Welcome to the live blog of Idea Bash 2014
Author - TechWire
Over the past couple of years Ideamart, the developer platform powered by Dialog Axiata, has enabled the creation of thousands of apps, by hundreds of developers and content providers. Most of these apps are SMS and USSD based apps using telco APIs exposed by Dialog. Developers who have utilized this platform successfully are getting good returns and has resulted in the emergence of several entrepreneurs.
With aims of taking these entrepreneurs to the next level, Ideamart has partnered with Venture Engine to bring Venture Engine – Ideamart Startup Competion. This competition will provide developers with high potential Ideamart apps a chance to obtain funding to transform that idea to a successful startup. This is a valuable rare opportunity, and hopefully the developer community will take full advantage of it. Ideas should be submitted by the 20th of April. No time to lose!!
For more information on the competition click here.
To learn more about Ideamart, visit www.ideamart.lk
The day is here when all tech companies are on a field day trying to pull up the best tech prank. They have been some real impressive stuff in the past few years, so take a look at some of the best April fools jokes in tech 2014!
Nest + Virgin
The two CEOs of Virgin and Nest(thermostat innovators) come together in this video explaining their groundbreaking thermostat that allows each passenger in the plane to have their own customized temperature. A tan on a plane 🙂
Nokia 3310 with 41M pureview Camera
The below image posted on the Nokia India facebook page shows the popular(in the last decade) nokia 3310 upgraded with the new windows OS and pureview camera.
Chrome emoji translation
Chrome introduced their new browser translation algorithm that translates words into emoticons taking into account the context of the word as well. We won’t be surprised if something similar is actually implemented
The Selfiebot
What better way to take selfies than through a flying robot! Even though this is an overkill of the trending selfies, it is a fun video to watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaR4X2iJo6M#t=42
The Internet, as we know it has changed our lives in more ways than one. From simple communication, to how we consume media it has totally revolutionized the way of the world. With the internet turning 25 years this month, we thought of looking at the key milestones in its incredible journey. So take a look down the memory lane of the internet. Infographic credits to eibDigital.
With the ICT industry booming in Sri Lanka, it is great to see schools participating actively in the promotion of ICT. Visakha Vidyalaya, one of the leading girls school in the island, is playing their part by organizing a large scale ICT exhibition. InfoV2014 ICT exhibition will be held on the 21st and 22nd of March at the School premises, with the first day being open to schools, and the second day open to the general public.
The objective of the exhibition is to grow the ICT knowledge and awareness among schoolchildren by showcasing products and services by industry giants, government bodies, and leading ICT universities. The exhibition will be comprised by the following components.
1. ICT Application and Trade Exhibition
(a) Schools and University Zone
(b) Industrial Zone
(c) Government Institutes
(d) Trade Zone
2. Mini Workshops on ICT themes by industrial/academic experts
3. Launching of an ICT Magazine with the winning articles of the Trilingual Island wide ICT essay Competition
4. ICT Quiz Program
5. Games & Entertainment zone
For more information visit http://www.infov2014.com/
Nawala, Sri Lanka (February 10, 2014) – enTrust & Title (Private) Limited, a leading provider of E-Signature & Document Forensics for information security – a patented technology, today announced they are opening a new “Center of Excellence” facility in Nawala, Sri Lanka for its product Research & Development.
“Back in 1996, I launched my first company here, in Sri Lanka. The quality of education, intelligence, ethics of IT professionals and their desire to keep learning new technologies are the very qualities every Silicon Valley start-up looks for. Hence, the decision was easy to set up our R&D facility here due to our positive experience with the people.” said Aziz Valliani, Chairman of enTrust & Title (Private) Limited, in his address to the gathering at the opening ceremony.
The Company is in process of assembling a team of most talented software developers and application engineers for its Center of Excellence. The team will be led by Roshan Amadoru, a Sri Lankan citizen.
Anuradha Tennakoon, Director/Country Manager for Motorola Solutions commended Aziz Valliani by saying, “It is people like him who have the vision and foresight to explore and take risks to create opportunities worldwide.” Dhushy Thillaivasan , General Manager of Ambiq Technology Private Limited agreed by saying that he recalls that “Aziz and his team developed the concept of the document forensics technology using his previous employer in 2009.”
About enTRUST & Title
enTrust & Title Group of companies develop and market state of the art E-Signature and Document Forensics technologies for private and public enterprises and for consumers through its Cloud service. Document Forensics (4n6) is the patented technology which can flag a document if it has been tampered with, revised or its validity has expired. It also enables the owner of document to make the contents of the E-Signed document private, semi-private or open for public to view. Established in 2008, the American founders of the company are also pioneers of the first E-Signature technology which was introduced in 1992.
කොළඹ විශ්ව විද්යාලයේ ආචාර්ය කසුන් ද සොයිසා විසින් රචිත “මූලික පරිගණක ක්රමලේඛනය (ජාවා භාවිතයෙන්)” පොත භාෂා දැනුම් පරතරය නිසා මෘදුකාංග නිර්මාණය වෙතින් දුරස්වු යව්වනයන් මෙන්ම වැඩිමහල්ලන්හටද වටිනා අත්වැලකි. සිංහල පාඨකයා වෙත මේ පොත ගෙන එන ආචාර්ය කසුන් ද සොයිසා, කොළඹ විශ්ව විද්යාලයේ විද්යාවේදී උපාධිය ලබා ස්වීඩනයේ ස්ටොක් හෝම් සරසවියෙන් ආචාර්ය උපාධිය ලබා දැනට කොළඹ විශ්ව විද්යාලයේ ආචාර්යවරයකු ලෙස සේවය කරයි.
මුද්රිත පොතක් දැන් රුපියල් 450/= කට දැන් කොළඹ විශ්ව විද්යාලයේ පරිගණක විද්යා පාසලෙහි පශ්චාත් උපාදි අංශයෙන් දැන් ලබා ගත හැකිය.
ඒ සඳහා ෆරීනා හෝ නිශාන්ත අමතන්න 011-2589123, 011-2581245
පොතෙහි සඳහන්වන ජාවා ක්රමලේඛන බාගත කර ගනීම මෙතනින්.
පුද්ගලික භාවිතය සඳහා Slides සහ Tutorials බාගත කර ගනීම මෙතනින්.
Facebook has become “the trend” in Sri Lankan social media, and there has been increasing number of complaints against irresponsible usage. SLCERT (Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Readiness Team) says it has received around 1,100 internet related complaints so far this 2013 while a majority of them concern the Facebook. Mainly its our younger generation that’s being strongly attracted to Facebook as well as badly beaten. It’s a shame that a few young girls committed suicide over photographs that was published of them on Facebook!
(image source: adaderana.lk )
(image source: adaderana.lk )
There is something wide of the mark for such tragedies to happen. Our society has attracted to Facebook without considering its limits, its flaws. Privacy aspect is neglected all along! Coming from a very sensitive cultural background, public expressions on private matters can have a strong adverse effect on personal wellbeing.
DIMO Sri Lanka has taken a well-timed community service to educate the Facebook users to use Face book responsibly.
“Its is your duty to educate your loved ones and monitor them while on Social Media”
Visit DIMO Facebook page and to follow their campaign: https://www.facebook.com/DimoSriLanka
Few messages posted in their wall is included below.
Valentine is here! And in the case you have a tech/geeky partner, a tech gadget may be the ideal valentine gift. Verizon has put up an useful infographic that will help you decide which gift to get for your valentine. So just take a look, and if you have the buck why not go for it and make that special someone’s day! After all valentines comes only once a year 😉 . (Infographic credits to Verizon Insider Guide)
The advancement of communication technologies, the internet and cloud based software has made working at home that much easier. In most of the western countries there is a growing trend of companies who allow their employees to work from home, but in Sri Lanka there are only a handful of such companies.
From the employees point of view, there would be less stress working from home and time saved on the commute. From the employers side, there would be a cost saving on utility usage. One should also note the ability to work from home will depend on the home environment. If the home environment is full of distractions, it might not be such a good idea. The below infographic details some of the advantages of working from home, the supporters and the detractors of the concept. Take a look! (Infographic credits to staff.com)
The 10th anniversary of GSoC ‘Decade of GSoC’ was celebrated at the University of Moratuwa on the 23rd of January 2014 with the participation of Chris DiBona, Director Open Source and Out Reach at Google, Program Managers Stephany Tailor and Mary Radmiol. Ananda Jayawardhana, Vice Chancellor of University of Moratuwa and many Sri Lankan distinguish guests also participated.
Chris DiBona said that he was offered to go to europe to celebrate GSoCs’ 10th year but he chose to come to Sri Lanka. Chris recalled where things have begun 10 years ago. He came up with the idea of Google Summer of Code Program in 2004. Out of 6000 applications for the 1st ever GSoC and around 600 were shortlisted to participate. “If you have open source, it helps to make better computer systems. You should be so proud, and it is from the Google and the world” He concluded.
If you can remember “Chris DiBona” from his interview to Linux Format who made positive remark about Sri Lanka and University of Moratuwa, here is what he said there:
“Every year that goes by we see more people from outside of the US take part. The US still has a healthy proportion – 250 or something – but it’s amazing to see where people pop up – like Sri Lanka. Even during the civil war we still had Tamil and other Sri Lankan students taking part in the Summer of Code; it’s like, how did it transcend borders in that way in that country? And so, Sri Lanka has always been really interesting to us in ways that even India and China are not.
Here’s basically a very small nation, and if you look at it, there’s a couple of universities that really glommed onto Summer of Code as a way of expanding their curriculum. Think about that. 79 Computer Science students in a small university in a small country in the midst of a civil war, all doing remarkable work. This is the promise of the internet and computer science made flesh.”
Full article is available here.
Stephanie Taylor explained how does GSoC work and how they choose organizations and students for the competition. Process is such that first, Google chooses organizations and students can research organizations through their idea pages and submit project proposals to the organization. Then organizations catch students with their mentors for a bonding period of a month and there will be coding during the whole summer (40 hour a week, for 3 months) to execute the proposals. 5500$ for the student and 500$ are up for the winner and the winning organization will be given in cash!
She also explained the ‘Google Code-in’ program, which is a GSoC for younger students aged between 13 and 17. It’s a new program which applies classroom skills to real life projects. More details are available here.
Dr Sanjiva, probably the top open source figure in Sri Lanka told that he is contributing to Apcahe projects and to Open Source since last 25 years. “If not for Open Source, I could not get to meet these wonderful people and wouldn’t have been here” he continued.
Students who took over GSoC projects and succeeded presented their success stories as well. There was a panel discussion with Sanjiva, Chrish, Mary, Stephanie and Rohan moderated that session.
Image credits : Akila Panditha and Vipula Disanayake
Too err is human, but committing some of the following mistakes can kill your software project. Now we don’t want that happening so take a look at the below infographic identify the common pitfalls and make sure you stand clear of them. infographic credits to Construx and Steve McConnell
