Stuff that matters to you

User Input Handling in Windows Phone 7

2011-12-07T06:24:00.001-08:00

In this tutorial we'll look at how to handle user interaction with Windows Phone. We'll use a Textbox a Button and a TextBlock to do this basic tutorial. This is very similar to the coding you do with Win forms or WPF. Difference is this is Windows Phone.

1. First open Visual Studio Express 2010 for Windows Phone. Create a new project of the type "Windows Phone Application" . Give any name you like and select a location to be saved. Then the project will be created.

2. From the toolbox on left hand side. Drag and drop a TextBlock and a Textbox and place it in the Design view. Note that TextBlocks acts as the Labels you use in WPF. Remove the text in the Textbox from the properties window and replace the text of the TextBlock as "Enter your name"

3. Also drag and drop a Button and another TextBlock and place it in the Design view. Rename the content of the Button from "Button" to "Display". Remove the text in the TextBlock2. Finally the design view should appear similar to this (figure 1)

4. What we will do in this application is we'll prompt the user to enter his name and press display. Then a message will be displayed on the textBlock added in bottom.

5. To do the coding for the button click event, double click the Display(button1) button. The event will be created in the code behind and you will be entered to the button1_Click method.

6. Add the following code in the button1_Click event which will get the input from the textbox and display in the label.

Nothing really to explain. This will simply get the input from the textbox and display it in the textBlock.

7. Debug and run the application in the emulator. Try enter a name and pressing display.

Importance of using a RSS Reader

2011-12-07T05:38:00.001-08:00

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds. I guarantee that you have heard of this technology. But I don't think many of you don't use it. But I'm telling you RSS Feeds is something that is very important for a daily internet user.

From Wikipedia, RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format.

The main advantage of using a RSS Feed is that, if you add a web site to the RSS feed you don't have to revisit that website to see for new content. RSS Feed will update the RSS Reader with the new content. You can use a RSS Reader like Google Reader(my favorite), Sharp Reader, NewsGator etc.

I'm great fan of RSS Feeds. But to understand it's importance you need to use the RSS Reader for sometime and see. The importance comes into notice when you're subscribed to a frequently updating website like Mashable, TechCrunch, Engadget. These sites are updated with fresh content in a rate where it's a tedious task to go to the website every few hours to see new content. This is where RSS Reader comes into play.

By using a RSS Reader you can differentiate the articles you have read and the articles that you haven't read.

As highlighted in red in below image, you can go through articles using previous and next buttons. Try today itself and see the difference. You will be amazed by the usefulness of this.

Hello World in Windows Phone

2011-12-07T01:31:00.001-08:00

In this tutorial we'll look at basics in Windows Phone Development and we will create a basic Hello World Application.

1. After installing the Windows Phone Developer Tools, on the start menu open Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone.

2. Go to file menu and select new project.

Here there are variety of options to choose from. To understand the basics, we will just create a simple 'Windows Phone Application'.

3. Select 'Windows Phone Application' and give the project name (WindowsPhoneApplication1). Then select the location where you want to save your project. Press Ok. Visual Studio will create the project.

4. By default Visual Studio is divided into 3 panes. On the left you have the design view, On the middle you have XAML code and in the right you have Solution Explorer and Properties.

The design view displays how the application will be look on the phone. You can drag and drop elements from Toolbox on to this.

The XAML(Extensible Application Markup Language) file will be auto-generated when you're adding elements from toolbox to the design view. XAML file is a XML File which is used by visual studio to create the layout and to generate elements. For more information look at this article at MSDN.

5. Let's get back to the tutorial. Now we'll add a TextBlock to display text in our application. Go to the toolbox and drag and drop a TextBlock in to the design view. Notice in the XAML that TextBlock element was added inside Grid.

You can change these properties from either properties window or by manually adding elements to the XAML code. We'll do from properties window.

6. Select the TextBlock you added and Increase the font size, height and text from Properties Window. You can see that XAML code is changed and elements are added accordingly.

7. Ok. Now we'll run the application. For this we will use the Windows Phone Emulator. Press F5 or go to Debug -> Start Debugging. For the first launch the emulator might take some time to load.

In the next tutorial we will dig into some user interaction.

Android ArrayAdapter

2011-11-12T21:37:00.001-08:00

main.xml

Activity

Final Output

Android Sri Lanka : Delivery Ordering System

2011-10-30T09:45:00.000-07:00

One of the best apps promises to attract the food lovers of Sri Lanka. Now Delivery More Simplified

Android Operating System Versions

2011-10-30T00:56:00.000-07:00

Recent Releases

2.3 Gingerbread refined the user interface, improved the soft keyboard and copy/paste features, improved gaming performance, added SIP support (VoIP calls), and added support for Near Field Communication. Android 2.3 Gingerbread is the latest Android version that is available to phones.

3.0 Honeycomb was a tablet-oriented release which supports larger screen devices and introduces many new user interface features, and supports multicore processors and hardware acceleration for graphics. The first device featuring this version, the Motorola Xoom tablet, went on sale in February 2011

3.1 Honeycomb, released in May 2011, added support for extra input devices, USB host mode for transferring information directly from cameras and other devices, and the Google Movies and Books apps.

3.2 Honeycomb, released in July 2011, added optimization for a broader range of screen sizes, new "zoom-to-fill" screen compatibility mode, loading media files directly from SD card, and an extended screen support API. Huawei MediaPad is the first 7 inch tablet to use this version

4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, announced on October 19, 2011, brought Honeycomb features to smartphones and added new features including facial recognition unlock, network data usage monitoring and control, unified social networking contacts, photography enhancements, offline email searching, and information sharing using NFC.

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(operating_system)#Version_history

Introduction to Spring Framework

2011-10-15T23:12:00.000-07:00

Spring framework is a java platform which provides comprehensive infrastructure to develop enterprise java applications. Spring handles the infrastructure for you so that you can focus on your application.

Spring allows you to build applications from POJO (Pure Old Java Objects) and apply enterprise services to them.

JTable KeyListener

2011-10-11T05:58:00.001-07:00

First create a JFrame and add JTable with data. Create the following class. Below the JFrame's class

class jTableController implements KeyListener {

   JTable table1;

   public jTableController(JTable table) {
       table1 = table;
   }

   //if you want to get selected data
   private int[] getSelectedCell() {
       int[] xy = new int[2];
       xy[0] = table1.getSelectedRow();
       xy[1] = table1.getSelectedColumn();
       return xy;
   }

   @Override
   public void keyPressed(KeyEvent e) {
       System.out.println("keyPressed");
   }

   public void keyTyped(KeyEvent e) {
       System.out.println("keyTyped");
   }

   public void keyReleased(KeyEvent e) {
       System.out.println("keyReleased");
   }
}

Inside JFrame's constructor add the following code.

       
tblMaterialSupplierDetails.addKeyListener(new jTableController(tblMaterialSupplierDetails));

That's it run the project and see.

Things to know about JTable

2011-10-11T05:35:00.000-07:00

You might already be using JTables comes with Swing in Java but sometimes may not know theses facts, Here's an some facts about JTables.

JTable does not contain or cache data; it is simply a view of your data.
There are two JTable constructors that directly accept data (SimpleTableDemo uses the first):

JTable(Object[][] rowData, Object[] columnNames)
JTable(Vector rowData, Vector columnNames)

However, these constructors also have disadvantages:

They automatically make every cell editable.
They treat all data types the same (as strings).
They require that you put all of the table's data in an array or vector, which may not be appropriate for some data.

When adding a JTable use a JScrollpane

JScrollPane scrollPane = new JScrollPane(table);
table.setFillsViewportHeight(true);

JTable uses a very simple concept of selection, managed as an intersection of rows and columns. It was not designed to handle fully independent cell selections.

NHibernate for .NET

2011-10-10T21:58:00.000-07:00

Introduction to NHibernate
When it comes to object relation mapping, writing your own code is a nightmare and not worth doing. This is because there are many frameworks written to do the same thing that you're going to do from scratch. These technologies are matured by time therefore there is no risk using them in real world applications than deploying them with your own buggy code.

NHibernate is one of the widely used Object Relational Mapping framework. You can easily use it in your projects and you can find many resources in internet about using this.

NHibernate with LINQ to SQL
LINQ to SQL is another way you can do Object relation mapping but in an easier way than NHibernate. But the problem with LINQ to SQL is that it forces you to use Class per Table kind of pattern. If you're into a small application which do not involve complex table updates and other things you can give LINQ to SQL a shot because it's fairly very easy to begin with. But when it comes to developing a complex enterprise level application, don't go with LINQ to SQL. Get start with LINQ to SQL Here.

Get Started with NHibernate
You can visit the official web site http://nhforge.org/ download the framework and deploy it in your applications. This is a starter tutorial I found on the same site http://nhforge.org/wikis/howtonh/your-first-nhibernate-based-application.aspx. use it and see the difference.

Introducing USB 3.0

2011-10-09T23:17:00.001-07:00

Difference between Public and Private Clouds

2011-10-09T23:16:00.000-07:00

SAAS vs PAAS vs IAAS

2011-10-09T23:14:00.000-07:00

This is a good explanation video i found on youtube detailing out about

SAAS (Software as a Service) :- Pixlr, Google Docs
PAAS(Platform as a Service) :- Google App Engine, Windows Azure, SalesForce
IAAS(Infrastructure as a Service) :- Amazon Web Service, RockSpace, GoGrid

Data Synchronization : Microsoft Sync

2011-10-09T04:31:00.000-07:00

From Wikipedia, Data Synchronization is "the process of establishing consistency among data from a source to a target data storage and vice versa and the continuous harmonization of the data over time".

Here's some useful videos I find out about Microsoft Sync. The Microsoft's effort to building a sync framework. you can get more information from msdn.microsoft.com/sync.

Here's good introduction http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/sync/bb821992

Some of the useful Videos

MongoDB a noSQL solution

2011-10-07T00:48:00.000-07:00

Have you ever heard about noSQL or MongoDB. Actually few days ago i stumbled upon on MongoDB and did some searching through the internet. Even though these are not widely used as it's counterpart Relational DB it has nice features in it which you should take a look on.

MongoDB is a good implementiation of noSQL. It is very simple but very effective technology. MongoDB website http://www.mongodb.org/ offers many great details and you can even download MongoDB and give it a try.

You can access the online shell in the website which gives you some nice background about how it works. It is just like JavaScript. Also when I searching through Google : MongDB Sri Lanka, I came across this video from Refresh Colombo Sri Lanka. which gives a introduction about MongoDB. I was happy to see such a video from Sri Lanka.

My First JSON Web Service with Android

2011-09-15T08:16:00.000-07:00

This is the first project I did using JSON. This web service accesses the Sri Lanka Railway Department JSON file for displaying routes on Android Device. It will retrieve the JSONObject parse it and assign it to a 2D String array and display in a ListView in Android Application.

Technologies Used:

JSONObject - This is how routes are saved in railway department json file
ListActvity - To display the route list
HttpGet and HttpResponse (To retrieve the file from url)

Introduction to JSON with Android

2011-09-02T11:07:00.000-07:00

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a light-weight data interchange format. JSON is easy for humans to read and write. It is also very easy to code with them and parse. JSON is also language independent.

An object is an un-ordered set of name/value pairs

An array is an ordered set of values

JSON With Android

Android includes a library called org.json. Developers can easily use this library to work with JSON. this package contains 4 main classes.

JSONArray
JSONObject
JSONStringer
JSONTokener

Try the example appears at this link (http://www.vogella.de/articles/AndroidJSON/article.html) It gives you a good intro of how to use JSON with your mobile application. It is very straight forward and most important thing is you have nothing much to learn.

NV Mobile

2011-08-30T22:48:00.000-07:00

My new site nvmobile.blogspot.com is focuses about Mobile Application Development. Please take a visit and see.

Unit Testing and Mocking

2011-08-10T02:00:00.000-07:00

What is it?

Simply unit testing is testing your code with some test data. Unit tests are used to test the behavior and functionality of the system. Unit testing makes testing your data automated and repeatable. It is also can be identified as Test Driven Development (TDD) Method. The idea behind unit testing is to create a set of tests for each software component. unlike manual tests, it's cheap to perform them repeatedly.

Mocking

Mocking is primarily used in unit testing. An object under test may have dependencies on other (complex) objects. To isolate the behavior of the object you want to test you replace the other objects by mocks that simulate the behavior of the real objects. This is useful if the the real objects are impractical to incorporate into the unit test.

In short, mocking is creating objects the simulate the behavior of real objects.

Some Mocking frameworks

NMock

EasyMock.NET

TypeMock Isolator Commercial / Paid

Rhino Mocks

Moq

NSubstitute

JustMock Commercial / Paid

FakeItEasy

ASP.NET Skills

2011-07-14T08:08:00.000-07:00

Creating a imaginary shopping cart system for a popular bookshop in Sri Lanka. This website is done using ASP.NET and C#. For the formatting and display I'm using HTML,CSS and JQuery.

Technologies and Skills Applied

Master Page with header and footer with cart value displayed on master page
IHTTPHandler :- Insert and display book with images
Repeater controller :- Viewing books using
Update Panel :- Sorting books according to the author name and publisher name. according to the query books is sorted in update panel (No postback)
Sessions :- When adding to the cart, data is stored in the session. The cart value is updated in the master page without any postback
WebServices
Default.aspx slideshow using JQuery (3rd Party Slideshow formatted for my need)

Functions

For the Clients:

Viewing Books (Search by Author name, Publisher, Price Range)
Add books to shopping cart (Stored in session)
Create a profile (Sign up and Sign in)

For the Administrators

Add Books

Sample Screens

Books.aspx

Default.aspx

Signin.aspx

ASP.NET Web Forms

2011-04-04T07:11:00.002-07:00

ASP.NET Web Forms is a part of the ASP.NET Web application framework. It is one of the two different programming models you can use to create ASP.NET Web applications, the other being ASP.NET MVC.

Web Forms are pages that your users "request" through their browser directly or indirectly and are User Interface (UI) elements that give your Web applications their look and feel. These pages are written as HTML and server controls along with server-side logic or code. The page is compiled and when requested by your user will execute on the server and generate the HTML that your user’s browser can render.

With ASP.NET Web Forms, you use HTML, "server controls" and code to create the page. This page is compiled and when requested by your user will execute on the server and generate the HTML that your user’s browser can render.

Within Visual Studio you can create ASP.NET Web Forms using a productive IDE. This allows you to drag-and-drop server controls, for example, when designing your Web Forms page. You can then easily set the properties, methods and events for that control or for the Web Form to define the behavior, the look-and-feel or other attributes. When you add server-side code to handle the logic for the page, you can program against a .NET language such as Visual Basic or C# using an associated page called a code behind.

ASP.NET Web Forms offer:

Separation of HTML interface from application logic
A large and rich suite of server side controls for various common or complex tasks
Rich data binding, empowered by tools
Support for enabling Ajax without knowledge of Javascript

What is web development? (Beginner)

2011-04-04T07:11:00.001-07:00

Web development is a broad term for the process of writing a web page or site. Web pages are written with HTML, CSS and JavaScript. These pages can be simple text and graphics that resemble a document. Pages can also be interactive or display changing information. Interactive server pages are a little more complex to write, but they enable richer web sites. Today, most pages are interactive and provide modern online services like shopping carts, dynamic visualizations, and even complex social networks.

Source: MSDN

Deployment Descriptor (DD) in web.xml Highlights

2010-12-14T22:00:00.000-08:00

One DD per web application
A DD can declare many servlets
A ties the element to the element
A is the Java class
A is the name the cient uses for the request

Apache ANT

2010-10-24T23:21:00.000-07:00

Apache Ant is a software tool used for automating software build process. Ant is implemented using Java language and requires Java platform for it to run. Ant is best suited for building Java projects.

Ant uses XML to describe the build process and its dependencies.

http://ant.apache.org/

What is Inversion of Control (loC)

2010-10-24T22:59:00.000-07:00

The Inversion of Control (and also Dependency Injection) patterns concerned with removing dependencies from your code.

public class TextEditor

{

private SpellChecker checker;

public TextEditor()

{

checker = new SpellChecker();

}

In the above code sample we have created a dependency between the TextEditor and the SpellChecker. in an ioC scenario we would instead do something like this.

public class TextEditor

{

private ISpellChecker checker;

public TextEditor(ISpellChecker checker)

{

this.checker=checker;

}

Now, the client creating the TextEditor class has the total control over which SpellChecker implementation to use. We're injecting the TextEditor with the dependency.

Tips for Money Making

2010-10-18T22:13:00.000-07:00

Look at these tips of money making

Focus on something you love
Be creative
Don’t force it
Don’t underestimate your ability
Market yourself
Hone your skill

How to insert .csv data into mysql

2010-09-29T01:07:00.000-07:00

Below coding you can paste in mysql query browser by specifying file location in infile and by specifying other attributes as below

LOAD DATA LOCAL INFILE 'H:\\Nipuna Docs\\test data employee.csv'

INTO TABLE erpsystem.employee FIELDS TERMINATED BY ','

ENCLOSED BY '"' LINES TERMINATED BY '\r\n' (empid,fname,mname,lname);

වැහි පබලු සේල | Wehi Pabalu Sela Lyrics

2010-09-15T00:16:00.000-07:00

හිරු සිනා සැලුවා...

පිනිදු තුහිත පිපුනා

මල් උයන් නැටුවා

ඔබට මන් බැදුනා

අහස කලු කෙරුවා

වලාකුලු බිදුනා

සැඩ සුලන් හැභුවා

මගෙන් ඔබ මිදුනා

සිහිනයකී නොසිති මට ඇයි ඔබ

යතාර්තයක් සේ හැගුනේ

විරාමයක් පමනි ඔබ

සදා කොහේ සැග උනේ

පුදුමයකී නොදැනේ මට ඇයි ඔබ

නවාතැනක් සේ හැගුනි

පියපතක් දුන්නෙ ඇ මට

පියා හබා තනිකලේ

හිරු සිනා සැලුවා...

පිනිදු තුහිත පිපුනා

මල් උයන් නැටුවා

ඔබට මන් බැදුනා

අහස කලු කෙරුවා

වලාකුලු බිදුනා

සැඩ සුලන් හැභුවා

මගෙන් ඔබ මිදුනා

Beauty of Sri Lanka

2010-05-05T00:24:00.001-07:00

According to colonial British reports, this is a natural causeway which was formerly complete, but was breached by a violent storm in 1480.^[21] The island consists mostly of flat-to-rolling coastal plains, with mountains rising only in the south-central part. Amongst these is the highest pointPidurutalagala, reaching 2,524 metres (8,281 ft) above sea level.

Source : wikipeida

Guide to Cooperate Blogging

2010-05-05T00:20:00.000-07:00

In order to maintain a competitive edge, corporations are increasingly looking for opportunities to make them stand out. Although traditional media serves as a solid medium that disperses company messaging to the world, the trends of information consumption are evolving. After some initial hesitancy, corporations are slowly starting to realize that it is important to jump on the virtual bandwagon of blogging. This medium represents the missing ingredient that traditional media lacks: the ability to directly connect a company to its customers.

As of February 2008, 54 companies listed on the Fortune 500 have corporate blogs (source). I had the great honor of interviewing the social media gurus behind three of the top companies with blogs: Michael Brito, Social Media Strategist at Intel, LaSandra Brill, Manager, Web & Social Media Marketing at Cisco, and Tac Anderson, Web 2.0 Strategic Lead at Hewlett Packard (HP).

Below is the information Intel, Cicso and HP have provided me regarding how their companies utilize blogging to connect with their customers.

Why is Blogging Crucial to Corporations?

What is the first image your mind conjures up when a brand is mentioned? Is it the logo, the jingle on the advertisement or the experience you previously had with the brand? Blogging allows current and potential consumers to associate the brand with a face and a personality. It bridges the distant gap that has existed between the “inaccessible” company and the “average” consumer. Brito said, “It’s a way for us to appear less corporate and put a human face when we interact online. We believe people relate more effectively to other people instead of a logo or corporate brand.”

Additionally, the blog is a representation of the company’s values, beliefs, philosophy and direction. If they are involved in a medium that encourages a two-way conversation, it shows their consumers that they care about their opinions. Brill noted, “Blogging lets us communicate with our customers in a more personal and direct way. But more importantly, blogging gives us a much needed way for customers to communicate with us. Customers are able to interact with comments and potentially provide valuable feedback or insight that can be brought back into the business.”

Although direct interaction with customers is an incredible incentive, there are many other benefits to blogging. It has the power to position employees as thought-leaders in their industry, to assist in reputation management during crises; to build brand awareness and loyalty; and to increase brand visibility, traffic and links.

Steps Fortune 500 companies take to Create a Blog

1. Determine if blogging is a good fit for your company

There are many corporations that are seduced by the concept of blogging. It is important to examine the target audience and if a blog is a good way to reach them. Research the socialsphere to learn what your audience generally does online.

2. Determine if your company is willing to invest in a blog

Although blogs can be built on free platforms, it is important that the company is willing to invest money into customizing the design of the blog, hiring experts for training, allocating manpower hours for blogging, and so on. Jeremy Wright, CEO of b5media, noted, “A bad blog is worse than no blog. A dead blog is worse than no blog. But an engaging blog is one of the best things in the world that you can do for your business.”

3. Create a strategy

After collecting all the essential data and having the approval necessary to proceed, it is important to write a strategy that defines the direction of the blog and its purpose. Brill said, “The strategy answered the basic questions of why we were entering the blogosphere, what our goals were and how we were going to measure the results.”

4. Ensure that everyone is on the same page

It is important for all the key players to be aware that the company is launching a blog that represents a specific component of the company. Providing them with the strategy document or an executive summary will increase their willingness to contribute to the blog. Brito said, “In the corporate environment, it is important to get everyone aligned internally (i.e. legal, privacy &security, marketing, product teams, customer support). They need to be aware of the blog not only because they may want to support it, but also for approvals.”

5. Determine the Involvement of PR

Many blogs have failed because they were used as a forum to share news releases, commercial information, and white papers. However, if the PR department is knowledgeable about blogging best practices, this should not be a problem. There are many different perspectives on this specific topic. When asked if a company’s PR department should manage the blog, Brito said that their involvement in blogging depends on their knowledge of the blogosphere. A PR department that has extensive writing experience that would be helpful in crafting interesting posts.

On the other hand, some companies regard the PR team a corporate policy enforcer and as an “in-case-of-emergency” liaison during challenging situations. Brill shared, “PR department should manage the blog policy and should be involved if a legal issue were to come up.”

However, the PR team should never be kept out of the blogging team altogether. The company needs to decide which role they will play depending on their goals and strategy. Anderson said, “PR should be involved and part of the team but not doing the blogging.”

6. Select Bloggers

Before identifying the bloggers, it is important to decide if this blog will have a single voice or will have multiple authors. Cisco, HP, and Intel have multi-authored blogs. If the company has many products and services in its portfolio, then having many subject matter experts blog is a good idea. Brill said, “We chose a heterogeneous team of experts to make sure we had coverage in all of the areas our customers might be interested in.”

However, it is important to note that mutli-authored blogs aren’t the only direction corporations should take. Companies can select a specific employee as the sole blogger who communicates product-related updates, company news and industry views. Also, this is a good time to determine if the company wants the CEO to blog. Brito encourages top executives of smaller-sized companies to be the voice of the blog. Anderson added, “It depends on the goal of the blog.”

7. Train the Bloggers

It is true that anyone can blog, only a few can blog well. It is important to train the selected authors on blogging best practices, writing tips, and promotion. This is also an excellent time to share the corporate blog policies in place to avoid any problems in the future.

8. Writing Posts

There are some companies that work with their team to create an editorial calendar that makes it easier for bloggers to author a post without having to work on digging up an idea. Additionally, it establishes blogging frequency, which is crucial for reader retention. Other companies like Intel list out all upcoming events, product launches and post ideas. It is important to avoid including press releases and white papers on the blog. Brito says, “We are talking to real people with real personalities, wants, desires and passions; and it’s important that we treat them that way by paying attention to them. We show them the love and in hopes that they will love us back; and tell people about it too.”

9. Realize that the Blog doesn’t need a tone

When you have a variety of bloggers, the uniqueness of each voice will make the blog more interesting. Brito notes, “Everyone is different and one of our goals for the blog is to be real and personal: real people, real personalities and different points of view. Besides who would want to go to a party where everyone is the same (same tone, same conversation?)”

10. Editing

The company needs to determine if they will implement an editing process. Cisco and Intel do not require their bloggers to send their posts for editing before publishing. They are available if a blogger needs it reviewed or has questions. At HP, Anderson helps with editing, optimizing and formatting the posts. Depending on the sensitivity of the subject, try to avoid an editing process that is convoluted and time-consuming.

Possible Editing Processes:
Blogger > Editor > Blogger > Editor > Publish
Blogger > Editor > Publish
Blogger > Publish

11. Establish a Comment Policy

Blogs aren’t supposed to serve as company megaphones that push corporate messages out to the consumers. The purpose of blogs is to serve as a two-way conversation between the company and the customer. It is important to allow the readers to share their opinion on the blog. Circumventing that will lose readers. Additionally, bloggers and employees should be encouraged to post and respond to comments. This will keep the dialogue going.

At the same time, companies may have a strict policy against foul language and spam. The community typically understands when such comments are deleted. Cisco, Intel and HP allow positive and negative comments. In dealing with negative comments, Brill shares, “Most comments are published within a couple hours including negative comments. Negative comments are handled on a case by case basis- sometimes it is best to sit back and let the others in the community chime in and sometimes clarification maybe needed to set the facts straight. In other cases we engage the commenter directly to understand the negativity.”

12. Develop a Promotion Strategy

The blog might have incredible content, but it will not gain traction unless it is promoted. The target audience needs to know that the blog exists for them to visit it. Brito said, “It’s about equipping and training the bloggers to participate in the conversations that are happening of the corporate domain. Are they on Twitter, Friendfeed, MyBlogLog, andFacebook? Are they spending considerable amount of time building community within these channels and responding to relevant comments? And, are these tools talking to each other and pulling in feeds?” During the pre-launch phase, bloggers can begin establishing profiles, developing a presence, and building a network.

13. Establish a Measurement program

In order to show the success of the blog, the blogging team should establish key metrics that are important to the company. This may include views, comments, backlinks, RSS subscriptions, etc. Brito cautions, “Its common knowledge that 1:1 ration of posts to comments is a good benchmark for corporate blogs. While this may seem a bit low, it may be a good start.”

An additional step to consider is creating a monthly report that shows the level of success the blog is experiencing. The numbers can show key insights into what content worked well, the keywords used to find the blog, and the promotional efforts that drew in the most people. These learnings can be turned into monthly recommendations to the extended blogging team.

Source : PROBLOOGER

Time Management Tips

2010-05-05T00:17:00.000-07:00

Learn to see the difference between urgent and important

The important tasks are those that lead you to your goals, and give you most of the long term progress and reward. Those tasks are very often not urgent. Many urgent tasks are not really important.

Know and respect your priorities

Aim to do the important things first. Remember the 80-20 rule: 80 percent of reward comes from 20 percent of effort. One of the aims of time management tips is to help you refocus your mind to give more attention and time to those most important 20 percent.

Plan your actions for achieving your goals

Convert your goals into a system of specific actions to be done. The first significant point of planning is the planning process itself. It is a known fact, and you will see it for yourself, that the planning process stimulates your brain to come up with new efficient solutions. It programs your subconscious mind to search for shortcuts. It makes you much more prepared for each specific action. Besides, planning will help you to identify potential conflicts and crises, minimizing the number of urgent tasks.

Planning can also significantly lower the time spent on routine maintenance tasks, leaving you more time on what you like to do or for what you think is important for your long term success.

Also remember that planning and related time management tips work best when you review your plans regularly.

Schedule time for your tasks

Your concentration can be easily lost in the sea of many boring or less important things waiting to be done in your head. Undone things circulating in your mind are also a big drain of your mental energy. Most often, there is no way to get those things out of your mind except of either doing them or scheduling them in a trustable system, convincing your mind that they will be done in due time.

Know how you spend your time

Keep a time log during some time interval, like a week, and then analyze it to see where your time goes. For example, what percentage of time you spend on urgent and on important activities, what people you devote most time to. You are likely to be surprised, and you will see much better if you could use more time management tips. This is also an effective way to get a feedback on how well time management tips and techniques are working for you, and where you need some adjustments.

Source : Time Managemet Guide

Volcanic ash causes Europe flight disruptions to worsen

2010-05-01T06:40:00.000-07:00

From staff and wire reports

Ash from an erupting volcano blanketed the ground in Iceland on Friday and left a widening trail of grounded aircraft across Europe, as thousands of planes stayed on the tarmac to avoid the hazardous cloud.

British aviation authorities extended a ban on flights over England and Wales for six more hours into Saturday morning but say restrictions over Scotland and Northern Ireland are being lifted.

The National Air Traffic Service said in a statement that the British flight ban now stretches to 7 a.m. local time, 2 a.m. ET. The ban affects all of London's five airports, including Heathrow, Europe's busiest.

The company says overseas flights can now depart and arrive at airports in Scotland and Northern Ireland, but that did "not mean that all flights will operate."

Eurocontrol, the European air traffic agency, said the flight disruptions that have upended travel in Europe — half a dozen European nations have closed their airspace —would reverberate throughout the world.

"The skies are totally empty over northern Europe," said Brian Flynn, deputy head of Eurocontrol, adding "there will be some significant disruption of European air traffic tomorrow."

The agency said about 16,000 of Europe?s usual 28,000 daily flights were canceled Friday — twice as many as were canceled a day earlier. Only about 120 trans-Atlantic flights reached European airports compared to 300 on a normal day, and about 60 flights between Asia and Europe were canceled.

World airlines say they are losing at least $200 million in revenue a day. The Geneva-based International Air Transport Association said airlines will also face additional costs for rerouting aircraft and caring for stranded passengers and planes.

The group representing 230 airline companies said it has set up a crisis center in Montreal to help carriers and air-traffic controllers coordinate efforts. IATA said the losses were an "initial and conservative estimate."

The World Health Organization said Europeans should try to stay indoors if ash from Iceland's volcano starts raining down from the sky.

WHO spokesman David Epstein said the agency doesn't know the exact health risks from the ash cloud.

But he said the microscopic ash is potentially dangerous for people if it starts to "settle" on the Earth because inhaled particles can reach the lungs and cause respiratory problems. There is a heightened danger for those suffering from asthma and respiratory diseases.

Ice chunks the size of houses tumbled down from a volcano beneath the Eyjafjallajokull (ay-yah-FYAH'-plah-yer-kuh-duhl) glacier Thursday, as hot gases melted the ice. The volcano began erupting Wednesday for the second time within a month.

As torrents of water and ice chunks roared down the mountain, about 40 people near the volcano in southern Iceland were evacuated because of flash flooding, a smaller number than emergency officials initially reported. Further floods from melting waters are expected as long as the volcano keeps erupting, said Rognvaldur Olafsson of the Civil Protection Department.

The ash cloud, drifting between 20,000 feet and 36,000 feet high and invisible from the ground, left tens of thousands of travelers stranded around the globe and blocked the main air flight path between the U.S. East Coast and Europe.

Fearing that microscopic particles of highly abrasive ash could endanger passengers by causing aircraft engines to fail, authorities shut down airspace over Britain, Ireland, France, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finlandand Belgium. That halted flights at Europe's two busiest airports — Heathrow in London and Charles de Gaulleairport in Paris — as well as dozens of other airports, 25 in France alone.

As the cloud moved east, flights were halted Friday at Frankfurt's airport, Europe's third-busiest terminal, and at 10 other German airports including Duesseldorf, Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne. Poland expanded its no-fly zone to most of the country, excluding the southern cities of Krakow and Rzeszow.

The spreading ash could threaten the arrival in Krakow of many world leaders for Sunday's state funeral of President Lech Kaczynski and his wife, Maria, who were killed along with 94 other dignitaries and people in a plane crash last Saturday as they were approaching the airport in Smolensk, Russia.

Among those who said they would attend the funeral are President Obama, Russian President Dmitry Medvedevand German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"It is the will of the family that, under no circumstance, the date of the funeral be changed," Presidential Palace spokesman Jacek Sasin said Friday on the family's behalf.

PHOTOS: Second day of travel woes across Europe

POLAND: Air restrictions may keep Obama, other leaders from president's funeral

No more than 120 trans-Atlantic flights reached European airports Friday morning, compared with 300 on a normal day, said Eurocontrol's Evans. About 60 flights between Asia and Europe were canceled Friday, stranding several thousand passengers.

Some European countries reported a slight easing of conditions.

The French Civil Aviation said it will allow some planes to land at the three Paris airports during a four-hour window starting at noon Friday.

Sweden and Norway declared skies in the far north to be safe again for travel even as flights in both capitals — Stockholm and Oslo — were still on a lockdown. Civil aviation authorities in Ireland lifted most restrictions the country's airspace, reopening airports in Dublin and Cork.

One Toronto-bound flight departed from Glasgow, Scotland, on Friday morning and three Thomson Airways international flights were cleared to land.

Aviation experts said it was among the worst disruptions Europe has ever seen.

"We don't have many volcanoes in Europe," said David Learmount of Flight International, an editor at the aviation publication. "This one is right out there on the extreme edge of what you would consider Europe — but the wind was blowing in the wrong direction."

U.S. airlines canceled scores of flights to and from Europe from Wednesday night through Friday morning and said it would decide Friday whether they need to cancel more as the cloud of ash hovered over the Atlantic Ocean.

SCIENCE: Eruption could last months

Einar Kjartansson of the Icelandic Meteorological Office said that depending on the weather, the plume could hang around for weeks — though its location will depend on the wind.

The last time the volcano blew the eruption lasted more than a year, from December 1821 until January 1823, said Sally Sennert, a geologist at the Smithsonian Institution.

"This seems similar to what's happening now," she said. The volcano is erupting small, jagged pieces of rocks, minerals and volcanic glass the size of sand and silt into the atmosphere, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Once in the air, the wind can blow these tiny ash particles tens to thousands of miles away from the volcano. Life-threatening and costly damages can occur to aircraft that fly through an eruption cloud, reports the Geological Survey.

"Silica in the ash gets into the engine and heats up and melts, which causes the engines to stop," Sennert said.

Based on reported damages from ash encounters, the hazard posed to aircraft can extend more than 3,000 miles from an erupting volcano.

Eight of the 10 busiest trans-Atlantic routes are to London, and the second-most-traveled international route is between London and New York, according to Steve Lott of the International Air Transport Association.

"London is an important transfer hub to every corner of the world," said Lott, who added that it was unclear when the cloud would lift, allowing air travel to resume. "What is (of) particular concern for airlines is the unpredictability of this disruption. As the ash cloud moves, it affects different airports and airspace."

The cloud is traveling east to southeast, Sennert said.

Rebooking, refunds offered

U.S. airlines had canceled more than 100 flights to and from Britain by noon Thursday, according to David Castelveter, spokesman for the Air Transport Association of America, which represents most of the major U.S. carriers.

On average, U.S. airlines operate about 340 flights to and from Europe each day.

American Airlines canceled 34 flights as of Thursday afternoon, most of them in and out of London's Heathrow Airport, but also involving Dublin, Brussels, Paris and Manchester, England, spokesman Tim Smith said.

Delta canceled 65 flights that were headed Thursday night or this morning from such cities as Atlanta and Pittsburgh to several international cities including Paris, Amsterdam, London, Brussels and Mumbai, India, spokesman Anthony Black said. Delta had previously canceled nine flights to and from Britain since Wednesday night.

Carriers were trying to accommodate travelers.

Delta passengers whose flights were canceled can get a full refund. Passengers who were scheduled to take Delta flights to, from or through several affected cities Thursday through Sunday can make a one-time change to their flight schedule without paying a fee, if they do so by the end of April.

American Airlines will also let fliers whose flights haven't been canceled change flights without penalty through the end of the month. They can get a new flight or a full refund if the trip was canceled.

The airline, which has a heavy flight schedule into South America, has dealt with natural calamities before, Smith said. "In the past, (we) had volcanoes we dealt with in Mexico, Ecuador, Chile, Argentina. From time to time, it does happen."

'It's all so frustrating'

Offers of refunds provided little solace to thousands of stranded travelers on both sides of the Atlantic.

Amy Tatman Robins, a native of Columbus, Ohio, who's living in Galway, Ireland, was headed to a funeral in Scotland. But two flights that she booked from Dublin to Glasgow were canceled, and she had been unable to find another way to her destination.

"It's all so frustrating and unbelievable at the same time," she said in an e-mail. "My dear friend is putting his father to rest, ... and I'm so sad I cannot be there for the memorial service. I'm still holding out hope. All because of a cloud of ash in the sky."

Contributing: Charisse Jones in New York; Doyle Rice in McLean, Va.; the Associated Press

From USATODAY updated 4/16/2010 2:20 PM

Sinharaja Rain Forest Sri Lanka

2010-03-08T05:56:00.000-08:00

Located in south-west Sri Lanka, Sinharaja is the country's last viable area of primary tropical rainforest. More than 60% of the trees are endemic and many of them are considered rare. There is much endemic wildlife, especially birds, but the reserve is also home to over 50% of Sri Lanka's endemic species of mammals and butterflies, as well as many kinds of insects, reptiles and rare amphibians.

Sri Lanka's tropical rain forest, the Sinharaja is a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site. One of the few virgin forests left in the world. Visitors are required to obtain permits from the Wildlife Department in order to visit this sanctuary. Streams, springs, rivers, waterfalls, leopard, monkeys, butterflies and moths, rare trees, valuable shrubs and medicinal herbs are all found within its green canopy. A trek along prescribed paths would provide nature lovers with a never to be forgotten experience of sights and sounds.

The largest mammal in the forest is the rarely spotted leopard, also infrequently glimpsed are the rusty spotted and wild fishing cats. Sambhur, barking deer and wild boar browse on the forest floor. The more common troops of purple-faced langur monkeys will chatter and move through the trees above you, but you're more likely to hear them than actually see them. There are also rats, shrews, giant squirrels, porcupines, civets, mongooses, venomous snakes, 20 species of birds and 45 species of reptiles!.

Aerial Photos of Trade Center 9/11 released

2010-02-10T20:17:00.000-08:00

Newly released aerial photographs of the World Trade Center terror attack capture the towers’ collapse, from just after the first fiery plane strike to the dust clouds that spread over Lower Manhattan and New York harbor.

The images were taken from a police helicopter carrying the only photographer allowed in the air space near the towers on Sept. 11, 2001. They were obtained by ABC News after it filed a Freedom of Information Act request last year with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which investigated the towers’ collapse.

The still images are “a phenomenal body of work” that show a new, wide-angle look at the towers’ collapse and the gray dust clouds that shrouded the city afterward, said Jan Seidler Ramirez, the chief curator of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, which is compiling a digital archive of attack coverage. The photos are “absolutely core to understanding the visual phenomena of what was happening,” Ms. Ramirez said.

The images of the dust clouds rising as high as some downtown skyscrapers “are some of the most exceptional images in the world, I think, of this event,” she said.

ABC said the photographs were among 2,779 pictures on 9 CDs the Institute of Standards gave the network. Some of the photographs had not been released before, it said.

The network posted 12 photos this week on its Web site, all taken by Greg Semendinger, a former detective with the New York Police Department’s Aviation Unit, who was first in the air in a search for survivors on the rooftop. He said he and his pilot watched the second plane hit the south tower from the helicopter.

“We didn’t find one single person. It was surreal,” he told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “There was no sound. No sound whatsoever but the noise of the radio and the helicopter. I just kept taking pictures.”

Source : http://global.nytimes.com/

Blogs I'm going to start

2010-02-07T19:58:00.000-08:00

I am going to start my blogs with a new dimension soon enough. I'm going to write blogs on following topics...

1. Project Management, Time Management, Personal Life Skills.

2. Stuff about Sri Lanka, Latest trends in the country.

3. Technical Stuff, Latest Gadgets, Unix Help

4. Simple Java programs, Theories and best practices, Unix, C#

5. Software Engineering Guide, Tools

Still more to come i guess...

Project Management Tips

2010-02-05T01:25:00.000-08:00

Getting Started – Initiation

1. Develop a solid business case for your projects. Where appropriate, ensure you obtain senior managers’ agreement before you start the project. Research points out that too many projects are started without a firm reason or rationale. Developing a business case will identify whether it is worth working on.

2. Ensure your project fits with the key organisational or departmental agenda or your personal strategy. If not, why do it? Stick to priority projects.

3. Carry out risk analysis at a high level at the initiation stage. Avoid going into great detail here – more an overview focussing on the key risks.

4. Identify at this early stage key stakeholders. Consider how much you need to consult or involve them at the business case stage. Seek advice if necessary from senior managers

5. Where appropriate, involve finance people in putting the business case together. They can be great allies in helping crunch the numbers which should give credibility to your business case.

Unix Linux Basics Tutorials

2010-02-03T00:06:00.000-08:00

Learning Linux or Unix is something which came to alive in last few years. Here I list down few of the tutorial sites available on internet to learn Linux from the begining. It also include Shell.

Basic Unix Commands

Unix programming overview

Unix Tutorial for Beginners

If you can not access above links click the links below...

http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Teaching/Unix/

http://mally.stanford.edu/~sr/computing/basic-unix.html

http://www.computerhope.com/unix/overview.htm

Why Software’s fail?

2010-01-31T18:38:00.001-08:00

“We waste billions of dollars each year on entirely preventable mistakes”

It is estimated that organizations and governments worldwide will spend about $1 trillion this year on IT projects. Recent data suggests only 35% of them are likely to be completed on time and on budget, with all their originally specified features and functions. About 20% will be abandoned often after multibillion dollar investment and the biggest fall most often. There are many reasons for this,

§ Low quality in development

§ Improper project management

§ Less technical skills

§ Higher Development cost

§ Imperfect and insufficient testing

§ Poor Implementation

§ Poor integration

§ Software errors (Bugs)

§ Breakdowns in Software upgrades

When developing software’s higher standards must be kept with proper project management which will satisfy customer requirements. Low quality in development phase will result in rejecting the software in no time. This would also be result in higher development cost.

Also most effort must be given to testing in development phase of software. Testing must also carefully monitor for errors and bugs. Imperfect and insufficient testing will also affect badly on the development agency.

Poor integration between software modules will result in missing and incorrect data in the software system. Low quality in development, imperfect and insufficient testing can be identified as the main reasons for this. In US in December of 2007 significant software problems were continuing to occur in a new ERP payroll system for a large urban school system. More than one third of employees had received incorrect paychecks at various times since the new system went live the preceding January, resulting in overpayments of $53 million, as well as underpayments. Inadequate testing reportedly contributed to the problems.

Using the industry standards is a must when implementing the software at customer. Poor implementation will result in drawbacks which will affect the company’s reputation and software rejection when noticed by the client.

Large software’s must meet the technical specs with the future technology, software’s must be well fit with the other supporting systems such as database systems, networking topologies etc, operating systems etc. the software must also support the newer versions of these supporting systems. Crashes and breakdowns cannot be expected in well developed systems in software upgrades.

Why Software’s fail?

2010-01-29T07:20:00.000-08:00

“We waste billions of dollars each year on entirely preventable mistakes”

§ Low quality in development

§ Improper project management

§ Less technical skills

§ Higher Development cost

§ Imperfect and insufficient testing

§ Poor Implementation

§ Poor integration

§ Software errors (Bugs)

§ Breakdowns in Software upgrades

Election Sri Lanka is over. President with a landslide victory

2010-01-27T23:33:00.000-08:00

President Mahinda Rajapakshe won the election yesterday with a landslide victory of 58% over the opposition candidate Sarath Fonseka who got 40% of the total votes.

Visit http://www.slelections.gov.lk/presidential2010/province.html for more information...

ඉන්දීය ප්‍රීමියර් ලීග් වෙන්දේසියට ශ්‍රී ලංකාවෙන් 17ක්‌

2010-01-25T20:25:00.000-08:00

ඉන්දීය ප්‍රීමියර් ලීග් ක්‍රිකට්‌ තරගාවලියේ 2010 වසර සඳහා පැවැත්වෙන වෙන්දේසිය සඳහා තවත් ශ්‍රී ලංකා ක්‍රීඩකයන් 17 දෙනෙක්‌ ලියාපදිංචි වී සිටිති. මෙම මස අවසානයේ පැවැත්වෙන මෙම වෙන්දේසිය සඳහා පකිස්‌තානු ක්‍රීඩකයන් ද 26 දෙනකු ඉදිරිපත් වී සිටීම විශේෂ සිදුවීමකි.

අදාළ වෙන්දේසිය සඳහා ඉදිරිපත්ව සිටින ක්‍රීඩක සංඛ්‍යාව 97 ක්‌ වන අතර එයට ශ්‍රී ලංකාවෙන් 17 ක්,‌ දකුණු අප්‍රිකාවෙන් 12 ක්‌, නවසීලන්තයෙන් 9 ක්‌, පකිස්‌තානයෙන් 26 ක්‌, ඔස්‌ට්‍රේලියාවෙන් 9 ක්‌, කොදෙව් දූපත්වලින් 8 ක්‌, එංගලන්තයෙන් 8 ක්‌, බංගලිදේශයෙන් 2 ක්‌, කැනඩාවෙන් 2 ක්‌, සිම්බාබ්වෙන් 2 ක්‌ අයර්ලන්තයෙන් සහ නෙදර්ලන්තයෙන් එක්‌ ක්‍රීඩකයකු බැගින් වෙති.

වෙන්දේසිය සඳහා ඉදිරිපත්වී සිටින ශ්‍රී ලංකා ක්‍රීඩකයන් -

මාලිංග බණ්‌ඩාර
ඉන්දික ද සේරම්
චින්තක ජයසිංහ
තිළිණ කණ්‌ඩම්බි
චාමර කපුගෙදර
නුවන් කුලසේකර
සුරංග ලක්‌මාල්
ජෙහාන් මුබාරක්‌
තිසර පෙරේරා
ධම්මික ප්‍රසාද්
මුතු මුදලිගේ පුෂ්පකුමාර
සුරාඡ් රන්දිව්
රංගන හේරත්
ගිහාන් රූපසිංහ
උපුල් තරංග
කෞෂල්‍ය වීරරත්න
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news from lankatruth

Kandy | The hill paradise

2010-01-25T20:19:00.000-08:00

Kandy is the English name for the city of Maha Nuvara in the centre of Sri Lanka. It lies in the midst of hills in the Kandy Valley, which crosses an area of tropical plantations, mainly tea. Kandy is one of the most scenic cities in Sri Lanka; it is both an administrative and religious city. It is the capital of the Central Province (which encompasses the districts of Kandy, Matale andNuwara Eliya) and also of Kandy District. kandy is the hill paradise of Sri Lanka.

Web Review | Smashing Magazine

2010-01-24T21:03:00.000-08:00

If you're a web designer or someone who in to designing arena, smashing magazine is the ultimate stop for your all that skills. with about 200,000 subscribers and many more stats, its a website which is full of great information matters to all the designers.

Here's some stats about the website

Interesting Numbers

91,404 : comments as of October 2009
135 days, 5 hours: total time our readers spent on this web site (as of October 2009)
821: articles, plus 22 pages
36,500: pictures published
396: tags used
12: categories assigned
7: servers running this website
2.4: average number of actions of each visitor per visit

Don't forget to visit this web to improve your design skills...

A Great Election coming soon in Sri Lanka

2010-01-24T20:58:00.000-08:00

2010 Presidential Election is moments away here in Sri Lanka. Many rumors spreads with many opinions, we have to wait a one day to see who will win the election.

Also more action is coming soon here in Sri Lanka....

Youtube Blog

2010-01-21T23:12:00.000-08:00

Youtube can be considered as one of the most visited web site in the world. It's a video sharing website where anybody can post their videos and watch others too. There are many programs which are now broadcasts on Youtube.

Youtube official blog which has more than 200,000 subscribers is one of the blog sites, where you can be updated about the latest trends in the video world. If theres anything you want about Youtube, all is here.

The Nation Decides on 26th January

2010-01-20T22:05:00.000-08:00

Upcoming 26th of January will be a crucial day for all the people in Sri Lanka. In that day the presidential election in Sri Lanka will tell the world who will lead the country for the next 6 years. Is it the President Rajapakse or Former Army Commander, Gen. Sarath Fonseka.

Here's a one political analysis i recieved from someone which will give you a good view of the upcoming election result.

Culture of Sri Lanka | Sinhala and Tamil New Year

2010-01-20T20:50:00.000-08:00

The timing of the Sinhala and Tamil new year coincides with the New Year celebrations of many traditional calendars of South and Southeast Asia. The festival has close semblance to the Thai New year, Bengali New Year, and Sankranthi festival in India.

Cultural anthropological history of the 'Traditional New Year' which is celebrated on month of April, goes back to an ancient period in Sri Lankan history. Various beliefs, perhaps those associated with fertility of the harvest, gave birth to many rituals, customs, and ceremonies connected with the New Year. The advent of Buddhism in the third century BC (300BC) led to a re-interpretation of the existing New Year activities in the Buddhistic light. The majority of the people in the country are Buddhists, and as such, it is that the Buddhist outlook was predominant in transforming the New Year rites to what they are now.

Hinduism, on the other hand, existed side by side with Buddhism, in medieval times. New Year practices interpreted in the Hinduistic way developed among the Hindus. Buddhism and Hinduism were historically connected with each other. Their philosophies were running along parallel dimensions, except for certain ultimate truths concerning the self, the way to achieve emancipation and the nature of a creative god and nirvana (which Buddhism denies). There was no serious contradiction in New Year rituals that are found among the Buddhists and Hindus.

The mythological backdrop of the New Year is probebly based on Hindu literature. The Prince of Peace called Indradeva descends upon the earth to ensure peace and happiness. He comes in a white carriage wearing on his head a white floral crown seven cubits high. He first dips, like a returning space capsule plunges, breaking earth's gravity, into a `kiri Sayura' or sea of milk.^{[citation needed]}

Modern day activities related to the celebration of the traditional New Year is based on auspicious times given by the astrologers. The New Year celebration is therefore can be thought as a complex mix of Indigenous, Astrological, Hindu, and Buddhist traditions.

Election Sri Lanka

2010-01-18T19:29:00.000-08:00

When you talk about Sri Lanka these days, its hot topic is presidential election. The presidential election, almost between the current president Mahinda Rajapakse and his former army commander who actively participated to win the civil war against LTTE (this is also the main topic of all candidates) Gen. Sarath Fonseka.

Until today 4 people has died from both sides, but theirs only 7 days more for the election. join in 7 days for the election in Sri Lanka.

P.S: If you're a tourist hoping to visit Sri Lanka in upcoming days, better wait for another 7-8 days until the election violence is finished. But it's bit hard to gurantee the post election violence.

Sinharaja Forest Reserve

2010-01-11T22:50:00.000-08:00

Sinharaja Forest Reserve is a national park and a biodiversity hotspot in Sri Lanka. It is of international significance and has been designated a Biosphere Reserve and World Heritage Siteby UNESCO.

The hilly virgin rainforest, part of the Sri Lanka lowland rain forests ecoregion, was saved from the worst of commercial logging by its inaccessibility, and was designated a World Biosphere Reserve in 1978 and a World Heritage Site in 1988. The reserve's name translates as Kingdom of the Lion.

The reserve is only 21 km from east to west, and a maximum of 7 km from north to south, but it is a treasure trove of endemic species, including trees, insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals.

Jaffna Sri Lanka

2010-01-06T23:02:00.000-08:00

Situated in northen sector in Sri Lanka, after the civil war, travelling to Jaffna is safer.

Sri Lanka A land like no other

2010-01-06T22:58:00.001-08:00

beauty of Sri Lanka can not be measured in money or anything.

Time Management Tips for Campus Students

2010-01-06T21:17:00.000-08:00

1. Make a 'To Do' List everyday

put things most important to you first. prioritize them and track your all tasks. Don't forget to cutout them after you finished that task. (See how to make a to do list)

2. Use Spare Times effectively

get some of your work done while you're on your way to your class by bus

(how to use your spare time effectively)

3. It's Ok to say no

if your boss asks you something to be done and if you have some exam next day morning, don't hasitate to say no. remind your priorities.

4. find the right time

find the right time that works for you. for me math works on afternoons and not work on early mornings. think of you.

5. Review your notes every day, week, month

if you do this you will remind them very frequently and they will stored in your brain.

6. Get a good, good night sleep

Let your brain relax daily. Sleeping is the best method.

7. Communicate your schedule to others

don't let them use your important times for nothing.

8. Don't waste your time agonizing

there's nothing you will get from it in the end.

9. Keep things in perspective

setting goals that are unrealistic sets you up for failure.

Project Management Tips and Tricks

2010-01-06T05:04:00.000-08:00

Are you in to or interested about project management? PM is one of the musts you must know when you're climbing up the career ladder. You need to know how to manage people and projects in more effective way.

Here's a nice article (or rather a website) i found interesting about project management and tips about project management. Read it.

Beautiful by Akon

2010-01-06T04:56:00.000-08:00

Beautiful is one of my favorite videos. It has a nice meaning which takes you to a whole new world while you listen to it. Even though the music video doesn't has much to do with the meaning of the song, It is still Ok.

Here's the lyrics and the video of the song Beautiful by Akon.

[Akon]
When I see you
I run out of words to say (oh oh)
I wouldn't leave you
'Cause you're that type of girl to make me stay (oh oh)

I see the guys tryna' holla
Girl I don't wanna bother you
'Cause you're independent and you got my attention
Can I be your baby father
Girl I just wanna show you
That I love what you are doin' hun

I see you in the club
You gettin' down good
I wanna get with you, yeah
I see you in the club
You showin' thugs love
I wanna get with you

You're so beautiful
So damn beautiful
Said you're so beautiful
So damn beautiful

[Akon & Colby O'Donis]
You're so beautiful
beautiful
beautiful
beautiful
You're so beautiful
beautiful
beautiful
beautiful
You're so beautiful

[Colby O'Donis]
Like the clouds you
Drift me away, far away (yeah)
And like the sun you
Brighten my day, you brighten my day (yeah)
I never wanna see you cry cry cry
And I never wanna tell a lie lie lie
Said I never wanna see you cry cry cry
And I never wanna tell a lie lie lie

[Akon]
I see you in the club
You gettin' down good
I wanna get with you, yeah
I see you in the club
You showin' thugs love
I wanna get with you

You're so beautiful
So damn beautiful
Said you're so beautiful
So damn beautiful

[Akon & Colby O'Donis]
You're so beautiful
Beautiful
Beautiful
Beautiful
You're so beautiful
Beautiful
Beautiful
Beautiful

[Kardinal Offishall]
Kardinal told you
Whether the sky blue or yellow
This fella ain't that mellow
If it ain't about you (you)
Hourglass shape make the place go (ooohhh)
Waistline makes my soldier salute
I'mma brute (brute)
High from your high heel game
High heels push up ya ass last name
And you livin' in the fast lane
Eyes like an angel (goddess)
Watch my yellin' as she undress
Spotless (otless) bad to the bone
Make me wanna go put me in the triple X zone (zone)
Lames don't know how to talk to you
So let me walk with you, hold my hand
I'mma spend them grands, but after you undress
Not like a hooker, but more like a princess
Queen, empress, president
Pull any way ya got my love
'Cause your beautiful (okay??)

[Akon]
I see you in the club
You gettin' down good
I wanna get with you (ohh yeah)
I see you in the club
You showin' thugs love
I wanna get with you

You're so beautiful
So damn beautiful
Said you're so beautiful (so beautiful)
So damn beautiful (so beautiful)

[Akon & Colby O'Donis]
You're so beautiful
beautiful
beautiful
beautiful
You're so beautiful
beautiful
beautiful
beautiful
You're so beautiful

[Akon]
Where'd you come from you're outta this world
To me (ohh ohh)
You're a symbol of what every beautiful woman should be (oooh wee) (ohh ohh)

[Colby O'Donis]
I never wanna see you cry cry cry (don't cry)
And I never wanna tell a lie lie lie (oh yeah)
Said I never wanna see you cry cry cry (ohhhh)
And I never wanna tell a lie lie lie (lieee)

[Akon]
I see you in the club
You gettin' down good
I wanna get with you (ooh yeah)
I see you in the club
You showin' thugs love
I wanna get with you

You're so beautiful
So damn beautiful
Said you're so beautiful
So damn beautiful
You're so beautiful

Sri Lankan Culture

2010-01-05T20:32:00.000-08:00

Culture in Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka Culture, Culture Sri Lanka

The island of Sri Lanka lies in the Indian Ocean, to the southwest of the Bay of Bengal. It is separated from the Indian subcontinent by the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait. According to Hindu mythology, a land bridge to the Indian mainland, known as Rama's Bridge, was constructed during the time of Rama by thevanara architect Nala. Often referred to as Adam's Bridge, it now amounts to only a chain of limestone shoals remaining above sea level.^[18] According to colonial British reports, this is a natural causeway which was formerly complete, but was breached by a violent storm in 1480.^[19] The width of the Palk Strait is small enough for the coast of Sri Lanka to be visible from the furthest point near the Indian town ofRameswaram.^{[citation needed]} The island consists mostly of flat-to-rolling coastal plains, with mountains rising only in the south-central part. Amongst these is the highest point Pidurutalagala, reaching 2,524 metres (8,280 ft) above sea level.

Why experience matters in jobs

2010-01-05T01:44:00.000-08:00

Experience is not something which can be gained in the university or college life. One must do a necessary job to gain the experience to do their jobs.

Trips in Sri Lanka | Trinco

2009-12-27T23:27:00.000-08:00

Trincomalee is a town in eastern province of Sri Lanka. After the civil war Trincomalee has been a very popular tourist destination by both local and foreign travelers. A 3 day trip to Trinco will cover lot of ground and many popular tourist destinations around it. It was reported that in these days tens of thousands of travelers are around Trincomalee.

Up is a image of Arugam bay

Christmas and the life of Sri Lankans this year

2009-12-27T02:23:00.000-08:00

Christmas in Sri Lanka went on as usual. Even though Sri Lanka is a terrorist free country after 30 years. It feels like people have forgotten the victories they have achieved and acting normally. Price is on rise and because of the upcoming presidential election some prices are going down.

there are 2 main contestents this year. Gen Sarath Fonseka, the military commander who achieved the victories in the 4th Tamil Eelam war which ended with victory for Military and the Hon. Mahinda Rajapakse the President who was the political leader for the victory, as many polls show that victory is possible to both sides at 50-50, 27th January the election day and the marketing camapaign will decide who is the winner of this presidential election.

Actually there's nothing much to tell about Christmas this year. It went on as usual with my cousins coming to our home.

Angels and Demons | Movie Review

2009-12-22T17:56:00.000-08:00

Welcome back to another movie review here at NipunaSilva. Today I’m going to introduce a one of a kind movie. The ‘Angels and Demons’. It’s a 2009 American film adaptation of Dan Brown's novel by the same name. Based on a false conspiracy by old enemy of the Catholic Church, a symbol gist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) a Harvard professor on symbology, Vittoria Vetra (Ayelet Zurer), a CERN scientist are assigned to find out the truth about the conspiracy and they somehow must defend the Catholic Church before it been blown off.

Even though the film was accepted by a large audience when it was first out. IMDB ratings didn’t play well with that film. IMDB rating for Angels and Demons movie is 6.7. But I recommend you that the movie is worth watching. Here I have provided you with places to watch it online or download links. Enjoy the movie and don’t forget to comment after watching this. See you again with another block buster.

Download the torrent of Angels and Demons movie here or

Watch Angels and demons movie here

Movie Review | X Files I Want To Believe

2009-12-13T22:56:00.000-08:00

Once again I'm back

in my blog with another

movie review. This time

its something many of

us have heard or

watched before. X files

I want to Believe is a

movie released in 2008.

In this movie there's no

aliens. the directors have

somewhat changed their

directions and centers

around some medical

experiments done on people.

Even though the IMdb Ratings

for the X files i want to believe

is 5.9/10.0 i think its worth watching

movie if you have no movies

to watch :-) Overall its a nice

one to watch.

You can watch X Files I want to

believe movie online for free here

in or

you can download the torrent

x files i want to believe here with

subtitles for the x files i want to believe here

Don't forget to comment.

Tourist Destinations in Sri Lanka. Sigiriya the Lion's Rock

2009-12-06T08:46:00.001-08:00

Also known as ‘Lion’s Rock’, Sigiriya is an ancient rock fortress and palace ruin situated in almost center of Sri Lanka. Sigiriya rock is surrounded by the remains of kings age gardens, reservoirs and many other structures. Sigiriya is a very popular tourist destination also from local and foreign tourists. It is also a valuable place for historians. Sigiriya was built during the reign of King Kassapa 1 (AD 477-495). It is one of the seven World Heritage Sites of Sri Lanka.

Sigiriya may have been inhabited before King Kassapa. After king Kassapas death it was a monastery up to about 14^th century.

Visit Sri Lanka | Your ideal destination

2009-12-06T04:51:00.000-08:00

There are many places in Sri Lanka you can visit. Different places in Sri Lanka has different climates so that people from around the world has the choice to select a good routine which matches them.

You can experience a cold and mild condition in the middle of the country. There are nice mountains in Sri Lanka which attracts lots of tourists.

Sandy beaches around the country promises you the best beaches you will ever seen. What's great about the beaches is that most of the coastal area in Sri Lanka has tourist hotels.

So don't forget to come to Sri Lanka on your next vacation.

Sri Pada | Sri Lanka

2009-12-04T19:46:00.000-08:00

Sri Lanka

2009-11-30T00:49:00.000-08:00

Peradeniya Gardens is situated in middle of Sri Lanka

2009-11-27T00:44:00.001-08:00

dfgasdfg asdfagf afdsf

A place to watch moives online for free with no credit card

2009-11-19T04:11:00.000-08:00

I think heading tells you all but you must have had enough of seeing and searching for that. I agree with you because me too had searched the Interent million times without finding dream places I wanted to watch movies online. Previously I was watching movies at some websites but about 50% of the links they provided didn't work. But that site was somewhat cool too.

But recently I found a another site which also had a good collection of movies. Tell you what all the links they provided were working and the quality also far more than I expected. I also wrote a review of a movie here. The open road movie review.

So Awooh.com will defeniltly give you a nice feeling about the topic, once again A place to watch movies online for free without spending a penny.

Also checkout this link. http://www.watch-movies-online.tv/ It has a good collection too.

Must dos for a serious blogger

2009-11-17T19:57:00.000-08:00

Slideshare is one of my favourite site for view slides. The speciality about Slideshare.net is it has a large quantity of slides with beautiful themes and different topics. You can also download the slides if you want (only if it authorized).

I usually view few slide shows from Slideshare because it is a some kind of fresh up for my mind. Today I found a nice slide show naming ‘Must dos for a serious blogger’. As the topic sound interesting. The slides were interesting too with just 25 slides.

So here’s the presentation. I think you would love it.

11 Must Dos For The Serious Blogger

View more documents from Jason Baer.

Sri Lanka | A land like no other

2009-11-17T05:09:00.001-08:00

Sri Lanka is located in South asia. It has more than 65000 sq.km. of land area. After a 30 year conflict which ended this year, Sri Lanka is a stabalized country. Sri Lanka has a population of about 20 million.

The commerical hub of Sri Lanka is Colombo city which is situated in Western Province. Other main cities in Sri Lanka are Kandy, Galle, Anuradhapura, Kurunagela, Jaffna etc.

The current president of Sri Lanka is Hon. Mahinda Rajapakse.

Ten Tips on Career Advancement

2009-11-13T08:34:00.000-08:00

When i was searching through internet about career building advices, I stumbledupon on an article in Yahoo Finance heading Ten Tips on Career Advancement. I read it full and thought it is worthy to share with you people who are looking for career advancements.

Don't just close this if you still having a job, I recommend it to those people as well.

Read it Here...

Money Making Interent

2009-08-18T22:51:00.000-07:00

Since Tim Bernes Lee invented WWW in 1990, WWW (or rather internet) has grown up rapidly and now the count has gone up to more than 1.5 billion users. Many people depend on this network of networks and some still finding their where to make their lives much happier through internet.

As I said many people out there has made up their lives from internet by making money from it. There are various ways to earn money from internet. Here I’ll give you few and most recommended ways of money making internet.

1. Blogging

Maybe you’re familiar with this. If not, blogging is same as writing a diary which is full of your writing about some field you’re familiar with. The advantage I find of blogging is you don’t need to know any server side application development knowledge. But you must have brilliant writing skills.

So how could I make money out of writing? As you write and publish them in your website. You also can run affiliate program at side of it. Like Google Adsense or Chitika premium which shows there advertisements in a small adjustable banner. When someone visits your web and if he clicked and went into the advertisement and you’ll be payed by Adsense.

2. Application development

This is a new kid on the block but it is something that can make millions of it. Online application development needs good understanding of client and server side programming and good software development skills will get you a long way.

3. Web designing

This doesn’t need any writing skills but it needs a good eye. This is also a good field to follow through and there are many platforms where you can develop attractive websites. You can do web designing as a freelancer or as a contractor for a web designing firm.

4. Data entry

As the heading says, you must be thinking this is the very easiest way to make money because you just have to type. But it’s not the reality. There were many online data entry jobs existed about 5 years ago, but none of them are presently not online. There are many websites you can find says “data entry - earn from home” etc. but most of them are not what they says.

So here I have given you 4 money making opportunities you may find on the net. It’s up to you to decide depending on your skills which path to choose.

Exams are over

2009-08-10T05:35:00.000-07:00

Well i'm back to my blog after some time... I was away and was focused on my studies at the Uni.

Exams were pretty fine, except one subject. I agree that I didn't do it well. Anyway after the exams i have made some plans for my near future.

1. Subscribing to the Public Library in colombo is my first task which i'm going to do tomorrow. (plus i have some assignment works to do tomorrow)

2. Going to a gym (Well.. this is just a thought, haven't planned it yet)

3. Living with Youtube. this is something i wanted from a long time. youtube is a nice place to

learn new things without getting bored.

So i'm sure i'm going to pull over these goals very soon.. So wait for a another post regarding this..

Take Care

Amazon Affiliate Program

2009-08-04T00:22:00.000-07:00

Blog master Darren Rowse has earned $119,000+ from " Amazon Affiliate Program. here in this article he describe about his achievment and what it takes to earn such a money

Amazon.com Widgets

10 Future Web Trends

2009-07-20T23:42:00.000-07:00

We're well into the current era of the Web, commonly referred to as Web 2.0. Features of this phase of the Web include search, social networks, online media (music, video, etc), content aggregation and syndication (RSS), mashups (APIs), and much more. Currently the Web is still mostly accessed via a PC, but we're starting to see more Web excitement from mobile devices (e.g. iPhone) and television sets (e.g. XBox Live 360).

Find the full article here...

Cooperate Blogging

2009-07-19T00:34:00.000-07:00

Have you ever heard of cooperate blogging> cooperate blogs are blogs that are set by organizations to achive there goals and promote there products. Thses has centralized hosting and generally structured conversation threads.

Here in this article from Smashin Maganzine will tell you more about

Harsh Truths About Corporate Blogging

Top 10 Best Facebook Games

2009-07-16T04:02:00.000-07:00

If somebody asks you what is the favourite site of yours, a good no. of them will say one name, "facebook". millions of users are using it for different things. some go there to interact with others, uploading photos, chatting, commenting etc. and a good no. of them go there to play GAMES!!!

so if you're one of them who go there to play games you defenetly want to find out what is or are the games that are most popular these days. so here I have listed the most popular 10 games in facebook.

Who has the bigger brain

Most Popular Webs on the Internet

2009-06-24T07:09:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wonder what are the most popular sites on the Internet that people visits. Here’s the Top 20 for you to get an idea about that. Before I leave I bet one thing, you guys also must have been visiting more than 5 of the below list and congradz, you too contributed them to be among the top. J

1	Google.com	www.google.com
2	Yahoo.com	www.yahoo.com
3	Youtube.com	www.youtube.com
4	Live.com	www.live.com
5	Facebook.com	www.facebook.com
6	Msn.com	www.msn.com
7	Wikipedia.org	www.wikipedia.org
8	Blogger.com	www.blogger.com
9	Myspace.com	www.myspace.com
10	Yahoo.co.jp	www.yahoo.co.jp
11	Baidu.com	www.baidu.com
12	Google.co.in	www.google.co.in
13	Google.de	www.google.de
14	Microsoft.com	www.microsoft.com
15	Rapidshare.com	www.rapidshare.com
16	Qq.com	www.qq.com
17	Google.fr	www.google.fr
18	Sina.com.cn	www.sina.com.cn
19	Ebay.com	www.ebay.com
20	Fc2.com	www.fc2.com

Top Future Web Trends

2009-06-23T02:51:00.000-07:00

We all are on a fast moving track where the existing technology is not existing tomorrow. The technology is changing as we watch. So as the web technology. The trends that are today is not valid tomorrow. Some people change the technology and the majority of others has to adapt to that whether they like it or not.

Here I have list down few of the web trends that are present in beta and would be big in coming years.

· Artificial Intelligence

· Semantic Web

· Virtual Worlds

· Mobile

· Attention Economy

· Web Sites as Web Services

· Online Video/Internet TV

· Rich Internet Apps

· International Webs

· Personalization

so I invite you too to share your ideas on above topics…

Websites with most number of subscribers

2009-06-23T02:13:00.000-07:00

From the begining i started blogging, what I wanted to do was I wanted to have many subscribers as possible. It is a hard task actually, but you can go to that goal by looking at these websites. Try to get an idea of how to get a large # of them to your website.

1355K Engadget

2972K TechCrunch

521K Boing Boing

1375K simplyrecipes.com

134K Xataka

Hammer talks about Iran

2009-05-23T12:29:00.000-07:00

OpenDNS

2009-02-13T04:03:00.000-08:00

Do you know what OpenDNS is? find out here...

http://www.labnol.org/internet/tools/opendsn-what-is-opendns-why-required-2/2587/comment-page-1/#comment-39548

or here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenDNS