Ushiku Daibutsu, Japan

The Ushiku Daibutsu, located in Ushiku, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, is reportedly one of the tallest Buddhist statue in the world. One hundred meters in height, it is covered with 6-mm-thick bronze plates, and stands on a platform 20 meters high. The statue is more than double the height of the Statue of Liberty.

UD is 50 km northeast of Tokyo and tallest free standing Buddha Statues in Japan.

more photos, pl visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/sandunruki/2667125764/

Inside the statue itself is a four story building, which serves as a kind of museum. The first floor lobby is dark, and as you enter new age music floats toward you from the darkness. In the center of the room a single shaft of light shines from above onto a cauldron of smoking incense. If you walk past that you'll find the elevator to the other floors.
Also on the fourth floor are windows which look out from the buddha's chest on to the adjacent flower garden and small animal park. I didn't get a chance to see it, but apparently there are laser light shows on some evenings.

Challenges of Social Networking in Sri Lanka

First watch this web 2.0 video --> web 2.0 video

This paper described the challenges of Social Networking(SN) in Sri Lanka. SN is a web-based community of people who share interests and activities in the new version of the World Wide Web, Web2.0. These websites often feature user-friendly interface allow users to do more than just retrieve information. Social networking has revolutionized the way we communicate and share information with one another in today's society. Various social networking websites are being used by millions of people everyday on a regular basis and it now seems that social networking is a part of everyday life. Youtube, Blogs, WiKi, Hi5 and Facebook being the most widely used social-networking sites in Sri Lanka and others are Myspace, Flickr, Friendster, Bebo,LinkedIn, ZOHO Twitter and Orkut.

Several of the issues around the use of social networking sites are important from a computer literacy standpoint, attitudes to this form of communication and political & economical backwards. One challenge is getting users to join new social networks when there are few other members. Universities, Schools, and Companies are concerned about the time wasted in managing social network profiles and less bandwidth of Internet connection in Sri Lanka, they have banned SN sites.

Almost four in 10 internet users in Sri Lanka who are members of social networking sites would change the personal information they have put online, according to research. The research also showed that almost half of internet users aged 14 to 35 who were members of social networking sites and 61% of all internet users were members of social networking sites such as Facebook, Hi5, WiKi and Blogs.

A preliminary measure of this research is that no-limitation of SN sites is needed. The bandwidth of the system is not enough for the amount of requests of using the Internet, a kind of Internet usage is needed. The broadband Internet facilities in Sri Lanka are sufficiently developing. The Universities in Sri Lanka currently have over 10Mbps Internet connectivity and about 60% high schools in Sri Lanka have the Internet facility. People’s engagement with SN, understand people’s use of sites and exploring the more technical aspects of SN sites is needed. We must give students the chance to process learning and as a result better understand the content and educating the community about SN.

Watch this web 2.0 video --> web 2.0 video

Clear mail queue

We all hate spam, right? One of my first tasks as a Network Administrator was to figure out a way to filter out the spam we receive on a daily basis. These days our mail server generating SPAM mails & the queue is getting larger. Thanx to the LEARN, they provide a cool tool to scanning the messages in the sendmail queue and deleting or quarantining unwanted ones. So if you have a mail queue problem pl try this http://stuff.mit.edu/~jik/clean-mqueue.pl

Real Time Unicode Converter - UCSC, Sri Lanka

This is the great tool from University of Colombo School of Computing which will be a great asset, in the process of using Sinhala/Tamil Unicode.

This converter is available at http://www.ucsc.cmb.ac.lk/ltrl/services/feconverter/
or   http://www.ucsc.cmb.ac.lk/ltrl/services/feconverter/t1.html

Sinhla keybord --> http://www.ucsc.cmb.ac.lk/ltrl/services/keyboard/

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Another Converter..

You can use http://unicode.malindaprasad.com/ as a Real time Converter.....

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Horton Plains Sri Lanka

Horton Plains is Sri Lanka’s only montane national parks, and the only one in which visitors are permitted to tour on foot. The second & third highest mountains of the country namely Kirigalpotta & Thotupola respectively are found within the borders of the park.

The panoramic scenic beauty of the hill country could be witnessed within the park. The famous "World's End" and "Bakers Falls" are major attractions within the Park.

Leopard, Sri lankan Sambar Deer & wild boar are the most common large mammals in Horton Plains. Endemic Bear Monkey, Rusty- Spotted and Fishing cats, Otter, Black napped hare and Giant Squirrel are among other mammals. Many species of endemic & threatened rats & shrews are also found in the park.

Aberdeen Waterfall Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is blessed with innumerable waterfalls. Aberdeen waterfall is found below the Castlereigh Reservoir on the grounds of the former Aberdeen Estate.

This waterfall, which attain the impressive height of 322 feet Horsetail type gorgeous waterfall in Sri Lanka. This is near Ginigathhena town & 2km walk from the village. The sweetest thing is we guided by 2 Dogs.

When you travel along the Colombo-Hatton highway, turn at Ginigathhena junction and drive along the road up to village & then 2km foot walk to see Aberdeen Fall.

Visitors to the Hatton get the opportunity of viewing it. More photos

GOM player

GOM player is a freeware media player for Microsoft Windows. No need to install audio & video codecs. It supports most of the codecs like DivX, XviD, AVI, DAT, MPEG, WMV, OGG & many more.GOM player can also play .flv files. GOM enables users to view files with broken index, incomplete or that are still being downloaded.

We can customize player by creating our own skin, setting toggle keys, VMR modes, detailed resolution among others and we can specify margin, location, size, resolution, font of Subtitles.

We can take a screenshot of our video directly from GOM Player using the Screen capture & Burst Capture feature.

Advanced features

• Customize brightness, contrast and saturation
• Sharpen and add noise to our video
• Audio equalizer
• Repeat a section of video with A-B Repeat feature
• Fast forward/rewind a few seconds using left/right keys
• Zoom In/Out the video
• supports streaming Windows media format
• DVD-quality videos with 5.1 channel audio output
• Convenient Playlist
  
  

This is the link how you can get that player:

http://www.gomplayer.com

Download clips from YouTube like sites

The easy way to download Web videos from hundreds of YouTube-like sites. This works also for audio and picture galleries.

Download clips from YOUTUBE, DAILYMOTION, REDTUBE, YOUPORN & many more

in FireFox Browser

Download Firefox & go to the website once again, and click Addons.

Look for the search text put on “youtube” then click Search.

We can choose many youtube addons on your mozilla, but i recommended you to use “DownloadHelper” because it can be used from many Website that contain any multimedia.


Just install the addons on your mozilla. Than restart the mozilla, just simply closed the mozilla and run it back again. Now you’re ready to download a video from a Youtube. Go to the website http://www.youtube.com then search and select your favorite movie clip.

Click on the 3 balloon icon (blue, yellow, red) beside the address navigation select the Youtube Icon than save it.

Remember the extension of the file is “flv“, you need a Adobe Flash Player, and FLV Player such as FLV Player 1.3.3 or Gom Player, or VLC Player or you can use Kazza Lite Video Codecs.

This is the link how you can get that player:

http://www.gomplayer.com

http://www.videolan.org/vlc

http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/

in InternetExplorer

1 . First you should have install IE7Pro 0.9.12 and above which support IE user scripts.

2. Check if IE7Pro "Preference" - "User Scripts" - "EnabLe User Script" is enabled.

3. Find your favorite scripts on iescripts.org and click "Install This Script"


Copy RedTubeVideoDownloader.ieuser to C:\ProgramFiles\IE7Pro\userscripts

Go to a green "e" icon in the right bottom in your browser & right click & select Preferences --> User Scripts
Then select Enable User Script checkbox & enable user scripts as your wish.


Just simply closed the IE and run it back again. Now you’re ready to download a video from a Redtube. Go to the website

http://www.redtube.com then search and select your favorite movie clip.

Click the Share this video ( right click, Save target as) & remember the extension of the file is “flv“.

Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage Sri lanka

Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage(PEO)

PEO, a place we really enjoyed and never forget. PEO is situated in the Sabaragamuwa province of Sri Lanka, which is about 87km away from Colombo. Pinnawala is about 3 km from Rambukkana junction on Colombo-Kandy road.

Elephants are so fascinating. There are elephants with babies, two pregnant elephants, a humongous Bull. These are all Asian elephants. The orphanage starts at 8:30am daily for the visitors. At about 10am this bunch of elephants starts walking towards Ma-Oya where they refresh with their daily bathing. Ma-Oya provides the water for drinking and bathing for these elephants. The elephant bathing at Ma-Oya provides a picturesque scene every morning and evening. Most of the visitors enjoy this scene every day while 84 elephants have their bath in this picturesque river according to their own rhythm.

There are loads of tourists here, rightfully so. The official tourist shop sells paper items made from Elephant Dung - one of the more unusual souvenirs we've seen in our travels.

Sri Lanka University Games

9th Sri Lanka University Games 2007
2nd Nov 2007 to 11th Nov 2007, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka More Pictures

More than 5,000 participants from 13 universities will take part in the 9th University Games Festival, starting 2nd November at University of Kelaniya.Around 28 events under 19 different categories of sports and the events will be held at 10 different places, including the University of Kelaniya, Sugathadasa Stadium, Royal College and the sports grounds of the National Youth Centre.

The logo of the SLUG is in the shape of the letter “U”. It was selected from a competition. The letter “U” was selected, because the Kelani River flows in the shape of the letter “U” when it passes Kelaniya. And the letter “U” symbolizes the whole university system. It is green, to represent the greenish lawns of the grounds and the 13 balls represent the 13 universities who take part in the SLUG.

Oriole is the mascot of this year’s sports festival. It was in the Olympic Games in 1968, in Mexico that a pet was used as a mascot and it was used to control anti-Olympic ideas stirred up by student revolts and to spread good will among people.

It is for the first time that a mascot is being used in a SLUG. Oriole was chosen as the mascot because it is familiar to all Sri Lankans and also because of the close affinity it has with the area of Kelaniya in the Selalihini Sandeshaya.

Oriole is an eye catching bird because of its shining body and golden neck and legs. It was selected as the mascot of the year because the oriole is the ideal pet which represents the ethics and principles of the university games.

Kukuleganga & Makeliya Ella

KKG Holiday Resort is a very pleasant and recently constructed complex with nicely built one, two and three bedroomed cabins, along with amenities such as Club House, Swimming Pool, Play Area,Tennis Court, Squash Court Gymnasium walking trails etc. It is considered a highly desirable weekend retreat site patronized by locals as well as foreigners.


Makeliya Water Fall and Natural Pool is a very interesting place. It's just 15 kms away from the Resort.

Konnichiwa - My Japan Visit for ITHET July2007

ARIGATO GOSAIMASU .....

Travelling to Japan was an amazing experience that I will always cherish. Ever since I was a youngster, I had always aspired to travel to Japan. I finally did it. The plane trip to Narita
Airport was so exhausting.

During our stay in Japan, we visited many places. Our first stop was Hitachi, and it is a stunning city that I will always remember. Flashing billboards, massive buildings nearly touching the sky and swarms of young people frantically hurrying through the streets.

Travelling to Kyushu via Hiroshima by Car was absolutely wonderful. over 1600 Km from Ibaraki to Kumamoto. It just went too hideously fast. Visiting Hiroshima was a monumental highlight for me. We went to the Hiroshima Dorm and that brought tears to my eyes. It was sad to see how such a horrific tragedy could cause so many deaths.

In this Journey I travel with my Sir, Professor and Samoa guy name Vaise Patu. We listen to the Sri Lankan songs & he like the song "Ran Tikiri Sina" very much. That was his first time that he listen to this song. After our journey he search this song vis YouTube & compose this song @ very good level. Wow creative work by Samoa Guy.

Kumamoto is the traditional city of Japan. During our time there, we viewed Kumamoto Castle, Suizenji Park and many old places. We took loads of photos and you can see it from my Flickr site.

Shopping was a major feature of Japan. We went crazy and did masses of shopping at Hitachi, Mito and Akihabara. I purchases i-pod at a very cheap price. Akihabara is a great place, & had awesome times.

A Japanese home is a wooden building that is raised slightly above the ground. Most Japanese homes are small, and the rooms are usually separated by moveable paper partitions called fusama that can be rearranged to change the size or shape of the room. When the outside screens are open, the gardens can be seen from every room in the house. Customs and traditions are very important in Japan. Upon entering a house or apartment it is customary to take off your shoes. At dinner families often kneel on cushions surrounding a low table. Most Japanese food is cooked on a small grill called a hibachi. The food is usually broiled, steamed, or fried. The basic Japanese menu consists of soup and three dishes, each cooked by a different method. Dessert is usually artistically cut fresh fruit. Chopsticks are used for picking up all food.

The homestay families and Youth hostels treated us well. We experienced exotic Japanese food. I ate the Raw Fish, Raw Horse,Wasabi and the mountains of White Rice offered to me. Singing ballads at the Karaoke was utterly bliss. I was so surprised at the singing talent within our group.

Japan is a truly special country. The people are affectionate, it is particularly clean and the transport system is efficient.

Thank you to Sri Lankan Airline for delaying flight, then we shifted to Hotel Nikko Narita for 12 hours, they provide Lunch & Dinner with classical music.



ARIGATO GOSAIMASU

Develop of a Job Control System to optimize web traffic

My First Research paper for The 8th International Conference on Information Technology Based Higher Education and Training (ITHET2007), which will be held in KKR Hotel Kumamoto, Japan, in July 2007

Full paper Download:
http://www.kln.ac.lk/science/botany/docs/Optimize%20Web%20Traffics.pdf

In Sri Lanka, limited bandwidth of Internet connection during day time gives slower performance for sound, video and intensive graphics, resulting in long waiting time for downloads that can adversely affect the efficiency of the teaching/learning process. It is therefore extremely useful optimizing the Web traffics in order to have better response during daytimes.

We have frequently experienced in Sri Lanka when downloading a large file, or running a peer-to-peer file sharing program, Web pages start to load very slowly, or fail to load due to the problem of limited bandwidth resulting in virtual traffic jams. Controlling or managing traffic reduces bandwidth use, and is often described as bandwidth management, traffic control, congestion control, traffic shaping or traffic management. The challenge before us now is to implement the proposed e-learning activities with limited bandwidth under the current circumstances.

As mentioned earlier, downloading the learning resources available on the Web takes a longer period of time under the present circumstances. The speed depends on the transmission method and bandwidth which is a common problem in most of the developing countries. According to a recent survey conducted in Sri Lanka, it has been found that most of the people access the Internet during day time resulting in a very slow speed. However, during after office hours, mid night and on public holidays, it is very fast. To overcome this problem, we propose a solution to develop a job control system to minimize this factor.

Using the above job control system, both teachers and students should be able to save their time and will get the maximum benefit from their limited bandwidth. We must also control Web site blocking, restrict music and video downloading, content caching and filtering for students. It would also be an encouraging solution for the reluctance and hesitation of some sections of students and teachers in many South Asian countries to the introduction of e-learning.

WindowsXP + Mac + Intel

An Intel processor inside a Macintosh Computer running WindowsXP. Wow !!!!!

New Mac machines(Mac OS X 10.4.6) can run WindowsXP on them. Apple made things a lot simpler by offering the beta version of 'Boot Camp', a utility straight from the horse's month that lets you install XP on the Mac and this provides dual booting option which can run Mac as well as WindowsXP.

We can format the partition using NTFS file system and unable to write or save files to the Windows volume from Mac OS. Using FAT provides better compatibility allowing you to read and write files on the Windows volume from Mac OS.

WindowsXP will not be able to read & recognize the HFS+file system used by the Mac OS. The positive side to this comes in the form of total protection of your Mac OS partition from viruses & security threats while you are using WindowsXP.

My Designs

Hi all let me introduce my Designs to you..

Powellinvestment, London.

CyrilKulapathi& Sons, Sri Lanka.

MyComputer, Dalugama, Sri Lanka.

ComNetGlobal, Sri Lanka.

Sandun Fernando

I grew up in Negombo & did my A/L's @ Maris Stella College, Negombo. After my A/L's i was attached to the University & successfully completed my Bachelor of Science Degree in Statistics & Computer Science.