An increasing number of people in the Maldives have adopted the wireless networking technology, Wifi, as their preferred mode of computer networking to connect together the computers at office and home environments. The wire-less nature of Wifi allows people to easily and cheaply setup a network that covers their home (and neighbours) for gaming and sharing internet. Sadly, the rich presence of metal constructs (iron rods in buildings, tin roofing etc), tend to scatter and attenuate the signal considerably.

One of the best ways to increase the signal and extend coverage is to use a Wifi antenna. Nevertheless, Wifi antennas do not come cheap and are not usually available in the shops in Male'. I am an avid DIYer and in my experience, constructing a Wifi antenna yourself is cheap and yields results as good as most commercial products.

There are many designs of antennas that are suitable for Wifi use. A Cantenna is a type of antenna for Wifi use that became quite famous a couple of years ago and remains a favourite among the DIY community. My favourite, however, is the Bi-Quad. It is compact and gives about 12 dBi gain in signal. A bi-quad can be made using just a single, small piece of copper plate/sheet and copper rod/wiring - both of which are easily obtained from several hardware stores in Male'. I bought them for less than MRF 100/- total in September this year. Assembling the antenna would require a soldering iron and would take about half an hour at most. You may connect the antenna directly to a wire or have a connector on the antenna so that you can use any commercial pigtail connector to attach it to the wifi card or access point. Remember to double check all dimensions and connections before connecting the final product to the wifi gear. Use NetStumbler to check the signal strength change.

There are many resources on the net detailing bi-quad antenna construction for the 2.4Ghz range. Check out the following links if you are interested in building one:
- http://martybugs.net/wireless/biquad/
- http://www.saunalahti.fi/elepal/antenna4.html
- http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wifi:Building_an_antenna

Have fun

The sun is becoming scarce here in Reading, thanks to the onset of the cold dreary seasons of autumn and winter. The nights are getting cold and fog presents a challenge to travel on the road, even on foot. Getting up in the morning is hard work, especially when I end up going to bed around dawn as per my quite insanely erratic sleep/wake cycle.

This is a tribute to the one thing that helps me keep going, on my half an hour walk to university. Laced with enough sugar to have a kid running faster and longer than a bunny on Duracell and enough caffeine to wake up the parts of the brain still deep in REM sleep, energy/sports drinks serve me well. Even though it peps me up just that little bit, it is usually enough to keep my body upright and brain functioning! I am in a seriously lazy and lethargic state these days after all. Sigh.

Ah, website hosting companies and their server's can be a bit of problem sometimes. We are currently facing some unexpected downtimes due to our Virtual Private Server being under the strain - resources are maxed out, thus making the server unresponsive. We have no idea as to what is causing it, neither is the tech support of the hosting company. Moving all our stuff is going to be big work, which we'd do only as a last resort. So we are left with quite a dilemma. :S

Technova.com.mv, radheef.com, sczmc.org, raa.gov.mv, jaheen.com, subcorpus.net, my blog and miscellaneous other websites on our server would be experiencing some outages as we try to spot and root out the rogue behind the trouble.

Well, most of the fellow country men/women seem to be too engrossed these days in the political brawl that?s spread throughout the entire Maldives but I think it is an excellent time for us to set aside and recall what happened on these couple of days in the month of November in 1988.

Nov 3/4, 1988 saw all of us waking up to a new, frightening drama playing out in the otherwise peaceful roads in the capital island Male'. Despite being very young then, I still remember snapping out of slumber early morning to find my parents in frenzy. My dad had recognized the sound very much alien to most of us - the sound of gunfire. He was disturbed. I was told to remain indoors and not to go out - not even to the veranda. I remember hearing and seeing an Indian army helicopter land right next to our home at the time. I remember climbing onto the windows to peek out onto the road which was abandoned and not a person to be seen. I remember hearing a car passing by just as I jumped back down. I remember an increase of chatter in the neighborhood as people reconnected to each other, recounted the event, offered support and probably just let it all out. I remember watching telly afterwards - of people on a ship, of people in handcuffs, of blood, of damaged buildings with bullet holes and particularly of the Maldivian flag being raised high, being laid on those coffins of the martyrs and murdered hostages.

Innocent people died that day, in going about their simple life, in attempting to defend themselves and in standing up to defend the nation against a handsomely armed and equipped enemy. Peruse the book detailing the accounts of the day if you haven't already had the chance to. It will certainly leave you with questions and doubts - not of the obvious exaggerations of valour of certain people but of the omissions and the simplicity...

Almost two decades gone and thanks to governmental and social neglect, people now have no heroes to enshrine and idolize. Heroes, especially on a national level, play a great role in promoting unity, strength and purpose. It promotes a common identity - a culture. That is one thing important we can learn from the Americans, even if there is nothing else we'd take from them...

My best buddy Nishan (who goes by the handle "Millzero" on the internet) is a great, aspiring photographer. He started off on photography by himself around 2001 when we were running MaldivianUnderground.com together. He has come a long way since and works real hard to better himself. He produces fantastic photos now...

Anyway, I developed a new design for his photographic website/blog and just launched the revamped site. Check out his site: Millzero.com

I just got informed today of the upcoming 8th Asia Open Source Software Symposium scheduled to be held in Bali, Indonesia from February 13 to 15, 2007. They are also holding a code fest and a localization workshop along with the conference. They are offering to sponsor one participant to attend the event. More details are to be available on their website soon.

Anyone keen to represent Maldives at the event should hook up with one of the technology related non-profit organizations in operation. I've forwarded the mail to the Maldivian Linux User Group (MLUG) since they are the only Open Source related entity in the Maldives that I am aware of. Hopefully they can take initiative and help prepare and send someone off to represent Maldives at the event.

Anyway, spread the word! Get someone to hitch on this free trip and make a notable appearance on behalf of the Maldives

Dear Asia OSS Symposium Members,

It has been a loooong while since the 7th Asia OSS Symposium in KL, Malaysia, hope you all are fine. This is Tomoko Asai @ CICC.

Center of International Cooperation for Computerization (CICC), and Institute Technology Bandung (ITB）, together with
Ministry of Research and Technology Indonesia, Ministry of Communication & Information Indonesia, and The Institute of Engineers, Indonesia (PII) will hold the 8th Asia Open Source Software Symposium in Indonesia.

Date will be from Feb 13 to 15, 2007 at Bali for the Asia OSS Symposium, together with the CodeFest from Feb 11 to 12 at Bandung, and Localization Workshop on Feb. 12 evening at Bali.

For the 8th Asia OSS Symposium, we would like to nominate 2-3 participants from each economy (19 economies) ;
1) One Full-Funded participant (supported by CICC). Those who will be entitled only for public or non-profit organization, not for commercial company people.
2) Private participants (supported by own expenses)

The deadline of nominating the participants, as well as the detail of the theme and concept for the symposium, will be announced very soon. Also website will be updated soon.

Thanks & Best Regards,
-------------------------------------------------
Asai Tomoko (Ms.)
Center of the International Cooperation for Computerization (CICC)
International Information Technology Lab.
Add: 3 Fl., NBF Ogawamachi Bldg.,
1-3-1 Ogawamachi, Kanda, Chiyodaku, Tokyo 101-0052
Tel: +81-3-5283-0811 Fax: +83-3-5283-0808
mailto:[email protected] / http://www.cicc.or.jp

I love electronics. I love it because it is a thrill to actually build something and see it work. The act of creation is overwhelming, especially when younger.

Electronics was my greatest obsession since the time I got introduced to the field by a book given to me by a beloved uncle. I had the habit of being fascinated by electrical/mechanical gear while I was even younger but this book series (Funway into Electronics by Dick Smith) lay the foundations to the real awakening to the subject. I was 11 years old then and I was totally engrossed in it. I spent day and night meddling with ready-made products, scrounging for components in broken stuff and doing further reading, albeit with little real understanding But, the knowledge I gained was enough to understand how this and that worked. It was enough to let me repair and build on my own.

However, it was the thrill of building, of constructing various circuits that really had me on a high. It was by far one of the most enjoyable things I remember from my childhood. I built everything from silly LED light shows to neat "spy" gadgets. Directional listening devices that can pickup what the two gossipers at the end of the road are whispering to each other are a personal favourite. I built radio/tv transmitters and receivers. I had fun tuning into the world with self-built receivers and self-built antennae. Mind you, this was the time before encrypted communications began cropping up in Male'. I could listen into the police, cordless phones and even had the pleasure of listening in on the communications that took place when the First Lady got into some trouble in the sea (oops. classified?). I had fun building interfaces to the computer. Attempting to decode the then common 'pager' signals was an exciting undertaking. I had fun building high voltage gear. Voltage multipliers to get nice long sparks in attempts to build a decent Jacob's Ladder or a Plasma ball. Coil guns were amusing things too. I got jolted by electric shocks enough times but it was worth it - maybe except for the time I had a 400 or so volts DC, fully charged capacitor discharge thru my hands. I was careless and didn't realize the capacitor was charged. It had enough juice running through me to get me zonked out with birdies still flying around my head when I woke up... (Check out this image at How It Works to see how 'spectacular' it is when such a capacitor discharges)

Anyway, today, I fixed the TV that came with my apartment. I had so many (free!) channels piped down but with the 24inch TV refusing to utter a whisper of a sound, it was getting real dreary in here - just me, the laptop and food. It has been a looong time since I broke into one of these things and it felt good. The encounter inspired this blog rambling and I've just dug out all my electronics gear gathering cobwebs in the dark... Time to wield a soldering iron and do some serious damage!

Toodles.