Imesh Gunaratne | Web Log

Dialog Broadband HUAWEI E1550 on Ubuntu 9.04

Imesh — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:36:00 +0500

I bought a Dialog Broadband connection few days back and it was working really well on Windows. However the device HUAWEI E1550 was not detected on Ubuntu 9.04. Thanks to one of my friends I was able to find a solution here.

Up and Running Again

Imesh — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:47:00 +0500

I experienced an ASP.NET error in my web host for more than a week. As I understood the ASP.NET Runtime temporary files folder had been crashed. However I couldn’t get to know the exact problem. After talking to support people several times on mail gave them a call to explain the situation precisely. Finally I upgraded the web server to IIS7 and the support guys fixed the problems found earlier.

Thank you very much all!!

Enabling Desktop Cube Effect in Ubuntu 9.04

Imesh — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 21:50:00 +0500

Ubuntu 9.04 comes with a set of Visual Effects excluding 3D Desktop Cube. Thanks to one of my friends I was able to find some information on how to enable it using Compiz Config Settings Manager.

This is how to do it; First install Compiz Config Settings Manager by typing the below command in a terminal window.

>sudo aptitude install compizconfig-settings-manager

Then open the CompizConfig Setting Manager using System -> Preferences -> CompizConfig Settings Manager.

That's all :-) Everything you needed to configure visual effects can be found in this window. Moreover it provides information on short-cut keys to trigger different effects. You may find a key called "Super" in that content, it refers to the Windows Key in your keyboard. Try <Super> + N ;-) Enjoy!

A New Look with Blog Engine 1.5

Imesh — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 00:49:00 +0500

I was planning to customize my web log theme few weeks back but could not find a better theme. Last week I suddenly came through this new theme designed by Woo Themes and was experimenting with it for a while to apply it to my main page and photography page. Today finally I completed everything and uploaded it to the server. I had to spend considerable amount of time configuring IIS 7.5 to run my ASP.NET 2.0 web site locally. I think when you get used to new server features it won't take that much of time :-)

I encountered a problem with the width of the content section where some of the images in posts were overlapped with the right side bar. All of those posts were fixed by setting the image width manually. With the new theme I upgraded the Blog Engine runtime to version 1.5. There was only one additional column added to the be_PostComment table when considering the database in version 1.4.5 therefore it was easier to update. Moreover the source files were completely replaced with the new release. So far everything seems to be working fine. Thanks Blog Engine Team for your great efforts!!

Please let me know what you think about the new look and feel of my web site by commenting below. Thank you very much!!

Windows 7 x64 & Ubuntu 9.04 on a Lenovo T400

Imesh — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 20:51:00 +0500

I installed Windows 7 x64 and Ubuntu 9.04 on a new Lenovo T400. Both installations went really well but few drivers were not installed properly in Windows 7. I checked the Lenovo website and found out that they have not released most of the drivers for Windows 7 yet. However beta versions of some drivers were found at http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/WIN7-BETA.html. The ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3400 graphics card seems to be working fine but there is a exclamation mark on the device in Device Manager. Still not sure what exactly that mean. Moreover few Bluetooth drivers and Simple PCI Communications driver was not completely installed. The Fingerprint Swipe Login works fine but its splash screen does not get closed on the windows start up. Each time I login, I have to kill the splash screen process manually via the task manager.

On Ubuntu I could not find any missing drivers, graphics, sound, ethernet, wireless network and bluetooth devices are working well. However I'm not sure whether Ubuntu still supports Fingerprint Swipe Login. Anyway I'm really satisfied with the look & feel and the performance of my new T400. If it's a Thinkpad we might not need to think twice ;-)

References:

Windows 7 and ThinkVantage Technologies

Running on Three Serial ATA Hard Disks

Imesh — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 23:24:00 +0500

Very recently I bought a 1TB portable hard disk from Amazon. As I saw the case at the first place I knew that it should contain a Serial ATA HDD inside. So I removed the casing and connected it directly to the motherboard. Now it's much faster than running on USB 2.0.

Note: These days in most cases we only get one Serial ATA Power Socket in Power Supply units, but as we need to connect more and more Serial ATA Devices (DVD Drives/HDD) it's better if Power Supply Manufacturers can include few Serial ATA power sockets rather than converting IDE ones.

We Are The World

Imesh — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:53:00 +0500

For the first time in my life I'm watching a funeral with whole lot of music. It's nothing other than Michael Jackson's funeral. Michael Jackson is one of the greatest musicians of our time. He made music to suit for decades; he taught us how to love the mankind, how to love each and everyone. We don't have him anymore, but his music will be there forever. May you rest in peace Michael. "We Are The World"

Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MJ_Star.jpg

The End of War

Imesh — Mon, 18 May 2009 21:09:00 +0500

It's a historical day for all the Sri Lankans!! The war which did a great harm to the country nearly for thirty years came to an end. Let us all show our greatest gratitude to all the War Heroes who sacrificed their lives to make this a success.

ASP.NET: Adding A Confirmation Message To A LinkButton

Imesh — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 23:00:00 +0500

There is an easier way to add a confirmation message to a ASP.NET Link Button.

LinkButton linkRemove = new LinkButton();
linkRemove.PostBackUrl = "<url>";
linkRemove.Text = "Remove";
linkRemove.OnClientClick = "return confirm('Are you sure?')";

Youtube Mobile Application

Imesh — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 09:47:00 +0500

I just found this You Tube mobile application on Google Mobile page and installed it on a S60 device. It looks really good and works very well with a WiFi connection. Still I could not test it via a 3G connection, hope it will work fine as well. You Tube mobile application provide features like searching, making favorites, uploading videos and many more. Give it a try!

Introduction to Java Micro Edition

Imesh — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 11:22:00 +0500

Java Micro Edition (ME) is the Java Specification defined by Sun Microsystems for mobile and embedded devices with limited memory, display and power capacity. Sun only provides a reference implementation for Java ME, therefore third party vendors have implemented Java Runtime Environments (JRE) for different types of devices. I could not find the exact reason for this, but at the early statges of Java ME there had been a JRE release called Personal Java.

Please find more information on the below presentation;

Java ME Tech Talk

Happy Holidays Everyone

Imesh — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 09:11:00 +0500

I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!! :-) Keep smiling.

A Day of Entrepreneurship

Imesh — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 13:31:00 +0500

As a result of the National Entrepreneurship Week from 24th to 30th November 2008 in Sri Lanka I got a chance to attend the Seminars and Workshops organized on the second day. According to the schedule the day was started with Employability, this was not an interesting session for me but anyway there were so many undergraduates who were interested in. There were two Sri Lankan Entrepreneurs present at the event, the Chairman of OpenArc Group and the Managing Director of Norfolk Foods. Moreover there were few Post Graduate Students from the UK Universities who had started their own Enterprises and they were prepared to address the gathering on their success stories. To be honest these sessions were really interesting.

Starting an Enterprise is not a simple process as joining a company. It should have a great potential and a passion to produce a product or a service for a specific customer base while undertaking a great amount of risk. Speakers listed out a set of attributes which an Entrepreneur should have. Here are some of the points which I found exciting.

1. A desire to achieve (Passion)
2. Risk taking
3. Visionary (A creative thinker)
4. No demarcation (Rather love the mankind)
5. Works with available resources
6. A vision towards a completely different world
7. Ethical people
8. Seeing the horizon before others
9. Set examples for others
10. Live with SWOT Analysis (A strategic planning method)

There were two interesting enterprises started by the post graduate students from the UK, My Own Work and Tinderbox. My Own Work is an online portfolio and the Tinderbox is a creative event organizing company.

My Own Work
http://www.myownwork.co.uk/

Tinderbox Creative Events
http://www.tinderboxevents.co.uk/

The bottom line of the event was if you have a passion to start an enterprise just go for it, it might be a success or it might be a failure however you will gain experience. Someday you will be able to achieve your goals. The decision is all yours!

National Entrepreneurship Week

Imesh — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 11:03:00 +0500

The National Entrepreneurship Week is coming up. The British Council of Sri Lanka in partnership with the Ministry of Higher Education and University Grants Commission is organizing a series of events from 24th to 30th November 2008 to address 'Graduate Entrepreneurship in Sri Lanka'. It is really nice to see the interest on Entrepreneurship is growing up in the country.

Thanks to Maithree for updating me on this. Please read the below article at British Council of Sri Lanka for more details.

Reference:
http://www.britishcouncil.org/srilanka-projects-and-networking-pmi2-new08.htm

World's First Self Tuning Guitar

Imesh — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:45:00 +0500

Sounds interesting I guess, did you ever imagine of a guitar which can tune it self? Gibson has introduced World's First Self Tuning Guitar, more precisely it is called the World's First Robotic Guitar.

Follow the below link for more details.

http://www.gibson.com/robotguitar/guitar.html

At the Heart of the Image

Imesh — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 00:01:00 +0500

This is the theme of one of the world's most renowned photo contests, Nikon Photo Contest International 2008-2009. The Nikon Photo Contest International has been held by Nikon Corporation since 1969 to provide an opportunity for photographers around the world to communicate and to enrich photographic culture for professionals and amateurs alike. Entries are accepted from September 1st to November 30th, 2008. Therefore you will have plenty of time to make your photographs ready.

This year's Categories:

A. Free subject: Express yourself freely, as it moves you.

B. My Planet: Express your world, whether that involves the environment, scenes from your daily life, or the people and things that stir your passions.

Submission Procedures:

Entries can be submitted in print by conventional mail, as JPEG images via the Internet or as a combination of both.

References:

http://www.nikon.com/about/news/2008/0605_npci_01.htm

Hacking Windows Fonts

Imesh — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 22:23:00 +0500

I was using Vista Ultimate for quite long time and so impressed with its look and feel. Very recently I installed Vista Inspiration Pack 2 in my Windows XP machines and it gave me a similar appearance but not exactly the same. I noticed two major differences, the Start Menu and the System Font. The System Font of the OS was not changed with the Inspiration Pack rather it was set to Tahoma as before. Therefore I checked the font used in Vista Ultimate and it was Segoe UI, designed by Steve Matteson. According to Wikipedia Segoe UI is a sans-serif typeface which is optimized to use under ClearType rendering environment and it is licensed to Microsoft for use as a branding typeface and user interface font. Moreover Segoe UI is installed into Windows XP if the user installs Windows Live Mail or Microsoft Word Viewer, both available as free downloads.

Segoe is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

ImageGallery 1.0 Released

Imesh — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 23:06:00 +0500

Today I'm really glad to announce the first version of ImageGallery, version 1.0 licensed under GNU Lesser GPL. During past few days I spent my spare time playing around with this to make it available for the public. The initial version which was deployed in my photography page was cleaned and converted into an User Control. Now an Image Gallery can be added to an ASP.NET Page with a single line.

<uc:Gallery runat="server"></uc:Gallery>

A new theme was created as the default theme of ImageGallery and it can be seen here at Demo Gallery. Still ImageGallery only supports to access images from Flickr Accounts. The next step is to develop another two extensions to provide access to Web Folders and Picasa Accounts.

Thanks to FlickrNET API and Lightbox Slideshow Javascript Library. Special thanks to Justin Barkhuff for allowing me to distribute Lightbox Slideshow with ImageGallery.

Download ImageGallery 1.0

Mosaic View in Image Gallery

Imesh — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 13:09:00 +0500

This is another step in ImageGallery. Yesterday I wrote this new feature to view images in a different form, more precisely it is called the Mosaic view. Now the ImageGallery supports to view images in two different forms, the Thumbnail View and Mosaic View. There will be hyperlinks placed on the page to switch between the two different views. Have a look at my photography page.

Thumbnail View

Mosaic View

Image Gallery Slideshow

Imesh — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 00:30:00 +0500

Today I came through this awesome JavaScript library Lightbox2 which is a simple, unobtrusive script used to overlay images on the current page. It is a free product!! All the credit goes to Lokesh Dhakar!!

Justin Barkhuff has improved Lightbox2 further and he has come up with Lightbox Slideshow which is another great piece of work!! Thanks guys!! It is a really useful for publishing images on the web. Click on an image in my photography page to see how it works. Lightbox Slideshow supports to group set of images together and navigate between them. Furthermore it allows adding Google Analytics to track image views. There are lot more configuration options available to customize it. Give it a try!

Broken Links were Fixed

Imesh — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 21:37:00 +0500

After I moved my web log from Community Server to BlogEngine.NET all the links to my previous posts were broken. This problem was occurred due to changing the first part of the URL. However the page names were the same. Have a look at the below example.

Previous link:

www.imeshonline.net/archive/2007/01/09/the-pursuit-of-happyness.aspx

New link:

http://www.imeshonline.net/blog/post/2007/01/10/The-Pursuit-of-Happyness.aspx

So I thought of redirecting these requests to the new URL if they were found in the current database. It was not that difficult, I captured the Page Not Found event using the Custom Error Page and searched for the requested page name in the database. If it was found the page will be redirected to the new URL. If not it will display similar post links on the error 404 page.

Give it a try, try to click on the above two links. It will take you to the same page.

Web Log Theme Optimized

Imesh — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:23:00 +0500

I just went through my web blog theme and optimized it to suit most of the web browsers. There were few problems with css elements and those were fixed. It was tested using Browsershots. Browsershots can render a given web design in different web browsers and give you screen shots. Still my email settings are not working, so have to investigate this further. Email settings will enable features like getting updates on comments, the contact form and so on.

How do you like the new look and feel?

Flickr Image Gallery

Imesh — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 13:20:00 +0500

I was thinking of writting an Image Gallery from some time back to publish my flickr images in my web log. Very recently I found Flickr.NET API which is a free and open source .NET library which provides access to the Flickr API. So have a look at my first attempt of using Flickr.NET in my photography page.

It was a really nice experience to develop your own image gallery. The only challenge I had was to come up with a algorithm to implment the navigator. It was bit complex than I thought. I had to design the way that it displays the page numbers according to the selected page and the total number of pages. This is how it was done.

The navigator was designed to display the first five page numbers and the last two page numbers at the start.

If you navigate to the 5th page it will expand it's content and display a set of five page numbers in the middle by keeping the first and last two page numbers on both sides. It will always display the previous page number on the left hand side to the selected page number. This will allow the user to navigate back to the previous page very easily. Moreover it will display two arrows, basically the greater than and less than characters on the most left and right corners to navigate to each side.

If you navigate to one of the pages in the set of last 5 pages or may be the last 6 pages it will display the first two page numbers and the last few page numbers as below.

I'm planning to release this application as a free open source product in the near future. It will be improved to read images from web folders or may be from other image publishing platforms like Picasa. At the moment this Image Gallery is implemented as a ASP.NET page so I need to change this to a ASP.NET Control. Then it will be able to placed inside a ASP.NET Page with few configuration parameters in the Web.config file.

If anyone is interested in joining this project please let me know.

code.google.com/p/imagegallery

Migrated Community Server Blog to Blog Engine

Imesh — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:47:00 +0500

It was quite some time I installed Community Server (CS) 2.1 in my web space to host my web log. Community Server is one of the best Content Management Systems (CMS) available today on the .NET Platform without any doubt, but on the same time it is bit complex to customize as we need. At this point I found Blog Engine!

Blog Engine is an Open Source CMS which is really light weight compared to CS. Blog Engine can be run even without having a database. Sounds interesting I guess. It can store all the information needed in XML files. Anyway I thought of using a database since it is easier for me to backup things and upgrade it later on. Blog Engine’s control panel interface is not that good compared to CS but it is not that much of a problem. Hoping to improve it in the future.

This is how I moved my Web Log to Blog Engine:

1. Installed the Community Server BlogML application (plug-in) and got the BlogML output to an XML file. This did not work properly at the first time, I had to do some modifications to the code to make it work.

2. Downloaded Blog Engine source files from the web.

3. Created a new database and the database setup script found under the setup folder was run. This creates the whole database structure for Blog Engine. So simple.

4. Blog Engine project was open in Visual Studio and the Web.Config file was modified and added Connection String properties.

5. Blog Engine project was run and the BlogML file was imported.

6. Now I have all the posts which had post in CS before in my new Blog Engine instance.

7. There were few issues found in the comments so I had to do some modifications in the CS S BlogML application. The username of the comment was set to http://” by default, so had change it to the correct username and the user’s url was set to null, so it was also fixed. I noticed that the tags in CS was not imported as tags in Blog Engine, all the tags were imported as categories in Blog Engine. I’m not sure why this has happened. I checked the CS BlogML code and couldn’t find a method inside the Writer class which does this. Have to fix this as well.

8. Downloaded a new theme and customized it as I prefer. Still I’m doing some changes.

9. Once I was satisfied with my local instance of the Blog Engine I uploaded the source files in my web host and the database was setup as I did in my local machine.

Nikon D90 The World's First D-SLR With Movie Function

Imesh — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 18:04:00 +0500

Today Nikon has announced the successor of the most popular D80, the Nikon D90. During past couple of months there were rumors going on about this release and people were wondering whether it will be called D80X or D90. Finally it was named as D90, which I think a wise decision.

The Nikon D90 has list of interesting features which were not found in the D80.

12.3 megapixel DX format CMOS image sensor
Self Sensor Cleaning Unit
Live View Mode
3" LCD Screen
Scene Recognition System with Face Detection System
D-Movie function which offers Motion JPEG movies in exceptional D-SLR image quality
Low noise performance from ISO 200 to 3200

As you can see on the feature list this is the world's first Digital SLR Camera which has the Movie Function (according to the specification auto focusing is not available in the movie mode). I think with a large image sensor and high ISO sensivity it should be possible to generate a high quality video compared to a typical camcorder.

Nikon UK has priced the Nikon D90 body for 699.99 pounds and including the NIKKOR AF-S DX 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR kit lens for 849.99 pounds. I think this is a reasonable price for someone who already has a Nikon D80 because D80 was priced around 615 pounds (including the NIKKOR AF-S DX 18-135mm kit lens).

References:

http://www.nikonproducts.co.uk/d90.aspx

http://chsvimg.nikon.com/products/imaging/lineup/d90/en/index.html

http://nikon.com/about/news/2008/0827_d90_01.htm

Updated 30/08/2008: