, can’t go get a job with no teeth. So how can get off the streets until another pair can be made?

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Osama Khalid @osamakhalid.bsky.social · 23/07/2025

"When the public discourse focuses on whether chatbots have consciousness, we're not talking about documented harms like privacy violations, algorithmic bias... The fake risk of sentient AI provides perfect cover for ignoring real risks that affect real people today" www.readtpa.com/p/stop-prete...

readtpa.com

Stop Pretending Chatbots Have Feelings: Media's Dangerous AI Anthropomorphism Problem

When AI causes harm, headlines blame the bot instead of the billion-dollar companies that built them. This anthropomorphic coverage is tech journalism at its worst.

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Osama Khalid @osamakhalid.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

Swahili’s long history as a ‘language on the road’ has traversed 19th-century trade routes, entered 20th-century classrooms, carried Julius Nyerere on his political ‘safaris’, and forged connections across Africa. www.historytoday.com/archive/behi...

historytoday.com

Swahili on the Road

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References 1. ai.meta.com/research/no-... 2. onlinebooksoutlet.com/products/roa... 3. huggingface.co/hexgrad/Koko...

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Over the weekend, I digitized and OCRed parts of it and then used Kokoro TTS [3] to generate an audiobook. This is a proof of concept—not intended to be perfect, but rather an attempt to probe the limits of TTS in Urdu. 3/3

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Once upon a time my friend, Abdullah gave me a copy of Roald Dahl's Boy that his mom had translated into Urdu [2]. 2/3

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