Danishka's Diary

As I mentioned in my previous post , I flew to Nepal on 1st of May 2015 and added Day 2 and Day 3 photos to my flickr  album . It's really hard to explain the situation there but I hope you can get an idea. Another evening in Nepal with dark and fear of aftershocks  Blankets give them enough warm but not Education! What's the next step? During my visit to Dharding on 3rd of May 2015, I learned that I can do much better work with my experience. There is a small school in the village with 400 students and 8 teachers. Yes, I decided to help them with a school lab with Open Source Education tools. I have been running a similar project in Sri Lanka and I had a plan to do my next deployment with Raspberry Pi. Why Raspberry Pi? Simply: Its cheap and portable. Its much easier to relocate a lab in case of an emergency and its really cheaper than generic desktop machines. What's required? Single set need LCD Display, Keyboard/Mouse, Power Supply,...

As I mentioned earlier , we are trying to provide a computer lab with 5 computers and other necessary equipments to Sagalapura College , Bingathalawa, Kandapola which is a rural college in Walapane education zone in Nuwara Eliya district, Our target is to provide them with 5 new assembled computers. Mr. Athula Herath who is attached to the Education Office, Central province says that a computer with the following specification can be bought to a price of Rs. 52,000 from an institute in Kandy. Core i3 Processor 2GB RAM 500GB HDD LED Display Keyboard/Mouse (without UPS) Since this is a rural college, we thought of transportation as well. If there is anyone who can help us buy computers with quality components for a lower price, please contact Mr. Athula Herath. The estimated least total cost for 5 computers is Rs. 260,000 and a total of Rs. 40,000 from four people (Rs. 10,000 from each) is confirmed to be donated. If it is possible for you t...

Hanthana Linux 17 (Sithija) is released! Project began with the goals of Introducing and promoting Free and Open Source Software to the masses, especially to those with low technical knowledge, no access to the Internet or under privileged, and has now been deployed in a lot of schools, individuals, private sector offices, public sector institutes and government offices. Hanthana Linux operating system was officially released on the 19th of September 2009 and by now the the number of copies distributed by the Hanthana Linux Project and individuals has counted up to the thousands. According to the SourceForge website, just one of the repositories that provides the distribution, there’s over 6000 downloads from all over the world. From those, at least 8 countries (excluding Sri Lanka) has downloaded a minimum of 100 copies and atleast 96 countries has at least one download. http://sourceforge.net/projects/hanthana/files/stats/timeline?dates=2009-09-01+to+2012-12-31 This i...

පසුගිය කාලයේ රටවටේ විවිධ වැඩසටහන් සඳහා එක් වුවත් ඊයේ පෙරෙදා උන සිදු වීම නම් ලියන්නම ඔන කියල හිතුනා. කණ්ඩියපිටවැව, නාලන්දා පාසලට පසුගිය ජූලි 19 දින ගියේ මීට පෙර කිසි දිනෙක නොදුට පිරිසක් සමඟ.. උදේ පාන්දර 3.30ට පමණ ගෙදරින් පිටත්වෙලා, වල් අලි කරදර වලින් දුක්විදින ජනතාවගෙ ජීවන තත්ත්වය උසස් කිරීමට සහාය වන Born Free Foundation ආයතනයේ මිතුරන් සමඟ   කොළඹදි එක් විමෙන් අනතුරුව බලංගොඩ තණමල්විම මාර්ගයේ ගමන් කරන කොට හම්බවෙන හම්බේගමුව ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම් කාර්යයාලයට අයත් ප්‍රදේශයට අපි ලගා උනේ දවල් 1ත් පහුවෙද්දි. අපි යද්දි පාසල් වාර විභාගය ලියමින් සිටි ලමයි ගෙදර යන්න කලින් වදිනව.. එවගේම පොඩි පැංචො ටිකක් නම් ඒ වෙද්දිත් අපි එන අතරමග... පාසලට ඇතුල් වන විටම ලැබුණු සිනා සංග්‍රහය මේ වෙද්දි පරිගණක විද්‍යාගාරය (මෙය මුලින් ගොඩනගල තියෙන්නෙ පුස්තකාලයකට) විදුලිය ලබා දි තිබුනෙ නැ, එවගේම අවශ්‍ය අභ්‍යන්තර රැහැන් ඇදීමක්ද තිබුනෙ නැ.  පෙරෙදා පාසලෙ තිබුණු උත්සවේකදි කියවුනෙ ඒ ගොඩනැගිල්ලට ආණ්ඩුවෙන් 50,000ක මුදලක් ලැබුනත් ඉස්කොලෙ ලොකු සර්, ගුරුවරු, පාසල් ලමුන් සහ ගම්මු එකතු...

While the initiative to provide computer labs for schools project is going forward as planned, a project to bring PCs in the classroom for primary schools was held as a pilot project was held at the Malalgoda Siriseewali Primary School. Invest a few moments of your precious time to see the feedback and opinions of the students, teaches and parents when Hanthana was provided for them for the very first time... Proving the saying “Only the Best for the children”, Hanthana Linux was introduced to the school children of the Malalgoda Siriseewali Primary school which is located in the Habaraadoowa Educational zone of the Imadhoowa Provincial Council within the Galle District, on the 30th of January 2012. This school had been closed down for around one year and was re opened on the 16th of January 2012 under the 1000 Schools initiative. The school comprises of 15 students, Grade 1 class teacher, an English teacher and the principal. The opening was made possible entirely due to the work ...

Free and Open Source Software awareness lecture series organized by ICTA and Hanthana Linux community in line with Deyata Kirula 2012 education and trade exhibition was conducted ICTA stall on 7th and 8th of February. A gift from the ICTA  A lot of people participated at this event and the feedback was highly positive. Participants consisted of students, teachers, parents and employees from the government and private sectors. During the session, teachers got the chance to do a short lessons to their students using the education software in Hanthana Linux. At that point teachers were successful in getting used to the software during a short period of time of like 2 minutes and conducting the lesson to their students.   A school teacher (who visit the ICTA stall) conducting a small session on chemistry using Kalzium application to the audience ICTA presented the students with prizes like shool bags and pens and refreshments were offered . Further, ICTA distrubuted the ...

Hanthana Linux team, with the collaboration of the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka , is about to a conduct an awareness event on Free and Open Source Software and Hanthana Linux on 7th and 8th of February at "Deyata Kirula 2012" Education and Trade exhibition which is held at Oyamaduwa, Anuradhapura in line with the 64th Independence Day. Lectures series which 100 people can participate at a time, opportunity to use free and open source software installed on computers and people will get the chance to get their queries answered. Following topics will be covered in lecture series. Free and Open Source Software Free and Open Source Software for education Hanthana Linux project Contribution for Free and Open Source Software Free and Open Source Software launched and sponsored by ICTA Get to know about Free and Open Source Software, visit ICTA stall at Deyata Kitula exhibition premises on 7th and 8th of February. Please be kind enough to spread the word to teachers and students...

The latest release of Hanthana Linux (a Fedora remix), Hanthana Linux 15 was released !. This marks the fifth release of Hanthana Linux project. First release was on 19th September 2009 in parallel with Software Freedom Day celebrations . It is the strong community around Hanthana Linux Project that enabled us to release the fifth consecutive release. Hanthana 14 (Gagana) is used in more than 15 schools (more than 500 computers) in the island and one being a primary school is of importance. Further, the computer laboratory with 80 computers at Ruwanpura National College of Education is facilitated with Hanthana Linux. Students of Sri Piyarathana Madya Maha Vidyalaya, Gonigoda using Hanthana Linux for their school activities Active forum for Hanthana Linux community and the recently released Hanthana Community Magazine play a major role in penetrating information and knowledge to the community. More than 2000 Hanthana Linux DVDs have being deployed a...

Latest release of Hanthana Linux (Gagana – 14.5) was introduced to the public at the educational exhibition conducted to celebrate the 125th anniversary of Southlands College, Galle. Students of the IT unit of the college successfully carried out the stall and had delivered more than 300 DVDs free of charge among the visitors. Students, employees from both government and private sector, foreigners were among the visitors. It is notable that Mr. Helmer, one of the Dutch visited the stall the very first day, stated that he will ship 8 computers with Hanthana Linux installed to a school in Sri Lanka. The ten presenters (college girls) at the stall who had no prior experience with Hanthan Linux were armed with the required knowledge in a one day workshop conducted by the Hanthana Linux team. It should be mentioned that they did their best to spread the word of freedom among the visitors. A school making the public aware of Free and Open Source Software and Hanthana Linu...

blog.hanthana.org වෙතින් අලුත්ගම ධර්ගා නගරයේ පිහිටි ජාතික අධ්‍යාපන විද්‍යා පීඨයේ දී දෙදින හන්තාන ලිනක්ස් හඳුන්වාදීමේ වැඩසටහනක් පසුගිය 11 සහ 23 වැන දෙදින පුරා පැවැත්විණි. මේ වැඩසටහන සඳහා යාපනය, අම්පාර, පුත්තලම, මඩකලපුව, සහ ධර්ගා නගරය යන ප්‍රදේශවලින් පැමිණ එම ආයතනයේ අධ්‍යාපනය ලබන සිසුවියෝ විසි දෙනෙක් සහ ඔවුන්ගේ ආචාර්ය මණ්ඩලයේ ගුරු මහත්ම මහත්මීන් කිහිප දෙනෙක් සහභාගී වූහ. මෙම වැඩසටහනේ විශේෂත්වය වන්නේ මෙතෙක් දමිළ මාධ්‍යයෙන් අධ්‍යාපනය ලද සිසුන් පිරිසක් සඳහා කළ පළමු වැඩසටහන මෙය වීම යි. මෙම වැඩසටහනේ දී ලිනක්ස් හදුන්වාදීම, ස්ථාපනය, අධ්‍යාපනික සහ කාර්යාලීය මෘදුකාංග භාවිතය වැනි කොටස්වලට අමතරව මෘදුකාංග සංවර්ධන අංශය කෙරෙහි ද වඩා වැඩි අවධානයක් යොමු කෙරිණි. විශේෂයෙන් ම ලිනක්ස් මත C++ , Java , HTML වෙබ් පිටු නිර්මාණය වැනි කරුණු මෙන් ම ලොව බහුලව භාවිත වන වෙබ් සේවාදායකය වන ඇපාචී (Apache) වෙබ් සේවාදායකය භාවිතය ද මෙහි දී ආවරණය කරන ලදි. මීට අමතරව ජාල සැකසුම් කළමනාකරණය සහ පරිශීලක කළමනාකරණය වැනි අංශ ද සාකච්ඡා කෙරණි. මෙම වැඩසටහනේ තවත් සුවිශේෂි කාරණයක් නම් පළමු දින අධ්‍යයන කටයුතුවලට අ...

Original Post of blog.hanthana.org A two day Hanthana Linux awareness program was held at National College of Education (NCOE) – Dargatown, Aluthgama on the 11th and 23rd of February, 2011. Twenty students (trainee teachers) from Jaffna, Ampara, Batticaloa, and Dharga Town as well as from the National College of Education itself and several teachers of these students participated in the program. This program was especial because this was the very first such program conducted for the Tamil medium students (trainee teachers). In this program more focus was on introducing Linux, installation, using office packages and software development. Creating C++ programs and Java, HTML web pages on Linux and using the Apache web server, which is very popular in the world was discussed. Other than that, network management and user management was also thought in the program. On day one there were two teachers in the staff that inquired about the content to be thought on day two. They self stu...

Hanthana Linux is an easy to use operating system in a environment with less or no internet facility. A lot of applications to be used to aid in school curriculum are included. Applications to study periodic table, planetary behaviour and astronomy as well as to generate 2D and 3D graphs, to solve equations are there in Hanthana Linux. Nevertheless, educational games, applications to design and simulate circuits, GNUoctave which is an alternative to MathLab for statistics and wine in case to run a .exe file and many more comes by default. It is significant that programming languages and tools like C++, Python, PHP, Ruby on Rails, OpenJDK, Apache web server which is widely used throughout the world, MySQL for database management and NFS and SAMBA servers for Network File Sharing services are also included. Although the threats from virus are less in Hanthana Linux as in any other linux based system, you can enable SELinux (Security Enhanced Linux) security management facility if y...

හන්තාන ලිනක්ස් යනු අන්තර්ජාල පහසුකම් අවම හෝ රහිත පරිසරකය සිට අධ්‍යාපනික කටයුතු සඳහා භාවිතා කළ හැකි පහසු මෙහෙයුම් පද්ධතියකි. පාසැල් විශය නිර්දේශයට උපකාරක ලෙස භාවිත කළ හැකි මෘදුකාංග රැසක් මෙහි ඇතුලත් කර ඇත. ආවර්තිතා වගුව, සෞරග්‍රහ මණ්ඩලය සහ තරු රටා අධ්‍යයනය සඳහා  මෙන්ම, ද්විමාණ සහ ත්‍රිමාණ ප්‍රස්තාර නිර්මාණය සහ සමීකරණ විසදීම සඳහා ද මෙහි මෘදුකාංග ඇත. අධ්‍යාපනික ක්‍රීඩා වලින් ද සමන්විත මෙහි ඉලෙක්ට්‍රොනික පරිපත සැලසුම් කරණයට සහ නිර්මාණයට අවශ්‍ය සමාකෘති (simulators) සහ මෙවලම් ද, සඛ්‍යානය සඳහා අවශ්‍ය MathLab මදෘකාංගයට ආදෙශකයක් වන GNUoctave මෘදුකාංගය ද, අවශ්‍ය විටෙක .exe ගොනු භාවිත කිරීම සඳහා wine මෘදුකාංගය ද අඩංගු කර ඇත. මීට අමතරව පරිගණක ක්‍රමලේඛනය සඳහා භාවිත කරන C++, Python, PHP, Ruby on Rails, OpenJDK මෙන්ම ලොව බහලුව භාවිත කරන Apache වෙබ් සේවා දායකය, MySQL දත්ත සමුදාය කළමණාකරන සේවාදයකය, ජාලය ගොණු කළමනාකරණයට අවශ්‍ය NFS සහ SAMBA සේවාදායක යනාදිය ද මෙහි අඩංගු වීම සුවිශේෂී කරුණකි. අවශ්‍ය නම් මෙහි අඩංගු වන SELinux (Security Enhanced Linux)  ආරක්‍ෂණ කළමනාකරණ පහසුක...