Posts filed under 'Life'
Suicide Bombings in Colombo
Sri Lanka has had more than her fair share of terrorists. Yesterday, the LTTE, mother of all terrorist organizations (they are the inventors of modern day suicide attacks) tried to assassinate the SL Army Chief Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka, using a pregnant woman as the suicide bomber.
Where was I?
I blame this on Kev.
Street Artists
Ananda Coomaraswamy Mawatha is the avenue of Art in Colombo. The Public Library, Viharamahadevi Park, National Art Gallery, John De Silva Theatre and the National Theatre (still under construction) is on this short, shaded, beautiful road. On weekends, it is also the gallery for Colombo’s street artists.
Pragmatic Idealists
When you are from a third worlddeveloping country, most of the compromises are already made for you. For us web designers that translates as poor connectivity, immature markets, undervalued labour, and no SXSW or @media. Throw in an unstable economy and the odd war, and web standards seem invisible in the bigger picture. No wonder we don’t have Asian WaSPs (Japan doesn’t really count) - our standardistas are working hard to make ends meet.
Estrogen for Geeks
If we had more women in these dorky mailing lists, flamewars would be far fewer, discussions would be more intelligent, and people would be respectful toward each other. But as the average geek mailing list has zero active female participation, any lengthy thread where even a minor dispute arises ultimately ends up being a fist fight. What we really need is a good dose of estrogen in all technical discussions. Compare the dignified silence (and of course, smart mediation) of female standardistas as opposed to us monkeys pooping web standards all over the place.
Microsoft Recommends Apple?
Isn’t that a Mac this MSN user is using for a pillow?
Free as in Shakespeare
It’s just after four am, and I’m taking a little breather to really wake up before I hit the books. My freshman finals are coming up, and one of the harder exams I’ll be sitting for this month is Elizabethan Drama. For this course, we studied five plays - one Marlowe, four Shakespeare. One major problem I came across while preparing for this paper is the lack of reputed sources. Apart from a few lectures by Bradley and Hazlitt at Gutenberg, there is very little else out there.
All your Dell are belong to us
When you’re big, it’s difficult not to be a stinking bully. And that’s exactly what Dell Computers (no link love for those bastards) seem to be with their case against Paul Dell (Thanks, Vicki). Paul makes websites for a living, and has a website www.dellwebsites.com where he sells his services. The big Dell thinks the small Dell has to give up his site, and pay for using it all this time.
Mail + Talk
IM is a pain in the ass. On Ubuntu, I use GAIM for my instant messaging needs. To be honest, it’s not a very nice experience. On Windows, I tried MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger and all sorts of other third party all-in-one programs. They all sucked. Enter Gmail + Talk.
How to make a Bamboo Cannon
The most popular search term that leads people to this site is Bamboo Cannon, and it’s only because of one random post. For the benefit of those inquisitive souls, and to celebrate the Independence Day of Sri Lanka which falls today, here is a concise guide to the making of this loud and risky* contraption.
