Dreamsmademe Blog

I have moved to WordPress

2008-07-28T14:16:00.002+05:30

It's been changing times. I learned blogging here but now for greater flexibility I have moved my blog to WordPress. So I will not be updating this Blogger Version anymore.

So here's the new Dreamsmademe Blog

Thank you!

For the moment, competition is cornered, finished, done, over!

2008-06-11T16:04:00.005+05:30

Apple unveiled new iPhone 3G. It was making everyone want to have one like yesterday. That's Steve's Apple marketing machine. News galore like no other mobile ever existed on earth before. Who's loosing, who's winning is too mach chaos to pick.

I love my Treo but there are reasons that everyone in the phone business should be worried, wet their pants, and get their plans sorted out how to stand a chance in this race right now.

Why?

Cos almost all iPhone competitors, For the moment, it's over, done, finished story. When Apple's marketing machine is on roll, everyone else is like a needle in a haystack.

Hail Ajax!

2008-05-06T10:37:00.004+05:30

Flash is still on the news!

It is strange that I am being a designer who has no knack for code but still loves the JavaScript (Ajax) way of doing web. So as I have discussed little earlier here Adobe's Flash has more back slash nowadays from various fronts. I hail this!

Read more here @ AppleInsider

Is iPhone Killing the Web ?

2008-04-13T20:05:00.005+05:30

In contrary to my early article here, there seems a different standpoint over the whole point of liberating the applications from the desktop.

As far as I am concern I like the portability, anyway there are pros and cons which leads to this debate. Interesting. Anyway I do not belong on either camps, whatever the best I will follow suite.

Full discussion goes on here @ PCWORLD

No Windows for Old Men

2008-04-03T09:55:00.003+05:30

I found this nice article over who is gonna take control of the future of computing. Microsoft leaden PC era is surely becoming irrelevant as mobile era catches on. Whosoever gonna win this battle I am sure as end consumers we'll all gonna benefit it.

"Many pundits still insist that Apple’s victories in the market can only make the company another new Microsoft, and force it to inherit the malware crisis facing Windows. This is like political commentators of the 16th century complaining that the territories that broke free from England would continue to suffer the same problems they faced under the monarchy, despite those new countries’ purposely devising new forms of government to prevent that from happening."

Extracted from RoughlyDrafted Blog: Read more here.

Paradigm shift in Software Industry

2008-03-04T14:34:00.009+05:30

As I talked about the Palm OS debacle in the early post this is overall a transition time for 25 year old Packaged Software Industry itself. You know Lotus 123, Aldus* back then and now what come out of Redmond in a nicely wrapped boxes. There are some interesting things going on in the industry.

Read this leading article and you may drill down further for additional discussion.

My take on this would be:

This tech shift is something we are seeing more recently than when Aldus/ Lotus saga ends and Adobe, MS catches on. It was anyway the good old packaged software business they were all in.

The paradigm shift happened when Google and the gang came up with the solutions for the problems which came with the net bubble itself.

But still since Adobe and MS likes had good money in their banks they could afford many mistakes and still thrive in this Google's era. The other reason is that desktop software's dead isn't anywhere near yet. Cos Adobe may be releasing a mobile version of Photoshop Lite but there are absolutely no solutions as yet for the gaming or high graphics industry unless you write Platform Specific. Not that people's mindset is all geared to keep all their valuable stuff in some remote servers that they don't have any control over. May be that's why Apple is releasing a SDK biting their own words like once Steve mentioned about third party software that "he doesn't want some Cingular networks to go down cos of some crappy software piece". Even when iPhone business model seems modern and good enough for the time being.

So as someone says there isn't much from here to the mobile web other than the dumb pipes and the devices will keep changing themselves.

The products are more likely will be the same, say gMail, Zoho Office, Google Earth or iTunes will still be the same when this transition ends.

So winners for the next decade most likely will come from the same gang who dominates today. MS, Google and Adobe likes from software ends.

This may change when it comes to physical products but Apple will still be there cos there's iTunes biz model is near perfect that other product vendors like Dell or SONY can't even get a hang of it yet. Anyway there are more chances to be a new winners too I guess, in the products category as well as in the software business.

After all may be Apple will be a sheer winner in this both ends. Since it has got it's products right and then with portable OS X and iPhone software bundle is too unrival to match. May be it's Apple who pushed the envelope eliminating Flash from iPhone for the mass adoption of the mobile web. Now no turning back again.

As I work for a software company we were too shady about what cult to follow. Flash was good enough, Google (Ajax) seems promising and MS .NET was the king of the king of desktop applications business model. Sun Java too did try to solve this big time problem but I don't know where they fit in right now. Enterprise software too, that they heavily profited on is shrinking by a sea of new comers like us, Interblocks Ltd, for their relevant field.

But with iPhone, Apple may have saved us from lot of trouble. Platform specific gaming and heavy graphics 3D industry may not be shaken by it. But for most of info oriented software industry it just proved us that Ajax is not only promising but it is actually very practical for the next decade. The best part? We no longer needed to be tied down by either camps, the desktop nor the net. After a decade of Sun's famous slogan now we can actually "Write once, Run Anywhere"

So I call it, FREEDOM! Finally.

*This reminds me the good old days, I still remember the days I learned it, an Aldus Freehand® v3 or V4 package was lying down somewhere in the stuff room, in Advantage SL, my first ad firm where I worked.

What can be better than Palm OS?

2008-02-28T15:16:00.003+05:30

Being a tech guy there are moments that you feel happy and sad at the same moment. Cos while some raise your expectation way up some makes you miserable.

Here I explain why in my original PalmAddicts article. Read and enjoy if you do speak the same language!

It saddens many of us that Palm had long since abandoned their Core OS sending it across the board. Palm -> Access -> Palm likewise without ever rewriting it to the new 3G era. Then they married with MS Mobile for the sheer doubt of dying itself out in the crowd. It saved them no long term purpose. Since Apple and the clan came in showing us what we've been missing in our user interface and design ends desires. Now they may be up to repeat the same in function and feature wise when they release the supposed to be native development tools for the iPhone. (SDK)

In the abyss of all this I miss the opportunity to credit the Palm's original developer who came up with the initial Palm Launcher idea for applications handling. I still love the simplicity of it. The rest had all been a history that we forgot. And now I wonder whether my next gadget could still be from Palm.

Palm's abandonment of it's OS in full time paved way others to smack on them in their own lawn. The smartphone business itself. Microsoft, Nokia, HTC and the Sony Ericsson clan leap forward their beauties flooding the market that I almost felt like ashamed and an old fella to carry my Treo to a restaurant. But strangely none seemed to get it correctly in the OS end until Apple came along.

Strange thing is that with all the modern sophisticated functionality and the bells and whistles my Palm still does what it does beautifully. Thanks to it's wonderful software base Palm still shines without having done anything for its survival for the last 5-6 years. After Treo 650 what they did all was cheating themselves, not us, consumers.

Surprisingly they still hold the crown for the biggest apps list yet. Palm's Launcher doesn't even have a decent find features for this 30000 odd growing number of application base which originally written to lie on it. Anyway people still use it in full time. I still live my life and write this stuff with a four year old Treo.

The need arises, while Palm lies in their sleepish form, a few good developers tried to fill in the gap writing their own code borrowing features from various systems on the top of the Palm's own Launcher. But to me none succeed much doing so because they focused on features instead of the Palm's simplicity. Palm's own age old launcher dominates including mine. Is it not that I never tried those # number of launchers. I have virtually tried them all. But I keep none on my device because they all seem to make things complicate on my Treo, deviating from Palm's original concept we all liked. The simplicity. They couldn't implement what Palm didn't offer either. So say WiFi, modern day browser or 3G never seen on Palm, after what, a lifetime had passed with these techs?

Myriad of tabs, buttons, lists, menus, colours, shadows, icons, bars, pop ups, strips, scrollers, skins, themes, plug ins, backgrounds, gadgets, gosh! You name it. It all appeared on this tiny launcher. It's a utter mess when one try to create your Core Duo 20 inch something flat panel on this tiny 320 by 320 beloved. So I stopped trying it.

Most launchers inundate users but never seem to fix the initial problem of Palm's simple yet effective age old launcher solved, until when Apple shocked the industry with their revolutionary OS X engine iPhone interface. It's simple just like good old Palm, but has the modern sophistication .

So as time went by, though many killer apps for mobiles initially emerged in Palm front. I sadly watch they quickly get ported elsewhere better in a blink of an eye loosing my edge. Now people talk big over iPhones nice touch screen, threaded SMS etc, boy, I used it for years silently on my Treo.

But now Palm front is lacking that wow factor, hopes are dire, I feel odd. Within me I know it is still better than most of the rest. Anyway now there are new kids in the block who tries to out-smart everything I knew about mobile computing. Apple seem to lead the gang with what Palm missed. From NextStep, Newton, Classic Mac OS to OS X now Apple has got the most flexible mobile platform on earth at their disposal for the modern era. Even industry mogul MS envy that.

For the moment what lacking is the a way that all the best mobile developers had no chance to port their beautiful apps to this new crown. But soon with the release of Apple SDK for iPhone I am sure we are about to see a flood of new killer apps for iPhone that no one seen elsewhere. Not even on my beloved Palm front.

Palm should have done this but I do not belong on camps. So I am happy to see this day dawned anyhow.

I will keep my Treo cos nothing beats it quite yet. May be will get a Centro to please my senses and I can still keep my Initially big list of applications I kept since 2000. Ewallets, browsing, productivity tools, GPS unit, music & video, some fun games (no dumb consoles please), email, threaded SMS, IR remotes, you name it. My Treo had it all and now everyone's AFTER them. Soon iPhone will get it all the way I want it so I can get in to a restaurant without been ashamed of.

If I were to have some Palm stocks I should be worried now, or may be the Centro will serve them a bit. But when I am having a Treo I am still winning. When their features match or probably outsmart, I will go and grab an iPhone.

I had a nightmare that when finally my Treo dies I may have to switch to MS Mobile or the Nokia clan without even having a choice. Boy, I was happy when I saw the new StyleTap platform for MS Mobile so I could still use some of my beloved software if I ever moved from Palm OS. Now even better they've got it emulated on iPhone too! Anyway Apple solved the problem once and for all raising bar for everyone. Thanks Steve Job for making this day possible. Thanks to thee, who someone brain child the original Palm OS. May be it was Handspring guys.

Now it seems I have industry's best choices up for the grab. I may never be up to the task running naked though on this, but I would say, Eureka!

Living broadband, Flash hell...

2008-02-06T14:55:00.003+05:30

I don't know when this day came to be. But I knew that it would. I've known to Flash internals a bit. No knack for coding but I knew enough since I used to be a big time Macromedia Flash lover. The honeymoon all ended when Adobe brought it over. Their plans for Flash were big, actually too impressive, they want it to be the platform for the web, mobile and beyond. Likewise Sun had their own plans for "write once run everywhere" their beloved J2ME too. For that ask from any mobile developer, they know what the mess they are in.

In the desktop end I watched in horror, Flash Designer becomes Flash Developer. It almost had a free ride until Google Stuff (Ajax) and then Apple came in. Gosh! it was destined to be next Microsoft Windows or even worse. Actually Windows is better because it solved industry's bigger problem once and for all that many people face right now here and here.

I happened to be a Flash designer for some distant past. It was a wonderful time, when web was in its infancy Flash made possible things which we could not even have imagined putting on web. Finer graphics, animation, streaming content after all that Real Player and MW windows media hassle. Then the impossible partial refresh issue of a web page without having to reload afresh. Those are few good memories that I have which we could not resolve (until web 2) without the help of this once beloved Flash. I remember the things at Eye4U and 2Advance Studio guys did with Flash in 1998-2000 time. We were stunned!

And ever since everyone who had a sight of Flash abused and raped it in full time. Dial-Ups were dead hoc jam trapped. Then they had a free ride when DSL emerges because the bandwidth seems the best thing for Flash to eat. Web became all crap.

Living in a Flash for a lifetime was going be a fun or so I taught. You know, the initial web animations, banners, business scope of online advertising, then smart/ rich Flash Clients and our famous YouTube (until Apple liberated) were all based on Flash technologies. It was my hobby and then it finally migrated to my bread and butter too, the firm I work for, is too, converted it's one part cash cow ATM Client to run on Flash. I should have been happier.

This was possible cos Flash was originated as FutureSplash , a graphics software, a designer tool with industry's most hyped term at that time. Vector based graphics, further it had streaming media and animation capabilities too! It was a designer's Nirvana. Since Adobe had the graphics monopoly it was obvious that their next move would be to merge them all to be a single platform since they brought it from Macromedia. Wow! nice idea, except one fundamental error.

This is where it all went wrong. We, designers don't eat code for breakfast, nor that developers need more than a jazzed up little Notepad to do their wonders. Not until a new breed of Einsteins emerge out of this rubble who have knack to do the both.

So here we go, Flash have big fundamental errors to start with going in either direction. Below are a few that comes to my mind.

# It is utter annoyance for the end users because (No one complained yet though)
1. Having to download the plug in
2. Then take much more bandwidth and time than the normal content
3. Crippling your poor processor and the memory when in use (until recently, still for mobiles)
4. If not properly done, starts to play before the full download messing your taste buds.
(you know, it's like eating your pie in a rodent way)
6. Blinks, sings, hoots, flashes, throw flowers at you when all you want is peacefully read
5. Version conflicts repeat things all over

#It used to have knack for designers because
1. All the strengths of Flash we commonly know of content, animation, streaming media, rich client creator)
2. Having the potential to be an All In One Tool for
- Print mass media document creation ( Rival PageMaker, Illustrator, InDesign, Freehand and QuarkExpress)
- PDF corporate document creator and archiver (Acrobat, FlashPaper)
3. Obsolete old favorites like gif animations
4. Give you the partial refresh of a web page (Pre Ajax era)

#And now it try to solve a problem we never had
1. Designers like their eye candy, they want it JLO, the Photoshop way
2. Developers will eat, sleep and drink their gibberish
3. Both will co-exist together fine, but we just don't talk the same language.
4. They will be happy with just a notepad
5. We, designers want Dreamweaver equivalent

Instead another day dawned. Ajax (JavaScript which is) solved it's own problems which created back then. I was happy to see when Google and Zoho people mastered it. Apple proved me right. Wow! We can live without Flash.

But I still see some major places that I would love to visit uses heavy Flash content. I regularly use my Treo for browsing for the last three two years. I am happy Palm did never bother to port Flash for their Treos as with they neglected everything else. But do I miss what miss cause that my Treo couldn't access Flash content? Nope, not in the least. It was because Palm never updated their Garnet OS to have 3G or a better browser. It was the best when it came a six years ago. Anyway I lived the Treo generation in full which is now shaken though. Anyway let Treo begone since iPhone will probably solve the biggest problem of mobile web.

Here GX-5 is one good example, some real good talents but still insists you to install and enjoy full flash content if you are on a desktop. I had abandoned this kinda sites altogether for long. But recently I saw if you are on a mobile device that we can have a simple html version instead.

I hope at lease people will follow suit. Adobe's vision for Flash may be great, but no thank you. I don't wanna MS DOS legacy saga repeated here like even after Vista arrives. We can't carry on the burden of legacy saga or a designer becoming a developer.

People do need full blown web in a whisk without the expense of TheirTube. So the answer is no SilverLight either but lies in the same hands of the good old wizard of JavaScript itself!

What do you guys think?

A shutter bug...

2007-11-16T16:50:00.000+05:30

I had always been a happy little shutter bug since the day I saw my first digital camera way back in 90s. Even as an collage boy I knew that this thing was going to change the way we look at the world through the third eye. Today Digital Photography has been a gift from the heaven.

Colombo Evening - So far the nicest photo I've taken with G9

No more expensive film to burn, second thoughts on whether your shot was ok, or should go for another take, digital realm made photographers' wildest dreams a so called snap. Now I see even very reluctant hardcore film photographers are making their switch being unable to deny the worlds of benefits they can get from digital film. If ever, the only thing which hold them back was the price of replacing their SLR gear to D. But that's also changing swiftly now budget DSLRs coming in prices we have never heard of.

I can't see myself as much of a photographer though from my early days I loved photography. And I was carrying around a basic digicam from the day I could afford one. Much before most of my colleagues thought of getting one, they enjoyed my immature, mostly trip photographs. I told them then the day would soon come that we all replace our 110s with digicam with the power of SLRs. Now some of them carry cameras I even envy at like new Canon Digital EOS on in their backpacks. Viola!

After my first Chinese Digicam, I stayed loyal to my old Kodak DX7440 which still produces stunning images for my humble needs even after years of use. Anyway finally I thought of giving myself a little treat getting an updated digicam.

So here comes my new G9.

Road Worriers...

2007-06-12T16:56:00.000+05:30

I don't know how this came to be this worse. We, our selves to blame. In Sri Lanka getting into a four wheel is a very risky job. We have all the posh cars in the world but got the worst kind of roads and driving manners in the planet.

Our road manners and ehtics, boy, this is something never heard of. Everyone wants to go first, fast, but all the city roads are narrow, congested, jam packed.

Heavy long body Viking buses are killers, they cut corners, go too fast, defens you with their zillion decibel f...ing horns, overtake you in bends, mostly all of Sri Lanka's fatal accident are involved with some kind of bus jerk.

Then comes the trishaw fellows, shame on them no one has a class, manners or the patience. Cut corners, takes 90° degree turns with no signals, trying to overtake everyone elase like they can do Ferrari's. Harsh language, no smiles make them even unpleasant. And the two wheelers, cheap Indian bikes. Riders thinks they want three wholesome lane to take a mere turn, act like they own the roads, give way is never haerd of.

To worsen this harassments, now some politico has decided to introduce registration not required Mopeds. The fly fish like 50 CC bikes that go in the middle of the road. No helmets, no lanes, no manners and zig zig driving make motorists insane.

So day today driving in and outer Colombo has become life and death struggle for average people.

Wedding Plans

2007-05-23T09:51:00.000+05:30

I don't find this surprising and obviously Wedding Plans take quite a bit of stress and running around for anyone.

When we prepare for the day, initially nothing much was done. Anyway here when dates are closing in last couple weeks we were actually ridden by this stress course.

Looking for places and people to do the needful seems interesting, quite involving. But for us this means long drives and tired weekends since things happen in three different remote places. We live in Colombo, the wedding will take place in Nuwara Eliya and the home coming is in Kandy. So this preparation is killing our peaceful weekends. I miss my long sleep in the weekend, the Sundown, unwashed clothes, uncleaned house, empty pocket and then ultimately the fresh Monday morning. Meanwhile the lack of exercising bulge my tummy out.

And this all leaves us in somewhat always tired mood.

Hope these days are will soon be over or as one of my friends put it, he says for getting married, " You'll see, it's only the beginning" :-) And I wonder will life be the same again?

Just like me!

2007-04-24T11:17:00.000+05:30

Apple's new calling, I'm getting that nagging feeling again!

2007-01-11T13:22:00.000+05:30

Until yesterday, as Jonathan says in his post. I would too say that I was fully satisfied with my newly brought Treo 680, and in fact that it still holds true in many ways. It does just about everything I throw at it. and I love it. That said, even after 7 years of being a loyal Palm OS user, I find myself wondering in this morning, shaking more and more about something that doesn’t run Palm OS or Windows which are essentially a part of my life. Palm, Microsoft releases every darn kind of products all over the year but I have never been so overwhelmed by any other hi-tech product release. Not even with the original Treo, not even with the iPod.

The display is awesome

Listen Palm. I’m already sold. Though I’m loyal to Palm, but in many occasions I have felt that Palm isn’t treating me right as Apple does with iPod experiences. I have lived the iPod generation for two years now I am yet to get a trouble either in my iPod or in iTunes which it syncs with. In contrast since the initial Treo 650 release with problems all over, whining Palm TX which my girl has, buggy slow LifeDrive my brother brought, and my early Sony CLIE with problems that I don’t recall now.

The Interface is the Industry Best

The point is, you get a Treo expecting bliss, instead you get a hiss in your earpiece. You're thinking Palm should fix it soon.''Not the case here. Palm take ages even to acknowledge that there’s a problem at all and washes it's hands of responsibility and tells you to deal with your own ROM updates and third party developers (like VolumeCare) which figures out by some geek while Palm lies in it’s laurels. Palm never learns, even with new Treo 680 there’s a network time sync issue which circular around public forums but Palm hasn’t even acknowledge that yet. I lived it all and still I never really thought anything else as impressive as the Palm device I’m holding, until now.

Desktop scale browser in your fingertips

So suddenly, for me iPhone kills many birds in one shot. Being in Asia I’m away from holding this beauty in my hand anytime soon, not a happy feeling though good that I can save some money for the big day. Got a number of months to follow this up and close, let Apple fix whatever the shortcomings with it. No offend Dear Mr. Ed Colligan. I guess here you are wrong this time around. I work for a software company and do consider as a promoter and power user of Treo. In the next January my money surely will go to Steve Job & Co. if unless you release a 320X480/ Wifi Treo by then. If Treonauts can figure out how to make officially unsupported FAT32, SDHD, WIFI supported on their beloved Treo 650s. The iPodians will make theirs what they want in no time. The iPhone accessory market will be in prime time with all sort of QWERTY, BT keyboards, devices for what iPhone isn’t. Don’t forget Steve hinted that this beauty can handled the native Mac OS beast apps as well. I can assure it seeing the fluid motion the iPhone works, this will change the mobile industry. Smartphone segment in no time.

The flid motion is intuitive and really realistic

The business case for it, the TIME Magazine here outlines pretty well. Good reading.

Any destop widgets at your disposal

As TIME says, either it’s Nokia basic or Palm Treo 680 our phones are broken and Steve Jobs & Co. seems to fix it. “When our tools don't work, we tend to blame ourselves, for being too stupid or not reading the manual or having too-fat fingers. "I think there's almost a belligerence—people are frustrated with their manufactured environment," says Ive. "We tend to assume the problem is with us, and not with the products we're trying to use." In other words, when our tools are broken, we feel broken. And when somebody fixes one, we feel a tiny bit more whole.” Exactly!

Ceylon Theater hurdles at Majestic Cinama

2006-12-06T16:16:00.000+05:30

Hay, kudos for pointing out this very truth. Either in USA or in Sri Lanka, the problem and the solution seem the same. This story is inspired by the post here at PalmAddicts.

This is roughly the same way I do to get things done most of the time. These morons, the bureaucrats and the front desk officers in most of the places hardly help you out or solve any matter on behalf you even though they are paid for to "help" customers out.

So to get done things you have to raise the voice, make the point loud and clear and they may be reach a ranked man.

Two days before I went to the cinema with the girly to watch the hyped "Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest" film Ceylon Theater run Majestic Cinema in Colombo. I asked for ODC tickets (Don't know what it means, but it's the back middle rows where you can get the best view without breaking your neck), the fellow gave me two without saying anything so we went in. Assuming that they were ODC.

To my surprise the back was all full, except two middle (best view) rows saying "Reserved" .The film was about to begin. I tell the guy inside, I asked for ODC tickets so we should get one of those. Then the fun begin. He was saying that they are “Reserved” (yeah, I can read) and they have a "flat rate". There's no ODC all the blah blah and did not allow us to get a seat but directed us to the neck breaking empty front rows. If there is a “Flat Rate” the logic seems there can’t be reservations and we should be able to sit anywhere we want.

No point arguing with the poor guy. I came out, went to a guy who seemed a bit ranked one, raised my voice and told the story asking a reimbursement for our tickets.

Bingo! We were straight away directed to one of the “reserved” best view seats in the middle with no further hassle and we enjoyed the movie in full.

Ghotabaya Rajapakse escapes a suicide attempt and our van also caought in between...

2006-12-01T13:32:00.000+05:30

A suicide attack targeting Defense Secretary Gothabaya Rajapakse has injured fourteen security personnel. Luckily he was not injured. My friend Dilum was also caught in the middle of this crisis.

The attack has been carried out at Dharmapala Mawatha (Piththala Junction) opposite City Bank at Kollupitiya in Colombo today at about 10.25 a.m.

Not much clear though foremost one is our van

Several vehicles have been damaged and Dilum was also driving along at the same time. He was lucky to escaped unharmed though the van is severely damaged. A few of other vehicles were seen burning at the time and this photos was taken from a camera phone.

Nature's Revenge - One wild ride

2006-11-14T12:17:00.000+05:30

2006 November monsoon season is a disastrous one for Sri Lanka. Specially the last Sunday 12.11.06 was historic.

All of this environmental debacles in recent time has something to do with improper planning, unauthorised land fillings and buildings. It brought more chaos and misery for this war-torn country. Floods, land slides and lost of lives reflect another abandoned and raped issue in this paradise isle. For whatsoever the excuses made by the authorities and the people, I think this should be expected and we are all responsible for this kind of nature's revenge.

The Sunday, we eye-witnessed and were lucky to stay unharmed some of the late breaking news on the TV in the evening.

Picturesque Nortonbridge Reservoir

Story goes like this. Since we spend the weekend in Nuwara Eliya. On our way back, yesterday, there was a big land slide at the Colombo-Hatton road in Ginigathhena. To avoid that and come to Colombo we had to take an alternate route. We were suggested a route thro Nortonbridge Reservoir. It was a beautiful narrow one but finally completely blocked by all out-bound traffic to Colombo. Then few others and we turn back to Ginigathhena thro another narrow road in the Nortonbridge Caslteriegh mountains. From there some headed to Kandy road. Since Kandy road was also uncertain and very long we looked around for an alternate. For our surprise we were to find one. It was a most bizarre kind of small barren by road, a risky one, that we didn't know at that time, roughly 10-15 Km long, that leads back to Colombo main road avoiding the land slide. We came out unharmed though we seriously felt that we shouldn't have taken that road risking our beloved Chevy and our lives themselves. A slight mistake, a drift over, a gas running out, a flat tyre, anything could have left us stranded. A night without sleep.

Nortonbridge mountains

It was raining cats & bulls and as dark as midnight around 5.00 pm. Starting part of the road was okay and fun to drive when it wasn't broken. But in one particular abandoned section (nearly 10 km block) was an utter nightmare. Continues heavy rain had uprooted all the road foundation stones and rocks all over the path. Steep. Water was drifting all over like we were in a rocky stream. As driving on rollers on a wet slippery land we were descending at a slow pace. Wheels were creaking locked by pushed to the wall brakes but still sometimes the car was sliding and moving downward. Boy! No way up now either. I was praying for our Chevy's tyre's not to give up on us. Our beloved Chevy, warm and nice inside, while nature takes it's heaviest toll on it's outside, kept our spirits high, we were safe inside, or so we felt. Finally hours later we reached-back the main Colombo-Hatton Road safely.

And it's only when we came to the civilisation that we heard elsewhere in Kandy – Gampola Road a land slide was taken place with few vehicles underneath killing 5 or so people on board.

Gosh! It was a main road while we took even worse not-on-the-map road to come back to the Colombo main road.

Land slide in Kandy-Pussellawa Road killing a few people

Most flood gates were open

Imagine it could have been us

People had died here too

On the same day elsewhere in the country it had flooded many places. In Hatton Town (the way we passed) there was another land slide taking few lives. Reservoirs were filled and spilling. Most flood gates were open. Rivers were filled without their banks. People were drowning. Roads were blocked. Some leaving no sign where they were. All chaos and misery brought by the monsoon rain.

Now I leisurely lie down on my bed and jot down this blog post though It's been one heck of a day. We travelled nearly 350 km while it should have been somewhere 200 km thro the main roads.

Sadly unlike other times whole adventure was without pictures due to sub-zero visibility and all the time we were dealing road worries than getting a chance to touch the camera. Above shown ones I have picked from various media reports.

Blog picture posting thro Flickr is nightmare!

2006-10-12T17:10:00.000+05:30

wrapped
Originally uploaded by Dreamsmademe Blog.

I've been trying this for long. Post picture to Flickr and use those images in the blog. Doesn't seem to work as it should even now. The problem is I am behind a firewall may be. Or something else.

Anyway I figure out this way, first post the pics to flickr and then say "blog" this from there. It's a way around it but still it make me happy so that I can save some web space where I have hosted the website.

Long drive and the cold mountains...

2006-08-22T14:46:00.000+05:30

This weekend we spend some nice time in Nuwara Eliya.

Cold mountains…

After a long drive from Colombo, those beautiful tea capped mountains, the wind, the mist, the fog and the cold were the sings of a heaven in a paradise.

Sometimes the visibility was sub-zero levels…

On our way to the Nuwara Eliya area the landscape seems more polluted and disturbed than ever though we enjoyed the drive.

Trees cut the barren land is exposed to land slides but still beautiful…

Following day was awesome with the beautiful sun shining all the day. For my surprise there wasn't any rain while Colombo and most of the country was about to be flooded by the heavy rains. I think this is the sheer beauty of Sri Lanka having all kind of whether at the same time.

Clouds were seen below us…

Dreamy roads…

It is sad our morons too still continue to cut even the last forests we have in these misty mountains started first by the British for the tea plantations.

It was cold and rainy all the way…

Gayani says we would have been much better off without those tea plantations or the British invaders. It is arguably correct though I guess our moron politicos had enough time to correct those if they really wanted. But they never did and now it's too late. At least the British did it to a plan our ones still doing it in a hap hazard unplanned manner.

These historic big old trees can no longer be seen in the landscape…

Gee’s sis’s little one was so much of life bundle to have around…

So we never missed our fun putting five for five ;-)

(Sorry, the low quality pictures were taken form a video footage)

Over the air blog posting using Treo

2006-08-18T23:17:00.000+05:30

This is fantastic. Now if I want I can directly post my blog posting from Treo itself. The software is called HBlogger from Normsoft the maker of famous PocketTunes mp3 player for Palm.

So this is the first test posting thro my Treo!
Cool! Isn't it?

[Posted with hblogger 2.0 http://www.normsoft.com/hblogger/]

Viola!

2006-08-04T16:55:00.000+05:30

Surprise! After long long delays BT Option (Sri Lankan dealer for Palm and Apple products) have finally sent me my long awaited Treo replacement for my troubled unit. Old one had some memory issues having a loop-reboot.

Yeahooo... It's a brand new unpacked one. Now having all the fun syncing the new phone with my old data. Palm OS reigns supreme here than any other NOKIA or MS based smartphone. Palm’s award winning PIM suite and the Palm Desktop Software backs up everything up to the PC it only takes mere 2–3 minutes to re-sync all your settings and data form the old phone to the new one.

Everything means contacts, notes, user registrations, colour theme to the ringtone you have set to a particular person gets right back on your new unit and rings right away when that particular person calls.

Viola...

NB: Meanwhile I heard the news of Plam is about to release the successor to this Treo 650 here without the bulky antenna.

Scooty goes bye bye!

2006-07-25T17:08:00.000+05:30

After serving me nearly two and half years my beloved Scooty Pep goes bye bye today.

Sad though since one fellow was asking for it to buy and I thought of getting a new one at the same time, selling it seems a logical thing to do.

And there she goes…my indispensable urban transport beauty Scooty!

Long stupid journey, one fabulous bath...

2006-07-17T10:45:00.000+05:30

Over the long weekend this time we went to Kandy and then to the Wasgamuwa National Park in the following day.

Though the Wasgamuwa route was never meant to be through Kandy, for some stupid reason we went thro that long way passage passing Reverston Area and then to Wasgamuwa. The drive was fun thro those beautiful semi savanna mountains though the journey was useless.

See the above, Seeing those four elephants in the distant view was the whole purpose of the day wasted covering nearly 200 Km across. Simply stupid. Since we have mastered the art of taming them and domesticating, elephant is the most seen wild animal in Sri Lanka. In our famous Kandy Perahera you can see them in hundreds. There is no point seen them in the wild at this distant while we can even touch and go on their backs even here in Colombo.

(Sorry for the poor quality photos which were taken from a video footage)

Following day was really worth the journey having found this beautiful rever bank where we spend the whole evening submerged in the cool stream.

Only once in a year, still glorious!

2006-07-17T09:58:00.000+05:30

This is spotted in May/ June season every year.

This plant in one of our pots that we call Wesak Mal bears this magnificent flower once in a every year. It last for couple weeks and goes to extinction for the next whole year. The flowers are really big and beautiful around a size of a coconut.

Enjoy!

Dancing where angels fear to tread, and then...

2006-06-20T11:52:00.000+05:30

Yesterday was a long day. It remembered me many a things. Good and bad, happy and sad.

To start with my long time friend Asanka had come from UK for a vacation. So we some of our few remaining old Interblocks guys had a nice dinner sharing those good old memories. It was fun.

The other even I don't know whether it's a good or a bad thing. More importantly I’ve got no clue over what I “should feel” about this. I felt numb and emotionless though. I remained silent over listening to a self confession.

It is being said that you forgive for one’s mistakes since it’s only human. I try to do that most of the time, but for the people who “crossed the line” I don't know how should I react other than feeling a little pity.

I knew this day will come that people realize their mistake. Now being nice to came and say sorry. Big deal after taking my good faith for granted. Okay, apology accepted. But there's no way. Not in heaven, if you treaded where you shouldn’t, no, things wouldn't be the same again.

The day was done. Lessons were learned. And no, neither I entertain nor they get the lion's share ever again. Period.

Seedless Papaws

2006-06-19T12:46:00.000+05:30

I don’t no how this is possible. No I haven’t removed a single seed. This Papaw is completely seed-less. It’s very unlikely here in Sri Lanka that this could be a genetically altered one.

(Sorry about the poor quality picture taken with a phone’s camera)

Yeasterday we brought it from one of the side by shops on our way and when we cut it open to serve I could not belive my eye. There is not a single seed it it where as you normally get a thousand seeds in a papaw.

A mutation, genetically altered whatever it tasted so good too.

Show off and self service at weddings

2006-06-12T12:54:00.000+05:30

May be not just because I am but my whole gang of friends is in the verge of this same generation, last 2–3 years I was never short of weddings. It's like every one I used to know is getting married nowadays.

The last 2004 April- August season for me was being the most busiest I remember having nearly 27 weddings to attend. Where I omitted few but still went for 21 or so. No need to mention the expenses, travelling and the time spend over these, but when a friend, a colleague or a relative getting married and you are invited it seems unfair to miss it.

In every wedding something happens which takes your attention. May be that is why I enjoyed the movie Wedding Crasher.

The last two weddings I attended was being the most bizzar kind out of them all so I thought of keeping this note.

One was held in my home town Kandy, one of my cousin getting married. To begin with she herself called me and while inviting me for the wedding she asked me to bring an (expensive ..... ......) as a gift. Oh! Boy, where on earth people do call up and ask for the gifts visitors should bring in? Well, this one did. Horrible. That's anyway sorted out and I attended the wedding.

After the normal rituals like "Pooruwa Ceremony" we spend some fun time when few start singing with the band.

Then came the Thanks Giving and Going away part. Can you imagine, One fellow (suppose to be the organiser) took the mic, you know some wants to get famous, who thinks they are the ones, kept on talking some rubbish that nobody was interested for nearly stupid 45 long minutes almost nearing the time that the couple should leave. And then inviting some more creeps to the stage for more talks, so another moron took another 10 minutes or so like in a political rally.
Funniest thing was when the time (Nekath) came for the couple's going away and everyone was leaving, this moron came to my Dad and ask to do the Thanks Giving Talk for the bride’s side. It's a shame to the wedding, insult to my dad, I looked at my Dad's face, the creep soon knew if he speak another word on this, he getta good kick on his ass from my dad, well, may be from the rest of the crowd, who all listened to his crap for hours. Realising that the creep silently slipped away from the crowd. Morons!

The second happened last night. To begin with we nobody knew why on earth he invited us all since It was one of our gang's friend's friend.We all eight people went. It was slightly raining, boy, the hall was jam packed, we are invited but no table for us, we hung around with little uneasiness for a while, no body seems bothered or arranging a table for us, fine, we looked around and luckily the outside garden was spacious and few isolated folding huts and chairs around, we ourselves got arranged a place to sit.

Then waited and waited for someone to serve us with a welcome drink or something. No waiters came in. Organisers seems rushing around but nothing was happening.

We went and try to ask somebody, can you believe this, The whole 200 odd people were served by only two waiters. Still out of his nightmare one guy is missing time to time leaving an only one to help the whole crowed. Whoa… That was the Mission Impossible 4 for the poor guy.

Fine, again, we ourselves reached the bar and helped our table. Then there were no glasses in the table, we went and asked, Gosh! we were given unwashed dirty glasses that we had to find some means to get them cleaned and washed to help ourselves.

Then the buffet was horrible. Too much salt and having nothing to eat.

Since everyone in our gang was in cool mood, anyway we had fun, it was like we were arranging our own party in our own place. If any quick tempered man was there he would have smashed the whole wedding for this harassment. We would have never enjoyed it, unless our guys' usual chit chat and jokes that we never miss when we get together.

So that was the two weddings I never forget out of all I have attended. Surprisingly they happened very recently one after another :-)

In a labyrinth, a right path to choose...

2006-05-24T10:52:00.000+05:30

I just wonder that how many point of views may come in handy when you consider a particular matter. Different people have different opinions over the same thing. Diversity is a good thing.

When I do consider a decision I always try to go for the logic at my best though not quite possible sometimes. Most generally okay with those but when it come to pleasing the parents I find it very difficult to attain. Sure enough, they always hope the best for their children but what if their thinking is unparallel with ours? If you are in the same situation, come join the club.

For many things in life, until such day comes, proven. I can’t say what is right, what is wrong. So I generally try to follow my gut feeling. But if that means going against their will, what can I do?

I feel helpless and clueless nor that I can draw a white line between what is right and wrong over unpredictable things. I just try to follow my senses. If life is a stream, I try to let it flow on… So wish me good luck on this.

Luckily parents aside, friends do understand these most of the time. No I do not belong or intend to be on camps but hope everyone is in the same when it matters at the end. :-)

Moonlight thro my window

2006-05-15T12:34:00.000+05:30

This is a nice view from my window. Until recently there was a thick line of trees covering the sky when I look in thro my window that I haven’t noticed this upto now. Last month one of the old tree in between had fallen over the gusty wind and now there is a gap to see the sky.

So here the moon (The Sun too) comes. Regardless that it annoys me when my room is lit up when I want to sleep, specially on Poya days (full moon) and hot sunny days, the view thro the trees is always really a nice one from my bed.

Enjoy!

When coyotes get lions' coat

2006-04-10T17:21:00.000+06:00

It is sad to see when some people who has been friends get into a wrong foot. Stand on their tales over things those are irrelevant or none of their business. Do change their colours upon interests and going on some unfriendly direction that nobody else but they themselves have to help.

I had an incident that made me to rethink who's one's true friends. Force to look into the logic and eject myself. Everything done was fine, life is an ongoing process. A stream that has to flow thro it’s ups and downs. In this case, “Friends in need indeed has to be reliable” when in need, informative, advice-able, helpful but not shout, bout and spread filthy.

So I would say to those who doesn't know their stake or where they hold ground, go ahead, do it. You will only take those to your graves. It's your move.

These so called, well respected friends, want their voice heard for all the unnecessary reasons, for things those irrelevant to them, want to intervene, force enter, shout and in the process make things go wrong for everybody, and then pick up the phone and spread the grapevine, untruth, filth, hatred and nonsense trying to save their line on the other end. They act like gone crazy. Dares to reach friends, relatives and even the parents with nonsense.

I hate people who do that. No you don't stand a chance in friends laurels if one does that.

What's its all worth at the end? A lost friendship? Are you happy now?

I watched these in silence. I've seen enough and probably have learned my lessons well. Can place things at rest. What some can't figure out was, rolling stone gathers no moss. Period.

My Best Friend's Wedding...

2006-03-01T14:01:00.000+06:00

A wedding. What does it means in the long run I do not know for sure though. I feel it's just life brings us what other good things it had stored for us in timely manner. So most likely nothing will change at all.

My gang of friends includes Eranda, Upul, Uditha, Ruani, Amila, Dilum, I myself and Nalin. We had virtually being life long friends who took care of ourselves for years. Always staying together when life takes its rolling. So for the record Upul is the first to go off board form the bachelor party and get on board with the married kind.

The function was serene and went on smoothly as expected. We everyone helped him in whatever the way we can all throughout the last couple of days. And now the day is in history. So here I warm welcome you the new bride Banu to the gang.

All the best wishes for you the new couple now and forever!

I've gotta Apple finger print magnet!

2006-02-14T11:37:00.000+06:00

When I first reviewed the articles about Apple's new gimmick iPod Nano here, I was truly impressed about the device and thinking of getting one later I said no to Nano seeing the articles.

It’s truely a finger print magnet! Scratches all around with two days of use. The problems still remains and Apple stays unspoken about it.

Nonetheless here I am now having this super slim beauty in my hand. This time I got it as a gift for some of the freelance work I did for one of my friend. I couldn't possibly put a price since he's my friend and I loved my work. Guess what? All of a sudden this landed on my doorstep as an application to my work. Nice. Thank you!

The Nano is remarkably thin an engineering feat but it is unfortunately for some Apple only knows reason poorly wrapped by a cheap casing. It's too shiny, scratchable and glossy. I guess this has passed the production lines while Apple designers and usability testers were on vacation.

Whatever I adore this came as a unforgettable gift and I will enjoy it in every means. Very nice welcome addition to my gadgets list and the music taste. iPod now does pictures too!

Thank you very much and it's very sweet of you sending this to me!

Anuradhapura

2006-01-31T14:57:00.000+06:00

A trip to Anuradhapura kept me occupied over the weekend. This time we missed our usual gang by three members though, we had our times together for a long time to remember. Enjoy the few pics I took long our way.

It was all new different landscape this time than I previously remember. The torrential rain had virtually turn the semi-savanna lands into lush green meadows and swamps.

The Mihinthala view was astounding. The air was so clear.

Locals say all the tanks and reservoirs were full upto this level after five long years.

Everyone was having their feast.

Usual back-lit Ruwanweli Seya with it’s former glory.

And finally my guys really had trouble with keeping the Mihinthala Rock in place.

Lost Duck

2006-01-23T14:49:00.000+06:00

I don't know form where on earth this fellow landed on my lawn.

Last Friday evening when I got home after the work my neighbours little ones were chasing this goose (or duck) with excitement. Neither they nor me could figure out how it had gotten here.

The fellow didn't seem to much bothered by the human sight. I know they can rarely be seen in the Diyawanna Oya near parliament Site area two miles away from here. I am not sure whether they can fly this distance. Still wonder how it had travelled so far unharmed.

It seemed lost or attacked by a cat or a dog may be. And on the top of it children were harassing him with their curiosity. Asking little ones to spare him alone I took this shot and went in to get changed.

When I was back within a few minutes it had disappeared to nowhere and the little ones were asking each other "ko ko ko eya ne. Kohatada giye?"

Sweet, Goodbye, fly away safe you little lost duck.

When the stars spell out your name...

2006-01-17T15:21:00.000+06:00

We have born somewhere in this universe, in a frozen moment of time and Astrology says the moment can say everything about you.

Sounds wierd but remarkable. Truly I don't know how is this energies of the universe which science hasn't fully explored or discovered yet jot down the itinerary of your life literally at the time of your birth. The past and the future and the present. Heavy stuff.

I haven't given it a much thought though what do you think when these stars spell out your name?

I have had seen more than one occasion that proved me the astrology can be true. I do not know the science, the logic or the possibility behind this. But it seems a logical, pure sceince and math game which gives the resemblances of your profile, past present and the future, sometimes with precise details.

Given that you catch a Astrologer whos is genuine and knows the subject inside out. Sadly those are an endangered species. So my friend says, Astrology is like a torch, you don't have to follow it, but if you are going in the dark, isn't it better to have a light so you can see the road ahead a little more clearer? Well I guess he has a point. It sure is

Casually put how on earth you feel when you raise your finger tip up in the air those many a thousand cellular waves, TV/ satellite channels or radio signals go across your finger without making any sense to you. So what I figured was these energies are there for sure but unless you have the right senses (trained minds) you can never tune into these superficial senses. It is there only to be sense by a forth, fifth or sixth or some other diamention which we cannot have.

The Buddha's teaching says if you train your brain to be enlighten or "Rahath" “Maarga Pala” may be one day, you could see it all. The senses which normal humans do not possess. Then you'll start to see the energies of the universe, how they travel distances and how it controls/ effects the matter.

May be Buddhism has all the answers, science over the time may reveal some but as the human kind we will never be omniscient to know it all during our existence.

Fully loaded but still manageable Scooty

2005-12-22T13:12:00.000+06:00

This is what I love about my Scooty. Convenient, faster and cheaper than any other commuter system within the city limits. In traffic it saves hours.

Yesterday there was a trade fair @ BMICH and I happened to bump in to have a look what’s in there. For my surprise there had been couple of items I’ve been eying for sometime but wasn’t being able to locate in local shops.

Namely an affordable hand vacuum a mixer and a few other items. So I brought them all (it seemed a bargain) without having the second thought of how I am gonna carry them home. I came to the fair on my Scooty and I wasn’t immediately so sure whether I can take them all at once. Boy, there was no place to leave them either once I brought them.

So I packed them into three big shopping bags and came out. For my surprise when I reached the Scooty I was able to easily tack them all in the middle of the Scooty’s foot resting area leaving enough space to rest the foot too, without keeping them awkwardly on second passenger’s side bars and drive.

Bingo! In minutes I was all set to ride on in the heavy trafficked after office hours and came home safely. It took nearly half an hour to get them and come home will otherwise would have taken two hours if I took the van. Cool!

It's done. Adobe wins. We creative guys may lose.

2005-12-09T15:11:00.000+06:00

Too bad. It’s a sort of a sad day. For better or worse my most respected, dearest software firm on earth Macromedia Inc, is no more.

Adobe has engulped my bread and butter software maker Macromedia and now it solely goess as Adobe a single entity. What does this mean to the people like me who depends on their software. Various thoughts hover on my mind and basically on far with what this guy talks about. For me it looks odd to call my favourite software like Macromedia Suite with Flash, Fireworks and Dreamweaver, now with Adobe name in front. Sounds Weird.

I guess this means,

Less Innovation in creative software making since no competition
Price Hikes at will
Cosmetic Point Releases Disguised as Upgrades
Killing Off Of Any Software That Doesn’t Fit Into Adobe’s Narrow Vision
More Bloated Software Trying To Be Something for Everyone

We will wait and see. Read more here:Adobe wins.

An Uninvited Guest

2005-11-23T12:17:00.000+06:00

An uninvited guest visited my house yesterday with the torrential rain which swept the Colombo area.

My palce is still all a mess without a sign of ever receding an inch of water that came in. Anyway it was kinda fun since all my friends helped me to save the things to my last pair of socks from getting soaked. So while I am enjoying the rain here, plz send me some dry rations!

Caged in Dehiwala Zoo

2005-11-21T13:07:00.000+06:00

I just don’t know how exactly it feels if we are to caged in eternally. I am sure it ain’t any good even though you are well fed and taken care of. Anyway that’s how these wonderful creatures from the wild are packed into a small area at Dehiwala Zoo in Colombo suburbs.

We visited the zoo for the weekend. Sometimes felt little sad though regardless I enjoyed the journey with my lovely company.

Hippos up and close, where else on earth I can touch these magnificent ones by my own hands?

Sorry, penguins you don’t get any ice here

Even we humans sometimes felt caged-in with the flowing crowd

Sorry, no fishing or fly-away home here for you sea eagles

At least small aquariumed fish had some freedom to wonder around

Bigger ones had no such space

I hear one lion maintains 30 km kingdom in the wild, sadly these folks don’t even have mere 30 meters

For this colourful there’s no trouble at all finding their delicious on time

Glorious horny males in the wild, big or small still you have your fences and senses surrounded

These are few shots I’ve taken from my lousiest phone-camera. Nonetheless we had our times and enjoyed the wild tour. Enjoy!

Namunukula Tonacombe Circuit Bungalow

2005-11-07T17:23:00.000+06:00

The weekend was fabulous.

Our gang went on a trip to Namunukula for the weekend and stayed in one of the Hill Country Tea Estate Circuits called Tonacombe which was built in somewhere 1800 AD.

The dusk was colourful

And when you look down the from the garden we saw heaven below.

This is one of the most beautiful Estate Bungalows I have ever seen surrounded by so much of nature. The Muttu and the staff feed us with heavenly food to make sure this is actually the heaven.

The morning was serene

Our gang virtually sang all the songs we knew for the night. And spend the following morning in the lawn playing each other and a little bit of cricket until the continuous torrential rain stormed the area. Got soaked wet in the rain despite of the chilling water and gusting wind coming from the mountains.

It was like a dream. We everybody wants to stay in there eternally.

I have a dream...

2005-11-01T17:23:00.000+06:00

Theory One - I am the centre of my universe.

I have a system, a well layed out one, a network of people, in the same level of mine, a network of relationships, friends, people I gathered all of my life. It's simple, mostly pool proofed, shielded, prooven over the time. So no there is hardly any noice, miss communication and I am comfortable with the setting. Looks like the following digram when I picture it.

Since this system is settled to x number of people, made out of my people and I am sort of being in the centre of that universe. Each and every individual in the system have their own universe, may be in a different level. We all do.

So question # one - How would you introduce another planet to the system?

Simple, shuffle around the existing and you make place for another in between, in the same level, so no one feels odd, offended or crowded. Interactions the same. So the system co-exists, no problem. Like bellow. Sounds cool.

Question # two - How would you introduce a new to a different level, undisturbed?

This is little tricky, and involves most careful thinking and sometimes sends a dejavu within the system. (I remember The Matrix, the movie) Soon after system re-acts, sends across turbulance, too much noice, becomes unbalanced which is mostly not worth the hassle sometimes.

I have tried this recently but without much of a success. Like below. Connections become weaker, lot of noice occur.

Question # three - So what can be done about this, best practises, if there’s any?

What I have missed, have I done it wrong? How come? When I looked at it, analyzed. I see I myself is not the problem but the system itself.

I guess I see where the problem lies. If I was going to join it next to me, not in between the system and me, choose a level up or down like the digram two, in theory there shouldn't be any problems.

Anyone should understand that “Nobody is replacing anybody”. The new entry has it's own system, own level and can be in the centre of it just like me. All can co-exists with the newly added connections. But I needed serious interconnection so I let the new entry and the system to place themselves where they are comfortable, in between the system and me, not really in the centre though. My fault. The result was too mach noice. Chaos.

So what I am saying here finally ?

I learned a good lesson. If I am the centre of the universe, I should be the one to place the new entry somewhere, most likely right next to me, and only if that succeeds, should allow the other links. So until such time comes I should take the noice and reflect only what is needed rather than they themselves hear it. Anyone?

Haircut and negligence

2005-09-29T11:07:00.000+06:00

I realized sometimes we pay very little or no attention at all to certain things we get done on regular basis.

For me taking a haircut is a such thing. Yeasterday evening I walked up to the saloon I've been going for the last ex-number of years. The fellow (barber) who runs the place wasn't there, the place was opened at large. So unlike other times I had time to look around until he comes. And I wondered how come I haven't noticed this before.

He's really gotta nice small place, in the 2nd floor of the Nugegoda Super Market building overlooking Old Kesbewa Road enterance to Nugegoda town. When I acknowledged it he said he's gonna put up a name board outside the wall so people can see it from down.

Then suddenly I realised I've been going there for years, but I stilI don't even know the saloon's name, not even the guy's name,

When I think of it I felt little ashamed of myself. Life's just like that sometimes, you don't see the very parts of it for negligence. Too bad.

Buffaloes

2005-09-26T10:57:00.000+06:00

This is what I love about my neighborhood. I have talked about it even here for sometime back.

Last Saturday evening a herd of big buffaloes (nearly 15 of domesticated ones) invaded my lawn. It was exciting to watch these magnificent creatures eating their way thro the lawn pruning the grass.

With few moves I figured they were obviously scared of humans but I was more scared to get closer than my camera's zoom range. If they really want I knew in one move they can rip off my hip swinging their big horns.

Nonetheless the experience itself made my day and I watch them for nearly half an hour untill Gayani calls me and get me out of my trance.

Miracle Day!

2005-09-24T12:44:00.000+06:00

NB: Posted later for the last Wednesday 21, September 2005.

Today is one heck of an eventful day.

I don't know what it supposed to mean. Mostly good things still a miracle day. So many things had happened during the cause of nearly 8 hours. Good and bad, happy and sad, emotional and witty and as a whole I don't know what to call it. Feel like a lifetime of events had happened on one fine day. I won't believe that there will be another like this ever.

To name a few I can recall:

* Day started as you will see in my last post I tried the newest version of my favourite Graphics Suite Macromedia Studio 8 for the first time. The pieces of software out of which I make my living.
* Next in the morning Rani Aunt had little unnecessary case to step into a court.
* Hence I too tried walked into the court for the first time and virtually thrown out for my lack of awareness which my sin was I was wearing a T shirt. I was told I was not supposed to (?)
* Ruani's father had a small stroke and hospitalised suddenly. Good, he was allright soon.
* My one of the best colleagues in the office has given his resignation.
* Gotta another good news from the office I’ve been waiting for sometime on top of my friend’s leaving news.
* I got my first replacement card from HSBC once after I lost my wallet last with all its possessions.
* For the wallet’s sake, tried to get a copy of the police complaint for license replacement which was unsuccessful
* Further more there was some hearts' matters taken place.

Oh, What a Day to finish!

I will just write down these for safe keeping though I know will never forget this day. Hugh, funny sometimes how life takes us its rounds. I don't know what to call it. A Miracle Day with equally balanced good and bad!

My User Experience Upgraded!

2005-09-21T09:06:00.000+06:00

Wow! Today I woke up to the nice feeling of my long waited user experience upgrade.

Guess, in a while I am gonna see the new incarnation of my favourite work-flow application, Macromedia Studio 8 2005 release.

These babies making my living since way back in 1998. I always loved them. Always I was eagerly waiting for new updates to this Famous Graphics Suite, now brought by industry mammoth Adobe Inc from Macromedia, and Macromedia either never failed me unless in one occasion (Studio 7 2004 release with so many bugs). Now installing the newest trial of Studio 8. Will see how these babies behave this time.

Meanwhile enjoy these few shots I’ve got from the installation :-)

Main beauty who dresses up my work with nice leaner graphics,

The industry leader, main reason why Adobe brought Macromedia for,

Traffic chaos and Katugastota Bridge

2005-09-19T10:43:00.000+06:00

Note: Even in Colombo most places traffic chaos start with simple stupidity of the police taking over the lights. When lights are on or let the people go, traffic moves just fine.

In the ancient times Kandy city is built as a fortress with limited access. This doesn't help at all for the modern lifestyle. Many people now owns some sort of their own vehicle. Generally I guess in Sri Lanka, there are more vehicles than its road network can support.

In Kandy there aren't much traffic lights, too many lanes and the cops are being the dumbest, you can see the traffic hell in Kandy if you drive a vehicle. Naturally too much traffic start creating havocs in Kandy for the last decade. Parking is next to impossible in the city at any given time. This has been neglected nearly 10 years and finally last year the government made a decent multi story parking lot to overcome this within city parking problem.

This ended up as even more vehicles are entering the city now. Still roads are ignored at large. There is only three main access points to Kandy with narrow single lane roads which were built way back in 18th century. Namely Galagedara Kadugannawa and Kundasale passages. Where as the Galagedara one we live is being the most difficult. They are widening the road from Kurunegala side for years. It never finishes.

Forget all that but when you reach Katugastota, the bridge is one goddamn bottleneck for anybody who reach or leave the city thro this way.

Imagine the size of an access to Sri Lanka’s second largest city.

Last Friday I sat along in a bus for nearly two hours just to go home from Good-Shed Bus Stand to Nugawela (Just 8 Km). Idiot city cops at the bridge simply don't understand that all the vehicles enter the city has to leave fast so the town is less populated. Imagine the queue started from Mahiyawa Tunnel near Indra Traders and the traffic was stand still until we reached the bridge nearly one hour later. I think the queue itself was 1.5 Km long.

Taken some other time, this is nearly where the police guy was.

Gosh! To everybody's surprise we could see the goddamn cop in the middle of the bridge Katugastota side allowing whole long 4 minutes for the entering vehicles and only gives 2 mins for the leaving traffic. It was peak hour and people leaving the city after work than coming. Supposed to be a traffic police Hugh! These cops should be shot on the spot for this plain ignorance. I heard somebody is muttering why can't we run over this idiot in sarcastic manner. What this morons didn't see was the queue was endless from the city side we came and the entering one was mere eyes length. Still worse standing in the middle of the narrow bend he was blocking more traffic than helping.

I wonder why these cops are paid for just creating havocs in the road.

Simple solution to this is placing few traffic lights there and get rid of the cops. If the Kandy Municipal Counsel can't afford to build a better bridge they can fire these unnecessary police morons and even save few bucks.

At least President Premadasa's time they build this nice bridge in Gannoruwa so I can at least avoid this dilemma if I drive.

Nice but very narrow Kadugannawa Old Passage, luckily here they built a diversion for sometime back.

iPod nano? Nah, Not impressed.

2005-09-15T14:32:00.000+06:00

This guy talks about all the hyped of new iPod nano, exactly that’s my point.

WE WANT CONVERGED DEVICES!

Read here the original post: iPod nano? Nah, Not impressed. Period.
Further reading here: What, Apple taking phone market. I wish.

I have talked about this long ago here: Digital Convergence

And now I own a Treo 650, I feel I am getting there, almost.

It’s just a matter of somebody is making a standard on these devices. Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Plam and Microsoft stand a better chance, but Apple owns the class. Who’s gonna merge this is the question of the hour.

The iPods case is “Those 99.9% of the universe is just there in US, if you get out if US, the player is the mobile phone”
I know here in Colombo I have seen more Treos and Sony Ericssons than iPods.

Feeling lost and pennyless

2005-09-13T10:16:00.000+06:00

Last Sunday was unforgettable.

I have felt helpless in life quite a few number of times but this kind of thing I can never recall.

In the morning I had lost my wallet somewhere along the way to back to a near by shop. Carring the wallet in those big pocketted lose night shorts was my sin. Driving licence, bank cards, from few references to the last penny I owed in hand had gone. Wierd I have never given such an importance to a wallet until the day. Being on Sunday banks are closed and penny less makes you got nothing much to worry though my lovely friends had lend me some pocket money for survival.

This is the exact one I had photographed sometime back. All its possessions are now gone.

With no identities to prove me, just like born in to exile is a funny feeling. Major hassle was losing the driving licence. Sri Lankan Police is utterly useless they didn't at least offered me a some sort of authorised document for me to temporary use as an identity.
If I drive and caught they'll sure give me a ticket me for not having a licence it is as though I purposely lost it. Gosh!

I am not sure of what the procedures to get it back. I am sure more hassle is on my way. Police just asked me to wait a week to see whether some good heart will return it but I doubt that. In contrast none of the bank cards were a problematic they immediately canceled them and will issue me new ones within the cause of the week. The point is I can be without bank cards but not the licence. Authorities never undersand or look into these matters. Our procedures are dumb and useless.

Kotte Perehera Season

2005-09-09T12:45:00.000+06:00

Sri Lanka is full of nice cultural events since the early days. Perehera (processions) is such a thing which held in various parts of the country while Kandy Perehara being the most famous processions from my home town way up in the hill capitol.

Even though our people boast much about these cultural things none is really geared to preserve the traditional values much. Being commercialised most of these events now lack the former glory and the talents as I’ve seen them during my childhood days. Anyway it is still interesting.

Now it is the Kotte Perehera season (The area where I hang around mostly). I was not keen on standing up hours and watch this by the sides of the jam packed road though I had no choice since my gang deosn’t leave me alone. So last night we watched it. Surprisingly it was nice because of the place we’ve got with less crowd making it memorable event to watch. So I wished I would have shown it to my friend Ruani too who hasn’t seen this type of things. Any other times I remember we just unable to watch it peacefully with the too much crowd hovering around and watching girls go pass by was the only interesting part. :-)

Final two days anyway it is nearly impossible to watch cos all roads get packed up with by standing people. You only see the backs and do the head count then. I don’t wanna do that.

This time no hussle at all. I wished I had brought my camera with me than the phone's lousy one. It captures nothing in detail. Still enjoy the Perehera men doing their dance.

A moment with my Treo

2005-08-23T15:11:00.000+06:00

Even after having my Treo for nearly three months, my fun with it doesn't seem to fade away yet. With this tiny in hand computer I always find something interesting.

Here's my last weekend with the Treo

I was into Kandy last week for a vacation. And I found the Treo can be an indispensable partner for the occasion.

No net, no TV (I am not a TV fan at all) means you will spend your time what it supposed to be, on vacation mood. So generally after all the family chit chat and stuff are over there you still get aplenty of time to spare, One can have 1-2 hours in the bed for oneself. I normally either listen to the radio/ my iPod or sometimes read something in those times.

Our distant corner room where I stayed got nothing but a basic room. So I was free to play with the Treo. I knew this moment would come so I had kept my things ready. I had configured and tested the Treo with Mobitel's GPRS. I had shrinked down, copied the full Robots movie in Divx format to the Treo SD card. I always have nearly 100 songs in it in MP3 format in it. So I was more than ready for a solitary adventure with my Treo which I don't get much when I am in the city.

This was the test time to check how my Treo fair on this "all in one" device category.

I connected to the net easily. Checked my gMail account, browsed my normal reading sites like LBO. MyTreo Net and CNET News sites, checked my bank whether the salary has been updated and the credit accounts. Then ckecked the last mobile bill payment I have made. All went flawless. I even download a couple of ringtones and small applications for the Treo to test. Connection is steady and experience is good.

Browsing wasn't on far with a desktop due to the tiny screen, means a lot of scrolling but I still could managed to get pretty much the same things I do in daily basis on a desktop. cool.

And thereafter with TCPMP Divx Player I watched the whole Robots movie in my bed and finally fall into sleep.

Umm... sounds not bad for what a phone can do nowadays... hugh?

Untouchables

2005-08-09T16:10:00.000+06:00

I know this idea is very debatable.

Say how much would you care about a regular used day to day perfume?

The pictures here and below shows two things I've got recently. Gifts. In the face value they may be worlds apart, for the sake of giving I value the both alike, and what they mean to me is a whole lot different story. Here I am not trying to count the teeth of a free given horse. But this gives me the seeds to talk about something I like, gifts, and how they value in the society we live in.

People use various measures to give themselves a class and a status in the hope of prestige. For me the value of something like this depends on just the idea of giving and the person who is in the question. Other than that I don’t really care about the brand, the price or the class it comes with. Honestly I don’t see a difference on whole lot things as long as they do the job it suppose to do. Gifted, given or brought it, whatever.

Say for an example how many people around you could tell you that what kind of perfume you are wearing? The best they can get, Huh! you have changed/ wearing a new perfume like mere something.

This sounds just the same in bigger scale say whether you own a Toyota or a BMW. At least those are seemingly distinguishable by the general people or so I hope, means generally anyone would look at and say, Aha.. it's a BM. But even my argument about that generic notion of cars goes wrong when I think of my best friend. If we excuse her for being a girl and not interested about automobiles, still this clashes with the guys' general notion that you can win any if you drive a one. With my friend I know it wouldn't be the case. She would only see it as just another car which takes you from A to B.

So asking to differentiate something form someone, say a perfume, serves no purpose unless he/she in the trade. Nobody is in our office out of 40 people would ever be able to name the perfume I've wearing even if I ask. Noone would ever give a damn. It’s just a refreshment. For that anything that smell nice would do. So what’s the point adding a fortune to the thin air is the question I ask myself.

For me (for most who parallel to my thinking) spending a such amount over something that goes nowhere looks plain darn stupid.

There are still isolated sections in society that still gives a big deal over where your are from, what you wear, the brands and so on. And they take it as the class or the status. But what most don’t know is those things, the prestige, can not be brought from, unless one really earns it. Still in general globalization and busy lifestyles even these “can be brought by status simbols” have played havocs. So many look alike brands, products have lost their status in the vast taste of consumer preferences. There are names which still holds the crown for prestige but not like the good old days I remember.

There was a time that my household was truly 'It's a SONY' story. The TVs, the VCRs, Cassettes, Walkmans you name it. Now not a single bears the Sony name. But in fact out user experience has never gone down but improved. So I don’t care if it is an Apple iPod or a cheap Taiwan product or some designer wear which bears big name as long as they do what they suppose to.

So back to the gift story, when you think of presents I (most guys I hope) prefer tangible things than intangibles, the person than the brand and the use than its price.

And still gifts should be untouchables which just lie in your memory.

Dreaded but treaded - Treo Custom ROMs

2005-08-04T19:22:00.000+06:00

If you do speak the language, then the Custom ROM may sounds familiar. Technically speaking, one of the most powerful but dreaded feature of the Palm OS is Custom ROMs.

It used to be a thing in the past. Tools like JackFlash might have gone to extinction. Because none of the recent SONY CLIE or PalmOne devices had the ROM update capability for a casual user. Things did changed when they released my lovely Treo 650 and it’s updates.

A smart guy comes as Shadowmite figured how they do it in the Treo factory and shared the knowledge. So we can all do it in house. The story is a long one.

All I want to say is today I myself took the plunge with my newly brought Treo Beauty. Whoa! Now it still runs Palm OS plus my favourite applications without installing any! He he heeeeeeeeee!

The term Custom ROM derives from the ability to include whatever the software applications you want to have in your device, rather than having them installed later, just as the factory fitted way. Cool but the process ain’t for the faint hearted. Should something go wrong, your most precious tool will end up just being a paper weight.

Hectically busy

2005-07-15T15:11:00.000+06:00

This whole month I had been hectically busy with office stuff. No chance even to play with my new Treo beauty. My eyes strain staring at the screen, lack of sleep all that adds to the fun. Oh.. Boy, I am really having a time.

So no blog post until I finish with my projects. Have fun :-)

DVDs on Treo 650 is a whisk

2005-06-27T17:13:00.000+06:00

Getting videos on the Treo is much much easier than you originally thought. Watching movies on the move is fun to kill the time.

The process of getting DVD content:

1. Step one would be ripping a DVD movie to your PC as VOB files that is easy and straight forward.

I use DVD Shrink for that and it will take 15/25 mins depending on the movie length.

2. Then resize it to Treo's 320X320 screen as AVI/ MPEG4 movies.

Using PocketDivxEncoder this will take another 20-40 mins

The resize process gives you an additional bonus of a full DVD movie being shrunken roughly to 250MB in size. So you can put a full movie even on a 256MB SD Card.

Then copy the movie to your SD Card, if you have a fast card reader that will help.

Bingo! now you are all set to watch your favorite movie, documentary in a cab or a train or a plane or in your favorite weekend hideout.

I use TCPMP Player to play movies on the Treo.

This is awesome. Actually getting a VCD done from a DVD to watch in a VCD player is more of a tedious process than this.

More than what I bargained for - Beautiful Treo 650

2005-06-18T13:07:00.000+06:00

With merely just over two days of use I realized my lovely new Treo is more than what I bargained for. Cool!

With the exuberant exotic number of software titles from basic memo to barcode reader utilities available for Palm OS, such a compact device which is combined more processor power than my early old Celeron 300MHz Windows PC. It is truly an engineering feat.

Here's that best extracted from my Treo experience!

SMS has come to age! Email too!

SMS Chat Just like Yahoo! Chat.

MP3s,WMA and OGG playback is a whisk just like in Winamp.

Or if you prefer iTunes flavour instead.

Full length movies MPEG4, AVI or 3GP and H.263(HDTV) at your disposal.

(OK I agree it’s a shame to play DVDs in this tiny screen)
Still I can hype and wow my friends regardless. The screen’s physical size (4.5X4.5cm) is roughly the size of these images appear in a Windows 96DPI monitor but has double the resolution (320X320) where as these images are 160X160. So it is one of the crispiest, if not the best, LCD screens you can find these days.

Famous Palm PIM applications and a thousand add-ons.

Palm OS applications glore!

(With of cause additional Treo only utilities for a mobile.)

See the things that I can do with that tiny little blinking LED!

Basic but always ready digital still/ video camera, audio recorder and imaging apps.

Upto 2GB(yet) tiny-winy SD storage cards.

Tiny but very usable full function keyboard.

With full keyboard 70 combinations. QuickLaunch an application or number is snap.

Hot swappable battery just like any other mobile phone. But to your knowledge until this day Palm OS needed continuous flow of power to retain its memory, even on general computers as you know it, unless you save and shutdown after what you do. Palm users know a Palm OS is just like your ordinary TV set that you never have to wait until it boots-up or save anything. You always can pick up from where you left off. Plus, if you may, now you don't even have to HOTSYNC it. Its called some geek NVFS (None-Volatile File System) which retains wahtever you do even the power goes off. I am sure Windows will be made this way someday.

GPRS/EDGE enabled quad band global GSM phone plus a PDA. No more carrying two devices and their chargers and connectors along with you. Single beautiful solid unit. More over you can switch the GSM Radio ON/OFF regardless the PDA so it can easily be used in flights or near sensitive electronics.

So I am having fun with may new Handspring PalmOne Treo 650
Wow! Just as its long name Treo looks like the ultimate digital Nirvana I've been waiting for.

Excited? Want to have one? Yeah, I was once too :-)

I was upgraded - My Beautiful Treo 650

2005-06-16T17:02:00.000+06:00

Last week I truly felt like I was being upgraded.

I was upgraded from one time all the wonderful Sony CLIE-SJ33 PDA, Nokia 6610 mobile phone and Apple iPod to Palm Treo 650 Smartphone.

I have been waiting this baby to come for nearly 6 months. First I tried to get it down from US but various issues popped up. So I ordered it through the local vendor (more expensive though) then he too got stuck with his consignment for nearly over a month at the customs for it's being a communication device which never heard of by Sri Lankan customs.

Finally the long wait is over. Now the cool new Treo 650 is in my proud possession.

Once its in my hand it almost felt like a phone, not a PDA or a mini computer which is more likely. The form factor is just right. Built for solidity, the capacities of the Palm OS, combined global GSM phone, it is practically an extension to the hand. A miniature laptop on the go.

From basic phone call functions to SMS,MMS,GPRS,EDGE to the Net, MP3,AVI,MPEG4 to all the capabilities of Palm OS software titles available to date.

I am truly wowed! Kudos to Palm Inc. for making such a wonderful piece of electronics brain when Nokia dominates for the smartphone throne.

Well, This is surely gonna keep me busy for the weeks to come. Learning and playing with it will surely distract my schedules. Yes! I love gadgets and this experience is heaven given.

Read more about Treo here. I've gotta go to play with it!

The 100 Best Products of 2005

2005-06-13T08:42:00.000+06:00

PC World magazine has published an article about the best technology stuff in year 2005. I am happy the choice 1 and 2 have been my choice too. Glad that Plam’s Treo 650 made it up to 10. Gmail and Firefox is one of the best things that happened to improve my web experience.

Read the article here.

Office DVD Club

2005-05-25T10:18:00.000+06:00

Two years back when I got my DVD home theater system no wonder I got totally addicted to the quality of the movies which I get the chance to watch in DVD format. Crystal clear sound and near perfect picture leaves VHS and VCDs were a thing in the past.

But for a while good DVD titles were scarce here in this part of the world. Then later I got introduced to one of the video parlors in Nugegoda area which had some decent collection of DVD movies for rent. He too had run out of movies or rather I watched all he's got over the last year or so.

Then lately my player was just lying idle most of the time.

So this is a very timely thing that our office guys have come up with a office DVD Club. We've got nearly 100 good movies at the moment. We collect some membership fees and out of per rental basis we can increase the collection over the time.

The good thing is now I can cut down my trip to the video parlor and keep the movies I borrow for a while to leisurely watch them. Bingo!

So here are the few good movies I recently watched from our collection.

The Flight of the Pheonix
The Notebook
Paparazzi
Biotechnical Man

Suba Wesak!

2005-05-23T13:15:00.000+06:00

I wish you all a peaceful suba Wesak season!

Bye bye Ms Opera Bird!

2005-05-18T14:25:00.000+06:00

I don't know exactly when but probably in somewhere year 2001 I started using Opera, a minority web browser which was one of the pioneers to introduce the wonderful tabbed browsing experience to the masses.

With growing concerns of computer security, lack of standards, viruses, spam, scams (even my credit card was exposed one time), popups, exploits, crashes and the sheer slowness of Internet Explorer made me to look for alternatives. I tried everything else on earth and finally settled with Opera which was the only viable alternative I could find at that time.

Four years went by. It was a good browser. Opera's small single folder installation, fast page retrieval, popup blocking, prune to browser hijacking and tabbed browsing were the features I liked. It was light years ahead of IE which made me to use it and promote it to couple of other people too. But Opera wasn't without glitches. The default installation was daunting for a newbie. It has rendering issues with secure sites. None of the banking sites I use works with Opera. So occasionally I had to switch back and forth to IE. Anyway my computer was happier without malware so I was also happy until recently.

And then came all the wonderful gMail and blogger.com from Google Inc. which I got virtually addicted overnight. Problem again, NONE worked well with Opera so back to square one finding a better browser for my everyday use.

Surprisingly at the same time Mozilla Foundation released there infant beta version of Firebird (Now called Firefox) So I decided to give it a try. It had almost all the features of Opera and probably a better page rendering style. Honestly I liked it. Using gMail and blogger.com was a snap with Firefox. All my banking sites work fine with it. So from last November I was again switching back and forth to Firefox and Opera.

Suddenly I realised I no longer need multiple browsers. Firefox works fine with all the pages I throws at it as yet while Opera does not. It has proved me it's better than Opera in page rendering. So I was wondering why the hell I keep using the both which forces me to maintain two set of bookmarks.

May be I was sad to let go OPERA. It is like letting go someone you closely knew. Anyway now it's time, So goodbye, farewell My Opera. From now onward I am gonna stick with Firefox. See the screenshot. It can easily be skinned like Opera or originally like Safary.

Now the browser wars back on track again. IE is too combing armed with a tabbed version soon.
Whoa! It's Wonderful Wild Web all over again!

Read more here:
Modern Browser Wars
A new Internet Explorer version is coming

FORTUNE 4 April 2005 issue on SONY

2005-05-10T16:25:00.000+06:00

Strangely while I talk about SONY’s problems in the last two posts. FORTUNE magazine has come up with their own story for SONY in their 4 April 2005 issue. I haven’t seen this and just got hold of the mag copy. Seems my notion is on far with FORTUNE’s gadgets writer Peter Lewis. He has some interesting comments about PlayStationP and yet another format debate over UMD (Universal Media Disc). Should go and read it.

Here are some clippings. Courtesy of FORTUNE Magazine.

SONY is doomed!

2005-05-09T16:57:00.000+06:00

SONY's dismay continued.

Years back when I got my SONY CLIE SJ-33 it inspired me to see a future about to come which I nowadays witness. I can't believe if some tech savvy person headded the SONY R&D division why he couln't see these directions for their CLIE PDA line's future.

The CLIE gave me the first sense of a digital converge device which I want to own someday.

It had 320X320 65K nice screen
Palm OS as a leading OS for handhelds
The basics to handle pictures and multimedia
Basic but good quality mp3 and ATRAC3 player
Nice Palm's PIM suite for businesses on the move
Promising gaming platform with games like Bejeweled
And basically all the software titles written for Palm OS

This inspired me of a combined device like today's Treo 650, Apple's iPod and SONY's own PlayStation. All are equal winners in their own markets. But SONY made no effort to come up with CLIE successor while PalmOne and Apple now leads the gang. The opportunity is surely lost for SONY to developed such a cool device based on the CLIE series. So obviously with no promising future direction they had to discontinue it.

They could have made the CLIE, the Walkman, the PlayStation and integrate Treo and iPod it to be the killer device of our time. They had the design skills, Palm OS knowledge and the PlayStation, CLIE, VAIO, Walkman and all in their cards. But today CLIE which I jot down these writings is a dead product.

Instead now rivals of SONY having their party in full swing.

Treo and the HP iPaq leads the PDA clan.
Apple iPod, iTunes, Creative Nomad and Samsung clan leads the digital music and designer ends.
PalmOne, Symbian, Nokia and the Microsoft Pocket PC shines in the smartphones end.
Canon, Kodak and Nikon shines in the digital camera trade.

All are doing well but once a mammoth SONY is nowhere to be seen in the gadgets industry unless the PlayStation. Soon Microsoft's XBox outwit it too. No one inside SONY was smart enough to figure out the future they lost for the last decade. Now nobody calls their name for well known technology or cool devices like Walkman anymore. But as a consumer I don’t lose anything. I’ve already gotta iPod and soon gonna own a Treo 650. Sad but Goodbye SONY!

If I were heading SONY I would have long gone to exile and do some peanut business instead. Shame on them.

Why SONY missed the fun?

2005-05-09T16:05:00.000+06:00

When I think of my past posts and the SONY electronics devices I've own. I see a trend that one last SONY device is going to exile from the family. We have had SONY stuff since1979. From a small transistor radio to TV, VCR, VCD, Amp, CDs, Stereos we have had many SONY gadgets. As a matter of fact we loved them. The last to own by me is my CLIE SJ-33.

SONY was a remarkable company. But I don't think even SONY could figured out that how they got missed many best things in the digital era. Anyway it is no longer a secret once a electronic giant has lost its name to unsuspected rivals like Apple Computer and Samsung.

Truly SONY took the first steps of today's many technologies but now shutting down the same once a thriving businesses one after another. I think the problem is, even though they made some industry standards, they were pushing proprietary stuff too much. It was plainly stupid they were mostly trying to re-invent the wheel rather than adopting the exsisting standards. Using MemorySticks when there’s SD cards, Using some weird ATRAC3 instead of famous mp3 for music are just a few examples of these. In the process forgot how or what the end customer wants. Too bad but good lesson for any tech savvy company.

So there you go. They have so many patents and technologies that they could've virtually rockend the world. From Betamax, MiniDisk, MemoryStick to CLIE, they all in history. Failures. Now even shutting down their famous Trinitron CRT TV/ Monitor business for new comers like LG, DELL, Gateway, Samsung and Chinese manufacturers.

Even the digital camera segment they have made their name now looking blank when the pro-sumer digital camera business is booming. Since they don't have any answers to Canon's Rebel or Nikon's Digital SLR series.

The only remaining SONY dominance I can think of is the PlayStation. Soon Microsoft's XBox will kill it too.

Bias, baseless and funny!

2005-05-06T09:33:00.000+06:00

Sometimes it is funny to see when bullshit get a nice moke up.

Quoted from MobileRead thread. Read the article here in question.

“Believe it or not, but PDA sales are breaking records. At least if you follow Gartner's latest research report:

Worldwide personal digital assistant (PDA) shipments totaled 3.4 million units in the first quarter of 2005, a 25 percent increase from the same period last year, according to Gartner, Inc. This was the strongest first quarter the industry has experienced.

Of course I'd be more than happy to believe the story. Didn't we all talk about the imminent death of the PDA the other day? Now look at that. A 25% growth to a total of 3,419,112 PDAs shipped in 1Q05.

Look closer. And here is why this report is not worth a plugged nickel:

Notes: Totals do not include smartphones, such as the Treo 650 and BlackBerry 7100, but include wireless PDAs, such as the iPAQ 6315 and Nokia 9300.

Since when is Nokia a PDA vendor? If I remember correctly, Nokia has never referred to any of its products as a PDA. Smartphone! Nokia talks about smartphones. And adding the Nokia 9300 to the lists and leaving out the Treo 650? How absurd.

The cat is out, now tell me who is sponsoring Gartner's statistics?”

Hugh :-) the article has raised quite a bit of sound even here.

Re-Discover your music

2005-05-05T08:26:00.000+06:00

Once after getting the iPod Shuffle my music experience has improved quite a lot.

Before this thing came along my songs collection just lied there in the PC without much of use. I used it most of the time though it was the same songs I listened repeatedly.

With this Shuffle holding nearly 8 hour of music (512 MB) in a such a nice package. Now it is so easier to fill up, listen and manage my 2000 odd songs collection. Suppose with average one hour listening Shuffle will hold enough songs and battery for a week or more. This is so perfect for my bed time since as a habit either I listen to the radio or watch a movie at night. When the both ain’t got anything interesting the Shuffle is my savier.

I have nearly 95 hours of songs collection in the PC. Even played back to back it will take quite a bit of time to finish listening to the whole collection without repeating.

iTunes keep track of the songs you put into iPod and their play count. So I can always have a different selection when I refill it for the next time. So no manual copying needed like any other mp3 players which leaves all of them in the dust. I love this. So cool!

Nearly 30 years after SONY invented the Walkman, Apple got it perfected for the digital generation.

All I want to say is suddenly I have found new means to make use of my long music collection. Surprisingly there were even couple of nice new songs I didn't even know that they were there . Hugh! :-)

It's not a SONY!

2005-05-02T15:40:00.000+06:00

When I got my long waited iPod delivered last week I figured it is more like a piece of designer wear than a MP3 Player.

First time in my life I am having a none SONY device that is so solid, so cool, so nice, design, performance and in many aspects.

At first I was doubtful how can MP3 Player can be cool without a display. How I am gonna see which song is playing. In contrast a CD has song list printed at back and the player will at least show the track number, radio DJs says the names of the songs playing. But this iPod Shuffle got no indicator to know at least whether a song being played or not.

But do you need all that? Soon I knew this is the simplicity at its best with a tad bid of intelligence inbuilt. It plays mp3 better than my retired CLIE shown alongside which has 320x320 by screen.

iPod Shuffle charges itself from the USB socket
Knows whether a headphones are connected or not
If knocked off knows where you left off
Knows how to shuffle or play songs in order.

If that is not enough welcome to the iTunes. You get the best music management software on earth. Smart Lists and Auto Fill gives so much life, intelligence and simplicity to iPod Shuffle you will soon wonder why did you ever wanted a display at all.

Once iTunes fills iPod with songs from your collection, Listening them either way in order or random it is all your music. You collect them at the very frist place because you like them. There you go, there's no need for a display, you just hit the play button, skip free continues flow of your favourite music will be at your disposal.

The only thing I hated about iPod is the supplied headphones. The sound quality is good though it is a lousy design, does not fit well in ears, too big and painful to keep wearing.

So instead I use a SONY pair! :-)

Shuffle away

2005-04-23T13:40:00.000+06:00

I just got my newsest gadget iPod Shuffle today eveing.

Just eager to play with it. Meanwhile read this here.

Pictures Kandy or is it?

2005-04-18T09:38:00.000+06:00

Sometimes it is very strange to see what time does during its course. It's been nearly ten years since I left my home town Kandy and many things have changed their face over the time. Certain places have ceased to exist and no longer there as I knew them. In certain places time have ceased to exist and still remain just as the old days. Hardly with the former glory but may be somewhat gloomy and moody without much life.

There are good and bad side of this, if the places have historic value, it is ok they remain the same. If it is just an ordinary place those areas should be developed and look modernise. But what I see is that is not the case sometimes. The places should be preserved have been destroyed. The places should be developed have been neglected, lost their former glory and now may be being deserted.

I don't know why and I don't miss anything but it feels sad to go back to the past, considering it merely a lost decade not a lifetime, still most of my childhood memories are now gone. This includes places and faces you never forget.

Only then I realise how precious a frozen moment of a camera can be.

Below is only two things I could capture on my lenses this time. I should take a dedicated tour with my camera just to preserve these memories from extinction one of these days.

Halloluwa Suspension Bridge

It is just as the old days but almost gone to exile. I had to struggle to find where it was. Now even the main road goes bypassing it.

Gannoruwa

Gannoruwa has changed its face for a better look and a quicker cross.

Kadugannawa

It’s good that they have romeved the sideby shanties at Kadugannawa and cleared the scenic view but still dumped garbage can be seen alongside the hills.

Meanwhile the Kandy town itself has changed it’s landscape a lot though no pictures yet.

See Lankan Food Festival without any food!

2005-04-11T14:20:00.000+06:00

This is another weird thing about this country called See Lanka.

Last night I bump into a seasonal food fair they were having at Viharamaha Devi Park in Colombo with my friend. We were hungry and just passing by having seen the Food Fair we thought we may have something for the dinner and went in.

Guess what?

Forget about the dinner, there was nothing edible for us to eat. We could only find some peasants and a little kottu spot which you will anyway find in any fair.

Can you believe this, this is suppose to be a FOOD FESTIVAL but without any real food. All they were having was the things which you use to make foods out of. Spices, trickle, jams, athirasa (deserts) and even designer plates like stuff. Worst part was there were more clothes, fancy item and jewelry like totally irrelevant stalls but not a single food stall. Grrrrr!

Anyone who is familiar with the park knows this stall area is surrounded by nice lush green garden and trees that can accompany hundreds of dining tables and couple of food stalls. Imagine when there were none!

So I myself brought a towel, my friend brought some bottles of jam and we came out starving after going to see a Sri Lankan Food Festival. Gosh!

Chinese Cabinet Ministers!

2005-04-07T12:10:00.000+06:00

This is another email I’ve got about the names of the Chinese Cabinet Ministers. Cool!

The Minister of Postal Dept. - Mr. Lium Kium
The Minister of Transport - Mr. Payin Yang
The Minister of Defence - Mr. Sune Sung
The MInister of Health - Mr. Sanee Pen
The MInister of Media - Mr. Kium Kerum
The Minister of Broadcasting Dept. - Mr. Geyum Veyum
The Minister of Sports - Mr. Ping Pong (The game)
The Minister of Agriculture - Mr. Wawan Kan
The MInister of Finance - Mr. Hinga Kan
The Minister of Fisheries - Mr. Allan Kan
The Minister of Education - Mr. Pasal Yang
The Minister of Cultural Affairs - Mr. Urume Kan
The Minister of Bribery - Mr. Jarawa Kan
The Minister of Immigration - Mr. Horen Yang
The Minister of Employment - Mr. Kale Kan
The Minister of Tourism - Mr. Palayan Bung
The Minister of Construction - Mr. Bil Ding (Building in English)

In Sinhala, all have similar or related but a little insulting meaning;-)

Glory Nights!

2005-03-31T11:54:00.000+06:00

Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing had recently held their annual ceremony to tribute the Sri Lanka's best creative talents. SLIM Awards 2005.

The agency Leo Burnett had walked out with most of the Gold Medallions making it their Night of Glory. Congrats for you guys where I've got couple of friends working.

The Medals tally is as shown below.

(Sorry :-( the pictures are somewhat unclear)

Meanwhile I was trying to locate my early place Advantage Sri Lanka in the list. I know that they have gone through a change and must have altered their name which I wasn’t sure what.

So if the guys in this picture is belong to Rediffusion DY&R, thats it. Those are some of my remaining old friends and teachers in advertising, from Suminda to Srinath gone now to JWT and elsewhere, shown are Ajith, Shafee, Ravi and the clan I used to work with. Cheers!

So the story goes. I remember I loved those magnificent nights. Until lately I used to get a free-in though not anymore since I am not in the trade and lost many of my contacts.

Anyway I hope that the next year at least someone will take me there back to the memories! :-)

Long weekends and gas strikes

2005-03-26T09:27:00.000+06:00

I love long weekends!

The problem is that they don't come much too often. Still sometimes you get office work, promised stuff that you can't get the best use of those.

Otherwise our guys normally come up with something for this kind of long weekends, a trip, get together, dance, karaoke session, something fun.

Until Friday nothing came up for this weekend. Probably all are busy except me. Bad seen. I just finished a project and a little bit of wild ride wouldn't hurt much. When I was thinking that I am gonna be halted for the next three days, Amma called me.

There you are...

She needs couple of things get done and probably wants me to drive her around. So why not, can't stay locked up in my annex, so I'll be at home in Kandy for the weekend. Looks like I am gonna be grounded though she will probably keep me busy and pamper me that I wouldn't mind in the least.

Note: This long weekend ultimately happened to be 5 days long since there was no diesel due to a gas strike.

Good! I don't mind if there is no gas at all eternally, hugh ! :-)

Posting a comment problem solved.

2005-03-24T16:57:00.000+06:00

Well, a few people have asked me that they can’t post a comment here unless they get registered with Blogspot. True, well, They have initially set it that way.

Anyway now I have changed the settings. So that anyone can post a comment straightaway without going through that. Sorry about that before.

So now go ahead and say anything :-)

Return of the Macs

2005-03-23T10:22:00.000+06:00

They say “Give chance a chance” in their latest ad campaign for their coolest new gadget. iPod Shuffle. OK I decided having the chance to mingle it a bit.

Next week probably I will be getting my first Apple product from US, an iPod Shuffle. We'll see!

Apple Computer is one of my well respected companies. I am grateful for what they have done to the computer industry. They have given us so many way ahead technologies. The Graphical User Interface, the mice, the USB(?), the firewire and WiFi are to name a few.

I was good a Mac fan and still in someways. But the problem is I haven't used a Mac since 1998. Until then I had been in advertising for nearly 2 1/2 years and shifted into the software industry. I love the both industries but preferred the latter. I could have still asked for Macs (at office) but since there was no lost love I okayed and adopted the Windows PCs. It fulfilled all my needs with a fraction of the cost owning a Mac. Period.

The advertising industry, its DTP part was purely and now still heavily depend upon Apple products. They have a practically solid products range from Designer Collection Hardware to loyal range of professional software.

I believe that they are better or equally impressive for any given computer task with the wow factor. But something somewhere went wrong for them and that's why I don't see a single Apple Macintosh Computer in general use, not in our office, not in software development firms unless for QA and testing, not in general offices unless in an advertising firm. I really don't know who made the mistake but they never took off as a main stream computer system.

The story is a history when Wintel group had all the fun Macs became the forgotten species. I can give you few good reasons for what happened.

1. I have used and liked Macs enough not to settle for the PCs but they have never been affordable to get one for myself. In 1998 a PC was still the hottest item so we brought one home.

2. They were never mass marketed to the public even though all the PC promotions and other advertising was heavily based on Macs.

3. When all the hype of the Internet bubble started, Macs only knew how to do the photo editing and the layouts. While Windows PCs' got flooded with all sort of tools, utilities and general purpose software written by Windows enthusiastic crowd for free. Remember Winamp? I still have Winamp version called 0.20 which is 135Kb in size.

4. Talking about the entertainment part, When I was all wowed about MP3 and Napster, I didn't even knew how to play an MP3 on a Mac.

5. There were hardly any other software title for Macs than what had come pre-bundled with them.

So the bottom line is the general users never had chance to “Give chance a chance”

And now, not all that too late I guess, the Apple people again looking bright and shine. From iMac reincarnation to the iPop marvel they are hitting some new heights. But the “Attack of the Clones” continues you can hardly make me a non PC person now.

Anyway good luck and cheers for Apple, this time if you come back as the centre of my digital lifestyle, you are most welcome.

So this is a tribute to Apple Computer, a remembrance to my good old Apple Macintosh resource friend Shirantha and the clan who runs HAL Computers, the Sri Lankan agents for the Apple Products.

So if you need any of these new kids in the block, like iPod, iMac and that sexy Apple Cinema Displays, to “Give chance a chance”, he's the one to contact.

Shirantha Whehella
HAL Computers
43 Abdul Gaffoor Mw
Colombo 3
Sri Lanka.
Tel: 011 2467868

A bend highway engineers forgot

2005-03-15T09:30:00.000+06:00

Yesterday I was again into Ambilipitiya. A brief visit.

On our way back, in a nice long stretch of road, there is a bit of jam up due to a slow moving heavily loaded truck. Incoming traffic and we were doing 80 or so mph. It was not easy to do a over-take. You gotta be patient on our roads when there is just two lanes.

One fellow behind us made a such big racket. Horned, signalled, trying to over take. There was no safe way he could possibly go on. After few attempts my friend who was driving teased, OK you gotta vehicle that can fly. So here you go! He managed to sneak thro the 5–6 long vehicle queue and disappeared.

After 30 odd mins or so near Pelmadulla we saw the guy had straightened up a bend and flattened a wall which I guess highway engineers originally forgot to do so.

We felt sorry for the newly registered mint vehicle which is worth the 3-4 millions. sigh!

Note: For your knowledge, the air bags had gone off and the fellow was in one piece.

Perfect solutions

2005-03-10T14:52:00.000+06:00

Today two things just made my day!

I hardly update this blog with my personnel things. That's why I keep my www.dreamsmademe.com website separate anyway. But sometimes there are things that touches you so much that I should keep a note, may be just to myself.

Yesterday evening I received a lovely parcel. All my favorite things. A long story. I don't know what to say or what to do. When good things happen for all the wrong reasons life is much too complicated to comprehend. I can't help it. I can't make things any better or worse either. I can't create win win solutions to every occurrence I face. So I say it to myself, leave it there. Things should be fine.

I am always grateful that I am surrounded by such a wonderful people. People who loves me. Cares about me. Remember me. Friendships which speak of volumes. All the good things life has given. And when I get clueless like this I probably can't find the right words. All I can do is make the best out of the things life has given to me. The day may go pass by, the time will freeze but the good things will be remembered. That’s a promise!

"Aublic" Transport System and my Scooty Pep

2005-03-09T15:12:00.000+06:00

Sri Lanka's Public Transport System is a disastrous mess. It's never been in order as long as I can remember since my school days. We had been given School Season Tickets but I always ended up spending my meager pocket money for traveling.

Rattling rusty dusty smoked coaches, If you aren't careful you are sure to get tetanus, seats are never washed or cleaned, jam packed, wants everyone in the block inside the bus, never on time, stops every darn corner, either eternally waits or tries to break the speed records if a rival comes behind, You go bending four times down or stretched out to two times of your height. You are free given all the ear drum breaking high pitched sweetest “Mal” songs or cheap FM Stations’ DJ biyla while the conductor's marcial law voice loudly commands you to go “Passata”

Well, That was a total harassment just to cover mere 2 Km from my home to the office, and you gotta pay these bastards for suffering all those. So I decided to end it all. If the county can't make things right, I will make it right for mysef. Period.

Option one: A vehicle is totally out of the question.

Mainly no point sitting on the clutch and shifting gears for long 25 mins just to cover 2 Km in the peak hours unless you are chauffeur driven.

They are here a really expensive proposition to own.

So here comes my savier:

TVS 75CC SCOOTY PEP SCOOTER

I love my Scooty because:

No stopping whatsoever the blockades are.

You’ll get free air conditioning all the time.

No clutch or messy gears to shift.

Gas indicator goes down only once a week.

Can carry up all my weekly shopping baggage.

1/4 Cheaper than all my bus fairs combined with additional loitering.

Can take a loved one behind up and really close.

Sleek, curvy, modern and feminine.

And of cause “girls” do tend look at (wow factor!)

OK I admit I hate wearing the helmet but overall it was a sheer investment that is worth every penny I spent on it.

* “Aublic” in Sinhalese will roughly means chaotic.

Thieves, riots, druggists and burglars

2005-03-04T09:57:00.000+06:00

This has become real nuisance lately. Neither we nor Police can catch who is responsible for this. This area was quite, peaceful and had no history of burglary that we know of, until now.

Now there is either organized or a random gang who breaks into houses and do the burglary. Last month we lost all four set of our vans' signal lights set while they were parked inside the garden. It was nearly a Rs.16,000.00 fine for us to replace. We felt it was some drug adicts work for quick cash and complained the Police. But nobody was caught eventually.

Today some have done it agian. Luckily nobopy was harmed though they have broken into my aunt's place and taken her jewelry and some other stuff.

Sniffer dogs, finger prints, left slippers and the Police came in but still no lead came out whatsoever to catch the culprits. It is like giving them a license to go for the next break in. I bet they will make a easy living out of it. Go ahead!

Unfortunately as everything else, Sri Lankan doesn't seem to have any effective Criminal Investigation Unit in operation or rather give way to the political reasons. Crimes are at large but nobody is nailing them.

So we bare up our losses and live in fear. Anyone?

Nature in my neighborhood

2005-03-02T18:07:00.000+06:00

I didn't realized this phenomena until I set foot in my neighborhood with my camera. Surprisingly it's gotta quite a bit of bio diversity. Nice.

Though it is difficult to catch it all this is what I could capture on my lenses. There's a bit of plants, flowers and wild life too. Mugati*, Kokku*, Korawaka *, Thala Goya*, Atikukula* and few other unknown birds and serpants. Unfortunately I don't know how to capture them on the move without a tele lense.

This shows the vast pool of Sri Lanka's Bio Diversity in a small area. Specially since this place is only 1 Km away from the busiest Colombo city limits.

Complete gallery could be found here. Enjoy!

(*)= All names are in Sinhala since I do not know most of the English names. If one can send me the names I can post it there :-)

Sleeping and the timing...

2005-02-26T13:34:00.000+06:00

I hate to get up in the early morning. Still when timing is concern I try to be as punctual as I can if other things do not fall in my way. You know traffic blockades, dropping someone along the way might change this though.

Today I had a friendly pick up. Getting up at 4.30 am and I was sharp on my schedule.

At their doorstep, I horned, no sound. Then climb up their wall bang on their door and woke up the whole neighborhood. The mobiles were off and the neighbor said nobody must be at home. Gone somewhere ? Forgotten ? They should be there, I was wondering and came back.

Gosh! What I later found out was they were sound a sleep inside at the very hour they asked me the pick up.

Sigh! Typical Sri Lankans. Never on time.

Treo dream has to wait..

2005-02-25T13:44:00.000+06:00

I’ve been eying new Treo 650, now it seems like ages. PalmOne had created unnecessary buzz but did not deliver the goods as such. There were so many drawbacks. One can see the follow up if he’s following this Treonauts Blog.

Following the memory issue there were the mistaken price debacle and the isabled DUN issue. And now the European model is being nearly 300 US$ pricier than the US model is another to the list.

And it seems that I won’t be able get any official Treo release here in this part of the world anytime soon.

But the Treo 650 is one heck of a true converged device that I do not want to miss. One can’t blame the Treo for PalmOne’s faults. So I will wait for a while and see if things improve whether I can bring down one from US.

Still I’ve got to wait… sigh!

Amzanig hugh?

2005-02-15T14:52:00.000+06:00

Tihs is one of the emilas I’ve got tdoay. I’ve seen tihs earlier tuhogh I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg.

The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid aoccdrnig to a rscheearch taem at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a word are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Such a cdonition is arppoiately cllaed Typoglycemia.

And you awlyas thuoght slpeling was ipmorantt, huh?

MP3 Organising Dilemma!

2005-02-11T13:05:00.000+06:00

How many mp3s files you’ve got at your disposal?

I’ve nearly got 7 GB of mp3 music library on my local machine which was a real nightmare to keep them all sorted out properly and pick one for an occasion, Untill now.

If you install an application like Apple iTunes it will make finding the right music is a snap, granted only if you’ve gotta properly named and tagged music library. Since we collect our mp3s from random sources, the order is the last thing you can expect from these files.

Inconsistent file names, wrong tag data, misspellings, WeiRd CAsE, weird chars you name it. This makes even iTunes can’t handle these files properly.

I got really really fed up with this situation and spend days Googling all the web looking for tools to easily sort and rename these files at large. After nearly two days of search I finally came up with two sheer winners that help me to come out of this mp3 mess.

The two pieces of software that helped me to get this thing done is namely:
a free general file re-naming tool called BulkRename and the mp3 naming tool called UltraTag Editor.

Wow! now I have properly named and tagged neat mp3 library located in one of my local drives ready to be iTuned any way I want. Let it be the Genre, Artist, Album or whatever I can simply locate them in a second.

So, If you too suffer this mp3 phobia, it may take a while to get the hung of these software and get your collection sorted but it really worth the effort since it’s only a one time job. Go and try these babies.

Trip to Suriyakanda Television Tower

2005-02-10T17:07:00.000+06:00

After a while our gang went on the long due trip to
Ambilipitiya in the gone weekend.

It was one of the nicest journeys I went for a long time.

While we were there we climbed up and stayed at the
Rakwana Suriyakanda Rupawahini Transmission Tower
Circuit. The care takers of the place were very nice to us
and let us share their small circuit for the night generously.

It was freezing cold though we didn’t forget to take a bath in
one of the beautiful streams found there. The view was simply astounding.

Enjoy the pictures below. The tower can be see in the background.

No offence

2005-02-03T12:12:00.000+06:00

No offence for whatsoever the reasons but what this guy
really talks about makes a logical sense.

Read it here

And he says prior to the artiles and so I am repeating it here
“I'm entitled to have my opinion, and you're also entitled to have your opinion even if it's stupid”

It's a "Gift from Hades"

2005-01-17T14:27:00.000+06:00

The tsunami could not have a come at a better time for Sri Lanka. This unfortunate country was well on the road to being an international outcast when the tsunami came. On the strength of those tens of thousands of deaths, suddenly we are at the receiving end of international sympathy. Truly, it is a gift from Hades.

This article is nice. Afterall its typical Sri Lanka. Read here

Happy New Year 2005!

2005-01-01T15:40:00.000+06:00

I know hopes are grim for the county when the new year dawns but if we all can geared toward the county's prosperity aftermath that is never lost. It is good that we didn't here any of the fire crackers but the pirith, unity chants and blessings at the midnight.

Hope this years brings us the much needed turning points for all of us in the country.

I wish you all a Happy New Year!

Wow! We have a day...

2004-12-31T15:29:00.000+06:00

The TIME Magazine says
"Radio had its golden age in the 1930s. In the 1950s, it was television's turn. Historians may well date the golden age of the blog from 2004 when Merriam-Webster.com's most searched-for definition was blog. How long can it last? Who knows? Here's what we discovered about the new medium this year"

Here the article: Blogs Have Their Day
The report is here
What CNET says is here
They’ve got BolgAwards is here

It seems not bad to be a bogger nowadays.

Hell struck home - Help needed, please...

2004-12-27T22:26:00.000+06:00

Yesterday's tsunami was one of the worst and the first in history which swept Sri Lankan shores killing thousands.

The destruction is staggering, unbelievable.

The worst part is we have never been prepared, never heard of this kind of disaster unless in movies. Lost so many lives in a sudden flush of water. We were a thousand miles away from tsunamis until now. You have absolutely no defense against huge raging sea wave at land, somthing that you have never heard of in your life, no sign, no alerm, no rain, no warning, nothing unusual, it's the same serene sea you sit beside and enjoy for hours. Suddenly tossing and crushing its raging waves in a Day After Tomorrow like blockbuster movie which came out of nowhere. People didn't realised they were hitting a wall of death.

So I leave this note in memory of all those lives we lost today. May you all attain 'Nirvana' and rest in peace.

Deceased, missing and survived list can be found here

The government has declared a state of emergency to aid the displaced and the dead but this is by no means a thing a country like Sri Lanka can cope with alone.

So please, you the international community do help us, send us whatever the aid you could grant to the Sri Lankan Government.

We are urgently in need of medicines, ready to eat food , sanitary items, body bags ect.

Some support hotlines could be reached
+94-11-2745223
+94-118

Humanitarian Relief
       c/o MTV Channel (Pvt.) Ltd.
       No. 146, Dawson Street
       Colombo 2
       Sri Lanka.
Sirasa Network

   Rupavahini

Doners A/C Number :
     0030323998CU
     Hatton National Bank
     Head Office Branch
     479, T.B. Jayah Mawatha
     Colombo 10
     Sri Lanka

Online Doners http://www.me.lk/doner.asp

Essential drugs needed can be found here

More links can be found here

Or your Sri Lankan embassies can be contacted.

But this is soon gonna be a nation into remaking. So please do help these relief work in progress by any means you could.

Tsunami: [Japanese] Tidal waves created after a sea quake

Another Singlish Jargon

2004-12-11T12:21:00.000+06:00

This is nice. Enjoy!

Sinhala GNU/Linux OS can be downloaded

2004-12-09T15:50:00.000+06:00

These is a long due necessity. It is a pleasure to see that the Sinhala Unicode has become a world standard and now there are emerging wave of Sinhala software we can easiliy use without hassle.

Earlier we have to install proprietary components, dongles and fonts if we wanted to make use of any of the few Sinhala software. There is even an Optical Character Recognition software for Sinhala though I can't remember the URL.

The latest things is Sinhala GNU/Linux 0.1 OS, a Linux Sinhala clone that can be downloaded at the given address. Though I am not much of a LINUX fan and ain't know nothing about this geek OS I am really impressed. These LKLUG guys have done a really good job turning Linux to run in our Sinhala language.

Here's a screenshot. If you like Linux go take the plunge and enjoy Windows free world.

My Love affair with Sony CLIE SJ33

2004-12-08T15:12:00.000+06:00

I had been in love with and using my SJ33 as my primery writing pad ever since I brought it.

My experience with this nifty piece of electronic is more or less the same as this guy explains who has published a CLIE journal on his usage. He has even mentioned the incidend that I had dropped my CLIE on the ground at one time in his journal.

Sad SONY said Syonara to CLIE discontinuing their lineup lately.

Infotel ASOCIO 2004 - Colombo

2004-12-03T16:39:00.000+06:00

Well, after a while there is a techno show in Colombo. At least I was expecting to get a chance to play with all new Treo 650 but unfortunately it wasn't there.

So there were very few other items that took my interest like Toshiba e800 VGA Pocket PC. Too bad.

Even dream devices have their snags

2004-11-29T10:50:00.000+06:00

I was truly wowed having seen the all new Treo 650. I have been observing this since Treo 600 and now 650 is absolutely a no-brainer the best breed of converged device ever to hit the shelves.

It runs my favourite Palm OS, got the best industrial design on far with Apple's iPod, has world band GSM receiver, got nearly 16000 nifty software base to spare. Next only to the Windows platform. Even those you can get on your hand as it runs a Window's Remote Desktop Client. See bellow, Wow!

So virtually this is happened to be the best mobile office money can buy today.

I've been eying to buy one but to my dismay it has run down by a worst memory debacle in Palm's history. Read here.

Still I want one.

Feature laden software

2004-11-23T18:36:00.000+06:00

When was the last time you used the X feature burried underneath in the latest version of your favorite piece software, Say MS Word? The chances are very high you would say "hardly or never" So what's the point of having it all there at the very first place?

Today, all the major software firms release at least one incarnation of their flagship product each year. All the fancy features, bells and whistles but do people really use them? Opps! I guess 99 percent of average people don't even know that those features are there at the very first place.

All the new features, labyrinth of menus, thousands of lines of codes comes with a CD full installation that makes our humble machines scream for their breath.

And these companies make sure to include one or two killer features in this every version so users may feel compelled to upgrade or try. And sometimes get messed up their systems in the process.

Every version get blotted with features, takes more space, more memory, more resources and more time to figure out that you can't be as efficient as you were with their early release. Enough reasons to look elsewhere if we do have proper alternatives. The problem is we don't

One good example is my well respected Macromedia Designer Suite Studio MX. I had been using it since Dreaweaver incarnation 2 and they were famous for their quality software. Suddenly I was shocked to see how sluggish their latest trail of Studio MX 2004 when they initially released it. It took days to install, hours load, ages to configure, too slow to switch back and forth and screen redraw issues made me sick of. No wonder complaints were flooding at Macromedia Forums.

They were a respectable firm and suddenly the fame was at stake. Everybody gets effected. This is mainly due to Macromedia had released this version unpolished just as a marketing gimmick. They learn their lessons and soon revert it back with patches.

Anyway I went back to the previous version without having any alternatives. Sigh! Not that I missed any features unless some came with Flash MX but still I have to update my PC if I were to use these memory hogs. Forget it.

ACDSee V6 is another good example that they got messed up like this. It used to be one heck of good program for image browsing. Suddenly they decided to add all the world of features borrowed from Photoshop to scanners to digital camers to printers and lost in the wilderness.

Remember when Windows XP came in. How many patches and service packs does Microsoft release after their babies to get it stabilize? Ultimately no wonder they halted all their developments and put the company behind SP2 until they get it out right.

Big companies can afford to do that because they have enough resources.

The problem is for the end users who rely on these software for their bread and butter. Sometimes there's no equal contenders to take this famous feature laden softwares' place. This drives me crazy.

One way to overcome this is these companies can maintain two versions of this their cash cow sort of software. So one can say this can easily be done.

Not quite so. ACDSee Systems has done this keeping one of the early versions freezed at version 2.46 or something as ACDSee Classic. I still use it though, is it enough to manage pictures we get nowadays when each and every mobile phone too has 1 megapixel cameras inbuilt?

No way, well, for ACDSee's case I might get the choice of switching to now famous Google's Picasa or something but not for everything else.

Sure, software industry has to update their babies on regular basis to keep their revenues up either as marketing gimmicks or as truely to accommodate new technologies.

So here I repeat. We do need those feathers but not at the expense of the existing stability and the quality of the basic functions of the software we rely on.

Anyone?

First Impressions - Kodak EasyShare DX7440

2004-10-29T20:25:00.000+06:00

Wow! I've been waiting for this thing to come. It should reach my doorstep as US Parcel Mail parcel though, Sri Lankan postal service as usual had kept it at customs and asked me to come and collect it. I had to pay an additional Rs.170 for clearence.

Anyway no fuss. My beauty came safe and sound.

My initial impressions about this Kodak EasyShare DX7440 Digital Camera came positive.

If I talk about the cons at first. The camera's finish is not on far with say any of SONYs' or Nikons', Jog dial lock is cumbersome to operate, unlock. Connector lid was horrible to lift and connect the cables. I am sure it will be the first thing to break if any. The LCD was protruding out and it could easy hit with something and get cracked. Zoom buttons are beside the shutter you can't zoom and shoot. Should have been somewhere near the thumb wheel instead. Grip is not so good even though they've provided a rubber finish for the hold. Pictures were darker than what they appear on the LCD in low light conditions.

Pro are little but very notable. Whoa! The 2.2" LCD is owesome. Bright and crispy. Overall responsiveness is very good to compromise all the cons. Videos are good and can shoot in VGA resolution with sound. Focusing is very good even on night scenes. Flash reaches an extra mile. 4x optical zoom also a plus thing but will result blury pictures if not use with caution. (tripod)

Meanwhile, It is worth mentioning about the seller at eBay who sent this to me. Named Sonchai, Prompt response and excellent communication I really valued in this guy. He even sent me, a casing, LCD protector which wasn't even mentioned in the original auction for a nominal fee. He is also one of the very few guys who ships eBay items directly to Sri Lanka. It is a good buy for me. Thanks Sonchai.

Meanwhile I am crazy to play with my new cam, gotta go...

Mobitel lines keep dropping

2004-10-17T18:22:00.000+06:00

This is absurd. We've got 4 GSM operators in the country. They make all the hype in the world. We were playing with SMSs years before the US counterparts send their first SMS. Okay true enough but our networks are still sluggish. None covers island in one phase. Batteries won't last when you go out stations (okay that is the technology). No signal when you are about to die in some Bintenna place.

I switched to Mobitel GSM after having enough issues with Dialog GSM during the 1998 to 2003 period.

Now Mobitel calls are too keep dropping even when you are stationary in Colombo for no reason. It's hard to hang on for more than two three minutes sometimes. Sigh!

Dialog had this issue of network congestion due to over subscription and they got their switches updated lately. Anyway I switched and they lost me.

Now Mobitel, are they too trying to allocate more users in the network? But it does not seem to be a congestion issue. It is a problem of switching the cells we are in it seems. The phone keep changing its cell even when you are stationary and calls drop during the transfer, we noticed. OK you gave us the choice of knowing the cell we are in. I checked everybody around me experience the same. We even switched the phones to see with no success. So it's gotta be a network problem. Anyone ?

So you guys at Mobitel, I know you work hard to keep up your cutting EDGE, but would you please improve your network so we can make uninterrupted calls, the phone's basic function first.

I do still have another two operators if I really want to try. Anyway I was happy with you and I had slightly better customer experience with you guys. So I guess we'd better keep it that way, Aren't we?

Singlish

2004-10-15T11:46:00.000+06:00

There was a nice article by someone called Amarasiri Ganewatte in today's Sinhala newspaper, Divaina.

What he says is very true. I also felt English was very difficult when I try to learn it, because of the methods used. But as a matter of fact Enlglish is much simpler than learning Sinhala from scratch.

Here's a nice example from the artcle. The words sounds exactly the same. Different meanings though.

Go figure. It's nice.

The way our schools teach it is horrible. The young ones only get a bad taste about English. That's why it's been called "Kaduwa or the Sword" Yeah. English is cutting edge. No question. In this net generation you can't live without it. The government should initiate an islandwide awarness over English in Schools, away from Colombo specially in the rural areas.

Anyone?

National Best Quality Software Awards 2004

2004-10-08T11:23:00.000+06:00

We, Interblocks Ltd, won the Gold for the Financial Category and the Best Overall Product Category in this year's National Best Quality Software Award Ceremony. It's was a wonderful night we all felt.

Last year we have submitted the iSwitch and this year it was for the iPay, the Internet Payment Gateway system for online card verification. (VISA/Mastercard and soon AMEX too)

Meanwhile this is the last year's event.

Micheal Learns to Rock in Concert

2004-10-06T11:05:00.000+06:00

Wow! My long time favorite band is in town.

MLTR guys have come over for a brief concert in Colombo.

I love their ballades, all the songs, and I have collected
nearly all of their songs. I had long since separately
hosted all of those lyrics from my collection in my website.

Here enjoy them!
Micheal Learns to Rock Lyrics

The play was brief and only limited to 90 minutes.
Some of my favorites were not played. Hay, that's bad of you guys.
Anyway I enjoyed everybit of it.

Connecting People

2004-09-20T16:35:00.000+06:00

The Internet has made connecting people so easy in a way our parents' never even have imagined.

People here who have never touched a computer goes to Internet parlors to take Net2Phone calls. Soon it'll be VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) phones.

For some the Internet means purely chat.

Chatting has stormed the Internet from the beginning. And there are a million chat cliants out there. Trillian, M2, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, AOL you name it. It was nice to keep company with.
They are so famous and now even double as essential business tools apart from their initial appeal to the Internet new comers and teenagers.

Personally I never used any of until recently. I felt it's just wasting time typing useless dialogue with strangers. Mostly due to the slow but expensive dialup lines we had. It was even painful when we go voice streaming. So I spend all my online time reading and learning and searching, something worthwhile. When you got dialups chatting sucks.

It all changes when you gotta fast DSL line. It all changes when someone you know closely goes abroad. Suddenly chatting makes practicale sense.

Now Udani from Canada, Ruani from Fitch Ratings, Nuwan from UK buzzing me. The best thing is nobody's gonna pay a penny over phone bills.

Wonderful isn't it?