8 Stages of Programming a New Feature
This one was originally published at http://www.my25percent.com/2009/09/eight-stages-of-programming-new-feature.html
Showing posts with label Other. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Other. Show all posts
7 Years of Excellence - Faculty of Information Technology, University of Moratuwa
The Faculty of Information Technology (FIT), University of Moratuwa which was established in year 2001 is the only faculty of its kind, producing pioneers to the ever growing IT industry in Sri Lanka. With the rapid growth and expansion of the information technology, FIT provides immense service to the nation by creating highly skilled IT professionals to bridge the gap between the demand and supply of IT personnel in the industry.
Despite the lack of adequate resources, both physical and human, the Faculty commenced its academic activities with a batch of 47 students in 2002. Its first home was a rented facility at Borella. The intake was increased to 100 in 2005 in response to the steadily increasing demand by the IT industry and also to provide more opportunities in this field to the talented youth of the country.
Though a fledgling faculty, FIT started its first postgraduate program in IT in 2004 with the PG Diploma/M.Sc. in Information Technology. In August 2008, the Faculty launched another postgraduate program, the PG Diploma/M. Sc in Artificial Intelligence (AI). This is the first postgraduate programs of this kind in Sri Lanka. The faculty also conducts several professional development programs from time to time. The FIT will continue to develop and expand its academic programs, adapting to the ever-changing needs of the IT industry to become an entity which both the students and the industry would look up to.
A landmark in the faculty's march towards progress is the completion of the first phase of a new state of the art building complex at the University of Moratuwa premises in August 2008. To celebrate this occasion and 7 years of excellence in the field of IT education, the Faculty will hold a series of events comprising of a multi religious ceremony, a symposium and a cricket tournament, followed by an exhibition of student innovations.
An academic conference on the theme "Graduation, Entrepreneurship and Success", will be held on 27th September 2008 at the new faculty premises with the participation students, alumni, members of the staff and industry representatives. Lead by a distinguished panel of resource persons, this conference is intended to provide students with the opportunity to experience through role models and success stories, how they can make a success of their careers in many different ways after graduation. The objectives of this symposium can be further elaborated as:
- To create a culture of entrepreneurship among the students.
- To learn through the experience of accomplished entrepreneurs.
- An opportunity for the students to interact with the industry leaders.
- To create better awareness among the corporate community about the Faculty of IT.
- To establish links with the industry to emphasize the value and recognition of the Faculty as a leading educational body.
- To broaden the knowledge of students on new trends in the IT industry
Among the distinguished resource persons at this event will be Mr.W.K.H Wegapitiya, CEO of Laugfs Holdings Limited, Dr. Sanjiva Weerawarana, Chairman & CEO of WSO2, Mr. Mohamed Azmeer, CEO of ConceptNursery, Mr. Ramesh Shanmuganathan, Group's Chief Information Officer, John Keels Holdings, Mr. Harsha Purasinghe, CEO of Microimage (Pvt) Ltd and Peter De Almeida, CEO of e-nable (Pvt) Ltd.
The event will conclude with a get-together at which all students past and present, will come together to celebrate the inauguration of the Faculty's new home. They will be joined by the industry representatives to create an enthralling atmosphere of celebration and entertainment.
Back to Firefox 2
It's being nearly a month or so I've started using Firefox 3 browser. Yes it has lot of cool new features such as new address bar. But I'm having a big problem with new FF3. It is giving me "Network Timeout Error" all the time.
I have to do multiple refreshes to view the page, and if the page is having lost of images than those are also not loaded. But when I checked the same site with IE, it loads the page correctly and without any issues.
When I searched the Google for this issue I found that FF3 is having some issue related to this Timeout problem. http://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox3_Timeout_Problem
So until a fix is available I'm going back to good old FF2.
Artificial Neural Networks for Solving Complex Problems
I just completed my independent study review paper. As the title suggests, it was about "Using Artificial Neural Networks to Solve Complex Problems". If you haven't heard about neural networks before, they are a new approach for solve problem inspired by inner workings of human brain. In traditional computing we have to give step by step instructions on how to solve specific problem to the computer. But in ANN that is not necessary, they can learn how to solve a particular problem from samples.
ANN technology is not a new thing, they exist since 1940s. When I first started this study, I thought that ANNs are only used for pattern recognition/classification and predicting some factors. But when I go more deeper in to the research, I was amazed by the diversity of fields where ANN is used. Most of the applications I came across during my review were successful in achieving their goals, but in field of cryptography use of ANN was not as successful as other fields.
Even though ANN technology is very successful in solving complex problem they have their own set of limitations. Major limitation is it's lack of ability to explain how they generate output. Another main limitation is not having formal method to find optimal network architecture for solving particular problem. But even with these limitations, future of ANN looks promising. There is lot of research going on in dedicated ANN hardware and hybrid ANNS.
You can download my complete review paper here. Hope this will help you to learn more about ANN and it's applications.
Imagine Cup is back to UOM
Yesterday we had the final round of the Software Design category of the Imagine Cup Sri Lanka competition. There were six teams selected for the finals. Out of that six, three teams were from University of Moratuwa, two from UCSC and other one from SLIIT.
This years theme was "Imagine a world where technology enables sustainable environment", so all of the projects were about how we can save our planet Earth.
For the fourth convective time undergraduates from University of Moratuwa managed to win the trophy. This time it was a joint effort by both Faculty of Information Technology and Engineering. Team "Sasrutha" presenting the project "Haritha Prayathna" won the 1st place. They will fly to France on July to participate for the global finals.
Like last time this year also 2nd place was won by team "Gagana" from SLIIT and 3rd place was won by team "Will Power" from University of Moratuwa, Faculty of Engineering.
Congratulations to the winners.
Imagine Cup 2008 Sri Lanka Finals
It is your chance to get an invitation to participate for the Sri Lanka's premier IT event. Hurry up.
Microsoft Excel as 3D Game Engine??
Today I came across this wonderful article which shows how Microsoft Excel can be used to render 3D graphics. Sounds amazing isn't it.....
Maximum RAM supported in Windows XP
Recently I assembled a new computer with 4GB RAM. My motherboard supports up to 8GB RAM and Widows XP supports 4GB RAM so no problem.....
But when I open the System Properties, it shows only 3.23GB of RAM. Where did the rest go? OK, I'm using onboard VGA with 256MB memory, so part of the RAM will be allocated to that and will not be shown in System Properties. But even with that there is considerable amount of RAM is missing.
I wanted to know why it is. So I did an Google search and found out this. Reason is XP uses its 32bit address space not only to address memory but also to address some other components like System ROM , APIC(s),Integrated PCI devices, such as network connectors and SCSI controllers, PCI cards , Graphics card, etc... Because of this some part of the ram may not be accessible by the operating system since it ran out of address space.
RMS and Philosophy of Free Software
Last Friday I got once in a life time opportunity to participate in a conference where Richard Stallman (RMS) did the key note speech. If you do not know who is RMS, he is the father of "Free Software Foundation" and he is the one who started GNU project. He is a really interesting guy.
From that key note speech I got to know about four freedoms related to free software.
0. The freedom to run the program as you wish.
1. The freedom to study the program's source code and then change it so the program does what you wish.
2. The freedom to distribute exact copies to others, when you wish.
3. The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others, when you wish.
Other than that I learnt that it is note fair name popular open source OS "Linux" as "Linux". It has to be corrected GNU/Linux since Linux is only the kernel where GNU project developed all other components required for the OS.
Advices from Steve Jobs to Our Lives
Few days back I got an email from one of my friend which contained the Steve Jobs' Commencement address at Stanford University in year 2005. I know now it is fairly old thing, but I thought to share it with all of you because that speech has lot of advises that we can adopt in to our life.
It contains how he faced the challenges in his life and overcome them successfully. It is a very nice speech that you must read.
Download the speech >>
Got the Last one...
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Famous Quotes from Albert Einstein
- "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."
- "Imagination is more important than knowledge."
- "Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love."
- "I want to know God's thoughts; the rest are details."
- "The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax."
- "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."
- "The only real valuable thing is intuition."
- "A person starts to live when he can live outside himself."
- "I am convinced that He (God) does not play dice."
- "God is subtle but he is not malicious."
- "Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character."
- "I never think of the future. It comes soon enough."
- "The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility."
- "Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing."
- "Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."
- "Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."
- "Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds."
- "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
- "Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen."
- "Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it."
- "The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
- "The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."
- "God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates empirically."
- "The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking."
- "Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal."
- "Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."
- "The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible."
- "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."
- "Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school."
- "The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing."
- "Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater."
- "Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity."
- "If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut."
- "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."
- "As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality."
- "Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods."
- "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
- "In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep."
- "The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk of accident for someone who's dead."
- "Too many of us look upon Americans as dollar chasers. This is a cruel libel, even if it is reiterated thoughtlessly by the Americans themselves."
- "Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!"
- "No, this trick won't work...How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?"
- "My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind."
- "Yes, we have to divide up our time like that, between our politics and our equations. But to me our equations are far more important, for politics are only a matter of present concern. A mathematical equation stands forever."
- "The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking...the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker."
- "Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence."
- "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed."
- "A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeeded be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death."
- "The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge."
- "Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion."
- "You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat."
- "One had to cram all this stuff into one's mind for the examinations, whether one liked it or not. This coercion had such a deterring effect on me that, after I had passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems distasteful to me for an entire year."
- "...one of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one's own ever-shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of objective perception and thought."
- "He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder."
- "A human being is a part of a whole, called by us _universe_, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."
- "Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts." (Sign hanging in Einstein's office at Princeton)
Salute to the heroes….
I thought to put it in my blog in respect to all the heroes of Army, Navy, Air Force and Police who sacrifices their lives to build us a peaceful Sri Lanka…
Take a minute to think on this please...
Your alarm goes off, you hit the snooze and sleep for another 10 minutes.
He stays up for days on end.
You take a warm shower to help you wake up.
He goes days or weeks without running water.
You complain of a "headache", and call in sick.
He gets shot at as others are hit, and keeps moving forward.
You put on your anti war/don't support the troops shirt, and go meet up with your friends.
He still fights for your right to wear that shirt.
You make sure you're cell phone is in your pocket.
He clutches the cross hanging on his chain next to his dog-tags.
You talk trash about your "buddies" that aren't with you.
He knows he may not see some of his buddies again.
You walk down the beach, staring at all the pretty girls.
He walks the streets, searching for insurgents and terrorists.
You complain about how hot it is.
He wears his heavy gear, not daring to take off his helmet to wipe his brow.
You go out to lunch, and complain because the restaurant got your order wrong.
He doesn't get to eat today.
Your wife/mother/maid makes your bed and washes your clothes.
He wears the same things for weeks, but makes sure his weapons are clean.
You go to the mall and get your hair redone.
He doesn't have time to brush his teeth today.
You're angry because your class ran 5 minutes over.
He's told he will be held over an extra 2 months.
You call your girlfriend and set a date for tonight.
He waits for the mail to see if there is a letter from home.
You hug and kiss your girlfriend, like you do everyday.
He holds his letter close and smells his love's perfume.
You roll your eyes as a baby cries.
He gets a letter with pictures of his new child, and wonders if they'll ever meet
You criticize your government, and say that war never solves anything...
He sees the innocent tortured and killed by terrorists and remembers why he is fighting.
You hear the jokes about the war, and make fun of men like him.
He hears the gunfire, bombs and screams of the wounded - and of the innocents who have no one to stand up for them.
You see only what the media wants you to see.
He sees the broken bodies lying around him.
You are asked to go to the store by your parents. ... And You don't.
He does exactly what he is told.
You stay at home and watch TV.
He takes whatever time he is given to call, write home, sleep, and eat.
You crawl into your soft bed, with down pillows, and get comfortable.
He crawls under a tank for shade and a 5 minute nap, only to be awakened by gunfire.
You sit here and judge him, saying the world is probably a worse place because of men like him.
If only there were more men like him!
WHO is HE?
If you support him , then please send this to everyone you know...
Perhaps people will change their attitude and behavior to support HIS worthy cause...
HE is sacrificing his today for our future Sri Lanka!!!
In dedication of the true Valiant Sri Lankan Men and Women in the Army, Air Force, Navy and Police!
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