It was definitely worth the eight hundred odd Rupees I spent on four tickets and I was obviously not the only one who thought that way, because at the end of the movie there was a very spontaneous and very loud round of applause! If you're wondering whether clapping at the end of a movie is a Sri Lankan tradition, it's not; I've been watching movies for close to thirty years now, and this is the first time it's happened. Of course people applaud a good performance at a live event like a cricket match or a stage play, when the performers are actually able to hear the appreciation of the audience for a job well done, but I think this was just a 'thank you' to all the people who made it possible for us to spend almost three hours on Pandora, and the fact that Mr. Cameron and team couldn't hear us clapping was immaterial.
Will it get a permanent place on my favourite movie list like Contact, Blade Runner, The Matrix and 2001? I'm not sure; guess I'll wait a few years and see. The idea of Eywa was pretty cool, like the sentient ocean of Solyaris or Foundation's Gaia but with some actual pointers on how it could conceivably occur somewhere. The Na'vi will also keep me questioning what environmental factors could have influenced a few of our ancestors on earth to make us like them instead. I think it's mostly the questions a book or a movie ask that keep me going back to it, but in this case it could just be to relive the audio-visual experience!
A the start of the movie I told Sharm that I still remember how it felt to see the Brachiosaurus stand up on it's hind legs to pick a few leaves off a tree right at the start of Jurassic Park (incidentally at the same theater, just 16 years ago) and was hoping this would be just as good. In Avatar there were so many moments like that, I have to say it's without a doubt the most amazing movie I have ever seen!
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Not Just Cursing the Darkness
Sri Lanka's in the BBC World Challenge again, with a project initiated by a person who literally lit a lamp, and a safe one at that, instead of cursing the darkness. I just cast my vote and thought I'd put up a post so that there's one more link pointing to the entry.
Everywhere you go you can now see people working towards the same goal, doing something productive to try and make the best of the opportunity we've been given to improve ourselves and Sri Lanka. At the same time I do honestly feel that almost everyone from every community is enjoying the freedom to go out and attend an international cricket match or a public exhibition without fear, because it's not one language that you hear being spoken at any of these places, it's all three!
There are a bunch of people that I feel aren't doing enough to make amends for helping start and exacerbate the war and are directly responsible for the plight of the people who's lives have still not returned to normalcy. I'm talking about entire countries here, that trained, armed and funded the terrorists to achieve their own objectives, be it destabilizing a friend-of-an-enemy or gaining access to fishing grounds and oil reserves.
I'm sure a majority of the citizens of these countries are fairly decent human beings, so all I can hope for is that these people take the initiative to help undo the damage that their politicians did and maybe stop the really rabid fanatics that are trying to attack us again, using different tactics this time.
Given the choice, I would jump at the chance to replace all the politicians everywhere with benevolent, hyper-intelligent Minds, but since we have to wait for the first true AI to start the ball rolling, writing this post is all I can do for now.
Oh yes, I'm reading every Iain M. Banks novel I can get my hands on and can't wait for the technological singularity!
Everywhere you go you can now see people working towards the same goal, doing something productive to try and make the best of the opportunity we've been given to improve ourselves and Sri Lanka. At the same time I do honestly feel that almost everyone from every community is enjoying the freedom to go out and attend an international cricket match or a public exhibition without fear, because it's not one language that you hear being spoken at any of these places, it's all three!
There are a bunch of people that I feel aren't doing enough to make amends for helping start and exacerbate the war and are directly responsible for the plight of the people who's lives have still not returned to normalcy. I'm talking about entire countries here, that trained, armed and funded the terrorists to achieve their own objectives, be it destabilizing a friend-of-an-enemy or gaining access to fishing grounds and oil reserves.
I'm sure a majority of the citizens of these countries are fairly decent human beings, so all I can hope for is that these people take the initiative to help undo the damage that their politicians did and maybe stop the really rabid fanatics that are trying to attack us again, using different tactics this time.
Given the choice, I would jump at the chance to replace all the politicians everywhere with benevolent, hyper-intelligent Minds, but since we have to wait for the first true AI to start the ball rolling, writing this post is all I can do for now.
Oh yes, I'm reading every Iain M. Banks novel I can get my hands on and can't wait for the technological singularity!
Sunday, August 30, 2009
If your NVIDIA driver doesn't work after an Ubuntu Update...
I have a habit of accepting any and all updates on my home PC and sometimes end up getting a kernel upgrade unwittingly. The moment I'm asked to reboot the system, I realise what I've done and half the time my graphics don't work when the PC restarts, since I'm using an NVidia GeForce board with restricted drivers and these don't update themselves with the rest of the system from the Ubuntu repositories.
If you found this page after a Google search, I have to assume you've pretty much done the same thing and got into your browser after booting up in low graphics mode or used another PC to search for a fix. I use one of two options at this point, depending on how much of a hurry I'm in to get my graphics working again and I've documented both below hoping it'll be of some help to other casual Linux users, who just want to get back to their movie, game or web page as quickly as possible. Mind you, I'm not an authority on Linux administration - both approaches below just happen to 'work on my machine'!
This is the easy way out; assuming your using grub, simply navigate to /boot/grub, edit menu.lst as root and change the 'default' setting from 0 (the most current kernel) to 2 (the one that was working perfectly well until you upgraded). Save and reboot, and you're fine until you run an update that upgrades your kernel again, at which point you have to change the default to 4 and so on.
This is obviously the better solution, but takes a little longer.
a) First, you need to go to the nvidia download page and get the right driver for your graphics card.
b) Next you have to restart your system and get to a command prompt using the boot options, because if you're in some restricted graphics mode or a command prompt you managed to get to after having tried to boot normally, you have a broken X windows running somewhere in there and NVidia refuses to upgrade the driver while it is. I can never stop X to it's satisfaction, so I reboot.
c) Run the installer by typing 'sh ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86-[driver version]-pkg1.run' as root. After getting you to agree to some stuff, it'll tell you the old driver will be removed, try to find some relevant binaries, typically fail to do that and compile from source, then install itself, ask your permission to update the x-config and will finally tell you it's done. Reboot at this point and you should be fine.
I've been doing this for some time, so can't remember if I had to set-up any other pre-requisites the first time I upgraded my drivers. Please do comment if I've missed something.
If you found this page after a Google search, I have to assume you've pretty much done the same thing and got into your browser after booting up in low graphics mode or used another PC to search for a fix. I use one of two options at this point, depending on how much of a hurry I'm in to get my graphics working again and I've documented both below hoping it'll be of some help to other casual Linux users, who just want to get back to their movie, game or web page as quickly as possible. Mind you, I'm not an authority on Linux administration - both approaches below just happen to 'work on my machine'!
Revert to booting your older kernel version
This is the easy way out; assuming your using grub, simply navigate to /boot/grub, edit menu.lst as root and change the 'default' setting from 0 (the most current kernel) to 2 (the one that was working perfectly well until you upgraded). Save and reboot, and you're fine until you run an update that upgrades your kernel again, at which point you have to change the default to 4 and so on.
Updating to the latest NVidia Drivers
This is obviously the better solution, but takes a little longer.
a) First, you need to go to the nvidia download page and get the right driver for your graphics card.
b) Next you have to restart your system and get to a command prompt using the boot options, because if you're in some restricted graphics mode or a command prompt you managed to get to after having tried to boot normally, you have a broken X windows running somewhere in there and NVidia refuses to upgrade the driver while it is. I can never stop X to it's satisfaction, so I reboot.
c) Run the installer by typing 'sh ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86-[driver version]-pkg1.run' as root. After getting you to agree to some stuff, it'll tell you the old driver will be removed, try to find some relevant binaries, typically fail to do that and compile from source, then install itself, ask your permission to update the x-config and will finally tell you it's done. Reboot at this point and you should be fine.
I've been doing this for some time, so can't remember if I had to set-up any other pre-requisites the first time I upgraded my drivers. Please do comment if I've missed something.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
English and IT
Sri Lanka, though a developing nation, reaches standards of health and literacy comparable with developed countries thanks to free healthcare and education. Several past irrigation projects have given us self sufficiency in essential food items and we actually export clothing to the rest of the world! Each one of our success stories, from the cricketing field to the battle field, can be traced back to initiatives that just made sure people had the resources to do what was expected of them.
While our market size and available natural resources place constraints on large scale manufacturing, we do have almost everything in place to provide services to the rest of the world at very competitive rates. I say almost everything because English literacy is still low outside the capital and that is the lingua franca of commerce, while IT skills are a pre-requisite for most high-skilled service offerings but access to computers is still restricted to the more affluent.
This is why the 'Year of English and IT' excites me; I'm not naive enough to believe that we'll be raking in the billions like Bangalore does today in a year or two, but time and again Sri Lankans have shown that we can achieve a lot with a little, so I'm as upbeat as Bill Gates is about where we're going with this initiative!
While our market size and available natural resources place constraints on large scale manufacturing, we do have almost everything in place to provide services to the rest of the world at very competitive rates. I say almost everything because English literacy is still low outside the capital and that is the lingua franca of commerce, while IT skills are a pre-requisite for most high-skilled service offerings but access to computers is still restricted to the more affluent.
This is why the 'Year of English and IT' excites me; I'm not naive enough to believe that we'll be raking in the billions like Bangalore does today in a year or two, but time and again Sri Lankans have shown that we can achieve a lot with a little, so I'm as upbeat as Bill Gates is about where we're going with this initiative!
Monday, May 18, 2009
Peace!
Now that it's all finished, my hope is that war is something my kids will only read about in history books and see only on the 'world news', when tragedies that are taking place in countries that helped start this war and tried to stop it from ever coming to an end are mentioned!
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Fraud
There's a lot being written these days about Satyam worldwide and Golden Key and Sakvithi in Sri Lanka, but I wanted to write about two types of fraudsters that people keep giving money to in the name of tradition.
First, astrologers, palmists and other mystics of a similar nature who claim to be able to predict your future or solve your problems for a fee. It's fairly obvious that random groupings of stars that resemble a certain shape when viewed from earth, combined with the 5 planets visible to the naked eye and two eclipses (since this particular con predates modern astronomy, the fakers assumed eclipses were physical entities) can't predict the fortunes of 500 million people at a time in newspapers and give a more granular, personal prediction when paid.
My personal theory is that since ancient astronomers were able to accurately predict eclipses, flooding and other such natural events that actually can be calculated based on observations, it was easy to monetize this ability by convincing people that they could predict other things as well. I would obviously pay more to find out what happens to me next week than I would to be told when the next annual flooding takes place (unless I live on the river bank of course)!
I'm sure mystic healers and other spiritualists also have some foundations in psychology and the placebo effect, and I'm hoping someone who has investigated this stuff seriously comments with a link.
The other set of fakers are the Ayurvedic physicians who claim to be able to cure everything from AIDS to Cancer. To my knowledge none of them are certified by any authority and probably can't be sued for malpractice either.
I'm fine with the physiotherapy side of Ayurveda and any medicines that were actually formulated based on empirical evidence (people with x disease got better when they ate y leaf, so lets sell them it's juice), but that's it. I fail to see how a medical system where the foundations are flawed (no, the body is not made up of air, phlegm and bile) and predates microbiology can actually cure anything else.
The west also believed in humours at one time, but moved on. People of the east, proud of our traditions, keep going to these fakers when the ailment either appears to be minor or western medicine doesn't claim to provide a 'permanent cure', believing that 'doing something else at the same time won't do any harm'. In actual fact, some of this stuff people pay hard earned money for can actually be quite harmful, simply because there's no FDA making sure it isn't!
The saddest part is that people look for solutions from both these types of fakers when things are most desperate. They would spend what little money they have getting spiritual advice or fake cures, that could have otherwise been spent on proper medical care or gone towards solutions to the problems they are facing. The people who actually sell this fake "Hope" also probably believe it's harmless, but it's not, it's a pretty bad form of exploitation!
I say hold them accountable, sue them if the medicines don't work and the predictions turn out to be wrong. I see too many older people and some even my age, quite a few with graduate level or secondary education, falling for these tricks. Traditions are fine, but don't let people use them to exploit you!
First, astrologers, palmists and other mystics of a similar nature who claim to be able to predict your future or solve your problems for a fee. It's fairly obvious that random groupings of stars that resemble a certain shape when viewed from earth, combined with the 5 planets visible to the naked eye and two eclipses (since this particular con predates modern astronomy, the fakers assumed eclipses were physical entities) can't predict the fortunes of 500 million people at a time in newspapers and give a more granular, personal prediction when paid.
My personal theory is that since ancient astronomers were able to accurately predict eclipses, flooding and other such natural events that actually can be calculated based on observations, it was easy to monetize this ability by convincing people that they could predict other things as well. I would obviously pay more to find out what happens to me next week than I would to be told when the next annual flooding takes place (unless I live on the river bank of course)!
I'm sure mystic healers and other spiritualists also have some foundations in psychology and the placebo effect, and I'm hoping someone who has investigated this stuff seriously comments with a link.
The other set of fakers are the Ayurvedic physicians who claim to be able to cure everything from AIDS to Cancer. To my knowledge none of them are certified by any authority and probably can't be sued for malpractice either.
I'm fine with the physiotherapy side of Ayurveda and any medicines that were actually formulated based on empirical evidence (people with x disease got better when they ate y leaf, so lets sell them it's juice), but that's it. I fail to see how a medical system where the foundations are flawed (no, the body is not made up of air, phlegm and bile) and predates microbiology can actually cure anything else.
The west also believed in humours at one time, but moved on. People of the east, proud of our traditions, keep going to these fakers when the ailment either appears to be minor or western medicine doesn't claim to provide a 'permanent cure', believing that 'doing something else at the same time won't do any harm'. In actual fact, some of this stuff people pay hard earned money for can actually be quite harmful, simply because there's no FDA making sure it isn't!
The saddest part is that people look for solutions from both these types of fakers when things are most desperate. They would spend what little money they have getting spiritual advice or fake cures, that could have otherwise been spent on proper medical care or gone towards solutions to the problems they are facing. The people who actually sell this fake "Hope" also probably believe it's harmless, but it's not, it's a pretty bad form of exploitation!
I say hold them accountable, sue them if the medicines don't work and the predictions turn out to be wrong. I see too many older people and some even my age, quite a few with graduate level or secondary education, falling for these tricks. Traditions are fine, but don't let people use them to exploit you!
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