Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Difference in 10 years!!

This picture is a combination of two photographs, which were taken on 2000 (cant remember the month) and August 2010. Can you imagine the difference of myself? ha ha...

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Swarm Art Live Wallpaper

Just released my second live wallpaper for Android OS, Swarm Art Live Wallpaper. The algorithm is based on PSO (Particle swarm optimization) evolutionary algorithm with added visual elements such as backgrounds and color schemes. App is fully tested and optimized for optimum power usage and has given many customized controls for end users. Do buy for S$0.99

More information and screenshots: http://www.tasteoverip.com/p/swarm-art-live-wallpaper.html

Monday, December 20, 2010

Cricket after many years!!

Played cricket after several years with my friends in Singapore, at Chinese garden. This was the first time I played on Singapore soil. It was a neat place to play though the sunlight is too hard. I always remembered how we played during school holidays, and on Sinhalese new year with my friends back in Sri Lanka both cricket and Elle (it's like baseball but the rules are slightly different). I also missed the village stream (lake) to get a fun-filled bath after the cricket sessions.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Pompeii Exhibition in Singapore

The exhibition was held at National Museum of Singapore and we visited the exhibition on Saturday (04122010). It was rich with the frescos, monuments, and some remains found from the excavations at Pompeii.
Pompeii was an ancient city  destroyed by the Vesuvius volcano around 79 CE (a Roman town when it was destroyed). Scientists say it was a huge eruption which could eject the lava and soil around 35 Km into the sky. The Pompeii residents didn't suffer rivers of hot lava first, rather ash raining down from the sky. Afterwards the lava. That's how the architecture, frescos, and the like were safer to see even today and didn't destroyed from the eruption.
In addition, researchers have found some evidences that even before the Pompeii eruption there were some volcanic eruptions.  They found some footsteps on volcanic ash and they believe those were made by a bronze-age person 2000 years before Pompeii.

You can enjoy some snaps from my picture blog here..
http://tasteofcosmos.blogspot.com/2010/12/pompeii-exhibition-december-2010-in.html

Friday, December 3, 2010

A Glimmer of Nature's Beauty.... selected snaps from my third eye....

A new blog for the snaps I have taken and the selected ones that I like and love most.
http://snaps.tasteoverip.com
Please visit and enjoy!! Do not forget to leave a comment!!
Thx..

Lab warmed with David Freeman workshop #new #cute #mxr

We had a whole day workshop conducted by David Freeman on the methods of delivering public speeches and storytelling techniques (on yesterday - 02122010). Well, that was great and unique experience. The workshop kick started with a 20-minute session by looking into someone’s eyes directly. Then after, another session, where we practiced our “spiritual powers” and how we can use them before a presentation. Followed by many secret techniques we can use when preparing to deliver a speech.

Several key points,
  • When delivering a speech you have 2 types of audience: your friends and your future friends
  • When walking to your talk, right posture is critical
  • Do shake hands with the audience before the talk
  • Be present by noticing everything in the room
  • Keep good posture and look in eyes of the audience

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

CUTE Center / Mixed reality lab.. in a new location

CUTE Center has moved yesterday to a new and larger space (within the same building though) with all the people from both MXR and MIME labs in NUS, Singapore. The floor plan and arrangement are decent although some complains from the students. First argument is the large area allocated for workshops that are going to be used occasionally. Second is the position of working areas. We have requested to accommodate the working areas near the window so that we can look long distances through the window to rest our eyes a little bit. Anyway, they are not very strong complains. Let’s try to be positive and work hard to generate more innovations. Fingers crossed!!



Saturday, November 27, 2010

The worst movie I have ever watched…. Harry potter 7 #hp7

Yesterday night (from 8.30PM to 10.50PM) I watched this crap and believe me those were the longest minutes ever in my life. I will never get that time of my life back. It really sucks..

I do not know about you readers, but for me the harry potter is more like harry zilch. After all, it is a book for kids.. I couldn't understand why these adults are going crazy about it. Sometimes I feel that it is also become more like the well-known “vegetarian” phenomena, nothing but showing off by many people. It’s just a fantasy story, and I think it does not have any background (either scientific or as a fantasy). And the people who loved it this much.. Well I guess they never enjoyed a fantasy in their childhood or may be for the entire life time..
it is not original, not creative. The main actor could be the worst ever I have seen, most boring acting and no descriptive scenes at all. They are jumping here and there and trying to build up a storyline which they never succeeded at all.
Finally, these stories were composed for wide-eyed kids and not for jaded adults..

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Chariots of the gods from 70s by Erich Von Daniken

As I tweet this few days back I finished reading this book, which I was searching for years. Finally, got it from Kinokunia, KL bookstore. Anyone as crazy as me about the universe and a strong believer of alien races, this book is for you!

In fact, this was written and first published in 1970, and it was immediately recognized as a work of immense importance when it introduced the theory that ancient earthlings had contacts with aliens. What makes it more appealing and exciting to read is he did not just present his wild thoughts, he presented several unknown and unexplainable facts all around the world; from ancient cultures we had: Mayan, Egyptian, Indian, as well as Incan. And his original thought is the aliens who visited the ancient earthlings are alien astronauts.

Below are several artifacts he used to make arguments on his original thought,

  • Sophisticated batteries found in Bronze Age cities
  • An alien astronaut preserved in a pyramid with drawings
  • Thousands of years old spaceflight navigation maps and the maps of earth drawn as can be seen from the outer space
  • Mayan, Incan, and Egyptian knowledge of mathematics and astronomy

And many more…… feeling dizzy? You must read this book..

Despite the fact that it is a great and delightful archive, I found the way his arguments are presented rather straightforward. However, the author does not expect the reader to believe all his theories (as I guessed), he just wants people to open their minds a little and question things more.

After reading this one could certainly argue that this is a waste of money and time or it is in lack of scientific integrity. Well, I don't truly believe all his theories, but they are incredibly fascinating and tempting. In a way, again the fundamental question raises whether you believe the existence of alien races or not. People who believe they gonna like this for sure!!

I am a believer of the existence of alien races in the universe; there are so many hidden facts and artifacts. We even don’t know about earth and human beings, so how can we possibly sure about there are no living beings in this vast universe.

When I was reading this, I was thinking that even in Sri Lanka there are many unexplained ruins, archaeological findings, as well as myths/legends. In particular the ancient kingdom Sigiriya, and also the ancient temples and ruins of palaces, tanks, and many more.. Even the modern technology couldn't explain the existence of those ancient creations. One thing for sure definitely they are not primitive. Best example is the recent discovery of iron melting pots: the ancients were using natural wind on mountains to acquire the necessary temperature to melt iron for making swords and stuffs.. Incredible isn’t it??

Friday, November 19, 2010

Tweets from the Space

This is amazing.. the social media even populer in space nowadays. Several images were published via twitter by current ISS commander from space as engadget says this morning. He is also the first person who signed in to foursquare, the location service from the space. I believe in near future they will tweet the first shots of an alien race who met in the space station.
I very much hope so.. but are we still too primitive to them??
source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/18/astronaut-shares-amazing-twitpics-from-space-booze-not-involved/
http://techcrunch.com/2010/01/22/nasa-astronaut-tweets-from-space-for-real-this-time/

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

"Everybody thought we'd have a revolution in energy, instead we had a #revolution in #information"

Just saw this attractive quote from this: http://boingboing.net/2010/11/15/how-quantum-mechanic.html Where it describes how we got the blu-ray technology!! fascinating...
Talking about the title itself, although we had a revolution in information and processing power still there is this fundamental problem, "Power". Researchers are yet to find out the ultimate power source for the betterment of all human beings (hopefully this will be a greener and cleaner source like Nuclear energy). In a way power may be the fundamental problem in any technologically advanced civilization!!

7th International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology (ACE) 2010 #ace2010

This time ACE 2010 will be held on Taiwanese soil from today (17 Nov 2010) to 19 Nov 2010. It is a pleasure/unique that around 12 of CUTE Center members are attending the conference this time (and needless to say the quietness in the lab… ha ha).
I thought to write something from last year #ace where Ken and myself were attending in Athens, Greece. In a way it was a hectic experience with two demo setups and three presentations (Petimo and Poetry Mix-Up), but at the end it was a memorable event in my life.. "First time I saw the usage of Greek letters other than the mathematical equations..!!" and the "new Acropolis museum…" it was unique.. really..
The cold and perfect weather (bit dry though), the pigeons, museums, The Acropolis.. it was awesome!! Thinking of visiting Greece again sometime in the future……….
http://www.mixedreality.nus.edu.sg/index.php/2010/04/ace-2009-conference/

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Gingerbread is on its way..

Lot of rumors are getting around on the next major release of Android operating system from the last week. There were several rumored conformations as well though.. And it seems that Honeycomb is v3.0 and Gingerbread is v2.3 based on several sources on internet..
As Google showcased on google IO 2010 there will be several new features on this release .. v2.3 aka Gingerbread.

  • New UI layer with restrictions for third party UI’s
  • Enhanced display system and UI subsystem for tablets
  • Open video codec platform
  • New Music platform – Google Music
  • Syncing facility 
  • Video chatting (based on the google video chat)
  • And enhanced ads, navigation, HTML5 support….. many more!!!!

Apparently, this version is targeting the higher end devices and obviously they have chosen N1 configuration as the recommended ………
On the other hand the rumors on Nexus Two is coming out too!! What a week for Android lovers!! :)
I m ready with my N1 to rock!!
credit: phandroid.com

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

OMG!! a skin printer...

Well!! this may be a yet another step to achieve the famous Terminator, this one prints living tissues on wounds...
The ultimate version of this machine will print a whole human being (are they humans??) in the near future!! who knows...
source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/02/researchers-tout-progress-with-skin-printers-hope-to-one-day/

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

EPOXI: NASA Spacecraft Preps for Comet Flyby

“In one of its final mission trajectory correction maneuvers, the EPOXI mission spacecraft has refined its orbit, preparing it for the flyby of comet Hartley 2 on Nov. 4. The time of closest approach to the comet on that day is expected to be about 7:02 a.m. PDT (10:02 a.m. EDT).
Today's trajectory correction maneuver began at 11 a.m. PDT (2 p.m. EDT), when the spacecraft burned its engines for 60 seconds, changing its velocity by 1.59 meters per second (3.6 miles per hour).
On Nov. 4, the spacecraft will fly past Hartley 2 at a distance of about 700 kilometers (435 miles). It will be only the fifth time in history that a spacecraft has been close enough to image a comet's nucleus.”
fascinating.. isn't it??
Source: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/epoxi/epoxi20101027.html

Virtual hugs and intelligent pillows invented in Asia by Amalia Torres

This is a nice and interesting article published on mixed reality lab in “El Mercurio”. El Mercurio is a Spanish newspaper in Chile. The introduction is attractive and inspiring to me!

"Sewing machines, books on the psychology of love and a lot of disorder may not be the image you have of a scientific laboratory. Less from the one who has the difficult task of bringing the virtual world to reality.
However, the Mixed Reality Lab at the National University of Singapore operates on a different logic."

Original article: http://www.mer.cl/modulos/catalogo/Paginas/2010/10/01/MERSTCT013AA0110.htm
English translation: http://www.mixedreality.nus.edu.sg/index.php/2010/11/virtual-hugs-and-intelligent-pillows-invented-in-asia/

Saturday, October 30, 2010

My new Sony A series walkman..

Almost 2 months passed, wonder why I forgot to write something on my new Sony digital MP4 player. To be precise it is a WALKMAN® MP3 - A Series (NWZ-A845/B). When I was searching the fitting product the only criterion was to find the superior sound quality with the best equalizer. Well, I was succeeded!! This is an awesome player with super nice sound with digital enhancements. Sony introduced the new DSEE (Digital Sound Enhancement Engine) with the noise cancelling ear buds.. totally awesome and cool. It has all the features for a music lover.. 3D sound, equalizer, amplifier, bass and stereo boost…….. etc. What I like most about it is it doesn't have any fancy features like various sensors and the like and it focuses and serves its primary function very well!

Still, I remember the first walkman player I had!! I did many experiments and hackings with that. I think that was back in 1994!! thanks to my dad. Ha ha.. the walkman cassette player with the FM radio. It may be some where in my house back in Sri Lanka with my other gadgets!!

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Shaking web live wallpaper – new release – v4.0

Added features: optimized shaking algorithm, shaking speed based on battery level (effective on continuous mode), shaking by shaking the phone (on interactive mode)
Released version 4.0 on Android market place.. please try using the QR code below.. NOW U CAN SHAKE THE WEB BY SHAKING THE PHONE!!!!

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Shaking web live wallpaper - after 2 weeks

It is not bad at all!! According to the Google data there are round 1400 downloads within 2 weeks for this live wallpaper. It is quite interesting; to be honest I didn't think that this could go this well.
And I released latest 3.5 version in android app market with added features such as enable shaking based on remaining battery power and an optimized new algorithm focusing a better battery life.
Please use the QR code to install and try this version.. Don’t forget to leave me a comment.. Of course and to rate it with five stars!!

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Shaking web live wallpaper....

Finally on the Android app market..... to download search for "shaking web" or "shaking web live wallpaper" or else use the barcode.

Shaking web live wallpaper is an Android based live wallpaper, which shakes a web on users touch. It’s currently supporting for Android versions 2.1 and 2.2. Further, the application has the features like move to SD card. This is a simple application I wrote and it's the first for Android platform from me. :) Amazingly, there were 17 downloads in the market place in 4 hours after releasing the app.
Hope you ll love it, try it and comment.. and don't forget to rate in the Android market!! (five stars?? :D )

Cheers!! Tap & Shake!!

This is the direct link to the app in Android market..


and a screenshot..

Software Engineering To Hardware Engineering....

Designed and soldered a circuit after almost 10 years with the help from Prof. Nii in my lab. It was designed to drive a peltier module to control the temperature. I still remember during my high school I was crazy to build small circuits such as the popular “Knight Rider” circuit, FM radios, and the like. The last one I built as I can remember was a music visualizing LED board. However, as far as I can remember that board was not working and I couldn't figure out the problem. Later, the interest of computer programming sort of killed my interest for electronics.. but who knows what future is? :)


Tuesday, August 10, 2010

They visited here!!

It was almost two years that I have not had time to visit my parents in Sri Lanka after joining the NUS. So finally thought of having them here with us for few days. Obviously, the few days were planned and finally it was 10 days altogether, visited Singapore as well as Malaysia. Though it was a tiring holiday, all had so much fun and it is always nice and inspiring to being with parents and family. You can find few shoots below..
Wants to visit them more frequently!!












Friday, June 25, 2010

Don't Be Such a Scientist

Talking Substance in an Age of Style!

A good and inspirational book for traditional scientists (traditional… am I right?). It is talking about the importance of communication for scientists and a must read for anyone who cares about science, and the problems we have engaging the public. There are many lessons and advises throughout the book for the scientists... Yes I guess including me!! Furthermore, according to the author, the science has two parts and I agree strongly, the inventions or doing the research and the communicating of science.

Storytelling ability is a must for all scientists!!!!

Have a look!!

Thursday, June 10, 2010

woo hoo! it's my sister...

The University Grants Commission released the university cut off marks few days ago in Sri Lanka for 09/10. Apparently, my sister is selected for a BSc degree in Biological sciences. They are yet to process the universities and confirmation letters for each and every scholar. Nonetheless, I am wishing her a bright future and best of luck for her future academic endeavors!!

Friday, May 21, 2010

Google I/O 2010

Wish if I could attend to....

Google I/O keynotes are over! They were absolutely superb! fantastic! inspiring! awesome! brilliant! And I freaking love Google!

Froyo.. Android v2.2.. looks promising.. upto 5x speed with many interesting features... when can I get the OTA update to my Nexus One ..... Froyo: make your handset a portable hotspot & more http://bit.ly/cDl7iq

Open platform, open source collaboration... what Google is more powerful and doing so good... even the Google TV will be open source in 2011.. and open for thousands of developers to build there apps for the next gen TV platform... what fascinating is again it is Android!!!!



Wednesday, May 19, 2010

The Tyranny of E-Mail – a book by JOHN FREEMAN

Yesterday night around 3AM, I finished the reading of this book recommended by my supervisor professor Adrian. I was inspired and it clearly shows what we are missing in today’s sophisticated communication systems, especially emailing. He compared communicating with emails with face-to-face communication and presented several key points to remember when we are dealing with email. Furthermore, he theorized the importance of physical togetherness and touch for the human beings, especially for children’s.

He has gone through the history of communications and its developments in a nice manner in the mid of the book prior to coming to the current trends in remote communications. In addition, he coined a new term to me “slow communication”, which is a nice and meaningful term for many of the knowledge workers nowadays.

“We are here for a short time on this planet, and reacting to demands on our time by simply speeding up has canceled out many of the benefits of the Internet, which is one of the most fabulous technological inventions ever conceived. We are connected, yes, but we were before, only by gossamer threads that worked more slowly. Slow communication will preserve these threads and our ability to sensibly choose to use faster modes when necessary.”

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Nexus One........

It was nice nice nice.. for the first time now I m using a smart phone and its not just a smart phone it is the newest Google Nexus One with Android 2.1 build. Amazing features and smooth interactions.... And several friends requesting the phone through me since in Asia only in Singapore and Hong Kong we can order the phone. Finally I ended up with buying 5 sets within two weeks. :P
Now it s time to start writing appsssssssssssssss.......... :)

Prepairing for QE

It was a tough month so far for me. It s time to preparing for my qualifying examination for my PhD. I wrote several proposals and modifying to finalize my thesis title and the content. Now I feel the toughness of doing a PhD and it is always not enough to work hard and doing my best... It is all about do or die... But for now let us say .. so far so good.. :)

Back to business.......

It was almost 2 months where I didn't write anything here. Finally I went to KAIST YoungCT 2009 in South Korea and it was very nice experience. I like their culture as well as their food...... The conference was held in a ski resort in down town Seoul. Specially, I saw real snow for the first time in my life :)
I presented Poetry research work their and it was a nice experience at the end.
Then the Siggraph time.... Although this time it was bit relaxed since I engaged with only one submission and that one also there were many members to work with. Finally i hope it was a success and will see....

Friday, January 15, 2010

KAIST Accepted!!!!!!!!!!!

Hurray..... Finally I got the notification of the acceptance and this time it seems the organization is not very good. I asked an Invitation letter from them, after 4 days they sent one with wrong information.. so yet to proceed with my visa, but bought air tickets from Zuji, this time it s Asiana Air Lines... let c....
The most important thing is the temperature there in Korea....... hoooooooooooooo ........ it is around -15C.... can u imagine.. i never had the experience and hope this time for the first time in my life i can feel and touch snowwwwwwwwwwwww.......... Looking forward.....

Back in the MXR lab with full power!!

Back to lab, back to research after the 3 day leave. And this time its the Siggraph season.......
All the lab is like stop other works and doing only Siggraph...... This time its LA and wishing all the projects could go through....... :)
All the best to MXR teams!!!!

Late new year wishes!! :)

2010!! Firstly, wishing you a happy and prosperous new year!! Secondly sorry for the late posting this. I was really busy with some works and catch-ups last few weeks. However, visited and explored Malaysia few days in the past holidays. Petronas towers are really fascinating in the night especially in 31st night and its all bright silver...
Normally, I don't like to exploring the city life and always want to interact with the environment, specially with forests. This may be due to the village life i used to live in Sri Lanka, and I m pretty comfortable when I see green. But this time I love KL trip coz I found the Kinokuniya book store in KL and the books are pretty cheap. I was like crazy to choose books, and finally ended up with buying a really cool book titled "Brain Sense". And the journey by bus from Singapore to Kuala Lampur, Malaysia also a good point to discuss here. Even though it took around 4 hours it's such a wonderful journey to me, mostly because of the green and the mountains.