sum.na

As of right now, most of the Star TV channels are working on Dialog TV - These channels include Star World, Star Vijay, Star Movies and Star Plus.

If you don’t get the channels yet, just re-scan and you will pick them up.

This is wonderful news for DTV subscribers as they will be able to watch some of the latest US TV shows on Star World, and bad news for Comet Cable (the company), as the Star package was the one thing they had that DTV didn’t

In other news, Comet promises an ‘exciting’ new digital system with 60+ channels. This will be nice, if Comet pays their bills and customers can actually watch all these channels (Comet has a habit of ‘renegotiating’ their channels with their providers once a year which usually means popular channels vanish, for weeks or months, with no warning or refund for customers who pay for them).

A few quick tips and tricks for anyone with DTV:

Install the dish in an easily accessible location (pre installation)
Remember, you don’t have to install it high up, so ask the installation team to instal it in a low location for easy access. Remember that you should have a good view of the Western sky (at least 45 degrees or better, and no trees blocking your view).

Upgrading the dish
If the signal is weak or you experience rain fade, you can upgrade the dish: note: using a dish not supplied by DTV may void your warranty, or they may refuse to help if you have problems..

Ensure you get a good signal before the installers leave
When the system is installed, ensure they fine tune it to get maximum signal strength. Often the installation team is in a hurry to get out and if they get even a slight signal, they will be satisfied. Ask them to tweak the dish till they get the best signal strength.

Ideally, pick a day with clear sky and no clouds/rain as this tends to distort/reduce signals

Change channel order: The existing channel order (with CNN as first channel) is a pain. You can thankfully reorder the channels according to your preference as follows:

1. Click Menu -> Installation
2. Enter password 1234
3. Press no 4 for channel edit
4. Select the channel you want to move, click the green button (labled Audio on your remote) to move
5. Use up/down arrows to move the channel where you want it to be
6. Press green button once more to confirm move
7. Repeat this process to move other channels

Rescan for new channels
Dialog is currently adding new channels. You can view these channels as they are being tested. For example, HBO Family and HBO Hitz are now in testing phase: HITZ is mostly operational whereas HBO Family is intermittently on/off.

To receive these channels, you may have to perform a manual scan as follows:

1. Click Menu -> Installation -> Enter Password
2. Press 1 - channel search
3. Press the blue button for “Manual Scan”
4. A new window will open with Transponder 1 (TP1) selected: Press down arrow to highlight “Start scan”, then click OK (Warning: this will erase the channel order if you have customized it, and reset it to default)
5. After channels are detected, you can press exit. You will be asked to press OK to save channels, do so

Reset Decoder:
The decoder used is a cheap chinese decoder, which occasionally gets stuck: for example, in a rain storm, if the signal is lost, the decoder sometimes gets stuck with an error instead of resuming operation once the signal is back. To fix this, just turn off the decoder, and turn it back on.

So, do you have any tips? List them here as a comment

Quick Summary: Dialog TV compared to Comet Cable

Comet cable:

Requirement: Direct line of sight to transmitting tower (so requires a tall pole in your garden, with an antenna pointed horizontally (direction and height of tower varies depending on where you are located).

Purchasing experience: Went to the head office, met a customer service person, filled a form, and paid (current cost: around Rs 20,000) Promised installation in 20 days. Installation took more than 20 days.

Technology used: Comet cable uses MMDS which is sort of a terrestrial line of sight system. Comet appears to operate in wireless space reserved for wimax, and due to the narrow amount of bandwidth, expansion is limited (Comet have regularly mentioned upgrading to a ‘digital’ system, which would mean that customers would probably have to purchase new equipment).

Decoder type: Comcrypt 4000 decoder (Analog?)
Picture quality: Varies: Channels at the start (e.g. HBO) are good but channels get progressively weaker towards the end of the spectrum.
Rain fade: Does not experience rain fade. Is however affected by nearby lightning and microwave ovens! (despite being earthed, antenna may also pose a lightning hazard)
Subtitles/Teletext/Multiple Audio: Not available
EPG: Not available.
Stereo: Not tested (possible in theory?)

Experienced problems:

Comet cable is quite reliable - it just works 99% of the time (except when Comet forget to pay their bills and channels show a message “This cable operator hasn’t paid and is liable for disconnection”). Every year, comet ‘re-negotiates’ the star packages with their supplier which means some of those channels vanish. for a while.

Comet cable also experienced a ‘management change’ last year. This again involved vanishing channels and the office being surrounded by armed guards. Not comforting.

Major outages: Two of the most popular channels (Star World + Star Movies) have gone offline for days/weeks this month, as well as last year (or was it the year before?) other than that, the channels work usually.

CHANNELS OFFERED: Fixed list of 18 channels: no new channels, good channels have been historically been replaced by crap (e.g. NDTV). (see cometcable.com for channels and packages)

Dialog TV

This is a picture of my Irdteo card. Yup, it has a connector like a sim card. This is what resides in the front slot of your dialog decoder.

Requirement: 45 degree view of West. Relatively easy to obtain, and the dish can be located at any level even ground level.

Purchasing experience: Aspiring DTV customers have to take a number and wait in line to see a dialog customer service rep (why dialog treats potential customers this way is something I don’t quite understand). After a wait of around 15 - 20 minutes, I met a CSR, filled some forms, and paid (Current cost for a DTV connection : Rs 12,500). Promised installation in 5 days: DTV actually installed the connection 28 hours after payment was made!! (Note: I purchased from a dialog arcade)

Technology used: Classic DTH system, uses Intelsat 12, requires a 45 degree view of the western sky. So antenna can be at ground level. Dialog is true satellite TV and uses a KU Band dish/LNB and DVB decoder. So, dialog can add future channels easily.

DTV uses DVBs, IRDTEO2 encrypted, (decoded via CAM/SMART CARD), and a customized co-branded chinese STB. The decoder appears to use custom software/cannot be re-programmed/many options locked (e.g. tuning options).

Picture quality: Visual quality is exceptionally good, comparable or exceeding mainstream international satellite providers. Due to the technology used, picture quality is not easily affected by weather/electrical disturbances etc.
Rain fade: Possible (inherent flaw in all KU DVB systems) but have not experienced so far. Good signal strength means it will be unlikely/rare.
EPG (On screen electronic program guide): YES
STEREO: Available (but I haven’t confirmed which/if channels broadcast in Stereo.
Picture ‘reminder’: Ability to bookmark a program and change to it: Possible/not tested.
Subtitles: Possibly Available/not used
Teletext: Possibly available/not used

(Re subtitles and teletext: it would appear the decoder includes such technology but it may have been disabled.)

Reliability: GOOD: Dialog occationally experiences random outages - for example yesterday morning, things were a bit odd: channels failing randomly - not sure what was causing this problem but it appears to be in the uplink (Downlink signal and transponder seem fine) It could be possible these random outages are temporary and relate to the testing process/as DTV are constantly adding new channels.

Major Outages: one month total shutdown last year when they were halted by govt (not their fault)

CHANNELS OFFERED: DTV offers a massive collection of channels (Currently 51 channels including testing channels) and are constantly adding to the list (see dialog.lk).

Comments:

Comet cable’s decoder allows you to watch multiple channels simultaneously via the RF out - i.e. you can watch some channels on different TV’s in your house by parallel wiring: for example if you connect another TV you can watch Animal Planet or Hallmark even while you are watching HBO on the main TV.

It’s likely that Comet will eventually go digital. Aside from the fact that they may have to give up the 2+GHZ space, the decoder they use has a few potential issues (do a google search for it and you will see what I mean), which mean that it is in Comet’s best interest to upgrade to a digital solution.

DTV’s decoder has an RF out but for some reason I was only able to get a black and white picture. It may have been an issue in my wiring but I think its more likely that they prefer people to connect only one TV (i.e. via the RCA out). You can work around this by using a VCR to convert RCA -> RF Out

DTV has the ability to add almost infinite channels. That and the fact that they are using proven accepted scalable technology means that they are probably a better investment.

Update: Animal planet and Discovery are no longer working on Comet (problem started sometime yesterday). As always, no explanation, no warning.

Note: Something was wrong with my comment system. If you can, please try leaving a comment at the bottom of this post, to see if it works

So there I was, quietly driving along when a tuk tuk guy decided to dart onto the road from my left side, and cut across me, to reach the right side of the road.

Only one problem: the right lane is blocked with a line of unmoving traffic. Tuk tuk is aware of this, but jumps anyway, blocking me and everyone behind.

Eventually, tuk tuk manages to ram his way into the right side lane (which is still going nowhere) because the car in front moves 2 feet, and Pajero, who is behind, stays put, so tuk tuk can squeeze in. Pajero and I share a rare moment of understanding.

Tuk tuk drivers fascinate me as a species. If you have a broken one please let me know, I would love to dissect it and find out whats inside / how it works.

vesak lanterns by chi chi

Over 2,500 years ago today, The Buddha expounded the Dhamma, and exhorted us to use it as a tool to free ourself from suffering. Today, we “Buddhists” remember him as we celebrate (sic) Vesak, by lighting up lanterns and decorating the city with colored light bulbs. Actually, our priests, as the official custodians/guardians of the Buddha word, should probably be pointing out that what we are doing isn’t exactly Buddhism, but it appears they are busy.

Ultimately, Buddha’s doctrine (Dhamma) was mostly about suffering, the cause of suffering, the path that leads to the end of suffering (noble eightfold path).

Modern Myths in Buddhism
Buddha = God: Despite the Buddha clearly stating that he is not God, and that there is no such person (a creator), some people still believe that Buddha is/was a/the God, or something

Life: Buddha preached that people should refrain from taking the life of living things (other animals and humans). The reasons were 1. Living things love life just as much as we do, and 2. (for the more practical), taking the life of a living thing is considered an act of negative karma.

These days, the belief is that ‘life’ in the above argument refers to big animals like Cows. And even then, its quite OK to get someone to kill them for you. So, if you don’t personally kill any cows, you are a good Buddhist, and it’s OK to slap more mosquitoes than you can count. After all, they don’t count as animals.

Meditation: in Buddhism, meditation was originally used as a method of realizing the truth, i.e. by concentration and practising various methods of meditation, people were able to realize some of the deeper thruths of Buddhism such as Impermanence.

Today, the aim of Meditation, is simply to become a good meditator. At meditators conventions everyone talks about how “so and so can sit for four hours without moving” and his “Inner Buddha is all awakened”…

Buddhism isnt about getting Ping.
[Ed: Ping or Pin refers to ‘merit’ or cosmic bonus points. In modern day Sri Lanka, Buddhists spend a lot of time and money trying to get this stuff…]

These people do good things for the sake of getting Ping. This is counter intuitive, as the entire idea behind doing something good should be altrustic.

Final Thoughts
In Sri Lanka (and many other “Buddhist” countries), Buddhism is not what it used to be. It is now a prepackaged modern religeon which can be mass marketed and broadcast via loudspeakers.

Party on dude, from Flickr

Muttawa reports that someone has tipped him off (mistaking him for the Saudi Religeous police I guess?) about a Sri Lankan who’s been selling booze to the locals…

The basic meaning of this is that there is a certain Sri Lankan gentleman selling “sadiqi” (or “sid”, an almost pure alcohol bootleg distillate) in Jubail camp (a rudimentary set of residential huts for Third World laborers in Jubail on the east coast) and that men are drinking on Friday (our holy day, but also the only day these guys will get off work) and drinking too much.

Well, Um, So theres our contribution to the world. Homebrew Booze.

Cool. No wonder why Sri Lankan’s are loved worldwide

In other news, I’m looking for a tagline that goes “As Sri Lankan as…” (You know, like “As American as Apple Pie”)

Any ideas?

Incredible no? Mallika Sherawat, with Jackie Chan
[Got a minute? take part in our poll on India]

India is in, India is cool, India is the new China - investors are literally scrambling over each other to get there. 

And it’s not just investors. From Bush to Will Smith, everyone’s visiting India.

So how did India get to achieve what we, Sri Lanka, can only dream of?

1. By actively and agressively courting foreign tourism, and investment via the Incredible India campaign 
2. By having a sense of national pride: - it isn’t just a campaign. Indians genuinely are proud of their nation. They believe in Jai Hind - Sure, we get patriotic too - about booze. Even then, only if its imported. In our defenise, its hard to have national pride when you live in a country famous for having the largest number of drunkards and suicides (Ed: before you label me unpatriotic, please refer the original article and see who made that particular quote)
3. By having a booming economy, an educated workforce, and an infrastructure (oh, sure, we have those…)
4. By becoming the talk of Davos.

“There is no better case that illustrates what currently pre-occupies Sri Lanka and our big neighbour India than the way the two countries approached the five-day 2005 World Economic Form that was concluded Sunday January 29 in Davos Switzerland. India used the summit to showcase its economic and development achievements and to advertise its status as a rapidly emerging global economic power. In contrast Sri Lanka paid hardly any attention to the event. The Sri Lankan media almost ignored Davos. The country, as usual, was preoccupied with war and politics. ” From Kandy News 

“As you got off the plane in Zurich, there were large billboards extolling INCREDIBLE INDIA. Davos itself was plastered with signs. WORLD’S FASTEST GROWING FREE MARKET DEMOCRACY! proclaimed the town’s buses. When you got to your room, you found an iPod Shuffle loaded with Bollywood songs, and a pashmina shawl, gifts from the Indian delegation. When you entered the meeting rooms, you were likely to hear an Indian voice, one of the dozens of CEOs of world-class Indian companies. And then there were the government officials, India’s “Dream Team,” all intelligent and articulate, and all selling their country” - newsweek magazine

So, hats off to India, for achieving what we, here in Sri Lanka, can only dream of.

Why, the way things are going, pretty soon our local TV channels will be full of Bollywood Music. Oh wait. They already are.

While we spend all our time arguing about politics, and trying to solve our so called economic ethnic crisis, our neighbors are busy overtaking us.

Related: My two lives: a fascinating article on what it is like to Indian, in America.

[Ed: it’s quite possible I’m entirely wrong about this article: see this excellent comment by sittingnut]

[Ed: India is, also someones pet (memo to w: what were you thinking?)]

 
From Flickr, by Fant

From the “Boss is out, so I can blog all Afternoon” dept…

This is just a tentative roundup - I’m sure I am missing many other blogs. Please help me by posting comments with your favorite blog listed in them, also preferrably a category. Bonus points to those who come up with extra bizarre categorization.. (e.g. most likely to ….)

Most likely to mention sex in a post:
Winner: Indi, 113 posts.
Runner up: Sumna, 24 posts.
Honorable Mention: Prose, for this post which is way more outrageous than anything any guy could say

Most likely to use wtf in a conversational setting:
Winner: Indi, 69 posts/comments (?)
Runners up: Electra, (16 times), and sumna (10 times)

Squeaky clean: Most likely NOT TO use the F word on their blog:
http://www.mahamoor.com/
PS: Happy birthday, dude!

Most likely to use F word as punctuation on their blog:
Curious yellow

Most likely to have teddy bears or poetry in their blog:
Joint Winners: Dush and Best pals

Best tech blogs
Civil Unrest
Charith.NET
Mahamoor: Not A Tech Blog but this post was cool
Indi.ca: NATB, but many good tech related posts..

Best lady blogs*
The name of this category is disputed. See note below:
Prose
Portrait
Roshi
Dush
Naz

Best guy blogs..
Shandy
Indi.ca
Mahamoor.com

Heck.. I’ve forgotten the rest..

Best syndication of Sri Lankan blogs
Kottu for: most coverage, been around the longest.
zSri for: hourly updates, some categories (but they don’t always work)

Web 1.0 by merlin (do you miss web 1.0? It’s still alive here)

[This article is not aimed at techies, rather, its for ordinary people.. I’m trying to discuss how modern web sites work, from my twisted unique point of view.]

1998: Simple HTML
I first started making web sites in 1998. Back then, it was really basic. I used HTML (a language to make sites which your web browser can read).

HTML is simple. Most of it is pretty basic. It usually consists of simple tags wrapped around the content you want, all in a single static file, with the extension htm (or html).

2006: Machines making web sites..

These days, web design is quite different. For a start, people don’t really design web sites. Thanks to the joy of CMS (content management system), a modern web site works something like this (From my POV at least)

Main components of a modern web site:

1. A CMS / engine: (Wordpress for example) which is a collection of scripts written in a language the web server (hopefully) understands (php in this case) - these scripts include some sort of back end (like an admin section), and a front end, which parses content (pulls it out of the database, wraps a template around it and spits it out in a way your browser likes.)
2. The database: this contains the stuff, e.g. the text and all that you type… The database is master. If it has a hiccup, even temporary, you end up with something like this:
   
   Wordpress screen of death - this is what sumna looks like when my database has an NDE ps: to Prose, this is probably what happened to you that day your site vanished for a few seconds
3. A template - the engine uses this to make the pretty layout, so your content looks interesting.. 

Interesting observations on dynamic web sites:

A modern web site is a dynamic thing. i.e. it is generated on the fly (as in, each time you request a page, that page is made up for you then and there - rather like ordering a pizza from domino’s, but a lot faster)

Advantages of dynamic web sites:

1. Pages are real time, so more up to date.
2. You can make a change in the layout/choose a new template and results are immediate - this makes things really easy for everyone!
3. People (e.g. visitors) can add real time content.. as can you!
4. Simple to back up (in theory) all you need to do is back up the database. In practice, if you have made lots of modifications, e.g. to the template, and have various uploads, this can become a bit complex..

Disadvantages of dynamic web sites:

1. Load on server - dynamically generated pages constitute a load on your web server - as in, instead of just spitting out HTML, the server has to pull data out of the database, ‘execute’ or run the php script to nicely format it using a template, and spit out xhtml for your browser.
2. Setting up the initial CMS and database is a bit complex, thankfully wordpress is remarkably easy to set up..

Personal updates:

So, I’m finally sort of xhtml compliant. At least, i was, at last check. Problem is my site is still messed in Firefox. Bleah! Oh, and thanks to vesses. or vesess.. for prompting me (through sheer guilt) to fix the bugs.

Note: in my defense - most of the problems were from a bug in my version of wordpress which doesnt properly set up nested lists. Well the nested lists work but the validator goes all tits up. Thankfully, a little manual editing solves the problem.

Random unrelated flickr fun 

Ohh.. the ecstasy. Read more here

Road to Jaffna, by GlobeTrotter

In most countries, roads are considered public property. In Sri Lanka, on the other hand, they are considered your property. i.e. if there is a road bordering your house, you are free to use it any way you wish.

Some innovative uses Sri Lankans have put their roads to:

1. As a toilet: especially for pets, and occationally for the owners.
2. As a garbage dump: bonus points if your garbage smells extra bad, and you stack it directly in front of someone elses house.
3. For construction: Let’s say you decide to build an addition to your house, or renovate. The road can be used for stacking cement blocks or bricks, to mix cement, also for storing sand, etc.
4. For funerals: It is the custom that if someone in your family dies, as part of the festivities mourning, you are permitted to erect a makeshift gazebo/pavillion where the bereaved can gather and drink themselves silly mourn.
5. For weddings: same as above.
6. For parking: If you need to park your vehicle, your friends vehicle, or the truck belonging to your fathers brothers mothers cousin twice removed, you guessed it, thats what the road is for.

Traditional Sri Lankan road-etiquette concepts

1. Make sure you obstruct other vehicles: If you must park on the road, don’t park in the side. Park at an odd hazardous angle and block all traffic.
2. If you are constructing something on your road, leave timber, sand, nails, and any hazardous items in the way of any cars that ply that road.
3. Show your neighbor your love, by blocking their gateway using any means necessary. Its the Sri Lankan way!

Random non related flickr photo of the day:


Walls Ice cream? Hmm.. yummy