My ubuntu machine dumped following and went into initramfs prompt.

mount: mounting /dev/disk/by-uuid/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx on
/root failed: Invalid argument
mount: mounting /dev on /root/dev failed: No such file or directory
mount: mounting / sys/ on root/sys failed: No such file or directory
mount: mounting /proc on /root/proc failed: No such file or dirctory
Target filesystem doesn't have /sbin/init.
No init found. Try passing init= boot arg
BusyBox vx.xx.x (Ubuntu 1:x.xx.xx.xubuntu7) built-in shell (ash)
(initramfs)


Several attempts to recover it using the LiveCD (10.04 LTS, same CD used during installation) failed.
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo umount /dev/sda1
umount: /dev/sda1: not mounted
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo e2fsck -f -v /dev/sda1
e2fsck 1.41.11 (XX-Mar-2010)
e2fsck: Device or resource busy while trying to open /dev/sda1
Filesystem mounted or opened exclusively by another program?

Then found out that this was a reported e2fsck bug!!

Comments suggested to use either 9.10 LiveCD or a nice boot-repair cd!

Since the latter downloaded earlier , I gave it a try. It fixed the issue! I believe the former would fix it too.

Have you been to a bus stand in Southern Province of Sri Lanka recently? Specially the new bus-stand in Galle? If you did, you might have noticed the new Bus Time Table Display System (TTFace).

I’m thankful to Southern Provincial Road Passenger and Transport Authority (SPRPTA), for the opportunity provided me to develop the above system.

We have come a long way since the first version I gave them for free in 2005. Now the system is in it’s version 3.

A sense of accomplishment : How people are using the system.

System Features

• Displays information in 6 rows corresponding to 6 routes at a given time.
• Each row displays multiple routes by rotating them over time.
• In each row, Destination, Via and Route No information is displayed.
• In each row, next two buses and their departure times are displayed of the route.
• For each route, hop information is rotated. For each hop; destination, distance, and fare are displayed.
• In each route, the bottom row displays the entire schedule of the day.
• Displays a text marquee at the bottom. TTFace uses that to display important messages and text advertisements.
• Displays video advertisements.
• Supports, Sinhala, Tamil and English Languages.
• Single computer supports multiple screens.

It was my first day in the University of Moratuwa. I remember, how much excited I was to make new friends. During the orientation I started a conversation with the gentlemen who was sitting next to me. As I remember, it was my first attempt to talk to a batch-mate I`ve never met before.

I couldn’t recall, how I started the conversation exactly. Most probably, I might have asked his home town. The conversation proceeded few more seconds.

I asked, “So, did you do any sports in your school?”

He smiled. And gently replied, “I couldn’t! I’m crippled”.

I felt really bad. I shouldn’t have asked that question. Unfortunately , I hadn’t noticed his condition. I certainly hoped that his thoughts were the same and most importantly I didn’t hurt his feelings.

Over the years I came to know about him a bit more. He was determined, courageous and most importantly very friendly. In the final exam, he ranked top in his field. After graduation, he joined a grad school in National University of Singapore with a scholarship.

A few days ago, he earned his PhD from National University of Singapore.

Dr. Jayathilake, CONGRATULATIONS machan. I wish you all the very best from the bottom of my heart. I’m honored to know you personally.

http://www.thesundayleader.lk/2011/07/10/pahalagedara-the-definition-of-courage/

1. ROOT using SuperOneClick application, works like a charm! http://shortfuse.org/?page_id=2

2. Follow these steps to Unlock http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=761045

3. User following configurations for Mobitel
Create a new APN
Name: mobitel3g
Server: www.mobitellanka.lk
APN: mobitel3g

It is always a pain to support all – at least widely used – browsers! Specially a lot of time is wasted in fixing issues in Internet Explorer (A.K.A. Internet Exploder!).

However, if the target audience is Sri Lankans, that worry is getting less and less. Sri Lankans, more than 69%, are using Firefox and Chrome!

Source: StatCounter Global Stats – Browser Market Share

I always wanted to write a comprehensive guide on shooting panoramas. But it doesn’t seem to happen. So I’m just dumping few thoughts on how to shoot panoramas .

In case you may wonder how I produced this: http://www.janapriya.net/gallery/sigiriya please read on.

Most of you know that, you can shoot panoramas (mostly cylindrical) using a normal point and shoot camera. Some cameras have the built in functionality for this. However, you don’t have the control over the entire process.

The “manual” work flow mainly has few steps. In brief, you take many photographs, stitch them to produce on single photo, upload it, and use a panorama viewer to display it.
1. Shooting photos
2. Stitching
3. Displaying

Shooting Photos
You might use a handheld camera (without using the built in panorama mode) to shoot a panorama. But sometimes it’ll be almost impossible to stitch accurately. This is mostly due to the parallax error: object closer to the camera may move w.r.t the objects seen far away. So two consecutive photos may see the scene differently. Initial years I used a handheld camera. I rotated the camera around a “virtual” point and shoot the photos. You might get satisfactory results after some practice. If you are shooting a landscape, where everything far away, with negligible parallax error. But later i bought few hardware to do the trick. It is called a Panohead (you can google it). Along with a tripod, you can accurately rotate the camera around a point, where there is almost no parallax error.

Number of images required for the stitching, is greatly reduced by using a wide angle lens (fish-eye lens if possible). In other words zoom out as much as possible . And take photos with at least 30% overlap.
I used a SLR camera, fish-eye lens, a panohead and a tripod for the sigiriya shots. Furthermore, I used different exposure levels for each photo, to make it a HDR.

Stitching
To stitch you can use Hugin. It is an open source software. Alternatively, you might use free software like Autopano, or commercial software like PTGui. All these software is easy to work with. So I won’t go in detail with them. All above software could be used to generate a stiched single image.

Displaying
There is a commonly used java based viewer called ptviewer. However, many now use flash based viewers. For example, FPP, Panosalado etc.. FPP is not for free, but Panosalado is. I bought FPP for Sigiriya panos .

Good Luck!

My 6yr old niece typed in a letter addressing me (Maama – in Sinhalese this means “Uncle”). She wanted me to behave well in-front of her friends .

We are receiving heavy rain these days. Lets make our voice heard! No rain welcomed!



From the rain’s point of view



Source: Art. Lebedev Studio

(I’ve wrote this post some time ago and was in drafts until now )

Few days ago, I did GRE Computer Adaptive Test(CAT) in India (Still the “CAT” is not available in Sri Lanka). It took sometime to plan and figure out the costs and things to be done. I must thank Kooti (My Indian friend whose home town is Chennai), Ruchith and Saliya who provided a lot of information about the trip. Also, I thought following might help someone who is planning to take the GRE test in India.

First of all you need to have following ready,
1. Register for the GRE test at Prometric Test Center at Chennai.
2. Buy A return air ticket.
3. Get Visa (Tourist Visa, Single Entry, <3Months)
Have a look at http://www.vfs-in-lk.com, for information on visa: requirements, fees, time for processing etc. It would be much easier, if you download/print/fill the visa forms before going there. No need to take photographs/photocopies in advance, you can get them from there for a fee. Usually it takes a week or two. So allocate some time for that.
4. Reserve a Hotel to Stay
There are few hotels around, and I found Palmgrove at Chennai is an OKAY TO STAY hotel. Prometric Test Center is 10minute walk from Palmgrove. However, I took an Auto (3 wheeler) for INR 50/-, by asking the driver to take me to VIJAY TV, which is next to Prometric.
Address:
Hotel Palmgrove
13, Kodambakkam High Road
Nungambakkam,
Chennai, Tamil Nadu 600034
Phone: (44) – 28271881
URL: http://www.ballalgrouphotels.com/index.asp?name=palm
I made a reservation through their online form. Although they have confirmed by an email reply, they couldn’t find my reservation when I reach there. However, it wasn’t a problem since they had enough rooms left . So It is better to CALL them and make a reservation. And NO Internet there.

Approximate Cost (As of November, 2008 – INR: Indian Rupees, SLR: Sri Lankan Rupees)
- SLR 15000 – Return Air Ticket -> Colombo – Chennai – Colombo
- INR 300 – A government prepaid cab from Chennai Airport to Hotel Palmgrove (INR 200 – for 3 Wheeler)
- INR 1500 – Breakfast provided, A/C Room Single, including 12.5% tax, approximated, per day.
- INR 150~300 – Lunch + Dinner + Mineral Water per day.
- INR 300 – A cab from HOTEL to Chennai “International” Airport. (INR 200 – for 3 Wheeler)
In addition to this, you need to have some cash to pay for Tips etc..

Important:
- Drink only Mineral Water.
- Take US$ with you and you can change them to INR at Chennai Airport. They will comeup with funny calculations about the commission they are getting during the INR to US$ conversion, well you can’t do much about that.
- INR 10000 is the maximum amount they convert to US$ on the way back.Confirm the price before getting into a 3 wheeler. (yeah same as in SL)
- If possible, visit the exam center, one day before the exam date, to have an idea of the location, so you won’t be lost on the exam date.
- I am not sure whether you can claim the GST you paid, but no harm in trying. For that you may need to keep the receipts and provide them in the Airport, on the way back.
- If time permits, don’t forget to visit places like, Marina Beach, Besant Nagat beach, Kapalieshwara Temple in Mylapore, Santhome Church in Mylapore.

Yeah! I am a “proud” customer of HSBC. Yeah!! I also know you’ll laugh at me for my stupidy for keeping a HSBC Credit Card. But still, I want to share my “latest” experience with HSBC bill payment.

I paid my last credit card bill on the due date using HSBC EasyPay[1] machine at Moratuwa Branch. I got a receipt having the date (which is the due date), time, and the amount I paid. However when I got the next bill, I realized I was charged Late Fee and Interest. Altogether it was around Rs 5000/-. I called the customer “service” and the response was that I have to pay before 3pm to credit on the same day. Yeah, it is fair enough, only if it is mentioned somewhere clearly. But HSBC clearly wants the customer to be mislead!

Reason #1
If the machine says that I have paid it on a given day, why can’t HSBC accept the fact, even though they open those envelopes in the following day?

Reason #2
In tiny letters the machine carries the message “The payments received before 3pm will be credited after 7:30pm in the same day.”. Okay!, does this only mean, “payments received after 3pm will be credited in the following day”? Can’t I assume, the payments received between 3pm and 5pm will be credited after 10pm? My question is, why do they only just “imply” the message? They could have just said, “The payments received after 3pm will be credited in the next working day”

Even the EasyPay site[1] boasts about “24 X 7 availability”. Why can’t they say the above in a line or two?

They asked me to send a Fax. The rep “advised” me not to use the term “mislead”. Instead, asked me to “plea” for a refund. Then they’ll consider to refund atleast a fraction of it. My answer was “Go to hell!”.

[1] http://www.hsbc.lk/1/2/personal/services/hsbc-easy-pay