Dhiraagu Cyber Cafe'

I guess its no more, but whats impressive is the gang of people who came out from there. Anyone agrees or not, today the internet domain and the a lot of other technology sector is powered by these individuals. Example the two local ISP's. Even if we look at blogging itself for Maldives, was started from the same place. It was mostly play, but that platform gave a lot of individuals a common ground to share knowledge and experience a lot of stuff.

The point to be taken is, this sort of platforms gives birth to a lot of good stuff. Its unfortunate that there are no such places now. It was fortunate back then, such a place existed. A lot of people saw it as a waste of time, but if you ask the same question today, the answer might be very different. People who learned to setup a server and manage the cafe's traffic, are the people who manage your internet today. Its not just the physical place. The key factors which contributed to this, might have been the available resources, and the group of individuals who had the same common interest. Sharing knowledge and trying out new stuff (which was deemed useless and kiddy) has resulted in a lot of good. We've experienced guys who started off configuring BNC's and bots now working as developers and writing commercial applications. Guys who were gamers now web masters and system administrators.

If we can still create such a forum and a place today, the results might be a lot more impressive. Maldives has so much talent, but hardly these guys are identified, developed, guided and given opportunities. Mainly cos there is no funding and we fail to see the advantage of such a medium. Anyway.. just a thought...

IT education in Maldives

I've always thought that the education system here in Maldives, is only targeted to produce quantity not quality. You just give them sheets with questions and answers and ask them to memorize them. Its does not matter if they understand them or not, as long as they are able to answer those questions; thats what we currently define as good education. The paper qualification is what the parents and the society expects, not the skills, talent or the knowledge that students have. Its a very difficult topic and will be out of the context of my main interest.

I've had experience a few years back teaching computing for school kids. It was a good experience and one I enjoyed. The syllabus back then encouraged students to develop really good IT skills in a wide area. The basics was covered with some good practicals. Programming was a must, as it should be since the subject was computing.

The problem back then was, the lack of good teachers (the government employed cheap labor and no proper planning was there) and hardware and other resources. These were just some of the problems, then around the year 2000, Min. of Education decided to lower the standards (the result was good politically, as more students would manage to pass and some manage to get outstanding results). The new syllabus was really weak compared to the older one. It is not the right type of foundation for IT. This has been proven over the last few years. The same trend has been moving on, even at the higher education level. Even at the FMC (I think its faculty of management and computing) there is no proper standards. The main objective is to provide students with paper qualification not to improve and develop the skills of the students. At the foundation level Visual Basic is the primary language. This alone shows level of quality in the program. To sum up, the fact that we have such a hard time employing skilled IT professionals alone proves the above points. The fact that Indians and Sri Lankan companies are employed to develop our applications and design and maintain our networks and hardware are more then enough proof. Its sad to know that this is the case, and no proper action is taken or this is ever talked about. But then over the last few years I also have come to accept that these won't change any time sooner. There simply is no awareness at all. Anyway the most profitable business in the country presently is politics and the leaders (ultimately the business men) are too busy doing business rather then focusing on issues such as education, health or future of our economy.

"Anyway who gives a damn?, do you?" :)

Related references.
Maldives and FLOSS
Schools across Japan may switch to Linux

Microsoft oPhone Prank?

While Apples iPhone is gonna be out next month, the news is that Microsoft is coming up with there version of a phone called the 'oPhone' or do they call it 'oFone'?. There is a video about it saying how incredible it is going to be and people are going to say “O” when they see the phone. Good Prank, I guess. Anyway here is the video.

Darth Vader on the way to lead the republic?

Everyone knows Darth Vader, if you are a Star Wars fan. So where does he fit into? A bad guy (Sith) or a true Jedi? Its controversial. Some feel he joined the dark side, for good causes others feel he joined the dark side for his own hunger of power (its said, Wader's motivation was originally a need to restore order rather than take power). The other view is; is the dark side really wrong?

Fear leads to anger.

Anger leads to hate.

Hatred leads to power.

Power leads to victory.

Let your anger flow through you.

Your hate will make you strong.

True power is only achieved through testing the limits of one's anger, passing through unscathed.

Rage channeled through anger is unstoppable.

The dark side of the Force offers unimaginable power.

The dark side is stronger than the light.

The weak deserve their fate.

–tenets of Sith philosophy

If you come to think about it, Qasim Ibrahim's story is no different. There is an interesting post at Mohamed Nasheeds Blog which made me really wonder and think into the history of past few years. I think Mr. Qasim is on his way becoming the maybe the next president of Maldives. Its highly possible. Today seems he is elected Chair of Peoples Special Majlis. No surprise though. My view on the results is either the army will take over the country or Mr. Qasim will be the next president. Sorry MDP (You guys don't stand a chance, from how you have displayed so far). Its interesting to note the following from Nasheeds blog.

Qasim Ibrahim who signed the first application to form a political party by the name of Maldivian Democratic Party, who suffered detention and charges for treason after the 12, 13 August 2004, and released in a Tsunami amnesty, had since then joined the Government, as Minister of Finance and Treasury, and signed up for DRP and has become its duly elected Vice Leader – and finally, today, even the Chair of the People’s Special Majlis. - source http://www.mnasheed.com/

Second Life

Nop, no need to die to get there. Just download the client and sign in.

Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by a total of 6,085,300 people from around the globe.

More Second Life Pictures at http://www.flickr.com/groups/secondlife/pool/

• From the moment you enter the World you'll discover a vast digital continent, teeming with people, entertainment, experiences and opportunity. Once you've explored a bit, perhaps you'll find a perfect parcel of land to build your house or business.
  
  
• You'll also be surrounded by the Creations of your fellow residents. Because residents retain the rights to their digital creations, they can buy, sell and trade with other residents.
  
  
• The Marketplace currently supports millions of US dollars in monthly transactions. This commerce is handled with the in-world unit-of-trade, the Linden dollar, which can be converted to US dollars at several thriving online Linden Dollar exchanges.

Second Life is considered to be the best Virtual World developed. Though the concept is more like an online game, it does not actually reflect that model totally. In Second Life, you can buy and even build stuff, but for me the idea of spending money on virtual stuff did not click very much. You could even buy or sell land or build a house or run a business there. The idea is not so bad, after all you have some 6,086,003 users. Anyway... I got bored very quickly with SL. The objective is mostly to buy and sell stuff... or be bored. Maybe not, just give it a try and see, some people might like it.

Thaana on Mac OS X

Update (14/March/2017): Since many ask for the keyboard layout here is a link (download)


First download and install the Thaana unicode fonts.

In my case I always prefer "Thaana Unicode Akeh", which is a free font developed by MITF and considered to be the first Unicode thaana font.

Next you will need to download Ukelele, which is a Unicode Keyboard Layout editor for Mac OS X. Get the application installed and execute it. Its very straightforward to be used. Character Palette can be a lot of use when editing the keyboard layout.

You might refer to MSCT for reference when creating the layout.

After you are done creating the layout, save the file as thaana.keylayout. Then move it to Keyboard Layouts folder within /Library or ~/Library; then they are enabled via the Input tab of the International module within System Preferences. If you don't have the Keyboard Layouts folder under the Library, create it.

Thats all, the keyboard layout is complete and ready to be used.

If you already have the layout with you, just follow the step above and you are good to go. Since there is no layout that I could find on the web which was downloadable , thought I'd include those steps too. Anyway...

The end result is ..... but before that make sure you change your keyboard layout... if all went well you should get the thaana layout. Click on it, and you are ready ... Happy?

(Note: click on the images for an enlarged view)

Windows for just $3

Makes me wonder, why they would even attempt to sell Windows for just $3. The reason might be obvious, simply Microsoft is plagued by nightly fever dreams of thousands of kids in developing countries running Linux? The package will include the basic Windows XP Starter Edition, Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 and other as-yet-unnamed educational software applications. The $3 Windows pack will be available later this year, and it will be sold exclusively to governments.

This might be an attempt to get Windows running on the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) project. The OLPC XO Children's Machine has its own specially-developed Linux-based platform called Sugar. The XO project has embraced open-source ideals, and is touting OSS's advantage as a teaching tool. According to the OLPC camp, if kids get a Linux-based machine they'll be more likely to hack it and learn how to write code. Also, wiki-based textbooks will give the kids more incentive to write.

My question is why would anyone choose the $3 Windows , which will be so much limited in features (example no network printing, etc) and chunked down to Linux? So it comes down to Free, flexible/powerful Linux and $3 Windows edition. The new estimated cost of the OLPC is $175.

Other related project include the Classmate PC by intel.

the coconut song

Ubuntu 7.04 Out!

Ubuntu 7.04 is released today, and available for download.

Don't know if it will bring any major changes, most of the comments on the forums point out the same. Hope to upgrade the Ubuntu at home, when I get back; will find out then. I still feel Fedora is better.

Who is the killer?

Seems we have a killer or force of killers who are killing, "god haters" and "drug addicts" in and just out of jail. The last episode a guy was found dead in the harbour (previous "koafaa" came down from the sky in jail). According to official sources, he was set free from police on 13th. Amazingly this guy managed to be invisible since then and appeared dead in the harbour. Its a good thing he was found, if he was not then we know what would be the case. Yes, obviously the police will be the direct pin point. So he had to be found. Some of the reports and views say if police was really the culprit, why will he even be "found". Yes, I agree. Why will he be even found if they were behind it? He won't. Thats the basic logic. I think that logic is not so hard to figure out, even for the police and MDP. I guess its a good thing he was found, if not we won't have faith in police anymore :P Yes, we would be scared for our friends and family if they were ever taken to police?

As for MDP, we know how they are. They are always looking for an excuse to anger the people and over throw the government. I think they are also too desperate to come to power. I don't think that should be the objective. There are better ways to deal with these things in a more mature way. Just by saying "golaaboa faibaa" is not solving any problems. MDP surely lacks good leadership, and people like former AG and Zaki (ex minister) are not the right people to be trusted. Its a different story that Abu Sufiyaan converted to Islam and contributed immensely to Islam but Munavar and Zaki are not those "Abu's". Under the ex AG there has been so much unjust done, and I am not ready to accept him. As for Zaki, I don't think I should say anything more.

Point being neither of the parties are doing any good to the people. The whole objective is to rule over the country and gateway to more money. Getting fed up of these fights and killings now. We need a change, and the changes we are witnessing is not set in the right directions. I mean talk about MDP, they brought out people like Mavotaa Shareef and Karnel Nasheed as MDP leaders. Come on guys, were you joking or what? No hope at all. I'd rather call MDP, DVP (Dhivehi Viyafaariveringe Party) so for me there is DRP and DVP. The whole objective of both, "money "and "power", the people come after (for the sake of votes).

The people we pay from our tax; and to whom we trust our lives with is the other story. More than trust presently we fear the police and army. Why? I don't know, maybe obvious reasons. No need to go into details but the fact is the public view is not what it should be. Maybe they lack the "good" and "honest" leadership too. Who are there to "protect and serve the Maldivians" not just to "protect and serve , blank blank". I know I'd be attacked back for saying this, but won't be anything new to me. Its just my view, and I think no one can take that freedom away from me, unless I am too found missing, then DEAD! Next, some will tell me "who cares about politics". Its no longer politics, its about peoples lives and our kids future in this country, if you ask me not to care about it...or ignore them, then what should we care about? Least we can do is voice out our concerns and views.

Now back to the original question. "Who is the killer". You and me. We are killing our own people. Each of us should be responsible for these killings, agree or not.

SMS alerts from Google Calender

Its really a nifty feature, now we can receive SMS alerts from Google Calender. Its a nice feature, and its really cool since it even works for a small country such a Maldives. Presently this feature only works for Wataniya subscribers. You can even import the calender from your outlook or iCal into Google Calender as well.

You can set up an appointment and Google will send you a reminder alert before the appointment or you can set birthday reminders, etc. Here is a tutorial on GoogleTutor

What happened to FoxPro?

FoxPro formally known as FoxBase, now Visual FoxPro use to be a very famous database programming language. From late 1980's to late 1990's Fox was one of the dominant database tools for the PC market. Same applied for Maldives. Even today we find some of Fox based applications in use here in Maldives.

So what happened to this tool? My obvious guess is Microsoft killed it. Most of you might not agree with me, but thats my view. I think FoxPro would have done far better if it was not bought over by Microsoft from Fox Software. Though I won't say it would still have dominated like it used to. The reason for the bought over of Fox was obvious. Borland and Microsoft were competing for the development tool market back in early 1990's. Borland bought Ashton Tate (and, therefore, dBase) this resulted in Microsoft buying over Fox Software (taking FoxPro under Microsoft). Microsoft already had Access and VB under them, and continued to promote Access more then FoxPro until today (After all FoxPro was the step son). At that time it was rumored that Microsoft made this move cos they wanted Rushmore engine (which was the power behind FoxPro). Till today FoxPro lives, but not as famous as it use to. It use to be part of Visual Studio, but now taken off it too. Access still is part of Microsoft Office and continues to be popular database tool.

Maybe one reason it failed was, It was too complex for end users, but not robust and powerful enough for real programmers (compared to the other databases that developers can choose from). What ever the causes were or is, FoxPro was a major application development tool in the early days of computing of Maldives, it should be respected for that. I don't know how many more FoxPro developers are still there in Maldives (still continue to use it)? I guess I can still think of one guy, one of the best FoxPro guys I've known.

So it went from Fox to VB, now we are evolving to the web based application days. I wonder what tools will be the most dominant. But obviously the flat database days are over and SQL Servers are here to stay.

300 USD and a ticket.

I was watching TVM while having dinner. I don't know which program it is, it was on since 10:15 tonight. It was a panel of people talking about health issues in Maldives. To my shock, one gentle man who had gray hair (not sure who he is), my guess is he is from the ministry of health. This guy was trying to say, the Maldivian health authorities are far better then our neighbors. He is saying that others are very commercial where else we are not? daaa! yeah? I did not know that.

The next point that kept bluffing about is comparing health services today and 27 years ago. What the fuck? What is the point here? it is obvious , things should improve with time. The question here is has it improved to the level it should have? The moment we are sick, we spend all our earnings and go to India or Singapore depending on the financial capabilities of the individuals. And yet they try to tell us, its good. I know the guys there try and do their best, but there is so much for improvements. I guess the equipment is one weak area. If we can raise money for brand new Volkswagen's for police, layout state of the art fiber network just to watch the traffic and etc. Why can't we afford to spend more money on our health services? Even if they took it like a business, still I feel its more then feasible to spend (invest). Even if we get the best of the doctors, its not enough. We need to invest on our health sector and make it a priority then it is now. Not in anyway saying its bad, but I am saying its not as good as it could have been.

Maybe there is hidden agenda behind it, right now if a poor guy is sick they can apply for 300 USD and the ticket from the Presidential welfare fund? This is very common, why? The end result is good, the government help us, they even give us the money to send us to India for medicals. Yaahoo! lets keep voting for them. Now I leave it up to you to do the calculations.

Processing

I have been experimenting around with processing over the week end. Its an amazing language, just the type of language for artists. This is also the type of language that makes me think, if I gave better attention to math classes and had a more creative mind.

Processing is an open source programming language and environment for people who want to program images, animation, and sound. It is used by students, artists, designers, architects, researchers, and hobbyists for learning, prototyping, and production. It is created to teach fundamentals of computer programming within a visual context and to serve as a software sketchbook and professional production tool. Processing is developed by artists and designers as an alternative to proprietary software tools in the same domain.

Here is screen shot of todays trial and errors.

Oppression

There is times when I am really frustrated, angry and even depressed. I guess its part of being a human. Its good to open up and share things or express your views. Though some people don't like it when it's expressed, I guess its your own freedom to express your view in a limit (meaning you can't over do it too, since you should respect others too). Anyway there is always no easy justification. Blogging maybe the new means to express personnel view and share things. There is always two sides to things, but just cos of minor bad points it should not be stopped. A few years back people hid under anonymous names and under the umbrella of one name, expressed their views. Negative or positive. Those days have been changing slowly. But yes we still do get those anonymous cowered commenting and publishing things. It can't be stopped too, they are also a group of people with their own views and justifications. Anyway I would say now its more open, and its more valued when you express your view WITH YOUR OWN REAL NAME, maybe in your own blog or someone else's. I know a few will stand up against this statement and will comment under anonymous names, I do understand that, and thats the reason why anonymous commenting is allowed too. I like it when it happens, we all should take these positively. This helps us to better understand others and also give others a chance to criticizes us. It should never be discouraged. But its always much better if you are open and come out of the shadows , unless YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO HIDE.

Anyway I do feel like dumping a lot of things at times, as i have said before. I wish thats always possible, some times we are bound by NDA's (non discloser agreements), morals and ethics (how ever we may define it). Now I know they say one mans meat is another mans poison too. So the views always differ, thats again understood. I wanna say out somethings tonight too, but I am bound by some things. Anyway its nothing really political even though the title may give such an impression. Any hows, while I was listing to this song by Ben Harper, it was something close to what was going in my mind. "Oppression"

Oppression
you pray on us when we sleep
oppression
you chase after the tired the poor the weak
oppression
you know you mean only harm
oppression
you reach out with your long arm

but oppression
I won't let you near me
oppression
you shall learn to fear me

oppression
you seek population control
oppression
to divide and to conquer is your goal
oppression
I swear that hatred is your home
oppression
you just won't leave bad enough alone

but oppression
I won't let you near me
oppression
you shall learn to fear me

oppression
I don't see how you sleep
oppression
for your bleeding conscience I weep
oppression
you may have the dollar on your side
but oppression
from the gospel truth you cannot hide
and
oppression
I won't let you near me
oppression
you shall learn to fear me
oppression
I won't let you near me
oppression
you shall fear me

American Idiot an Indian Idol?

I don't really watch the show, but seems there is a new thing happening in the American Idiots show. Sounds a lot of racist Americans don't like this kid named Sanjaya (half Indian, American), who is still in the show. I totally agree with those guys, who think he should be out. Well they had this fear even before that the Indians will take over American idiot. For this reason they had a plan; the plan was to have another show for the Indians, "The Indian Idiot". Seems this did not stop the invasion, and Sanjaya is backed up by the high-tech Indians and have come up with a way to keep him on the show.

I say, lets leave this American Idiot title and make Sanjaya "The American President". Yes, Sanjaya for 2008. Anyway here is a little diagram to show the connectivity of both shows.

I am a PC, I am a Mac and I am Linux

Recently Apple, started a new ad campaign on TV and on its web site. It was really a nice concept and entertaining. Here is a link to it on youtube. I can tell you its a must see.

Now Novell decides to put a little spin to the ads. Here is the Linux version of the ads. Both the ads are very entertaining and educative. ;)

Death of Slashdot?

Ok! the question; is Slashdot dead or dying?. Not so sure, but honestly speaking for me it is. I visit digg almost everyday, but hardly I even visit slashdot once a week now. It use to be like everyday, but thats changed. Has digg taken over slashdot?

I first posted about this in Jan 2006, since then its almost more then a year. Well I don't know about the rest of the world, but I think digg has finally taken over. Reasons? Maybe many, not just one or two.

Magnificent shot !!!

Before I start, I would like to apologize to anyone who might get offended. Flickr, we all know about it, its one of the best portals to share photos. Amazing place with so much content. We find so much talent there. Even Maldivians, loads of them. Namely I like works by photographers like Ahmed Zahid.

I don't know if its me , or my limited exploration of flickr that brings me to conclude this. The comments really suck, or its just how artists comment. Its always "Amazing", "Beautiful", "WOW" and "Magnificent" . Or maybe there is others? I love the people there. They always encourage you or fill you with positive comments. Which is damn good, I mean it. I really do. But as there is good art, is there not bad art too? Or maybe not. Art is just art? I won't know.

A few years back, there was this painting which we saw. There was a comment, "haadha eyhen kahalaey". I did not know what that meant. I was not an artist or am, so for me it was just a painting. Anyhow the comment struck me. Later I asked the person who commented, what it meant. According to him thats how you comment art. Like "hmmmm", "its so different", "its unique" , "not all will see this", etc.

vakaruge hits digg main page

http://www.vakaruge.com was on digg's main page tonight with this post.