Wednesday, October 10, 2012

අතින්ද්‍රීය ඡායාරූපකරණය - Extra-sensory Photography




කාලෙකට පස්සේ ජුන්ඩක් විතර දාර්ශනික (අඩුම තරමේ මගේ පුද්ගලික දර්ශනෙට අදාළ) ලිපියක් පල කරන්න හිතුන. මේක මම මේ වෙන වැඩකට ලියපු එකක්. ඒ නිසා මේ ඡේදෙන් පස්සේ ටිකක් විතර නිල ගතියක් ආරුඪ වෙනවා. ගණන් ගන්න එපා හොඳෙයි? අමාරුවෙන් හරි කියවල බලන්නකෝ.


"බුදු දහමේ ප්‍රකාශිත යයි අද වන විට ගිහි-පැවිදි බහුතර මතයේ පවතින බොහොමයක් අතින්ද්‍රීය කරුණු, (පුනර්භවය, දේව සංකල්ප, ප්‍රේත හා වෙනත් අමනුෂ්‍ය 'තල' ආදියද ඇතුලත්ව) සහ වෙනත් ආගමික 'හාස්කම්' විද්‍යාවෙන් පහදා දීමේ විශාල ව්‍යායාමයක් අද වන විට ව්‍යාප්තව ඇත. මෙයට හේතුව සහ මෙහි සරලව සඳහන් කළ කරුණ තවත් ලිපි ගණනාවකින්, පුළුල්ව විග්‍රහ කළ හැකි අතර, එයිනුදු එහි සත්‍ය-අසත්‍යතාව පිලිබඳ කිසිදු වාස්තවික නිගමනයකට එළඹීමට උගහට වනවා නොඅනුමානය. කෙසේ වෙතත් මෙහිදී අප විසින් සැලකිය යුතු විශේෂතම කරුණ නම්, කිසිවක් නොදන්නා ජනතාවට වඩා, විද්‍යාව නමින් යම් දෙයක් උගෙන ඇති, තව දුරටත් ඉගෙනීමට, සෙවීමට බැලීමට වුවමනාවක්/හැකියාවක්/විභවයක් නැති හෝ ඒ පිලිබඳ විශේෂඥ දැනුමක් මේ වන විටත් නොමැති (ඔබ හා මම මෙම යට කී දෙගණයට වැටී ඇති කීම වඩා නිවැරදිය. කෙසේ වෙතත් අප හට තව දුරටත් සෙවීමට බැලීමට විචාර බුද්ධිය හා විභවය නැති යයි කීම අසාධාරණ ය ) පුද්ගලයින් මෙම ඊනියා සාධක වලින් නොමඟ යැවීම නිතර දෙවේලේ සිදුවන්නකි . මේ නිසා හැකි තරමින් මේවායේ වලංගුභාවය උරගා බැලීමට උත්සාහයක යෙදිය යුතුය. 

අද වන විට මහජන සන්නිවේදන මාධ්‍යයන් ඔස්සේ පවා ඉවක් බවක් නොමැතිව බෝතල් වල සිටින භූතයින්, පහන් අසල භාවනා කරන ප්‍රේතයින්, දේවතා එලි වල ඡායාරූප, ජය ශ්‍රී මහා බෝධීන් වහන්සේ පාමුල ජීවමානව බවුන් වඩනා බුදු රදුන්ගේ ඡායා රූප, අහඹු චායාරූප වල පසු තලයේ සිටින නොපැහැදිලි රූප ආදී මෙකී නොකී දෑ බොහොමයක් මෙම අතින්ද්‍රීය තලයේ සත්වයන්ගේ සහභාගීත්වයට පටවා මිනිසුන්ගේ ඉහ මොළ උලා කෑමක් පැතිරී ඇත. (මෙහිදී සැලකිය යුතු කරුණක් නම්, එවැනි අතින්ද්‍රීය තලයක පැවැත්ම හෝ නොපැවැත්ම, හෝ යම් ආගමික මතයක සත්‍ය අසත්‍යතාවය ඔප්පු කිරීමට මෙම ලිපියේ කිසිදු අරමුණක් නොමැති අතර, මෙහිදී , පෙර කී ආකාරයෙන්ම අප කළ යුත්තේ ඊනියා සාධක වල වලංගුභාවය සලකා බැලීමයි..). නමුත් ඡායාරූපකරණයේ එන මූලික සංකල්පවත් අඩුම තරමේ ආධුනික මට්ටමකින් හෝ නොදැන මෙවැනි දෑ විග්‍රහ කිරීමට යාම තරමක් හාස්‍යජනකය. 

අතීන්ද්‍රීය තල ගැන බුදු දහමේ එන කරුණු පිළිගත හැකි නම්, නිතර්කයෙන්ම කැමරා කාචයකින් ආලෝක සංවේදී පරිපථ වල මෙවැනි භූත/අමනුෂ්‍ය දෑ සටහන් වීම බැහැර කළ හැකි විය යුතුය. මන්ද යත් කැමරා කාචයකින් සටහන් කළ හැකි යමක් ඇත්ද, ඒවා අනිවාර්යයෙන්ම විද්‍යුත් චුම්භක තරංග වර්ණාවලියේ දෘශ්‍ය කලාපයට ඇතුලත් හෝ ආසන්න ( ඇතැම් රාත්‍රී-ඡායාරූප කරන වලදී නම් අධෝරක්ත කලාපයට බරවත්, සමහර අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ/විශ්ලේෂණ කටයුතු වලදී නම් පාර-ජම්බුල කලාපයට බරවත්) තරංග පරාසයක් ග්‍රහණය කර සටහන් කිරීමෙන් හට ගන්නා රූප වෙයි. මෙම පැහැදිලි කිරීමේදී අපට මුහුණ දීමට වන ප්‍රධාන තර්කයක් නම් "ඒ පිලිබඳ එතරම් විශ්වාසයෙන් කිව හැක්කේ කෙසේද?" යන්නයි. මෙම තර්කය, මිනිස් ඇස, වෙනත් සත්වයකුගේ සංවේදන ඉන්ද්‍රියයක් වැනි තවමත් අප විසින් මුළුමනින්ම වටහා නොගත් දෙයක් ගැන නම් වලංගුය. නමුත් මිනිසුන් විසින් නිර්මිත කැමරාවක් පිලිබඳ එවැන්නක් ඇසීම විහිළුවක් යයි මට සිතෙයි. එසේ නම් අප හට යම් ආකාරයකට ග්‍රහණය කළ හැකි මෙම විද්යුත්චුම්භක තරංග නිකුත් කරනා වස්තුන්, පැවතිය යුත්තේ අඩු වැඩි වශයෙන් හෝ අපගේ පැවතුම් තලයේම යයි අපට සිතිය නොහැකිද? 

මෙම තාක්ෂණික කරුණු ගැන කෙතරම් කතා කළ මුත් පලක් නොවෙයි. මන්ද යත් කෙසේ හෝ වචන ගැට ගසා තමන්ගේ තර්කයම පටලවාගෙන මේවා ඉදිරිපත් කිරීම අද සුලභ දෙයකි. එනමුත් අපට ඉතාමත් සරලවම කළ හැකි දෙයක් ඇත. එනම් මෙම පැමිණෙන එක් එක් අවස්තාව සරල විශ්ලේෂණ වලට භාජනය කිරීමෙන් ඒවායේ වලංගු භාවය සොයා ගැනීමය. මන්ද යත්, ශ්‍රී ලංකාවෙන් යම් ආකාරයකට මෙවැනි වෙනත් පැවතුම්-තල (planes of existence) පිලිබඳ විද්‍යාත්මක පැහැදිලි කිරීමක් ඉදිරිපත් කළ හැකි නං එයම මිනිස් විද්‍යාවේ ගමන් මග වෙනසක් කරලන්නකි. නමුත් මෙසේ ඉදිරිපත් වන කරුණු බොහොමයක් එක්කෝ සංස්කරණය කළ (Doctored) ඒවාය. නැති නම් ඒවා කැමරා වල තාක්ෂණික දෝෂ වෙයි. 

උදාහරණ ලෙස අපට පසු ගිය දින වල පුවත් පත් වල පවා සටහන් වූ ලංකාවේ දී ගත්, විනෝද චාරිකාවක ඡායාරූපයක පසු තලයේ භූත රූපයක් දිස්වීම ගත හැකිය. ඉතාමත් පුදුමය නම් එම ඡායාරූපයේ සිටි භූත රූපය, එම ආකාරයෙන්ම (කොටින්ම ඒවා දෙකම එකම රූපය බව විශ්ලේෂණ වලින් හෙළි විය ) ඇමෙරිකානු ඡායාරූපයක එය ට වසරකට හෝ දෙකකට පෙරත් සටහන් වී තිබී ප්‍රසිද්ධ වීමය. පැහැදිලිවම එය වෙනස්කල ඡායාරූපයකි. මෙයින් මට නම් සිතා ගත නොහැක්කේ, පොදු ජනයාගේ මනස සහ තර්කය සමග මෙම ජිල් බෝල ගැසීමෙන් මොවුන් බලාපොරොත්තු වන්නේ කුමක්ද කියාය. තවද එක් වරක් සමාජ-ජාල වෙබ් අඩවි තුල පැතිරුණු එක් ඡායාරූපයක මහායාන රූපයකින් යුතු බුදු රුවක් අහසේ මැවී තිබෙනවා සටහන් විය. ඉංජිනේරුවන් පවා මෙම ඡායාරූපය ඉතාමත් ශ්‍රද්ධාවෙන් යුතුව පල කළහ. හේතු විමසු කළ කිවේ 'අප නොදන්නා දේවල් මේ විශ්වයේ ඇත. එනිසා එක් වරම බැහැර කළ නොහැක' කියාය. නමුත් නොදන්නා දෙය බැහැරලීමට මෙතරම් බිය පුද්ගලයින් දන්නා දෙය බැහැර ලීමට මැලි නොවන්නේ මන්දැයි මට නොහැඟේ! බුදුරදුහු උත්තර භාරතීය සම්භවයකින් යුතු බව බහුතර බෞද්ධ මතයයි. කොටින්ම පෙරදිග මහායාන මතයේද එය එසේමය. එසේ නම් දිගටි ඇස සහිත බුදු රුවක් මැවීමේ හාස්කමක් සිදුවිය හැක්කේ කෙසේද? තවද එම ඡායාරූපය ඉතා සුළු අධ්‍යයනයකින් පෙනී ගියේ එය සකස්කළ හෝ තාක්ෂණික දෝෂයක් නොවන බවයි. කොටින්ම එය වාහනයක ඉදිරිපස පුවරුවේ තිබු බුදු රුවක ඡායාරූපයක්, වාහනයේ ඉදිරිපස වීදුරුවේ ආංශික පරාවර්තනයෙන් සෑදුනු පිළිබිඹුවක් බවය. නොදන්නා දෙය බැහැර කිරීමට අපමණ බය නිසා සාමාන්‍ය විඥානය බැහැර කිරීම විහිළුවක් නොවෙයිද? 

මෙම කෙටි ලිපියෙන් අපට මෙවැනි සියලුම කරුණු පැහැදිලි කිරීමට නොහැකි බව පිළිගත යුතුය. මගේ යෝජනාව නම්, සියලුම මෙවැනි දේවල්, 'විද්‍යාවෙන් සියල්ල පැහැදිලි කළ නොහැක' යන්නට බිය නොවී දැඩි විශ්ලේෂණයකට ලක් කළ යුතුය. එවිට සියල්ලම පාහේ මෙවැනි පැහැදිලි කිරීමකින් නවතිනු ඇත. එසේ නොමැති නම්, අප නොදන්නා යමක් සොයා ගත් කෙනෙකු ලෙස එම ඡායාරූපය ගත් පුද්ගලයා සහ එයට 'අතින්ද්‍රීය පැහැදිලිකිරීමක්' (වඩාත්ම පිළිගත හැකි) දෙන පුද්ගලයා රනින් සැරසිය යුතුය. නමුත්, එසේ කළ යුත්තේ තාක්ෂණික විශ්ලේෂණයකින් පසුව මිස, තොරව නොවෙයි."

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Siripala the Dead (photos)- මැරිච්ච සිරිපාල ගොයියාගේ පොටෝ ලෑල්ල...

කිහිප දෙනෙකුටම මම පොරොන්දු වුණා 'මැරිච්චි සිරිපාල' ගේ ෆොටෝ එකක් පුළුවන් නං දානවා කියල. කාටවත් තේරෙන්නේ නැති පොස්ට් එකක් මේකට කලින් දාපු නිසා (ජුබුල එක තමයි) අලුත් පොස්ට් එකකම ෆොටෝ එක දාන්න හිතුව... (කතාවේ සිංහල පරිවර්තනයක් නං දාන්න බැරි උනා ආයිබෝං.. සමාවෙන්ට ඕනේ.. )
As I promised a few people that I will post a photo of Siripala the Dead, I thought of adding a new post with it rather than edit the old one.. here goes..




note that these photos were taken at an Aurudu Uthsava of a kindergarten in our village... the guy was missing for a while... well, he's back.. :D

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Jubula- The UI tester for Eclipse

As you can guess, this is going to be a quite boring post, which is intended for a narrower audience than usual.
Bear with me.
Disclaimer: This post is a collaborative effort by me, Supun, Janindu, Rashmi, Madhushi, Akila, Samiththa, Meuru, Nilaksha and Kevin.

What is UI testing?UI testing stands for user interface testing. Tester will test how the application will be interfaced to the users. These testing will include scenarios such as testing whether the windows are easily understandable by the users, colours of the interfaces are appropriate and matching, the font is readable, and whether the menus and buttons are working properly etc.

Why use Jubula for UI testing?
Jubula is a tool provided by the eclipse foundation to test 

  • eclipse rich client platform (RCP)
  • standard widget tool kit (SWT)
  • swing applications
  • web applications etc.
Though there are many commercial tools for testing RCP/Swing/Web and SWT applications, when it comes to free tools for testing them "Jubula" is a good choice for consideration.


What is Jubula?
We know how laborious writing test cases is. Despite that it's meant to make our lives easier for catching 'bugs' at an early stage of life(of the bug), it often is the case that the writing of the test codes is even more complicated given that you have to be pretty hefty in defining dependencies, building repositories and so on.
Jubula is a tool meant to automate this procedure (at least to an extent). It runs on the Eclipse environment and basically supports the testing of eclipse products. Let us see how this is done.

Installation of Jubula
Before using Jubula, we have to install it. The following text describes the installation process.
Since Jubula is java based, it should run independent of the underlying hardware. Still, developers have defined minimum and recommended hardware requirements as follows.

Minimum Hardware Requirements

  • 1 GHz processor
  • 512 MB RAM
  • 350MB Hard drive space
  • 300MB temporary space during installation 
Recommended Hardware Requirements
  • 2 GHz processor
  • 1GB RAM
Operating Systems
  1. Microsoft Windows (XP,Vista,7)
  2. Linux
  3. Mac OS (except SWT AUT's)
Jubula supports Oracle 9-10 multi-user database
Obviously you have to have a Java environment installed in your computer. Jubula supports from Java 1.5 upwards. Java 1.6 is provided in the installation package. The latest version Java 7.
Installable Packages : Jubula has 2 components.
  1. Integrated Test Environment (ITE)
  2. AUT agent
The available installable packages are :
  • Jubula (Includes ITE and test execution)
  • AUT agent
  • Jubula documentation
Reference: Jubula Installation Manual


Special features of Jubula Installation
  • Ø You do not need administrative privileges to install Jubula.
  • Ø All you needed is a folder where the software will be installed must be writable and allow program execution
  • Ø Jubula uses a graphical installer to make the installation easy and pretty straight forward.
  • Ø Jubula installation can be done not only on PCs , but this installation can be done on servers as well. This is referred as installing Jubula centrally.

Why Jubula centrally installation is important?
  • Ø Most of the time the developers create the tests locally on their PCs.
  • Ø When the process is moved to the quality assurance step tests should be moved from the working (local) database to the development (QA) database.
  • Ø At this time having Jubula installed on a server will be useful.
  • Ø At the time of parallel testing on different flat forms, at each parallel test one Jubula installation is required. But any specific server systems testing need not to be performed.



Let's go through the installation process, (which is pretty straight forward ) . All you have to do is go to http://www.eclipse.org/jubula/download.php and choose the relevant standalone version for your desired operating system. And the installation is as simple as anything but make sure that at the time of installation, you tick all three check boxes that have Jubula , AUT Agent, and Documentation. 

Initial configuration for testing and AUT setup. 

Before we start using Jubula, there are some things we need to take care about. For an example, let's use a RCP application to demonstrate. First startup your eclipse workstation and create a new plugin-project. And 

OK, now you should know the drill, give a decent name to the project and if you want you can give a specific location that you want it to be. Now, Click 'Next' and select RCP Mail Template. (let's create a new mail application for fun ). Also, make sure you have this to be a 'rich client project'

                           



And now your application is created by clicking 'Finish'.
Before we use Jubula on our application, we need to export it as a product. Here, there is a bit of a streaky job due to a built in bug in eclipse in exports. First of all, right click on your project, click export. When exporting, please make sure to export it as an 'Eclipse Product'.

And the first time you export it, make sure you do NOT generate the meta data libraries. How ever, once the export is done, redo it and this time, with the 'generate metadata libraries' check box deselected. This way, you should end up with an Eclipse product, with an executable file.

Before we go on with the testing, there is a couple of things to take care of. Go to your Jubula installation directory, and you'll find a zip with name 'rcp-support'. You'll find a folder starting as 'org.eclipse.rcp....' in it. Copy it into the 'plugin' directory of your product and find the configuration/config.ini file in the product folder. There will be a line with the ''osgi.bundles'' reference, and to the end of that, add the folder name (with the version number) to the end of that line.

once this is done, you're ready to go.

Now, one more thing. Run the 'Start AUT agent' application( you may need administrative privileges).

Now, once you have installed Jubula, start it.

Go to 'Test->new ' and new project. And you have to follow some steps to make sure that your application under test is well linked to your test interface.

The Jubula new Project wizard should appear, you should see an interface like this. Give a suitable name to your project.
     


Once this is done, You have to select an AUT agent and start the connection. (for more information about linking in Jubula, follow this link ). 

Once you've done these, you have a go at the testing. Now click on the 'Observation mode' (camera icon) and select your project and give a suitable name for the testing. Now you will see an observation window appear. 


Now, clicking on buttons of your application should give you an 'observation' in the console. 




So you can see how far this testing can go right? :D 

Follow the following link for a more detailed approach. 

Yeah, this link... :) 

And now, fore more serious stuff. 

Database Configuration in JUBULA

Jubula is somewhat special in database handling, as it create database automatically.So Make sure to use a clean database. Which make sure that is would not contain any table.
You can use following configuration methods to have the optimum use of Jubula.
· Using the embedded database with Jubula
If you don’t specify a database the default DB will automatically selected. It is called as embedded database and its a H2 file-based database. And save to home/.jubula/database
· Using an Oracle database with Jubula
It is recommended to use Oracal or Oracal Express Database with jubula.
· Using a MySQL database with Jubula
It is important to change the packet size, as it may cause to make problems in comunicaton packets which are larger than 1MB.
You can follow following steps to change the packet size.
Step 1: Log into the MySQL command line client.
Step 2: Enter the following into the console:
SET GLOBAL max_allowed_packet=33554432
<<This sets a value of 32 MegaBytes? (1048576 * 32 = 33554432)>>
Step 3: Check that the value has been successfully set using:
SHOW VARIABLES
Step 4: Restart Jubula for the changes to take place.



Comparison to other testing approaches
Testing is a main task of software development process and it is critical to the success of software project. It is important to acceptance test software which is designed for end users.
There are various ways to perform acceptance tests. Some of them are
1) Manual tests
2) Programmed tests
3) Recorded Tests
But jubula approach is more effective than other testing approaches as Jubula makes lets you automate tests which follow the best practices ( readability, modularity and reusability to ensure maintainability) known from software development , but without any programming effort.
Some advantages of jubula approaches are as follows.
1) Early test creation
Jubula tests are created before the AUT is available. This is a radical advantage over capture-replay tools, which force testers to wait until an application is ready to begin with testing. The specification of modular, flexible GUI tests begins early and continues alongside software development.
The benefit of this is that every version of an AUT can be tested as soon as it becomes available. Testing keeps up with development, so we don’t waste time in our test process. It is easier and cheaper to fix and encourage collaboration when find issues earlier by testing
2) Code –free automation
Tests are automated completely from the user perspective and require no programming effort. This means that those who understand the user perspective best are able to fully automate tests. There is no need to wait for input from other team members to automate a test. If developers are writing tests, the black box perspective encourages them to think like a user would when faced with the software. Code-free tests also have the advantage that they are readable by the whole team and also by users or customers.
3) Manual tester intelligence
The wide range of keywords available in Jubula include high-level actions.So testers can use them meaningfully to do their testings. There is also a wide range of check and synchronization actions to incorporate the necessary robustness into a test.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Siripaala the dead - මැරිච්ච සිරිපාල

Keeping up with my promise of not being an extensively technical blog, this one will give a small story that I heard from the person in the title. First, let's get a background check.

My home-village, is nothing short of a cultural calamity in many aspects. The major reason for this as I see is that until recently, despite being well in the proximity of Colombo, roughly twenty (20) kilometers, the transport facilities were not that good. Neither were the infrastructural facilities in most regions in the village. So the 'outsiders' were reluctant to buy the land to settle here. As a result, until about seven or so years ago, the village was semi-rural. There were lush green lands, not used for any sort of housing or agriculture, and even the rubber plantations were more closer to forests. I remember I spent a good portion of my childhood running around in those bushes and the wild. Especially with the two boys who were to become Buddhist monks and lived in the village temple at that time. Indika and Sampath ( now, rev Rahula and Sujatha  respectively). All three of us have been caught and punished many a time for our mischief. ( Dammit... Kids nowadays know about Twilight... What the hell did humans do wrong? )

Well, this story, happened in the same background. One day, a balloon-man, who was called Siripaala, who used to live and serve as a helper in the Old Temple of the village (Kahathuduwa Nandanarama Viharaya), came to our house. He was just on one of his routine balloon-sales-trips in our street. And since one of my cousins with their then little daughter were at our place, my mother called Siripaala in. They were all sitting in the veranda when I took an interest in the conversation.

Siripaala was a short man, about 4'8'' with an average Sinhalese complexion. He was very thin, and his face was sort of deformed. One of his eyelids covered half that eye.He wore a simple three-quarter short with a moldy, dirty shirt which was a complete different color than the real color of it. Despite this appearance, it didn't take long for us to realize that he was a very pleasant man.And he didn't hold a lot of his life back on the newly met friends. He literally described what books he had read, what musical shows and where he had been to. What sort of dances  he has performed there. And he also shared a bit of his knowledge on Buddhism: How lord Buddha 'summoned a great fire and destroyed Alavaka' (For those wondering, Alavaka was taught a witty lesson in bullying people by Lord Buddha, but he never summoned a fire or any gimmick like that. Not as far as I know at least). And how Lord Buddha wrangled Muchalinda the great Cobra ( again, check this out on the internet or something if you haven't already heard it. That's  not how it happened... ). But all too well, we went on listening to his innocent misconceptions(supposedly).

Among the stories that he shared with us, this one is best told in his narrative.

'When I was younger, I was living in the Dehiwala Temple. Our Chief Monk was a good person. He gave me permission to visit my mother once. And I went home (...Siripala's home was in Weediyagoda),and on my way back, in the public ground of Bandaragama ( now this ground is in ruins actually ...pretty sad) there was a musical show there. I took my time and spent the night dancing on the ground and it was a nice show. But in my absence, something weird has happened. I didn't know then.

'I went to Dehivala temple, and just as I did, the Cheif Monk widened his eyes and asked how I am there. This was surprising for me, because, well, why couldn't I be there? And when I asked what's wrong, he said , "never mind. I thought you were dead". I just ignored this remark because he was a good humored person.

'A couple of months later, I thought of going home again.This time, I took something for my mother and went. And as I walked past the fence of my house, I saw my mother sitting on the porch, nibbling on a piece of bread. But just as she saw me she gave a loud shriek, threw everything away, and ran out of the house through the back door.

'I was lost. I then tried my neighbor's house. This time, my neighbor-a woman- gave a loud shriek and fainted.

'Now I realized something was definitely wrong. So I tried going to the small boutique near my house. As I went there, the vendor in the store grabbed the Yanthra on his neck, and started mumbling 'ithi pi so bhagawa..' (this is a pali phrase Buddhist use as a remedy for fear, crudely put). And then a woman who just came to the shop stood there, dumbfounded, and wide-eyed. I asked her, since she was the first person who didn't either faint or ran away from me, what is wrong. She barely managed to say 'oh brother... you died.. you died' before she too dropped her bag and ran away giving a loud shriek. This sound however, brought me to the attention of the young three wheeler drivers in the park right next to the boutique.

But then when they came, they started throwing me rocks and poking me with pieces of wood and so on. So I ran away from there to the temple. And the reaction of the chief monk of my villages' temple was the same as my mothers'-he ran away.

I realized that something led them to believe that I died. I didn't have a penny left to go back to Dehivala, so I had to stick around. I stayed two weeks, in the cemetery. Just ate scraps of food left in the boutique. No one gave me a glass of water to drink.'

This story, seemed to be a stupid one. Because it was difficult for me to imagine a whole village of people, buying into a ghost-story, even when the ghost appears in broad daylight. But then again, this is a small village, so there is enough reason for this to be true.

After that, the Police had picked him up, and literally begged him not to harm them in return they'd let him go to Dehivala.

Somehow, he had managed to go to Dehivala and ask the chief monk of that temple what happened.

Here's the story then. During that day that he spent at the musical show, someone who was wearing pretty much the same clothing as he does, a plain moldy teeshirt with shorts, had met with an accident. This was right near the Dehivala temple. And the people who saw him, had thought it was Siripala. The body was not properly identified because his head had been smashed in the accident. How ever, within the matter of couple of hours, the chief Monk of the Dehivala temple had gone to the kalubowila hospital where the body was kept. And since he couldn't give Siripala's body in this poor condition to his mother, his only family, he had given consent to do the burial(or cremation) by the Hospital, and sent a telegram to his mother. When Siripala came next day, he had written a letter to Siripala's mother about it, but it never got to her, and even if it did, she couldn't read. He didn't want to upset Siripala again, so he didn't tell it to him first time.

Now, realizing it was his discretion that led to this fiasco, he had taken up the responsibility in clarifying the whole thing in a public gathering in Weediagoda.

Siripala still sells balloons, plastic flutes, toy carts and planes etc. in the Friday fair in the Kahathuduwa Junction. In the weediagoda area, how ever, he is still known as 'Siripala the dead'.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

I ain't no pirate... But stay outta my face...

 With the recent events that unfolded including the SOPA and PIPA and Anonymous hacking some very important US Govt sites, even the average surfer has become conscious about their online anonymity and its legal complications. Now, I'm no expert in either of them, and as the title says, I am not encouraging illegal actions of any sort. But I think that revealing your online identity for every single service you request from a site, and letting someone monitor all your online activities is like, going to the bathroom at a stranger's house at the expense of letting him monitor what you do in it. Of course, it is his house and his rules, but it's best to avoid such encounters at all possible circumstances (for both users of the bathroom and the world wide web).

Your Online Identity


When you're connecting to the internet, use the world wide web particularly, you're revealing a lot of information.

A simple and crude way to demonstrate this will be to go to the following link to 'Stay Invisible'. As you will see, they can have a whole lot of information about you, from the screen resolution and the system fonts of your computer, to a reasonable lead on your location.

The solution? Well, there are many, but one of the most frequently used is to use a proxy server.






Now,  I have used a crude proxy for this demonstration purpose. As you can see, after enabling the 'remove scripts' and ' no cookies' options, I have made the site stop at 'Gathering  Information'.

Proxy Server
I am sure there are many online resources you can access to get a clear enough picture of what a proxy server is. In this case, I will give a small contextual explanation so that you can save a bit of your time. The World Wide Web usually deploys (still) a client-server model. Where you and I, the average web users are clients and the web servers are, well, the servers. Now, when you want some resource, a web page, or a video or something, you're asking the server to send you the data. In this case, you must submit information about your IP address. And giving an IP address means, you are giving out your current location, because even with DHCP( Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol-where you are assigned a random IP address at the time of connection) your ISP and DHCP Server should ( I'm not 100% on this, but they should) hold information that needs to find your whereabouts.  

What a proxy server does is, it acts as an intermediary. In short, you tell the proxy to get the resource for you. And you only provide your information to the proxy, and they don't mess with that, at least not as much as the other side of the game would. The proxy will fetch the data you need ( some may even temporarily hold the data to serve other user requests- a.k.a. cache it) and forward it to your host. Such a proxy server is known as a 'forward' proxy. And if the server allows users of WWW to connect it from anywhere in the world, it is also known as an 'open proxy'.

So now you can see why they haven't been able to track the IP address, my location, time zone, ISP when I used the Proxy Server. Next, let's look into why they couldn't find out the other information about me such as the colordepth and resolution of my monitor, my fonts, and so on.

JavaScript Tracking

 Suppose there is a certain page in a certain website that you visit. If the service providers/site owners want to track where that page goes, who visits them, what they do with it, they can add a JavaScript code to the page that acts as a tracker. When you go to the page, the page is loaded to your web browser and run. And that means the Script also runs. And there is a third party server that collects information from your web browser and statistics. Usually, this is used for simply hit generation which is a harmless purpose. But there is the risk of them being used for other malicious/undesired purposes.

Note that when I enabled 'Remove Scripts' , I have essentially removed the code that needs to execute to get the information from your browser. So now we can also see that it's the browser that holds the information for your screen and your System.

Please be noted that there are other purposes that the proxy server can be used for, more often than not, that are illegal. I am not prompting any of you guys to go ahead and break the laws. (if you really want to, properly conceal yourself and don't get caught... ) :D

Sunday, February 19, 2012

හිංගලෙන් දාන පළමු වෙනි මෙව්වා එක

මේ බ්ලොග් එක මුලින්ම මම ලියන්න බලාපොරොත්තුවෙන් හිටියේ අපේ මවු බාසාවෙන්( කඩ්ඩෙන්) විතරයි. ඒ උනත් ඉතින් කොච්චර කලත් අයින් කොරන්න බැරි මොකද්ද මෙව්වා එකක් හින්ද සිංහලෙනුත් දාන එක හොඳයි කියල මට හිතෙන්න පටන් ගත්තේ ලියන්න පටන් අරන් ටික වෙලාවක් ගියහම. ඔන්න ඉතින් හා හා පුරා කියල මෙන්න ලියනවා පලවෙනි සිංහල ලිපිය.

මේ බ්ලොග් ඒකෙන් අම්බානෙක ටෙක්නිකල් එව්වා වත් , අම්බානෙක පොලිටිකල් එව්වා වත්, අම්බානෙක ජෝක් කෑලිවත් දාන්න මට බැරි වේවි. සරලවම මගේ නොහැකියාව නිසා තමයි ආයිබෝං... හැබැයි ඉතින් පොඩ්ඩක් මනුස්පයෙක්ට කියවල හිතන්න දෙයක්, එදිනෙදා ජිවිතයට වැදගත් වෙන කොම්පුටරේ බටන් දෙකක් තුනක් ඔබාගන්න, එක එක මිනිස්සු එක්ක ඉන්නකොට මරාගන්නේ නැතිව, ඇරගන්නේ නැතිව ආතල් එකේ ඉන්න, නිකන් ඔහේ ලියන්නන් වාලේ වල්පල් නෙමෙයි, පොඩි ආතල් එකක් සහිත ටිකක් විතර වැඩකට ඇති යමක් අරන් යන්න පුළුවන් විදිහේ සරල බ්ලොග් එකක් කරගන්න තමයි මගේ උවමනාව.

අනේ අපේ අයියල තරහ වෙන්න කාරී නැතුවා, හැබැයි සිංහලෙන් නං මහා ගොඩක් පොස්ට් ලියවෙන්නේ නැති වේවි. මොකද කියනවා නං මගේ යාලුවෝ සමහරක් ඉන්නවා සිංහල හොඳට කතා කලාට එච්චර හොඳට කියවන්න තේරෙන්නේ නැති උදවිය( දෙමල උදවිය තමයි බොහොමයක්...). එයාලට අසාධාරණයක් නොවෙන්න, ඉංගිලිසි වලින් මම ගොඩක් ඒවා ලියන්නේ. පුළු පුළුවන් හැටියට පරිවර්තන සපයන්නත් බලාපොරොත්තුවක් තියෙනවා.  

එහෙනං ඉතින් කට්ටිය මේක කියවපු එකේ, දකුණු අත පැත්තේ තියෙන 'ෆොලෝ' බටන් එක ඔබල සයින් ඉන් හරි ලොගින් හරි මොකින් හරි වෙමුකෝ... :) 

ප.ලි.: යාලත්ත කියන්නේ 'සින්ක්' එක නෙමෙයි බව දන්නවා... කුස්සි බක්කිය කියන නමට වඩා කුස්සි යාලත්ත ලස්සනයි නේ? :)

Anterograde Amnesia and 'error 0xc0000034'

Now, you remember that I have been having trouble with using both Ubuntu and Windows, and never more so than during the story that I'm about to tell.

Well, with the Narwhal touchpad working, now I went to sleep happily hoping to wake up the next morning and start my slow transition from windows to Ubuntu. Guess what happened, the next morning, it took me 5mins and 27secs to load and log into my Windows user account. A black screen just after the welcome screen with only my mousepointer visible ( that didn't come out right... uh... never mind!) for 4 mins and 38 secs, and ironically, just the third time I tried logging in, I did all the timing mentioned here.

I don't keep the drivers for my laptop in a separate disk, but keep them all in the backup and recovery disk (I learnt that this was the wrong thing to do, the hard way). And the normal XP user knows one solution for all the bugs: Reinstall windows in partition C and all will be right as rain.

Doesn't help with Seven though. If you try reinstalling with the wrong package (I tried with the Ultimate, whereas I should've tried with Home Premium) and you're prompted to do a factory reset. Which I did. And next came the parade.

Amnesia, is the term used for loss of memory. And Anterograde Amnesia is the loss of long term memory. I'm not talking about the complete erase of memory, not by any means. Usually, the patients of Anterograde Amnesia regain their memory with the help of refreshing references. You know, just like Jason Bourne did after three movies, and Jackie Chan did in that one movie (Jackie Chan kicks Jason Bourne's butt even in regaining memory). It simply is just like losing a pointer to a variable. If you replace the reference or relocate , then you're good to go.

After the factory reset, what came to be was similar to amnesia. Windows can simply not find where to begin booting!!!

At first, me and my brother thought that this was something wrong with the hard ware and we had to bid farewell to the hard disk drive. But Gamlath (again, came to the rescue) had other ideas, and the next day, we consulted the oracle that is Google.

And here we came to know what had happened. Windows, has simply lost its reference to its 'Boot Configuration Data' or 'BCD'. The fixing of this, is pretty straightforward, once you figure out a way to get a command prompt open. For that, what we did was insert another Windows 7 CD(... What??? it was not pirated! we're in the MSDNAA... *wink* ) and asked for a 'Repair' and chose the startup repair. There, the best way is to go for the 'Automatic repair' but it didn't work for us. And then , Gamlath found these instructions in the net (using his computer of course) and what followed was success.
Simply, following this link will help you sort out the issue.

Oh, by the way, pardon me for being so Socratic. I am not a holder of that much of 'Original' knowledge in this regard , and then again, who among us are? :D

Inspiring the touchpad and dealing with the Narwhal...

We all are secretly in love with Ubuntu. For several reasons, including the fact that we have heard it to be open-source (although few of us possess the prowess to make use of this) and that it is open for customization( again, the same fate as the previous reason). How ever, it is still a daunting task when it comes to installing and configuring Ubuntu, or any other Linux system; it still is, the average windows users' nightmare.

One of the best releases of Ubuntu is undoubtedly the Nutty Narwhal release (11.04). Let's face it, it's flashy, it's nice-looking, and it is , well, still not that friendly... One of problems I had (yes, I had more than one, I'll come to that in a separate post. ) is configuring the touchpad. I am using Dell Inspiron N5110 with factory set Windows 7 and it simply doesn't register to Ubuntu as a laptop. (Pun intended). You can't turn it off, you can't type because it doesn't turn itself off automatically when typing. So went about the web to find some stuff for this. Here's what I found.

The Alps touchpad in this type, is not directly supported at the installation. But then there was a DKMS package (Dynamic Kernel Module Support Package) which included the new drivers. Installing it using the Synaptic manager, and restarting the machine, should solve the problem. But there are some interesting points we need to think about here. Please do someone answer me these questions.

My friend, RH641 ( nothing short of an expert user of Linux, among other talents of course) pointed out that Linux does not really 'Shut down' but 'log out'. In this spirit, we tried logging out and logging in to the account to see if the changes are applied. Needless to say, it didn't work, however, restarting the machine did the charm.

Next, I tried installing restricted extras, and this rendered my machine slow as snail, both in linux, and Windows. Now I was under the impression that Linux was less prone to errors like this, but it came to be a wrong assumption.

However, I am sure that replacements most of the buggy hardware drivers, for both the Narwhal and Ocelot releases are there in the form of DKMS packages, and just a small amount of Googling around should put you right across the right ones. This link, however, should provide the relevant dkms package.

Post Zero

Here goes...
A blog, has been in my mind for a while now, in fact, ever since I was introduced to blogging. As is the case for most of us, there has been an umpteen and one hindrances to writing one. Well, why bore you with what is passed, here we are, and that's all that matters.

A short introduction to my blog:
This blog is not about computers, it's not about philosophy or politics... But it's best to say that this blog is about all of it. This will not be the day to day blog of computer tech trivia, or some deep discussion about the philosophical aspects of life and world. But simply, this is just a dumb guy's view on the environment he occupies, which has a LOT to do with computers...

Confusing, I know. But bear with me. Stick around, think a bit, and be ... well... you won't be surprised...