Posts filed under 'Sri Lanka'
The World Challenge 2006 Winner
The Word Challenge 2006 winner has been chosen, and it’s none other than Maximus, the Sri Lankan papermaking firm that makes high-quality products from a variety of wastes, including paper from offices and bark from banana trees, and most interestingly, elephant dung.
FOSSSL 2006
We have improved a lot over the years. Last time when Sri Lanka announched a FOSS week, some people thought it was a joke. But thanks to the commitment, talent and sheer determination of the small yet very active FOSS community of our country, we no longer have to worry about nay-sayers. Needless to say, I’m thrilled (and indeed, honoured) to have been able to play a small role in organizing these events.
FOSSSL 2006 starts on Monday next week, and it’ll be a week of knowledge sharing, community building, hacking, chatting and fun.
Pushing your limits
A few of my best friends are in Japan, doing their higher studies. One of them has come back on vacation, and while talking to him I was amazed to hear about the insane hours he’s working there. Apparently he gets two hours of sleep before heading off to work on the night shift at a restaurant, and then comes back to have one more hour of sleep before going to uni the next day. I never thought the human body could endure such torment, seeing how I get dizzy after a couple of days of sleep deprivation. I mean, it’s not like my friend is using polyphasic sleep, but here he was, fit as a fiddle, and yet sleeping only three hours a day.
ApacheCon Asia in Colombo
ApacheCon Asia is the first ever Asian offering of the popular ApacheCon Conference of the Apache Software Foundation (ASF). ApacheCon Asia provides an excellent opportunity to experience first-hand what ASF technologies and development communities can do for you and your enterprise. Priced at a very affordable level, the conference will be held in Colombo, Sri Lanka from August 14th to 17th at the Trans Asia Hotel. See ApacheCon Asia website for further details.
Accessforall.lk - the irony
Access for All is a commendable campaign that asks for the inclusion of disabled people when rebuilding the nation
. Having seen otherwise healthy people like my mother often having difficulties when managing stairs, I can readily understand the dire need for better informed design decisions in public infrastructure, transport and even places of employment and services. However, what seems to be sadly overlooked by this campaign is the right of access to information for all people, including the differently-abled.
General Killed
Major General Parami Kulatunga, the third-highest ranking officer in the Sri Lankan army and a veteran of the civil war, was killed in a bomb blast by the LTTE.
Indi has a brilliant post that sums up the situation in this country (and elsewhere) really well.
Theena: Tamil. Not a Terrorist.
I weep because I am a Tamil. Not a terrorist. Like me there are others, Tamils not terrorists, who weep at the state of things in this country.
But I look around and I see the proverbial silver lining and I smile.
Defence.lk needs a copywriter
The guardians and the fallen deserve better. They should have a proper journalist writing those entries, and someone to proof-read what goes online. A better design wouldn’t hurt, but I know that’s asking too much.
Fossed
The last few weeks have been incredible, for the FOSS community at large, and personally to me as well. First, there was the FOSS-Ed for Hackers conference, where I had a wonderful time (and where Anuradha W presented me with a hard-bound copy of Free Software, Free Society, thanks mate!). And then, a couple of days ago I got confirmation from Google that I was accepted for the Summer of Code 2006. Awesomeness.
Vesak and Dhamma talks
Today is Vesak, the most holy day for Buddhists. I’m a Theravada Buddhist, the school that still follows the dhamma as taught by the Gautama Buddha, twenty five centuries ago. The Sinhala people of this country preserved true Buddhism through a troubled history of wars, famine, pillaging invaders and a dark era of western colonization. Their numerous sacrifices made it possible for people like me today to be thankful for being born a Sri Lankan.
