Thanking All the People Helped Me to Complete my BSc

7 years of harsh period of my life is came to end on 18th od November 2009 at BMICH, It was my Convocation. I got my Bachelor of Science degree from Open University of Sri Lanka. I did my degree while working in government sector as a management assistant. It is very hard think to do a degree and working simultaneously. But I managed to to it in 7 damn years.

I like to personally thank few people at OUSL, Dr. Jayantha wattewidana, He is a lecturer at department of zoology, very kind and cool person. and Dr. Rohan Fernando, one of the good geologist in Sri Lanka, lecturer at department of physics and very helpful guys. And Mr. Prasad Senadeera, he also one of a lecturers at department of Botany, he helped me in various ways. And I would like to thanks all the people who helped me to complete my degree.. Thanks again..

FOSSed on Wheels Trincomalee

FOSSed on wheels Trincomalee

The FOSSed on Wheels, the successful series of Free and Open Source Software awareness program happened on the 14th and 15th of September at the Governor's office in Trincomalee. It was a very successful two day event. This time the targeted audience is Government officers in the Northern provincial council. There were about 100 officers participated. This was mainly organised by the FOSS.LK and LKLUG with the collaboration of LSF, ICTA and WSO2


We got the amazing feedback from the Northern provincial council.


Here is some photo galleries of them.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=153404&id=145059200927

http://www.np.gov.lk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=118:foss-conference-commenced-at-npc-head-quarters

Geeky Events After a Geek's Wedding

Another Free and Open Source couple, Bud and Kanchana got married last week. The wedding took place in Mount Lavinia Hotel on 20th july. Suprisingly lots of rare geeks joined the wedding. We had a nice time there. But Suchetha and I were in a hurry to jump out from the wedding coz we had a GNU/linux workshop to carry on in Ampara. We left the wedding a little earlier after a hurried lunch.

It was around 1430 hrs when we left Colombo. had to pick up Mr. Neil from the Ministry of education. Mr. Neil is director of IT in ministry of education. He is the guy who organized the FOSS awareness events on behalf of the minstry. After a nice ride we reached Ampara around 0100 hrs.

The workshop took place in the computer resource center in Kawantissa Vidyalaya, Ampara. All the participants were teachers and CRC managers in the eastern province. Suchetha and I taught them GNU/Linux almost 5 days. There were few teachers in the event who were very keen to learn GNU/Linux. Just after the event we drew our heads to Budugehinna M.V at Kekirawa for another training program. The trining was a success.

Gunadasa Mathota Arachchi, the great musician!

My father is a great musician I've ever seen. He has the ability to turn pieces of words into beautiful songs. Lots of beautifull melodies have been created by him. He has contributed toward the music community in Ampara and created lots of musicians who have become luminaries. I'm really proud of my father. He was appointed as a music teacher in 1972 to Walagampura Maha Vidyalaya in Ampara and started his teaching career. He got through the national examination of music in 1973. He had admission to the Teacher's Training School in Giragama for his proffetional education. After the completion his training he was appointed to Rajagalathenna Maha Vidyalaya and after a few years transfered to Bandaranaike Balika Vidyalaya in Ampara as a music teacher. He extended his service to the other institutions apart from school teaching. He was music instructor for National Youth Council and he was also the senior lecturer of the distance education center of teachers in Ampara.

He passed the examination for recruitment of principals in 1989 and started to work as a principal in 2002. First he worked at Hingurana Maha Vidyala then at Muwangala Maha Vidyalaya. After completing his service as principlal for 5 years he retired on 09th October 2007. Now he is relaxing in his later part of life.

I wish him a long life !!

The Team Linux in Unawatuna

We had another one day GNU/linux training camp on 14th October 2007 at Amarasuriya teachers trainng school in unawatuna. It actually proved to be a success with excellent organization, the place being an ancient Wallawa by the Galle Matara road in Unawatuna. Bikku Mettawihari had arranged everything for the program.

GNU/Linux Teaching Camp in Rartnapura

We had planned a sudden GNU/Linux teaching camp in Ruwanpura National Teacher's Training College last 6th and 7th. Suchetha and I left Colombo about 2000 hrs. we got to the place around 2330 hrs. When we got there Bikku Mettavihari and a few guyz had already got down to the business. They'd put Ubuntu and Edubuntu into 45 computers. Thanx to organizers, what a cosy place to stay overnight, we found!

The event was a success. Nearly 150 trainee teachers took part in it. I was to do a presentation on Introduction to GNU/Linux. That crazy guy Suchetha snatched off half of my time. The whole day we taught GNU/Linux. The day ended nicely with a few discussions with cute ladies. In the eveining we enjoyed a few movies, beers and had a chat. The second day was a success too.

The Software Freedom Day 2007

Software Freedom Day is a global, grassroots effort to educate the public about the importance of software freedom and the virtues and availability of Free and Open Source Software. Local teams from all over the world organise events on the third Saturday in September. The most recent event involved over 200 teams from all over the world.

We had lots of plans in this SFD. There was many FOSS events around the country. Colombo,Kandy and downsouth events were big events among them. Dassa and I took over the organizing part of Matara event. We planned that event with collaboration of university of Ruhuna. The head, department of computer science Mr. Aruna gave a big help giving their resources to the event.

We have planned to go to Matara in the 13th evening. Collected our money from LSF in the morning. But we had one big prob. There was Tsunami warning all over the country. We had to change our plans due to the Tsunami warning. Then we decided to go to Matara early in the 14th morning. We took a cab 6 in the morning and left colombo. Reached Matara at about 11. the street promotion was going on at that time. They had prepared a nice place for us to crash that night down. The university circuit bungalow. Its located in a nice place facing the sea. What a beutiful view. Then we decided to go out for lunch. We went to chuti akka's place and had our lunch. After a litle talk we left there and had a little walk in matara town. I had to meet some one there and we wait few hours. Visited the temple in the town which is located few yards toward the sea. Suchetha came from colombo and had dinner and beers, came back to the lab.

The event was very successful. There were about 500 heads. After the event we left Matara at about 5.30. We had to be in Excel World coz there was closing ceremony taking place there. We were there just in time. was a nice karoke. Suchetha and Dassa shout for few tracks.