My Dream : A Lankan Simputer

I have a dream, that one day Sri Lanka will be able to manufacture its own Simputer. I even did research on it yesterday during a boring workshop lecture on robotics. Can buy LCD Modules from here. I wonder whether I could use a Microprocessor for this. Anyway, a tocuh sensitive LCD will do. It is definitely a possibility. Anybody want to join me? Or would some hapless student take this upon their (able) undergraduate shoulders as a challening FYP?

Blogger and GMail

Did google buy blogger because of gmail or were they mutually exclusive moves?

Megatronics

www.megatronics.lk

Bob Woolmer appointed the coach of Pakistan

I am a firm believer that Sub Continent teams need a foreign coach. Well, foreign meaning not of the sub continent. There are too many traditions and “seniority syndromes” that affect these teams. You need someone who instills a sense of professionalism. An attitude of respecting performance and not putting importance on how long you have been in the team. Harsh as this may be, it is the only way for improved performance. Look at Sri Lanka and Davenall Whatmore. Look at India and John Wright. And I hope it will be so with Pakistan as well. They are like an uncut diamond. Sometimes looking like something which came off someone’s back side, and sometimes playing like superstars.

The Pistons Won!

Detroit Pistons beat Los Angeles Lakers. A classic series where the underdog won. And win they did with great authority! According to the commentators, nobody gave the Detroit Pistons a second look. They won the seven game series 4-1. Rarely would the word “upset” and “whitewash” be used for a game of sports. But this was close to an upset whitewash.

The Pistons epitomize the team game. They do not have a BIG star in their line up. Not the likes of Shaquille O’Neal. No Kobe Bryant. And not even a whiff of a Karl Malone. All they have are small fry who have not been spotted by star gazers. Perhaps this will change now. Chauncy Billups, Tad Hamilton, Ben and Rasheed Wallace are well on their way to greater things. Watch out for these names in the future. Congratulations Pistons!

Of Laptops PDAs and other gizmos...

This isn't the first time that I owned a laptop. But somehow this time feels different. Maybe its because I have one of the latest cutting edge laptops around. (No, I'm not just saying that, its true... ) And the fact that I received a very good price for it. Having two machines on my office desk is liberating in a way. My slow office machine is now reserved solely for the purpose of checking mail coming to my office account. And I use my laptop ( remember? The one with the latest cutting edge technology?) for most of the other, more interesting endeavours, such as writing this and other blogs.

Office is not the only place to be liberated by the laptop. I can work on top of my bed. Yippeee... There were tera amount of times when I was too lazy to go switch my computer on, and so kept snor.. err... slumbering on! But now... Whoa! It shouldn't be called a laptop but rather a tummy top!

I love my laptop! But somehow my instinctive nature in smelling a good business deal is telling me to use it for a few months and sell it off for a good profit. I wonder whether I should be saying this out loud so that the whole world could see it! I mean, what if my future buyer reads this?

In retrospect there are some annoying features. Such as its weight. Boy is it heavy! But being the optimist that I am, I am going to use it to improve on my (already improved), ahem!... physique!

And it IS quite bulky. But nevermind. I didn't buy this laptop to be moving around all of the time. Only in the mornings and evenings, to and from work.

And my PDA... Poor PDA! Its feeling a bit jealous. I forgot to bring my PDA yesterday too! I have hardly even had time to look at it! (There goes all my schedules that I have painstakingly scratched!) I wouldn't be surprised if I found my PDA pouch empty one morning with a note in it from my runaway gadget!

Brawain - Brawn and Brain

Brain or Brawn, the age old question. Which is better? Well, I think that Brawn AND brain is the best. Hence the term, brawain. I mean, look at the West, they have used their best brains to improve their brawn, i.e. WMD! This is a classic case of brawainism. If you look at most of the great civilizations, they were founded purely on the strength of the army. Even now we have the so called Super Powers, well, ok, they ARE the "Super Powers", they have their beginnings on the might of their weapons and armies. O Tempora O Mores!

Of computer viruses

Being the Systems Administrator, I get called up for various problems that my colleagues face with their (devilish) computer. But the call I got that monday morning was exceptionally creepy. "Bru, someones controlling my computer". Working for a university we get the rare student who thinks he is a Tech-Wiz who tries to mess around and look for weak spots. My confidence in my own network was now slowly drifting away like the hair on my head. Was there a hole in the network, a weak spot which I did not see? Was there a breach!? How could I teach Network Security anymore? There goes my reputation! With these dreaded thoughts running through my mind like wild hyenas, I stepped into my colleagues office. She was staring at her monitor as if a tsunami was coming at her. I greeted her and then I too was staring at the monitor. Although, I must admit, unlike her, I managed to keep my mouth closed! And true enough suddenly there were ghostly words being typed by an unseen finger. Some words did not make sense (Is it a foreign hacker, who could not speak english?); some words we spoke were repeated! Quickly, I ran some utilities to check up on the system. All my checks returned negative. But still the ungodly words kept appearing out of nowhere. I banged on the table in desperation. They appeared. Banged again. Appeared. Then I realised that the newest machines we installed had a microphone at the top of the monitor. The latest word processing software being used by my colleague supported voice recognition! The mystery was solved. The ghost was revealed. It was none other than the voice recignition software trying to convert the sounds into meaningful words! Where art thou Sherlock?