Software Issues in Sri Lanka Part 6


Posted on December 3, 2006  /  211 Comments

Please continue discussion from Software Issues in Sri Lanka Part 5, on this thread. This thread is devoted to diverse software issues discussed in the context of Sri Lanka. Please stick to the topic and keep the discussion civil.

Previous discussion is archived in the following threads:

211 Comments


  1. From SundayOberver Dec 3, 2006

    Quote
    Poorly managed computer systems a risk in Govt institutions
    by Gamini Warushamana

    Organisations can improve their efficiency by using computer technology. Government institutions handling especially a large volume of data can use technology effectively to make things easy for people. However, bureaucracy, inefficiency and corruption coupled with lack of IT skilled top officials make things worse and the institutions lose valuable data within a few seconds creating serious issues in government service.

    Pic by Chinthaka Kumarasinghe

    The Department of Motor Traffic (DMT) faced a similar crisis recently and the computer system in the department was paralysed for nearly one week bringing all work in the department to a standstill. Fortunately the data in the database had not been deleted as reported by some media, sources said.

    After the crisis officers accused one another in the media and this demonstrated the lack of coordination and bureaucracy that prevailed in the department. According to media reports the IT personnel in the department attempted to blame the Commissioner and the Assistant Commissioner (IT) for it. The Sunday Observer learns that this was a result of many issues by various officials including IT personnel.

    The DMT case is an example how poorly the government institutions use computer technology and the associated risk therein. The DMT is one of the main institutions that brings a large amount of revenue to the government and its data base is very important in many aspects including national security.

    After the computer system failed, the DMT called for assistance from the Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Response Team (SLCERT) of the ICTA. The SLCERT report said that the DMT was very fortunate to survive a major catastrophe, due to the early detection of the problem.

    The report highlighted key issues in the DMT computer system. The report said that the system doesn’t have a firewall system or up-to-date anti virus protection between the client and the server. The anti virus application was last updated in December 2004. There are no policies with regard to information security such as password policy, shared access policy, backup policy and disaster recovery policy in the system.

    The client machines can access the shared folders in the application server without any authentication. The report also highlighted the bureaucracy in the administration and said that there is a distinct lack of cooperation between the IT team and the management, making coordination of recovery activities difficult. There is resistance to change within the team, which impedes the introduction of a solution, the report said.

    The report said that the viability of Windows NT use in the system needs to be re-examined by the DMT. Windows NT is an outdated platform and it has limited security features. Currently the vendor Microsoft does not support the Windows NT platform, it said.

    The SLCERT team detected that the victim machine was infected by a Worm (CME-24). It attacks security applications and attempts to disable antivirus applications. CME-24 activates and overwrites files with the extensions on the third of every month at a time scheduled via a command.

    Since the worm contains a backdoor to the infected system it may not be removed by an antivirus application or a removal tool. It spreads through file sharing over the network. It utilises aliases to confuse victims about its identity. It writes system registry keys so that any deleted files will be reactivated when the system is restarted, the report said.

    Though the IT personnel of the department said that the virus infection came from the internet, the report said that the network is isolated and has no internet or email connection. The possible infection media could be USB drive, floppy disk or a CD.

    The SLCERT has made the following recommendations to be implemented immediately.

    * Remove all machines from the network, including the server. Install and run up-to-date antivirus software on the server and clients before connecting them to the network. Since the worm has built-in backdoors and other components that will not be detected by antivirus applications and highly recommended total system backup of the application server is necessary.

    * Long and medium term recommendations of the SLCERT are important for all government institutions handling a similar network. It recommends to replace the Windows NT server with a current server platform such as Windows 2003 server. The report also recommends the installation of firewall and limits access between the clients and the server.

    It also recommends obtaining genuine, licensed versions of Microsoft Windows for client machines and to formulate and enforce regular update policy. It is learnt that all machines used by DMT are assembled machines with no brand and the software running on them are copies.

    * For virus protection, it recommended to formulate a software update policy and keep virus definition files up to date.

    The DMT is a key government agency and if it maintains the computer system in this manner we wonder how other institutions fare.

    The government is planning e-governance that computerises all departments and connects them to one network. The DMT case shows how poorly these already computerised institutions maintain their systems.

    The DMT lapse also stresses the need for close monitoring by independent government institutions such as the ICTA.

    Unquote

  2. The same topic is written in two news papers

    see
    http://www.akuru.org/images/full-rmv.jpg

    Sinhala news paper comments on a “UNIX” system and the Sunday Observer comment on “Windows NT” OS

    Truth is there is a Computer problem .

    Quote
    It is learnt that all machines used by DMT are assembled machines with no brand and the software running on them are copies.
    Unquote

    This also prove the errors in the Tender system. Buying cheap unbranded computers with public funds and without any service contracts leads to these problems.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  3. The RMV case is very interesting.

    As usual everybody blames everybody.

    Let us take the cases one by one.

    First of all, we cannot rely on the newspaper reports. Sri Lankan journalists know hardly anything about IT, they never bother to cross check the information they receive, so they simply write what somebody else tell them.

    That is why the reporter who wrote the Sinhala article says Unix is now obsolete. He seems to know nothing about the latest versions of Unix or Linux. Or he may be in the pay-roll of Microsoft.

    It is very natural that when the system fails in the govt. organization the management always blames IT division, and IT division always blames management. The same happens here.

    What is funniest is the ICTA’s response.

    ICTA team goes and finds there is a worm in the system. They remove the worm and advice RMV to look after their system by introducing minor changes they suggest. Good.

    I though the role we expected from ICTA was not to clean viruses from the systems at govt. offices. We expect it to play a much bigger role.

    Computerisation of Department of Motor Vehicles has been identified as a key project to be implemented under the e-Sri Lanka programme. ICTA was supposed to do that. Implementation a system is not simply clearing viruses.

    ICTA’s current vision is “To harness ICT as a lever of economic and social advancement, by taking the dividends of ICT to every village, to every citizen, to every business and TO REENGINEER THE WAY GOVERNMENT THINKS AND WORKS”

    I suggest this should be changed to: “To harness ICT as a lever of economic and social advancement, by taking the dividends of ICT to every village, to every citizen, to every business and TO CLEAR VIRUSES FROM THE IT SYSTEMS OF THE GOVERNMENT DEPERTMENTS”

    Shouldn’t ICTA take the full blame for not implementing a proper system at RMV for more than three years which was in their mandate?

  4. Thank you for the impartial comment Double Digit

    Quote
    Shouldn’t ICTA take the full blame for not implementing a proper system at RMV for more than three years which was in their mandate?
    Unquote

    Why don’t we get a comment from the ICTA?

    My worry is unbranded and installing Computers without proper agents in Lanka in Govt offices is a major future problem!!!!

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  5. Donald is absolutely right here. But we have instances where even branded hardware vendors with all their local offices in Colombo and regional offices in all major districts jolly well neglect their duties after selling stuff. (They will have all the contracts signed properly but you know when you go to courts in this miserable country. All you can do is to change the vendor next time you buy PCs and go through the same bitter experiences.) When you inform them about the faults they keep delaying taking them to repairs and even after much delays they again delay delivering the repaired stuff in the repair centers for months. Eventually the warranty periods run out with the goods in stores. This is the procedure followed by all IBM, HP, Dell, etc. vendors in the country. So, the unbranded vendors make use of this opportunity and provide better service till they get a proper share from the market and when they do get a considerable market, they also start ignoring the costumers. Earlier good places like PC House, Kobian are the worst in the market now.

    There are instances ICTA delivered unbranded goods for their projects as well. The agreements are signed with the ICTA and those vendors and the relevant project people have to go on a long process of first writing to ICTA and then ICTA writing to the vendors which eventually only kills time and give an extra advantage for the vendors. ICTA is yet another bureaucratic organization. It is not as transparent or energetic as it was meant to be when Milinda M formed it with extraordinary powers to operate. An ailing Dino in the big chair has introduced very old government administration which keep delays all the processes. It would need 100,000 Donalds to change the situation. One Donald will not serve the purposes. Since Donald himself got entrapped with the language issue, his voice also is ignored by many saying that he is a crazy guy. So, the good part of Donald is conveniently ignored by those wrong doers and the concerned citizens of Sri Lanka. We should start a movement to save “True Donald” from “Language Donald” for the betterment of the IT industry and the country. Donald loves both and we love Donald because of this. Not because of how he handle the language issue. Donald is absolutely right in language issue as we don’t have any solutions after spending billions of government funds unfortunately Donald mishandles his solution by making friends and supporters uncomfortable. Donald, please learn from the mistakes and be diplomatic. If you do want to thrash these idiots like Dino and the gang please do so in a live TV debate run in a prime time, not in a blog where only a very limited number of people read (and understand.) We love you. We admire your bravery in exposing how foolish these idiots are. So far everyone was worshiping these ‘dead stones’ blindly. Only you had the stomach to question their acts and credentials. Nobody else did it so far due to fear of losing a chance to do a presentation in an IT conference or losing an opportunity to travel overseas. Others do not have the luxury of an open battle with Dino and the 40 thieves as they have to defend the workplaces, jobs, etc. You are living on your own whereas the others have to feed their families, save their organizations being destroyed by Dino, etc. Only you have the luxury of enjoying freedom and you can attack openly.

    We know you are correct in language issue. The only problem is you don’t have the right approach. This needs a good planning. Overcoming these official barriers is not easy in any developed country too, let alone a country like Sri Lanka.

    Donald, please have some good rest. Travel somewhere without your laptop and cellphone. Do not read any newspapers for three months. Rest, rest and rest. If possible attend some meditation and come back afresh. Identify your enemy and that of the country. Then start your war. We will back up. The day we all will back you up in open stage is very close if you get your focus right. We all mistakes at one stage and we learn from the mistakes. We want you to learn your mistakes as well. All those who left you come back to you as long as the problem remains unsolved. Up to date the problems (Dino, language, etc) remain unsolved. This means you have the supporters scattered everywhere without a leader. If you come back with a plan, you can see these leaderless crowd supporting you. This is what Lenin, Mao, Che and Castro did. Identifying the enemy, getting organized and focused and fight. Please read this email 100 times and come afresh. We still have time to get rid of these enemies of the state.

  6. Quote
    neglect their duties after selling stuff.
    Unquote

    In sri Lanka we have the C A A (consumer affairs authority) where you can make your representations.

    Quote
    Donald, please have some good rest.
    Unquote

    Sorry I will not rest. I will expose as much as possible. At least the facts will be documented for future use.

    Quote
    Donald is absolutely right in language issue as we don’t have any solutions after spending billions of government funds
    Unquote

    At last there is someone who had understood the problem. Why not voice your views

    Quote
    unfortunately Donald mishandles his solution by making friends and supporters uncomfortable.
    unquote

    I have not made anyone uncomfortable. If you say I have mishandle my Solution can you suggest the better way. Solution is for the pubic.

    Have you seen the whole Sinhala SMS ads have been withdrawn!!! a total darkness over the Sinhala SMS!!! Why???

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  7. visit

    http://www.akuru.org/images/interesting-sinhala2.jpg

    I have marked in red. This is not proper Sinhala.

    If Sinhala unicode is correct you cannot have bits like this.

    Sinhala Unicode & SLSI 1134 is incorrect and incomplete.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  8. This thread becomes active only when someone bashes VK. People are not concerned about the issues, bashing VK is the only attraction here.

  9. Dear VK Bash

    Even you have not answered the question that I have posted on 7. Please comment!!!

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  10. “Mr. VK Bash” is correct to some extent. This thread becomes very live when somebody starts bashing VKS.

    Did anyone ever wonder why?

    Over the 10-20 years he has been active in the ICT industry VKS has consciously blocked the way of hundreds of young and talented IT professionals. In some cases he has badly harassed young individuals. In some cases he had even gone to the length of badmouthing to the bosses of the young professionals he did not like.(for no apparent reason!)

    I know this has happened to so many young professionals working in the private sector. I know about a guy who got fired from a private firm because VKS badmouthed about him to the Managing Director of the company.

    VKS had done this partially in jealousy and partially in fear.

    The old man lives under constant fear that one day somebody will deprive him of the authority he has.

    Whatever he likes to show, he has no expertise in any filed in IT. (Even in case of Unicode he knows nothing. It was the others like Nandasara who did the real work, though VKS unashamedly took the credit.) VK’s only tool to retain power is his authority. So the day he loses that tool, he will be a vegetable. He does not want to fall to that level. In addition to losing social status, this will also affect him financial, as he will find difficult to fund the studies of his son in USA.

    However, in this process, naturally he has gained lots of enemies.

    So if one says something negative about VKS, there are so many to add their own two cents….

    I should not say this, but the sad truth is day VKS kicks the bucket, there would not be many mourners around…

  11. Hai Sri Ram,

    You say “I should not say this, but the sad truth is day VKS kicks the bucket, there would not be many mourners around…” Are you kidding?????? When VKS kicks the bucket there are hundreds of ppl to mourn. His henchmen and the ppl who took huge advantages by offering bribes to VKS.. So, don’t think this dirty curse will ever be over.

  12. I have been invited to do a project report. I have included the problem of Sinhala and Tamil. Lets see the outcome of this in 2007.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  13. Api baya wey oyage report walata!!!!

  14. The problem will be recorded & Documented.
    More people will be able to read.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  15. Dino Machang,

    Mamath umba tharamma nethi unath jaathiyatame wina karapu ekek. Mamath ada walakajja gehuwa. Mama enawa umbath aran yanna ikmanatama. Lesthi wela hitapan. Api dennata aluth apayak hadala ethi.

    Though not as you did, i have done huge damages to the nation. I kicked the bucket today. I will come quickly to take you as well. Be ready. They will have to make a new hell to us.

    Anton Balasingham passes away
    space
    [Thu, 14 Dec 2006, 14:11 GMT]
    Anton BalasinghamAnton Balasingham, theoretician and political advisor of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), has passed away in London Thursday. Mr. Balasingham has been associated with the Tamil liberation struggle for more than 30 years and participated as chief negotiator on behalf of the Liberation Tigers in almost all political negotiations, beginning with the Thimpu talks in 1985. He was diagnosed with bile duct cancer (cholangiocarcinoma), a rare and aggressive malignancy of the biliary system, in the middle of November.

  16. This may not be related to this topic directly. Still this is interesting.

    Island Today.

    Child abuse, wife abuse and language abuse

    by Usvatte Aratchi

    Many are the speakers now against child abuse and wife abuse. Handsome young men and pretty young women in chic clothing fill air-time on television fulminating against child abuse and wife abuse. But hardly anybody bothers about language abuse; sometimes an old and withered head does, often to be laughed at by the many. An abusive wife is different from wife abuse as abusive language is from language abuse. In wife abuse or language abuse, the victims are the wife and the language whereas an abusive wife and abusive language are instruments of offense against a second party. A wife is also different form language: language is a public good and a wife [as is a husband], in law, whatever the practice, is a very private good. A public good has a distinct characteristic. If malaria is exterminated you and I both benefit. I cannot exclude any one from benefiting from the elimination of malaria or the security provided by an increase in police personnel to patrol streets. In contrast, if I buy mangoes in the market, every one else has less mangoes to buy. Even a common law wife is not public property. An expressive language with a rich vocabulary is a public good in that nobody has to reduce her use of language because some one else is using more of it. English has a vocabulary of some 500,000 words in comparison with 185,000 in French and 100,000 in German. Because more people use English for more purposes than any other language, its usefulness is higher than that of any other language. [It is like telephones.] There was an adage in Tito’s Yugoslavia, where passenger buses run by government were used as if they were private property [to whatever purpose persons wanted] and abused as if they were other people’s property!

    So seems the case with language, at least with Sinhala. Everybody uses it as each wishes and nobody cares to keep it in good repair. Like any other thing or person commonly abused, it deteriorates. Some would not agree. Language is essentially a social product. It is useful because persons use it to convey to another person what they want to say, whether in speech or in writing. It has no other uses. I might learn Akkadian because I want to read Akkadian poetry. The ancient poet would convey to me what he wanted to say, although I might understand it very differently from what he meant. Nobody would know. It has a very limited use. I might learn Chinese because another 1.2 billion people speak in that language. Apart from reading Chinese poetry, I would covey my meaning to many million people with whom I want to do business or exchange ideas. In fact, I might prefer to learn English because more than 90 per cent of all learned journals in Economics are written in English and none in Chinese. So, some would argue that if I can convey my meaning to another, language has served its useful function. Language is a product of usage and there is no more to do with it than to use it, however one likes. If any one were interested, she may study those usages and that is the core of the study of linguistics. Linguistics studies are fascinating and I, for one, am amazed how much one can learn by studying the uses of language [e.g. Richard Hoggart, The uses of literacy].

    Three challenges facing Sinhala

    However, there are three situations in which one has to care for the health and robustness of a language that one uses to prevent abuse. First, an existing language may be incompetent to give expression to new phenomena that one comes across. A language faces this situation when it `EBdiscovers’ new things and the existing vocabulary is incapable of giving expression to them. Professor D.J.Kalupahana, a pre-eminent scholar of Buddhist philosophy teaches us (in The Buddha’sPhilosophy of Language) that This doctrine [dhamma] is then summarized in two words, both of which were not part of the contemporary vocabulary, whether it be Vedic, Sanskrit or any other Prakrit known to be from this period. The two terms are idapaccayata [conditionality] and paticcasamuppada [dependent arising].’ Coming to more recent times, when English came face to face with the New World, it acquired new words like squash, wigwam, possum, enchilada, Yankee and waffle. Because Shakespeare wanted to say new things or old things in new ways, he invented thousands of new words. As new social phenomena developed, they found new words to name them: democracy, vacation, capitalism and trade union. The formation of new words grows faster as a language encounters new phenomena. Sinhala faces a massive need for new words as it comes face to face with whole new sets of things, ideas and attitudes. It has no time for words to grow from usage and hence the need for coining them.

    The response in our society has been for government to employ university teachers to coin these terms. Independent scholars like Munidasa Kumaratunge, Aelian de Silva and Harischandra Vijayatunge have worked in parallel coining terms following their own logic. However, the public cannot wait. That is why we hear all those weird expressions over FM radio stations and in other places that raise the ire of those who observe the `EBetiquette of formal language’ [Stuart Pinker, The language instinct]. They want to say new things, not profound things but casual everyday experiences and the standard language does not meet that requirement. They improvise, which is the way languages change and grow. That is the second situation in which someone needs to look after the health and robustness of the language.

    The third situation arises when a language comes into contact with another language over a wide front. Few languages grow in isolation and Sinhala has not. It has been fed and enriched by whatever language Mahinda brought here from Pataliputra, by Sanskrt, by Tamil, by Portuguese, by Dutch and now English. These inflows have not been small but massive introducing entirely new concepts in Buddhism [Pali], in poetics [Samskrt], in warfare and rituals [Tamil], in Christianity [Portuguese], in law [Dutch] and in law, commerce and science [English].

    Since language is so pre-eminently an outcome of social processes, who looks after the welfare of the language? Does it need to be looked after? Some are convinced that it is both futile to attempt so and unnecessary. Until books got into print in the 15h and 16th centuries, it was infeasible to find on record uniformity in use. Each scribe wrote by hand the language as he knew best. [That most genial of scholars, M.B.Ariyapala, who died recently, consulted fourteen copies of manuscripts when he edited kav silu mina in 1965.] For English, William Caxton fixed the spelling and usage as it prevailed in London and the South East of England in late 15th century. When Samuel Johnson published his dictionary in mid-18th century, the meaning and usage of words were more firmly fixed. These two events, the domination of English intellectual life by the two medieval universities and class attitudes in English society lent a certain discipline to English as used in Britain, although it grew more willfully in the United States, in Australia, in Nigeria and in India. In Sinhala, the first complete dictionary came forth just ten years ago after massive labour over some sixty years. It is in wholly unmanageable 26 volumes, occupying six feet of shelf space. We need it in three or four volumes, the most, so that it can stand on a table top and we need a concise version, in one small volume, containing the most commonly used terms. It is still extremely rare for some one to tell me that she checked a Sinhala word in the dictionary and that the spelling and meaning were as given there. A usable dictionary is one certain means to fix the spelling and meaning of words and bring some order to the chaotic variation that befuddles us all now.

    Grammar, providing the etiquette of written prose’, is more problematic. We did not have prescriptive usage of the written language until Kumaratunge wrote kriya vivaranaya and vyakarana vivaranaya .in the 1940s. Sidat sangarava codified usage in late 13th century by the learned [ sadarut vidi siyal- anuru se piyonan] mostly in writing poetry and was the guide to writing standard Sinhala until then. Kumaratunge code did not receive wide acceptance, especially in the highly influential universities, though some others welcomed it with enormous zeal. The government issued in 1969 recommendations for a standard language, but it did not receive universal or even widespread acceptance.

    Universities our saviours?

    Now who will take charge of the problems faced by the imperative of expressing new ideas in Sinhala, by the improvisation unguided by any standards and by the confrontation with an immensely powerful world language, English? One attitude is to let the language grow, any way it would. One cannot regulate its growth and development. One consequence of this may be the growth of a creole or a pidgin Sinhala, which one hears so frequently over radio and television. There is no creole or pidgin in which memorable literature or science has ever been written. Therefore to let Sinhala go to creole or pidgin will be to give up the life of a language, some 2,000 years old in written form. That does not seem a rational response to the problem we face.

    It is natural to think of universities as the principal agent for nurturing the growth of language in this very difficult period of its life. Our universities are enormously powerful sources of language usage. University men and women are all over newspapers, radio and television. They are prominent members of the Arts Council who determine excellence in writing. It is not just current university teachers but also hordes of their students who dominate the world of Sinhala letters. This pervasive influence is all that they need to determine the way language will grow. Their good effort or neglect will make or break this language. It is a responsibility they cannot run away from. When Sinhala is dead, they will be certainly convicted of criminal neglect, the worst form of language abuse. Some will certainly use abusive language against them, in my judgment not unfairly.

  17. Island article is very appropriate.

    As I mentioned in 12 Now I am faced with another problem

    To find Sinhala terms for the English words used in the Printing Industry

    Eg

    “Ghosting”
    “Picking”
    There are about 1500 odd words to be translated into Sinhala!!

    the words like “COOK” was renamed as “CHEF”

    Likewise the many words in the printing industry too will have to be renamed.

    “Machine Minder” to ////// into Sinhala
    “Helper” to ///// into Sinhala

    Standardizing an Industry is a difficult task.
    Commencing from Sinhala lets see how far I could go!!

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  18. Quote from Daily mirror wed Dec 27 2006

    All this happens because we do not have a proper Sinhala character allocation table with proper Sinhala Dic . I have been telling this for years. All falls on the deaf ears because of a Dino.

    The SLSI 1134 is incorrect and incomplete

    Donald Gaminitillake

    http://www.dailymirror.lk/2006/12/27/front/6.asp

    Major errors in text books

    By Kelum Bandara

    A number of errors have been detected in the Grade 10 textbook in the Sinhala Language and Literature printed for the new academic year.

    Three such errors have been detected in the ‘National Anthem’ and 37 in the first chapter of the book.

    Sri Lanka United Teachers’ Association President Ven. Yalwela Pannasekara Thera said there were 64 mistakes in the seventh chapter, and therefore they brought the matter to the notice of Education Minister Susil Premajayantha.

    Presently, school textbooks are compiled by private publishers.

    Educational Publications Commissioner N. Dharmasena said there had been such mistakes detected in other textbooks as well.

    Mr. Dharmasena said he would appoint an expert panel to scrutinize such errors and correct them immediately.

    “As a policy decision, we have now decided to take over compiling textbooks to the Ministry leaving out private publishers from the process. Then, we can avoid such problems in the future,” he said.

  19. Errors in books happen for different reasons. Ignorance or carelessness of the authours, ignorance or carelessness of the editors, type setters, proof readers, layout artists or anybody who come in the production process, pure technical errors or typos etc.

    Either only an extremely stupid person or somebody who tries to exploit the situation to his benefit can claim all these errors took place because of the lack of so called “Character Allocation table”

  20. Hey Maama you are just giving reasons of no value.
    Whole process is depending on a incorrect system and a standard.
    If we had a proper sinhala electronic dic and sinhala text data compatible across all platforms using a correct code points for all sinhala characters 90% of the errors could be avoided.

    We have to correct the Sinhala :
    the first step of this is a correct allocation table for all Sinhala characters followed by defining other issues of proof reading standard. Sri Lanka yet to define the proof reading ISO.

    People should work with some responsibility not quibbling like the “Maama”

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  21. Hey Maama why should the Government pay money for “Ignorance or carelessness” people.
    Re print the books without any errors at the cost of “Ignorance or carelessness” people.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  22. Donald,

    [quote] Hey Maama why should the Government pay money for “Ignorance or carelessness” people. [unquote]

    You ask from the government. Why ask from me?

  23. Because you protect the “Ignorance or carelessness” people
    You are incapable of giving a solution for the students who will be thought wrong sinhala.

    I have given the solution and only I have the solution not you or DINO

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  24. Donald,

    Did you come from Angoda? Who protect the ignorance and carelessness of authours. In fact it was I who pointed out that in first place…

    You might need to visit a psychiatrist soon…

    If you have a solituion why do you waste your time like a typical unemployed?

  25. Why you avoid facing the problem and bring forward an answer like what I have done?
    I will be taking this issue with the proper people
    You should join hands to save the language sinhala we got to educate the young with correct sinhala using correct Sinhala text

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  26. Interesting article in LBO
    Hope they will do for Sinhala too

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

    http://lankabusinessonline.com/fullstory.php?newsID=1501389129&no_view=1&SEARCH_TERM=10

    Tech Unsavvy
    03 January 2007 15:37:56
    By Gayan Ratnayake

    Survey shows majority of Sri Lanka’s teachers lack computer literacy

    Jan 03, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s ministry of education says more than 60 percent of the teachers in Sri Lanka lack computer and English literacy skills that are needed in a modern teaching environment.

    The Ministry of Education says a new government survey shows that only a third of the teachers or (32.5 percent) in Sri Lanka are computer literate.

    “We hope to establish 35 centers that will teach ICT and English literacy to teachers,” Education Minister Susil Premajayantha said.

    “We have ten teaching centers already.”

    The preliminary report of the Census on Computer Literacy of Teachers conducted among, government schools approved private schools and Pirivenas shows that Sri Lanka’s computer literacy among teachers varying within 30 to 40 percent across districts.

    Ministry of Education says 2006 census says slightly more than half the teachers in schools and pirivenas at national level have computer ‘awareness’, which is the knowledge to use at least one computer for one purpose.

    Ministry officials say literacy in English is also a factor contributing to teachers’ literacy in ICT where only 53.7 percent of teachers in schools and Pirivenas or temple based schools have the ability to read and understand documents written in English.

    Of the 200,000 teachers, 28 percent are graduates, but they are not computer literate.

    “ICT and English literacy subjects have been introduced as compulsory subjects in science faculties to increase the (ICT and English) literacy of degree holders,” Minister says.

    “Around 45,000 teachers have completed training in ICT courses,” the Minster said at a press briefing.

    From the facilities related to ICT, only 76 percent of schools and Pirivenas have electricity, 26.2 percent have telecommunication facilities and less than ten percent have internet facilities.

    The ministry has already given 100 computer laboratories that run on solar energy to schools without electricity, and 500 are scheduled to be built in 2007.

    Out of nearly 9,000 schools and Pirivenas in the census, only 17 percent had computer laboratories.

    Sri Lanka has nearly four million students studying in 9,727 government schools and the students to teacher ratio stand at 18 to one.

    Students to computer ratio stand around 137 to one, while the teacher to computer ratio stands at 7 to one, but students to computer-literate-teacher ratio is around 56 to one, which is three times higher than the student to teacher ratio.

  27. I wrote to the president of Sri Lanka Printers association regarding the errors in Sinhala text books
    I received the following reply and posting it for your perusal
    Donald

    Dear Mr.Donald,
    Thank you for your mail and the interest shown in the School book printing.

    Major errors in text books are one of the few complications involve in the text book printing scenario.

    The SLAP started addressing this issue six years back when the World Bank introduced the multiple book option for the Education Ministry of Sri Lanka. The terms and conditions being, the World Bank will sponsor the value added expenditure segment of the books provided that the Printing of School books will be offered to the World Market. A representative from World Bank explain the project to the executive committee of SLAP during the presidency of Mr.Ashoka Jayasinghe.

    The Ex-co of the SLAP immediately recognized the dangerous of the said project and objected for opening the Tender Internationally. We manage to stop the international tender but the multiple book option went ahead.

    What you have written now are the consequences of a stubborn decision by the officials of the dept. of Education six years back.

    The reasons you have pointed out for the errors in Sinhala text is true. The Association would be very happy to welcome your suggestions and to assist you to achieve these three points.

    The multiple book option does not leave room only for major errors, but also an unhealthy competition among the Principles of Schools, leaving room for many corruptions.

    The good news is that the present authority of the Ministry of Education have abandon this multiple choice project. As a result it will be only one panel of Editors concentrating on one book which will result in much better text quality.

    The burning issues are not only the corrections, but also the unfair distribution process to the Government printing authorities and insufficient time granted for the Printers. The SLAP is in the process of addressing the above issues.

    A meeting with the commissioner of the Education Publications Dept. is already scheduled for next week.

    Shall brief you and being touch with you in this regard.

    Thank you once again for the interest shown in book printing.

    Thanking you,

    Yours truly,
    Kosala Tillakeratne
    President

  28. Donald,

    Did u seek this gentleman’s permission before publishing his answer?

  29. Contents of the letter are for the betterment of the public.
    We got to educate the children in Lanka using correct Sinhala text books.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  30. The points I forwarded to the President of the Sri Lanka Printers Association were

    1. We do not process across all platform Sinala text data. Text data created by one application is not readable in the second application.
    2. There are no e- dictionaries, OCR, e- Thesaurus, e- encyclopedias for Sinhala Language across all platforms.
    3. There is no standard for error corrections among typesetters, proof readers, layout artists and anybody who come in the production process.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  31. Interesting article in Daily News 8/1/2007

    Donald Gaminitillake

    Computer literacy of teachers

    Dr. Amara SATHARASINGHE, Deputy Director – Department of Census and Statistics

    IT: Computers offer exciting approaches to teaching that were not even dreamed of twenty years ago, but the extent to which the educational potential of computer technology will be realised remains to be seen. Use of computers can revolutionise teaching and learning and could bring advances that would improve education dramatically.

    Ordinary students would make massive gains and bright students could meet greater challenges. Wherever illiteracy is a problem, it would be eliminated and handicapped students would have vast new vistas opened to them.

    Teacher attitudes towards computer technology may be a significant factor in the use of computers in education. Computer literate individuals will reap greater benefits than their counterparts who lack that knowledge. To promote computer literacy of both teachers and students, the Government is investing considerably.

    To evaluate the impact of these investments and thereby help ensure that the intended results are achieved, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) literacy of students and teachers should be measured periodically.

    The Department of Census and Statistics and the Education Ministry conducted a census on Computer Literacy of Academic Staff of Government Schools, Approved Private Schools and Privenas to find out the computer literacy levels of teachers and ICT related facilities and hardware available in schools. This census was conducted on Nov. 2, 2006.

    This Census was conducted under the Census Ordinance of the Department of Census and Statistics. Under this Ordinance, respondents are required to provide accurate information requested by the Department. Department is bound not to divulge any information at individual level. Only statistics at aggregate levels will be published.

    Therefore, teachers were requested to report their perceptions of their competencies and teachers were assured that information provided by them would not be divulged with identification information of individuals.

    This Census was conducted countrywide. For three districts in the conflict-affected areas Jaffna, Mannar, and Killinochchi, completed census schedules are yet to be received. Of 9124 schools in other districts, 8388 returned the completed schedules. This is a very high response rate of 92 per cent.

    However, the response rate for Mullaitive (48%) and Vavuniya (38%) are low and therefore results for these districts should be used cautiously.

    In addition to the government schools, there are 652 pirivenas in the country. Completed schedules were received for 77 percent of them. The total number of approved private schools in the country is 79. The response rate for approved private schools is 80 percent.

    Complete data covering all district and all categories of schools will be included in the final report. The preliminary findings of this Census have been released desegregated by district, category of school (National schools, Navodya schools, Other government schools, Approved Private schools and Pirivenas) and number of students (100 or below, 100 – 300, 300 – 930, 930 or more)

    To use the ICT in teaching and learning process there are some basic ICT related facilities that need to be available in schools. Electricity is one such facility. The level of availability of electricity is very impressive. About three fourth of schools/pirivenas have this facility.

    The institutions best served are the National schools (99.4%), Navodya schools (97.9%), Privenas (98.4%) and approved private schools (96.8%). In contrast, just over 70% of other government schools have electricity available to them.

    Schools with smaller number of students are less likely to have electricity. Only half the schools with 100 or less students have electricity, while 99% of schools with more than 930 students have this facility.

    The linkage of telecommunication and computes is behind the rapid developments in the field of ICT. To obtain information using Internent, schools should have a telephone connection. Availability of a land phone is at low level and only 26 percent of school/pirivenas have land phones.

    Schools best connected to land lines are national schools (95%) and approved private schools (94%). This is followed by privenas (90%) and Navodya schools (67%).

    In contrast, only 16% of other government schools have a land-line connection available to them. Only 15 percent of schools with 100 students or less have a telephone facility while 85.8 precent of schools/pirivenas having 930 or more students have this facility.

    Internet facility and e-mail facility are available in very small proportions of 6.4 and 4.1 percent of schools respectively. Highest availability of nearly 50% is in national schools and equally in private schools.

    Among the other government schools numbering 7639 enumerated, only 3% have Internet available to them. Internet is also more available in larger schools and almost not available in the small schools with less than 100 students.

    Having a computer laboratory, a library and books/magazines on ICT is useful to encourage students and teachers to use ICT in teaching and learning processes.

    Although 72 percent of schools/pirivenas have a library, only 17 percent of schools have a computer laboratory. Books/magazines on ICT are available only in 27 percent of schools.

    Availability of hardware in schools/pirivenas was also assessed in this Census. Most of the facilities and hardware are more available in national and Navodya schools and to a similar extent in private schools.

    Other government schools, which are also, the small student size schools are the least well equipped with ICT facilities and hardware.

    Computer is a key factor in using ICT in schools. Nearly 30 percent school/pirivenas have computers and about 26 percent of schools have computer printers in working conditions. The penetration of computers varies by category and size of schools.

    National (95.2%) and Navodya (90.1%) schools are better equipped with computers compared to other government schools (23.9%). Availability of desktop computers compared to other government schools (23.9%). Availability of desktop computers in Private schools (84.1%) is also considerably high. Only 17.0 percent pirivenas reported to have computers.

    Larger schools are better equipped with computers than smaller ones. The percentage of schools with 930 students or more having computers is 88.5 percent.

    Availability of computers in schools with less than 100 students, 100 – 300 students, and 300 – 930 students are 6.5, 17.7 and 46.5 percent respectively.

    A widely used indicator on the infusion of computers to education system is students computer ratio. That is the number of students per computer. This ratio for schools/pirivenas now stands at 137. Teacher-computer ratio is 7.

    Scanners and multimedia projectors are very useful but expensive hardware in using ICT for education to all students in schools across the country. For example teaching about pests in biology for GCE (A/L) students can be done in two ways.

    One way is to use textbook where pictures of pests in black and white are given with several paragraphs written describing them. Here there is a risk of different students understanding these features differently.

    The other method is to find colour pictures/video clips of pests from a book or by searching in the Internet and displaying it on a large screen using a multimedia projector. If this method or similar alternative method was used, the knowledge can be imparted more effectively.

    This method requires that schools have scanners and multimedia projectors. Percentages of schools with scanners and multimedia projectors are 5.8 and 2.3 percent respectively. Only 0.5 percent of schools have laptop computers.

    Three self-reported indicators on teacher’s langauge and computer literacy were assessed. Those were computer awareness, computer literacy and English language literacy.

    Nearly 60 of the teachers of schools/pirivenas have the computer awareness, which was defined as knowing about at least one use of computers. This ratio for male teachers and female teachers are 63 and 58 percent respectively.

    According to study conducted in 2004 by the Department of Census and Statistics, a much lower proportion of only 18 percent of people in Sri Lanka in the age group of 5 – 69 years, were aware about computers.

    There could be a number of reasons for the difference in these estimates. One is the age group. The very young and the more elderly are less likely to be computer aware.

    Secondly, teachers are among the more educated population and more likely to have access to technology.

    On the average, about 28 percent of teachers in government schools are graduate teachers. The percentage of trained teachers is 68 percent. Their chances of exposure to computers during training and studies are likely to be high.

    Self-reported computer literacy of teachers, which was defined as the ability to use a computer and do some work on their own, of schools/piriveans is 32 percent: male teachers 39 percent and female teachers 30 percent.

    Development of technological knowledge of teachers is very important in using ICT for making revolutions in the learning and teaching process in classrooms. Students-computer literate teacher ratio is 56 and this is three times higher than the normal students-teacher ratio 18.

    Percentage of teachers in schools/pirivenas who reported that they could read and understand documents written in English langauge is 54 percent: male teachers 56 percent, female teachers 53 percent.

    A statistical test carried out on relationship between English langauge literacy, computer awareness and computer literacy shows that there is no significant relationship between English langauge literacy and computer awareness but there is a significant positive relationship between computer literacy and English langauge literacy.

    Also as expected there is a strong relationship between computer awareness and computer literacy. Another statistical test carried out at district level revealed that there is no statistically significant relationship between computer literacy of teachers and availability of computers in schools.

    This is a cause for concern. Having computers in schools alone do not improve the computer literacy of teachers.

    Traditional teaching using blackboards and textbooks perhaps is the dominant mode of teaching still and teachers have little or no time to use whatever available ICT facilities to enhance their own skills or to teach. This points to the need for policies and action to promote the use of ICT facilities by teachers.

    It is a worldwide-accepted fact that the use of ICT in education can bring about positive changes to the society, which requires infrastructure facilities such as electricity, telephone, educational software, Internet facilities and hardware such as computers, scanners, and multimedia projectors.

    The levels of educational indicators such as enrolment rate, gender parity in education, primary education completion rate etc is very impressive in Sri Lanka.

    But issues, such as poverty, unemployment etc are still persistent. This emphasizes the need to improve quality of education and providing equal education for all students across the country. ICT is influential in providing equal education for all students.

    Even though all schools do not have required facilities, innovative thinking can bring solutions until the necessary facilities are provided.

    For example, without expecting teachers of rural schools to develop educational materials, standard materials can be prepared with very user-friendly multimedia tools and copies burnt into compact disks can be distributed to all relevant schools.

    This will promote providing equal education for all students. Covering these aspects, there is a need to prepare a ICT policy for the Education system of the country to obtain the maximum benefits of the rapid developments in ICT for teaching and learning process in the class rooms.

  32. Lakbima 7/1/2007 – Why Writers in Sinhala Language do not use a Computer? (written in Sinhala)

    This article is uploaded into

    http://www.akuru.org/images/lakbima-Jan-7-2007 2.jpg

    Again and again I prove my point. SlSI 1134 and Sinhala Unicode is incorrect and incomplete

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  33. 32 correction

    http://www.akuru.org/newspaper.htm

    and click

    Lakbima 7/1/2007 – Why Writers in Sinhala Language do not use a Computer?

    Donald

  34. Admin,

    Can you enable the users to upload a related image to this discussion? Rather than pointing to some other sites, it would be great if you could enable us to upload images (you can define resolution, size, etc.) to this site itself. May be you can have a thumbnail and the interested visitor can click on the thumbnail and access the image. We can prove more points related to this topic, by giving us the opportunity to upload images. Not everyone has the luxury of having a dedicated site like Donald has for this purpose.

  35. Sinhala Drop Caps

    One can use only individual characters with single code point like “KA” or “GA” as a drop caps
    Not combine characters “Ni” or “Ki”

    Again a point to prove SLSI 1134 and Sinhala unicode is incorrect and incomplete.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  36. Response to Image Uploading:

    As you can see, it takes us several days even to respond. We do not have the resources to do what you request. We are a research organization and maintaining this blog is a low priority for us. Sorry.

    If you can use what is here for your purposes, you are welcome. Otherwise, the discussion should be moved elsewhere.

  37. Image Uploading,

    What you can do is you can upload images in Flickr and videos in You Tube and then provide the URL to those sites if you want to prove a point.

  38. Read todays Daily News (Jan 27 2007) page 25 an Invitation for Bids for a government department.

    Items under — office equipment

    10 units of English Typewriters (Manual)
    390 units of Sinhala Typewriters (Manual)
    5 units of Tamil Typewriters (Manual)

    Even an old Pentium with a printer would do a better job than a manual typewriter

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  39. Last night I met “”I”” a British National planing many Strategies to Blue Chip companies in SriLanka. He was talking big saying he has planed to do direct sales in Sinhala sending personalized Sinhala e-mails etc etc

    I told him it is not possible to do that task in Sinhala as Sinhala unicode is incomplete.

    Ian called his IT guy and found the truth. “IT” guy told him that he is sending JPEG images in Sinhala not Sinhala TEXT.

    This fact disturbed “”I”” and he is going to take this issue soon with the top people.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  40. Sometimes back some were boasting about Windows Vista OS and Sinhala

    http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/editions/systemrequirements.mspx

    Visit Microsoft system requirements

    Basic (minimum)

    * 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
    * 512 MB of system memory
    * 20 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space
    * Support for DirectX 9 graphics and 32 MB of graphics memory
    * DVD-ROM drive
    * Audio Output
    * Internet access (fees may apply)

    or ‘

    * 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
    * 1 GB of system memory
    * 40 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space
    * Support for DirectX 9 graphics with:
    o WDDM Driver
    o 128 MB of graphics memory (minimum)
    o Pixel Shader 2.0 in hardware
    o 32 bits per pixel
    * DVD-ROM drive
    * Audio Output
    * Internet access (fees may apply)

    Additional Requirements

    Actual requirements and product functionality may vary based on your system configuration. Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor can help you determine which features and edition of Windows Vista will run on your computer.

    What were the configs of the computers distributed to Nanasala’s and Schools around Lanka!!!

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  41. Filing Objections for re-appointment of Chairman ICTA – or extending the contract

    I object due to the following reasons and facts.

    1 Age of the Chairman (over Seventy years)
    2 Natural diseases due to old age need healthcare

    Apart from the above personal facts his overall performance in the past twenty five years is questionable. Today we are unable to use Sinhala and Tamil languages in a computer correctly and efficiently. He was in charge of this language issue for the past quarter century. He registered an incorrect set of Sinhala characters in the SLSI and Unicode Consortium. For Tamil Language nothing has been done. The grievances of people to use the two national languages have not been addressed. There was lots of grants and aid for this development but it has not been used on a correct path due to old age ignorance of the subject.

    A number of errors have been detected in the text books in Sinhala Language and Literature printed for the academic year 2007. According to the Educational Publication Commissioner Mr. N. Dharmasena there had been such mistakes detected in other textbooks as well. Apart from these errors there is a strong communication gap between rural and urban sectors.

    The reasons are as follows:
    • There is no compatibility of Sinhala text data across all platforms. Text data created by one application is not readable in the second application.
    • There are no e- dictionaries, OCR (Optical Character Recognition), e- Thesaurus, e- encyclopedia for Sinhala Language across all platforms.
    • There is no standard for error corrections among typesetters, proofreaders, layout artists and anybody who come in the production process.

    I am the only other person who has given a solution for Sinhala and Tamil. Published all my work in the web http://www.akuru.org. I am the only individual who placed objections to the SLSI. I have applied for patents for the solution. Patent is blocked by the authorities due to the pressure from this Chairman. My Domain word “akuru.lk” has been taken by the ICTA which is a very unethical act. The CEO of ICTA has not been appointed yet. I have applied for this post.

    As his replacement you can select a person form the Public Enterprises Reform Commission. There are many professionals registered with the PERC. Public Enterprises Reform Commission chairman will be able to assist you to choose a suitable person. I am too registered with this institution and had done consultation work for PERC.

    For the betterment of this country please do not re-appoint this chairman.

    Yours truly

    Donald Gaminitillake

  42. Api bayawei oya liyum valata.

  43. I posted the letter to Mr Lalith Weeratunge and Mr P B Jayasundara.
    They will be reading the contents.
    Let them decide what to do.

    I have made my voice.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  44. With the change of Ministries I wanted to get some news from the

    http://www.gov.lk/index.asp

    The contents are too old

    Last update supposed to be
    Government of Sri Lanka Official Web Portal
    Best Viewed at 1024 X 768
    Site Last Updated
    Tuesday, September 12, 2006 1:31:51 PM

    Almost five months old.

    Can anyone in the ICTA give an answer for this type of work.

    If you are unable to maintain even in English just close the site!!!!! Forget about ICT !!!
    Please do not waste the public funds.

    Chairman of ICTA will have to quit unconditionally.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  45. Mokada oya Laith Weeratungata kiyala mage valige kapannada?

    Balamu kavuda dinanne kiyala.

    I am Sam
    Sam I am.

  46. Better stay on the job
    Then I can make you to hold responsibility.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  47. Dear Mr. Donald Gaminithilake,
    Thanks for pointing out about not updating the ministry page in http://www.gov.lk and also writing to Mr. Lalith Weerathunga on the same. This list is updated only when new ministries are created or deleted. We have been updating the list until the last reshuffle but the site has a bug and not showing the last update date correctly. (We will fix that too). However there was a delay in updating after the cross over. The main reason for the delay was that we had to wait for the Gazzette which was published only yesterday. Now the Ministry list is updated in all 3 languages but no contact info for most of the ministries and you know why.
    Thanks for your interest in http://www.gov.lk

    Wasantha

  48. Donald Gaminitillake

    Dear Wasantha

    The Ministers was Gazzetted a week ago. Yesterday was the Gazzette notification on what comes under each ministry.

    A good excuse of a “BUG”

    I did not go through the whole list. But we do have more than 57 Ministries.

    I checked just one. It is wrong

    MINISTRY OF PORTS AND AVIATION – The Minister supposed to be Hon Mangala
    and Ministry of Ports Development is – Hon Sripathi

    Sorry I cannot check the Sinhala and Tamil as ICTA have not solved the Language problem compatibility across all platforms.

    You need professionals to handle the gov.lk.

    Thanks for the reply.

    Donald Gaminitillake

  49. Donald Gaminitillake

    Dear Dear Wasantha

    Again you are wrong

    Please visit

    http://www.priu.gov.lk/Govt_Ministers/Indexministers.html

    This list contradicts ICTA one

    Sometimes back I pointed this issue is PRIU.gov.lk and gov.lk

    Now we see the clear difference between the two.

    Also this prove the weakness of the Chairman of ICTA.

    The time is ripe for you all to pack up

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  50. Donald Gaminitillake

    Dear Rasaputra

    Sometime ago you were talking that you are coming to ICTA
    Now you are the big guy at the aviation
    Congratulations!!

    Have you dropped the idea of coming to Colombo!!! Else better move the ICTA to Katunayake!!!

    Donald Gaminitillake

  51. Donald,

    Are you kidding???? Rasa did come to ICTA but I chased him away. Read yesterday’s Sunday Times. He looks a smart guy and I only want a henchman here to work according to my rule. I will rule ICTA for another million years.

  52. Dear Dino Fans,

    Is it true that Dino’s current contract ends next month? The man must be working extra hard to get it extended, on same or better terms.

    How did the dinosaurs become extinct? Some say a meteorite impact finished them off. Other theories include a virus that spread around, killing them one by one. Unfortunately, one nasty specimen has survived…

    No amount of ranting on this blog is going to rid ICTA and this country of the Dino curse. It will require some concerted action. For a start, the ICT industry people, independent academics and officials need to get rid of their mortal fear of this old dino, who is long past his expiry date. If enough people stand up to this big bad bully, he will soon be deflated to his real size. He can then go back to pottering around his university. We don’t care what we does there, do we? After all, he is emeritus, so they will be saddled with him till he, well, degenerates…

    Meanwhile, where is a good virus when you need one? And what are the mosquitoes of Etul Kotte doing?

  53. Mosquitoes of Etul Kotte

    We, poor mosquitoes of Etul Kotte have found that the Dinos skin is 6 inches think and it is very difficult to penetrate through. We don’t believe that a meteorite will devastate Etul Kotte as there are innocent people there. Only thing we can expect is a huge thunder with lightening when it does not rain on the Dino’s dirty old head. He won’t survive that. He survived all the missiles sent by Donald and only a natural disaster can finish him off. Still his ghost will haunt ICTA, all IT related workshops, etc. like the slain King in Macbeth did searching for his chair.

  54. Guys,

    It does not matter how think Dino’s skin is. This is all a simple question of survival.

    If he go out of ICTA today who will pay the tuition fees of his son in USA? How can a poor retired academic with no other income source afford that? Just think.

    So whether he likes it or not, Dino have to survive his position by hook or crook. He does all sort of dirty things for that, like axing people and awarding tenders under the table.

    Therefore Donald, if you want him to go, better find him some other job where he can earn $ 3k per month without doing anything. Otherwise how dare you expect him to continue to keep his son in USA?

    Till that whatever you do, Dino will not leave ICTA. Even if you hit him and pull him to the Narahenpita kunu ela he will come back crawling.

  55. Aren’t these the two audit firms hired by ICTA for its all audits to evaluate projects and issue grants?

    FINANCIAL TIMES http://www.dailymirror.lk/2007/02/13/ft/03.asp

    Letter

    PWC and Ernst & Young should be more ethical

    The Sunday FT highlighted that the ICA ethics committee is still to release their report on the alleged professional misconduct of these two firms. Obviously the partners of these two firms are involved in the ICA and they would do what ever is needed to stall the investigation. We also know that Ernst & Young used an incorrect valuation method to value the Sale price for Sri Lanka Insurance.

    COPE has highlighted this in their reports to Parliament. Ernst & Young should therefore be sued by the government of Sri Lanka for professional negligence and for the loss caused to the Treasury. The Partners of these audit firms talk so much about good governance but they have no clue about what professional responsibility is all about.

    For the benefit of the Partners of PWC and Ernst & Young I like to tell them that the ethics and the social responsibilities of a professional impose on them an Obligation to practice his/her profession so as to be of service to the community. Audit firms in this country enjoy a fair degree of autonomy in defining its professional standards, values and responsibilities. Since the profession has failed to exercise their powers of self—regulation, the state should introduce regulation to protect the unsuspecting public who use their services and use their audited financial statements to make investment decisions. Therefore at least in the future professional conduct should be regulated by law in this country in the absence of self—regulation. Some of our top audit firms are known to show scant respect for professional values. Very often you find that audit firms like PWC and Ernst & Young while they do the statutory audit. Their associates do recruitment, restructuring, Salary Surveys and IT Audits for the same company. How can they be truly independent when do they are dependent on the same company for other fees and income? This is a gross violation of professional ethics and conduct. This conduct is totally frowned upon in the West. Moreover it is a slur on their International Principals. The Ministry of Trade must formulate a set of rules to prevent such abuse and misconduct and also regulate the affairs of the Institute of Chartered Accountants to prevent powerful audit firms from hijacking the institute for the firm’s benefit. In addition the International Federation of Accountants should investigate the affairs of such firms to protect the public interest and also ensure that the Accountancy profession adhere to high quality professional standards.

    C.M Fernando
    – Colombo 3

  56. Chandima Rasaputra is back in the airport and air services company????? Does this mean that he is not the CEO of ICTA anymore. There were stories on the air that he became the CEO of ICTA. Over to you Wasantha Desapriya, the only one who answers from ICTA.

    Tiran thrown out of the Airport

    (LeN-2007Feb12, 7.00pm) Tiran Allas who was the chairman of the airport and air services company that came under the purview of Mangala Samaraweera has been removed from his post. The deputy chairman of the company Chandima Rasaputhra has been appointed to replace Tiran.

    Allas was criticized during the last Executive Committee meeting of the SLFP while Central Party members of the party also asked the head of state to strip Tiran from his posts. Tiran who is also a businessman has a good majority of shares of the “Maubima” news paper.

    However he is one of those businessmen who spent large sums for President Rajapakse’s presidential campaign. It should also be mentioned that Tiran is a close ally of Former Minister Mangala Samaraweera.

  57. The CEO pf ICTA was advertised in News paper last year. Even I sent in my application.

    Up to (today) 13 /02/2007 ICTA never appointed a CEO but an acting CEO was selected from the staff.

    Mr R was never a CEO of ICTA but may be an individual who applied for the post.
    To my knowledge Mr R was working with the in Aviation right through within the period of this bolg.

    Donald Gaminitillake

  58. My dear Donald putha,

    Why are you so jealous with me? Why do you want me out from the post of ICTA Chairman? What wrong I have done you?

    Putha, I am like your father. Please do not do any harm to this old man in his old age. I do nothing wrong to everybody. The salary I get from ICTA is given for charity along with any commissions I get from Samsung.

    I will pass your patent. Please meet me sometime to discuss. But please do not send any mails to anyone requesting them not to extend my contract.

    How can this poor old man survive if he does not have a job? He has to beg in the street. Do you want that to happen?

    Thanks you putha. I know you are a good boy.

    Yours faithfully,
    Samara-naakiya

  59. I have only one issue
    -Sinhala character allocation table –
    Accept that the present SLSI and Sinhala unicode is incorrect and incomplete
    Get back to the SLSI 1134 objection level. All documented.
    or amend the SLSI as per objections
    Then We can correct it
    Give me a call and meet me.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  60. Dear Editor of Learn Asia
    As a user of this website, I would like to state that Mr.Donald Gaminitillake’s posts on your sites are defomatry and damages goodwill of institutions, thereby creates a possible legal obligation for learnasia to be an accessory to his intentions to attack personalties using public internet resources,

    I also request you to ban him from this site

    No name – Just Reading Learn Asia Crap

  61. Dear No-name,

    This is a blog. It has no moderator, let alone an editor.

    We do not moderate comments, except obvious spam that is missed by the filters. We reserve the right to delete posts that are obviously false, misleading etc., but have never done so except on one occasion when someone falsely announced a public hearing.

    If you don’t like what Mr G posts, don’t read them. If you disagree with him, engage with him. Leave us out of it.

    If you are reading crap, you should stop. No one is forcing you.

  62. I agree with Mr No Name. If Prof Samaranayake has done something wrong with public funds, he can well be taken into courts. There are hundreds of lawyers and law firms who will appear for such a case even at no cost since these law firms funded by NGOs to appear for public who has no money to pay. Mr Gaminitillake doesnt sound that poor in his postings. Still he can contact one of these law firms and make a strong case rather than asting his time and that of the visitors to the blog. Mr G’s only intention is to defame an icon like Prof VK Samaranaike who has done a yeoman service to University of Colombo, ICTA and nation for a long period of time whereas Donald is only parachuted into the field of ICT and behave like a Master Blaster. His intention is only to bring socially accepted figures down. This is something which an infamous group called “X – Group” did to prominent figures like Prof Nalin de Silva, some respected Marxists leaders and they didn’t even spare sports figures such as Sanath Jayasuriya, Hashan T and Arjuna R who bought a wealth of fame to the country.

    But what Mr G has done for the country rather than ranting? If he has a strong case, why is he scared of the courts? He has evidence in his hands according to him even to ask for an enjoining order to prevent Prof Samaranike from serving the country as the Chairman of ICTA. He also can take the SLS Institute to the courts and prevent them from continuing in the capacity of officers as they are accepting wrong concepts and approving them as Standards

    So, Mr G, all courts are open. You can go ahead and file a case against these prominent figures and see what happens. You will have to even pay back legal fees of Prof Samranaike and SLSI if you meet them in a court of law. This is why you are scared of law. You want to seek cheap fame on slandering on someone else’s hard work and come to the limelight. This is your hobby. You have been doing this stupid thing for the last year but you only wasted your time and our time.

    Prof Samaranayake faced all your allegations like a lion and he will defy till he dies. You will become a big joke for the whole country. You have started writing to all decision makers it seems according to your posts. Don’t stop. Write to the General Secretary of UNO as well. Don’t spare George Bush, Condolisa Rice and Hilary Clinton and Mr Obama too. Write to them as well and harp on your stupid solution. You will get the whistles from the gallery of the ICT field but never any nodding or acceptance from the respected figures in the ICT field or the Government. They must have filtered your mails to junk by now. If you start snail mailing them, they will send the mails directly to the dust bin. You have become a pain in the ass for the whole ICT world.

    If you have proof, meet Prof in a Court of Law. Take SLSI to the court as well. Take ICTA as well. But wait till someone is chosen to the post of CEO. Don’t worry any sensible person will not waste time even to read your CV as the CEO post will not go to the stupidest person that lived on this planet called Earth ever since the God created it. You will go down in the history with the most nonsensical ever person to be born on the planet.

    You will never win. Stop all these stupid postings now.

    Helaya

  63. Now all of a sudden court cases!!!!

    There are no laws to settle even a simple domain conflict “AKURU” in Sri Lanka.
    Before the case is over all of us will move to a different planet

    I will always stand by the fact that the present SLSI 1134 and Sinhala Unicode is incorrect.
    It has been proved beyond reasonable doubt

    Also nice to Mr Manju’s photograph in the ICTA website as a member — board of directors!!!

    Is this the correct story!!!

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  64. Donald,

    Feel very sorry for you. This must be the Last Nail on Donald’s Coffin!!!!! Read carefully.

    FINANCIAL TIMES

    http://www.dailymirror.lk/2007/02/16/ft/10.asp

    Microsoft Windows Vista launched in Colombo

    Sinhala software included in the latest products of Microsoft

    Much pomp and ceremony ushered in the launch of Microsoft’s launch of the decade, Windows Vista, expected to touch 200 million people within the next 12 months showcasing its latest products: 2007 Office System, Windows Vista and Exchange Server 2007 which will give the customer to experience a whole new world of technology in Sri Lanka.

    Microsoft Sri Lanka Country Manager Siryan de Silva Wijeratne who addressed the launch said Sri Lanka would join in billions of customers around the world in using these innovative products. “History is being made by Microsoft after just two and a half years of operations in Sri Lanka with these innovative products,” Wijeratne said promising that these products would influence the future.

    He stressed the need for shaping Sri Lanka to adopt latest technology stating that it will give the opportunity to compete with other reasons in the region. “Sri Lanka has a lot to do in adopting new technology and the objective of Microsoft is to take Sri Lanka to greater heights in IT technology,” he pointed out.

    While stating that Sinhalese has been included in software he said the local language has become usable in applications for the very first time in the history and it was highlighted that the new products will be marketed in the rural areas.

    “There is no reason why the rural folk cannot have access to these products with Sinhalese being a language used in the applications and we plan to market it among them,” Wijeratne said.

    The main features of Windows Vista include easy transfer, parental control which helps parents to ensure that children using PCs are safer online. It is the ideal edition for people who use PCs at home or on the go. Finding information, staying connected and interaction with the computer is easier in this application.

    Microsoft Office 2007 comes with office e mail, office excel and word 2007. The email gives instant search of information, easy management of information and connects people easily.

    Excel 2007 gives the opportunity to import, organize and explore massive data, gives professional looking charts with fewer clicks and 3D soft shadowing. Improved and powerful support for working with tables Word 2007 includes blinding blocks which will help to assemble documents and 3D graphics.

  65. Vista great!!!

    What would be the minimum Hardware config to use Vista?

    Are those computers given to Nanasala and rural areas can install Vista?

    The question for you guys to answer is A Sinhala Text document done on Visa OS should be read by any application across all platforms. If you cannot produce that nail your own coffin.

    You need not promote the excel 2007 etc These are known to everyone

    Make use of Visa and try to sell more computers in SriLanka. More $$$$ for Dino!!!!

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  66. Visit

    http://www.icta.lk/insidepages/ICTA/BOFD.asp

    See Mr Manju is still on Board of ICTA. Today is Feb 15 2007!!!!

    Donald Gaminitillake

  67. Yet another nail in Donald’s coffin.

    MicroImage shortlisted for their local language content in Mobile phones along with Dialog.

    Microimage gets major recognition at GSM Global Awards http://www.dailymirror.lk/2007/02/16/ft/09.asp

    Barcelona, Spain, 15th February 2007 –

    Sri Lanka’s innovative software developer Microimage became a finalist and received commendation from the GSM Association at the GSM global mobile awards in Barcelona, Spain.

    Microimage who won the GSMA Asia mobile innovation award last year got short listed to this prestigious global award together with another 5 entries from USA and France. Microimage was the only company from an emerging market to get short listed for the innovation forum and the awards. The company presented its innovative products for emerging market localization at the GSM mobile innovation forum at the 3GSM congress in front of a mammoth audience filled with mobile operators, venture capitalist, technology partners and other industry giants. This event was sponsored by Ericsson. At the innovation forum, judges selected Microimage as one of the three finalists to be present at the gala awards night which took place at the National Palace in Barcelona, Spain.

    Microimage received commendation from the judges at this prestigious award ceremony which is referred to as the “Mobile Oscars”. The CEO of GSM Association Rob Conway said “The 2007 Awards attracted the greatest number of entries in the 12 year history of the competition, and to be recognized for excellence at this level is an achievement of which you can be justifiably proud. My congratulations on behalf of the GSMA – we wish you every continued success.”

    Microimage was the only company to showcase innovations for emerging markets at the innovation forum. Harsha Purasinghe CEO, of Microimage who represented the event as a speaker said “It was one of the greatest moments for the entire ICT industry of Sri Lanka as we put Sri Lanka in the GSM innovation map”.

    “It was an excellent opportunity to present what young companies from emerging markets can do in terms of innovation in this space competing with global players who are backed by many top level venture capitalists and business partners” he further stated.

    Damindu Jayaweera, Head of Strategy at Microimage said “The biggest win was to be recognized alongside other highly visible mobile revolutionaries, which essentially paves the way for Sri Lankan innovations to be taken beyond our own borders. Taking the next billion people on board the mobile revolution is the hot topic for this year’s 3GSM congress. We are glad that innovations for that next wave should come from the emerging market itself.” This recognition at a global event has put Sri Lanka on the map as a centre of ICT innovation.

    Microimage developed the world’s first patented local language messaging and content browsing application to provide customized, local language support for entry-level applications on mobile devices in emerging markets. Some of the key strengths are highly user friendly key-input and advanced rendering mechanisms for complex scripts which are also used for content browsing applications supporting different screen sizes in handsets. The applications are already available for many emerging market scripts which include tamil, telugu, hindi, kannada, bengali, malayalam, thaana, Sinhala etc.

    Incorporated in 1995, Microimage is a leading technology innovator and enterprise solution provider based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Microimage focus areas are enterprise software applications for Human Resources and Radio Automation and innovative mobile applications and solutions. The company pioneered mobile localization applications for emerging markets. The products are launched in indian sub continent with operators such as Airtel – India, Dialog Telkom Sri Lanka, Tigo-Sri Lanka & Dhiraagu Telecom of Maldives. Microimage has won both local and international awards for its innovative software developments throughout the past years.

  68. Good work but unable to send a SMS to Mobitel or v.v.

    Text data is not compatible across all platforms

    You guys are hitting the wrong nails in the wrong place.

    Sinhala has to be compatible across all platforms no matter the application used

    Monopoly is not permitted and it is a violation of applicable International laws

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  69. http://www.sundaytimes.lk/070218/FinancialTimes/ft331.html

    ISSN: 1391 – 0531
    Sunday, February 18, 2007

    Vol. 41 – No 38
    Financial Times
    Sinhala now on Microsoft Windows Vista Launch

    Microsoft Windows Vista was officially launched in Sri Lanka this week amidst a dazzling spectacle of lights, an array of colourfully costumed dancers and even elephants at the BMICH, truly fitting one of the most anticipated products in the IT world. It is being described as the biggest and most strategic launch in the history of Microsoft.

    Three products were introduced to the public, those being Windows Vista, Microsoft 2007 Office and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007.

    Microsoft Country Manager, Sriyan De Silva Wijeyaratne made the historic announcement that Windows Vista comes with inbuilt Sinhala. “This is a dream which many people in this country have been working towards,” he said.

    “It has taken awhile and it has taken a lot of hard work but finally, Sinhala joins a selected number of languages worldwide. Something special is happening for Sri Lanka.” Microsoft wants to take this product as far into the rural areas of this country as possible. “There is no reason that any individual in this country should not have access to this technology.” Demonstrations and promotions are also being planned in the coming months.

    Wijeyaratne continued that it was made possible with the help and support of people in the academic community. “Of course, we have more work to do. We have to fine-tune the product but the building blocks have been laid.” He added that Sri Lanka has a lot of work to do in fostering the right environment and is actively looking at how neighboring countries and markets have grown and should adopt their methods. The token handing over of the first three products of Microsoft Vista was accepted by the Chairman of the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) of Sri Lanka, Professor V.K. Samaranayake.

    “It is just over two and a half years when Microsoft operations were started in this country,” Wijeyaratne said. “But every now and then, you come into a time in history which is the right time, which is a special time. My colleagues and I at Microsoft Sri Lanka have been really privileged to become a part of the Microsoft team.” He said that history is being made in Sri Lanka and across the world. Sri Lanka is joining millions of customers, friends and partners in different ways of celebrating and rejoicing the launch.

    “We want to look at these products and understand how they work to influence our future. Sri Lanka will join close to a billion customers who will adopt these products over the next few years.” Wijeyeratne believes that in that sense, the country can galvanize to adopt these products and realize the IT potential of its economy.

    Michel Gambier, General Manager of Information Worker Business for the Asia Pacific region who oversees development of the Microsoft Office systems was also present at the launch. With twenty three years at Microsoft, Gambier said he wanted to empower workers and organizations to reach their best potential. This is particularly important since more companies are operating globally. “This is the most tested product in Microsoft history,” he said, adding that millions have participated in creating the final product. Chevron, one of the largest multinational corporations and a global energy giant with operations in 180 countries was instrumental in testing and adopting the product.

    Gambier said that most of the features of the older Windows edition are available in Vista but that the display has been altered to make it more accessible and easier to find.

    There are several new features as well to help workers prepare documents, reports and presentations at the same time, managing time efficiently. According to Gambier, the goal is to improve operations, increase quality and eliminate extra costs.
    “It’s all about achieving their greatest potential. This will change the way people work.” In an increasingly global environment, it is essential to have the knowledge and skills to serve customers on a global basis. These Microsoft products are aiming to streamline the way people communicate, share information and collaborate.

  70. Please comment the Sinhala Text of Vista

    Is it compatible across all platforms?

    Just copying and pasting of Microsoft ads without correct explanation mislead the public like the Sinhala SMS.

    Sinhala SMS is not compatible across mobitel and Dialog or Nokia system

    All three talks about Sinhala SMS. Just fooling the pubic on a monopoly program

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  71. Donald,

    Rome was no built within a day. Likewise, SMS will be compatible for all phone networks and all phones soon and Sinhala will be common to all platforms soon. Pessimists like you always were skeptical when WIndows XP came to the market saying that people cannot afford hardware configurations but look at IT field today. Majority uses XP. In the same way Vista will gather momentum. Hardware prices go down each year and all components like Hard disk capacities, RAM, VGA will go down drastically as the demand will be high. You look more like a Dino yourself now. Ailing Dino is going ahead with technology whereas you are going back to Abacus era. Face the truth. there may be mistakes in Sinhala solution and let’s get together and help solve them rather than saying your book is the only perfect one and all others are wrong. Don’t be a joke anymore. If you can’t beat them, join them.

  72. Quote
    Sinhala will be common to all platforms soon
    Unquote

    This clearly confirm my argument that even your Vista coming to the market— Sinhala is not compatible across all platforms. But you have not given the reason as why it is not compatible.

    Price if Vista compatible Hardware may go own in cost. That is not the issue here.
    The computers given last year (2006) to the Nanasala and into the rural areas can they use Vista??
    How many computers were given by the ICTA related projects in the year 2006?

    Quote
    there may be mistakes in Sinhala solution
    Unquote

    This also prove that there is an acute problem.

    I have given the solution why not accept it
    Once they accept their error we can plan to correct it. You have to come forward.
    _-saying your book is the only perfect one___ I never said it is “the perfect” it is the correct path as all other languages have taken that path including the Latin script.
    Come over to my side and progress the project. Join me.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  73. Hi All

    I think the ICTA has appointed Mr. Chandima Rasaputra as the CEO see this link:
    http://www.icta.lk/insidepages/ICTA/BOFD.asp

  74. Who are these people in the ICTA Board? The board of a government agency like ICTA should constitute of representatives from different stakeholders and not from the personal friends of the Chairman. Now what happens is Chairman appointing his personal friends to the board so that he could get away with any dirty work he does.

    The mission of ICTA is said to take the dividends of ICT into everybody in the country with special reference to the people in the rural areas. Do we have anybody from rural poor communities represented in ICTA board? Or do we have a set of dinosaurs who knows nothing about development?

    These animals should be sent to zoo.

  75. Only after I pointed the fact that Manju’s photograph was still on the board – ICTA change it to a list of names.

    Welcome Rasaputra. He suppose to work at two places Airport and at Kirimandala Mawatha. (Colombo 5) Since ICTA is searching for a new location why not move it to the Airport.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  76. Donald,

    The issue is not whether ICTA publishes the most updated photograph or not. Only fools like you are interested in such micro issues. The question is how strong and worthy this board is and whether they can deliver the goods.

    All I can say is this is a completely useless board and the only reason why such a useless board full of dinosaurs have been appointed is only this type of a weak board will enable the big politicos to get the 10% share by awarding tenders without any proper evaluation. I think that is the sole reason behind reappointing VK. Otherwise any fool will understand his days are over and he is too old to work anyway. (Is it true that he is now permanently on wheel chair?)

    Meanwhile people like you will just sit and watch this drama occasionally complaining about not updating a photograph or some issues about Sinhala fonts which nobody understands or is of no use to anyone.

    If you really like to see ICT filed is being developed in Sri Lanka, why don’t you protest about this totally useless board of dinosaurs in the first place?

  77. Hey Baas Martin

    If ICTA cannot update their own web site with correct details how come they advice and develop Sri Lanka?

    You have not understood my issue of Sinhala. I never talk about a FONT. I talk more than a Font. a Sinhala Character Allocation Table or “SINHALA WAGUWA” I talk of deeper subject of Sinhala.

    I have written to the top people.

    Only very few have protested others just close their arms and wait.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  78. Hi Donal, just out of curiousity I read through the whole of this thread. As I understand you have researched well and have come up with a Sinhala C.A.T, based on usage (Similar to a research paper published by the gov of sl back in 1940s as a prelude to da Wijesekera KB). What is currently annoying you is the fact that no one is using this, and every tech company is putting out their own CAT! Right? So you think the whole community is going to miss out on one chance to get the Sinhala CAT right?

    I feel very sorry for you. There have been thousands like you before… if you look at US patents on english kb, you will see many innovative allocations that actualy improves the kb utilization…. over the current QWERTY system. But alas… standards are not something you can impose upon. Standards are just things you can publish in organizations such as ISO. This is the era of consumerism. Consumers always have a choice.. and they will use what is available to them.

    If you have a killer CAT solution that would improve the lives of sinhala users… put it to the market… If you proposal is good enough, the modern market economics will drive ure standards. If it doesnt add anything to what is already in the market, as per the perspective of actual users (not ure own)… then your CAT will be limited to arguments in places like this.

    The way to get something across to the world is not to complain to the higher ups or complain about the market dynamics. Its to take it to the end users ure self… internet has democratized the distribution mechanics. Nothing apart from ure technical skills are going to stop you!

    The world is changed not by ppl who complain in small forums or to the higer ups. The world is changed by ppl who make change happen at the roots. Thats how this world works.. be it in tech standards… or grass root democracy!

    It will be a sad fact… if the final memory of Donald Gaminitillake is to be of a failed standard that he took with him to his grave.

    You vision of interoperability/transportability is the right one. Its ure execution of that vision which is verging on being pathetic Donal.

  79. Suraj you are one of the few people who had got a hang of what I have written

    This problem was came up in the SLSI I was the only individual who gave a different proposal and objected to the present one. My objections were steamrolled by the DINO.

    Today Sinhala is in a mess (related to Computer )

    No e- dictionary etc etc across all platforms
    The reason is there is no standard CAT for Sinhala

    We have to use both Wijesekera and QWERTY KB which is not a problem.
    irrespective to the keyboard one would get the same readable TEXT across all platforms

    The project is for the public and has to be given free of charge.

    There are enough funding at the ICTA but Dino is not permitting as he will not get any credit.

    I hope the NEW CEO will have the courage to step into this problem

    Donald Gamnitillake
    Colombo

  80. My two cents on ICTA Board.

    The pioneers of e-Sri Lanka program, Mr. Milinda Moragoda, Mr. Eran Wickremaratne, Prof. Rohan Samarajeewa and Dr. Hans Wijesuriya wanted to make ICTA different from an ordinary government organisation. One main differentiation they wanted was ICTA to conduct all its transactions in a * transparent * manner.

    I do not say Manju did everything transparent. He too dumped his friends like Riza at top posts without conducting proper interviews. However, as far as the major deals were concerned there was some sort of transparency.

    The founder ICTA board consisted people from different backgrounds.

    Things are different today. You find ICTA has become one of the * most corrupted * government organisations. The current board is there only to give blind support to the dirty works of the Chairman. The only honest person in the current Board id Dr. Vinya Ariyaratne, who might seriously consider leaving as there is a big risk of losing his reputation being there.

    However, VKS is not the only person to blame. He is only a small pawn in a bigger chess board. Those who appointed knew him well about his age and his poor health conditions. But still they appointed him because he was one person they knew would shamelessly cover up any dirty work they do for a sizable salary.

    I have seen some of you have discussed the LGN deal.

    That deal too happened in the same way every other deal in the country happened after November 2005. (I am surprised Sripathi Suriyaarachchi still did not bring this to the table)

    Party A offered a 10% cut for somebody while Party B did not. The company that gave 10% got the deal. Simple logic.

    VKS just signed on the dotted line as he was instructed. There is no point blaming the old man. After all, he has to make a living.

    I also see some still have hopes about CR, the new CEO. I am sorry to burst the bubble but this is another member of the same mafia. He is there not there for his qualifications, but because he supported somebody in Kamburupitiya in an election. (See Lankadeepa today, Feb 25) How can one expect transparency from an individual like that?

    Those who come from the back door will keep that open for others to come.

    All I can say is current ICTA is very far from the dreams its pioneers had. It is exactly the one they *did not want to have*.

    Had they knew its future, I am certain in 2002 Wickremaratne and Samarajeewa would have adviced government to continue with CINTEC instead of taking all this trouble.

  81. ComputingInEveryLanguage

    > Please comment the Sinhala Text of Vista. Is it compatible across all platforms?

    Sinhala text in Vista and Windows XP is Unicode encoded text. As such it is portable to any OS that uses Unicode encoding…Linux, Mac, etc. … and to any device that supports Unicode text. The only problem is that your computer needs to know how to handle Unicode for your language when you receive the file.

    Unicode allows for the unambiguous representation of text for every language. Thus, any document can have Sinahala, Tamil and English (or any other language) together without problems. With Unicode all character combinations for Sinhala can be formed.

    Actually, since Unicode is the standard encoding for most web based technologies and protocols, there should be the ability for all sorts of cross platform exchange of data globally.

    An e-Dictionary in Unicode format would be a great tool. Especially, if it were web based. Here is what one group is doing: http://www.kaputa.com/unilearn/

    Happy computing in every language!

  82. Dear ” ComputingInEveryLanguage”

    Sinhala unicode is wrong only a limited number of Sinhala characters are registered.

    “Unicode allows for the unambiguous representation of text for every language.” this is correct but what SLSI registered with unicode is incorrect and incomplete

    If you read Suraj comment of 78 (and every tech company is putting out their own CAT!)

    There is no proper Standard to define all Sinhala Characters — you get a set of (encrypt type) unreadable sinhala when one uses the text across all platforms.

    Only I (Donald) have published (C) this list.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  83. Heh. Heh. Heh. I see some agent of the church have got alarmed by the reforms by Prof. Sam at ICTA.

    The first board and the staff of ICTA all were ‘odukku kukkas’ (lap dogs) of Christian church and World Bank. They had no idea what they were doing. They were pumping millions and millions of money to their private accounts with the blessings of P-Ranil.

    Not only Reeza, all the secretaries at ICTA once came through backdoor. They were faithful followers of Assembly of God, who came to ICTA with chits from CEO’s beloved wife. I have enough information to prove this.

    Now these lap dogs have got dead sacred about the reforms done by Prof. Sam because they have got scared about their survival. They know Prof. Sam is a tough customer and will not tolerate their nonsense.

    I can tell the names. Conacut Ismail Radwan of World Bank is one of the topcharacters behind this conspiracy of chasing Prof. Sam from ICTA. He wanted Prof. Sam to dance to his tune and when he realised Prof. won’t bite the bait he has started all these name callings and mud slinging. Why don’t we ask these World Bank agents to mind their own business? We can take care of our affairs.

  84. Whether it is ‘odukku kukkas’ (lap dogs) or Dinos — Sinhala problem has not been solved for the past 25 years.

    If you blast the WB why not return the funds that you had enjoyed. After using the WB funds you bark at them.

    Typical of Sri Lanka.

    Solve the Sinhala Language issue

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  85. Dear Donald,

    Your good friend, VK is spreading a rumor that he will retire NEXT YEAR. This is just to mark time and suppress the pressure mounting on him to go. Why can’t he go this year? He just want to mark time till people forget your revelations about his dirty tricks. He will not bow down for another 100 million years. Dino rules Earth.

  86. No worries I will be haunting him day and night until Sinhala problem is solved.

    New people will commence writing about “Akuru” soon.

    The New iMac on intel chip can run windows XP. From your fontlk downloaded the Dino’s sinhala — what I see on (MAC) Windows XP is very funny. I will take some digital photographs of what I see and publish on my web site.

    With busy schedule I will take some time to do it.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  87. What VKS has against Ismail Radwan? Is World Bank blocking his extention?

  88. Please visit

    http://www.akuru.org/images/icta-image1.jpg

    This is the sinhala unicode. As seen. Is this Sinhala. I digitally photograph the ICTA Sinhala site after downloading the font set given by the ICTA. (using imac intel version)

    25 years of Dinos work is reflected on ICTA web site

    This is not the Sinhala we know

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  89. Donald,

    Take your cause to a more international, broader audience. The egroup bytesforall_readers@yahoogroups.com is very good place but be very diplomatic in here as this is carefully moderated by a moderator. So, talk on facts, not on personal grudges. Don’t use names like Dino here.

    Language issues in Indic languages can be discussed in this group as this group is very popular among the South Asians.

    If you are not happy about current solutions given by VK, you can talk about it showing your solution is common for all SA nations. They won’t be interested in VK’s money dealings, etc. VK is regarded as a God by some fools only in Sri Lanka. He has no international reputation. He is a discard on that platform, so, don’t make him a hero there. There are schoolboys/girls who have more international recognition for ICT than VK. VK is just a cardboard hero, so just ignore him. He is already ‘a living dead’ like Dracula.

  90. Isn’t it a co-incidence that whenever something is written revealing VK’s dirty deals that someone sends some stupid messages postings to all the threads enabling the thread about VKS is not visible in the LirneAsia homepage? We feel this is deliberately done. Once there are other postings by (may be the same person) done as it happened today (now they have been deleted by the Admin) what happens is the postings about VK dissapears from the Homepage as other threads comes to the surface. Isn’t this well planned? Hope Helaya has nothing to do with this.

  91. Today I had a discussion with a Font designer

    He was told by the ICTA guys that ICTA thinks for three layers of fonts A simple font a medium font and a super font Three different Character allocation tables.

    A simple divide and rule system.
    No where in this world have three allocation table for the same set of characters.

    Sri Lanka need a only one Sinhala character allocation table having individual code points for all Sinhala characters.

    The present SLSI 1134 is incorrect and incomplete set

    I expect a reply from Helaya for the posting of 88.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colommboo

  92. My dear children,

    When I appointed Dino to be the Chairman of the Agency, I did not bother to check whether he is alive or dead or whether he uses viagra. These are all immaterial for me.

    What matters me is whether he will be able to deliver goods for me.

    If he can deliver my 10%, I will be glad to pay him a fat monthly salary even if he is dead. I do not care whether he is in heaven or hell or reborn as a ‘gevalaya’ at the Agency as long as he gives me my 10%.

    Therunai?

  93. Ow, wow, wow.

    If VKS can give us 10% we will extend his contract for next year too.

  94. Aney machan, oya VK nakiyata nidahase inda deepan.

    Umbalata lejja nethda oya wage nakiyek allagena oota part danne?

  95. Will someone explain

    1st question
    Akandynew font and DL Araliya font are Sinhala Unicode fonts or not

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  96. No reply for 24 Hrs. Are you guys sleeping!!!

    2nd Question

    If Sinhala unicode fonts are used whether one uses “ayanna” at Keyboard location “A” or “W” The Sinhala Character Ayanna should be represented in the screen (irrespective to the font set.)

    This is not happening!!!!

    If you key in The Sinhala Character Ayanna using Akandynew font and change the font to another font DL Araliya. One will not get the same ayanna

    So we have more serious problem than “Duyanna”

    3 question
    How do we identify a Sinhala font set whether it is unicode or not

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  97. 154 Education and Failed States on Mar 10th, 2007 at 6:15 pm on the blog “Village with a mesh network, but not a single telephone”

    I will post my comment here as the answers are related to usage of Sinhala.

    With all credits for Savimon Urugodawatta we have added fuel into the burning issue.

    Introducing IT to the schools (rural and urban) without a cross compatibility of the Sinhala Characters. Even with so called unicode Sinhala which is incorrect set of few Sinhala characters cannot be displayed the registered characters correctly.

    http://www.akuru.org/images/icta-image1.jpg

    This IT issue has become a comedy of the administration.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  98. Colombo Uni guy,

    What matters is not somebody is old or not but what can anyone can contribute.

    Prof. V. K. Samaranayake had always been a key figure in the IT sector of Sri Lanka and had been behind the success in the IT filed in Sri Lanka. For all the IT facilities we have today we have it is him to we thank for. He has provided helping hand for many professionals younger than him and his modesty does not allow him to boast how many prodigies he has in Sri Lanka.

    We know what happened in the e-Sri Lanka in the beginning and how P-Ranil’s political henchmen who know nothing about IT but only cared about earning fat salaries and propagating their religion hijacked CINTEC and the IT field in Sri Lanka.

    Thank god, P-Ranil lost the election and under the able leadership of the current President who is the only leader in Sri Lanka with a true nationalist vision for future Prof. Samaranayake is not taken the hard task of reforming the industry and correcting the mistakes done in P-Ranil’s time.

    Obviously there are people who are not happy about this change and they do everything possible from anonymous e-mails to mud slinging at open forums to prevent the reform program of Prof. V. K. Samaranayake.

    One key character behind all this is Ismail Radwan of World Bank who has felt threatened with the ongoing developments at the e-Sri Lanka program. Conacut Radwan is worried now because Prof. Samaranayake does not dance to the World Bank tune and use the funds in the correct way to deliver the dividends to the rural Sinhalese poor in Sri Lanka. Radwan or anyone from World Bank cannot stop it. We do not want these idiot advisers from World Bank to guide us. Prof. Samaranayake is guided only by Mahinda Chnithana and not by World Bank Chinthana detrimental to the country.

    If that coward Radwan comes for an open argument in this forum I will expose all his hidden work to ruin the e-Sri Lanka program.

    Prof. V.K. Samaranayake is a true Sinhalese Buddhist who had contributed much for his nation. He is not afraid of the Christian church or the powers of west.

    I do not care people like you or Donald who are paid by church to hamper the national development. We need to take on the big fish like Radwan, not small spats.

  99. Helaya who cannot identify himself or herself by the name given by his parents incapable of answering a simple question posted in

    http://www.akuru.org/images/icta-image1.jpg

    Yes for 25 years or more a group of educated elite ruined the Sinhala Language. Registered a incomplete set of Sinhala Characters in the SLSI and UNicode Consortium. Used WB funding and the end result is seen on the above link. This is not Sinhala!!!!

    Naturally WB officers who have some knowledge of IT will take actions to prevent a repeat.

    National development (of ICT) is hampered by the present group who is in the ICTA. The public is incapable of using SInhala and Tamil Language across all platforms. There is No Tamil SLSI in Sri Lanka. I am the only individual in Lanka who talk about bi lingual (tri lingual) usage of Computer.
    Bilingual = Sinhala and Tamil Languages.

    Helaya always claim that I am paid by the church. Could you please tell me to which Church should I send the invoices?

    Also talk pro Sinhala and pro Buddhist activities.
    see the following link

    http://www.akuru.org/images/pushpananda-29-oct-2006.jpg

    Today with present computers — we cannot reproduce the Buddhist Text correctly.

    There will be a special “Hell” beyond the “satara apaya” for people like Helaya and Dino

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  100. Do I miss something here?

    Why VKS now takes it with Ismail Radwan? Has WB objected to the extension of his contract?

    What happened to Rasaputra? Is he in or out?

    Why an organisation needs a CEO and an Executive Chairman both? Is it because two henchmen, instead of one be offered the ‘dividends’ of e-SL?

    Can someone educate me?

  101. VK Sam will be retiring by the end of this month. This has been confirmed by ICTA. Not sure who will take over.

  102. Donald,

    Do not trust this information given by your friend, Captain Haddock. This could be VK himself to divert your fight to oust him. You know VKS is a real Rastapopulas who survives any attack. Be careful and don’t give up fight. Rather than resigning, now VKS is trying to oust Ismail Radwan from the World Bank’s Colombo Office. His job hangs in the balance.

  103. I have not given up getting stronger at snail’s pace
    Thanks for the blog many seems to know my name.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  104. I am surprised to see what lengths VKS goes now for survival. Is this the same man who had such a good reputation as a Professor in Colombo University?

    Why does he has to behave in this pathetic manner?

  105. He was the person who was responsible to develop Sinhala to use in computer for the past 25 years or more and the whole project is failed.

    This fact is exposed. You go to any Govt ministry. People who handle computers will know the problem. Now they talk.

    Dino need to cover all these. No way but to behave in this manner.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  106. Donald,

    Have you heard that even Vista does not fully support Sinhala and we have to wait till 2010 for the full support for Sinhala language?

    They say the current Vista support is just a gimmick. Practically you cannot do anything with that.

    Can someone please confirm this?

    .

  107. Vista pr Vista’s grand daughter will not be able to support a language even in 2010 until Sinhala SLSI and Sinhala unicode is corrected.

    If you go to unicode character registration you could see LATIN script has been extended up to “LATIN D” also U 1E00 – U 1EFF Latin Extended Additional — U 2C60 – U 2C7F Latin Extended-C

    They improve the script as and when they wish. To accommodate their requirements.

    Dino and his group had ruined the language Sinhala by not registering a correct Sinhala characters in the SLSI and in the Unicode consortium

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  108. I was about to take information about Dino’s LakGovNet to the Bribery Commission when they blocked me. But do not worry, as soon as I come out Dino will be in big soup over the LakGovNet deal. Let him answer to the Bribery Commission.

    It will not be like the Sunday Leader article. Dino will never know what would have hit his private parts.

  109. Donald Gaminitillake

    Today on FT Dino is with Intel guys
    We need intel computers but how do we use them!!!!
    Without Sinhala and Tamil!!!

    Hope Intel guy will reply

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  110. The copy of the letter I sent to Hon President of Sri Lanka for your perusal

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

    Dear Hon President and Secretary Defense Mr G Rajapaksha,

    I am writing this mail to you to point out a very important fact.

    The selected computers (aprox 5000 units) which are to be given to Ministries and other Government Institutes unable to use our Language Sinhala and Tamil. Sinhala and Tamil Text is not compatible across all platforms in Sri Lanka. ICTA has fail in this project.

    The Operating system of these machines is NOT Microsoft “VISTA” but the old Windows XP

    When the Government Offices are unable to use a computer in Sinhala and Tamil (Official languages of Sri Lanka) with cross compatibility of Text and with an old operating system — unable to use VISTA — you are going to face a bigger problem.

    If ICTA distribute these computers it will definitely create a bad name for you and your Government.

    http://www.akuru.org/images/icta-image1.jpg
    When you visit the above link you will be able to see the Sinhala that ICTA had developed.

    Yours truly

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Consultant Graphic Communications
    Advisor to Ingrin Institute of Graphics Sri Lanka Ltd

  111. What has the Secretary of Defense got to do with it?

    ICTA is under the President and its seems a reasonable thing to write him, but why Defense?

  112. Yes
    I felt like writing to all the secretaries of all the ministries may be over 100 personalized mails.

    Defense Ministry will get a computer from this lot. It is far better for me to inform him what he will be getting from the ICTA — a computer system not with todays technology.

    If someone provide me with the Email addresses I will write to all of them personally.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  113. Donald,

    Every year Central Bank of Sri Lanka issues a pocket diary with e-mail addresses (among other contact details) of all Ministers, Ministry Secretaries, Dept heads etc. Ask if you know any friend working there.

    Alternatively Dharman’s Media guide available at any major bookshop for Rs. 1,000 has the same information.

    However majority of the Ministry Secretaries do not read e-mails so it will be better if you can send snail mail.

    You may also want to meet Minister of Public Administration and Home Affairs Karu Jayasuriya and his Secretary Mr. D Dissanayake, as the bulk of these 5,000 PCs goes to divisional secretariats and district secretariats.

    Their e-mail addresses are: minister@pubad.gov.lk and Secretary@pubad.gov.lk.

    I do not want to discourage you, however I seriously doubt writing to ministry secretaries will be of much help.

  114. This might interest Prof. Samarajiva (who thinks still ICTA is under the President.)

    Well, it was till recently. The gazette notifications till the last modification of the cabinet duly acknowledged ICTA as an institute under President. However the latest gazette notification about the cabinet ministers does not say anything about an institution called ICTA. Its here: http://www.priu.gov.lk/Ministries_2007/Indexmin.html

    So if there were an institution called ICTA, it should be under ‘Bahiravaya’.

    Meanwhile Prof. Tissa Vitharana, Minister of Science and Technology had been assigned the responsibility of developing Information and Communication Technology. (http://www.priu.gov.lk/Ministries_2007/Min_Science_technology.html) One wonders how he could do this unless he has the authority to oversee the functions of ICTA.

    Prof. Vitharana is also in charge of the following institutions:

    Institute of Information Technology (Guarantee) Company Ltd.
    Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT) and all information Technology Centres affiliated to SLIIT Information Technology Parks (except Malabe Information Technology Park)

    Council on Information Technology (CINTEC)

  115. Thanks for the info

    But If you check the list
    http://www.priu.gov.lk/Ministries_2007/Indexmin.html

    one example:
    Dr. Palitha T B Kohona ‘s email address is not listed — not even Foreign Ministry’s E mail address is given.

    First we got to literate the officers who do the content development.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  116. The stupid voters of Pakislanthaya might be under the impression that Agency was placed under the Lokka because govt. had realised the importance of ICTs.

    Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Big Joke.

    The real reason was…(How can I put it?)…TEN PERCENTS. (May be 15%s or 20%s now)

    LGN was the one meant to bring the biggest slice. (Remember it was a $ 15 mil deal)

    Since now that is over, I do not think anyone would find it really necessary to keep it under Lokka anymore.

    P.S: Naaki Sam is only a ‘hal-messa’ in this game. He may get about 1%. Nothing bigger than that.

  117. Donald,

    Read the article below. Looks like Mr Clean, Lalith Weeratunga is on your side. A good opportunity to take Dino to Bribery Commission over LGN and other deals. Do you have the guts for this? There are few who dared recently but they are counting bars in remand prison rooms now.

    Hope you will utilize this golden opportunity of keeping Dino behind bars for the rest of his life. He will become another Slobodan Milosevic. And you will be a hero for exposing the wolf in the sheep’s skin.

    ———————————————————————————————

    New move for clean hands http://www.dailymirror.lk/2007/03/21/news/01.asp

    By Ayesha Zuhair

    Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunga said the private sector was also responsible for the corruption in state institutions and pointed out that corruption can only be curbed if the prevailing culture in both sectors of the economy was transformed.

    Addressing the inauguration of “Clean Hands: An Alliance of Sri Lankan Public Sector Officers Against Corruption” held yesterday, Mr. Weeratunga revealed that he himself had been approached by a number of individuals from the private sector, who promised to “look after” him if the rules are skirted.

    “The private sector is also to blame for corruption in the public sector and therefore we have to change this negative trend together,” he stressed, noting that the two sectors have to work collectively on a voluntary basis to fight corruption.

    Conceding that the reputation of the public sector has been tarnished due to corruption, Mr. Weeratunga noted that the best in the land don’t want to join the sector not only because of lower salaries, but more so because of its corrupt image.

    He said that it was unfortunate that a few unscrupulous individuals had circumvented the rules and brought disrepute to the entire service. “My guess is that 90% of the public service is clean,” he affirmed.

    Acknowledging that there are many instances which place a great deal of pressure on public servants to bend the rules, he said, “We need to be able to withstand any pressure and that calls for a lot of courage and gumption. At a time when fingers are being pointed to the public service, an initiative like this is not only laudable but it must also receive the support of all sections of society,” Mr. Weeratunga emphasised.

    “We are at a critical make-or-break juncture so we need to have more and more members of the service joining us. Even though there is no compulsion for public servants to join, we need to create an urge,” he said.

    Mr. Weeratunga noted that civil servants were guardians of public property, and as such they have a duty to safeguard the property which belongs to all citizens, while carrying out their services in a clean, honest, diligent and caring manner.

    The Secretary to the President further stated that 15% of public expenditure could be saved if wastage is minimised in state institutions. Making a metaphorical reference to a bucket, he explained that even if the large holes in a bucket were patched up, the smaller ones would still not be able to prevent a leakage.

    Speaking at the event D. Dissanayake, Secretary, Ministry of Public Administration and Home Affairs said, “Waste and corruption is worse than terrorism. We all know that only a few in the public service are responsible for waste and corruption but the blame comes on the entire service. This is where we have to be concerned, worried and careful”.

    “Clean Hands”, an organisation of public sector officials working to fight corruption, prevent waste and improve the standard of the public service in Sri Lanka, was launched yesterday. Founded by 50 top public sector officials, it will work to promote a culture of zero tolerance for corruption among public sector officers and provide support for those fighting corruption in their organisations and elsewhere.

  118. I wrote the following mail to Presidential Secretary Mr. Lalith Weeratunga

    ——————-

    Re“Clean Hands: An Alliance of Sri Lankan Public Sector Officers Against Corruption”

    Dear Sir,

    I read the above article in the news papers.
    I wonder whether you will be able to clean the ICTA first as an example for the general public.

    You know sir that I am pointing certain facts that we are unable to use our language Sinhala across all platform of computer.

    For the past 25 years few people were using the facilities but failed to give the product to the country Yet no one hold any responsibility. Purchasing equipment and distributing will not make the lanka ITC literate.
    People will have to educate in content development and use of language.

    I have put forward the solution. http://www.akuru.org

    The Domain names in Sri Lanka are also run on a monopoly.

    Since you know the inside out of ICTA .

    Please take some positive action to clean the place and pave way for a better environment

    Thanking you

    Donald Gaminitillake

  119. Dear Donald,

    Hope you saw Dino scoring a century on Sirasa TV. None of your letters to big shots have worked and Dino is dominating the electronic media for self performing now.

  120. I was away for a seminar — the week end
    My way is inching forward

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  121. Yes, I saw VKS on TV last Saturday. He came and blasted Manju and Donald (of course without mentioning the names) He said the work he had done to the country is known to the people and there are few saboteurs trying to prevent him from doing his good work.

    VKS also said he plan to restructure ICT in near future so that the organization can serve the Mahinda Chinthana better. According to him ICTA no longer wants to depend on the World Bank fund but likes to be run by the Sri Lanka government after it completes five years by next year. He said ICTA does not want to dance to the World Bank tunes and only want to serve the country that suits to the culture of the country.

  122. In my monthly visit to Liernasia blog, I noticed a number of issues which are relevant to Re-Gov programme of ICTA.
    I would try to reply as far as possible.
    Q1: Why Vista is not coming in LGN PCs?
    A1: You all know that planning and tendering for a project of this complexity takes 1-2 years. The planning for LGN started in 2004. Tender was published in Oct 2005. By that time MS Vista is only a name with out any timeline or what it would include. So we planned with what we had. Since the bidding was only open for Korean companies and since no Korean company wanted to bid to supply FOSS products, they had to use Windows XP as the desktop OS. (However the proxy servers given to 325 government organizations are Linux servers). But we made sure that the PC configuration is good enough to run on Vista in case somebody or any government organization wants to upgrade it to Vista. So the contract was signed in Sept 2006, months before Vista came to this part of the world. However once Microsoft Sri Lanka announced that MS Vista would be available in Feb 2007 we discussed this matter with them in great detail; but finally decided that it is not feasible to upgrade the entire PC network to Vista, financially as well as technically. Microsoft has announced that they would support XP till 2011 so the technologies used in LGN would be supported at least for another 5 years. So I do not think that LGN is going to suffer at all due to having XP instead of Vista.

    Q2: Since Vista would not be available in LGN PCs, would government organizations not be able to use Sinhala in computing?
    A2: Not at all! Current Sinhala Unicode solution (Sinhala Kit 2) for XP is much better than what is available in Vista. Microsoft is working on a patch/SP for Vista which would contain all gamut of localization in LIP (Language Interface Programme) which would also fix all language bugs in Vista. The plan is to relaease tha patch/sp before end of the year. We have already connected 10 government organizations to the LGN hub and all PCs (10 LGN PCs are given to each government organization) are equipped with Sinhala Kit 2 for computing in Sinhala. Government employees in those organizations are using Sinhala without any problem using those machines.

    Q3: Is Sinhala in Vista compatible across all platforms?
    A3: This is not coming under my area; but as I have been listening and even tested sharing Sinhala text from Vista to Ubuntu and Open Office Writer, I can say it worked perfectly between those platforms. But I have not tested with other platforms.

    You may also be interested in knowing that the Secretary to the President, Mr. Lalith Weeratunga issued a Circular on 2007-03-18 informing that all the government organizations should use Sinhala Unicode fonts which conforms to SLS 1134 for computing in Sinhala.

    Regards

    Wasantha deshapriya

  123. Dear All

    There is a conference named “Conference on Language and Technology” in Bara Gali in August 2007. The URL is http://www.dcs.edu.pk/clt/

    Kindly, submit your research contributions by the due date.

    Best regards.

    M Abid Khan

    Compiled by
    Ziaur Rahman
    IITM

  124. It is interesting to see Mr. Wasantha Deshapriya making two contradictory statements in one paragraph.

    First he says: we made sure that the PC configuration is good enough to run on Vista

    Then he says: it is not feasible to upgrade the entire PC network to Vista, financially as well as technically

    If the selected PC configuration is good enough to run Vista, there is no need to upgrade the PCs. The question of Upgrade comes only if the configuration is not enough.

    So can we all know the configuration of the PCs?

    We all know the project planning and tender takes 1-2 years but we also know Microsoft has already announced the introduction of Microsoft Windows Vista (code named Longhorn) and the configuration required to run it, at least 2 years before. So saying that ICTA knows nothing about Vista till it came in February is a very lame excuse. (Even in this blog this issue had been discussed many times) Are people at ICTA that ignorant?

    Does Mr. Wasantha Deshapriya imply that somebody like Prof. V.K. Samaranayake was totally unaware about that fact? Does Prof. V.K. Samaranayake not surf? Does he not read this blog?

    Why not Prof. V.K. Samaranayake as the Head of the technical committee that offered Samsung the deal for LGN on a silver plate answer these questions? Is he afraid of answering them?

  125. Donald, you are writing to the correct person. Soon VK will be hanged by Mr Clean or vice versa as it happens in this cursed land.

    For a cleaner, stronger public service

    Speech made by Mr. Lalith Weeratunga, Secretary to the President at the inauguration of the Clean Hands campaign

    I am extremely happy to be at this simple but yet distinguished gathering. It is indeed a privilege to be associated with a concept such as Clean Hands. At a time when fingers are being pointed at the public service, an initiative of this nature is not only laudable, but also to be supported by everybody who loves our country. I must thank at the outset Mr. D.Dissanayake, Secretary, Ministry of Public Administration & Home Affairs who took great pains to make this a reality. With his exemplary leadership, Clean Hands no doubt has come this far. We need to provide all the support to him to make this initiative a success. I wish to declare my unstinted support to this noble initiative.

    This initiative is one that I think will create a different setting in the public service of which all of us are members. As members of the public service, what is our responsibility? Aside from delivering a public service with care and diligence, we are also the guardians of all public property. That is our undisputed role. All public property we need to safeguard because they belong to the public of this country. We are only the guardians and that we need to remember all the time. That is as far as public property goes. But what about delivering a clean, honest, caring and efficient public service? Can we respect the people who come to us with great hopes? It is here we need to eliminate bribery and corruption when public services are delivered.

    We have rules and regulations to deter bribery and corruption. But all these have been circumvented by some unscrupulous elements in the public service who made a fast buck using their power, authority and position. All the laws on earth may not be sufficient to eradicate bribery and corruption in the public service as I have come to bitterly accept. Voluntary commitment to be a part of a clean public service is the only way out and that’s why this initiative is uniquely important. The “club” we want to form will not accommodate those who engage in corrupt practices.

    I want to talk about a very sensitive issue also. What if you are compelled or coerced to aid and abet something that is ethically and morally wrong? Many of us may have had to undergo that bitter experience. That’s where again we need to be different and withstand any pressure to give in and be a part of corruption, malpractice or any misdemeanor. That is how we could create a band of men and women who will not tolerate any misdeeds. Many colleagues have told me how they withstand such pressure and I want to salute them for their guts and ethics.

    We are in a way at a critical juncture in the future of the public service. Make or Break. The voluntary initiative all of us are subscribing to this morning and thereafter needs to be sustained. We need to have more and more members joining us. Thee is no compulsion to join us but we need to create an urge among all our colleagues to join this select band of men and women who stand for a corruption free public service. Today, the best in the land do not want to join the public service, not merely because our salaries are comparatively low, but also because we are fast being tainted with corruption. Those young men and women do not want to join a public service so much maligned. A voluntary adherence to a code of ethics and doing one’s utmost to eradicate corruption is the way forward.

    If each of us can ensure that we have a circle of influence through which we can promote a corrupt free group of men and women, then we are on the right path. Think of all those working with you and for you. It may be the lowest ranker, but yet are you sure that he or she is not using your authority and name to engage in corruption? If you are sure of those working very close to you then you can get to the next level of your organization and talk to them and get them to adhere to your way of thinking. I suggest that each of us create another club in our organization and get all the staff to subscribe to this concept.

    Today, having been a part of this great initiative, let us resolve to take this initiative forward.

  126. I sent the following mail to the Secretary to the President, Mr. Lalith Weeratunga

    ( the image is the SLSI 1134 registered sinhala characters) as seen on

    http://www.akuru.org/images/slsiencod22.jpg

    —————————

    Dear Sir

    According to Mr Wasantha you has issued a circular on 18/03/2007 to use SLSI 1134.

    I would like to point out the following points.

    First I am sending an image giving the registered Sinhala characters. (code points)

    Please go through it and let me the know the code point for the character “TU”
    The character “tu” has no code point in the SLSI neither the character “Ksha” = kayanna badhi shayanna
    This how our Hon President write his name.

    Technically 90% of the sinhala characters are missing in the SLSI 1134

    I have personally objected when SLSI requested for public opinion. But the group headed by the then SLSI chief and our Professor VKS over ruled my suggestion and went through their own way.

    The correct set of Sinhala is registered as ISBN 955-98975-0-0 by Self and Now I have 100% copyrights over it.

    If you and I does not correct the Sinhala we will face a major problem.

    Yours truly

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  127. Flickr_Image_Gallery

    Donald has the luxury of uploading images to his site. For the other common users, i created this account. You can upload your images if you need. Do not try to change password please. If you do, i will be autimatically notified and restore the original password.

    Log into http://www.flickr.com first

    User name:- software_issues_in_srilanka
    Passord:- dinosamsung (we must have a password we can easily remember. Don’t we?

    Then upload your image.

  128. Donald,

    You have to be very careful when fighting with somebody like Dino.

    Dino hates you like anything does not have guts to face you. That is why he is sending his people like Wasantha to fight with you.

    Wasantha is a good man and an honest government officer. However he will lose his reputation washing dirty linen of Dino. Dino is so full of s**t that white washing him is not an easy task. So anybody who tries to wash Dino will get s**t in their hands.

    You have to use ‘heen seraya’ to fight people like Dino. His skin is so think it is difficult to hurt him by beating. You have to be like that ‘katussa’ in ‘Heen Sereya’ and get inside Dino’s trunk.

  129. I have uploaded into Flickr_Image_Gallery the incomplete SLSI 1134

    Others too can follow this path

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  130. Dear Wasantha

    Quote “”Current Sinhala Unicode solution (Sinhala Kit 2) for XP “” Unquote

    Can you give me the code points for “TU” “DU” “GU” in this.
    Do not tell me it is “Tayanna” plus “Uyana” gives “Thuyanna”
    “Thuyanna” need a location a code point.

    How one would know a Sinhala font is SLSI compatible or not?

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  131. YouTube_Video_Gallery

    Please upload any video clips regarding this (with respecting YouTube’s copyright laws and giving right credits to the video sources) at http://www.youtube.com

    Username softwareissues

    password dinosamsung

    LIRNEASIA is not responsible for both the Flickr and YouTube galleries in anyway the two accounts were created just to help the topic with image and video uploading. Hope Admin of this thread doesn’t mind this.

  132. this friday 30th evening at 9:30 ‘biz1st in focus’ on mtv and shakthi tv will telecast a show on wifi issues. we have a segment on mahavilachchiya and a discussion with the father of wifi…

    harsha

  133. Very soon this will happen to VKS too for taking bribes from Samsung in the LGN deal.

    *************************************

    Three state officials arrested over swindling Mavilaru compensation
    Friday, 30 March 2007

    The CID took into custody three officers of the Agricultural and Agrarian Services Insurance Board on suspicion of swindling a sum of Rs. 15 million from the monies allocated to farmers as compensation following the Mavil Aru fiasco perpetrated by the LTTE last year.

    The suspects arrested, it was alleged, had submitted false names and addresses and had fraudulently altered the amounts mentioned in the cash vouchers.

    The CID is conducting further investigations to ascertain whether a larger sum of money had been swindled and whether any other officials were involved in the racket.

  134. Harsha

    I think you have to go to a school to learn what to speak.
    You used the word “POOR” many times
    Also “RURAL POOR”
    Not the people in Mahavilachchiya is poor neither the urban people are rich.
    You guys are the people who try to create the digital divide
    That is what you wanted. You had no guts to talk the language problem either.

    All you want to show off was “POOR” and “RURAL POOR”

    You have never understood the rich hearts of the people of Mahavilachchiya you are just a book smart individual.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  135. Adviser to Harsha

    Dear Harsha,

    Ensure you talk about Donald’s language issue whenever you host a TV talk show, chat with our wife and kids, chat with your neibghours, talk to your driver, make a speech in a wedding or funeral, having fun moment with your girlfriend (if you have), when you are in a supermarket, or even when you are in a public toilet. Donald is not happy you didn’t talk about language issue. But the program was on WiFi with the Father of WiFi and the TV station had found a living example of how WiFi can be used in a rural environment in MV. According to Donald, all your and MTV’s hard work is futile as you didn’t take up language issue.

    The best thing is to get your questionnaire approved from Donald first before you go to the next program. I think now everyone must be feeling what a sick man Donald is. Earlier everyone thought he was fighting for a right cause but now he has become a laughing stock it seems.

  136. Even on the interviews the participants were happy to express their views in Sinhala and were comfortable to talk in Sinhala than in English.

    “Adviser to Harsha ” had no guts to tell about the words “POOR” and “RURAL POOR” which were used to discriminate the rural population in Sri Lanka.

    Donald Gamiitillake
    Colombo

  137. I have been to Mahavilachchiya several times. I don’t see Harsha using the word poor. Though these kids have done their best with IT and English, still they live in small houses without a proper bathroom, etc. Roads from Oyamaduwa (where the Mahavilachchiya DS Division starts and the huge ICTA billboard is displayed) to Horizon and other parts of the village and up to Tantirimale are in very bad conditions.

    A person who visits MV for a pleasure trip on a Four Wheel Drive will find it exciting as new technology like WiFi, mesh, mobile coverage, fixed lines etc. are there. But the people in MV have to suffer without proper medical, educational, transport facilities and they are unable to sell their crops. I saw how much lime, mangoes, wood apple, pumpkin, tomatoes, etc rot away without buyers. Are you asking these kids to start a Jam Factory? These kids are still doing their OLs and ALs.

    At least the government should take actions to do their part. What happened to all those media hypes after the top government officials’ visit.

    The visible and invisible positive developments in MV have happened due to these kids and the people who guide them. Government has not done its duty yet. Is Harsha the government? Harsha only promoted MV in his discussion and used general comments about everywhere else in the country. See all the manuals released by WB, UN organizations, etc. This is the language used by professionals in these issues. A person like Harsha who is an economic analyst as i see, cannot change the meaning of the words. Only the governments, private sector and philanthropists like you all can do it. That should be done by aligning you all in a common front rather than fighting against yourself and mock at someone’s two cent’s effort to promote a project. Learn to live in the reality. Do not live in a utopia at a time the country is heading for an Ethiopia. MTV should be commeneded for focusing on MV and flowing up rather than one off hype.

  138. you are going off the road “Visitor to MV”

    Harsha used the word “poor’ “Rural Poor” several times in the program
    This is the problem. If you have not seen you cannot comment about it.

    “Jam Factory” — learn the harvest management. If possible to make not only Jam but a packing factory to send the fresh vegitables to the city and abroad. Export the brand “Mahavilachchiya”
    Make it a Super Brand .

    Economic Development of ICT is that.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  139. I was at the Cargills Nawala

    I was surprised by how a manager was trying to get the remaining count off the shelves.

    I asked him what he was doing.

    Manager “ taking the count in the shelf”

    I asked him why can’t he use a PDA

    Manager “Our system is not that advance, experience make it easy to get the count on the shelf”

    I asked him when a product is moved from the storeroom into the shelf why don’t you input that data into the computer.

    Manager “ Our product count is what is in the stores and shelfs taken as an one unit”

    I told him if you have the count taken in three phases. 1. Store count 2. When the product is moved to shelf the second count 3 when the product is sold the third count.
    Every hour if you run the program you will exactly know which product is moving and how it has to be replaced. Rather running around with two girls and a note book jotting the counts.

    Manager “ nothing is 100% accurate manual counting is better”

    I just do not understand the thinking and the thinking of the software maker who did the program for Cargills!!!!

    All are book smart guys!!!!!

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  140. Dear Mr Perfect (Donald),

    Over the past few months you had been talking about “perfect solutions” on language software, exporting pathola to USA, and now harvest management and perfecting Cargills software!!!! Can we see any of your perfected solutions being implemented anywhere in the world. Please don’t talk about your so called language book because it is only in a book. Not used or accepted anywhere.

    1. ICTA has released a language solution an this is being used in various places without much hassle now.
    2. Exporting pathola or 4. harvest management can be done by the government or the private sector companies and it is too much asking those kids in MV barely speak English and do the basics webdesigning without using much of new concepts like programming languages and WEB 2.0 concepts. They will need more time to go ahead as they are very young and the staff also is not IT techies. What they teach is the basics and what I heard was they have even problems in paying the staff. Despite all that they are doing some goo work and students keep performing.
    3. Not only Cargills, even the top banks in Sri Lanka are still using the manual book keeping because there are a lot of system crashes, unexpected power cuts and stored data can be damaged due to a terrorist attack etc.

    Be practical. You are the booksmart guy, not the others who do some stunning work. Please line p what you have DONE rather than criticizing others.

    The more you write in this blog the more stupidity you show the whole world.

  141. Ohoma yan. Ohoma yan.

    I am very glad the subject of this thread had changed. Nobody talks about me now. So I can sleep peacefully.

    Otherwise everyday I have nightmares of Donald coming and kicking me out of ICTA like a football to Narahenpita kunu ela.

  142. More I write the knowledge of the IT guys who develop software in Sri Lanka shows up.

    As you said correctly the banks too have serious problems they have no REM area to keep certain instructions.

    You are quibbling about attacks power cuts etc all show the weak IT administration of our country.

    When I point IT errors and facts you guys get hurt. Admit the errors and correct them.

    If you want to see the solutions give me four segments on “biz1st in focus”.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  143. Donald, makes a valid point to certain extent.

    Supply chain management is critical in the retail marketing business. Walmart, a company who produced nothing build its retail marketing empire largely thanks to its effectiveness in effectively managing the supply chain.

    However, Donald, Cargills is a private company. You do not have any right to force them to use any solution you think best. If they are happy with their manual system, you can do nothing about that. If you are not happy about their service you can move to another retail chain.

    On the other hand, if any government agency does not deliver the service effectively you have all the rights to critisise it. That is because government services are a monopoly and you do not have another choice.

  144. Since we are in the subject of retail marketing, this information might be useful.

    In most of the developed countries retail marketing stores also provide few PCs so that the consumers can surf Internet. Some even provide wireless networks so that they can bring in their laptops.

    Instead of setting up Nenasalas at temples, where nobody uses them why don’t ICTA set up telecentres at the retain marketing stores like Cargills? They are easy to maintain and I am sure the usage rates will definitely improve.

    Any thoughts?

    (Why does ICTA never responds when we raise issues regarding Nenasalas in this forum? Do they think they know all and do not need any feedback from the people of ths country?)

  145. See how IE shows unicode sinhala page http://www.flickr.com/photos/7528191@N04/443189846/ and how Mozilla Firefox shows it at http://www.flickr.com/photos/7528191@N04/443179050/

    can someone upload pics to show how it looks in differnet OSs, and browsers to flickr.com please? Please add the comments as well. Also ensure commets are also added to this thread with the link to relevant image.

    http://www.flickr.com
    Username: software_issues_in_srilanka
    Password dinosamsung

  146. Donald,

    Visit those flickr links above and see how Dino is laughing at you. :-)

  147. Cargills is private. So it should do better than the public sector. They do use a computer. They will have to add one more input step to make it more profitable.

    Lack of proper knowledge to understand the management of Supply chain.

    How many times have you been to any store in Sri Lanka and found that the product you want is out of stock!!!!

    if Cargills use the and manage the Supply chain using a correct computer aid they can make more sales and profits.

    Same rule applies to other shops too

    Nanasala
    – yes it is nice to have free computers kept on super markets and other public places.
    First we got to solve the Language issue!!!

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  148. First we got to solve the Language issue!!! —- According to what is there at flickr, problem is already solved I think.

  149. Langauge issues are solved.

    Central Bank of Sri Lanka now goes online in all three languages. Have a look and see.

    http://www.cbsl.gov.lk

  150. Warnasena Rasaputram

    Cabraal,

    Visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/7528191@N04/ Anyway, my hopes were not high. It is the same old problem. Who is fooling who. Why not give a chance to Donald in this case as all these solutions fail?

  151. A Sample of my character allocation table for sinhala is published in Flickr
    More can be discussed if I am given a segments on “biz1st in focus” With Flickr images.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  152. Rasaputra's daughter

    It looks like Central Bank of Sri Lanka is not using Unicode compatible fonts.

    In post 122 Wasantha Deshapriya says: You may also be interested in knowing that the Secretary to the President, Mr. Lalith Weeratunga issued a Circular on 2007-03-18 informing that all the government organizations should use Sinhala Unicode fonts which conforms to SLS 1134 for computing in Sinhala.

    So how come Central Bank of Sri Lanka neglects this circular and go their own way?

    Looks like Central Bank says to ICTA go and fly a kite. We do whatever we want.

    Very Bad. Very Bad.

  153. Mage Kalla Marey, – You can write any nonsense here. But my bag is full. See below. – VKS

    Samsung Networks Inc. CEO visits ICTA http://icta.lk/Insidepages/News&event/220307whatsnew.asp

    22nd March 2007

    Having identified the high potential in Sri Lanka’s ICT development, the Chief Executive Officer of Samsung Networks Inc. Mr. Yang Gyu Park paid a visit to the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka [ICTA] today.
    Mr. Park, who is responsible for Samsung Networks’ strategic vision led a top-level delegation to Sri Lanka, accompanied by Mr. Dae Hee Kim, Vice President, Samsung Networks Inc. The delegation also met high ranking government officials while on their visit here.

    Samsung Networks Inc. was selected through a transparent tender process for the implementation and management of the ICTA’s Lanka Government Network [LGN] project. The LGN is funded by the Government of Korea.

    Mr. Park said, “The LGN is extremely important towards the Government of Sri Lanka. I would like to reiterate Samsung’s continuous support towards ICTA and the LGN project.”

    According to Professor V.K. Samaranayake, Chairman, ICTA, “We were delighted to host Mr. Park on his official visit here and to explain the uniqueness of the e-Sri Lanka initiative.”

    Implementation of the LGN Project is in progress with 25% of the Western Province government organizations completed under the first phase. The LGN hub and the Network Operations Center (NOC) are also in operation.

    The LGN being a strategic project of the ICTA’s Re-Engineering Government programme would equip and digitally connect a large number of District and Divisional Secretariats, Ministries and key Government Departments to each other to ensure an interchange of information as well as to provide ICT based citizen services.

    The network will be a highly available, secure and reliable backbone that connects all the organizations (initially 325 locations) of the Government of Sri Lanka. The organizations will be equipped with Internet, Email and IP based government-to-government voice services. The project will also address the basic hardware and Local Area Network (LAN) needs of the connected government organizations including providing Wide Area Network (WAN) connectivity to the LGN Hub. Additionally, a help desk, desk-side support and training will be supplied.

    In this respect, the Lanka Government Network will form the backbone infrastructure for the Government of Sri Lanka, being the enabler to fulfill the ICT requirements to link up all government agencies for seamless interaction and efficient services to citizens, thus creating a “Connected Government”.

  154. I have asked this question several times – nobody answers

    How one would know whether a Sinhala Font is Unicode compatible or NOT?

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  155. See there, my dad is very intelligent. He got his share from Samsung last week.

    We are going to buy a private jet soon.

    See ya!

  156. Interesting clip on you tube!!!! Donald attacking VKS Watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWu7VTB_jxQ

  157. Bastard Son of VKS

    Poor Donald,

    Don’t you understand this part in ICTA website article above?

    [According to Professor V.K. Samaranayake, Chairman, ICTA, “We were delighted to host Mr. Park on his official visit here and to explain the uniqueness of the e-Sri Lanka initiative.”]

  158. Why do I get this message when triying to make a comment in this thread?

    Kind-a-Captcha

    Please type the code below in the input field and click on Submit (characters can only be letters from A to F and digits from 0 to 9).

  159. Man, I did not know VK Sam is this scared about the things what we discuss here in Lirneasia blog!!

    After somebody brought up the issue here (post 153 Kalla Marey) ICTA had removed the link to the news item about the visit of Samsung Networks Inc. CEO for its site!!!

    Earlier it was there above the item ‘BPO in Sri Lanka: A Sector Analysis’ Now it is no longer there!!!

    Sam, why are you this scared? If the tender process is TRANSPARENT why do you go to this length to hide your affiliations to Samsung Networks?

  160. Donald,

    Have you seen how ICTA had published the name of its CEO in its site at http://icta.lk/Sinhala/Insidepages/ICTA/BOFD.asp?

    In Engish his name is given as Chandima Rasaputra but in Sinhala it is written as Chandima Rasaputru. (චන්දිම රසපුතෘ)

    Do you think this is because SLS 1134 cannot put a ‘raakaransaya’ at the end of a word? (There are many examples it has been used in the middle of words)

    So you might now want to challenge the new CEO to write his name using the SLS 1134 standard.

  161. Donald,

    With reference to post No. 160.

    For your convenience I have uploaded the relevant section of the page at http://tinyurl.com/2c6fwh

    Pl have a look.

  162. Donald's Friend No. 2

    Donald,

    With reference to post No. 160.

    For your convenience I have uploaded the relevant section of the page at http://tinyurl.com/2c6fwh

    Pl have a look.

  163. Donald's friend No 2 post

    Donald,

    With reference to post No. 160.

    For your convenience I have uploaded the relevant section of the page at http://tinyurl.com/2c6fwh

    Pl have a look.

  164. I wrote the following mail to CEO ICTA with a copy to Mr Lalith and Mr. Wasantha

    Dear Mr Chandima

    Please visit your ICTA website

    http://icta.lk/Sinhala/Insidepages/ICTA/BOFD.asp

    Your name as all of us know is Rasaputhra
    BUT in the Sinhala site it is “tru” –

    Your name cannot be written in Sinhala SLSI 1134 or Sinhala unicode correctly.
    If you support the SLSI 1134 show your name written correctly in Sinhala Language.

    Please see more on
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/7528191@N04/

    Warm regards

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  165. I don’t see new CEO’s name in the home page!!!! All I see is this. Where does C RasaputrU fit into?

    Transitional arrangements at ICTA
    The Board of Directors of ICTA at a special meeting held on Monday 31st July 2006 set in motion the following transitional arrangements until such time the CEO is recruited to ensure that the work of ICTA and e-Sri Lanka is continued without interruption.

    A Leadership Team, consisting of Program Directors Messrs Reshan Dewapura (Chair), Wasantha Deshapriya, Suresh Bartlett and the Legal Advisor Mr Jayantha Fernando was appointed to take all operational and management decisions that would normally have been taken by the CEO. Mr. Dewapura in his capacity as the Chair of the Leadership team will be the authorized signatory for ICTA.

  166. Hidden link is still active. http://icta.lk/Insidepages/News&event/220307whatsnew.asp

    Now VK will not dare to remove this. What awaits VK is what happened to Tilanga Sumathipala. A top inquiry is going on in LGN issue right at this moment by an officieal body.

  167. Whatever the reason VKS has taken the story out only from new items in the English version. It is there in Sinhala version. (Perhaps they might remove it now)

    Please see at http://www.icta.lk/Sinhala/Insidepages/News&event/220307whatsnew.asp

    The item itself shows VKS’s faithful obedience to his pay master.

    Examples:

    ශ්රී ලංකාවේ තොරතුරු සහ සන්නිවේදන තාක්ෂණ නියෝජිතායතනයට සැම්සුම් නෙට්වක්ස් ඉන්කෝපරේටඩ් ආයතනයේ ප්රධාන විධායක නිලධාරිතුමා පැමිණීම

    Please Note: ‘Niladhari THUMA’

    Who gives this type of respect just for a vendor?

    This is the gem!

    පාක් මහතාට ඔහුගේ නිල සංචාරයේ ආගන්තුක සංග්රහ කිරීම සහ ඊ–ලංකා මෙහෙයේ විශේෂත්වය පැහැදිලි කිරීමට හැකිවීම ගැන අප මහත් ප්රීතියට පත්ව සිටිනවා˝ යැයි ශ්රී ලංකාවේ තොරතුරු සහ සන්නිවේදන තාක්ෂණ නියෝජිතායතනයේ සභාපති මහාචාර්ය වී. කේ. සමරනායක මහතා පැවසීය.

    Yes, I am sure it would have been such a great pleasure for VKS!

    And please see this:

    සියලුම රජයේ නියෝජිතායතනයන් වාටි මූට්ටු සහිත අන්තර් ක්රියාවලියකට සම්බන්ධ කර කාර්යක්ෂම සේවාවක් රට වැසියාට නිර්මාණය කරනු ලබන මෙය ˝ සබැඳි රාඡ්යය˝ නිර්මාණය කරයි.

    Can anyone tell me what this ‘vaati moottu’ thing is?

  168. I gueass ‘vaati moottu’ must be the either the ridiculous translation of “highly available” or “secure and reliable backbone” it seems. ICTA must be having a very good “transleshakaya” in it. He/she will even beat someone like Arisen Ahubudu or Kumaratunga Munidasa it seems.

  169. You could see the jpeg image at
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/7528191@N04/

    or for better view see my site

    http://www.akuru.org/images/ICTA doc.jpg

    Dear Mr Lalith Weeratunge

    Further to my mails I am enclosing a jpeg image of the ICTA sinhala web site.
    This is actually what the public could see. Is this SLSI 1134 Sinhala or a new Sinhala language created by the ICTA chairman and his Group.

    Sir the Sinhala SLSI1134 is incorrect and incomplete the unicode Sinhala is also fall in line with the SLSI.

    Please see how they have written your name. (and other names too)
    I think it is a disgrace for you to be there with names written like that.
    What do the public think of you Sir?

    I am the only qualified individual who can solve this problem.

    I am confident that I have proved the case beyond reasonable doubt that the ICTA SLSI sinhala solution is incorrect.

    Best regards

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  170. Correction of the URL— I have corrected it please visit

    http://www.akuru.org/images/ICTA22.jpg

    Donald Gaminitillake

  171. Donald,

    Please do not act like a fool.

    If you start writing mails like this to Mr. Weeratunge about your ‘maha padaranga jaathakaya’ he too will be bored to death and will lose all his interest in ICT.

    Mr. Lalith Weeratunge is one of the few top government officers who are genuinely concerned about the country. Please do not be a nuisance to such people. He has so much other work rather than reading your emails.

    Why dont you meet Prof. V.K.Samaranayake personally and settle these issues? If you write to him won’t he give an appointment to you? Why don’t you write to Wasantha and ask for an appointment with Prof.?

  172. Mr Weeratunga as a responsible government servant with a good track record will not throw anything to the dust bin without giving proper attention. That is why he is respected even by Sunday Leader as the ONLY HOPE or ONLY RESPONSIBLE OFFICIAL in the government. So, Donald has all the rights to writing to the relevant authority or the person whom he trust as a Concerned Citizen in the country. In India, any individual from the lowest platform of the social ladder can go to courts to help solve an issue to a street, city or the Nation without much hassle and there are thousands of lawyers to support the causes free of charge there. I don’t know the situation in Sri Lanka in this regard.

    My all concern is, why VK is hiding in this picture at the link below as he is the kind of guy who will not miss a photo opportunity even by covering the face of the President of Sri Lanka or UN’s General Secretary. He loves being photographed, videoed and being shown on TV even for nonsensical discussions. Such a person is hiding from the camera in the Samsung event. Hope the camera was made by Sony or Kodak, not Sam Sung.

    http://www.icta.lk/Sinhala/Insidepages/News&event/220307whatsnew.asp This picture may raise eyebrows of many. Because this not the VK you and I know. He must be scared of what happened to Sripathi and Thilanga. He is too old to undergo RI rigorous imprisonment at this Wala Payay Goda Payay stage.

  173. Read this in the link in IE http://www.icta.lk/Sinhala/Insidepages/News&event/220307whatsnew.asp

    ශ්‍රී ලංකා තොරතුරු සහ සන්නිවේදන තාක්ෂණ නියෝජිතායතනයේ ශ්‍රී ලංකා රාජ්‍ය ජාලය ව්‍යාපෘතිය ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීම සහ කළමනාකාරිත්වය සඳහා “ඉතා පැහැදිලි මිළ ගණන් කැඳවා තෝරා ගැනීමේ ක්‍රියා පටිපාටියකට අනුව සැම්සුම් නෙට්වක්ස් ඉන්කෝපරේටඩ් ආයතනය තෝරා ගන්නා ලදී.” ශ්‍රී ලංකා රාජ්‍ය ජාලය ව්‍යාපෘතිය සඳහා මූල්‍යධාර සපයනු ලබන්නේ කොරියා රජය විසිනි.

    Never in the history such a statement was mentioned in the press about a deal. “Ithaa Pehedili Mila Ganan Kendawa…..” (Calling for the best quotations) sugests the good old cliche PUHUL HORA KAREN DENEY. VK must be wiping out the ashes of the puhul gediya by hiding in that CONTRVERSIL UNAURTHODOX picture.

  174. Mr Banda, Why you worry about my writings to Mr Weeratunge?

    I have met Prof Samaranayake and his 20 odd battalion at the public meeting at SLSI. I made my objections and told them todays results few years ago.

    Technically what you see in that image image is all the sinhala code points registered with the SLSI.

    eg
    “Tu” is not registered in the SLSI therefore you will not see this character. Same applies to “ru” “ku” “Sri” etc stc

    All Sinhala Characters has to be registered with the SLSI.

    All what ICTA and Prof has to do is go back to SLSI take my objection report and invite me to Solve it.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  175. This world is full of jealous people. Why are you against me earning a fast buck from Samsung?

    Donald, do you pay for the tuition fees of my son in US? If not Samsung who will do that for me?

    I am indebted forever to Samsung for the favours they have done to me and I am glad to repay their kindness by treating them well when they were here.

    Dino

  176. Today I saw a pile of Samsung Computers and monitors in a Ministry.

    I will get some specs soon after the newyear

    Ha ha ha

  177. Mail sent to Mr. Weeratunge with copies to key IT professionals in Sri Lanka

    ICTA and Microsoft

    Dear Lalith Weeratunge Sir,

    Since ICTA is under the Presidential Secretariat, I think finding answers to following questions will be important to you.

    1. Why, when it is possible to have free Open Source software OS (Linux) in the LGN PCs, the Evaluation Committee, chaired by a Professor Emeritus, approved Windows XP OS at an additional cost of US$ 1 mil? Is it because the Professor Emeritus has forgotten his Maths due to old age?

    2. How many officials in ICTA receive ‘free tickets’ to their international conferences with air travel and accommodation fully paid by companies like Microsoft?

    3. Knowing such ‘free invitations’ are clearly thinly disguised ‘bribes’ why ICTA senior officials accept such invitations from the companies they purchase products in large volumes?

    4. How many ICTA officials attend the promotional campaigns of big companies like Microsoft, Intel, Cisco etc? Is this the job of the government servants? Why these companies are the same ones ICTA procures products in large volumes?

    Sir, we know you are an honest government officer praised even by Sunday Leader. Do you approve the senior ICTA officers running errands for big IT guys in the market and accepting the fully paid foreign trips from them?

    Sir, you may also want to call the ICTA chairman for a list of ICTA officers who have either already attended or plan to attend conferences fully paid by the big private companies, from ICTA purchases products in bulk volumes.

    Over to you sir.

    Yours Faithfully,
    Roshan Bandara (citizen of Lanka)

  178. See the wonderfulr translation of ICTA.

    Original English Version

    “The network will be a highly available, secure and reliable backbone that connects all the organizations (initially 325 locations) of the Government of Sri Lanka. The organizations will be equipped with Internet, Email and IP based government-to-government voice services. The project will also address the basic hardware and Local Area Network (LAN) needs of the connected government organizations including providing Wide Area Network (WAN) connectivity to the LGN Hub. Additionally, a help desk, desk-side support and training will be supplied.”

    Sinhala Translation

    මෙම ජාලය රජයේ සියලුම ආයතන (මූලිකව ස්ථාන 325ක) එකිනෙකට එක් කරන්නා වූ අතිශය ආරක්ෂිත මෙන්ම විස්වාසනීය වූ “මධ්‍යගත කශේරුකාමය” ගොඩනැන්වූමකි. අන්තර්ජාල පහසුකම්‚ විද්‍යුත් තැපැල් පහසුකම් මෙන්ම අයි. පී. අංක පදනම් කරගත් රජයේ විවිධ අංශයන් යා කරන දුරකථන සේවාවන් ද ආයතන සඳහා සූදානම් කර ඇත. මෙම ව්‍යාපෘතියේදී මෙම ආයතන එක් කිරීමට යොදා ගන්නා වූ ලෑන්–වෑන් වැනි තාක්ෂණයන් පිළිබඳව ද කරුණු සොයා බැලේ. මේවාට අමතරව‚ සහාය සේවා හා පුහුණුව ආදිය ද ලබා දෙනු ඇත.

    “මධ්‍යගත කශේරුකාමය” = backbone ?????? What Sinhala is this? Who will understand this rubbish? Is this taking ICT to masses? This sounds like Esperanto!!!!!! Sensible people know how ridiculous is directly translating technical content into another language. At least please read Sinhala computer magazines. They have created better words than you guys do. Don’t be this ridiculous over and over making ICTA a laughing stock.

    I feel Manju H used much better Sinhala than this “transleshakaya” at ICTA

  179. http://www.flickr.com/photos/7528191@N04/?saved=1

    ref to 175 I just cannot read this new Sinhala. (I have uploaded into flickr)
    I hope helaya will be able give us tuition to read the above Language.

    This may be Dino’s new mathematical compressed version of our language.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  180. Dear Roshan Bandara,

    In your post 174, you reveal only the tip of the ice berg.

    Sam has been in the payroll of so many big guys that one might wonder why not GOSL offers him an award for the ‘Country Manager’ of the highest number of multinational ICT companies in SL. He has ‘represented’ multinationals in Sri Lanka since his Colombo University days, but obviously the activities have expanded after he moved to ICTA.

    However , let me be fair. Unlike most of the others who has this type of ‘additional’ income sources, Sam has so far been very smart. He does not show any signs of that locally. He lives in a small one storied house at Etul Kotte, (near the Petrol Station) uses a relatively old vehicle and has only few suits. (You might have seen how he wears one old red tie everyday) So one is forgiven for wondering what everybody says about him is true. One always wonders if Sam earns so much what happens to all that money.

    You can find an answer if you query the immigration department (now they have all this data in their computers) how many times Sam and his wife travelled overseas, where did they go, where did they stay and for what purpose (business or leisure) You may also want to check what wire transfers he had made to his two sons (not one) in USA. Not to mention any overseas property in foreign countries he or his spouse has.

    If you do this, believe me, you will be very surprised. Knowing the meager salaries offered at local universities one might wonder how he could afford such luxury life in overseas in the past.

    It is a pity that even Sunday Leader does not possess that information.

    Long live Samsung!

    Long live Microsoft!

    Long live Intel!

  181. To 177

    Yes it has been seen on Intel iMac running Windows XP on IE browser
    You can come over and see it yourself

    The problem is with the code points not registered in the Unicode or in the SLSI
    Please understand this issue.

    “TU” is not a registered code point in Unicode for Sinhala and in the SLSI.

    many more (thousands) are not registered in the unicode or in the SLSI 1134

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  182. To 177
    What you see and others see is quite different

    You will have to specify your computer environment
    The basic hardware spec of the computer, The Operating system. Font sets, applications.

    So only on that computer environment you will be able to see the sinhala as you have published.

    Any change in computer environment one would see rubbish.

    First accept this. If you accept this fact the rest is simple to understand.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  183. All the other countries have e-gov centres. We are not satisfied just having an e-gov centre. We want a HONOURABLE e-gov centre. (Gauravaneeya e-raajya Kendraya)

    Now, please do not laugh. That is what ICTA site says.

    (http://www.icta.lk/Sinhala/Insidepages/programmes/eGovernmentCentreofExcellence.asp)

    Please read below.

    ගෞරවනීය ඉ රාජ්‍ය කේන්ද්‍රය

    ව්‍යාපෘති නම: ගරු ඉ – රාජ්‍ය කේන්ද්‍රය.

    වැඩසටහන් කලාපය: ICT මානව සබඳතා ධාරිතා ප්‍රවර්ධනය

    ව්‍යාපෘති අරමුණ: ගරු ඉ – රාජ්‍ය කේන්ද්‍රය (COE) ඉලක්ක කොට ඉ රාජ්‍ය ප්‍රාවර්ධන හා රාජ්‍ය පෙර සුදුනම් හා ධාරිතා ප්‍රවර්ධනය

    ව්‍යාපෘති විස්තරය: COE හරහා ලොවපුරාම විධිමත්, පුහුණු, සාර්ථික ඉ – රාජ්‍ය සේවාවක් උදේසා ජීවමාන යථාර්ථයක් කිරීම සිදුකෙරේ. වැදගත්ම දෙය නම් මේ හරහා පුද්ගලික හො පොදු ජනයා අතර සබදතාවයි.

    COE ශ්‍රි ලංකා සංවර්ධන අධිකාරී ආයතනය හා බද්ධ ව ලංකාවේ ‍රාජ්‍ය ආයතන ප්‍රවර්ධනයට දායකවේ. මෘදුකාංග වර්ධනය හා ඉ – රාජ්‍ය යෙදවුම් ප්‍රදර්ශනය හා දැන්වීම් ඔරකල් ආයතනයෙන් සිදුවේ. අනෙකුත් දායකයන් ලෙස SUN මයික්‍රොසිස්ටම්, ඩිස්කො, සහශ්‍ර තොරතුරු තාක්ෂණ (MIT) හා ‘PC හවුස්’ මෘදුකාංග හා දෘනාංග අංශයෙන් ද, ඊට අමතරව දෙස්විදෙස් සබඳතාව්‍යයෙන් ද සමන්විත. CEO ක්‍රියාත්මක වීම ICT යටතේ පාලිත අතර සමාන්තර ක්‍රියාකරකම්, රාජ්‍ය ප්‍රවර්ධන හා ICT මානව සබඳතා ධාරිතා ප්‍රවර්ධ ආදී ඉ ඉංජීනේරුකරණ රාජ්‍ය වැඩසටහන් ‘ඉ – ශ්‍රි ලංකා’ ව්‍යාපෘතියටම අනුබද්ධය.

    COE හරහා කළමණකරණය වන රාජ්‍ය සංවර්ධන හා ඉ – රාජ්‍ය වියදම් ද දල සංකල්පගත කිරී‍ම් ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීමේ විශේෂඥයින් ද සහයක කළමනාකරණය සිදුවේ. COE හරහා ඉ රාජ්‍ය වැඩමුළු ‍සේවා සංවිධානයක් ලාංකීය හා විදේස් යන අංශ දෙකෙන්ම සිදුකෙරේ. ‍හදුනාගන්නා ලද උපක්‍රම යටතේ රාජ්‍ය අංශ ප්‍රවර්ධන උ‍පදෙස් ලබාදීමටද ICTA බලාපොරොත්තු වන අතර ක්‍රමවේද හා විසදුම් අවශ්‍ය විට දී ඉ – රාජ්‍ය පිරිවැය අවම කිරීම් නියෝජිතයකු ලෙස ජනතාවට උපරිම සුභසෙත සැලසීමට හැකියාව ද සලසෙනු ඇත.

    Can anyone tell me what ‘kunuharupa’ they talk here?

    Who are පුද්ගලික හො පොදු ජනයා (private or public people)?

    Does සහශ්‍ර තොරතුරු තාක්ෂණ mean Millennium IT? (Tony Weerasinghe will commit suicide if he sees this!!)

    Who or what is ඩිස්කො?

    Who are දල සංකල්පගත කිරී‍ම් ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීමේ විශේෂඥයින් (Experts in activating rough concepts?)?

    Can’t ICTA recruit a proper translator?

    VKS, you will go to සතර අපාය (Sathara Apaaya) for destroying the Sinhalese Language in this manner.

  184. Dear 177

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/7528191@N04/454072773/

    I have taken a digital image in IE running windows XP on intel iMac
    See the rubbish sinhala

    Can you read??

    Now we are having two problems.
    1. unreadable SInhala text in web
    2. Funny Sinhala introduced by the ICTA

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  185. Referring to flicker image

    You have readable sinhala why others have unreadable sinhala?
    Take the first letter “gau” you see it in sequence of normal Sinhala and in the other one it is seen as listed on SLSI 1134 sequence.
    “Ga” comes before the “kombwa” in the SLSI 1134 or sinhala unicode.

    The hidden commands go missing when read on some computers.The computer list them according to the SLSI 1134 or unicode sequence. using only the listed characters in registered in Sinhala unicode.

    Now accept this fact. We got to re register all the sinhala characters in the SLSI as I have given (c) Donald

    You never mentioned your computer specs. Also all this is because the SLSI 1134 is incorrect and incomplete. The people who made has only typewriter knowledge and trying a computer to work as a type writer.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  186. Sinhala mobile internet - lankadeepa

    Today Lankadeepa Advert – Sinhala mobile browser is releaased for download by Dialog. As per the paper clip there seems to be interesting content. So seems like sinhala browsing is now possible on mobiles.

  187. “sinhala browsing”
    What does this mean?
    One could read Dialogs ads etc in Sinhala or menu in sinhala
    Problem still there — as the Sinhala Text will not be compatible across other platforms.

    Trying to do advance stuff without correcting the basics will lead to disaster

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  188. Sinhala mobile internet - lankadeepa

    Why dont you try it out if you have a mobile phone rather than ranting on a thread. As per all above, all I can see is rant, rant, rant. At least other companies are taking technologies forward rather than ranting and doing nothing. I think failing to understand what others are doing and blidingly ranting seems to be your problem. I think you are absolute STUPID who is stuck in stone age.

  189. 185
    You can write in English because the Text is compatible across all net works and OS
    Sinhala too has to be in the same standard.
    I rant for this right. I tell the truth.
    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  190. I am a student from the University of Moratuwa, reading for my MSC in IT. As a part of my research project (“Possible contribution of blogs to development of ICT” is my research theme) I studied the effects of this blog. I would like to write down my initial findings as well as how I see it from the point of an IT master student.

    Topics Discussed

    There is only one common issue discussed in relation to the topic of the blog. i.e. Sinhala localization software. Lanka Government Network has also discussed though it is not a software issue. 90% blogs are defamatory from anonymous bloggers who have used this forum to level accusations (which is the popular past time of Sri Lankans ☺).

    Bloggers

    In general very few bloggers have used their names in addition to 3 Donald Gaminitillake who is appearing in almost between every other 2 blogs (out of total 1290 blogs (upto 10th April 2007), approximately 330 (26%) blogs are under his name). Those who are appearing by name in thread one (http://www.lirneasia.net/2006/04/questioning-ict-myths/) are 11 Sandhya Herath, 14 Nalaka Gunawardene, 24 Harsha Purasinghe, 25 Palitha Manukulasuriya, 43 Wasantha Deshapriya, 64 Harshula Jayasooriya, 72 Dharma Gamage, 84 JC Ahangama, 113 Suhada Sedara, 119 L Siriwardena, 199 Ruvan Weerasinghe. All others have pen or nick names which range from Siddhalepa weda mahathtthaya to different species of Dinosaurs.

    Some of above names are known names working in government or private organizations.

    Content

    I focused only on the Sinhala localization issue and tried to impartially analyze this issue discussed here in detail to assess.

    According to few bloggers who have written in their given names (I hope they are genuine people with genuine names) CINTEC and UCSC have started the Sinhala Localization process in 1980s to build the Sinhala character set for Unicode and finally succeeded in 2004 to get a widely acceptable character set with relevant page codes.

    Usability of Sinhala Unicode

    MS OS; ICTA with the support of industry (Microsoft, Microimage, ANCL etc) has developed a Sinhala tool kit for Windows XP which is freely downloadable from http://www.fonts.lk and you can obtain it in a CD from ICTA. Windows Vista has come with some Sinhala support and before the end of the year Vista will be fully supporting computing in Sinhala.

    Linux has been supporting Unicode Sinhala for more than 2 years and all popular Linux flavours including Red hat are supporting computing in Sinhala through Unicode.

    Office packages: MS Office 2003 is Sinhala Unicode compliant bit nothing is mentioned about Office 2007. Open Office 2.0 is also Sinhala Unicode compliant.

    Databases; MS SQL server, Oracle, MySQL are working to provide Sinhala search and sort. (Oracle and MS SQL are already compliant).

    Other products; UCSC has developed and demonstrated their tools for Sinhala OCR, Sinhala text-to-speech conversion, Sinhala lexicon with some translations to Tamil and English and also they have come up with a large Sinhala Corpus (visit http://www.ucsc.cmb.ac.lk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=221&Itemid=106 ). ICTA has built more than 50 websites with content management support provided through MS Access, MS SQL and My SQL. (visit http://www.gidc.gov.lk for the list)

    Vendor products; Microimage and Thibus have developed commercial software products to facilitate computing using Sinhala Unicode. Shilpasayura.org which is a digital learning package developed by eFusion is powered by Unicode.

    Web browsers and websites; IE 6 and IE 7 are Sinhala Unicode compliant but none of other browsers are supporting Sinhala Unicode. ICTA has developed approximately 50 websites with Sinhala Unicode support. All those websites are listed at http://www.gidc.gov.lk.

    Unresolved areas: It is not clear when other major products such as Mac, Firefox Mozilla and PostgreSQL would be providing Sinhala Unicode support.

    Most of the answers to queries raised by Donald Gaminitilake are archived at http://anuradha-ratnaweera.blogspot.com/2006/03/is-sinhala-unicode-incomplete.html.

    (I gathered all above facts from the blog, though I had to spend nearly 24 hours to go through all 6 threads)

    Conclusions;

    Content; Having analyzed the facts in above blogs and even spoken to some bloggers (who even demonstrated the Unicode capability in different platforms) it is a fact that Sinhala Unicode as per SLS 1134 is complete and here to stay regardless of complaints by few bloggers . It is also proven (usability and exchangeability/interoperability of Sinhala Unicode) by the fact that this blog which was earlier predominantly against Sinhala Unicode has now started to criticize Sinhala Unicode text which appears in ICTA web site by copying and pasting such texts to this blog. It proves that Sinhala Unicode can be read by all and even exchanged between different platforms.

    Impact of the blog: If you analyze the content of the latest threads (software issues 5 & 6) irrespective of the writers, one would decide that Sinhala Unicode is incomplete which is the incorrect notion given by the repetitive blogs submitted by dominating Donald Gaminitilake. In this aspect LIRNEasia blog is having a negative impact on the development of ICT in Sri Lanka.

  191. Pro_ICT_but_not_ICTA

    I checked all web pages mentioned by Donald and postings no 175 and 180 but could not find any thing wrong with those sites. ICTA has corrected “Honourable eGOv Centre” and LGN page.
    I also checked few websites done by ICTA too and in fairness to ICTA, I could not fing any thing wrong with them either. Sinhala websites are perfectly displayed in IE 7 in my comouter. I uploaded few sites to flickr. Pls try this link to see those.

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/7851142@N08/

    We should try to see the world in our own eyes but not only through Donald’s eyes.

  192. Dear 187

    Use a different computer Os like Vista or Apple or intel imac windows and firefox browser
    and post the same screen images

    Internet cannot be restricted to a single operating system and a browser.
    This is not the basis of internet and unicode

    Donald Gaminitillake

  193. Prof Gaminitillake,

    That means the solution is ok it is only a question of compatibility among other OSs and browsers. This an easy thing to do. IE and Windows are the widely used tools and they will do the needful for the rest as well.

  194. Solution is incorrect
    Go to the basic of internet and unicode

    —quote from unicode consortium——-

    What is Unicode?

    Unicode provides a unique number for every character,
    no matter what the platform,
    no matter what the program,
    no matter what the language.

    ———

    every one has to read the same text. if not it is not a solution. Just a gimmick.
    If all the Sinhala characters are registered with the SLSI this problem never arises.

    Accept the fact only on specific Operating system will be able to read Sinhala even windows XP running on a different computer with the same IE (intel i Mac) will not read correct sinhala.

    Also the text of what you have published will not be able to cut and paste to another application
    It will be rubbish.

    The SLSI and your solution has to be corrected by registering all the Sinhala characters in the SLSI. Only I have published and I have that right.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  195. http://www.flickr.com/photos/7528191@N04/ recent government sites can easily be copy and pasted in MS Word without any hassle.

  196. Copy to MS word running on Vista

    Copy on your system to Note pad and then to thibas and helawadena post all four.

    Donald

  197. 191 this is an image copy — only the “text” without back ground colour. Larger font size.
    Change the font into Kandy or kaputa or any ftwo or three fonts that you have and show a sample too
    Few lines would do.

    Donald

  198. Pro_ICT_but_not_pro_ICTA

    ICTA is catching up. They have corrected Honorable eGOV Centre and LGN pages.
    ඉ-රාජ්‍ය විශිෂ්ඨතා කේන්ද්‍රය

    ව්‍යාපෘති නම

    ඉ-රාජ්‍ය විශිෂ්ඨතා කේන්ද්‍රය.

    වැඩසටහන් කලාපය

    ICT මානව සබඳතා ධාරිතා ප්‍රවර්ධනය

    ව්‍යාපෘති අරමුණ

    ඉ-රාජ්‍ය පිළිබඳ දැනුම වර්ධනය, පෙර සුදුනම් හා ධාරිතා ප්‍රවර්ධනය ඉ – රාජ්‍ය විශිෂ්ඨතා කේන්ද්‍රය පිහිටුවීමේ අරමුණු වේ.

    ව්‍යාපෘති විස්තරය

    ඉ-රාජ්‍ය විශිෂ්ඨතා කේන්ද්‍රය හරහා ලොව සාර්ථක ඉ-රාජ්‍ය ක්‍රම වේද, මූලෝපායන් හා ව්‍යාපෘති නිදර්ශනය කෙරෙනු ඇත. එ මගින් ඉ-රාජ්‍ය කටයුතු පිළිබඳ රාජ්‍ය නිලධාරීන් දැනුවත් කිරීමෙන් හා ඔවුන්ගේ හැකියා වර්ධනය මගින් ඉ-රාජ්‍ය සාක්‍ෂාත් කර ගැනීමට යත්න දැරේ. වඩාත් ම මෙමගින් රාජ්‍ය-පුද්ගලික අංශ අතර හවුල් කාරිත්වයේ අසීමිත ශක්‍යතාවය ප්‍රදර්ශනය කෙරෙනු ඇත.

    ඉ-රාජ්‍ය විශිෂ්ඨතා කේන්ද්‍රය ශ්‍රි ලංකාවේ මානව ධාරිතා වර්ධනය හා සම්බන්‍ධ ආයතනයක් වන ශ්‍රි ලංකා සංවර්ධන පරිපාලන ආයතනයෙහි පිහිටුවා ඇත. මෙය ඔරකල්, සන් මයික්‍රොසිසටම්ස්, සිස්කො, මිලේනියම් අයි ටී හා පීසී හවුස්’ යන ආයතන වල හවුල් කාරිත්වයෙන් පිහිටුවා ඇත. ඉක්ටා ආයතනය මෙහි පාලන කටයුතු ඉටු කරන අතර එ මගින් ඉටු කෙරෙන රාජ්‍ය අංශයේ පුහුණු හා නිපුණතා සංවර්ධන කටයුතු මෙහි කටයුතු හා සමෝධානය කෙරේ.

    ඉ-රාජ්‍ය විශිෂ්ඨතා කේන්ද්‍රය සඳහා ම වෙන් වූ කළමණාකරුවකු සිටින අතර සංකල්ප සාධනය (proof of concept) සඳහා මෘදුකාංග සංවර්ධනය හවුල්කාරිත්ව පාර්ශවකරුවන්ගේ තාක්‍ෂණික විශේෂඥයින් අතින් සිදුවේ. ඉ-රාජ්‍ය විශිෂ්ඨතා වැඩමුළු ශ්‍රී ලාංකික හා විදේශික විශේෂඥයින්ගේ සහභාගිත්වයෙන් නොයෙකුත් ඉ-රාජ්‍ය තේමාවන් යටතේ සංවිධානය කෙරේ. ‍ ඉ-රාජ්‍ය විශිෂ්ඨතා කේන්ද්‍රය විසින් අවම හිමිකාර වියදමින් රජයට සහ පුරවැසියනට උපරිම ප්‍රතිලාභ ලබා ගත හැකි බවට හදුනා ගත් ක්‍රමවේද රාජ්‍ය ආයතන වෙත පෙන්වා දී එම උපක්‍රම යටතේ ඉ-රාජ්‍ය කටයුතු සදහා මග පෙන්වනු ඇත.

    ඉලක්ක කණ්ඩායම්

    රාජ්‍ය ආයතනවල ප්‍රධාන නවීකරණ නිලධාරීන් හා ජේෂ්ඨ කලමණාකරුවන්

    ව්‍යාපෘති ප්‍රතිඑල

    ඉ – රාජ්‍ය විශිෂ්ඨතා කේන්ද්‍රය සදහා මෘදුකාංග හා දෘඩකාංග සැපයුම, කේන්ද්‍රය ගොඩනැංවීම හා කේන්ද්‍ර කලමනාකරුවකු බඳවා ගැනීම

    දේශීය මෘදුකාංග ද ඇතුළුව සුප්‍රසිද්ධ ඉ- රාජ්‍ය මෘදුකාංග නිදර්ශනය

    සාර්ථික ඉ-රාජ්‍ය තාක්ෂණයන්, විසදුම් හා ක්‍රමවේද නිදර්ශනය, විෂය අධ්‍යයන හා තාක්ෂණ විචාර

    ශ්‍රි ලංකාවේ හා විදේශ විශේෂඥ දායකත්වයෙන් ධාරිතා ප්‍රවර්ධනය සඳහා ඉ-රාජ්‍ය වැඩමුළු පැවැත්වීම

    ඉ – රාජ්‍ය විශිෂ්ඨතා කේන්ද්‍රයේ විසදුම් හා මෘදුකාංග නිදර්ශනය උදෙසා වෙබ් අඩවියක් නිපැයීම

    විශේෂයෙන් ම ශ්‍රි ලාංකික වූ ඉ-රාජ්‍ය සංකල්ප සාධනය සඳහා පහසුකම් සැලසීම

    ව්‍යාපෘති ප්‍රතිලාභ

    ඉ – රාජ්‍ය සඳහා ‘විශ්ෂඨතා කේන්ද්‍රයක්”, සාර්ථක ක්‍රමවේද පිළිබඳ තොරතුරු බෙදා හැරීම, ආකෘතික ක්‍රමෝපායන්, යෙදවුම් හා රාජ්‍ය දැනුම් පිළිබඳ තොරතුරු මූලාශ්‍රයක්

    ප්‍රධාන නවීකරණ නිලධාරීන්ට ඉ-රාජ්‍ය කටයුතු හඳුනා ගැනීමෙන් ඔවුන්ගේ ආයතනවල ඉ-රාජ්‍ය කටයුතු ඇරඹීම ට ඔවුන් සවිබල ගැන්වීම

    ඉ රාජ්‍ය සාක්‍ෂරතා වර්ධනය, ඉ-රාජ්‍ය සුදානම හා රාජ්‍ය හරහා ධාරිතා ප්‍රවර්ධනය

  199. Pro_ICT_but_not_pro_ICTA

    ICTA is catching up. They have changed Honorable e-Gov Centre.
    ඉ-රාජ්‍ය විශිෂ්ඨතා කේන්ද්‍රය

    ව්‍යාපෘති නම

    ඉ-රාජ්‍ය විශිෂ්ඨතා කේන්ද්‍රය.

    Pls try the link
    http://www.icta.lk/Sinhala/Insidepages/programmes/eGovernmentCentreofExcellence.asp

  200. http://www.flickr.com/photos/7528191@N04

    What ever the correction this is what we see.

    This is not the Sinhala we can read or write.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  201. Ahem! I didn’t say Panoro sponsored Awurudu expenses for VK this year. Even if they do, I won’t say a thing against VK. What else can VK do if “several multinational companies had turned down the request to set up computer assembling plants in the island.?”

    I also hope that everything is/will be done “Ithaa Pehedili Mila Ganan Kendawa…..” (Calling for the best quotations)” as someone else had mentioned earlier.

    What I have seen before is that ICTA (sorry VK) is promoting low-end PCs at its projects at a time a high end original brands are there for competitive prices.

    Financial Times Sunday, April 15, 2007
    Locally assembled computers http://www.sundaytimes.lk/070415/FinancialTimes/ft307.html

    Panora Corporation this week opened its new computer manufacturing plant at Mattakkuliya. The new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility with a 1.2 billion-rupee investment will boost production of Panora branded computers with the facility expected to turn out 12,000 units of Panora PCs per month, in the first year alone.
    The plant will initially employ 200 skilled workers and plans to increase this number to a thousand with increased production. Panora Corporation Chairman S.H.M Rishan said the company has been able to position itself as the most sought after brand of computers in the desktop PC market in Sri Lanka. Chairman Information Communication Technology Agency Prof. V. K. Samaranayake said Panora has taken the initiative to assemble computers in Sri Lanka at a time when several multinational companies had turned down the request to set up computer assembling plants in the island. Seen here is a worker at the new plant. Pic by J.Weerasekera.

  202. See
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/7528191@N04/

    read the comments posted for the Japanese Korean and Chinese

    BTW I have requested an appointment to meet Prof and Mr Rasaputra.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  203. Donald,

    All the best for your appointment with Prof. and Chandima Rasaputra.

    I am sure Prof. will put a red carpet to receive you at ICTA.

    I wonder who will sponsor the tea for this event. Samsumg, Microsoft or Panora?

  204. Wow! Finally Donald is going to meet VKS!

    How Wonderful!

    It will be more interesting than the Sri Lanka Australia match today!

    Does anyone sell tickets for this event?

  205. It is unfortunate even after pointing out in this blog ICTA still publishes kunuharupa that nobody can understand.

    Let me give few examples from a news item dated April 03, 2007.

    පසු ගිය මාස කිහිපය තිස්සේ ඉදිරියට යන සිවිල් කලහය පී.සී. සේවාදායක පරිගණක වෙළදාම වර්ධනයට ලොකුම බාධකය වී ඇත.

    What is this ‘civil kalahaya’? Does not this translator know that what we have in North and East is not just a fight but a fully pledged war?

    එක්ස් 86 සේවාදායකය සහ අතේ ගෙන යා හැකි ඛණ්ඩයන් සම්බන්ධයෙන් 24.2%ක විකාශනය වීමක් ගිය අවුරුද්ද තුල දක්නට ලැබුණු බව පවසීමට ආඩම්බර වන්නේය.

    Does anyone understand what he speaks about? I think he is talking about Intel PCs and laptops. Not sure what these ‘athe genaya heki khanda’.

    තෛයිමාසිකව බංගලිදේශය, බ්රූනායි, කුම්බෝඩියා, ශ්‍රී ලංකාව සහ පාකිස්තානය යන රටවල පී.සී. සේවාදායක පරිගණක වෙළඳ පළ සංවර්ධනයන්හි අඩි පාරේ යන “ දි ඒසියා ඉමේජින් කන්ට්‍රීස් ට්‍රැකර්”, ඉස්ප්‍රින්බෝඩ් පර්යේෂණ සේවාවක් වන්නේය.

    God only knows what he means! (Note ‘Isprin Board’) Where is this කුම්බෝඩියා? This man does not even know the Sinhala name for this country.

    කෙසේ වුවත්, පසුගිය මාස හය තිස්සේ රජය සහ කැරලි සේනාවන් අතරේ නැවත ආරම්භ වුණු ගැටුම් සහ ගැඹුරු කරන ප්‍රචණ්ඩත්වයෙන් අතරේ එල්.ටී.ටී.ඊ සංවිධානය ක්‍රියා කාරකම් ඉදිරි ආයෝජනයන් සහ වර්ධනයන්, තොරතුරු තාක්ෂණයට ද ඇතුළුව විශාල ලෙස වැලැක්වීමට හේතු වී ඇත.

    Meyata amu kevilada?

    Why cannot this man talk simple language?

    VKS, you have got the ideal translator you deserve. You two are like ‘jaadiyata-moodiya’.

    One is destroying Sinhala scripts, the other is destroying Sinhala language.

  206. This is the biggest joke of the year!!!!!

    [Meanwhile, Chairman of ICTA, Prof. V. K. Samaranayake commenting on the new manufacturing facility, had much praise for PC House for overcoming the enormous challenge of competing against other internationally recognized branded products and reaching their goals amidst all these difficulties.]

    Let’s assume that the “overcoming the enormous challenge of …” means Dino’s portion was too big even for PC House to afford.

    [He said “our wish is to see Panora recognized in the region or even in the world; as the ICTA we cannot favour one company but we are all for quality and affordability, a standard that Panora can achieve very soon”.]

    “as the ICTA we cannot favour one company….” diva boru kiyanne ne. Toungue never lies. By saying he doesn’t want to “favour” one company, he has to do the justice for his paymaster. This is why he goes on adding “but we are all for quality and affordability, a standard that Panora can achieve….” Isn’t this openly promoting the company??? Only fools will believe his transparency and unbiasedness. Owa honday kiyanna kode bendapu cheennunta. Not for us man.

    Why did VK started being “transparent” of late? He had been promoting brand names and globetrotting for the last 30 years at the expense of both government and relevant brand names. Now he knows that this blog is too strong and he doesn’t know how to tackle it. He feels guilty. Thanks to Donald, now VK can’t regain his lost pride. It is too late. This alien, Donald, has smashed Dino’s reputation like nothing.

    FINANCIAL TIMES

    New heights for Panora’s new manufacturing facility http://www.dailymirror.lk/2007/04/17/ft/08.asp

    By Shabnam Farook

    Setting yet another standard in locally produced personal computer brands, Panora Corporation, a subsidiary of PCH Holdings, announced the start of operations of the company’s new, state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Colombo 15 recently.

    The Rs.1.2 billion investment, spanning three years will boost the production of Panora branded computers, with the facility expected to turn out 12,000 units per month. Since its humble beginnings as PC house 10 years ago, the owning company of Panora, PCH holdings has emerged as a market leader with a share of 64% in the personal computer category.

    This state-of-the-art manufacturing plant which currently employs nearly 200 workers hopes to increase this number to 1,000 with the increase in production.

    The chairman of Panora Corporation, S. H. M. Rishan while addressing the gathering at this historic occasion said that Panora was proud of their newest achievement and added that they have been successful in positioning themselves as the most sought-after brand of computers in the desktop PC market in Sri Lanka.

    He also believed that the production of locally-manufactured units will drastically reduce unnecessary overhead costs while delivering the same high standards.

    While congratulating Panora on this great feat, the chief guest of the occasion Science and Technology Minister Prof. Tissa Vitharana , said “both the ICTA and Ministry of Science and Technology wants see a hardware and software industry emerge in Sri Lanka” while noting that it was necessary to bridge the digital gap in the country where computer penetration was a meagre 10% though the literacy rate was over 90%.

    The Minister also said that Panora opening its first ever manufacturing facility was a significant development of what it has achieved so far and pointed out that the company’s objective of seizing 80% of the PC market share will be used as an initial step to penetrate into regional markets.

    “You were able to become a player in the PC market fighting off competition without any protection whatsoever or concessions that shows the quality of your product” Prof.Vitharana noted.

    He also hoped that Panora would become a truly Sri Lankan product that will be able to capture a significant section of the world market in the near future.

    Meanwhile, Chairman of ICTA, Prof. V. K. Samaranayake commenting on the new manufacturing facility, had much praise for PC House for overcoming the enormous challenge of competing against other internationally recognized branded products and reaching their goals amidst all these difficulties.

    He said “our wish is to see Panora recognized in the region or even in the world; as the ICTA we cannot favour one company but we are all for quality and affordability, a standard that Panora can achieve very soon”.

    Addressing the gathering, the country manager for Microsoft, Sriyan De Silva Wijeratne assured Microsoft’s fullest support in the company’s future endeavours and was happy that Panora had the courage to see their vision being put into action.

  207. NO reply from the Prof or Mr Rasaputra!!!
    48 hours!!!! have passed.

    Donald Gaminitillake
    Colombo

  208. Have you see the photo of VKS in yesterday’s Daily Mirror?

    His gloomy face looks as if he is having a serious ‘kakka-bara’.

    Poor VKS. Since the day he messed the things with LGN tender, things are going bad for him.

    His deals with Samsung Networks will come after him like that proverbial wheel of the cart till grave.

  209. biggest joke of the year

    This is the biggest joke of the year!!!!!

    I just saw the Daily Mirror article, the printed version. Yep, you are right. Dino avoida cameras of late. Earlier he was very keen on puttng his rectangular ugly face in the press, TV, etc. but now he hides that ‘almost dead’ face.

    [Meanwhile, Chairman of ICTA, Prof. V. K. Samaranayake commenting on the new manufacturing facility, had much praise for PC House for overcoming the enormous challenge of competing against other internationally recognized branded products and reaching their goals amidst all these difficulties.]

    Let’s assume that the “overcoming the enormous challenge of …” means Dino’s portion was too big even for PC House to afford.

    [He said “our wish is to see Panora recognized in the region or even in the world; as the ICTA we cannot favour one company but we are all for quality and affordability, a standard that Panora can achieve very soon”.]

    “as the ICTA we cannot favour one company….” diva boru kiyanne ne. Toungue never lies. Though he says he doesn’t want to “favour” one company, he has to do the justice for his paymaster. This is why he goes on adding “but we are all for quality and affordability, a standard that Panora can achieve….” Isn’t this openly promoting the company??? Only fools will believe his transparency and unbiasedness. Owa honday kiyanna kode bendapu cheennunta. Not for us man.

    Why did VK started being “transparent” of late? He had been promoting brand names and globetrotting for the last 30 years at the expense of both government and relevant multinationals. Now he knows that this blog is too strong and he doesn’t know how to tackle it. He feels guilty. Thanks to Donald, now VK can’t regain his lost pride. It is too late. This alien, Donald, has smashed Dino’s reputation like nothing.

    DAILY MIRROR – FINANCIAL TIMES

    New heights for Panora’s new manufacturing facility http://www.dailymirror.lk/2007/04/17/ft/08.asp

    By Shabnam Farook

    Setting yet another standard in locally produced personal computer brands, Panora Corporation, a subsidiary of PCH Holdings, announced the start of operations of the company’s new, state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Colombo 15 recently.

    The Rs.1.2 billion investment, spanning three years will boost the production of Panora branded computers, with the facility expected to turn out 12,000 units per month. Since its humble beginnings as PC house 10 years ago, the owning company of Panora, PCH holdings has emerged as a market leader with a share of 64% in the personal computer category.

    This state-of-the-art manufacturing plant which currently employs nearly 200 workers hopes to increase this number to 1,000 with the increase in production.

    The chairman of Panora Corporation, S. H. M. Rishan while addressing the gathering at this historic occasion said that Panora was proud of their newest achievement and added that they have been successful in positioning themselves as the most sought-after brand of computers in the desktop PC market in Sri Lanka.

    He also believed that the production of locally-manufactured units will drastically reduce unnecessary overhead costs while delivering the same high standards.

    While congratulating Panora on this great feat, the chief guest of the occasion Science and Technology Minister Prof. Tissa Vitharana , said “both the ICTA and Ministry of Science and Technology wants see a hardware and software industry emerge in Sri Lanka” while noting that it was necessary to bridge the digital gap in the country where computer penetration was a meagre 10% though the literacy rate was over 90%.

    The Minister also said that Panora opening its first ever manufacturing facility was a significant development of what it has achieved so far and pointed out that the company’s objective of seizing 80% of the PC market share will be used as an initial step to penetrate into regional markets.

    “You were able to become a player in the PC market fighting off competition without any protection whatsoever or concessions that shows the quality of your product” Prof.Vitharana noted.

    He also hoped that Panora would become a truly Sri Lankan product that will be able to capture a significant section of the world market in the near future.

    Meanwhile, Chairman of ICTA, Prof. V. K. Samaranayake commenting on the new manufacturing facility, had much praise for PC House for overcoming the enormous challenge of competing against other internationally recognized branded products and reaching their goals amidst all these difficulties.

    He said “our wish is to see Panora recognized in the region or even in the world; as the ICTA we cannot favour one company but we are all for quality and affordability, a standard that Panora can achieve very soon”.

    Addressing the gathering, the country manager for Microsoft, Sriyan De Silva Wijeratne assured Microsoft’s fullest support in the company’s future endeavours and was happy that Panora had the courage to see their vision being put into action.

  210. Dear Admin,

    this page is too long and it takes a lot of time to download and most of the updates get stuck. Please start a new page for this thread.

  211. This thread is too long, please continue discussion here:
    http://www.lirneasia.net/2007/04/software-issues-in-sri-lanka-part-7/