Open Maze

HOW IS YOUR GENERAL KNOWELDGE?

2012-01-11T14:51:00.003-06:00

A Small Questionnaire to Test your Intelligence
Below are four (4) questions and a bonus question. You have to answer them instantly. You can't take your time, answer all of them immediately. OK?

Let's find out just how clever you really are.....
Ready? GO!!!

First Question:
You are participating in a race. You overtake the second person. What position are you in?

Answer: If you answered that you are first, then you are
absolutely wrong! If you overtake the second person, you take his place, so you are second!
Try not to screw up next time.
Now answer the second question,
but don't take as much time as you took for the first one, OK ?

Second Question:
If you overtake the last person, then you are...?

Answer:
If you answered that you are second to last, then you are wrong again. Tell me, how can you overtake the LAST Person?

You're not very good at this, are you?

Third Question:
Very tricky arithmetic! Note: This must be done in your head only .
Do NOT use paper and pencil or a calculator. Try it.
Take 1000 and add 40 to it.. Now add another 1000 . Now add 30 .
Add another 1000 . Now add 20 . Now add another 1000
Now add 10 . What is the total?

Did you get 5000?
The correct answer is actually 4100..
If you don't believe it, check it with a calculator!
Today is definitely not your day, is it?
Maybe you'll get the last question right....
...Maybe.

Fourth Question:
Mary's father has five daughters: 1. Nana 2. Nene 3. Nini 4. Nono What is the name of the fifth daughter?

Did you Answer Nunu ?
NO! Of course it isn't.
Her name is Mary. Read the question again!

Okay, now the bonus round:
I may have sent this one before. I'm never sure.

A mute person goes into a shop and wants to buy a toothbrush. By
imitating the action of brushing his teeth he successfully
expresses himself to the shopkeeper and the purchase is
done.

Next, a blind man comes into the shop who wants to buy a pair of
sunglasses; how does HE indicate what he wants?

He just has to open his mouth and ask...
It's really very simple.... Like you!

PASS THIS ON TO FRUSTRATE THE SMART PEOPLE IN YOUR LIFE

Bootable USB thumb/pen/flash drive for a Vista and/or Windows 7 installation

2011-12-13T21:56:00.000-06:00

Required:

USB Flash Drive (4GB+)
Microsoft OS Disk (Vista / Windows 7)
A computer running Vista / Windows 7

Step 1: Format the Drive

The steps here are to use the command line to format the disk properly using the diskpart utility. [Be warned: this will erase everything on your drive. Be careful.]

Plug in your USB Flash Drive
Open a command prompt as administrator (Right click on Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt and select “Run as administrator”
Find the drive number of your USB Drive by typing the following into the Command Prompt window:
diskpart
list disk
The number of your USB drive will listed. You’ll need this for the next step. I’ll assume that the USB flash drive is disk 1.
Format the drive by typing the next instructions into the same window. Replace the number “1” with the number of your disk below.
select disk 1
clean
create partition primary
select partition 1
active
format fs=NTFS
assign
exit
When that is done you’ll have a formatted USB flash drive ready to be made bootable.

Step 2: Make the Drive Bootable

Next we’ll use the bootsect utility that comes on the Vista or Windows 7 disk to make the flash drive bootable. In the same command window that you were using in Step 1:

Insert your Windows Vista / 7 DVD into your drive.
Change directory to the DVD’s boot directory where bootsect lives:
cd d:\boot
Use bootsect to set the USB as a bootable NTFS drive prepared for a Vista/7 image. I’m assuming that your USB flash drive has been labeled disk G:\ by the computer:
bootsect /nt60 g:

You can now close the command prompt window, we’re done here.

Step 3: Copy the installation DVD to the USB drive

The easiest way is to use Windows explorer to copy all of the files on your DVD on to the formatted flash drive. After you’ve copied all of the files the disk you are ready to go.

Step 4: Set your BIOS to boot from USB

This is where you’re on your own since every computer is different. Most BIOS’s allow you to hit a key at boot and select a boot option.

Find the original article here.

How to enable flah player in Opera browser

2011-12-07T21:05:00.000-06:00

After looking all around, finally figure it out myself and and still laughing at myself why I didn't looked at this in the first place.

Here you go,

If your Opera browser is giving an error message or warning and not playing youtube videos or any other flash based videos, and you've downloaded the flash player countless times and not any success, here's what you needed to do.

After installing flash player as the browser suggest, just go to Tools, Advanced, Plug-Ins and then scroll down to the place where Shockwave Flash is listed, make it enable. Thats all, if you are still laughing, I'm with you, TOTALLY :) and the fun part I'm a PhD CS major, and I had to run around several days and several uninstalls of Opera to figure this out :)

රට ගිය ඇත්තෝ - must read this

2011-11-17T01:04:00.001-06:00

I'm not sure this is a true story or not. But worth to read it............

මේ කතාව කොහොම පටන් ගන්නද කියල මටම තේරෙන්නෙ නැහැ.
අපි මෙහෙම පටන් ගමු. මගේ නම සමන්. සමන් ජයසිංහ. ගම කඩවත. මම සිංහ සමාජයේ සාමාජිකයෙක්. සිංහ සමාජයේ වාර්ෂික සමුලුවකට තවත් කට්ටියක් සමඟ ඇමරිකාවේ චිකාගෝවට යන්ට මට (අ)වාසනාව පෑදුනා. ඇමරිකන් උණ සෑදී වලිප්පුව සෑදී සිටි මම ආපසු ආවේ නැහැ. මට එහේ පොඩි ජොබ් කට්ටක් සෙට් උනා. දැන් අවුරුදු හතරක්. තව අවුරුද්දකට වීසා තියෙනවා. තව කීයක් හරි හොයා ගෙන ආපහු යනවා.
මට රැකියාවක් ලැබුනේ ගෑස් ස්ටේෂන් එකක. ගෑස් ස්ටේෂන් කියන්නේ පැට්‍රල් ෂෙඩ්.
පැට්‍රල් ෂෙඩ් එකක වැඩ කරනවා කියන කොට ඔබට මතක් වෙයි කාකි කොට කලිසමක් ඇඳල කාකි අත් කොට කමිසයක් ඇඳල රබර් සෙරෙප්පු දෙකක් දෙපයට දාගත්තු බුලත් හපයෙක්.
ඒත් ඇමරිකාවෙ එහෙම නැහැ. අපිට ලස්සන යුනිෆෝම් එකක් තියෙනවා. ටයි එකකුත් දාන්න ඕන.
මෙහේ ( ගෑස්) පැට්‍රල් ගහන්නේ වාහනය පදවන්නාමයි. පොම්ප 10 ක් 12 ක් විතර තියෙනවා. ක්‍රෙඩිට් කාඩ් පාවිච්චි කරල තමන්ටම ගෑස් ගහගන්නත් පුලුවන්. එහෙම නැත්නම් ඇතුළට ගිහිල්ලා පොම්පයේ අංකය කියල මුදල් ගෙව්වාම මට කරන්න තියෙන්නේ කොම්පියුටරයෙන් පොම්පය විවුර්ත කරන එකයි. ඊට අමතරව හදිසියෙන් ගන්න අවශ්‍ය බෙහෙත් පෙත්තේ එක දක්වා බඩු විකුණන මිනි මාකට් එකකුත් තියෙනවා.
මේවා හදිසියට හොයා ගන්න පුලුවන් අඩුවෙන් ගෙවන පොඩි රස්සාවල්. තනිකඩයෙකුට යම්තම් ජීවිතේ ගැට ගහ ගන්න ඒ මුදල ප්‍රමාණවත්. වැඩිපුරම මේවායේ වැඩ කරන්නේ නීති විරෝදී සංක්‍රමණිකයන්. මට බැංකු ගිණුමක් අරින්නවත් , වාහනයක් එළවන්නවත් බැහැ. not authorized to work කියල පාස්පෝට් එකේ ගහල තියෙනවා. නිකමට හරි පොලිසියට මාට්ටු වුනොත් ඩී- පෝට් තමයි.
ඇමරිකන් ඉංග්‍රීසිය අමුතු ඉංගිරිසියක්. උන්ගෙ “ඇ” කාරය වැඩි. ඩාන්ස් – ඩෑන්ස් ,… ක්ලාස් – ක්ලෑස්.. පාස් – පෑස් වගේ. ඒ අනුව මගේ නම සමන් :…. සැමන් විය යුතුය. ඒත් උන් මගේ නම වෙනස් කෙරුවා ” සෑම්” කියලා. මම සැමන් නොවී සෑම් වීම ගැන සතුටු උනා.
ගෑස් ස්ටේෂන් එක ඇතුලේ තියෙනවා කස්ටමස්ලට යන්න වැසිකිළියක්. ඒවාට කියන්නේ “රෙස්ට් රූම් ” නැත්නම් “වොෂ් රූම්” කියලා.
ඇමරිකාව කියන්නේ ගෙදරට මරගාතෙ- ලෝකෙට පරකාසෙ කරන රටක්. මෙහේ තරම් හිඟන්නෝ නැතිව ඇති ලෝකෙ කොහේවත්. මුන්ට කියන්නේ “හෝම්ලස් පීපල්” කියල. “බෙගර්ස් ” කියන වචනය පාවිච්චි කරන්නෙ නැහැ.
අ. පො. ස. විභාගයේදී මට විශිෂ්ට සම්මාන තියෙනව ඉංග්‍රීසි භාෂාවට සහ සාහිත්‍යයට. ඊට අමතරව උසස් ආයතනයකින් ලද සහතිකයකුත් තියෙන නිසා මා හිතා හිටියේ මා තරම් ඉංග්‍රීසි උගතෙක් තවත් නැතිව ඇති කියාය. එහෙත් මා කියනා දේ මුන්ට නොතේරෙයි. උන් කියනා දේ මටද නොතේරෙයි.
ඒ නිසාම මට දී තිබුනේ කස්ටමර්ලා අඩු රෑ සේවා මුරයයි.
දිනක් එක් හෝම්ලස් මිනිහෙක් ඇතුළට ඇවිත් ” may I use your rest room ” කියල මගෙන් ඇහුවා.
“rest room only for customers” කියලා මම මිනිහව එළවා ගත්තා. මගෙ තාත්තගේ වයසේ මිනිහෙක්. මට පස්සෙ දුක හිතුනා. උගෙ මූන අමුතුයි. හමේ පාට සුදුත් නෙවෙයි.. කලුත් නෙවෙයි. ඇස් දෙක පැහැදිලියි. බැල්ම තියුණුයි.
පසුවදා සුපුරුදු රෑ ෂිෆ්ට් එක නිම වෙලා මම පයින්ම මගේ නවාතැනට ගාටමින් හිටියා. වෙලාව උදේ 7.30 ට විතර ඇති. පාර අයිනෙ බංකුවක් උඩ හෝම්ලස් මිනිහෙක් ඉඳගෙන හිටියා. මිනිහා මොනවද තාලෙට කියනව මට ඇහුනා.
” ඩූව් ඩීමට් කාරෙ බෙන්ඩා…” ටිකක් පුරුදු හඬක්. ඒ අර මම එළව ගත් මිනිහා. මම මිනිහට කිට්ටු කළා.
හලෝ.. are you singing ?
මිනිහ පැහැදිලි ඉංග්‍රීසියෙන් ” cold….can you buy me a coffee ? මිනිහගේ කකුල් දෙකම වන වෙලා. ඒවාට දැමූ දම් පාට බෙහෙතට උඩින් සාරෙ ගලමින් තිබුණා. මම වහාම කෝපි එකක් අරන් දී,
” are you sick?”
“I am having cold and fever”
මගේ සාක්කුවේ ලංකාවෙන් ගෙනා පැනඩෝල් පෙති වගයක් තිබුණා. ඉන් දෙකක් මම මිනිහට දුන්නා.
” Panadol ? are you sri lankan ?”
” my god ! are you sri lankan too ?
දිග සුසුමක් හෙලූ එයා මොනවදෝ කියන්න ලෑස්ති උනා.
මට මහන්සියි. නිදිමතයි. අපි පස්සෙ හමුවෙමු කියල , රෑ ෂිෆ්ට් එකෙන් මාටියා ගහපු ඩොලර් කීපයක් මම මිනිහගේ අතේ තියල නවාතැනට ගියා.
රෑ නිදි වරා සිටියත් උදේ සිදුවූ දේ නිසා මට නින්ද ගියේ නැහැ.
කොහොමටත් රෑ නින්ද වගේ නෙවේ දවල්ට නිදා ගන්න එක.
ඊට පස්සෙ දින කීපයක් යන තුරු මම මිනිහව දැක්කෙ නෑ.
එදත් සුපුරුදු පරිදි මගේ රෑ ෂිෆ්ට් එක. හදිසියේම ” අරයා” ආවා. රෑ 12.30 ට විතර. ඇතුලට නෑවිත් වීදුරු ජනේලෙන් මා දිහා ඔරවා ගෙන හිටියා. ඔහුගේ රැවුල , කොන්ඩේ දිගටම වැවිලා තිබුනා. වැඩි හරියක් සුදු කෙස්.
ඒ වෙලාවේ කස්ටමර්ලා අඩුයි. මම කෝපි එකකුත් හදාගෙන මිනිහ ළඟට ගියා.
” Are you speaking Sinhala ?” මිනිහා මගෙන් අහනව.
” මම හිතුවේ සෑම් මහත්තයා ඉන්දියන් හරි මෙක්සිකන් හරි කියල. ලංකාවෙ කොහේද ?”
මටයි මිනිහගේ විස්තර දැන ගන්න ඕන. මිනිහ මං ගැන අහනව.
මෙතන ඉඳල ලියන්නම් ඔහු මට කී කතාව.
මගේ නම සිරිල් සපරමාදු. මගේ වයිෆ් පද්මිනී. අපි හෝමාගම.
ලොතරැයි දිනුම් වලින් හරි ගියේ කීයෙන් කීදෙනාටද සෑම් මහත්තයෝ. මටත් ඇදුනා ලොතරැයියක්. වීසා ලොටරි එක. දැනට අවුරුදු 25 කට ඉස්සර මම මහ බැංකුවේ මාණ්ඩලික නිලධාරියෙක්. මගෙ වයිෆ් ගුරුවරියක්. අපි ලංකාවෙ හොඳ ජීවිතයක් ගත කළා. ඇමරිකන් එම්බසියෙන් ලියුම ආදා ඉඳල සතියක් අපේ ගෙදර ලිප පත්තු උනේ නෑ සෑම් මහත්තයෝ. අපෙ සේරටම ඇමරිකන් උණ හැදුනා. අපිට ළමයි තුන් දෙනයි. වැඩිමළා පුතා ඊළඟට දූලා දෙන්නා. අපි මෙහේ එනකොට පුතාට 7 යි. දූලට 6 යි, 5 යි. අපි තිබ්බ සේරම සේසත විකුණලයි ආවෙ.
මාත් ඔයා වගේ ගැස් ස්ටේෂන් එකක වැඩ කළා. වයිෆ්ට මොන්ටිසෝරියක රස්සාව ලැබුණා. අපි දෙන්නාගෙ පඩියෙන් පවුලක් නඩත්තු කරන්න අමාරු නිසා මම ජොබ් දෙකක් කළා. ඒක හරිම අමාරු වැඩක්. හිතේ වේගෙට කළාට මම නිතර නිතර ලෙඩ වුනා.
විවිධ හැල හැප්පීම් මැද කාලය ගෙවී ගියා.
පුතා නම් ඉගෙනීමට වැඩි උනන්දුවක් පෙන්නුවෙ නෑ. දූල දෙන්නම ” මාස්ටර්ස්” දක්වා ඉගෙන ගෙන දෙන්නම ඇමරිකන් කාරයො දෙන්නෙක් එක්ක විවාහ උනා.
ඒව නිකම් ” නමට විවාහ” ලාස් වේගාස් වල තියෙනව ” drive through ” කසාද බඳින්න තැනක්. ලොකු දුව වෙන ස්ටේට් එකකට ගියා පදිංචියට.
ඉන්න තැනක අපි කාටවත් කීවෙ නැහැ.
පුතා මෝටර් මෙකැනික් කෝස් එකක් කරල මෝටර් රත හදන කොම්පැනියකට බැඳුනා. මිනිහට හොඳයි. හැබැයි නාස්ති කාරයා. බීමට ඇබ්බැහි උනා. ඉතිරියක් , අනාගතයක් ගැන හිතුවෙ නැහැ.
පොඩි දුවට බබා ලැබිල අවුරුදු 5 කට පස්සෙ අපිව එක්ක ගියා එයාලගෙ ගෙදරට. අපි එහේ හිටියේ ආගන්තුකයෝ වගේ. මගෙ වයිෆ්ට නම් වැඩ තිබුනා. ඒ මිනිපිරී – නිකෝල් – බලා ගන්න එක. කෙලීට තිබුනේ නිල් පාට ඇස් දෙකක්. සුදු පාට හමක්. කොන්ඩෙ නම් කලු පාටයි. ටිකක් මගෙ වයිෆ් පද්මිනිත් වගෙයි. සමහර දාට නිකෝල් මගෙ උනුහුමට තුරුල් වෙලා නිදා ගත්තා. මම ඇගේ හිස පිරි මැද්දා. ඈ ඊට ආසා කළා. මම ඈට ” කිරි සුදු හාවා” ඉගැන්නුවා.
දවසක් අපේ බෑණා – මයික් පියර්සන්- අහනව මගෙ දුවගෙන් what the hell that old man doing here කියල.
Don’t talk like that. He is may dad. ඒ මගෙ දුව.
But this is my house– ඒ බෑණා.
OK I will ask them to leave. You can hire a baby sitter for 600 dollars for a week.
මම එදා හිතා ගත්තා මම තව දුරටත් මෙහේ හිටියොත් ඒක මෙයාලගෙ පවුල් ජීවිතයට බාධාවක් කියල.
” පද්මිනි… මම යනව පුතා ළඟට. ඔයාට මෙහේ කරදරයක් නැහැනෙ.”
අපි දෙන්නා බැන්දට පස්සෙ කවදාවත් වෙන් වෙලා ඉඳල නෑ. එයා කඳුලු පුරවා ගෙන මා දිහා බලා ගෙන ඊට කැමැත්ත දුන්නා.
” මතක් කරල බෙහෙත් ටික අරගෙන යන්න”
පුතා ජීවත්වුනෙ single bed room අපාර්ට්මන්ට් එකක. මිනිහ මාව සතුටෙන් පිළිගත්ත. ඒත් වැඩි විස්තර ඇහුවෙ නෑ. ඒ එයාගෙ හැටි.
මම ගිය ගමන්ම කළේ ගේ අස් කරන එක. පුතා කැම බීම කරල තියෙන්නෙ පිටින්.
” තාත්ත බියර් එකක් බොනවද?” පුතා බියර් බෝතලයක් කටේ තියාගෙන බොන ගමන් මගෙන් ඇහුව. මම මගේ තාත්ත ඉස්සරහ වාඩිවෙලාවත් නැහැ.
මම මටම සාප කර ගත්ත. දුර දිග නොබලා ගත්තු තීරණ නිසා අද අපේ පවුල සී සී කඩ. දරුවන් දෙමාපියන් අතර සම්බන්දයක් නැහැ. දරුවො හිත් පිත් නැති මැෂින් වගේ. රොබෝල වගේ.
මම මාකට් එකට ගිහින් පුංචි රයිස් කුකර් එකක්, තේ හදන්න අවශ්‍ය කරන දේ සහ තවත් දේ ගෙනාවා.
” පුතා මීට පස්සෙ පිටින් කෑම කන්න එපා. අද ඉඳල මම උයනව”
“ඉතින් කොහොමද මේ තත්ත්වෙට වැටුනේ ?” මම එයාගෙ කතාවට බාධා කලා.
” අනේ සෑම් මහත්තයෝ, මං ගැන කාටවත් කියන්න එපා. ඒක අපේ රටට කරන අගෞරවයක්.”
පුතා මගෙත් එක්ක මුලින් හොඳට කතා බහ කළා. පස්සෙ පස්සෙ අහන දේට විතරක් උත්තර දුන්න. සුමානයක් දෙකක් යනකොට මට එයාගෙ වෙනසක් තේරුනා. මිනිහ මාව නොරුස්සන ගතියක් මට දැනුන.
එදා ජූනි 15. පුතාගෙ උපන් දිනෙ. මම උදේම නැගිටල කිරිබත් ඉව්වා. පුතා කිරිබත් කන්න හරි ආසයි.
” පුතා අද කලින් ගෙදර එන්න. මම ඩිනර් ලෑස්ති කරනව.”
මට හොඳට උයන්න පුලුවන්. මම කහ බතක් උයල චිකන් උයල, පරිප්පු වේලෙන්න උයල, ලූනු සම්බෝලයකුත් හැදුව. පුතා ආවෙ නැහැ. මම රෑ 11 වෙන තුරු බලා ඉඳල තනියම කෑම කෑවා.
තව ටිකක් බලා හිටියා. මට දන්නෙම නැතිව ඉඳගෙන හිටි පුටුවෙම නින්ද ගියා. පුතා තව කට්ටියක් එක්ක එනකොට පාන්දර 3.00 ට විතර ඇති. සේරටම හොඳටම වෙරි.
උන් ළඟ වස ගඳයි. මරිජුවානද මොනවද ගහල. සාලෙ ලයිට් පත්තු උනා. එකෙක් අහනව “Who the fuck is this ?” කියල.
“Are you living with your dad ?” ඒ තව එකෙක්.
මම දවසක් පුතාගෙන් ඇහුව ” පුතාට මම ඉන්න එක කරදරයක්ද ?” කියල.
” කරදරයක් නම් නෑ. ඒත් යාලුවෙක් වත් ගෙන්න ගන්න විදිහක් නෑ. “I too have a life තාත්තෙ”
මට දැනුන ලොකු විනාශයක් අත ළඟ කියල. මම දවස් කීපයක්ම පොඩි දුවටත්, පද්මිනීටත් කෝල් කරන්න උත්සාහ කළා. එයාලගෙ ෆෝන් එක ඩිස්කනෙක්ට් කරල. එයාල වෙන කොහාටද ගිහිල්ල.
පුතා හදිසියෙම එයාගෙ කාර් එක වික්කා.
” තාත්තෙ මම යනව නිව්යෝර්ක් වලට . ට්‍රේනින් එකකට. සති දෙකකට.”
එයා ඇඳුම් බෑග් එක, ලැප්ටොප් එක එහෙම අරගෙන පිටත් උනා.
එදා ඉරිදා දවසක්. මම ටිකක් දවල් වෙන තුරු නිදා ගත්ත. කවුදෝ දොරට ගහනව. මම ගිහින් බැලුව.
නෝටන් ලෝපෙස්- අපාට්මන්ට් මැනේජර්.
“Your son din’t pay rent. You have to pay or leave the apartment”
” Can’t you wait? He will be back in two weeks”
” No he is not coming back. He moved to NewYork”
මගේ පුතා අභිනිෂ්ක්‍රමණය කරලා.
පුතා ඉපදුනේ ජයවර්ධනපුර රෝහලේ. මට පනිවිඩේ ලැබෙන කොට හවස 3.00 ට විතර ඇති. සීසර් සැත්කම නිසා පද්මිනීට සිහිය ඇවිත් තිබුනේ නැහ. පුතා කොට් එකේ හිටියා. අඬ අඬා. මම ඇඟිල්ලෙන් එයාගෙ ලපටි ලා රෝසපාට කම්මුල් ස්පර්ශ කළා. ඇඬිල්ල නැවතුනා. ළඟ ඇඳක හිටි ගැහැණියක් ” දැක්කද තාත්ත අඳුර ගත්තු හැටි කීවා. මට අද වගේ මතකයි.
සපරමාදුගෙ කතාව ඇහුවට පස්සෙ මෙතෙක් කල් ජීවිතය ගැන තිබූ ආසාවන් සේරම වෙනස් වුනා වගේ කියල මට හිතුනා. මම නවාතැනට ගිය ගමන්ම අම්මට කෝල් කළා. මගෙ තාත්ත ජීවතුන් අතර නැහැ. ෆෝන් එක ගත්තෙ අම්ම.
මම “හලෝ” කිව්වම” ආ මගෙ පුතේ.. දැන් කාල බීලද ඉන්නෙ? දැන් ඔහේ වෙලාව කීයද?” කියල ඇහුව. මට එක පාරටම ඇඬුම් යන්න ආවා.” ඇයි පුතාට සනීප නැද්ද?” අම්ම අහනව.” ඔය හිටිය ඇති පුතේ ඉක්මණට ආපහු එන්න”
ෆෝන් කාඩ් එක ඩොලර් පහයි. ඒක ඉවරවෙන තුරුම මම අම්මත් එක්ක කතා කළා. ඒත් මගේ හිතේ ඇතිවුනු පීඩනය ඉවත් වුනේ නැහැ.”
ඇයි සපරමාදු අන්කල්ට පංසලට යන්න තිබුණනේ?” බුද්ධාගමේ නේද ?
ඔය සිංහළ ඇසෝසේෂන් එකට එහෙම ගියෙ නැද්ද?”
ඒව තියෙන්නෙත් ලොකු මිනිස්සුන්ට විතරයි. ඒවයින් කෙරෙන්නේ බාස්කට් බෝල් ටූනමන්ට්/ ඩිනර් ඩාන්ස් වගේ ඒව කරන එක විතරයි.
හැමදාම ජොබ් දෙකක් කරල මම ගෙදර එන්නේ කොයි වෙලාවෙද ඇඳට වැටෙන්නෙ කියල බලා ගෙන. ඒ නිසා මට යාලුවෙක් ආශ්‍රය කරන්නවත්, පංසලකට පල්ලියකට යන්නවත් බැරි වුනා. මගේ හිතේ තිබූ හීන මාණය නිසා ලංකාවෙ මිනිස්සු ගැවසෙන තැන් වලට නොයා ඉන්න මම පුරුදු උනා.
මම කීප වතාවක්ම ලංකාරාමයට ගිහින් තියෙනව. ඒ කඨින දවස් වල. කටට රහට කාල එන්න. මට ජිනානන්ද හාමුදුරුවන්ට මූන දෙන්න බෑ.
මගෙත් එක්ක වැඩ කරන උන් මම නිතරම හෝම්ලස් මෑන් කෙනෙක් එක්ක කතා කරනව නෝට් කරල. උන් කියන්නේ ඒ මගෙ ඩෑඩ් කියල.
මගේ තත්වයත්, සපරමාදුගෙ තත්වය වගේම බරපතල එකක්. “මටත් වඩා අබලන් මගෙ හැරමිටිය” කිව්ව වගේ අනේ අපොයි කියල හිත හදා ගන්නව ඇරෙන්න මට වෙන කරන්න දෙයක් තිබුනේ නැහැ . ඉඳල හිටල මම කීයක් හරි සපරමාදුට දුන්න.
” ඉතිං සපරමාදු අන්කල්, ආංඩුවෙන් ගානක් හම්බ වෙනව නේද?”
මුලදී මට සෝෂල් සෙකුරිටි ලැබුණා. ඒත් දැන් මට ඉන්න තැනක් නෑ. ඇඩ්‍රස් එකක් නෑ.
මට හිඟමන් ලැබෙන්නෙ කලාතුරකින්. උන් හිඟමන් දෙන්නෙත් පාට බලල.
” දැන් කොච්චර කල් වෙනවද මෙහෙම වෙල?”
දැනට අවුරුදු 5 කට වඩා .. සමර් එකට නම් ගානක් නැහැ. වැටිච්ච තැන නින්ද යනව. වින්ටර් එකට අපි ගිහින් දානව කෑම්ප් එකකට.
” ඉතිං අංකල් ගෙ වයිෆ් දැක්කෙ නැද්ද ඊට පස්සෙ?”
ඇයි නැත්තෙ ?
දවසක් මම පාක් එකේ බංකුවක ඇලවෙලා හිටියා. මං දැක්ක හැඩ රුව හුරු පුරුදු කෙනෙක් පොඩි බබෙක් කාට් එකක දාගෙන පාක් එකට එනව. ඒ පද්මිනී. දිග කලිසමක් ඇඳල. අඳුරන්නත් අමාරුයි.
මම ඒ වෙනකොටත් හොඳටම ජරා ජීර්ණ වෙලා. මම එයා ළඟට ගියා. එයා ඇස් උඩ තියා ගත්තා.
” ඔයාට මොකද මේ උනේ?” මම ඔයා හැම තැනම හෙව්වා”
” පුතා මාව දාල ගියා.. ඔයා දැන් කොහේද ඉන්නේ?”
“පොඩි දුවලත් වෙන කොහාටද ගියා. මං හිතන්නෙ ෆ්ලොරිඩා වලට… බේබි සිටින් කරල පළපුරුද්ද තියෙනව කියල මට සහතිකයක් දීල ගියා.. මම දැන් ගෙදරක බබෙක් බලාගන්නවා.. ඔයා කොහේද ඉන්නේ ?”
” මට ඉන්න නියම තැනක් නෑ. හුඟක් වෙලාවට ෆ්‍රී වේ එක යට තමයි නිදා ගන්නෙ”
” ඔයා කෞන්ටි හොස්පිටල් එකකට ගිහින් ඔය තුවාල වලට බෙහෙත් දාගන්න”
ඉස්සර මට ලෙඩක් හැදුනම වැඩියෙන් කලබල වෙන්නෙ පද්මිනී. මාව බලෙන්ම දොස්තරගාවට ඇදගෙන යනව. ලෙඩේ කියන්නෙත් එයාමයි. හැමදේම වෙනස් වෙලා.
” මට පරක්කු වෙනව. 5.30 වෙන කොට මේ බබාගෙ අම්ම එනව”
මගේ පපුව හෝස් ගා ගෙන ගියා. හැමෝම වෙන් වෙලා යනව. අපි ආයෙ කවදා හමුවෙයිද ?
දවසක් මං හම්බ වෙන්න රෑ 12.30 ට විතර සපරමාදු ආව. එයා මට දුන්න පොලිතින් වලින් ඔතාපු පාර්සලයක්
” සෑම් මහත්තයා මට පොඩි උදව්වක් කරන්න. මේ අපේ ෆොටෝ ඇල්බම් එක. ඔයාට පද්මිනී අඳුරගන්න අමාරු වෙන එකක් නෑ. ඔය ඇල්බම් එක එයාට දෙන්න. ඕක ඇතුලේ සල්ලි වගයක් ඇති . ඒකත් එයාට දෙන්න.”
ඔයා ආපහු ලංකාවට යනව කිව්වා නේද ? යන්න…… මේක හොඳ රටක් නෙවි.”
සපරමාදු එදා නම් කතා කලේ සිහි විකලෙන් වගේ.
‘ඔයාට මගෙ වයිෆ් හම්බ උනේ නැත්නම් ඔය සල්ලි වලින් මහත්තයගෙ අම්මට මොනව හරි අරන් යන්න..”
පහුවදා පාන්දර මට කස්ටමර් කෙනෙක් ඇවිත් කිව්ව ට්‍රෑෂ් බින් එක ළඟ හෝම්ලස් මිනිහෙක් වැටිල ඉන්නවා කියල. මම විගහට ගිහින් බැලුව.
ඒ සපරමාදු. මම 911 කෝල් කළා.
ටික වෙලාවකින් ඇම්බියුලන්ස් එක ආව. මම වීදුරු කවුලුවෙන් බලා හිටියා.
සුදු රෙද්දකින් වහපු සපරමාදුගෙ සිරුර ඇම්බියුලන්ස් එකෙන් කොහාටද අරන් ගියා.
සපරමාදු මැරිලා.
නිමි.

For all those born in 80’s !

2011-11-11T23:48:00.000-06:00

I was born in February, 14th 1980 (Yes Valentines Baby). And if you think about our past, this is so true :)

We are the last generation that learnt to play in thestreet. We are the first who’ve played video games, see cartoons in color andwent to amusement parks. We were the last to record songs of the radio oncassettes and we are the pioneers of walkmans and chartrooms…We learned how toprogram the VCR before anyone else, play with Atari, Super… Nintendo andbelieved that the Internet would be a free world all on a 56Kbit model.Traveled in cars without seat belts or air-bags and lived without cell phones.Rode our bicycles down the roads without breaks. We never had phones but stillkept in touch. We did not have Play stations, 99 television stations, flat screen’s,surrounds sound, mp3s, iPods, iPhone, iPads, touch tablets and broadband……….

But nevertheless we had a GREAT TIME……

How I learned to mind my own business

2011-11-07T11:45:00.000-06:00

Nice story.....lol

How I learned to mind my own business: I was walking past a mental hospital the other day, and all the patients were out in the yard shouting, "13....13....13...." The fence was too high to see over, but I saw a little gap in the planks, so I looked through to see what was going on and some idiot poked me in the eye with a stick! Then they all started shouting "14....14....14..

How to remove AVG Secure Search option from Mozilla tabs

2011-10-25T10:40:00.003-06:00

Lately, my Opera browser starts consuming lots of memory around 200k compared to Firefox which is about 70-90k. I really liked the Opera speed dial option and its mouse gestures. But I guess this is the time to move on and try something different.

So, I'm going to see how the Mozilla works, hopefully it should works. So far so good. But one thing that annoyed me at the start was the AVG secure search option. I don't like browser to tell which search engine I should try. I like Google and Bing than anything else, so I thought this should be an easy fix. Whenever I opened a new tab in Mozilla, this goes to a default AVG secure search. But I couldn't find an option to disable that, not even after removing the AVG search option from the search engine list.

After looking around for sometime, I found a solution, but not sure this may hinder any safety features of the browser or not. If you find so, do let me know.

Here's how to remove the default AVG secure search option in a new tab and moving it to your speed dial or to your default home page.

Run Mozilla Firefox.
Choose the Add-ons option from the Tools menu.
Select the AVG Safe Search add-on and click on the Disable button.
Close Mozilla Firefox and run it again.

Or you can go to control panel and un-install programs and then change the AVG by un-checking the add-on option.

World fastest cars Top 14 - 2011/2012

2011-10-19T01:52:00.026-06:00

1. Bugatti Veyron Super Sport
267 mph, 0-60 in 2.4 secs. Aluminum, Narrow Angle 8 Liter W16 Engine with 1200 hp, base price is $2,400,000. Although the Bugatti Veyron lost the title to SSC Ultimate Aero on March 2007, Bugatti challenge the record in Germany on July 10, 2010 with the new 2010 Super Sport Version and the Veyron once again claims the title of the fastest car in the world at 267 mph. The original Bugatti Veyron has a top speed of 253 mph, priced at $1,700,000 and equipped with 1001 hp.

2. Hennessey Venom GT
260 mph, 0-60 in 2.5 seconds, has a 6.2-liter LS9 Turbocharged V8 Twin Turbo V8 Engine 1200 hp, has a price tag of $950,000. The Venom GT has yet to be tested and proven, but could possibly hit a top speed of 275 mph. This might just be the Veyrons closest competitor!

2. Koenigsegg Agera R
260 mph, 0-60 in 2.9 secs. 5.0-liter V8 Engine with twin turbo’s, housing 1099 hp. Base price is $1,600,000. If you're into snow sports, the Agera R can be fitted with a Ski Box as well as winter tires, not that I would take one on a ski trip or anything like that. While the Agera R has a massive theoretical top speed, the current tested top speed is 260 mph. Expect this snow car to be the Bugatti's arch enemy for the next 5 years

3. SSC Ultimate Aero
257 mph, 0-60 in 2.7 secs. Twin-Turbo V8 Engine with 1183 hp, base price is $654,400. Tested in March 2007 by Guinness World Records, The SSC Ultimate Aero was the fastest car in the world from March 2007 to July 2010. On March 2011, the Koenigsegg Agera R also surpassed it, forcing this American made car to the #3 spot. Shelby SuperCars will continue their quest to reclaim the fastest car title, and their new SSC Tuatura might do the job (we'll just have to wait).

4. Saleen S7 Twin-Turbo
248 mph, 0-60 in 2.8 secs. Twin Turbo All Aluminum V8 Engine with 750 hp, base price is $555,000. Smooth and bad-ass. It will make you want to show it off non-stop.

5. Koenigsegg CCX
245 mph, 0-60 in 3.2 secs. 90 Degree V8 Engine 806 hp, base price is $545,568. Made in Sweden, it is the older brother of the Agera R, only losing to 4 other supercars in the world.

6. McLaren F1
240 mph, 0-60 in 3.2 secs. BMW S70/2 60 Degree V12 Engine with 627 hp, base price is $970,000. The fastest car in the 20th century with doors that looks like bat wings. Maybe Batman needs to order one and paint it black

7. Gumpert Apollo
224 mph, 0-60 in 3.0 secs, 4.2 liter V8 Engine that houses 650 hp. Base price: $450,000. Gumpert claims that the Apollo was designed such that it could drive upside-down in a tunnel with speeds at 190 mph or above. Of course, no one has tested this yet.

8. Noble M600
223 mph, 0-60 in 3.7 secs. Twin-turbocharged 4.4-liter V8 Engine with 650 hp. Base price is $330,000. The Noble M600 also happens to be a very cool car. Its inconspicuous design sports a slender and contoured body which does not scream out for attention at every second of the day.

9. Pagani Zonda Cinque Roadster
217 mph, 0-60 in 3.4 secs. Twin turbocharged AMG V12 engine that produces 678 hp. Base price is $1,850,000. The Pagani Zonda Cinque Roadster is a limited-edition, with five ever produced. It is the quintessential exotic and exclusive supercar.

9. Ferrari Enzo
217 mph, 0-60 in 3.4 secs. F140 Aluminum V12 Engine with 660 hp, base price is $670,000. Only 399 were ever produced; the price goes up every time someone crashes.

9. Jaguar XJ220
217 mph, 0-60 in 3.8 secs. Twin Turbo V6 Engine with 542 hp, base price was $650,000. Made in 1992, this car still has what it takes to make the list.

10. Ascari A10
215 mph, 0-60 in 2.8 secs. 5.0 litre BMW V8 S62 Engine with 625 hp. Base price: $650,000. The company planned to produce 50 of these supercars at its factory in Banbury, England.

10. Pagani Zonda F
215 mph, 0-60 in 3.5 secs. Mercedes Benz M180 V12 Engine with 650 hp, base price is $667,321. With a V12 motor, this baby can do much better.

Criminal penguin captured on film

2011-10-17T12:22:00.002-06:00

A "criminal" stone-stealing Adelie penguin has been captured on camera by a BBC film crew.

The team, filming for the documentary Frozen Planet, spent four months with the penguin colony on Ross Island, Antarctica.
The footage they captured shows a male penguin stealing stones from its neighbour's nest.
The birds build their stone nests to elevate and protect their eggs from run-off when the Antarctic ice melts.
Males with the best nests are more likely to attract a mate, so, in a colony of half a million penguins, the best stones are highly prized.
In the chaos of the penguin colony, cameraman Mark Smith managed to capture a remarkable sequence, with one penguin repeatedly returning to its nest to add stones, apparently unaware of the fact that his neighbor would steal a stone every time his nest was unattended.

Toilet Story

2011-10-16T21:33:00.002-06:00

Saw this in a facebook post, thought I should share this, Humor Alert! This is hilarious!

OMG!....I was in in the public restroom -

I was barely sitting down when
I heard a voice in the other stall: "Hi, how are you?"
Me: embarrassed, "Doin' fine!"
Stall: "So what are you up to?"
Me: "Uhhh, I'm like you, just sitting here."
Stall: "Can I come over?"
Me: (attitude) "No, I'm a little busy right now!!"
Stall: "Listen, I'll have to call you back. There's an idiot in the other stall who keeps answering all my questions! ~~

Rare Photos

2011-10-12T15:15:00.009-06:00

Google in 1999, when they started

Lady Diana accident scene

Football player dies while playing

Pope John Paul with the man that tried to kill him

The moment when Geoge Bush was notified of the attack on the Twin Towers

The Titanic ship before sailing

Holocast done by Hiltler

The Beatles when they were adolescents

School grades of Albert Einstein

Construction of the Empire State Building. This is a copy of the original photo

Jews in concentration camp

First computer ever made

Charlie Chaplin and Mahatma Gandhi

Construction of Christ The Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro

Black physicians treating in the ER a member of the Ku Kux Klan

Body of President Kennedy in 1963

Adolf Hitler as a child

Evolution of the Coca Cola

Berlin wall being torn down

Construction of Disney world

Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee

Osama Bim Laden Family. Osama is the one with red circle around his face

The Beatles before they became famous

Elvis Presley drafted into the Army

Papa Pio XII and Hitler

The Titanic at the bottom of the sea

Sadam Hussein with the noose around the neck

CHE GUEVARA AND FIDEL CASTRO

The FIRST McDonald

Early construction of Brasilia, capital of Brasil

How I spent the day, Steve Jobs died –true story (simple iphone owner)

2011-10-10T00:44:00.002-06:00

by Sandani Samarajeewa (Chemistry, Texas A&M University)

Woke up to the alarm from the iphone, checked personal mail and work mail, deleted all the spam, realized that my manuscript got rejected (sad day) and replied to a few emails while in bed

Checked facebook on the iphone while brushing my teeth to catch up with whatever happened overnight--new-borns, newly-weds, graduations, birthdays, laughter, tears, frozen Canadian Rockies, romantic Rome and Paris, tropical heavens Maldives and Sri Lanka…literally a world-tour

Checked on the calorie content of a left-over slice of cheese pizza vs. banana milk shake on the iphone to decide on what to have for breakfast

Had breakfast while checking on cricket highlights and a bit of world news on the iphone

Drove to Macys to return a dress, checked the prices of clothes that were 70% off of already 50% reduced price (the second reduction always throws me off) by scanning the labels with the iphone

Drove to work, parked on lot 50 and during my 10 min walk to the chemistry building (for those who don’t know me, I walk insanely slow), had a conference call between my mother (in Canada) and father (in Cambodia) on Skype, while having my brother (in Florida) on hold, heard my 5 year old nephew speak broken Sinhala on the background, showed a live video of an over-excited squirrel doing vertical spins (trying to eat its own tail rather) through Skype on the iphone

Got to work, calculated molar masses and concentrations for a reaction through the iphone while setting up a reaction, ran NMR and while collecting the spectra, determined unidentifiable peaks on the spectrum by checking the NMR solvent peaks chart on the iphone, timed a prep process with the iphone

Learned from a colleague that my boss’s reception honoring her distinguished professorship was at 5 pm, decided to return home to dress up, took a picture of the invitation from the iphone (instead of scribbling down the venue and time of the reception on a piece of paper) and let another colleague take a picture from his iphone of the invitation-picture on my iphone while running down the hall-way (how cool is that?)

Got home, dressed up, while driving to the reception, checked on the closest garage parking from the iphone

Got to the reception, ate good food, had a glass of wine, took a picture of the mouthwatering dessert display, got bored and entertained myself with a few minutes of angry bird

During the award presentation, learned that one of the physics distinguished professorship awardees was a Nobel Prize winner in chemistry (surprised) and checked out his inventions from the iphone before shaking hands with the laureate

Got home to learn (through his own invention) that Steve Jobs had passed away (shocked), texted the horrible news to a few friends, mourned

Went for a run while listening to Pandora on the iphone, calculated the distance and total calories burned through the iphone

Too lazy to switch on the laptop, so watched an episode of mad men on Netflix (still on the iphone), played some sad music on the piano with the metronome set from the iphone

Went to a friend’s place for dinner and scrabble, checked the meaning and existence of over 100 words on the iphone during scrabble, mourned about the death of Steve Jobs

Got home, plugged in my iphone to charge, checked mail, checked facebook, set the alarm, switched on the sleep app (weirdly…the sound of rain helps) and went to sleep (mourning of course…)

Moral of the story: This legendary inventor has touched the lives of the ordinary in an inexpressible manner. I’m a simple graduate student (quite technologically challenged to be honest), who survives on a generous graduate student stipend, 10000 miles away from home. Steve Jobs has brought the entire world and everything that matters to me into my pocket. Now think of the 129 million iphone users who follow a similar routine every single day—I’m truly honored to have lived in the i-generation of Steve Jobs—your legacy will forever remain.

UK Transit (stopover) Visa, London Heathrow Airport

2011-10-08T16:21:00.003-06:00

I noticed number of visits for one of my previous post about the stopover at London Heathrow airport. This happened in 2007 and me and my wife both were in transit to USA after our vacation at Sri Lanka. We had a 15 hour layover (or stopover) at Heathrow and we were able to obtain 24 hour entry visa to UK and spent few hours at my cousins place before catching the flight next day.

See my previous post here.

I'm not sure how the law regarding this 24 hour visa, and I'm still getting number of emails requesting more information about this. So, I did a quick search and found following information, so this will help you deciding whether you need a transit visa before the travel or whether you can obtain visa on arrival through the UK Border Agency. But most of the time it is a safe bet just to contact your airline to make sure that you need or need not transit visa.

This questionnaire will help you to decide some of it.

Do you need a visa?

This section explains how you can transit through the UK when traveling to another country. It also explains the documents that you will need to bring with you.
If you pass through the UK without staying here on the way to another country, this is called 'transiting'.

There are two types of transit through the UK:
You will transit airside if you arrive on a flight, remain in the arrival lounge of the airport without passing through immigration control, and then depart on another flight from the same airport.
You will transit landside if you arrive on a flight, pass through immigration control and then leave the UK within 48 hours (or 24 hours if you are travelling under the 'travel without visa' concession).

If you want to spend longer than 48 hours in the UK before continuing your journey, you must come to the UK as a visitor.

Also read the more information section bottom of each of the above links which gives you information based on your country and whether there is a valid entry visa for Australia, Canada, New Zealand or the USA, and a valid airline ticket for travel via the UK, as part of a journey to or from one of those countries (which is called Transit without visa' concession - DATV exemptions)

OUTSIDE THREAT Comet ElENIN october 16 2011...UFO invasion?

2011-10-06T21:41:00.003-06:00

Visa required to enter Sri Lanka - 1st Jan 2012

2011-10-06T11:07:00.004-06:00

This is to keep you informed, from 1st January 2012, all foreign passport holders would require to obtain a visa prior to entry into Sri Lanka.

The process is simple and the cost is just US$50 as a standard for all countries for processing the visa prior to arrival. Those who arrive at the airport without a prior visa could obtain so at the port of arrival for US$75!

However, Singaporeans and Maldivians are not required to have a visa prior to arrival (to reciprocate their kindness).

The Visa could be obtained as follows:

On line by logging on to www.eta.gov.lk (detailed information and the visa forms are provided through this site). The information is available in many of our key languages ( English, Arabic, Russian, Japanese, German, Spanish, Chinese etc). The visa is provided within a day.
Through a 3rd party
At the port of arrival

ETA processing fee Charges in United States DollarsTourist Visa with Double Entry for 30 days US$ 50

Tourist Visa Single Entry up to 90 days US$ 50
Tourist Visa with Double Entry up to 90 days US$ 50
Business Visa with Multiple Entry for 30 days US$ 60
Business Visa with Single Entry up to 90 days US$ 60

* * The visa prior to arrival will be implemented from 1st January 2012 and on 1st of October 2011, www.eta.gov.lk was launched. Hence please feel free to check this simple yet informative site for more details.

PhD Qualifiers - Oct. 11th

2011-10-03T11:29:00.003-06:00

Getting ready for my PhD qualifiers, and only a week before the judgment day. Am I depressed already?

My reading list is not bad compared to others like my friend Josh who got 2 entire books (Architecture and Algorithms) a 38 page research paper and another 8 pager. My case, I got only 4 papers each with 14,8,12 and 12 pages each. Feels like my list is too light, may be I should plan reading few more from the respective reference lists.

Fingers crossed, hope I should be OK.

New Look & New Template

2011-10-03T10:01:00.005-06:00

New look and matching theme similar to my personal web site Web Maze. Hope you like it.

Pandora Gadget on Windows 7 64bit

2011-08-30T09:02:00.002-06:00

You can download the Pandora.com gadget for Vista because its working fine for Windows 7 as well. But you need to make few tweaks to your system to work the Pandora Gadget with Windows 7 64bit version. There is no support for x64 from Adobe flash and the Pandora Gadget requires you to have x32 sidebar not x64 sidebar.

Here's what you need to do.

To enable the x32 Gadget sidebar, simply do this:

In the System Tray right-click on the Gadget Sidebar Icon. Click on Properties!
Make sure to uncheck the “Start Sidebar when Windows starts” option
Open the Explorer and Browse to C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Sidebar
Go to Start – All Programs and right-click on the folder “Startup”. Open it in a new window.
Now drag and drop the sidebar.exe from C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Sidebar into the startup folder
Voilà, now the Windows x32 Sidebar will auto-start whenever you log into Windows

War Heros & War Criminals (osama bin laden vs Velupillai Prabhakaran)

2011-05-06T08:20:00.004-06:00

My Bucket List

2011-03-25T23:21:00.011-06:00

Here’s my bucket list (wish list of things), what I want to do, feel, see, achieve, own, and experience before I die someday. I will update this as I complete the current list and come across new ones.

Learn acoustic guitar fingering style.
Buy a dream home in a hill country, 3-story, infinity pool.....
Drive the world fastest car (don’t wanna own it though).
Go camping with my little guy Pahan and the family.
Learn to fly a small plane.
Trek a rain-forest and spend a night at a rivers edge.
Translate several of my favorite novels to “Sinhala”.
Write and publish a hard copy novel.
Publish a research paper at “Nature”.
Intern at “NASA”, “Google Research”, or “Microsoft Research”
Visit at least 25 countries
Learn "Bonsai"
Cross the Atlantic on a private jet
Hot air balloon ride
Visit Egypt
Visit Machu Picchu
Honorary guest at my alma mater "St Anees College Kurunegala"
Be proficient in swimming
Own a small Island
Explore Antarctica and ride on a dog sled
See the Aurora (Northern Lights)
Visit area 51
Start a startup
Invent something
Bungee jump
See Sri Lanka win the cricket world cup for the 2nd time
100 journal/conference publications.
Post doctoral research at MIT, Stanford, UC Berkeley or UT Austin
Learn to speak Italian and French.
Meet and have a pic with a celebrity (any)
Play another game like "Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine"
Buy a luxury car

Pictures of the Day - for some end term fun.......

2010-12-14T09:53:00.005-06:00

Sri Lankan police!

Results of Love Marriage..........Its always the kids that suffer. His name is Zonky!!!!

Reading #30: Tahuti: A Geometrical Sketch Recognition System for UML Class Diagrams

2010-12-09T15:39:00.002-06:00

COMMENTS ON OTHERS:

Jonathan

SUMMARY

Tahuti, a multi-stroke sketch recognition environment for class diagrams in UML where users can sketch the diagrams on a tablet or white- board in the same way they would on paper and the sketches are interpreted by the computer. Proposed system differs from graffiti-based approaches to this task in that it allows users to drawn an object as they would with pen and paper. The system recognizes objects based on their geometrical properties by examining the line segments’ angles, slopes, and other properties, rather than requiring the user to draw the objects in a pre-defined manner. Recognizing the objects by their geometrical properties gives users the freedom to sketch and edit diagrams as they would naturally, while maintaining a high level of recognition accuracy. Proposed system uses a multi-layer framework for sketch recognition. The multi-layer framework allows the system to recognize multi-stroke objects by their geometrical properties. The stages of the multi-layer recognition framework are: 1) Preprocessing 2) Selection 3) Recognition 4) Identification. After each stroke is drawn, rudimentary processing is performed on the stroke, reducing the stroke to an ellipse or a series of line and curve segments. A collection of spatially and temporally close strokes is chosen, and the line segments contained in the collection of strokes are then recognized as either an editing command or a viewable object.

During the recognition stage, all stroke collections are examined to see if a particular stroke collection could be interpreted as a viewable object or an editing command. During the identification stage, a final interpretation is chosen, and a collection of strokes is identified as a viewable object or an editing command. All possible interpretations found in the recognition stage from the stroke collections are presented to the identification stage. The identification stage selects the final interpretation based on the following rules.

DISCUSSION

Tahuti combines the sketching freedom provided by paper sketches and the processing power available in an interpreted diagram. The system is based on a multi-layer recognition framework and recognizes objects by their geometrical properties, rather than requiring that the user draw the objects in a pre-defined manner. This system considers only groups of strokes that fall within a spatial bound. This spatial bound on its own may not be enough, especially for regions that contain many overlapping strokes. For example, if there are ten lines that all fall within a small region, to identify an arrow, the system still may have to try combinations of these lines.

Reading #29: Scratch Input Creating Large, Inexpensive, Unpowered and Mobile Finger Input Surfaces

2010-12-09T15:08:00.002-06:00

COMMENTS ON OTHERS:

Jonathan

SUMMARY

In this paper, the authors provide a new input technique that allows small devices to appropriate existing, large, passive surfaces such as desks and walls, for use as a kind of input device. This Scratch Input technique operates by listening to the sound of “scratching” (e.g., with a fingernail) that is transmitted through the surface material. This signal can be used to recognize a vocabulary of gestures carried out by the user. The proposed sensor is simple and inexpensive, and can be easily incorporated into mobile devices, enabling them to appropriate whatever solid surface they happen to be resting on. Alternately, it can be very easily deployed, for example, to make existing walls or furniture input-capable.

To capture sound transmission through solid materials, authors proposed to use a modified stethoscope. This is particularly well suited to both amplifying sound and detecting high frequency noises. This is attached to a generic microphone, which converts the sound into an electrical signal. In this particular implementation, the signal is amplified and connected to a computer through the audio-input jack. Scratch Input’s non-spatial property gives it a significantly different character from many other surface input techniques and does preclude some uses. Results indicate participants were able to achieve an average accuracy of 89.5%. As hypothesized, accuracy suffered as gesture complexity grew. Gestures with two of fewer motions achieved accuracies in excess of 90%.

DISCUSSION

The Scratch Input, an acoustic-based finger input technique that can be used to create large, inexpensive and mobile finger input surfaces. This can allow mobile devices to appropriate surfaces on which they rest for gestural input. This revealed that Scratch Input is both easy to use and accurate on a variety of surfaces. Foremost, most mechanical sensors are engineered to provide relatively flat response curves over the range of frequencies that is relevant to signal. This is a desirable property for most applications where a faithful representation of an input signal – uncolored by the properties of the transducer – is desired. However, because only a specific set of frequencies is conducted through the arm in response to tap input, a flat response curve leads to the capture of irrelevant frequencies and thus to a high signal-to-noise ratio.

Reading #27: K-sketch: A 'Kinetic' Sketch Pad for Novice Animators

2010-12-09T14:45:00.002-06:00

COMMENTS ON OTHERS:

Francisco

SUMMARY

The authors proposed an informal, 2D animation system called KSketch, the “Kinetic” Sketch Pad. K-Sketch is a pen-based system that relies on users’ intuitive sense of space and time while still supporting a wide range of uses. K-Sketch animations are often rough, but they are still useful in informal situations and as prototypes of formal animations. The goal of this project has not been to design novel interaction techniques but rather to focus on high-level choices about tool features. Thus, the authors conducted field studies to find out how an informal animation tool might be used and whether or not it could be made general-purpose.

From these interviews with nineteen animators and would be animators, authors compiled a library of 72 usage scenarios for an animation system. these results in more detail and describe a novel optimization technique that enable to make K-Sketch’s interface simultaneously fast, simple, and powerful.

Process begins by reviewing interviews with animators and with non-animators. This is followed by an analysis of the library of usage scenarios collected and a description of interface optimization technique. Since many novice animators wish to do what experienced animators do, the authors began field studies by interviewing eight experienced animators to see how an informal tool would fit in their work process. K-Sketch currently supports all ten desired animation operations: Translate, Scale, Rotate, Set Timing, Move Relative, Appear, Disappear, Trace, Copy Motion, and Orient to Path.

DISCUSSION

These results show that K-Sketch’s simple interface has strong benefits. The simplicity of K-Sketch’s interface also meant less practice time was needed before tasks could be performed. These tools allow designers to build prototypes or storyboards of dynamic systems by creating sketches according to conventional visual languages.

Reading #26: Picturephone: A Game for Sketch Data Capture

2010-12-09T10:07:00.004-06:00

COMMENTS ON OTHERS:

Francisco

SUMMARY

This paper proposes a multi-player sketching game called Picturephone. Its purpose is to capture hand-drawn sketches and player-provided descriptions which can be used by other researchers to develop or test sketch recognition systems. Picturephone is not a new recognition system—it is a tool for capturing hand-made drawings in many domains by many people, along with human-classified descriptions. Picturephone is inspired by the children’s game called Telephone. In Telephone, a player privately describes something to the person to the left. That person then conveys the message to the person to their left, and so on. Over time the message may change drastically. Picturephone uses a web oriented client/server architecture and is known to run on Windows, Mac OS X, and Ubuntu Linux. Both client and server are written in Java. Communication is done with the standard HTTP protocol using the host web browser’s network connection, allowing the game to work unimpeded by firewall or router restrictions.

There are three primary game modes: draw, describe, and rate. Players are randomly assigned one of these modes. In Draw mode (Figure 2), players are given a text description and are asked to draw it using the sketching surface at the right. A time limit is enforced to encourage simplicity.

DISCUSSION

Picturephone is the first instance of a class of planned sketching games that could provide researchers with a method to acquire data about drawings. This includes the physical act of sketching as well as how people describe those drawn elements. The paper is lack of most of its implementation details, and significantly overlaps with the paper described in Reading #24. Here it asks the player to draw using the description “three concentric circles”. After completing the drawing, the player hits ‘Done’. The game chooses among your preferred modes: sketching, describing, or rating.

The user gets a few ‘rate’ phases in a row here. It simply asks the player to rate how closely the two pictures match. The picture on the left was the basis for a description, and the one on the right was a sketch made based on that description. When a player rates these two drawings, points are assigned to the people who made both sketches as well as whoever made the mediating description. As you can see, the task of rating is rather subjective, but since it collects lots of ratings for the same pair it seems to work out fairly well. Eventually the game picks ‘describe’ mode, so here you see the player typing in a description about a floor plan layout of a square house with a bathroom and kitchen in the corners. This process continues until the player chooses to end their session.

Reading #25: A Descriptor for Large Scale Image Retrieval Based on Sketched Feature Lines

2010-12-09T04:12:00.002-06:00

COMMENTS ON OTHERS:

Jonathan

SUMMARY

The main contribution of this work is a sketch-based query system for image databases containing millions of images. As most current retrieval algorithms for large image databases it is based on a small descriptor that captures essential properties of the images. A main feature is that it elegantly addresses the asymmetry between the binary user sketch on the one hand and the full color image on the other hand. The proposed descriptor is constructed in such a way that both the full color image and the sketch undergo exactly the same preprocessing steps to compute the descriptor. The resulting sketch based image retrieval system can be used by any novice user to quickly query the image database. The power of the system stems from exploiting the vast amount of existing images, which offsets obvious deficits in image descriptors and search.

The authors state that the descriptor’s performance is superior to a variant of the MPEG-7 edge histogram descriptor in a quantitative evaluation for which measured retrieval ranks of 27 sketches created from reference images out of the image database.

DISCUSSION

I’m totally perplexed. Is this related to sketch recognition?

Reading #24: Games for Sketch Data Collection

2010-12-09T03:54:00.002-06:00

COMMENTS ON OTHERS:

Hong-Hoe (Ayden) Kim

SUMMARY

This paper presents a multi-player sketching games to capture a data corpus of hand-drawn sketches and player-provided descriptions from many users on a wide range of subjects. Two systems with distinct game mechanics are described: Picturephone and Stellasketch. Picturephone has three primary game modes: draw, describe, and rate. Players are randomly assigned one of these modes. Stellasketch is a synchronous, multi-player sketching game similar to the parlor game Pictionary. One player is asked to make a drawing based on a secret clue. The other players see the drawing unfold as it is made and privately label the drawing. While Picturephone’s descriptions are meant to be used to recreate a drawing, Stellasketch’s labels simply state what the sketch depicts. Labels are timestamped, so they can be associated with sketches at various stages of completion.

The characteristics of the two games’ data differ. While Picturephone’s sketches are complete at the time when others describe them, a Stellasketch drawing is labeled as it is made. Furthermore, Picturephone descriptions are generally longer and in approximately complete sentences, but Stellasketch labels are often short noun-phrases. Because a Stellasketch drawing is labeled as it is made, players usually furnish multiple interpretations, and there is often significant agreement among players. Agreement indicates those interpretations are more ‘correct’. Sometimes labels cluster into more than one group. While Picturephone supports people to play at their own rate, a game of Stellasketch requires several people to play at the same rate.

DISCUSSION

This paper has presented Picturephone and Stellasketch, two sketching games for collecting data about how people make and describe hand-made drawings.

Reading #23: InkSeine: In Situ Search for Active Note Taking

2010-12-09T03:35:00.001-06:00

COMMENTS ON OTHERS:

Jonathan

SUMMARY

InkSeine is a TabletPC application that offers rapid, minimally distracting interactions for users to seek, gather, and manipulate the “task detritus” of electronic work (links to documents, clippings from web pages, or key emails on a topic) across multiple notebook pages. Search offers a facile means to assemble such collages of notes, documents, and bitmaps while keeping the user engrossed in the inking experience as much as possible. InkSeine’s primary work surface is an electronic notebook that allows users to jot ink notes on a series of pages. Thus, all of the search facilities that are the focus of this paper are designed in support of the inking task itself.

InkSeine provides a quick way to collect and annotate content from multiple documents. While current features for gathering content provide ways to drag out information from the search panel, there are opportunities to further leverage the value of in situ search by allowing the user to pull in material for searches from the notes. InkSeine’s in situ ink search strategy helps to reduce the cognitive barrier between having the thought to do a search while inking, to actually capturing that thought, and potentially acting on it at a later time.

DISCUSSION

InkSeine is a Tablet PC search application that allows users to store a pointer to a search via a breadcrumb object intermixed with their handwritten notes. Hinkley discovered that conventional GUI tooltips could be easily blocked by the hand. InkSeine presented a variation of a theme in which gestures were shown in situ as highlighter annotations over application widgets; the annotations could be toggled on and off with a button press. This technique was well suited toward disclosing simple gestures associated with explicit UI widgets. However, with only a few gestures, the technique cluttered the workspace but did not provide support for accessing more detailed information about subtle or complex gestures or for displaying gestures that required a document context (e.g., a selection lasso).

Reading #22: Plushie: An Interactive Design System for Plush Toys

2010-12-09T02:13:00.003-06:00

COMMENTS ON OTHERS:

Hong-Hoe (Ayden) Kim

SUMMARY

Plushie, is an interactive system that allows nonprofessional users to design their own original plush toys. To design a plush toy, one needs to construct an appropriate two-dimensional (2D) pattern. However, it is difficult for non-professional users to appropriately design a 2D pattern. Plushie, allows the user to create a 3D plush toy model from scratch by simply drawing its desired silhouette. The user can also edit the model, such as by cutting the model and adding a part, using simple sketching interface. The resulting model is always associated with a 2D pattern and the 3D model is the result of a physical simulation that mimics the inflation effect caused by stuffing.

The user interactively draws free-form strokes on the canvas as gestures and the system performs corresponding operations. The system also provides some special editing operations tailored for plush toy design including create, cut, create parts, pull, insert and delete. The authors used a standard triangle mesh for the representation of 3D model and the 2D patches with relatively coarse mesh (1000-2000 vertices) to achieve interactive performance. Each vertex, edge, and face of the 3D mesh is associated with corresponding entities in the 2D mesh. A 3D mesh is always given as a result of applying a physical simulation to the assembled 2D pattern. To be more precise, the physical simulation applied to the 3D mesh is governed by the rest length of each edge, which is defined in the 2D mesh geometry.

DISCUSSION

Creating 3D models is often a hard and laborious task due to the complexity and diversity of shapes involved, the intricate relationships between them, and the variety of surface representations. Current high-end modeling systems such as Maya, AutoCAD, and CATIA incorporate powerful tools for accurate and detailed geometric model construction and manipulation. These systems typically employ the WIMP (Window, Icon, Menu, Pointer) interface paradigm, which are based on selecting operations from menus and floating palettes, entering parameters in dialog boxes, and moving control points.

In this case, sketched input is used to define an initial state of a complex physical simulation or procedural model, domains that are typically encumbered with many parameters and initial settings to define. Mori and Igarashi provide an intriguing example of how SBIM techniques could be integrated with physical simulation: “if one can run an aerodynamic simulation during the interactive design of an airplane model, it might be helpful to intelligently adjust the entire geometry in response to the user’s simple deformation operations so that it can actually fly.” Exploring the output space of a procedural or physical model can be much more natural and efficient with free-form gestures, a notion that needs to be explored more fully in the future.

Reading #21: Teddy: A Sketching Interface for 3D Freeform Design

2010-12-09T01:17:00.001-06:00

COMMENTS ON OTHERS:

Francisco

SUMMARY

The paper proposes the “Teddy”, an idea of creating a sketching interface for designing 3D freeform objects. This allows the user to draw 2D freeform strokes interactively specifying the silhouette of an object and the system is capable of automatically constructing the 3D polygonal surface model based on the strokes.

The user does not have to manipulate control points or combine complicated editing operations. Using this technique, even first-time users can create simple, yet expressive 3D models within minutes.

Teddy’s physical user interface is based upon traditional 2D input devices such as a standard mouse or tablet. As soon as the user finishes drawing the stroke, the system automatically constructs a corresponding 3D shape. The program supports operations of creating new object, painting and erasing on the surface, Extrusion, cutting, smoothing and transformation. In order to remove noise in the handwriting input stroke and to construct a regular polygonal mesh, every input stroke is re-sampled to form a smooth polyline with uniform edge length before further processing

DISCUSSION

The authors follow the general philosophy of keeping the user interface simple by inferring the intention of a few, easy-to-learn commands, rather than providing an exhaustive set of commands and asking the user to set several parameters for each one. However, this is done by limiting the complexity and types of shapes that can be created by the user. Furthermore, the proposed system is not provided with a resultant accuracy measures and comparison parameters.

Reading #20: MathPad2: A System for the Creation and Exploration of Mathematical Sketches

2010-12-08T22:21:00.002-06:00

COMMENTS ON OTHERS:

Francisco

SUMMARY

This paper presents MathPad2, a prototype application for creating mathematical sketches. MathPad2 incorporates a novel gestural interaction paradigm that lets users modelessly create handwritten mathematical expressions using familiar math notation and free-form diagrams, including associations between then two, with only a stylus.

According to authors, Mathematical sketching is the process of making simple illustrations from a combination of handwritten 2D mathematical expressions and sketched diagrams. Combining mathematical expressions with diagram elements, called an association, is done either implicitly using diagram labels as input to an inferencing engine or manually using a simple gestural user interface.

DISCUSSION

It is hard to understand the novelty of the work other than using a gesture recognition system applied towards identifying mathematical expressions. Most of the gestures used for the work are of hackneyed nature, and the use of lasso capability to group stands as something original. In my personal opinion, the work is more of a functionality of a regular character recognition system and gestures are just used to trigger an execution of a function processing, or combining, or editing/deleting.

Reading #19: Diagram Structure Recognition by Bayesian Conditional Random Fields

2010-12-08T21:25:00.001-06:00

COMMENTS ON OTHERS:

Jonathan

SUMMARY

The paper proposes recognition of hand-drawn diagram structures using Bayesian conditional random fields (BCRFs). BCRFs are a generalization of Bayes point machines or discriminative Bayesian classifiers for single elements. The method jointly analyzes all drawing elements in order to incorporate contextual cues. According to authors, the advantage of BCRFs over conventionally-trained CRFs include, model averaging and automatic hyper parameter tuning.

The application of BCRFs to ink classification is to discriminate between the containers and connectors in a drawing of organization charts. This particular task includes, subdivision of pen strokes into fragments, construction of conditional random field on fragments, BCRF training and inference on network. In the first step, the strokes are divided into simpler components called fragments. Fragments should be small enough to belong to a single container or connector. In contrast, strokes occasionally span more than one part when drawn without lifting a pen. The fragments are selected as strokes that form a straight line segments. In the process of conditional random field on the fragments, each fragment is represented by a node in the network.

DISCUSSION

The proposed work shows an interesting method to segment ink features from a sketch application. The method is mathematically rigorous and therefore hard to understand by the content. Great deal of information of the feature extraction omitted from the paper, and therefore makes the works shine a bit less. Also note that the BCRFs accuracy is less compared to the joint performance of BCRFs-ARD.

Reading #28 iCanDraw

2010-11-15T22:04:00.002-06:00

COMMENTS ON OTHERS:

Francisco

SUMMARY

Proposed paper describes a feedback assisting system for users to draw a human face from an image. The work starts with a face recognition system to model the features of a human face from the image, and then sketch recognition to evaluate hand-drawn face and giving corrective feedback and receiving actions from the user. The teaching style of the proposed model is step-by-step instructions complemented by corrective feedback to assist a user towards creating an accurate rendition of an image. The user interface consists of a drawing area, a reference image to draw , and an area to provide instructions and options to the user.

A reference image was manipulated for each step to help the user to see what to draw. This includes reference lines across horizontal and vertical image sections. The corrected feedback is provided with using text markers as well as visual guidelines.

DISCUSSION

I’m just wondering how this particular method can help on our project3 work where a corrective feedback system to draw a human eye. What other ways the current implementation can modify from its template base to some other way to compare the users sketch? I’m thinking may be Paleo is some sort of a help here? It can give you the type of the sketch the user is drawing and based on this we can decide upon a particular sketch from the required sketch is completed or not!

Reading #18: Spatial Recognition and Grouping of Text and Graphics

2010-11-15T13:05:00.001-06:00

COMMENTS ON OTHERS:

Jonathan

SUMMARY

The paper proposes a spatial framework for simultaneous grouping and recognition of shapes and symbols in free-form ink diagrams. The recognition is done by linking each stroke into a proximity graph and then using a discriminative classifier to classify connected subgraphs as either known symbol or invalid combination of strokes. In the preprocessing the graph is created with the nodes corresponds to strokes and edges to the strokes in close proximity. Then a dynamic programming approach was used to iterate on nodes and discriminated recognition was applied on the set. The classifier is named as AdaBoost and features are the Viola-Jones image filters to evaluate each stroke group. Authors also note that it is possible to input strokes which may not make up a shape at all called garbage shapes.

DISCUSSION

The paper is extremely short and not enough information provided with the recognizer, and in this case the most important part of this work. Much of the discussions in first few chapters are about the previous work, the preprocessing and the search tree on the neighborhood graph making process. The authors mentioned a use of dynamic programming in the content somewhere but not sure A* is the best method to get the optimum results. In my opinion the sketches tend to represent more of a close loop connection of strokes from start to end and this makes it easy to find an optimum path using a forward backward algorithm or using Viterbi.

Reading #17: Distinguishing Text from Graphics in On-line Handwritten Ink

2010-11-14T13:50:00.001-06:00

COMMENTS ON OTHERS:

Wenzhe Li

SUMMARY

The authors states that the proposed study utilizes both characteristics of sketch strokes and also information provided by the gaps between the strokes, and temporal characteristics of the stroke sequence. The proposed approach is based on the use of discriminative machine learning techniques to infer the class of the stroke based on the observed ink.

The proposed model starts with considering the isolated strokes and extracting features then training probabilistic classifier based on feed forward neural network. After that, the model is augmented with temporal information to capture the correlation between class labels. Finally it is proposed that to consider information extracted from the gaps between successive strokes. The model said to be based on 9 features extracted at the independent stroke model.

DISCUSSION

The proposed work uses a HMM model to enhance the performance by taking the context for each stroke into account. It is stated that the focus is on the use of temporal context since it leads to a 1D inference problem which can solve efficiently using dynamic programming techniques. The model uses Viterbi algorithm to find the states with the training data to get the most probably selection of the strokes. It is also obvious that the HMM require initial probabilistic information for the HMM model, and it is not clear from the context that how the initial probably set is chosen to train the system. Whether authors used a dummy set of probabilities or heuristic probably was used not really clear.

Reading #16: An Efficient Graph-Based Symbol Recognizer

2010-11-14T13:32:00.002-06:00

COMMENTS ON OTHERS:

SUMMARY

The paper proposes a symbol recognizer for pen based user interfaces which the symbols are attributed to relational graphs and best matches of the unknown symbol based on that. The graph matching is done using four techniques, stochastic matching, error driven matching, greedy matching and sort matching. In an attributed relational graph (ARG) each node represents the geometric primitives, and the edges represent the geometric relationship between them. A definition for a symbol is created by constructing an average ARG from a set of training samples. The proposed recognition applies the ARG of unknown symbol to compare it with ARG of each definition symbol to find a best match based on above defined graph matching techniques.

DISCUSSION

The authors claim that stochastic, error-driving matching, and greedy are search based classifiers and Sort is based on orientation fixed method. This means that the other 3 methods are orientation invariant? But the figure 3 actually presents a problem with searching where the orientation brings a dissimilar pair into the matching at the comparison.

Reading #15: An Image-Based, Trainable Symbol Recognizer for Hand-drawn Sketches

2010-11-14T12:19:00.002-06:00

COMMENTS ON OTHERS:

SUMMARY

The paper proposes a trainable, hand-drawn symbol recognizer based on multi layer recognition scheme with the symbols internal representation on a binary template. Ensembles of four different classifiers are used o rank symbols based on similarity to an unknown symbol and the scores are aggregated to produce a combined score. The best score is assigned to the unknown symbol. All four classifiers are template matching techniques to compute the similarity between symbols. The authors used a polar coordinate based technique to compensate the rotation sensitiveness of the template matching technique. The authors state that the proposed system is particularly useful for sketchy inputs like heavy over stroking and erasing due to its binary template approach.

DISCUSSION

The authors state that the binary template approach is useful in sketchy overly stroked and erased sketches, but the down sampling and framing it to a 48x48 is questionable whether the best approach. May be authors should experiment more with other techniques like binarizing the ink features and then getting a skeleton of the bits which will actually preserve the sketch input than reducing it.

Reading #14. Using Entropy to Distinguish Shape Versus Text in Hand-Drawn Diagrams

2010-11-13T21:29:00.001-06:00

COMMENTS ON OTHERS:

Jianjie (JJ) Zhang.

SUMMARY

The paper proposes a method to distinguish between shape and text strokes based on entropy rate. The authors state that the entropy rate is significantly higher for text strokes compared to shape strokes. They propose a single feature-zero-order entropy rate with a correct classification rate of 92.06% with a trained threshold. The zero-order entropy is determined independently from the previous symbol of the sketch point. The symbol refers to an associated symbol value for each point’s angle between two points of a text or a shape.

DISCUSSION

The authors argued that using an arbitrary set of features and trial and error approach is time consuming, which I totally agreed. I had the same in mind when reading the Ink feature based recognition on statistical analysis. Time is something to worry in a sketch system with both text and shapes, not only to distinguish them but also to recognize them from the library sketches. The proposed system deems to be a simpler way to achieve the text and shape classification, but its still not the best solution when it comes to complex shapes, which quite similar in entropy even to a simple character set.

Reading #13. Ink Features for Diagram Recognition

2010-11-13T21:26:00.000-06:00

COMMENTS ON OTHERS:

Francisco Vides

SUMMARY

The paper proposes to use formal statistical analysis methods to identify key ink features to improve recognition. The features measure aspects of an ink stroke’s curvature, size, time, intersections and use similar aspects to detect relationships between strokes. The proposed approach begins with investigating a range of possible ink features, how to collect these feature data and analysis, and initial result of an evaluation of a text/shape divider based on these key ink feature set. The proposed feature set includes 46 features and grouped into 7 categories of size, time, intersection, curvature, pressure, operating system recognition values and inter-stroke gaps.

DISCUSSION

Am I missing it or the 46 feature set is not actually listed on the paper or what? Also I’m wondering this particular technique is just to divide the whole sketch system into 2 groups, text or shape, and not to identify further each individual component against a library component? The authors state that they concentrated on identifying the distinguishing features of text versus shape strokes using a formal method for optimal ink feature selection; this means only identifying those stated 2 groups? I kow this is something important when we have a system like COA where possibly a text and shapes mixed with each other, but how feasible approach this is when recognizing something within a time limit say like sixty seconds? We have a recognition engine to separate text and shape and then again apply a recognition engine for each shape and text separately?

Leo: 2011 Horoscope

2010-10-16T22:33:00.002-06:00

I just want to keep this recorded and see how true the statements going to be at 2011……

From http://www.horoscopes-love.eu

There will be a lot to be proud of in 2011! The Leo 2011 yearly horoscope shows that you have worked hard and will see the fruition of that hard work in your career. Doors will open, people will admire you for ingenuity and might even approach you regarding new business ventures. It seems like everyone on the outside is a fan, except those closest to you. To maintain a harmonious Leo 2011 year, take the time to balance your life. It can’t be all about you all the time... even though you will have a lot going for you.

Leo 2011 Career and Income Horoscope

The Leo 2011 yearly horoscope shows that 2011 will start off with a bang! Promotions, accolades, attention... all the things a Leo lives for. This type of success will continue throughout the year, making it a good time to pursue projects you may have been putting off or new ideas. Starting a business or realigning yourself with old relationships may help kick off a new project that could result in major potential. The best advice for 2011 is to keep seeking out opportunities, because they will be yours for the taking. If something isn’t working, don’t waste time. Find another angle to approach. The Leo 2011 yearly horoscope shows that you will find much success this year, so if one door is locked, don’t stress. Just try another.

Leo 2011 Love, Family and Social life Horoscope

Sometimes you can be a drama king, Leo. Keep this in mind if your relationships begin to go South in the earlier parts of 2011. We’re not saying it’s your fault... we’re just saying that it’s more difficult to love others if you’re spending too much time loving yourself. Dig deep and start paying attention to your loved ones. Take the spotlight off of you once in awhile. The Leo 2011 yearly horoscope shows that people will not have a lot of sympathy for you and your relationship woes in the first half of 2011. Expect to weather the storm on your own. Or better yet, don’t make mountains out of molehills. If there’s a problem, fix it and move on. Changing your reaction to problems or offering more love than usual will help bring your family, friends and loved ones back to where they should be - loving you.

Leo 2011 Education and Traveling Horoscope

Opportunities will come your way! Say yes to everything that fits into your overall life plan. The Leo 2011 yearly horoscope shows that there will be offers for all sorts of exciting options, so take a day to evaluate what you can handle. Even though a trip across the globe might be an honor, look at the big picture to see if its really necessary. As for learning opportunities, invest your time. It’s worth it.

Leo 2011 Health Horoscope

Vital and powerful, you are in optimal health. Eat right, exercise and get the rest you need. Rest is the key in 2011. There is so much going on that you will be tempted to skip out but when you do, you will feel the effects. Don’t sabotage forward movements by avoiding something so simple.

Reading #12. Constellation Models for Sketch Recognition

2010-10-14T23:53:00.001-06:00

Comments on Others:

Marty

Summary

This paper describes a constellation or pictorial structure model to recognize strokes in sketches by capturing the structure of a particular class of objects and based on the local features of it. Learning of the system is done by probabilistic model from example sketches with known stroke labeling. Then the recognition algorithm determines a maximum likelihood labeling for an unlabelled sketch by searching through the space of possible label assignments using multi pass branch and bound algorithm. In the model, object representation is done by a constellation model, which based on the features of pairs of parts. Due to the complexity of n number of features, each of these features is broken into mandatory and optional.

According to the authors, the sketch recognition process has two phases, first to search possible mandatory labels and then optional labels. The searching is based on ML search procedure and search over possible label assignments are done by branch-bound search tree. Authors proposed a multiple threshold and hard constraints to avoid situations with higher mandatory labels or higher number of strokes.

Discussion

The idea of using a constellation model for the features of a sketch is an interesting one. I’m just wondering how useful this for our second project to identify course of action diagrams????

In my opinion restricting a user to draw a sketch based on the assumption that mandatory and optional features existence is sort of a constraining users freehand sketching. Yes, this makes the life much easier for the authors by making the searching is less complex, but I guess they are forgetting the golden rule of sketching recognition……….”freehand sketching”………..

Find the paper here.

Reading #11. LADDER, a sketching language for user interface developers

2010-10-14T22:29:00.001-06:00

Comments on Others:

Hong-Hoe (Ayden) Kim

Summary

LADDER is a language to describe how sketched diagrams in a domain are drawn, displayed and edited. According to authors, LADDER structural descriptions can be automatically transform into domain specific shape recognizers, editing recognizers and shape exhibitors to use for sketch recognition domain. Furthermore, authors state that the LADDER is the first sketch description language as well as first implemented prototype system to prove that such a framework is possible to automatically generate a sketch interface for a domain from only domain description. Entire LADDER system consists of 3 sub systems, Domain Description, Translation and Sketch Recognition System. Authors also state that a language is a combination of predefined shapes, constraints, editing behaviors, display methods and domain description syntax. Still the domain descriptions are easy to specify and have enough details for accurate sketch recognition.

LADDER is defined upon a set of shapes due to description limitations, things like abstract shapes, overly complicated irregular shapes, shapes not based on LADDER primitives, and domains with few curves or less details of curves. The LADDER system is based on vectors to define variable number of components.

Discussion

I’m not sure why there is a restriction to the shapes based on other than primitives defined on the LADDER? May be I’m not getting the concept right, are there any other primitives than a point, line and arc (in my opinion)? We should be able to define any other shape by simply using only 3 of these primitives, and I vaguely remember using only these 3 to do graphics programming during my undergraduate years. Correct me if I’m wrong…….

Find the paper here.

Reading #10. Graphical Input Through Machine Recognition of Sketches

2010-10-14T11:18:00.002-06:00

Comments on Others:

Danielle

Summary

This paper proposed an interactive system for graphical input in which the user openly participate in training the machine and massaging the data at all levels of interpretation. This includes 3 experiments, HUNCH: which tries to answer the question of existence of a syntax for sketching, architectural knowledge in recognizing a sketch and user involvement in the input process.

HUNCH is a set of FORTRAN programs with different level of interpretation to process freehand sketches drawn with a data tablet or a light pen. The HUNCH used a program called a STRAIT as a corner finder, which actually based on the function of speed of the pen. Another program called CURVIT was used to finder the curves instead of corners. Even with the sketch recognition capabilities of the CURVIT and STRAIT, authors found that there is a difference when different people using the system which based on the human sketching behavior. Due to the latching problems the STRAIT was re-written without it called STRAIN. Overtracing was another interpretation problem that authors faced during the HUNCH development. The newest approach was using a much more interactive system to get user involvement to make decisions on machine selection which consisted of a database to and programs to manipulate data. The program is based on inference making procedures which is different from HUNCH and STRAIN and LATCH.

Discussion

The paper is about a GUI to input and recognizer freehand sketches, but overall picture of the system is too hazy to understand. Author starts with a legacy system they used before the new system and the difficulties with the old system and how they overcome those in the new system. Without some performance measures and an overall picture of the system, it is hard to imagine how this new system works towards sketch recognition. I’m lost somewhere in the middle of the paper……………..!!!

Find the paper here.

Reading #9. PaleoSketch: Accurate Primitive Sketch Recognition and Beautification

2010-10-12T23:37:00.004-06:00

Comments on Others:

Francisco

Summary
The paper proposes a new low-level recognition and beautification system to recognize 8 primitive shapes as well as combinations of these primitives with recognition rate at 98.56%. The Paleo process initiates with a pre-recognition calculation and after that sending these to lower-level shape recognizes for further processing. Each of these low-level recognizer correspond to a particular primitive shape then returns a Boolean flag to specify whether the recognizer passed or failed as well as a beautified shape object that best fits the input stroke. After all shapes are executed, are hierarchy function sorts each interpretation of the order of a best fit. The pre-recogntion eliminates duplicate points and then create series of graphs including directional graph, speed graph, curvature graph and corners based on a simple corner finder algorithm. In addition this phase computes 2 new features called NDDE and DCR to defer polylines from curves.

Discussion
After using the Paleo in our first class project, I’m much satisfied with its processing capabilities w.r.t sketch recognition. It’s a powerful corner finder tool to get the basic primitive shapes of a sketch that you can apply towards devising other sketch recognition algorithms, (which makes life much easier). With my personal experience on hand writing recognition, I feel Paleo is a successful way of doing the preprocessing of an image for other low level tasks. I used to apply image processing techniques like binarization and skelatanizaton and then fuzzy rules to get primitive shapes and, yes, things are daunting that way.
I’m just wondering whether Paleo is capable of giving few more of feature properties of interests??? Things like positive/negative slanted line, horizontal/vertical line, U-like, inverse U-like, V-like and inverse V like??? I’m not sure paleo is already doing this or not, but if so, things are pretty good for a new character recognition pre-processing task using PaleoSketch………..

Find the paper here.

Sokushinbutsu (Self-Mummification) - Buddhism, 1/1000 ways to die………….

2010-09-20T16:48:00.002-06:00

I thought this self immolation video is too emotional, (it was done to protest and bring attention to the world the prosecution of Buddhists), how WRONG AM I?????

Sokushinbutsu were Buddhist monks or priests who caused their own deaths in a way that resulted in their mummification. This practice reportedly took place almost exclusively in northern Japan around the Yamagata Prefecture. It is believed that many hundreds of monks tried, but only between 16 and 24 such mummifications have been discovered to date. The practice is not advocated or practiced today by any Buddhist sect. The practice was thought to be extinct in modern Japan, but a recent example was discovered in Tokyo in July 2010.

For 1,000 days (a little less than three years) the priests would eat a special diet consisting only of nuts and seeds, while taking part in a regimen of rigorous physical activity that stripped them of their body fat. They then ate only bark and roots for another thousand days and began drinking a poisonous tea made from the sap of the Urushi tree, normally used to lacquer bowls.

This caused vomiting and a rapid loss of bodily fluids, and most importantly, it made the body too poisonous to be eaten by maggots. Finally, a self-mummifying monk would lock himself in a stone tomb barely larger than his body, where he would not move from the lotus position. His only connection to the outside world was an air tube and a bell. Each day he rang a bell to let those outside know that he was still alive.

When the bell stopped ringing, the tube was removed and the tomb sealed. After the tomb was sealed, the other monks in the temple would wait another 1,000 days, and open the tomb to see if the mummification was successful.

If the monk had been successfully mummified, they were immediately seen as a Buddha and put in the temple for viewing. Usually, though, there was just a decomposed body. Although they weren't viewed as a true Buddha if they weren't mummified, they were still admired and revered for their dedication and spirit.

Reading #8. A Lightweight Multistroke Recognizer for User Interface Prototypes

2010-09-11T13:18:00.002-06:00

Comments on Others:

Youyou Wang

Summary
The paper describes $N recognizer, a lightweight, concise multi-stroke recognizer, which is a significant extension to the $1 uni-stroke recognizer. The $N said to be capable of user defined complex gesture identification, customization, and operate at speeds supporting fluid interaction (not sure what it means though???). $N is an extension of $1 to overcome limitations of that version, such as uni-stroke nature, failure to recognize 1D gestures, and rotation invariance. More specifically, the $N recognizer is implemented to use with rapid prototyping as way of quickly incorporating it to user interfaces with small loc size.
The intuitive idea behind the $N development is to support rapid prototyping applications by eliminating the need of permutations of multistroke gesture and enable to enter only a single version of the gesture and use it for recognition. This is done by creating unistroke permutations of the multistroke at the define time and then using those for comparison at the run time. The $N uses automatic differentiating using a threshold to identify 1D and 2D gestures so that 1D’s can be preserved its aspect ratio.
The paper also describes $N limitations, such as provisions for scale and position, and not using gesture features.

Discussion
First the use of name $N kind a amusing, may be they took the idea of $1 literally and replace 1 by N to represent the idea of multi-stroke possibility in their algorithm recognition compared to $1 recognizers uni-stroke nature. But I guess $1 recognizer authors used that name to represent both how simple it is, less expensive (shorter implementation time and small size) and uni-stroked. But when it comes to $N, the idea comes to readers mind is this thing N times expensive to implement (that much complex) than $1 recognizer (don’t laugh, that’s how I feel).
One of the best goal of the $N as I consider is the ability to employ recognition with minimal input support (just a single multistroke entry) compared to other available recognizers including $1. The use of just the Euclidian distance for comparison between the candidate stroke to permutations unistroke is questionable, and in my opinion not the correct technique to do so. May be a RMSE value between the candidate and the unistroke permutation may be a good idea to verify the accuracy and may be to increase the performance.
The $N requires separate step to do the recognition of 1D from 2D, and in my opinion this can be avoided by using size invariant algorithmic design, may be a comparison based on the basic segment structure (example: a square consists of similar lengthen 2 horizontal and 2 vertical lines, and a triangle consists of 2 slanted and 1 horizontal lines).

Find the paper here.

Reading #7. Sketch Based Interfaces: Early Processing for Sketch Understanding

2010-09-11T10:06:00.001-06:00

Comments on Others:

Chris Aikens

Summary
The paper discusses a novel approach of developing an interface which feels as natural as a paper but smart enough to understand the user’s intension and identifying sketches to a geometric shape. More specifically the work is intended to provide natural sketching and have the sketches understood. Also the authors state their intension of this work by giving user a system with unrestricted capabilities, such as drawing a rectangle clock-wise or counter clock-wise or drawing it with multiple strokes and still which is able to identify by the computer, like how people perceive things in the real world, the geometric shape rather how it was drawn. Also note that the authors specified their domain as mechanical engineering design which dives added difficulty and complexity into sketching in this domain. Therefore the paper states that preprocessing steps like finding corners, fitting both lines and curves particularly important.
The system design consists of approximation, beautification and basic recognition in the preprocessing stage. According to the paper, approximation fits pixels to lines and curves, Beautification modifies the output from approximation to make it visually more appealing, and finally Basic Recognition do the interpretation of the strokes, like sequence of 4 lines as a rectangle or a square. Subsequent recognition into complex structures handles by some other system in the design. The approximation consist of vertex detection, which is based on Average based filtering to find extrema corresponding to vertices while avoiding those due to noise.

Discussion
This paper particular grabs my interests due to its nature of regarding sketches as graphic objects and doing preprocessing before recognition to break them into basic objects (lines, curves etc). I consider this technique a sort of best way of tackling sketch recognition problems (just my personal opinion).
The paper discusses vertex detection by the average based filtering which is on curvature graph and speed graph thresholds. I’m just wondering is there any other sophisticated ways to find the vertexes than this particular technique? In my experience, examining pixel distribution (neighboring pixels) is a hard problem; I’m interested in knowing something simple (Dr. Hammond mentioned tools to do this, am I missing something here?). Also I’m skeptical about using just the mean of the curvature data or speed data, a single higher order noise signal may ruin the whole detection process. Also the Beautification is based on adjusting the slopes, but may be thickening the line and then skeltoning it would be a better choice, because slope adjustments may weaken the intended stroke appearance.
In my personal opinion, the paper is lacking the required recognition design as a description which makes it more abstract to readers when it comes to the so called “higher level recognizer”.

Find the paper here.

Reading #6: Protractor: A Fast and Accurate Gesture Recognizer

2010-09-08T10:08:00.002-06:00

Comments on Others:

chris aikens

Summary
The paper describes a novel gesture recognizer using a nearest neighbor approach (I assume KNN), to recognize unknown gesture (testing sample or runtime sample) based on their features (or similarity) to the known gestures (training samples). The author states that simple, template-based recognizers are much more usable (advantageous) than its peers (sophisticated gesture recognition algorithms) in situations where personalized gesture interaction required.
The Protractor preprocessing of gestures said to transform the 2D trajectory of the gesture to a uniform vector representation and claimed to be applicable to both invariant and orientation sensitive gesture sets with different aspect ratios. The paper further describes Protractor design which is similar to several of steps involved in the $1 recognizer including preprocessing with N=16 samples as opposed to N=64, and noise removal using the resampling. But the author sates that the Protractor does not rescale as of $1 recognizer therefore it makes it to even recognize narrow gestures such as horizontal or vertical lines.

Discussion
The paper discusses a simple but effective way of developing a gesture recognizer using an available feature classification algorithm, nearest neighbor. Even though claim of Protractor’s superiority compared to other gesture recognition is stated, in my opinion more performance evaluation needed to keep it in the firm ground (comparing it just to $1 recognizer is simply not enough to claim its superiority over other algorithms). But I kind a biased and like the authors idea of comparing it to $1 recognizer, as I mentioned this as an advantage in my discussion on $1 recognizer paper. This may be a good point to consider when creating gesture recognizers, comparing it to both Protractor and $1 recognizer (both claims to be simple to implement). Also I agree that nearest neighbor algorithm is something pretty simple to implement using eucledia distance between the testing and training samples. But, based on my experience, the KNN tends to give mix set of results and it mostly depends on how you choose the feature sets for the training samples and quality of the feature set.
The paper describes the optimal angular distance calculation which is used to compare with the nearest neighbor algorithm and use it to obtain the maximum similarity (inverse minimum cosine distance).
The paper discusses nearest neighbor approach with K=1, but lack what will be the situation when the K value is changing (say 3, 5, 7 etc). As an example when Protractor was given 3 templates and finding assigning the highest similarity among 3 templates to the unknown one is not discusses as in the case of 5 or 7 or etc samples. With my personal experience, k=3 makes a better solution than k=1 where the comparison is happened between 3 known samples against 1 unknown sample (may be highly depends on the content area). Also missing is the description on how the performance of the Protractor when the template sample increases.

Find the paper here.

Reading #5: Gestures without Libraries, Toolkits or Training: A $1 Recognizer for User Interface Prototypes

2010-09-07T16:43:00.002-06:00

Comments on Others:

Wenzhe Li

Summary
The paper states that “$1 recognizer” (I guess $1 represents how easy, cheap, and usable with less loc to program) was developed to enable novice programmers to incorporate gestures into their UI prototypes. The paper includes a detailed pseudo code, so that programmers can easily test the gesture recognizer through their interface design. The authors correctly states that the making of gesture recognition a topic of interests to experts in the field of AI, not experts in HCI with primarily works on interactive level (not completely agree!). Therefore, authors assume that this perhaps limited the opportunity to slip in gesture recognition into UI design. The paper also presents why Ad-hoc recognizers prevents applications due to limitations in defining own gestures at run time, and when the gesture set is very large.
The $1 recognizer is essentially limited to uni-stroke due to the authors’ interest in recognizing paths delineated by users interactively. The authors state comparatively, $1 recognizer is better because sophisticated methods like HMMs, ANNs, statistical classifiers require extensive training before practical use, and also they are difficult to program and debug. The authors describe, even the popular Rubine’s linear classifier requires advance computation before its use.
The paper also states 8 criteria’s defined upon the recognizer to make it simple (These criteria’s also considered as goals of this methodology). The paper describes its algorithm implementation is 4 step process. As limitations, authors states that $1 algorithm is rotation, scale and position invariant (circle and oval both similar). Also gestures are not possible differentiate based on time. The paper states the testing procedure with comparison to Rubin classifier and Dynamic Time Warping (DTW).

Discussion
This paper explains a simple gesture recognizer which can be easily program and plugged in to a UI design and support gestures through the UI. The authors believe that perhaps the area of interests of HCI experts makes it limited for the UI designs to be incorporated with gesture recognition. In my opinion, I’m not completely agreed to that, may be limitations on the existing technology hinder the opportunities to do more research on HMM, ANN etc. and to apply that knowledge to UI usability and development research.
I’m not sure why authors state that HMMs require extensive sample training and complex coding and debugging. With my personal experience on developing HMM based eye movement detection algorithm, I feel authors bit mislead just by the content before applying it to real world applications (HMM is reasonably fast with online applications though it require some sort of a training before hand). Also, I’m just wondering the use of N=64 for the resampling. May be using a digitization (select the path and make adjacent pixels 1 or zero depends on the next pixel and direction)
Overall, the paper presents easy to read/understand concept on simple gesture recognizer, and I believe is a plus for gesture/sketch recognition community to implement it and compare it with their own algorithms (Because authors suggests that their work is comparatively competitive in terms of results in previously used complex algorithms, Rubine and DTW).

Find the paper here.

Reading #4: Sketchpad: A Man-Made Graphical Communication System

2010-09-07T12:35:00.003-06:00

Comments on Others:

Wenzhe Li

Summary
This paper describes earliest (more importantly, first), man-machine-interaction (MMI) technology called “Sketchpad” by Ivan E. Sutherland (According to Dr. Hammond, Sutherland was recognized as the father of the sketch recognition). The sketch pad was capable of drawing sketches according the movement of a light pen (for position trace) and using a push button to say a specific function (turn on and off switches) to execute. This way the sketchpad system said to be eliminated typed statements (so far we are still using typing, but its’ OK the paper dates back to 1964 with the original idea) in favor of line drawings.
The authors demonstrated its intended use of light pen with a novel idea of using pseudo pen location to detect where the intended location that the pen needs to be aiming at. The paper explains its displays are using straight line segments, circle arcs and single points as the basic (or fundamental) design symbols for its sketchpad displays. The authors also discusses the use of display abstraction to support in drawing properties, like similar length, similar size etc using constrains.

Discussion

The sketchpad is an important finding for the sketch recognition domain (I mean the idea of sketch/gesture recognition), and I believe it makes totally a new era of human computer interaction. How important this area of research going to be for our day today life or to the near future, readers can look at your own pocket (touch phones, touch pads, touch media players etc). For the moment we are using some sort of gesture input for these devices, and we can expect whole new way of interactions (May be you can look at “Microsoft's Vision of the Future” video just to get a clue).
It is an interesting idea of having a pseudo pen location for segments where a light pen is aiming at. But as of my opinion, when it comes to heavily multi-stroked gestures/sketches, the system tends to fail due to cross-mapping of pseudo pen location (it is possible to map the pen location to a wrong place due to multi-strokes already sketched on). I’m not clear how the authors solved this problem in their related work (any thoughts???).
Most of the future works of the paper are in successful outcomes (in my personal opinion), and the concept of sketching using an input device is outdated (for the purpose of creating an electrical circuit or complex drawing etc.), there are already number of software products to do all these drawing stuff (like smartdraw).

Find the paper here.

Reading #3: “Those Look Similar!” Issues in Automating Gesture Design Advice

2010-09-06T20:48:00.002-06:00

Comments on others:

Wenzhe Li

Summary

This paper describes an interface design tool that uses unsolicited advice to help designers of pen-based user interfaces to create pen gestures which are dissimilar. The tool said to be designed such a way that it warns designers when their gestures will be perceived to be similar and advise how to make their gestures less similar. The authors state their gesture design tool “quill” which will advises designers on how to improve their gestures. To detect when people will perceive gestures as similar, quill said to be equipped with experimentally-derived model of human-perceived gesture similarity. This paper states its similarity experiment with outcomes of 99.8% for not similar gestures and 22.4% for similar ones with a gesture pair to perceive as similar or not. The paper also discusses interface and implementation challenges on quill.

Discussion

The paper discusses an interesting topic of helping interface designers to create less similar gestures with the pen based user interfaces. The paper states cut and paste as gestures with similar abstract operations which often confuse designers when assigning gestures. I’m not sure how true the statement is, may be authors wants to compare cut and copy, not cut and paste!!!
With that much lower accuracy rate for identifying two similar gestures (22.4%), it is hard to understood that quill is so much accurate or powerful enough to predict when two gestures are similar (in my opinion the similarity experiment result accuracy is not even in the mid rage which is unacceptable). Also I feel the readers may want more detailed explanation on similarity experiment (as the backbone of the quill, by the way that’s what provide intelligence to quail) to get a fair idea of how the quill works.
The paper discusses difficulties in providing advice, specially at what time, as soon or later. But the authors state that they found that the unsolicited advice is the best way though there are difficulties with the timing in situations like brainstorming. May be the solution is too simple to think (or stupid), but why don’t we create a condition for brainstorming (may be user can press a brainstorm button to stop advice, or stop advice button!! Genius or what).

Find the paper here.

Reading #2: Specifying Gestures by Example (Rubine)

2010-09-05T08:01:00.003-06:00

Comments on others:

Yue Li

Summary:

This paper describes possibility of creating automatic gesture recognizers from example gestures by removing the need for hand coding. The GRANDMA (Gesture Recognizers Automated in a Novel Direct Manipulation Architecture) toolkit developed for rapidly adding gestures to direct manipulation interfaces and trainable single stroke gesture recognizer used by GRANDMA are also explained. The paper also describes powerful combination of gesturing and direct manipulation in the two-phase interaction technique. The author suggests the requirement of 15 training samples (or examples) per gesture class which is selected empirically. The author explains a simple preprocessing applied towards the inputs by removing time stamped coordinates which are 3 pixels apart from the previous input point. Furthermore, the author describes the feature set was empirically determined to work well on a number of different gesture sets. The gesture feature classification is handled by a linear classifier over the features. In addition Eager recognition to recognize gestures as soon as they are unambiguous and Multi Finger recognition are also discussed.

Discussion

According to the author, the GRANDMA took kit is essentially a single stroke based gesture system and states that this allows shorter timeouts to be used and therefore avoids segmentation problem. Still the author states the possibility of both timeouts and mouse button release, and this makes readers wonder that if button release action is a possibility then why its so hard to incorporate the multi-stroke gesture recognition to the GRANDMA toolkit. In my opinion, it is voluble for users to show that even the multi-stroke gesture recognition is possible through the GRANDMA toolkit though it is faster (or less problematic and simple) to use only single-stroked gesture recognition.
The author suggests than 15 training samples are enough per gesture class and this essentially makes readers wonder that the use of terminology in the GRANDMA, "Automation". Author refers it as the possibility of automatic gesture recognition vs. need for hand coding, and in my opinion if the recognizer still requires some sort of manual input (gestures) for the system to be functional (just my opinion).
The elimination of jiggle is another point to consider, the author states a simple preprocessing to remove input apart from 3 pixels from the previous input. In my opinion this may hinder the users intension as well as the actual input gesture. I believe a strong preprocessing; something like a binarization and then skeltonation would be much more appealing. The use of specific features set need to be independently verified, may be a sensitivity analysis and ranking order based on the analysis would be a better choice. Its quite nice if there’s some results from different gesture classifications, something like KNN compared to linear classifier.

Find the paper here.

Reading #1: Gesture Recognition

2010-09-04T11:31:00.009-06:00

Comments on others:
Francisco Vides
Jianjie (JJ) Zhang

Summary:
This paper starts with providing fundamental difference between the sketch and a gesture and the usefulness of gesture recognition to recognize a sketch. In contrast, the author states to avoid use of gesture based techniques in sketching due to possible constraining users from brainstorming and design. Furthermore, the author states that gesture recognitions work well in concert as editing or action commands in a sketch recognition system.
Furthermore, author discusses mainly the work of Dean Rubine’s gesture recognition method used for sketches in 1991, Long’s method which extended Rubine’s features to 22 and Wobbrock’s $1 recognizer. Author distinguish the Dean Rubine’s work as first and most recognized gesture recognition method for sketches with 13 stroke features and a linear classifier to feature classification. Author describes Christopher Long’s work on gesture recognition called the system Quill in 1996, which is similar to Rubine’s but slightly modified to have less reliance on time. Furthermore, the author states Jacob Wobbrock’s work on implementing a simple template matcher in 2007 that recognizes gestures slightly better than the feature based method. It is called the $1 recognizer because is it easy to implement.

Discussion:
The author presented a number of methods for performing gesture recognition in a single roof survey. Much of the authors’ concentration is on Rubine’s work, giving a clear meaning and importance of each of the feature set than the Rubine’s paper (I feel Rubin’s paper bit complicated to understand than the authors explanation, I guess that’s what authors’ intension was in writing this as a survey paper).
In my opinion I would like to see the features mapped to a common ground with a same value scaled to its characteristics. Say, something like a fuzziness 0-1. If it is a line, how slanted, how straight etc. And also some sort of a sensitive analysis to see which features makes the recognition accuracy better, may be a ranking order of the identified features may be a good idea.

Find the paper here.

About me...............

2010-09-02T08:20:00.005-06:00

E-mail address : UKSJayarathna(AT)gmail(DOT)com

Graduate standing : First year PhD (MS from Texas State University-San Marcos)

Why are you taking this class? My undergraduate research background is “Offline Character Recognition”, so I feel comfortable taking a course similar to my research interests. Also I hope the course content will give me some interesting clues to some of my pet research ideas.

What experience do you bring to this class?
This is my 6^th year in the HCI research field, and I’m specifically interested on “Biologically inspired mathematical models”. I want to apply some of AI techniques to sketch recognition, say Fuzzy Logic. Any ideas people?

What do you expect to be doing in 10 years?
Doing research on anything I like (hopefully something related to my PhD) (ii) working with graduate students (iii) teaching classes (I love teaching) (iv) applying for grants (v) flying around to work with other researchers and to give talks on my research

What do you think will be the next biggest technological advancement in computer science?
I’m expecting eye tracking technology (not the biggest though) to kicks in within next couple of month’s/year’s time. At least the notebook guys are having trouble with finding ways to keep their toys expensive (fingerprinting is already there, and some sort of voice/face recognition systems too), so we have something realistic like in “Minority Report”.

What was your favorite course when you were an undergraduate?
“Remote Sensing & Geographic Information Systems (GIS)”, I ended up getting A+ for it.

What is your favorite movie and why?
“The Man from Earth”. I like movies which makes you to go back see what they are saying is true and end up feeling amazed how they organize and blend real world facts into the movie. Something like Da Vinci Code, and National Treasure. May be I'm a bit biased to the "The Man from Earth", its producer Eric D. Wilkinson personally commented and thanked on my blog post about his movie.

If you could travel back in time, who would you like to meet and why?
This is kind a common answer I guess. But I desperately need to thank my Dad for everything he did for me.

Give some interesting fact about yourself
Read my Bio here.

Love is so deep.........

2010-05-05T08:16:00.006-06:00

This is another chain-mail may be, but touching. So, I thought to share with my fellow bloggers....

I was walking around in a Target store, when I saw the lady in the cashier hand this little boy some money back.
The boy couldn't have been more than 8 or 9 years old.
The Cashier said, 'I'm sorry, but you don't have enough money to buy this doll.'
Then the little boy turned to the old woman next to him: ''Nanny,
are you sure I don't have enough money?''

The old lady replied: ''You know that you don't have enough money to buy this doll, my dear.''
Then she asked him to stay there for just 5 minutes while she went to look around for a cheaper one. She left quickly
The little boy was still holding the doll in his hand.

Finally, I walked toward him and I asked him who he wished to give this doll to
'It's the doll that my sister loved most and wanted so much for Christmas.She was sure that Santa Claus would bring it to her.'
I replied to him that maybe Santa Claus would bring it to her after all, and not to worry.

But he replied to me sadly. 'No, Santa Claus can't bring it to her where she is now. I have to give the doll to my mummy so that she can give it to my sister when she goes there.'
His eyes were so sad while saying this. 'My Sister has gone to be with God. Daddy says that Mummy is going to see God very soon too, so I thought that she could take the doll with her to give it to my sister .''

My heart nearly stopped.
The little boy looked up at me and said: 'I told daddy to tell mummy not to go yet. I need her to wait until I come back from the shops.'
Then he showed me a very nice photo of himself. He was laughing. He then told me 'I want mummy to take my picture with her so she won't forget me.'
'I love my mummy and I wish she didn't have to leave me, but daddy says that she has to go to be with my little sister.'

Then he looked again at the doll with sad eyes, very quietly.
I quickly reached for my wallet and said to the boy. 'Suppose we check again, just in case you do have enough money for the doll!''
'OK' he said, 'I hope I do have enough.' I added some of my money to his without him seeing and we started to count it. There was enough for the doll and even some spare money.

The little boy said: 'Thank you God for giving me enough money!'
Then he looked at me and added, 'I asked last night before I went to sleep for God to make sure I had enough money to buy this doll, so that mummy could give it to my sister . He heard me!''
'I also wanted to have enough money to buy a white rose for my mummy, but I didn't dare to ask God for too much.. But He gave me enough to buy the doll and a white rose.''

'My mummy loves white roses.'
As I saw the old lady returning, I left with my basket as to not cause a scene.
I finished my shopping in a totally different state of mind from when I started.
I couldn't get the little boy out of my mind.
Then I remembered a local news paper article two days ago, which mentioned a drunk man in a truck, who hit a car occupied by a young woman and a little girl. The little girl died right away, and the mother was left in a critical
state. The family had to decide whether to remove the life-sustaining machine, because the young woman would not be able to recover from the coma.

Was this the family of the little boy?
Two days after this encounter with the little boy, I read in the news paper that the young woman had passed away.
I couldn't stop myself as I bought a bunch of white roses and I went to the funeral home where the body of the young woman was for people to see and make last wishes before her burial.
She was there, in her coffin, holding a beautiful white rose in her hand with the photo of the little boy and the doll placed over her chest.

I left the place, teary-eyed, feeling that my life had been changed for ever.. The love that the little boy had for his mother and his sister is still, to this day, hard to imagine.
And in a fraction of a second, a drunk driver had taken all this away from him.

Don't drink and drive....... .

Sri Lankans who forward emails (Must read)

2009-07-23T10:36:00.003-06:00

Click on the image to view it with better resolution.............

You Can If You Think You Can!

2009-07-21T14:22:00.002-06:00

You Can If You Think You Can!
If you think you are beaten, you are,

If you think you dare not, you don't.

If you like to win, but you think you can't,

It is almost certain you won't.
If you think you'll lose, you're lost,

For out in the world we find,

Success begins with a fellow's will.

It's all in the state of mind.

If you think you are outclassed, you are,

You've got to think high to rise,

You've got to be sure of yourself before

You can ever win a prize.

Life's battles don't always go

To the stronger or faster man.

But soon or late the man who wins,

Is the man who thinks he can.

~ C. W. Longenecker ~

Male Vs Female at ATM

2009-07-08T23:42:00.000-06:00

A new sign in the Bank Lobby reads:

'Please note that this Bank is installing newDrive-through ATM machines enabling customers to withdraw cash without leaving their vehicles.

Customers using this new facility are requested to use the procedures outlined below when accessing their accounts.

After months of careful research, MALE & FEMALE Procedures have been developed. Please follow the appropriate steps for your gender.'

**************************
MALE PROCEDURE:
1. Drive up to the cashmachine.
2. Put down your car window.
3. Insert card into machineand enter PIN.
4. Enter amount of cashrequired and withdraw.
5. Retrieve card, cash andreceipt.
6. Put window up.
7. Drive off.

**************************
FEMALE PROCEDURE:

What is really funny is that most of this part is the Truth.!!!!

1. Drive up to cash machine.
2. Reverse and back up the required amount to align car window with the machine.
3. Set hand brake, put the window down.
4. Find handbag, remove all contents on to passenger seat to locate card.
5. Tell person on cell phone you will call them back and hang up.
6. Attempt to insert card into machine.
7. Open car door to allow easier access to machine due to its excessive distance from thecar.
8. Insert card.
9. Re-insert card the right way.
10. Dig through handbag to find diary with your PIN written on the inside back page.
11. Enter PIN.
12. Press cancel and re-enter correct PIN.
13. Enter amount of cash required.
14. Check makeup in rear view mirror.
15. Retrieve cash and receipt.
16. Empty handbag again to locate wallet and place cash inside.
17. Write debit amount in check register and place receipt in back of chequebook.
18. Re-check makeup.
19. Drive forward 2 feet.
20. Reverse back to cash machine.
21. Retrieve card.
22. Re-empty handbag, locate card holder, and place card into the slot provided!
23. Give dirty look to irate male driver waiting behind you.
24. Restart stalled engine and pull off.
25. Redial person on cell phone.
26. Drive for 2 to 3 miles.
27. Release hand brake.

Mobile Fun - Everything Mobile (web review)

2009-06-26T08:43:00.004-06:00

When I saw the index page of the Mobile Fun web page, I thought OK, something is out of touch here, something makes the page bit odd? I guess the first two items which are on sale, the thumbnail of those icons are too big! I know those should be different from what on the bottom of the Latest products, but I feel they should be in similar size, and may be using different method to show out them as on sale? May be placing all of them in the same size and then use the on sale icon already in the page to make them special? May be a cool animation to pop them up several times when the page loads for the first time?

Another quick thought on the same on sale items. I thought those items are rotating, I mean they are changing every time someone refresh the page or log in. Seems to me those are just static continent? I guess only those 2 items, jabra bluetooth headsets, and other types of headsets on sale, plus nano Bluetooth dongle on sale are the only items in this category. If you just have few, why you want to pop them to show? It makes the site bit cheap.

I know there is a big demand for Bluetooth Headphones, bluetooth car kit and all those small gadgets. But most the people want to see, and like to see, some featured mobile phoned you have. This will give you a better view on the site and the items on the Mobile Fun page (just a thought). In my opinion, mobile gadgets are in second consideration, and first priority is for Mobile Phones, at least as a customer, thats what I’m looking for. First buy a mobile phone and then buy other gadget stuff. Why don’t you move all the featured mobile phones up on the list and then show the other accessories?

Another quick thought on the layout of the index page. There are lots of information on the left side panel, currently Mobile Fun page is listing all the Mobile accessories, and Sim free mobile phones with showing all available brand names. Personally its OK for me to have them in a drop down box and its easy to go through the phones that way. You are categorizing phones bases on the popularity I guess. But why don’t you have a drop down list and then put them in alphabetical order of the brand name? This makes easy for customers to find the item or the brand they want. And this will help Mobile Fun web to save some space on the side panel and use it for some other task.

“The Man from Earth” – truly a remarkable movie………………..

2009-06-17T21:42:00.002-06:00

Update (12/18/2011): I just watched the movie for the 10th time, and still enjoying it. And also I noticed my post is coming up higher in Google search and also, the Producer of the movie Eric D. Wilkinson had left a comment in this blog post :) suprise, suprise. Yes, as he mentioned, please buy a copy from Amazon, watch it and spread the word. This is truly a one of a kind movie.

I just spend astonishing hour on watching this master piece. I’m thrilled and no words to say. Never saw a movie like this (except Da Vinci Code and National Treasure, both brilliant in their own way…..). This is the first time I watched a movie which plays in the same location without actions packed and tack ticks…….I liked how it speaks about Buddhism and how Christianity emerged from Buddhism…….

Here’s a comment from its official page…….
...every so often you will see a film or hear a story that will take your breath away and leave you wondering...this is one of those stories. That said it is probably not for everyone. If you don't want your believes challenged you should probably stay away from this one. The film is all about the characters and their dialog, it is what makes or breaks the film, and I must say they did an excellent job, it kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time, wanting to hear more. All this topped with great acting makes this a film really worth seeing.

It goes to show that you can make great films these days without explosions and killings...so simple yet so effective. Great movie!

The story plot from the Wiki……………….

The movie begins with Professor John Oldman (David Lee Smith) packing his belongings onto his truck preparing to move to a new home. His colleagues show up to give him an unexpected farewell party: Harry (John Billingsley, a biologist); Edith (Ellen Crawford, a fellow professor and devout Christian); Dan (Tony Todd, an anthropologist); and Sandy (Annika Peterson), a historian who is in love with John. Edith spots in John's belongings next to his truck an unknown Van Gogh painting of John's with the note "To my friend, Jacques Borne" on the back written in French. Once inside, his friends persistently ask John why he is leaving.

Another friend, Art Jenkins (William Katt), an archeologist, and his student Linda Murphy (Alexis Thorpe), arrive and John's friends continue to pressure him for the reason for his departure. John poses the question, "What if a man, from the Upper Paleolithic survived until the present day?" They assume that John is working on a science fiction story and play along with the discussion. As the film progresses, John slowly reveals that he is the "caveman" under discussion when he mentions that he was given a chance to sail with Christopher Columbus in the 15th century. The revelation starts off with John's recollection of the terrain of prehistoric Earth and John's origins, which happens to be roughly 14,000 years ago. John reveals that he was once Jacques Borne, a friend of Van Gogh's, and he is now "moving on" since some people have noticed his lack of aging.

As they take a break from the discussion, Art – who is concerned about John's sanity – telephones another friend, Dr. Will Gruber (Richard Riehle), an elderly psychologist, explaining the odd situation and asks him to come over right away. In the meantime, Sandy confesses to John that she loves him, but John tells her they can never be together because of his immortality. John resumes his story by stating that he was once a Sumerian for 2000 years, then a Babylonian under Hammurabi, and finally a disciple of Gautama Buddha. Dr. Gruber arrives, at which point Dan mentions that John's tale is as impossible to be disproved as it is to be verified, a response to the many attempts to poke holes in John's story by his colleagues. The discussion takes a turn into the biological and physical condition of John and the topic of death. Gruber propels the discussion deeper into the topic of death and tension rises as Gruber interrogates John on that subject. The tension culminates with Gruber pointing a gun at John. After the drama ends with the departure of Gruber, Harry reveals that Gruber's wife has died the day before and the profession of John's immortality had hit Gruber very hard. Art and Edith are upset with John's story, while Harry, Dan, Sandy, and Linda appear to be more sympathetic.

John also mentions that he is not a follower of a particular religion, and he doesn't believe in an omnipotent God. John's audience is shocked when he reveals how he survived the crucifixion when he was Jesus by "blocking the pain", a technique he learned in India. He explains the origin of the Resurrection, Moses, and other events and people in the Bible. Tempers and emotions rise as Edith pressures John to recant his story, which offends her deep-rooted faith in the Bible. Dr. Gruber returns to the scene and apologizes to John for his "infantile behavior". As John continues to pack his belongings onto the truck, his colleagues begin to talk about the possibility of John being mentally ill or high on drugs.

The discussions of John being Jesus, Christianity, and the Bible continue and Edith, unable to take John's tale anymore, breaks down crying. Emotions in the room run high. Gruber takes charge of the situation and sternly demands that John end his "high tale" and give closure to the story; he threatens John with the possibility of locking him up for observation. John apologizes to everyone and, as he doesn't want to further upset any of his friends, he tells them that all he just told them is just a story.

As each of John's friends leave, John apologizes to Harry and Edith, while Art and Linda leave without many parting words. When it is Dan's turn to say goodbye, it is hinted that Dan believes John's story. After everyone but Dr. Gruber and Sandy has left, Dr. Gruber overhears John relating to Sandy some of the other pseudonyms he has used over the years. One used over 60 years ago was the name of Gruber's father, a chemistry professor from Harvard, who had left the family. Gruber, shocked and over-excited, suffers a heart attack and dies. After Gruber's body is taken away, the movie ends with Sandy walking towards John (sitting in his truck); at the last minute he changes his mind to spend some part of his life with her.

Cricket without Cricket........awsome video......

2009-06-13T08:46:00.004-06:00

Another awesome video!

This is what I like about Sri Lankan Cricket…….simple, fun and no aggression at all……..People, Players, and everybody around enjoying the movement. If we lose the match, that’s not the end of the world,

we never throw stones at cricketers homes,

we never throw stuff to the ground (including bottles, trash, bill boards….) when the other team is winning,

we never lit things and try to burn the anger due to a lost…….

we used to say “those buggers lost……what to do……they are not good now……….may be next match……..”. That’s all………..that’s what we called Island Cricket………

Cheers Sri Lankan Cricket……………..

We found the next unorthodox cricketer…….guess who?

2009-06-12T16:02:00.001-06:00

We got all sort of unorthodox cricket players at international level (Sri Lanka). Recently, we found the final quite unorthodoxy with the fielding too.

Here’s a remarkable piece of fielding by Angelo Mathews, a definite six, or may be a four, but finally it was unimaginable react and stop by young cricketer. Great job…………thumbs up, Sri Lankan cricket…………..

It’s not fair, if we forget all other unconventional Sri Lankan players……..

Sanath Jayasuriya
Master blaster…….remember what happen to Indian bowler Manoj Prabhakar ……..?

Lasith Malinga
One and only one with 4 wickets………..and the hair cut too..

Muttiah Muralitharan
Best bowler ever……….

Ajantha Mendis
Variation in bowling………….

Tillakaratne Dilshan, Roshan Mahanama
Outstanding fielding (still Jonty Rhodes is the #01)

Asanka Gurusinghe
Slowest batting……(we used to hate this guy….)

Not sure we can put Angelo to this list yet……but hopefully he will for sure, later on…………

Fake aXXo? This is not a great news…………….Fake aXXo Lures Users to Private Torrent Site

2009-06-09T10:50:00.000-06:00

Drama has struck parts of the BitTorrent community recently as the popular DVD ripper aXXo hasn’t uploaded any torrents for several weeks. Recently a rumor surfaced that aXXo went to join a private BitTorrent tracker and continued to share his work there exclusively. But is this really the case?

Over the years aXXo has been built up to cult figure status by many BitTorrent users, to a point where the mainstream press and even documentary film makers show an interest. This March aXXo went silent, but some claim that he is still active on a relatively unknown private tracker named Speed.cd.

A few weeks ago, some blogs and commenters on Mininova picked up on this and reported that aXXo decided to go underground, releasing his torrents only on a few private trackers. Interestingly, he would also have left Darkside RG which was considered to be his home for years, and where he posted the following message only weeks ago.

“My home is my beloved Darkside and as i’ve said so many times before on each of my torrents…. Be aware of bogus sites and lamers,” aXXo wrote.

So here are some facts. There is indeed a staff member called aXXo (with identical capitalization) on Speed.cd. He joined the site in January 2008 and has been uploading (some) aXXo rips after they appeared on public sites such as Mininova. After aXXo stopped releasing torrents elsewhere, aXXo on Speed.cd continued to upload movies.

But is this member called aXXo on Speed.cd the real deal? No, not even close. A quick comparison of the codecs used on these “new” aXXo releases and an examination of some of the metadata such as the ripping software and specs, clearly shows that it is not the same aXXo his fans know and love.

Also, it is a bit strange that the mystical aXXo only uploaded his releases sporadically onto the Speed.cd tracker before he stopped releasing on public sites three months ago. To us, these are all clear signs that we’re dealing with an impostor here.

For years aXXo has been warning followers to “beware of bogus sites and lamers,” but apparently that didn’t help much. Over recent weeks, thousands of people signed up at Speed.cd, and according to a poll on the site, most of them joined because of the ‘aXXo’ releases.

The aXXo user on the private tracker is clearly enjoying his new status, and has even changed the NFO files bundled with his releases to point to Speed.cd instead of DarksideRG. In the comments he is chatting with his new found fans and explaining why he decided to leave Mininova and Demonoid.

The site’s operators on the other hand are welcoming the many donations made by aXXo’s followers. “Since axxo is part of this site I have donated $10,” one user commented after buying some upload credit and VIP status. There are even better deals though. Three months of VIP access is only $50 and you’ll get a star next to your nickname as bonus.

Then again, if thousands of people can’t spot the difference between the uploads of aXXo and the fake aXXo, does it really matter? We’re inclined to say no, if it wasn’t for the price lists and money begging going on at that site.

Let’s hope that they don’t have the MPAA fooled and end up with their servers raided by the authorities. That would be a shame.

Nanotube chip could store data for a billion years....

2009-06-09T10:42:00.001-06:00

Time for a terabytes, probably petabytes pen drive!

Researchers have demonstrated a form of archive memory using carbon nanotubes that can theoretically store a trillion bits of data per square inch for a billion years.

The technology could easily be incorporated into today's silicon processing systems and it could be available in the next two years, a lead researcher said.

The scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California said the new technology can potentially pack thousands of times more data into one square inch of space than today's chips.

"We've developed a new mechanism for digital memory storage that consists of a crystalline iron nanoparticle shuttle enclosed within the hollow of a multiwalled carbon nanotube," said physicist Alex Zettl, who led this research.

No more Kwai Chang Caine (Kung Fu) , Actor David Carradine found hanged in his luxury hotel room in Bangkok

2009-06-04T10:21:00.002-06:00

Actor David Carradine, star of the 1970s TV series "Kung Fu" who also had a wide-ranging career in the movies, has been found dead in the Thai capital, Bangkok. A news report said he was found hanged in his hotel room and was believed to have committed suicide.

A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy, Michael Turner, confirmed the death of the 72-year-old actor. He said the embassy was informed by Thai authorities that Carradine died either late Wednesday or early Thursday, but he could not provide further details out of consideration for his family.

The Web site of the Thai newspaper The Nation cited unidentified police sources as saying Carradine was found Thursday hanged in his luxury hotel room.

It said Carradine was in Bangkok to shoot a movie and had been staying at the hotel since Tuesday.
The newspaper said Carradine could not be contacted after he failed to appear for a meal with the rest of the film crew on Wednesday, and that his body was found by a hotel maid at 10 a.m. Thursday morning. The name of the movie was not immediately available.

It said a preliminary police investigation found that he had hanged himself with a cord used with the room's curtains. It cited police as saying he had been dead at least 12 hours and there was no sign that he had been assaulted.

A police officer at Bangkok's Lumpini precinct station would not confirm the identity of the dead man, but said the luxury Swissotel Nai Lert Park hotel had reported that a male guest killed himself there.
Carradine was a leading member of a venerable Hollywood acting family that included his father, character actor John Carradine, and brother Keith.

In all, he appeared in more than 100 feature films with such directors as Martin Scorsese, Ingmar Bergman and Hal Ashby. One of his prominent early film roles was as singer Woody Guthrie in Ashby's 1976 biopic "Bound for Glory."

But he was best known for his role as Kwai Chang Caine, a Shaolin priest traveling the 1800s American frontier West in the TV series "Kung Fu," which aired in 1972-75.He reprised the role in a mid-1980s TV movie and played Caine's grandson in the 1990s syndicated series "Kung Fu: The Legend Continues."He returned to the top in recent years as the title character in Quentin Tarantino's two-part saga "Kill Bill."The character, the worldly father figure of a pack of crack assassins, was a shadowy presence in 2003's "Kill Bill — Vol. 1." In that film, one of Bill's former assassins (Uma Thurman) begins a vengeful rampage against her old associates.In "Kill Bill — Vol. 2," released in 2004, Thurman's character comes face to face again with Bill himself. The role brought Carradine a Golden Globe nomination as best supporting actor.

Bill was a complete contrast to his TV character Kwai Chang Caine, the soft-spoken refugee from a Shaolin monastery, serenely spreading wisdom and battling bad guys in the Old West. He left after three seasons, saying the show had started to repeat itself.
After "Kung Fu," Carradine starred in the 1975 cult flick "Death Race 2000." He starred with Liv Ullmann in Bergman's "The Serpent's Egg" in 1977 and with his brothers in the 1980 Western "The Long Riders."But after the early 1980s, he spent two decades doing mostly low-budget films. Tarantino's films changed that. "All I've ever needed since I more or less retired from studio films a couple of decades ago ... is just to be in one," Carradine told The Associated Press in 2004.
"There isn't anything that Anthony Hopkins or Clint Eastwood or Sean Connery or any of those old guys are doing that I couldn't do," he said. "All that was ever required was somebody with Quentin's courage to take and put me in the spotlight." One thing remained a constant after "Kung Fu": Carradine's interest in Oriental herbs, exercise and philosophy. He wrote a personal memoir called "Spirit of Shaolin" and continued to make instructional videos on tai chi and other martial arts.
In the 2004 interview, Carradine talked candidly about his past boozing and narcotics use, but said he had put all that behind him and stuck to coffee and cigarettes. "I didn't like the way I looked, for one thing. You're kind of out of control emotionally when you drink that much. I was quicker to anger."

"You're probably witnessing the last time I will ever answer those questions," Carradine said. "Because this is a regeneration. It is a renaissance. It is the start of a new career for me.

"It's time to do nothing but look forward."

Omio - Ultimate Phone Comparison Site (Web review)

2009-06-04T07:45:00.007-06:00

When I looked at the Omio web for the first time, I felt something wrong with the color selection for the outer background. “Sky blue” is nice, I like it as a color, but for the Omio web site, I guess its not a matching one. I’m thinking may be little bit dark color, or may be the outer color of the “MS word” window I’m using, which I guess a better choice for the Omio? Another quick thing, I guess the orange on Omio logo and sky blue is not a good match, I guess even any blue is not a matching color for orange.

OK, no fancy menu? I mean at least something bit bigger or taller than currently has in Home, Deals, and Phones…….menu? I felt no connection when I looked at it due to a short (I mean the size) menu and probably something better needs to be selected for it. If you look at the T-Mobile web site, you will understand what I’m trying to say. There should be at least one inch title section, for a better impression on viewer, which should consists of the Logo, Title menu, join, login, About page. And also may be option to show the page in a different language. Another quick thought, its better if Omio can develop their own search rather the Google custom search. This makes the site bit cheaper.

When you come to Mobile phone deals, Omio did a great job by creating sliders with information. I guess even big companies like T-Mobile, or At&T wants to see this, thumbs up, and good job Omio.

The section where the Mobile phones news, I feel its bit congest, and longer for any customer. If Omio wants to give Mobile Phones information, better choose something related. If you really want to have this in your page, a better choice is a one line news page with (may be a flash box) with rotating or flashing news. Same thing for the Latest Mobile phone reviews section, where some reviews on phones like Nokia Phones, Sony Ericsson etc is handled. If you can reduce this space, you can provide better information for your customers.

Do you really need the left panel to show that information? There is a better choice already by making it with colorful Browse by Mobile Phone Deals on the Omio index page. I feel it’s repetitive, and better use it for some other thing. I guess Omio choose it as a standard, but there is no particular need to have a left panel in your page for navigation.

As a suggestion, Omio can show more mobile phones in the index (not just 5) by removing the news and review section, and this will attract more customers, because they are here to look at mobile phones they like. If they want to hear news or reviews they will choose the Mobile phone they want to hear. Then you can start providing reviews and news on them.

A picture is worth a thousand words!

2009-05-27T08:23:00.001-06:00

The Fate of a Boy Who Tried To Escape from LTTE Clutches

2009-05-12T12:37:00.003-06:00

This very a disturbing video. Should not be viewed by children. This video shows the barbaric acts that were done to a boy who, together with his family, tried to escape being held as a 'human shield" by the terrorists of Sri Lanka, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The boy's legs had been chopped off by an axe, in front of his own family, as a 'punishment' for trying to escape. Mercifully, the boy had died soon. Note how a Red Cross worker is aiding.

This is only a tiny fraction of the inhuman treatment that innocent Tamil people who are being held by the LTTE for their protection are being subjected to. The Tamil diaspora in western countries paint a very different picture, just to get international support to stop the Sri Lankan armed forces from completely eliminating these psychopathic terrorists. The government of Sri Lanka is trying to help these innocent people to lreagain a life free from these terrorists. It is too bad that those in the United Nations, the "Human Rights Watch" with many other international aid organizations, and many other politicians have fallen for their blatant lies. They say that one can fool some people some of the time, but no one can fool all the people all the time. This video should speak a lot of words for those who care. The dialogs in the video are in Tamil.

Do you see the difference CANADA? We DON'T - Sri Lankans against LTTE Terrorism

2009-04-28T09:00:00.005-06:00

"Brother" greets "Brother" in London... (Black Barack with Black Cop)

2009-04-28T08:51:00.005-06:00

TV reporters are too busy focusing on the Queen receiving the VIP guests at Buckingham Palace. This was a "touching" Kodak moment outside Downing Street that won't be forgotten by this London cop.

Remember the cops on duty are not supposed to shake hands, but the two brothers couldn't resist the historic moment. The black cop never imagined in his wildest dream that he would usher a black American President (Barack Obama) into the British corridors of power. Nice!

Genius Beatboxers……..Nathen “Flutebox” Lee & Beardyman

2009-04-23T15:04:00.001-06:00

OK…..here’s another genius musician….. When I heard this duo for the first time, I thought what??? Are they from another world???.............Yeah…..So awesome. Can’t believe how talented these fellows. Nathan “Flutebox” Lee, and Beardyman @ Google, London. These guys blow me away…….a blast………..yeah.
These particular types of musicians are called “Beatboxers”. Here’s what Wiki says about Beatboxing.

Beatboxing is a form of vocal percussion which primarily involves the art of producing drum beats, rhythm, and musical sounds using one's mouth, lips, tongue, voice, and more. It may also involve singing, vocal imitation of turntablism, the simulation of horns, strings, and other musical instruments. Beatboxing is connected with hip hop culture although it is not limited to hip hop music

PERRYS - Great deals on new & used cars, and vans (Site Review)

2009-04-18T10:27:00.003-06:00

When I looked at the Perrys Motor sales dealership site for the first time, I thought that something missing on the index image. May be its too small? Just a tiny image of "PERRYS" and text "Great deals on new & used cars, and vans". I guess, a larger index image with some eye catching bright color match and a custom quote will work well with the site Perrys Motor sales. A quote something like "Great deals, low rates, with trusted resource", probably animated text in the index?

Secondly, the static random image in the center of the page. I liked the way it's designed and the placement, but a flash image or animated image with all those random images into one movie like animation will really suited for this place. And also may be the image corners with some circular shape like in the search for vehicle or the find dealership options? Same thing would be better for the More hot deals option. Instead of having static deals, probably an animated pictures and information galary for deals will be a pretty good addition to the Perrys site. Also I would like to see the prices with different options, I guess may be with dollars and euros?

I liked the color match in the "Search for a vehicle" box with shaded light blue. If this can be extend to the entire page? or maybe to the other two search boxes in the Perrys main site?
I searched the site with Vauxhall dealer and Vauxhall corsa, and loved the way how the other two search options changed accordingly. This is the first time I saw a cool feature like this, great job.
I like to see following options in the index page of the PERRYS dealership site.

An option to get a free dealer price quote. A small option box with make, model and postcode with a Get Quotes button?
A viewer box with "Most Researched" or "Most Searched" vehicles. This could shows a list of vehicles both cars and vans with ranking 1-10
A tool, research and Explore, probably to do a search by a price range or by category, or by features, and an option to do comparisons with different makes and models.

Another missing item in the PERRYS motor dealership site is a custom search option. Say I want to search for a "Vauxhall dealer" instead of getting into the "Search for a Vehicle" option. I guess its good to have a separate custom search box to do other types of searches within the site. May be placing a custom search in the top right corner with the banner ad?

Overall, PERRYS motor sales dealership site is a pretty good tool for consumers. But I would like to see some animated site, when comes to vehicles, rather a static site like the current one.

Happy Sinhala Hindu New Year 2009........

2009-04-13T09:04:00.002-06:00

Eastern Inspired Living (Site Review)

2009-04-04T13:41:00.003-06:00

With the first look at the Eastern Inspired Living, I wondered what this term “LOMBOK” is. It is in the URL, in the main LOGO and even as a link to LOMBOK news? I feel bit misleading with it, and how this term going be related with the term "Eastern Inspired Living"? If it is an abbreviated term related to the web site, I guess better to expand it somewhere so that the consumers feel it close to what the site trying to provides.

When it comes to amenities for a luxuries living, one will feel more comfortable with surrounds, with more soft and smoother background. As a consumer, I feel the index page design is more edgee , with the square faces and rectangular menu selections. Color selection is more like neutral than a vivid feeling when thinking about Eastern Living.

With the use of search term “log basket”, I tried to see how a general consumer looks up items from the web “Eastern Inspired Living”. Thumbnails are pretty much with details, but feel the size is bit larger compared to other consumer product supplier web sites. May be a reduced thumbnail size and a link to get all the results into a single page, will make the search feature a proper tool for the Eastern Inspired Living site.

Is there any option to view the search items price in other popular currency values, like American Dollars, or Euros? If the Eastern Inspired Living site is targeting international consumers, this will give kind of a feeling that the site is closer to consumers living style. As a consumer from the US market, I felt the site is far away and this will certainly affect the actual consumers who want to buy products. May be an option to convert currency values with the viewing option will certainly increase the consumer popularity of the site.

With search keyword lamp shades and laundry baskets, I found that the index showing the different lighting options bit confusing. Whenever particular sub category under the term Lighting is selected, the keyword background is highlighted with a grey color bar, which I felt more like a separation title than a selection among other sub titles.

Overall, “Eastern Inspired Living” web site provides an interesting consumer appliance sales portal and, with a bit of vivid touch on the interface and some developments based on the stated options, it will be a great place for people who looks for things out of ordinary.

No Reservation ( Anthony Bourdain ) - Sri Lanka

2009-03-12T08:25:00.004-06:00

I like this episode of No Reservation, at my lovely home, Sri Lanka. We used to watch the travel channel lot, Bizarre Foods by Andrew Zimmenrn and No Reservation specially. Throughout this episode, I felt that something is missing, especially they showed the congested city of Colombo, tightened security, Burger community, Tsunami hit southern village???? I didn’t see any Sinhalese home? No Buddhist temple? No visit to beautiful up country, Kandy and Nuwaraeliya. No visit to great city of Anuradhapura, and Seegiriya??? No visit to “helmalu” paddy fields? ………………OK at least they showed we got pretty good food, and we are totally different from India…………and we don’t speak hindi…….
This is a quote from his final conclusion about Sri Lanka
“ This could be such a beautiful place if one could wonder freely from top to bottom of this country, it’s so amazing people were you seeing, they are lovely. The food after all my troubles earlier on what felt like the verge of death? Finally would able to actually enjoy it, a revelation. So distinct from Indian, so different from what I’d expected. And I guess and I hope when it all opens up, Sri Lankans settle their problems one way or the other, this will again be a place that a whole world will fall in love with”

……I totally agreed Anthony Bourdain………….cheers………..

I'm on Texas State CS department research spotlight - First South Asian graduate student on main page............

2009-02-25T11:22:00.003-06:00

I'm humbly proud of myself getting into the CS department main page research spotlight. My heartiest thanks goes to my lovely wife Nim for her encouragements and my supervisor Dr. Komogortsev for writing and posting my achievements to the web, and writing a superb recommendation letter for the grant proposal. Also, Dr Denise from the Department of Physical Therapy for her help on editing (specially trimming it to 500 words, the most difficult part) and recommending my proposal for the Sigma Xi award. Finally Texas State CS department web team for posting it with most appropriate picture of me...thanks everbody..............

Here's the link for the CS department web site: http://www.cs.txstate.edu/
Read more about my achievements here at my personal web: Web Maze

Sigma Xi research grant award: I got it yehhhh....

2008-12-15T10:07:00.008-06:00

Recently I won the Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society Grant in aid research grant for my proposal on "Human Oculomotor Plant Modeling: Is there a significant change or deficit in oculomotor function of mTBI patients compared to normal vision in healthy subjects? ". This is the first time a student from the Texas State CS department won this prestige and competitive research award.

The Sigma Xi Grants-in-Aid of Research (GIAR) program has been providing undergraduate and graduate students with valuable educational experiences for more than 80 years. By encouraging close working relationships between students and faculty, the program promotes scientific excellence and achievement through hands-on learning.

The program awards grants of up to $1,000 to students from all areas of the sciences and engineering. Designated funds from the National Academy of Sciences allow for grants of up to $5,000 for astronomy research and $2,500 for vision related research. Students use the funding to pay for travel expenses to and from a research site, or for purchase of non-standard laboratory equipment necessary to complete a specific research project.

A quote from Bowling Green State University Sigma Xi grant recipients page.

"These students show particular promise in their research careers," said Dr. Paul Moore, a professor of biological sciences at BGSU. "This grant is a stamp of approval that they are doing good research," he added, noting that "the list of excellent scientists who got their start with Sigma Xi grants includes Nobel Prize winners and some of the top scientists over the past century."

The Grants-In-Aid of Research program is the oldest of its kind, providing undergraduate and graduate students with educational experiences since 1922. The program promotes scientific excellence through hands-on learning and close working relationships between students and faculty. "