ZITT PREP

My people...Sannu!  Consider this Page One of the first volume we are about to write.

Please note that while this page is somewhat tempororary, the information therein is sound enough for you to proceed.


Zitt Group
Group Coordinator Identified All Group Members Identified Member Locations Identified
 Member Emails Submitted
 SourceForge Acounts Obtained
 Basic Language Information  Up
 		Alphabet Submitted Ready to Roll
GONG




YES

GWOROK YES


YES
 		YES

HYAM




YES
 		YES
JJU YES


YES
 		YES
 		YES
KORO
 		YES
 		YES
 		YES




TYAP
 YES
 YES
 YES
 		YES
 		YES
 		YES
 YES
 YES









ZITT LANGUAGE ALPHABETS ONLINE:
GONG
GWOROK
HYAM
JJU
KORO
TYAP



<<<>>>

EXPLANATION

<<<>>>

Below is an explanation of exactly what is required of each zitt group and/or member before official translation work can begin.  Group coordinators, the task of making sure that all of the requirements listed above are fulfilled falls on your shoulders.  Distribute the work as you see fit.

QUESTION/ISSUE
 REQUIRED RESPONSE
Group Coordinator Identified
 		State the name of the group leader.
Group Members Identified
 		Give the name of each group member.
Member Locations Identified
 Give the location for each group member identified.
Member Emails Submitted
 		List the email addresses of each group member.
SourceForge Accounts Obtained
 		While everyone is encouraged to sign up for a SourceForge account, group coordinators MUST sign up for accounts.

Click here for more on passwords and here for new SourceForge account signup help
Basic Language Info Up
 		Provide basic information about your group that will go on the main page.  See the table on the main page for the required information.
Alphabet Submitted
 		Submit an alphabet for your language...this is really important...click here for more details.  
Ready to Roll
 		Yes, once all of the above are taken care of.



<<<>>>

THE ALPHABET: What's Necessary

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What do you need to in order to see your language correctly displayed on your monitor?  Any and all characters that your language uses.  Read on for more.

Click on the link on the right to see a Jju text sample online.  Notice that in addition to letters/characters like 'k', 'b' and 'y',  Jju also makes use of the underlined 'a' as well as a character resembling an apostrophe ( ' ) but longer, like an exclamation point ( ! ) but without the full stop at the bottom.  All such characters must be included in your alphabet.  What else does Jju require?  What does your language require?
 Click here for online Jju text sample
On the right is a sample that you can follow in submitting your alphabet.  I used Igbo as an example since I know it best.

Notice that this sample of text is submitted as a picture file (in this case with the "gif" file extension.  This is to ensure that we all see the same thing, regardless of font used.  (By the way, which fonts are suitable for the 6 zitt?  We won't know that until all the alphabets are in.)

The gif shows 12 lines of text, each numbered from 1 - 12.  As you read, bear in mind the standard English (Roman) alphabet containing 26 letters/characters from A to Z, since modern Igbo orthography is based on it:
 
1. Lists all uppercase Igbo letters that are also used in English.
 
2. Lists all lowercase Igbo letters that are also used in English.
 
3. Lists the English letters (both upper and lowercase) that are NOT used in Igbo.
 
4. Lists four Igbo consonants that require two English characters in English.
 
5. Lists five Igbo vowels.
 
6. Lists (in both upper and lowercase) the four Igbo characters that require diacritical markings.

7 - 12. These six lines give examples of Igbo words with diacritical markings. My point in putting in these examples is to show which diacritical markings Igbo (a tonal language) requires in order to for one to show the tones in Igbo. In Yoruba, tonal markings are the norm, whereas in Igbo, tones are mostly only marked in language textbooks, dictionaries, etc.

Not clear to you?  Don't worry, send me an email.

 igbo orthography








<<<>>>

A LITTLE BIT ON PASSWORDS AND SECURITY

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It is important to be security-conscious when dealing with passwords.  Below are some useful tips:

Don't give out your passwords or write them down.  Keep them in one place and one place only, your head.

You may recall one of Bob Marley's songs entitled Who the Cap Fit.  Well, that song contains the  following lyrics:  "only your friend know your secrets, so only he could reveal it." Generally speaking, if you really don't want anybody to know a particular something, never tell that something to anyone.  (Now if you talk in your sleep that's another wahala in and of itself.)

Select passwords that are no less than 8 characters in length.

Imagine I have to guess a number between 1 and 10.  It wouldn't take long before I get it, even if it means cycling through all 10 numbers.  But what if I have to guess a number between 1 and 1000?  Obviously, the brute force method will take much longer than it did previously.  The idea is to make the password difficult to arrive at.

Passwords should be a combination of letters and numbers.

Why?  Let's go back to the brute force method.  If you pick an easy password, like something straight out of a dictionary, a program making use of a dictionary will crack your passcode in a hurry.  Examples of bad passwords:

angel

password

feline

f1rst

tom

Not only are they short, they provide very little challenge to a password-cracking program.  A much better password would be something like this: y6T9qF61i4uM7.

Passwords may also include punctuation and special characters.

; # @ & - these and others like them should be okay to use in your passwords.

Passwords are case-sensitive.

That means that "HeX", "hEx" and "heX" are NOT equivalent.

Make it difficult for a would-be thief.

Imagine that you have a 3-letter password with only lowecase letters:  _ _ _.  Then at each position, there are 26 possibilities (i.e. the letters a - z).  If you were to mix it up some more, i.e. use uppercase (A - Z) and lowercase letters, then the number of options for each position is doubled, i.e. 26 for the uppercase + 26 for the lowercase. 

Now what if you add numbers?  Then the options for each of the 3 characters of your passwords increases to 66.  And what if you were to add special characters?  What if you were dealing with 8 such characters as opposed to 3?

Do you see where I'm going?  You don't want to make it easy, but not so difficult that you yourself can't remember, which brings us to "algorithms".

Suggestion: Set up a system of password selection and remembrance, if you will...Let's call it an algorithm.

Let me say from the very beginning that patterns, which is what you more or less have when you use an algorithm, are undesirable.  But without one, you may find it difficult to remember your password.

Let's say you select your passwords by concatenating together some type of bird + dog + hausa, then you'd know that that is the pattern your passwords take so should your memory trouble you, that would privately clue you into how to think about your password...so your password might be "piDgEOncHIWawabiNci", which is not bad, but it has no numbers.   The same applies to "dovEprAiriEAbOki".  So not only would you have to keep in mind where your password has capital letters, you'd also have to do the same for numbers.

Passwords should be changed from time to time, as doing so improves security.  But it also helps you forget, which is why using an algorithm is helpful.  But of course while an algorithm helps you remember, it's a pattern, which is what you don't want.  So don't tell anybody your algorithm...have more than one algorithm...make your algorithms complex...etc.

Algorithms will help train your mind (at least it does mine) to produce and remember more complex passwords...which is the ideal condition.  So I guess perfection would be to have an algorithm that can produce a password like Ii3sw#p8g0@ck23Gi;o04r. But of course that won't happen overnight.




<<<>>>   SourceForge Account Signup Help   <<<>>>

Can't seem to find success signing up at SourceForge?  This section is for you.
SourceForge accounts are free.  You can pay for additional benefits but it isn't necessary...the real winner (imho) is being part of, and active in, a project.
 
Just to be clear...let's say I have the following email address - nzogbu@ntikpia.com:

When I am asked for a username (same as login name), I decide to use my imagination...but no need, I had already done that when I chose my email address...so I submit my username as nzogbu.  As far I can tell, usernames are NOT case-sensitive, so "Nzogbo", "nzogbu" and "nzoGBu" are NOT three different things.  Expect your username to be in all lowercase letters, i.e. "nzogbu".  (It is your displayed name that is case sensitve.  So if you submit your name in all caps, so it will appear.)

Make sure your username starts with a letter.  Your username may contains numbers, dashes ( - ) and underscores ( _ ).  So "fumilayo", "Titilayo", "Jju-delicious", "okiti-wondafulu", "osisi_na-ami_ego" should be fine while "_fumi", "8to8" and "4everJju" will never make it through...I believe SourceForge will tell you where you're going wrong via email.
 
So to recap and clarify, "nzogbu" is my chosen username, not "nzogbu@ntikpia.com".  But nzogbu@ntikpia.com is the email address I submitted...you will be asked for an email address...this is how SourceForge will communicate with you.
 
You will be given an email alias...in my case it is nzogbu@users.sourceforge.net.  I cannot log into that email account...rather it is like a forwarding service...any mail sent to nzogbu@users.sourceforge.net will be redirected to nzogbu@ntikpia.com, because that is the email address I gave to SourceForge at signup.  It is important that you always make sure that the email addy your SourceForge alias is associated with is always current...otherwise mail will bounce and you will be out of the loop.  You can always change this by logging into your SourceForge user account.
 
You will have to submit your "real name"...make sure that you use your real name when asked for it...I think you actually would have to contact SourceForge help staff in order to have it changed.  What you can readily change is your publicly displayed name.  You can display just your first name or your full name or whatever you want...this is up to you...people do different things...I just put in my first name.




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