bestweb.lk හා myblog.lk සම්බන්ධව සිංහල බ්ලොග්කරුවන්ගේ සංසදයේ නිල ප්‍රකාශය

ශ්‍රී ලංකා .LK වසම් ලේඛකාධිකාරිය (LK Domain Registry) මගින් මීට ටික කලකට පෙර Most Favourite Sri Lankan Website නම් තරගයක් ආරම්භ කරන ලදී. lk ඩොමේනයක් සහිත වෙබ් අඩවි මීට ඇතුළත් වීමට සුදුසුකම් ලැබූ අතර සිංහල, ඉංග්‍රීසි හා දෙමළ යන ත්‍රෛ භාෂා මාධ්‍යයෙන් අංශ 3න් තරග 3ක් පවත්වන ලදී. අදාල අංශයේ හොඳම වෙබ් අඩවිය තෝරන ලද්දේ පරිශීලක මනාපවලිනි. මේ කියන්නට සැරසෙන්නේ එම තරගාවලියේ අවසන් අදියරේදී රඟ දක්වන්නට සැරසෙන විකට ජවනිකාව පිලිබඳවය.

සිංහල බ්ලොග්කරුවන්ගේ සංසදය විසින් සිය සාමාජිකයන් වෙනුවෙන් නොමිලේ පවත්වාගෙන යන බ්ලොග් සේවය වන myblog.lk ද අප විසින් උක්ත තරඟයේ සිංහල භාෂා මාධ්‍ය අංශයට ඉදිරිපත් කරන ලදී. මනාප දැක්වීම අවසන් කරන දිනය වන විට එය අවසන් තරගකරුවන් 5 දෙනා අතරට පැමිණ ඇති බව දන්වන ලදී.

ඉන්පසුව තරඟ සංවිධායකවරුන් විසින් ඉදිරි වැඩ කටයුතු පිලිබඳව දැන්වීමට අප වෙත ඊමේල් පණිවුඩයක් එවන ලදී. සසික රණසිංහ නමින් එවා ඇති එහි සඳහන් ආකාරයට ත්‍යාග ප්‍රදානෝත්සවය නොවැම්බර් 20 වෙනි දින බත්තරමුල්ල Waters Edge හෝටලයේදී පැවැත්වෙනු ඇත. ත්‍යාග ප්‍රදානෝත්සවයට සහභාගී වන අය රු 3500/=ක් මිල වන ටිකට්පතක් මිලදීගත යුතු බව එහි පහළින් සඳහන් වන අතර, ටිකට්පත් ලබාගත හැකි ආකාර සවිස්තරාත්මකව සඳහන් කර ඇත.

ජයග්‍රාහකයන්ගෙන් මුදල් අයකර ත්‍යාග පිරිනමන තරගාවලියක් පිළිබඳව අපි මීට පෙර අසා නැත්තෙමු.

BestWeb.lk තරගාවලියේ ජයග්‍රහණය වෙනුවෙන් පිරිනැමෙන ත්‍යාගය වනුයේ සහතික පත්‍රයක් වන අතර. මේ සහතික පත්‍රය ලබාගැනීම සඳහා අදාළ අඩවිය නියෝජනය කරමින් පැමිණෙන සියලු දෙනා එක් අයෙක් රු 3500/= බැගින් වන පරිදි ටිකට්පත් මිලදී ගත යුතු ය! BestWeb.lk තරගාවලියේ නිල වෙබ් අඩවියේ (http://www.bestweb.lk/) සඳහන් පරිදි ලාංකික ආයතන හා සමාගම් රැසක් (ICTA, ඩයලොග්, සිරස මාධ්‍ය ජාලය, MTV, Sunday Times, Daily Mirror) මෙම තරගාවලිය සඳහා අනුග්‍රහකත්වය (Sponsorships) පිරිනමයි, එනම් මූල්‍යමය අනුග්‍රහයක් දක්වයි. එසේ තිබියදී ටිකට්පතකට රුපියල් 3500/=ක මුදලක් ජයග්‍රාහකයන්ගෙන් (නරඹන්නන්ගෙන් නොවේ) අය කිරීම අසාධාරණ නොවේද ?

සිංහල බ්ලොග්කරුවන්ගේ සංසදය වශයෙන් අපේ ස්ථාවරය නම් මෙය අපට කරන ලද අපහාසයක් ලෙස අප විසින් සලකන බවයි. මුදල් දී සහතිකපත් ලබාගැනීමට අපට කිසිදු අවශ්‍යතාවක් නැති අතර, මෙය මෙබඳු අන්දමේ තරගයක් බව මිට පෙර දැන සිටියානම් මෙම තරගයට ඉදිරිපත් වීමද අප විසින් නොකරනු ඇත. (මෙය ශ්‍රී ලංකා .LK වසම් ලේඛකාධිකාරිය මගින් සංවිධානය කිරීමත්, ICTA වැනි වගකිවයුතු ආයතනයක් අනුග්‍රහ දැක්වීමත් නිසා අප සිතුවේ මෙය ජාතික වැදගත්කමකින් යුතු එකක් ලෙස ය).

තරග සංවිධායකයන් අපට කර ඇති අවමානයට විරෝධය පෑමක් ලෙස සිංහල බ්ලොග්කරුවන්ගේ සංසදය මගින් ඉදිරිපත් කරන ලද myblog.lk අඩවිය Most Favourite Sri Lankan Website- 2009- Sinhala Category තරගයෙන් ඉල්ලා අස්කරගනු ලැබේ.

මෙයට,

සිංහල බ්ලොග්කරුවන්ගේ සංසදය.

http://groups.google.com/group/sinhala-bloggers/browse_thread/thread/be0bb692d7a326fb?hl=si#

Read Full Post »

Sinhala Unicode: A Real Problem or Just Fabrications

This is an explanation and/or constructive criticism on some claims made on the already standardized Sinhala Unicode system.

Claims

1) The letters like “ඩු” (DU) has not been stored in UNICODE. Instead it creates ඩු (DU) in this way = ඩ + පාපිල්ල = ඩු (DA + Papilla = DU) which is wrong!

2) All letters that can be created by adding පිලි (Pili) and යංශය (Yanshaya) should also be stored individually in UNICODE.

3) There’s an “IT security threat” in Sinhala Unicode! “Same strings gives two different characters in different browsers”.

Explanations

1) Yes. “ඩු” (DU) and other similar letters do exist in UNICODE. As we learnt in හෝඩිය පන්තිය (Nursery School), “ඩු” (DU) is created by adding a පාපිල්ල (Papilla) to letter ඩ (DA).

Therefore the Sinhala UNICODE system works just like that way understanding ඩ + පාපිල්ල = ඩු (DA + Papilla = DU).

A person who has learnt Sinhala language well enough knows this theory and there’s nothing wrong in representing the same thing in UNICODE as well.

2) This could be called somewhat “ridicules”! Does a calculator have a key for number 10? No! Why?

Because, you don’t ask a key for 10 as you can create 10 by pressing 1 and 0.

Therefore when there are ways to create “ඩු” (DU) as ඩ + පාපිල්ල = ඩු (DA + Papilla = DU), you don’t ask for separate “ඩු” (DU) character to be stored. It is Unnecessary.

3) Yes! There are some known problems in current versions of Firefox (FF 2.x and below) web browser in displaying very few Sinhala letters (Ex: Shri). But this has already been fixed in next version of Firefox which will become the mainstream browser of the Internet very soon. (Download Firefox 3)

What is not understandable is how this can be a Security Threat! I found a table of computer security threats. After googling a bit found a match there. It is called Human Error!

As per claims, the word SRI is written / displayed in different ways. I think this should be deliberately enabled anyway.

For instance, say a person really wants to write SRI in a different way. How can he write it if the language doesn’t allow him?

The freedom of using characters / words in the way they want should be given. It’s the user’s responsibility to do it in the correct way. This is comparable in this way that “Everyone is free to write anything in a blog! But one has to be honest enough to choose whether to highlight things wrongly for his or her own goodwill or not.

Moreover, there are claims that Sinhala text cannot be copied from Internet Explorer web browser and pasted into MS Word correctly (Copy from IE to MS Word). This is false. See how I have copied some Sinhala text from IE to MS Word.

However there are some speculations saying that there are ulterior motives and hidden agendas behind these claims. I’m not discussing those here or I’m not targeting anyone. But when there are things that mislead people, someone should correct it.

Listed below are some more valuable posts from Anuradha containing technical details with good arguments regarding the same issue.

Is Sinhala Unicode incomplete

Mr Donald please correct alphabet first

Unicode and Sinhala alphabet

Read Full Post »

Music and Sri Lanka | සංගීතය සහ ශ්‍රී ලංකාව

In this strange country..

No ugly Art, can win national prizes!

No disoriented Dance, can entertain mass public!

No horrible Film, can break box office records!

But,

Any terrible song, can hit all TV / radio stations overnight!

An amateur who cannot sing even the 7 major notes, can become the most popular!

Any voiceless person, can record his own album and feature in newspapers!

Any sponsor-greedy TV channel can start Not-So-Realistic Reality Show and proudly select Super Stars that last no more than 6 months!

Any incompetent person, declaring to have “Visharad” or “Nipun”, can judge so called Music Reality Shows!

මේ අමුතු රටේ..

කිසිම අප්‍රසන්න චිත්‍රයක් ජාතික සම්මාන දිනන්නේ නැත!

කිසිම අවලක්ශන නැටුමක් ජනතාව පිනවන්නේ නැත!

කිසිම අමන චිත්‍රපටයක් වාර්තා තබන්නේ නැත!

නමුත්,

ඕනෑම අමිහිරි ගීතයක්,
රූපවාහිනිය / ගුවන්විදුලිය සොලවන්නත සමත්ය!

ස්වර සප්තකයවත් ගායනාකිරීමට බැරි ඕනැම අදක්ශයෙක්ට,
ජනප්‍රියම ගායකයා විය හැක!

ඕනෑම ගොලුවෙකුට,
තමන්ගේම ගීත එකතුවක් එලිදක්වා පත්‍ර වල මුල් පිටු සැරසීමට පිලිවන!

ඕනෑම කෑදර රූපවාහිනී ආයතනයට,
කියන-තරම්-ඇත්තක්-නැති නමුත් නමට Reality Show පවත්වා
“මාස හයේ සුපිරි තරු”, සාඩම්බරයෙන් දැයට දායාද කල හැක!

Read Full Post »

Dear Press People, Stop the Bloody Copying!

I saw some posts listed on kottu regarding an issue of copying blog posts (gedi pitin) and publishing on so called national newspapers without adding proper references. I have seen this several times and also It’s becoming an issue. Not only they copy from blogs but from several places such as Wikipedia as an example.

I wonder why these reporters or writers or whatever they call themselves cannot make something new? Why can’t they be creative? At least when they copy something, can’t they give a reference? Why Sri Lankan media is acting like this? Just because that you can find any damn thing from the Internet, you should not use this like toilet papers. By the way, we would rather like to surf the net, than reading newspapers with printed version of our own blogs.

It is not the first time this happened and it’s not in the other countries too. Most foreign newspapers have there own newspaper blogs. There were incidents that some of these newspaper bloggers have done the same thing that SL media people have done.
Links :
1) Can newspapers do blogs right?
2) Washington Post Blogger Quits After Plagiarism Accusations

I suggest there should a separate editor or a censoring board for every newspapers who’s responsible of getting the reference information right. The person would have good computer/internet media literacy.I’m not blaming all media people out there, but for one’s who copy stuff and paste as if they created the whole thing. I bet now all bloggers would add a Copyright notice on there blogs.

One last thing to say with a warning! “Stop the Bloody Copying”, if you aren’t going to say from where you copied the stuff. It’s good for both you and me.

Read Full Post »

Choise of Sri Lankans

A propaganda is building up against current government of Sri Lanka. Some people are on Human Rights Violations and some people on Economy Downfall. Both are crucial for a country and not very well managed here in Sri Lanka as far as I feel.

Even all of us accept the fact that Politicians created and fertilized all these problems in Sri Lanka, we still hear their voice, we still accepts and believe what they say on media, we still applause and support them and after all, we go and vote for them. At the end of the day, same thing repeats and country towards dead pool.

In fact, Politicians are unable to;
– Control the economy
– Control Terrorism or Continue Peace process
– Do developments that truly helps people
– Work without any smuggling or underhand commissions
– Strengthen government work force to compete with private sector
– and so much said and unsaid issues…

Just think, Does a man working in a private sector company as an executive or smiler job, would ever be safe with his job, if he fails to do whatever he is appointed/assigned to do? The very next day, he will be fired. Thats the way it is happening. But, politicians can smuggle people’s money, destroy what works well, encourage terrorists and violence, break their own promises and still be in the same position after the next damn election. Why people can’t understand this. On the other hand, they can jump from/to any place. They have no permanent opposition. When they are attacked or when they see an opportunity, they Jump like the Monkeys and people accepts them like Hero’s.

Statistics shows over 90% Literacy rate for Sri Lanka. Most of the countries in that range are well developed. Well we are not there yet. Why? because of people’s bad decisions. It’s a shame that we have to choose the best next to worst political parties now. We do have choises, but all are worst cases. We have to choose who is the best from a pool of idiotic parties.

Stop being bulls and think about the future. Erase all the politicians who you think is not up to the standard. Give the opportunity for anyone who is actually willing to do good to Sri Lanka. Only we can save Sri Lanka. Not politicians. So act accordingly and responsibly.

Read Full Post »

Top 11 facilities of Private Buses

This is a brief description about facilities that Sri Lankan Private Buses are offering.

1) Busss are timely arranged. So that people reach their destinations without a problem.

2) Bus Stops(Halts) are only spots where they stop

3) Always wait for people to get on and do that even more when people get down.

4) Bus Conductors communicate with people kindly and ask more than 2 times for bus fair just to double check.

5) Issue tickets immediately after paying

6) Help reducing traffic and embarrassment by not stopping at odd places on the road.

7) Only speed when people are in a hurry and do that in a very secure way as well.

8) Passengers do not have to have coins as the conductor always gives balance amount correctly.

9) Passengers who are standing can get back rubs or butt rubs from other passengers/ conductor and who are seated will surely get shoulder massage by conductors butt. All these are included in bus fair.

10) Female passengers will get addition massages in most buses from other male passengers and they will be advised (by conductors) to buy their own vehicle if they don’t like such facilities.

11) The all island private bus unions are taking all possible actions to raise their services as far as they can and they enter into brilliant people friendlier actions like strikes when governments do not help them to continue their facilities.

Note: Criticism is not to be used to insult anyone but just to learn and corrects the mistakes.

Please suggest any feature which is not listed here.

Read Full Post »