Technology

'Improve ICT while preserving cultural and spiritual values'

We should enter the world of science and technology and at the same time preserve our cherished cultural values, said President Mahinda Rajapaksa while participating at the Nenasala Centre Convention 2010 held at Temple Trees recently.

The President said that he was pleased with the success achieved through the Nenasala project under which currently there were more than 600 Nenasala centres islandwide.

Path of knowledge wide open through Nenasala

The ICT literacy which was around five per cent at the time the Nenasala project was launched has now reached the 30 per cent mark. People in distant rural villages are now in communication with the whole world due to the Nenasala Concept.

Now we are in an era in which the world is equipped with a deep knowledge about computer technology. We should think more of the future and our children.

Where would we be in ten years time? We should create an environment for the future generation where technology could be used for good governance and righteous social life.

Referring to the youth in the North and the East who had been long denied the march towards knowledge and for whom now the path of knowledge is wide open, the President said: "We have now redeemed the country from terrorism. Some elements wanted to divide the country. They prevented children from having access to knowledge. They gave the youth T56 instead of knowledge. We want to put things right. We want to give the youth what had been denied to them. We want to give them knowledge.

We cannot let the country go backward. There is no way we can permit democracy to be replaced by dictatorship. Now that the Nenasalas are available islandwide people in the rural villages have the access to the internet and know about persons like Hitler and Pol Pot. We should move from the era of terror to an era of peace".

Warning about the traps on the internet where the innocents could get caught, the President said: "We must guard ourselves against getting entrapped and achieve good. Now that the division of the country by war has failed some are trying to take the country back to the period of strife and disunity by other means and agreements. Our hope is to make the future generation equipped with the knowledge and skills that are necessary for them to be on par with their counterparts in the most advanced countries of the world while preserving the pristine cultural and spiritual values of the motherland. May you have a brighter future".

Joining the occasion Science and Technology Minister Professor Tissa Vitharana said that the Nenasalas established islandwide under the concept of President Mahinda Rajapaksa had contributed much to bridge the gap between the city and the village. This has been further supported by the Vidata centres.

The Minister also referred to nanotechnology and disclosed that steps were being taken to set up a nanotechnology centre in Sri Lanka. Urging the audience to be industrious like countries that have made great strides in technology.

The Minister said "Countries like the US, Japan and Germany are far ahead of many countries in the world. However, countries like South Korea, Singapore, and Malaysia which were economically on par with Sri Lanka have improved to a higher level by proper use of technology.

Functions like this convention will encourage the owners and operators of Nenasala to continue the good work they are doing in the village towards taking the dividends of ICT to every citizen".

The Minister also commended ICTA for the contribution it was offering for making the benefits of ICT accrue to the people.

While ICTA chairman Professor P. W. Epasinghe welcomed the audience S. B. Dissanayake also addressed the Nenasala Convention.

IFS transforms image to reflect success in the industry

The Sweden based IFS, one of the world's leading providers of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions has transformed its image from the iconic purple and yellow, to a more cutting edge purple and white.

"With the steady and consistent growth we've witnessed in the last three years globally, IFS is now ready to put out the big guns," IFS South Asia Sales and Marketing Manager Shiraz Lye explained, "Our change in logo is a signal to the market that we have something unique to offer." He stated that for several years, IFS catered to a niche market with its applications but not many knew about the company.

"Last few year's results in particular, gave us the confidence that IFS has the positivity and the potential to grow exponentially." He explained that the 3rd quarter 2009, results released in Sweden further solidified the corporate board's decision to launch a new image, as when other big guns were experiencing negative results IFS was consistently growing. "Financially, we've never been as stable and as strong as we are now," Shiraz said, "And we are confident that our new look will create a global statement about the company."

He explained that when IFS first entered the Enterprise applications market in 1983, the technology required had already been developed by existing players. "We were the new kid on the block, but the technology was already there, and building on it gave IFS an advantage to evolve faster with simple but with width and breadth, flexible solutions that's vital for business agility."

The company has now emerged as a firm dedicated to providing seamless, flexible and integrated solutions to businesses in a plethora of industries ranging from aerospace and defence, utility and telecom, automotive, manufacturing, process, construction and contracting and retail and wholesale.

IFS has close to 2700 employees operating in over 50 countries and Shiraz said that every employee was excited and geared about the change.

"Since the global launch of the new image in November, there has been extensive internal communications to align all the staff towards this change," he explained, "they are now excited and driven to perform better, and across the globe we have one voice and one image."

Purple Company However, he pointed out that although everything about the company seems different, nothing has changed. "We have changed the way we look but we have not changed the way we work," he assured.

"We've retained our core values of simplicity, professionalism and commitment. With this in mind we've also retained the core colour of purple."

Aepona - expands Sri Lankan operation

Aepona: A global provider of telecom software products and services headquartered in Belfast, Northern Ireland, acquired Valista (Dublin based Software Company with a presence in Sri Lanka since 2005) in July, 2009 to create a powerful, independent vendor of NaaS "Network as a Service" telco software solutions.

The largest of Aepoan's software development center (Aepona International Lanka (Pvt) Limited, Aepona - Sri Lanka) is presently in the process of rapid expansion based on strong global sales activities during the past months.

"Our present focus is on recruitment, driven by the NaaS and other development projects," Aepona - Sri Lanka's General Manager Kolitha Ratwatte, informed the Sunday Observer. Ratwatte joined Aepona - Sri Lanka in September, 2009 and has been given the responsibility of driving Aepona Sri Lanka forwards in line with corporate strategies.

Aepona - Sri Lanka is fundamentally a Java centric software development company serving corporate requirements, "since September 2009, we have increased our staff strength by 50% and plan to bolster the resources base by a further 25 employees during Q1 of 2010," said Ratwatte, "we are in a fortunate position to have a solid and well establish off shore software development process which has been carried over from Valista."

Aepona - Sri Lanka offers a truly unique worker friendly office environment, which includes a pool table, cable TV, Play station and a sports and social club, this is in addition to the opportunity of working with leading edge technology and best practices in software development and quality assurance.

LG Display develops flexible e-newspaper screen

LG Display has developed a flexible electronic-paper screen that's almost as large as a tabloid newspaper, it said Thursday.

The screen measures 25 centimetres by 40 centimetres, which translates into a 19-inch diagonal screen size, and is 0.3 millimetres thin so it can bend. LG Display managed to make it flexible by utilizing a metal foil instead of the more traditional glass substrate. The South Korean company said the screen is the largest flexible e-paper display yet produced.

Electronic paper has already been put to use in e-book readers like Amazon's Kindle and Sony's Reader devices.

It boasts a high-contrast ratio that makes it easy to read and relies on ambient light so doesn't cause eye strain over long periods of use.

Additionally it only requires power when the screen is refreshed so e-paper devices typically have a long battery life.

Developers are looking at flexible e-paper screens as a possible base for newspapersof the future. Such a newspaper could be updated regularly with the latest news.

IDG News Service