Category: Personal

Industry specific degrees / nanodegrees

Post author By Sinaru Gunawardena
Post date January 16, 2016
No Comments on Industry specific degrees / nanodegrees

I’m writing this article after reviewing about a new degree type called Nanodegrees offered by Udacity. I got a mail regarding that, so I went to their website and collected information.

Available Nanodegrees: https://www.udacity.com/nanodegree

From what I understood there are two facts that make these degrees special

They are designed to get the skills you need for a specific job role with several projects that will add value as experience.
The overall curriculum is updated by partnering with recruitment managers and experts from leading companies.

So in a short time, you are a qualified person to take up the role taught in the degree program. This is extremely valuable for people who want to have a career change too. On their website, they have posted testimonials from such individuals.

Along with these type of degrees, open courseware also have a big role to play. Such as the free online courses offered by leading educational institutes including MIT, Stanford, Harvard.

In the big I think these type of educational resources are going to disrupt the standard educational system and it’s a good thing. Maybe the 4 year degrees will not survive with these type of degrees in the near future because they tend to spend more time on theoretical aspects. Most likely they will be limited to a 1 1/2 or 2 year degree on a bit specialized field which will act as a base level knowledge or requirement to follow the Nanodegrees.

I’m pretty existed for the future of educational systems. I hope you are too. So have a keen eye on these matters.

Tags computer-science, degree, nanodegrees, udacity

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how a forced behavior can stop you from trying other ways

Post author By Sinaru Gunawardena
Post date November 21, 2015
No Comments on how a forced behavior can stop you from trying other ways

This is about a story. I had this touch screen phone and the screen was broken. I was using it for about 6 months, didn’t care to change the screen. However for some ways to use the phone, I had to turn it so that I can use it horizontally. Otherwise with the broken screen, I wouldn’t be able to do what I want.

Then I got the screen fixed. However surprisingly my brain was forcing me to turn the phone horizontally to use it, even though I knew I don’t have to do it that way. It was happening for like 2 weeks until I could use it vertically all the time.

This is a fascinating behavior. It got me thinking, how day to day behaviors can transform us to follow the same pattern, and not be able to break from that if we want to. So always have freedom to do what you want. Else possibly you can become slave to your own behavior.

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A List of Movies that can Describe About Us to Aliens

Post author By Sinaru Gunawardena
Post date November 19, 2015
No Comments on A List of Movies that can Describe About Us to Aliens

I just randomly got this idea, that if another species want to learn about us, what kind of movies would grealy described about us, humans, and about Earth. So I created this list from the movies I have seen, or maybe at least seen the trailer. So this is a collection of movies that I chose to send to out of space to teach or describe about us, if they are ever found by another species.

Yi Yi

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F6tSorwYqw[/embedyt]

Yi Yi: A One and a Two is a Taiwanese/Japanese film written and directed by Edward Yang, about the emotional struggles of a businessman and the lives of his middle-class Taiwanese family in Taipei seen through three generations.

The title in Chinese means “one by one”, in the sense of “one after another.” When written in vertical alignment, the two strokes resemble the character 二, meaning “two.”

Samsara

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0xVp3N-M84[/embedyt]

Samsara is a 2011 non-narrative documentary film, directed by Ron Fricke and produced by Mark Magidson, who also collaborated on Baraka (1992), a film of a similar vein. Samsara was filmed over five years in 25 countries around the world. It was shot in 70 mm format and output to digital format. The film premiered at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival and received a limited release in August 2012.

Life Is Beautiful

[embedyt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16RZHqCIy9M[/embedyt]

Life Is Beautiful (Italian: La vita è bella [la ˈviːta ɛ bˈbɛlla]) is a 1997 Italian tragicomic comedy-drama film directed by and starring Roberto Benigni. Benigni plays Guido Orefice, a Jewish Italian book shop owner, who must employ his fertile imagination to shield his son from the horrors of internment in a Nazi concentration camp. Part of the film came from Benigni’s own family history; before Roberto’s birth, his father had survived three years of internment at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

Amélie

[embedyt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-uxeZaM-VM[/embedyt]

“Amélie” is a fanciful comedy about a young woman who discretely orchestrates the lives of the people around her, creating a world exclusively of her own making. Shot in over 80 Parisian locations, acclaimed director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (“Delicatessen”; “The City of Lost Children”) invokes his incomparable visionary style to capture the exquisite charm and mystery of modern-day Paris through the eyes of a beautiful ingenue.

Scent of a Woman

[embedyt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GUvsJc3vvE[/embedyt]

Frank is a retired Lt. Col. in the US army. He’s blind and impossible to get along with. Charlie is at school and is looking forward to going to college. To help pay for a trip home for Christmas, he agrees to look after Frank over Thanksgiving. Frank’s niece says this will be easy money, but she didn’t reckon on Frank spending his Thanksgiving in New York.

Forrest Gump

[embedyt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPIEn0M8su0[/embedyt]

Slow-witted Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks) has never thought of himself as disadvantaged, and thanks to his supportive mother (Sally Field), he leads anything but a restricted life. Whether dominating on the gridiron as a college football star, fighting in Vietnam or captaining a shrimp boat, Forrest inspires people with his childlike optimism. But one person Forrest cares about most may be the most difficult to save — his childhood love, the sweet but troubled Jenny (Robin Wright).

2001: A Space Odyssey

[embedyt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHjIqQBsPjk[/embedyt]

An imposing black structure provides a connection between the past and the future in this enigmatic adaptation of a short story by revered sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke. When Dr. Dave Bowman (Keir Dullea) and other astronauts are sent on a mysterious mission, their ship’s computer system, HAL, begins to display increasingly strange behavior, leading up to a tense showdown between man and machine that results in a mind-bending trek through space and time.

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Is everything there is by Chance or Choice?

Post author By Sinaru Gunawardena
Post date August 18, 2015
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It is those rare moments, that you realize and believe something. For me, it was that I thought that everything there is and will be for anything is by “Chance or Choice”.

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Clearing sinusitis and other benefits of using my first Neti Pot

Post author By
Post date June 23, 2015
No Comments on Clearing sinusitis and other benefits of using my first Neti Pot

I have been a long time suffer from Sinusitis. If you are suffering from Sinusitis occasionally, you would know how painful and how it makes your life miserable. Here is a good article that list symptoms of Sinusitis. Medication really didn’t help to reduce Sinusitis at all and to feel fresh again.

So what I did is searched online about solutions and medications. Tried many things only to find them not effective for my sinus condition. However I then found a technique called nasal rinsing by using a thing called Neti Pot. It is something like Aladdin’s lamp where you put saline water and wash your nasal passages. To know more this technique and about Neti Pots, I asked from local doctors and wanted to buy one from the pharmacies. Unfortunately the doctors were not familiar with it and local pharmacies didn’t have it. So I gave up finding one.

Recently I was feeling very stuffy due to Sinusitis and I couldn’t resist it anymore. When you feel very bad from Sinusitis, it’s hard to have focus and lack of feeling alive. So I searched a bit about the technique online and ended up buying Himalayan Institute Neti Pot online. Why I picked this was because of the positive comments it had. You can also find what others think about this Neti Pot on Amazon. An instruction manual was also came with this, so I didn’t have much to worry about using it.

After Effects

The first time using it was a bit uncomfortable but with the correct salt percentage it can help to use it easily. I have to say, I have still used it only for few days but it is making a positive change. I’m feeling happy and more alive after ages. I don’t have to pressure myself to breath through the nose and it feels lighter.

I’m recommending you to try a Neti Pot if you are suffering from Sinusitis or other nasal problems which can help to solve or reduce by using a Neti Pot. There are a lot of articles about using pros and cons of using a Neti Pot. If you want to try one, first research about it and make a choice. 🙂

Tags neti-pot, sinusitis, treatment

Personal

Transgender in Colombo

This is a short article that I thought to write about how I felt when I first encountered transgender people (to be exact, trans women) and how I feel after learning about them. Especially in a society where we don’t know much about transgender, I hope my somewhat insight will help someone to get more understanding about them.

I’m from Kandy that is situated in the center of Sri Lanka. For some reason, for the many years I have lived in Kandy I haven’t run into a person who is a transgender female and expressing themselves by clothing or with makeup. However in Colombo, the situation is a bit different where the chances are high.

To be honest, as far I remember the first trans woman I saw was in Colombo. At that time I felt awkward, confused on what they are and disgusted. Anyway after that encounter I ignored it. But recently I encountered another two trans women and with their makeup and figure I was so confused that I wasn’t exactly 100% sure whether they are trans women. I knew there are people like this and with different type of sexualities but I didn’t knew much about transgender. Later I discussed about this incident with a group of friends in Colombo and I told that actually they looked very beautiful and frankly might look hot than most females. I wanted to know what they think about these people, but they all laughed for the fact that I said they look more beautiful than other girls. I knew maybe they were thinking about something else because the only way I could describe them was by saying “guys/males who wear like girls and makeup” and also they didn’t know much about it. So the conversation was changed and we moved on.

Anyway later I was curious to search about this matter on the web. Then I found a 14 year old teenage trans woman called Jazz Jennings. She was born as a male but she identify herself as a girl. In her words she has a girl brain but male body. Then I realized how difficult it must be for Jazz and for other trans women. This is a video documentary of Jazz at 11 years old.

Now with the facts and knowledge about transgender, I came to realize that they are part of the community and I should accept for who they are. Also they must have great courage to accept themselves and to express them selves in a society which is yet to understand or frankly know little about. So I hope the next time I stumble on these people, I would at least feel less awkward.

Notes

This is just my personal opinion, however if you think there is any harm caused for anyone from any context of this article please let me know. I will update the article.

More information

What does it mean to be transgender, and what does it look like in the brain?

Networks of the brain reflect the individual gender identity
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/…
“Our sense of belonging to the male or female gender is an inherent component of the human identity perception.”

White matter microstructure in female to male transsexuals before cross-sex hormonal treatment. A diffusion tensor imaging study
http://www.journalofpsychiatricresear…
“Some gray and white matter regions of the brain are sexually dimorphic.”

The microstructure of white matter in male to female transsexuals before cross-sex hormonal treatment. A DTI study
http://www.journalofpsychiatricresear…
“Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) has been shown to be sensitive in detecting white matter differences between sexes. Before cross-sex hormone treatment female to male transsexuals (FtM) differ from females but not from males in several brain fibers. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether white matter patterns in male to female (MtF) transsexuals before commencing cross-sex hormone treatment are also more similar to those of their biological sex or whether they are more similar to those of their gender identity.”

Transgender children: more than a theoretical challenge
http://www.gjss.org/sites/default/fil…
“This paper is about one of the most marginalised and excluded groups: transgender children.”

Transgender kids show consistent gender identity across measures
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/…
“A study with 32 transgender children, ages 5 to 12, indicates that the gender identity of these children is deeply held and is not the result of confusion about gender identity or pretense.”

Tags #transgender #colombo

Personal

A business name to Work

I have bootstrapped myself work in Ruwalla. I needed to represent this as a business so I started my own business called Creotex that is doing web development.

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