Wish a Happy Sinhala & Tamil Year to all Sri Lankans around the world.

සුභ අලුත් අවුරුද්දක් වේවා!

Blog Marathon Day, the first public event organized by the Sinhala Bloggers Union. It was inspired from International Blogothon Day. But this has re-invented to suits for Sri Lankan Bloggers and expecting more Sri Lankan bloggers on this event. Specialty of this event is blogger has to blog using only Sinhala Unicode.

Date is 18th April 2008 & time is 8.00 pm and they called it “New Year Blog Marathon” as this event going to happen on Sinhala New year season.

What is this New Year Blog Marathon?

This is a whole day event and all bloggers have to blog in every 15 minutes.

How to join?

First you must have a blog or else you can create a new blog.

Is English allowed?

No. For this event you have to blog in Sinhala.

Any given topics?

No. You can blog what ever you want.

How to install Sinhala on my computer?

Install appropriate Sinhala package for your computer according to this guidelines. For more help goto #sinhala-bloggers channel on ICR chat or to Sinhala Bloggers Group.

What are benefits of having such an event?

• Build friendship among bloggers.
• Expand the awareness of some particular subject/topic you like.
• Popular Sinhala writing and reading on the internet.
• Spread Sinhala Unicode.

So guys let’s warp up for the marathon.

සිංහල බ්ලොග්කරුවන්ගේ සමූහය ඉදිරිපත් කරන සමාරම්භක පොදු කටයුත්ත තමයි බ්ලොග් මැරතන් දිනය. මෙයට ආරම්භක ආවේශය ලැබුණේ ජාත්‍යන්තරව පවත්වන බ්ලොගතන් ඉසවුවෙන්. නමුත් සුළු සුළු වෙනස්කම් කීපයක් සහිත ව ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ සිංහලෙන් බ්ලොග්කරණයේ යෙදෙන සහ යෙදෙන්න අපේක්ෂා කරන අයගේ සහභාගීත්වයට ගැලපෙන පරිදි සකසා ගත් මැරතන් ලිවීමේ දිනයක් තමයි මේ.

අප්‍රේල් මාසේ 18 වැනි සිකුරාදා රාත්‍රී 8 ට පැවැත්වෙන මෙය අප්‍රෙල් මාසයේ පැවැත්වෙන නිසා “අලුත් අවුරුදු බ්ලොග් මැරතන” යනුවෙන් හඳුන්වා ඇත.

මොකක්ද මේ අලුත් අවුරුදු බ්ලොග් මැරතන් කියන්නෙ?

මෙය පැය විසි හතරේ සම්පූර්ණ දිනයක් තුළ අඛණ්ඩ ව මිනිත්තු 15 න් 15 ට බ්ලොග්කරණයේ යෙදීමේ උත්සවාකාරී අවස්ථාවක්.

කොහොමද මම එකතු වෙන්නෙ?

පළමුවෙන් ඔබට බ්ලොග් එකක් තිබිය යුතුයි. බ්ලොග් අඩෙවියක් ඇරඹීම ඉතා සරල කටයුත්තක්. උපදෙස් අවශ්‍ය නම් මේ පිටුව බලන්න.

මට ඉංග්‍රීසියෙන් ලියන්න බැරි ද?

බෑ. මේ අවස්ථාවේ පළ වෙන සටහන් සිංහල බසින් වීම අත්‍යවශ්‍ය යි.

තේමාවක් තියෙනවද?

නෑ. ඔබ ලියන්නේ ඉතා කෙටි සටහනක්, කවියක්, වැකි කීපයක්, සජීවී පුවත් විචාරයක්, නැතහොත් නන්දෙඩවිල්ලක් විය හැකියි. මහා දිග ලිපියක්, ශාස්ත්‍රීය ලේඛනයක්, විචාරයක් වෙන්නත් පුළුවන්. වැදගත් වෙන්නේ බ්ලොග් සටහන් පළ කිරීම මගින් අඛණ්ඩ ව පැය විසි හතර පුරා සහභාගී වීම යි.

මට සිංහලෙන් පරිගණකයේ ලියන්න සකස් කරගන්නෙ කොහොමද?

මෙන්න මේ උපදෙස් අනුව ඔබේ පරිගණකයට ගැලපෙන සිංහල පැකේජය ස්ථාපනය කරගන්න. ගැටලු මතු වෙනවා නම් #sinhala-bloggers යන ස්ථානයේ පිහිටි IRC පිළිසඳර කුටියට (chat room) පිවිස අපේ සාමාජිකයින්ගෙන් උදව් ලබා ගන්න. එසේ නැති නම් සිංහල බ්ලොග්කරුවන්ගේ ගූගල් සමූහයෙන් උදව් ගන්න.

ඉතින් දිවා රෑ නැතුව මේ ලිවීමෙන් ලැබෙන පලප්‍රයෝජනය මොකක්ද?

• බ්ලොග්කරුවන් අතර සුහදත්වය දියුණු කරන විනෝදාත්මක සංස්කෘතික ඉසවුවක්.
• කිසියම් වැදගත් සමාජීය අංශයක් පිලිබඳ, තේමාවක් පිලිබඳ දැනුවත්භාවය
  (awareness) පුලුල් කිරීමට දවසක්.
• සිංහල බසින් බ්ලොග් ලිවීම හා කියවීම ප්‍රචලිත කිරීමේ අවස්ථාවක්.

එහෙනන් මැරතන් එක දුවන්න ලෑස්තිවෙමු!

Allocation of players from Wednesday’s player auction for the Indian Premier League cricket. (* -denotes “icon” player exempt from the auction)

Highest bids

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, India — Chennai, US$1.5 million
Andrew Symonds, Australia — Hyderabad, US$1.35 million
Sanath Jayasuriya, Sri Lanka — Mumbai, US$975,000
Ishant Sharma, India — Calcutta, US$950,000
Irfan Pathan, India — Mohali, US$925,000
Brett Lee, Australia — Mohali, US$900,000
Jacques Kallis, South Africa — Bangalore US$900,000
R.P.Singh, India — Hyderabad, US$875,000
Harbhajan Singh, India — Mumbai, US$850,000
Chris Gayle, West Indies — Calcutta, US$800,000
Robin Uthappa, India — Mumbai, US$800,000

Teams

Bangalore

* Rahul Dravid, India
Jacques Kallis, South Africa, US$900,000
Anil Kumble, India, US$500,000
Cameron White, Australia, US$500,000
Zaheer Khan, Bangalore, US$ 450,000
Mark Boucher, South Africa, US$450,000
Nathan Bracken, Australia, US$325,000
Dale Steyn, South Africa, US$325,000
Wasim Jaffer, India, US$150,000

Calcutta

* Sourav Ganguly, India
Ishant Sharma, India, US$950,000
Chris Gayle, West Indies, US$800,000
Brendon McCullum, New Zealand, US$700,000
David Hussey, Australia, US$625,000
Shoaib Akhtar, Pakistan, US$425,000
Murali Karthik, India, US$425,000
Ricky Ponting, Australia, US$400,000
Ajit Agarkar, India, US$350,000
Umar Gul, Pakistan, US$150,000

Chennai

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, India, $1.5 million
Jacob Oram, New Zealand, US$675,000
Albie Morkel, South Africa, US$675,000
Muttiah Muralitharan, Sri Lanka, US$600,000
Matthew Hayden, Australia, US$375,000
Stephen Fleming, New Zealand, US$350,000
Parthiv Patel, India, US$325,000
Joginder Sharma, India, US$225,000
Makhaya Ntini, South Africa, US$200,000

Delhi

* Virender Sehwag, India
Gautam Gambhir, India, US$725,000
Manoj Tiwari, India, US$675,000
Mohammad Asif, Pakistan, US$650,000
Daniel Vettori, New Zealand, US$625,000
Dinesh Karthik, India, US$525,000
Shoaib Malik, Pakistan, US$ 500,000
A.B. de Villiers, South Africa, US$300,000
Tillekeratne Dilshan, Sri Lanka, US$250,000
Farveez Maharoof, Sri Lanka, US$225,000

Hyderabad

Andrew Symonds, Australia, US$ 1.35 million
R.P. Singh, India, US$875,000
Rohit Sharma, India, US$750,000
Adam Gilchrist, Australia, US$700,000
Shahid Afridi, Pakistan, US$675,000
Herschelle Gibbs, South Africa, US$575,000
V.V.S. Laxman, India, US$375,000
Chaminda Vaas, Sri Lanka, US$200,000
Scott Styris, New Zealand, US$175,000
Nuwan Zoysa, Sri Lanka, US$110,000
Chamara Silva, Sri Lanka, US$100,000

Jaipur

Mohammad Kaif, India, US$675,000
Graeme Smith, South Africa, US$475,000
Yusuf Pathan, India, US$475,000
Shane Warne, Australia, US$450,000
Munaf Patel, India, US$275,000
Younis Khan, Pakistan, US$ 225,000
Kamran Akmal, Pakistan, US$150,000

Mohali

* Yuvraj Singh, India
Irfan Pathan, India, US$925,000
Brett Lee, Australia, US$900,000
Kumar Sangakkara, Sri Lanka, US$700,000
Shantakumaran Sreesanth, India, US$625,000
Mahela Jayawardene, Sri Lanka, US$475,000
Piyush Chawla, India, US$400,000
Ramesh Pawar, India, US$170,000

Mumbai

* Sachin Tendulkar, India
Sanath Jayasuriya, Sri Lanka, US$975,000
Harbhajan Singh, India, US$850,000
Robin Uthappa, India, US$800,000
Shaun Pollock, South Africa, US$550,000
Lasith Malinga, Sri Lanka, US$350,000
Dilhara Fernando, Sri Lanka, US$150,000

Via International Herald Tribune

The Junior Old Boys’ Association of Sri Sumangala College, Panaudra has planned to stage a Musical Programme on January 05, 2008 at 6.30 pm at the Town Hall, Panadura. Well – known singers Mr. Edward Jayakodi, Chief Instructor, Music Education, Ministry of Education, Ms. Deepika Priyadharshani Peiris and Mr. Mervin Perera will participate the programme. Music will conduct by our old boy and a famous musician Mr. Thissasiri Pepera.

For further information please contact CHAMARA PEIRIS – Vice President / Project Chairman on +94 712 967 967 (mobile) or info@sumangalajunioroba.net (email).

Resources;

• http://www.sumangalajunioroba.net/nisala_sara.html
• Facebook event
• Upcoming event

Come & enjoy the event with us.

The Old Boys’ Association of Sri Sumangala College, Panadura (SSCOBA) celebrating it’s 85^th Old Boys’ Day on 28^th October 2007.

The Old Boys’ Association of Sri Sumangala College, Panadura (SSCOBA), was established on the 28^th of October 1922. It was the then Principal, Mr. Abeyseela Ginige, who initiated the establishment of the SSCOBA.

The first student of the College, Mr. M. Walter Salgado donated the land where the New Building was built in 1942, and many Old Boys at the time had helped in numerous ways in the development of the College.

There were dedicated Old Boys, who, at numerous occasions tried to make a more active and stable OBA. By 1981, the OBA had drafted a more comprehensive Constitution, which was very necessary for the proper functioning of the Association. By 1982, the Membership increased at a steady pace. This increase in Membership was mainly due to the tireless efforts of several key members of OBA. In 1985, Mr. Wilson Kahandagamage was elected as its first Old Boy President by a Constitutional amendment.

With amendments to the OBA Constitution, a Colombo Branch was inaugurated in 1986 with Dr. Malinga Fernando as the President and, later, the Kandy Branch was established in 2001 with Dr. Ananda Gunasekara as the Founding President. Subsequently, the Junior OBA was established for the Old Boys under 30 years.

At present, preliminary work is underway to establish SSCOBA branches in U.K., Australia and New Zealand.

Several activities have been planned to commemorate the Old Boys day scheduled for 28.10.2007 at the college premises. Some of the activities are mentioned below;

• Scholarships for needy Sri Sumangala students.
• Donantion of Books for the College Liabrary.
• Blood Donation Campaign.
• Health Camp to provide hearing aides free of charge for the needy people in and around Panadura Distribution of spectacles free of charge for needy after free medical check-ups.
• Meals for Home for the Aged, Moravinna Girls’ Home & Home for Handicapped Children (”Aruna Home for Children”) at Panadura on 28^th October 2007.
• Inter-school “Do You Know” contest.

All old Sumangalians and well wishers are invited for the above occasion.

Introduction

The implementation of valid/standard methods, guidelines and best practices will help to produce high quality websites that are accessible to as many as possible. By building valid websites you can save time and money for the development and provides a better experience for the visitor.

Validation is also an important part of web development. Many errors that are hard to find can discover during validation. This is like spell checking and proofreading for grammar and syntax in a document. but is much more precise and reliable than any of those processes because it is dealing with precisely-specified machine languages, not with nebulously-defined human natural language. You can validate your (X)HTML page as well as your CSS.

Here I’m not going brief you about Web Standards, but I’m going to tell how we can use those best practices in Web standards to produce a valid (X)HTML page.

Benefits of having a valid code

• Future compatibility: Your website will compatible with future web browsers.
• Simpler development and maintenance: Creating Valid (X)HTML Documents Means Cleaner Code and Easier Maintenance.
• Faster download and rendering of web pages: Less (X)HTML results in smaller file sizes and quicker downloads. Modern web browsers render pages faster when they are in their standards mode than when they are in their backwards compatible mode.
• Better accessibility: Semantic (X)HTML, where structure is separated from presentation, makes it easier for screen readers and alternative browsing devices to interpret the content.
• Better search engine rankings: The separation of content and presentation makes the content represent a larger part of the total file size. Combined with semantic markup this will improve search engine rankings.
• Simpler adaptation to any media or screen devices: A semantically marked up document can be easily adapted to print and alternative browsing devices, like handheld computers and cellular phones, just by linking to a different CSS file. You can also make site-wide changes to presentation by editing a single file.

Best Practices…

• Include the correct DOCTYPE declaration at the beginning of the file. A DOCTYPE (short for “document type declaration”) informs the validator which version of (X)HTML you’re using, and must appear at the very top of every web page. DOCTYPEs are a key component of compliant web pages: your markup and CSS won’t validate without them.
• The DOCTYPE is case-sensitive so use the correct case:
  <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "- //W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" />
• Add the attribute xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" to the <html> element.
• Close all elements: Omitting </p> is not valid anymore.
• Change all elements to lowercase: <P> becomes <p>.
• Correctly specify empty elements: <hr> becomes <hr />.
• Quote all attribute values: <p align="right">.
• Always add attribute values: <hr noshade="noshade" />.
• Always use & in place of &. : <a href="foo.php?chapter=1&amp;section=2 />
• <form> element should have to have a action attribute always: <form action="#"
• If you are using name & id attributes in input element, both should be in same name: <input name="field_name" id="field_name" />
• Use alt attribute always for <img> element: <img src="image.gif" alt="" />
• Use width & height attributes as in this order in <img> element: <img src="image.gif" width="100" height="100" alt="" />
• Use a separate JavaScript file always & make sure you have put type attribute correctly: <script type="text/javascript" src="javascript.js"></script>
• Try to use a external CSS file for styles.
• Always try to use tables only for TABULAR data.
• Make sure you are using <th> for table headers & <td> for table data.
• Elements in (X)HTML must be closed in the reverse order that they were opened in: <strong><em>…</em></strong>

(X)HTML Validation services

• W3C Markup Validation Service
• CSE HTML Validator
• Site Valet
• Dr. Watson

CSS Validation services

• W3C CSS Validation Service
• CSS Validator/Syntax Checker
• About.com CSS Validator
• Web Design Group CSSCheck
• Web Design Group CSSCheckUp

Accessibility Validation services

• Hermish Accessibility Evaluation Tool
• Cynthia Says^TM Portal
• Vischeck URL
• WebXACT

Useful Firefox Add-ons for validation services and web development

• HTML Validator
• Web Developer
• CSS Validator
• View Source Chart
• Firebug
• JavaScript Debugger

Check out the following link and see how people in Chicago gone mad about Apple iPhone.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/28/iphone-madness-hit-or-miss-in-chicago/

iPhone iWait

Junior Old Boys’ Association of Sri Sumangala College, Panadura will be using the new domain name http://www.SumangalaJuniorOBA.net instead of http://www.SumangalaJOBA.net. Reason to change the domain name was some objections regarding the name SumangalaJOBA, so the executive committee finally decide to go with SumangalaJuniorOBA domain name.

According to the new domain name, official email address will be info@SumangalaJuniorOBA.net.

Site with the new domain name will be launch in the Annual Get Together which will going to happen on Sunday, 16th June 2007 at Ranmal Holiday Resport, Gorakana, Moratuwa, with the chief guest Mr. Lalith Kahatapitiya, Chairman / Managing Director of K.I.K. Group of Companies.

FullCodePress is a series of web competitions – the brainchild of the people at Webstock and WIPA. In essence it’s a geek Olympics!

The concept is simple. Web teams take each other on, at the same location, to build a complete website in 24 hours. No excuse, no extensions, no budget overruns.

The first event will be held in Australia on Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 August 2007 between Australia and New Zealand. In 2008 there will be a worldwide challenge for any interested countries – to be held in Wellington New Zealand. We’ll also be facilitating and encouraging competitions within individual countries.

Check out the FullCodePress website »