The Sixth Sense - Grrrrr......

Yes, that was exactly my response after watching th movie. I mean the ending was so cruel I just sat down and wondered what the heck for about half an hour. :D

On a more serious note, the film was a very good one. First of all the script was fabulous. It just let the person who is watching the movie make the intutive and obvious links and assumptions and them break them all in one single go so easily. The plot is kept at a running pace too. If you are not a die hard fan of "Rambo" style action or "Die hard" type theatrics, then you wont be disappointed. The script keeps the edge by keeping the observer always just a bit out of focus. everthing seems so elusive and cannot be taken for granted. Also the acting by Bruce wills and the Haley Joel Osment is very engaging and feels true. There are no forced antics or out of place frights. Things just flow naturally and they just flow with the act too.

But the double whammy at the end takes the prize for the top award of them all. The closure is not a fairy tale ending though the end leaves all the characters strangely satisfied in their own ways but not at dead ends. It again confirms that every thing just keeps in motion and does not stop at any place. No story in real life ever ends like, "Then they all lived happily". The lives of real people will keep on changing and morphing. The beauty of life is that we all eventually find a purpose in all this, a meaning in the mess that we call life. That is what i see at the end of it all. I have long since stopped reading any so called "Top critic" comments at rotten tomatoes. But just for the sake of it I looked at some before writing this review and most of them were good. But i noticed that one writer has said that the character development was "arragont". If he meant that there was no way that real people could have developed things that fast or the writer has developed the characters according to his desires, he was very wrong. The characters are intelligent and not really self desctructive , sucidical and manical people those "top critics" want to see in the films.

So what is the final wordict ? well if you feel like sitting at the edge of the seat for a good two hours and another halff an hour in bewilderment at the movie. Sure go for it. Even otherwise it would rank as a top pick on my list of thriller/drama films.

Dreams and Stories

For a while a thought has been coursing through my mind, Just what keeps me going ? I mean I have been through so much, have seen, done and felt so much. Why do i keep in going ? It is not like I have anyone making me go forward as it i m on a bullock cart or something. So why do I go forward ? For a while I thought may be it was the desire for winning that keeps me going. May be it is that never ending desire for excellence that make me tick. But after a while I realized even though i do possess that desire it does not drive me. It too is a manifestation of some other mysterious internal reason. May be it was the love for my family, my parents. But even though I love them and like to make them safe and happy, they too are not the main reason I keep at it. After all what i have done already is enough to make them proud. Then I thought may be it was my fiance that I wanted to make happy,proud and safe. But today I realized it was none of these things. I mean all these times I had so much wanted to be wanted, wanted to be loved and understood and respected by other just like any normal human being. But today i discovered what i need more than anything it is to succeed. If anyone of you ever read weefree men, it says, the hills are the bones and the bones are the hills. It is all one. The history rallied behind you, the blinding heritage, the longings of generations is what drives you. The bones of them all, the tears of them all, the blood of them all stand beside you. You are never alone if you just remember who you are and why you are here. Remember it is not just you, it is them all, hopes of generations have been aflame inside you waiting to roar to this world in celebration when you make entry in to this world as an envious and exemplary person. And thus finally I knew what I searched for was inside me. I was talking to her on a book she sent me for my birthday. It was so long since I properly read a book I was so delighted just to hold it in my arms. It gave me such pleasure to dig in to it and get lost in the world of the "Lost Boy". And I wanted her to share in the memories. But I guess she was a bit too preoccupied with her things. Anyway I was a bit shaken up. But as i was going to go to sleep I suddenly realized I just didn't care. I just wanted to read the book, consume it, revel in the thoughts of the "Lost Boy" and bathe in the warmth of a dreamworld only story can provide. That was when I knew why I did all this. This entity called me was not a random creation. My roots go back so far in to the past. And as i stand here today so many dreams stand beside me. The dreams dreamt by the storyteller. They are my dreams and I live for them. I live for the stories and the dreams that I create, my heritage. I don't need any other thing to live for. For this is my life. The life of a story teller,  dreamer,  

The Rainmaker.

And here we go

Yes the moment is finally here with us. And we are off to the party. Hip hip horray

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUUGblNjK20

Waiting for Zone Party

Yeah!!! It is that time of the year again. We gonna have fun.... yooohooo. Well euphoria aside our company's Christmas celebrations are coming up and it is gonna be fun. The theme is magic for this time. And yes that is as in Prisoner of askaban for all of you Harry Potter fans. And for you LOTR fans I fell like being frodo or better still aragorn. At least think i am suitably endowed for that. anyways i think it would be cool to have something like that. And yeah i am thinking of adding some stuff in to the mix too. yea may be even a ear ring ;). Nah i am just kidding. But i sure wanna suprise every body. Badly need to show that they cant prototype me. Nobody can and nobody will. I am who I am and will alwys be my own self. Alohomora!!!

Death of a friend

He passsed us by.

On his way he goes.

Oblivious and safe.

Sure in the wings that he has.

A tear falls to earth.

Drier than the desert it is.

For the cries of the inncocent days in life.

Has robbed the beuty of this once lush green lands.

And now comes the winter with its cold and ice.

And perch on the maple branch

And smiles at the long past summer times

And in time the flowers will wither

and days get longer and birds will leave.

But the golden leaves of autumn willl live forever

Under icy cold snow forever and so.

-Osada. Death of a friend 2008

And we are back

Well it has been a while since i posted something up here. Even though I was a bit busy during the last days it wasnt the main reason that i didnt keep up with the posts. The actual reason was that I was a bit trenched in a bit of a rough patch and needed a bit of time. But as it evident i have emerged from that and even better for that. And I've got stories to tell and talk to deliver. So be ready for some pretty dense torrent of posts. And I will assure you they are going to keep you pondering for more than quite a while. So long then

you know i thought that this was going to be fun. well it is. i cant complain.but all the while i think what if?what if? i would never know what it would be like you know.i can hear the sounds from above but still my mind is nowhere near there. wonder what you would have done. i know what you would have wanted me to do. i know i am eventually going to do it.but i just miss u. thats all. even when it hits me i will be wondering.what if?

In a free fall

Ever been in a free fall ? Those who have know what i am talking about. you know that the fall is coming even as you feel the thrill of falling freely the dread of reaching ground is busy in your head. I count days as time slowly withers past. Aimless and wandering I struggle through dreamy landscape full of nightmares of lonliness. I dont knowwhen I will get out of here but I will. But what I know is that when I come out I am going to be a lot stronger than I was going in. With her standing beside me we will get through this. Together and Stronger. Love you

Story of an Autumn

Yeah, That's right. The time when the environment is cooling off and shedding the rush of the summer. The world is at peace with itself again and we humans absorb the quality. I like the cool breeze that is neither too hot nor too cold. The falling leaves and the long evenings. I just like to stare at the world which is slowly but steadily healing itself.

The autumn holds a special meaning for me although i am the winters child. I think that the solitary nature of my childhood has made this the way it is. I always loved to take long lonely walks and stare at nothing and wonder about everything in the lit up solitary evenings. The feeling is the most wondrous one that I have ever known. I remember this picture from my childhood where there was a long lonely road and there were big trees along the edges. The leaves were all of a golden color and were covering the walk. There was a slight shimmering mist hanging around the picture. The leaves were gently drifting down in the slight breeze and seemed so soft and fragile that you would think that they would go twinkle and break in to a thousand pieces when they hit the earth. There was a halo hanging around the picture that gave the chilly complexion to the whole scene and just by looking at the shimmering mist you could feel the slight chill that the lonely guy walking away from you in the picture was feeling. There was no mention of sadness or remorse in the picture. No tears, no wails no lost soul or compassionate face staring up at you, instead there was this solitary man walking down an unknown and forgotten path to an invisible destination. The sadness or rather the remorse in the mans life was so solid and physically imposing in the picture that you would be forgiven for thinking that the image some sort of bad omen.

Well i have been feeling like the man in the image for sometime now. I think that the reason will become so obvious soon enough. The winds this time have been feeling colder and the air is far more chilly. The harshness of the world is really creeping upon me as I am reminded of the "Houses of Healing" from the Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King.

"The trees are now changing from green to gold"
"And the sun is now fading"
"I wish I could hold you closer"

I just wish the same thing.

Days in the Red Light District

Lately I have been a bit busier that usual and I think that you could have guessed it by now. The days are a bit hectic right now. I mean I almost always live life in the fast lane. But this is way beyond even this. Life in the ultra fast lane you can call it.

So what's new ? Well i have been giving some serious thought to the prospect of writing a novel!!! yep you read it right. A novel. Well the truth is that I have been always inclined to write. But I have been very lazy and not really interested in the prospects of writing with pen. But now as I almost live on the machine may be I could put something up as I blog. So right now I am searching for something to write on. Nothing strong have come so far my way. May be it is that I dont really get out any more. No more people watching, no more hours of lazy contemplation. And thus the lack of sources. But I will find something and start doing it. If there is anything that I learnt from the last few months, it is that I should do what I can when I can and when I should. So I am gonna write. The water may be murky but dosent mean that it once was clear and could be maded to be clear again. Thus off we go. Wish me a happy literary journey.

Nsotalgic Dreams

Lately there has been a strange feeling lurking inside me. Usually I am not the type of person who will feel giddy about the past and want a return to the glory days. I am a firm believer of the "let by gones be bygones" phrase. But lately i have been getting this deja vu feeling so strongly in my mind. It is neither apparent nor obvious. But it has been lurking beneath the already murky waters of my mind for quite some time now. And recently and idea has been taking form inside my head. That something from the past, some feeling relationship, some colleague or some connecction is gonna come back and show me the past in a glorified state. And to add to all of this, it is the autumn now. That time of the year that winds start to get cooler. The times when the trees turn from green to gold and times when the twilight streams through the falling leaves and casts the long shadows of the past. I dont know where this is leading us nor do I knnow what will be there at the end of the road. But I smell adventure and feel the smell of the ripe fruit in the air. I know that it is coming though unseen yet. The world is young still, so lets just wait and see how things turn out. Viva La Vida.

What we lost in the Fire

Molder said we could stay clam. Well we didnt loose anything important after all. It was just stuff. Yeah it was just stuff. Only it was not just stuff. We are fire-flies. On that island. We wreck our own plane and get ourselves stranded here. We wield the sticks and shout out now. The fireflies. The sinking hearts. Across the times we sail back to the lost generation. The breakers of the beam rise once again as the beast stands up to fight. What we lost in the fire may be nothing but it may eventually cost us everything. Sounds crytpic ? Well it was supposed to.

Finishing a Project

Guys we have been at work. Literally. The last 5 to 6 days have been very busy for me. It's been long and hard march but finally we have seen water and grass. I mean I had not touched VS2008 before this and have not seen any WPF app in action, only momentarily glanced at Expression (Blend for some of you) and didnt know a darn thing about battery testers. But the worst part of it was the architecture of the existing application. If I have ever seen an over-architected application worse than this, it is Word 2007. I mean the event handling was so complex that one perticular event cascaded in to 4 different events and went through 6 classes and 11 different methods. And yes I really did trace the whole execution as it was an event that i had to trigger and wanted to do some modifications on it. Thus I did try and trace it through. It was a NIGHTMARE. sorry for shouting but I had to. Anyways the good thing is that I have decided to put out the things that i see as the good practises in writing applications for testers. I guess this is going to be a kind of a "Applications for Driver Developers" kinda thing. See ya.

Two little gems

Hi guys, So been quiet for some time now and I have returned with some goodies for you. First of all I have been munching away at two problems now and have come up some interesting stuff

First of all a video saga. I have been wanting to extract frames out of an avi file and save any frame that I was interested in. For this we need to be able to see the movie entirely and select a a frame to save as a jpg or bmp. I created a simple solution for this I created a window with a trackbar in it and then set the trackbar maximum value to the no of frames encountered. And then the user is able to select the frame he want using the slider. When he selects a frame he has the option of selecting between saving it and exiting the programme. If you press space at anypoint then the image is saved with the frame number as the image name. Or if you press enter the program exits.

I will post the code in here. Please note that there is some borrowed code in here for calculating the no frames in here. I have since forgotten where the code was, but all the credit to the original writer for that.

#include "cv.h"
#include "cxcore.h"
#include "highgui.h"
#include
#include

int frameNumber;
IplImage *capFrame;
CvCapture *myCap;
int nFrames;

void CV_CDECL mainTrackCallBack(int pos){

if((pos > 0) && (pos <>
cvSetCaptureProperty(myCap, CV_CAP_PROP_POS_FRAMES, pos);
capFrame = cvQueryFrame(myCap);
cvShowImage("CaptureFrames", capFrame);
frameNumber = pos;
}

}

int _tmain(int argc, _TCHAR* argv[])
{
using namespace std;

char tempSize[4];
std::ifstream videoFile(L"C:\\car.avi", ios::in|ios::binary);
videoFile.seekg( 0x30 , ios::beg );
videoFile.read( tempSize , 4 );
nFrames = (unsigned char ) tempSize[0] + 0x100*(unsigned char ) tempSize[1] + 0x10000*(unsigned char ) tempSize[2] + 0x1000000*(unsigned char ) tempSize[3];
videoFile.close();

myCap = cvCaptureFromAVI("C:\\car.avi");
cvNamedWindow("CaptureFrames");
cvCreateTrackbar("FrameNumber", "CaptureFrames", &frameNumber, nFrames, mainTrackCallBack);
capFrame = cvQueryFrame(myCap);
cvShowImage("CaptureFrames", capFrame);
char fileName[100];
int keyPress;
frameNumber = 0;
while(1){
keyPress = cvWaitKey(500);
if(keyPress == 32){
_itoa_s(frameNumber, fileName, 200, 10);
int tempLen = strlen(fileName);
strcpy( fileName + tempLen, "Image.jpg");
cvSaveImage(fileName, capFrame);
}else if(keyPress == 13){
break;
}
}
return 0;
}

DSL Saga

Hi guys. Started lerning some new stuff today. Looks like the world has moved quite a bit while I was out of action. Seems ther is plenty to learn too. Well the catch is that all these stuff are really cool but i might not have time to go through them. But i thought that it would be nice to touch on DSL while I am at it. And it seems a cool idea too. We'll see what comes out of this in the next weeks.

Solution at last

Hi ppl, I m sorry if I was a little late in posting the follow up for the last blog post. But I was kinda busy with some other stuff. Anyways here is the solution. Well last time i said that the culprit is lib Jasper that is bundled with highgui. The problem is that it is a release version and by default will insist on connecting to release version of the vc runtime. Thus we have to make sure somehow that the application will only connect to the debug version . To do that the option to be set is in Projecct settings -> C/C++ -> Code Generation. In this page there is an option to select runtime library to be used. We have to select either Multithreaded debug or Multithreaded. Any option with DLL in it will cause the program to be dynamically linked with the libraries and also link in MSVCR80.DLL again. But doing this for each and every project is too cumbersome thus you can avoid it by loading the OpenCV workspace direcly and the changing this setting for the highgui library and then rebuilding highgui. The resulting dll will not link to MSVCR80.dll as can be verified with dependency walker (www.dependencywalker.com)

Onward with the research

Hi guys, So i am rolling on with the research project that I was doing earlier for the company that i work for zone24x7(www.zone24x7.com). I know this is a killing task but i rather like the challange. I think it is what drives us guys. you know, there are some out there that would smartly avoid the challenge and go easily. but we are the fools that rush in to the face of the challange just becuase it excites us. I will probably spend the next two months on the same routine that i spent entire two and a half months back from march. like 18 hour work, 2 hour eat + wash + drink and 4 hour sleep shedule. I know it is a cray routine but i guess that these extreme demands call for extreme meshures. And i am kinda proud too that i am able to do these things. I mean I dont know of any other guy who can work for 22 hours straight sleep 2 hours come back and out in another 18 hour stretch. It sound far fetched but i have done it. So enough of my boasting. i m going back to work now. This time it either me or the system. if i win i probably might post tomorrow. if not ummm..... i think may be the system will blog ;-)

First Techno

This is my first technical post (of what is hopefully many to come). This is about a problem that guys new to OpenCV meet everytime that they start coding with vs2005. Why this does not happen with vs 6 is a mystery to me and i havent tried 2003 yet but i might in future.

The problem is that the first time an app is compiled, linked and run in vs2005 and linked to highgui.lib or highghid.lib, the user may get a MSVCR80.DLL not found  error. if you have done a fair bit of coding you know that this is microsoft vc runtime. so just how the heck come VS debugger cannot find it. the answer lies in taking a look at the exe built using dependency walker(http://www.dependencywalker.com/). The dependency walker is an invaluable tool in finding bugs and other problems in linking area. Also you can find a lot of meta info using this. Anyways a quick look in dependency walker of the exe you see that it links to both MSVCR80.dll and MSVCR80D.dll . and herein lies the problem. windows cant load two DLL's with identical methods and so on, just because they have two names. thus windows throws its hands up and says, ok i cant find this dll. (bad error reporting i know)

The culprit happens to be a lib included with highgui. there is a lib called jasper included with OpenCV. This lib for some reason (I think the reason is that the source is closed but i m really not sure) is included in a binary version. thus only the lib is present and it is a debug version. thus automatically it links to the debug version of vc runtime. but if the others are to run for release version then comes the problem. jasper and in turn highgui wants to link to msvcr80d.dll but others want msvcr80.dll. And we have the cause of the problem. I will post the solution next time.

First Techno

In Android

Started working on a new project. and this one seems to be quite out of the way with what i ve been used to doing. for me at least this is cutting edge - damn bleeding even. so what is android you ask. android is the next gen mobile OS developed mainly by google. No there is no gPhone as such as of now. but google does offer integration of some of their services like google maps and so on in to the OS. but that is optional and there are no bindings. Best thing is inside it runs linux. So if you are really in to open source mobile development, this is the product for you. It runs everything open source since java is also kinda open sourced now. graphics come in the form of OpenGL ES. and there are dedicated telephony, GPRS, GSM, 3G support. in fact you name it's got it - sql, content providers everything. I think that google has come up with a winner this also. lets just wait and see how evil MS will fare. They actually increased the staked last year with shipping of Windows CE 6. It was a major revamp. but i dont think any amount of revamping is going to get them closer to this. So lets wait and see what they are going to come up with to combat android.

Back at work

Hi all, think that i should have been writing this earlier. but got the chance only now. So guess the title says it all. I AM BACK AT WORK. sorry if all caps offended you but i really am SHOUTING. boy am i happy to be back here. it really feels like home. I mean after an year and a half of open ended mind boggling research it is really good to be at work on a project knowing what is required and what we will deliver at end. at least it feels safer. So i am back on familiar territory. And guess i will start blogging in some stuff i leaned during the last year or so soon. See ya.

The BIG DAYS

ok guys. It's show time. seriously, our project demonstrations are gonna start today. yep it's a big event and i m celebrating it with style. by doing 24x7. not really i need to get our project up and running and seems only my part is left and if i give up the whole project is going to blow. boy how i wish that this would be over. i just long for a day when i can sleep at 10 and get up at 6 and then wonder how the hell come i aint sleeping more....... and go to sleep again. so if all goes well, ll be blogging again mid week.

The Big Crunch

Ok I admit i did it. please please please I did it. I m gonna scream if i have to keep this up for another three weeks.

but then i m gonna have to. The final design of the software system of the project is going to be spectacular apart from being back breaking and mind boggling. how it works is real simple and elegant. but how i have to do it as far as Siberia from moscow, from being simple. It is complex and rich and boy wouldn't i be proud to put my head up and say "Guys this was my final year project and I was like, you know not well informed as now then so i only managed this ;-) . And watch their expressions. Anyways enough of a high. back to work. see ya.

In the eye of the Storm

The big crunch is in progress and I am exhausted like hell. heck I aint seen a bed proper for weeks. And each day my eyes seem like they have just come out after being underwater for a week. So these are the hard times i guess. these are the times when they separate the toughest from the tough ones. this is when the stamina comes in to the play. so guess it is "HOLD ON FOR YOUR DEAR LIFE"

Anyways the project is coming of shape and I will have tons of stuff to share with you guys one this calms down. Boy havent I learned from this project. Ok gotta go the tug is strong there.

Hi

Boy are these hectic days. We are finishing up our final year projects and this is the time of the big crunch. we are working day in and day out. Usual working hours you ask ? From 9.00 am to 3.30 am. been like that for bout two months now. Guess this is what you get for a single small mistake. but these times have taught me so much. made me in to a far more matured person. i was talented and i always knew that. may be others didnt but i did. that is not the point. the point is that i now know what it is like to lose. before i have always been the winner. if not fully at-least partially. but now i know how easy it is to loose everything you have. how fragile the life is and how small and feeble we are. I am confident about myself now but not in that dashing stubborn way like before. now i feel confident in a way that is more reassuring. I dont feel confident that i wont make mistakes. I feel confident that even if i do make one or two, I will still have the courage and the strength to overcome them.

And i learned how to be humble and not think that we are the means and the end. I learned about life and the meaning of living. I listened to randy paush giving his last lecture and it inspired to me to make my dreams a reality. so much happened and i think that i am better off at the end of the end.

Hi guys, this is my first blog post so I'll keep it short n sweet. I am an undergrad from University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka and am just finishing my degree. I hope to go for my higher studies after a brief stint of working in the industry. I love anything to do with comps n ICT. I major in Electronics but my real interest lies in HCI and AI areas. I love reading watching comedies and classics, alternative rock and spending time with my family. So more to come and hope to see all of u guys at the blog.