Heathrow London, Paris France Transit Visa - Overnight Stopovers

***Update: I have a new post regarding transit visa here.

This is to help people who are regularly querying to know about stopovers in Heathrow London Airport. Last winter, precisely on January 10th, me and my wife spend almost 15hrs in London on our next flight to USA which is on next day morning around 10.30pm. I’ll try to give you some guidelines and advices as much as possible and that’s your responsibility to make your arrangements accordingly.

First of all, I’ll give you some idea on my visa and background issues. Me and my wife both graduate students at Texas State University San Marcos, and we both on F-1 student visa status. Our trip was from Colombo, Sri Lanka to Austin, Texas. Almost 2 stopovers throughout the flying, first in London Heathrow about 15hrs, and second in Chicago O’Hare 9hrs. This was our return flight from the winter break at Sri Lanka.

When we fly to Sri Lanka on December 13th 2007, we had a 9hr stopover at Charles de Galle Paris. Before our trip, I researched on the transit visa issues and couldn’t find precise information on Paris transits too. So, I’ll give you some idea on Paris transit visa too, in case someone needs to know on it. As I can remember we landed to the terminal 1 and depart from Terminal 4. Our flight f USA was from United Airlines and we thought we don’t wanna go out or do anything, and just stay at the airport for the next connecting flight. For the transit visa’s, there was no transit visa whatsoever required (at least for US F-1 Student visa holders) to stay 9-10hrs at the airport. But I don’t know there is change when you want to stay overnight at the airport for connecting flights. In case of the Heathrow London, you cannot stay overnight at the airport. I’ll come to this next. So, about CDG airport, its better to have at least 4-5hrs transit time if you travel to another destination. Don’t worry about spending that time if you are not in a hurry or in a business trip. In case our trip, we spend almost 9hrs in the next terminal (I guess it was terminal 4). Have some snacks ready, b’se we spent almost 10E (almost$20) for a yucky, ice cold sandwich. Everything really really expensive, so be prepared. Specially in terminals, for boarding there was a big line, so my advice is, if the boarding is started, try to clear that as soon as possible. If I’m correct the terminals are called satellites so don’t be confused with the names. So from my experience on this travel, there is no need of transit visa if you have a stopover at Paris, France (US valid Visa holders traveling from or Travel to USA).

Next information is for the Heathrow, London Airport. I’m not sure if you have a stopover at day time, then what is the situation, but definitely if you have a night stopover (in our case 15hrs) you needed to go through the immigration to get 24hr visa to go out from the Heathrow. So here’s the deal. Whenever you arrived at the airport, if you wish to go out or get 24hr visa, hurry up and don’t waste your time on going for restrooms or getting some break. Run as soon as possible to the immigration section, why? Because there’s a big line of people ahead of you if you wanna get your visa done. Especially if you have a limited time of stopover at London, then this is a must. This is crucial; we stayed about 1hrs on the line to get the visa done. There is no need of special paper work to get 24hr transit visa at Heathrow London.

But you need following documents mandatory for that.

1. Unexpired Valid US visa
2. Unexpired Passport
3. Immigration documents for USA, in our case (for F-1/F-2 student/dependent visa holders) I-20 issued by US College

4. Air tickets stating that you have prior arrangement to leave UK and your stay is just for transit via UK

The immigration officer didn’t ask anything other than this and it was just 1min interview to get the document stamped with 24hrs visa. Important thing is remember to get ready for your connecting flight and plan ahead. We stayed at Becontree, London and its about 2.5hrs from Heathrow. Believe me, next day we arrived just 1/2hr before the flight and needed to sprint through the airport to get the flight on time (Thanks to a helping hand from the United Airlines Officer at the check-in desk).

Let me know if someone needs more information on this. My email sampathid2003@yahoo.com

Windows Vista – How to Organize Start Menu All Programs

My first PC with windows 98 was with very much messy All Programs menu. I remember who told me and showed me to make it organize and clean. Thanks to Charith Gunasekara(Pola), I learnt one such a good habit. Make it clean your Start Menu All Programs list. I did this easily with all previous Windows Operating systems, except Vista which took some learning cycle due to not looking at the exact place. Windows 98, 2000, XP resembles same way of locating the start menu programs by going in to Documents & Settings and selecting the particular user and then start creating folder list to make it organize whatever the way you pleased (Not sure that the correct location in Windows 98, b’se its way back sometime).

Vista is bit different to do the same task. I tried to locate it in the same way in C:\ drive, but couldn’t find it anywhere. I did some Googleing to find it but no success. Lots of people suggest locating it in C:\Users…… or some other locations, but I couldn’t find those places. Oh one thing mine is Windows Vista Home Premium (64bit OS) with Service Pack 1. After some learning curve, I found we can easily do this without going to details in C:\
OK. Here’s how to do this,

1. Click on Start Menu and then right click on the All programs
2. Now from the popup menu, click on “Open All Users”
3. This will Open the window for your start menu all programs
4. Now create whatever the folders you wish to be at your all programs list. I usually create folders for Office, Entertainment, Programming, Graphics, Utilities, Internet etc…This is as you wish
5. Now close the window and go back to the start menu all programs and now drag and drop appropriate programs into each folder in the list. This is little bit different in Vista, where you need to wait a second on top of the folder name to open the list, then only you can drop your item inside the folder itself.

Again thanks Charith for enlighten me on this organizing thing; it makes the Start menu experience so much easier.

Free Asia cup Live Streaming ESPN360 – USA Only

Update (March 13, 2012) - This is one of my previous posts and you won't be able to use the stated espn link to watch the Asia Cup Cricket match online. I'm providing you 2 free links for that. Happy Cricketing. Don't forget to share the post in facebook, tweeter, google+ etc.

http://www.webcric.com/
http://lankacricketlive.blogspot.com/

Oh my God! This is unbelievable. All the sufferings for searching free live telecast on blogs and all sort of sites, online streaming interruptions……..everything gone. I wanna kiss whoever did this on ESPN360.com. Hey guys and gals in USA, here’s ur chance to watch ASIA Cricket series LIVE for FREE. ESPN360.com going to give you exclusive chance to watch free cricket on ASIA cup. Thank GOD again again and again. I don’t know is there any restrictions on internet service providers. But definitely Grande Communication is gonna support (cheers Grande). I saw this news on Cricinfo.com so thanks for cricinfo too. Remember this is only to USA.

Here’s the link : http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/espn360
Happy Cricket ……………..cheers Sri Lanka , no doubt you are gonna win the ASIAN Cup.

Kung Fu Panda- Prepare for Awesomeness

Nice….What else to say. Spent almost 2hrs on it today, but its worthwhile. One of best animated film I ever watched. I’m not talking about the quality of the animations or sound or kung fu actions etc, but it feels the same sensation of how we used to watch the all time popular tele series “Kung Fu”. Don’t know when its gonna start showing at theaters in Sri Lanka, but hopefully it will be available on DVDs, at least as camera copies….right ;)

Here’s some quotes from Wikipedia,

Kung Fu Panda is a 2008 animated film about a bungling panda who aspires to be a kung fu warrior. Kung Fu Panda is directed by John Stevenson and Mark Osborne and produced by Melissa Cobb. Although the concept of a kung fu panda has been around since at least 1993, the idea for the film was conceived by Michael Lachance, a DreamWorks Animation executive. Work on the film didn't begin until 2004 and the film premièred at the 61st Cannes Film Festival in May 2008. The film was released internationally on June 6, 2008, but will be released in the United Kingdom on July 4, 2008. The film is distributed by Paramount Pictures.

Andy McKee - Legendary acoustic guitarist

Oh my God. You guys wanna see this? I bet ya’ll thank later. Yep, for sure. I was just surfing around to see some videos especially acoustic guitar pieces. I brought a guitar almost 3-4 months ago (it’s a gift for my 28th birthday from Nim). I’m sick of playing same old major codes with some songs from Clarence wijewardana (no offense). I tried some Kasuns kalhara’s songs. Ha too immature to play those (not kasun, but me on acoustics). Need some practice and patient to play I guess (time, ha that’s what I don’t have). Acoustic fingering, that’s what we called plying ha? Yep, that’s for sure.

I accidently found some video clips, a guy called Andy Mckee. Some acoustic pieces “Rylynn”, “Africa”, “Drifting”, What an amazing guitarist he is. Truly a master in his art. This is what wikipedia says about him,

Andy McKee (born April 4, 1979 in Topeka, Kansas) is an American finger style guitarist currently signed to the US-American record label Candyrat Records. His style of playing and his compositions have earned him a considerable fanbase; in late 2006, a live performance of his flagship song "Drifting" became a Featured Video on YouTube and MySpace, achieving over 14,000,000 views on the former to date and remaining one of its highest rated music clips. A handful of McKee's other songs have experienced lesser success on YouTube, such as "Rylynn" and "Africa" both eclipsing 6,000,000 views apiece.

Watch some video clips from Andy McKee

Deadlock - Not from Software Engineering or DBMS

This is a nice example for a Deadlock. The definition is not from the computer world, but worth to read and have a good laugh.

A Perfect Dead Lock Example...

Boss said to secretary: For a week we will go abroad, so make arrangement.Secretary make call to Husband: For a week my boss and I will be going abroad, you look after yourself.Husband make call to secret lover: My wife is going abroad for a week, so lets spend the week together.Secret lover make call to small boy whom she is giving private tuition: I have work for a week, so you need not come for class.Small boy make call to his grandfather: Grandpa, for a week I don't have class 'coz my teacher is busy. Let's spend the week together.Grandpa(the 1st boss ;) ) make call to his secretary: This week I am spending my time with my grandson. We cannot attend that meeting.Secretary make call to her husband: This week my boss has some work, we canceled our trip.Husband make call to secret lover: We cannot spend this week together, my wife has canceled her trip.Secret lover make call to small boy whom she is giving private tuition: This week we will have class as usual.Small boy make call to his grandfather: Grandpa, my teacher said this week I have to attend class. Sorry I can't give you company.Grandpa make call to his secretary: Don't worry this week we will attend that meeting, so make arrangement .

This is called a DEADLOCK

USA vs Sri Lanka Gasoline prices

Its gonna be a big deal, specially the new 30% price hike on gasoline. Even in USA the prices are really high. If you wanna know how things changed here, then here’s some details.

When I came here it was around $2.70 per gallon of petrol and around $2.99 per gallon of diesel. Now new prices are Diesel $4.49 per gallon and Petrol $3.89 per gallon. See how things changed. Even for us here at US , its unbearable, so nothing to say about the situation at Sri Lanka. But its pretty sad how people, specially politics guys make it a big deal. What they wanna say is this is because of bad financial management of the government or due to the war. First I wanna say, I’m not a supporter of current government. I hate those “amaththos” with luxury cars and all sort of gasoline subsidies not only them but for their dogs, spouse and “naadaa hathmuthu paramparawatama”. I know there is some sort of management problem. But lots of these issues due to the economic growth of countries like china, India and downfall of US economy. Its just a childish thing to say Sri Lanka is suffering b’se of war or something else. How many luxury cars we have to maintain?? Especially from the government side? What about opposition. Are they going on economic cars? I don’t think so. They too have Montero’s, Prado’s, BMW..etc right? They wanna change the government to start same sort of rapacious earnings. I don’t know how stupid us to vote UNP, JVP or SLFP or whatever. They want just power and money. I heard that newly elected East provincial council pilleyan guys gonna get luxury vehicles and a European tour. What a pity.

Here, oil prices won’t make a big change in other stuff like food or transportation. But countries like Sri Lanka gonna feel it from next day, whenever there is a price hike. Bus prices, food even a plain tea gonna feel the heat of newly adopted prices. I’m soo sad about my family, relations, friends and all common people at Sri Lanka (Except those f***** ministers and parliamentarians).

IEEE Graduate Student Member

I got my graduate student membership from IEEE and it’s an honor to become a member of this privileged society. I have a new email alias from IEEE sampath.jayarathna@ieee.org

Cheers for IEEE

Doomsday : December 21, 2012.

Few weeks ago, I got an email heading “Doomsday” and never bothered even to open it. Now I’m convinced that its not just a fake idea, especially after last night Sci-Fi channel documentary “Mystery of the Crystal Skull”. Normally I just throw away email about mysteries like end of the world or something similar in manner, b’se its not a possibility (may be I don’t wanna die so early), or not with adequate facts (how science guy thinks).

Read more about the Mystery of Crystal Skulls documentary herehttp://www.scifi.com/crystalskulls/ Just wanna mention why December 12, 2012 end of the world phenomena is so fascinating with some facts,

1. Scientists have noted that when Jupiter and Saturn are aligned on the same side of the Sun, the solar activity is at its minimum; when they are on opposite sides of the Sun the solar activity is at its maximum. The positions on December 21, 2012 are ideal for extreme solar activity.
2. The last solar cycle was at its maximum in 2001. Each active solar cycle has a period when the flares are strongest, usually happening near the solar equator, called the "solar maximum." This is significant because the next "solar maximum" event will coincide with December 21, 2012.
3. Our solar system is part of a huge disc shaped collection of stars and planets called the Milky Way. We're located somewhere on the edge of the disc, slightly on top of the narrow disc. But very soon we'll be moving to the bottom of the disc. This change, from top to bottom, begins on December 21, 2012.On the same day when our Sun is at it's solar maximum, something will happen that's never happened before -- the ecliptic of our solar system will intersect with the Galactic plane, called the "Galactic Equator" of the Milky Way!
   
   
   The date, December 21, 2012, is a special day. It represents the maximum possible influences for solar flares that the universe can provide. Undoubtedly the Mayans, or the civilization that influenced them, somehow knew about these things.
   
   Read more about Doomsday here http://www.viewzone.com/endtime.html
   
   Yep…..it’s definitely a good idea to think and work at the forefront for our life after death

Listen or Wait

A young and successful executive was traveling down a neighborhood street,

going a bit too fast in his new Jaguar.

He was watching for kids running out from between parked cars
and slowed down when he thought he saw something.

As his car passed, no children appeared.

Instead, a brick smashed into the Jag's side door! He slammed on the brakes
and reversed back to the spot from where the brick had been thrown.

He jumped out of the car, grabbed the kid who threw the brick and

pushed him against a parked car shouting.

"What was that all about? Just what the heck are you doing?"
Building a head of steam he went on.
"That's a new car and that brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money!!"

"Please, mister, please. I'm sorry, I didn't know what else to do!!" pleaded the youngster.

"I threw the brick because no one else would stop..."

tears were dripping down the boy's chin as he pointed around the parked car.

"It's my brother," he said.

"He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can't lift him up."

Sobbing, the boy asked the executive, "Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair?

He's hurt and he's too heavy for me."

Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat.

He lifted the young man back into the wheelchair and took out his handkerchief and

wiped the scrapes and cuts, checking to see that everything was going to be okay.

"Thank you and May God bless you," the grateful child said to him. The man then

watched the little boy push his brother down the sidewalk toward their home.

It was a long walk back to his Jaguar ... a long, slow walk.

He never did repair the side door. He kept the dent to remind him not to go

through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention.

God whispers in your soul and speaks to your heart. Sometimes when you don't have

time to listen, He has to throw a "brick" at you.

It's your choice: Listen to the whisper, or

wait for the brick.........

China: Beijing 2008 Olympic Symbol

I don't know whos work this is, but niiiccccccccccce.........

Lilly: 2yr old World Map Master

Hey its 2008 already? Ha, I checked my last blog post, amazingly it was on November 2007. So, almost 2 months without a post right? OK thats fine, I was on my winter break at Sri lank and it was not a good experience to blog 47kbps dial-up connection at Sri Lanka compared to my 100Mbps cable connection at US!
Hoping to spend some time to do posting on my wedding (yee we are done with the wedding) and some pics from the Becontree, London trip to Shayamilee Akkas home. Goona be a hectic week, lots of stuff to do on the research and studies.
But I thought its better to post this video. Saw this amazing video about master map reader. Can you believe, she’s just 2 years old and she even knows where the Sri Lanka is, amazing ha Ye I guess lots of people who are away from Sri Lanka know how difficult to convince people from other countries that Sri Lanka is not a part of India. Whenever I say I’m from Sri Lanka, next best thing was to say that it’s not in India; it’s a separate Island with unique customs and traditions. Even then we need to say, we don’t speak hindi, and our language is Sinhala and its also something unique. This is true even for our Asian neighbors. My Indian friends sometimes forget that I’m not speaking hindi, or theligu or whatever their language, then I used to say hey guys I can’t speak your language I’m speaking only Sinhala and English, not even Tamil.

Watch this video and see at 3.50 she’s showing where the Sri Lanka is on the world map. Cute ha

Watch Lilly here

World fastest cars - Top 11 new ranking

***Update: See the newest list of Top 14 for 2011/2012 at my previous post

Lots of us, we lived in a dream world, always thinks about our dreams.....dream home, dream life, dream job, hey what about dream car???? Yeh that's what I'm gonna talk about today. Not our beloved Mitsubishi Galant with maximum speed of 120 mph and 195 Horsepower??? Nooooway......this is not only about my dream I guess. All of u guys and gals all around the world, wanna know what is the fastest (production) car in the world? I guess u would love to, right? Ok.....we'll dig this in and see. I tried on several Google queries to see a list of fastest cars available with current rankings and ratings. What do u think? What is the world fastest production car available now? Lots of u'r answers would be "Bugatti" right? Nop u are wrong this time, u r completely wrrrong....the list changed and the top place is reserved by another master blaster (not sanath jayasuriya replaced by anyone else ha). OK we'll see the list shall we??????

Number One : SSC Ultimate Aero
Top Speed: 256 mph

Horsepower: 1183
Torque: 1094lbs
On September 13th, 2007, the SSC Ultimate Aero broke the official top speed world record, traveling 256.18 mph down a closed section of a Washington State highway. Impressive, considering the Ultimate Aero's engine is only a twin-turbo V8 - half the size and turbo count of the Veyron below.

Number Two : Bugatti Veyron
Top Speed: 253 mph
Horsepower: 1001
Torque: 479lbs
No introduction is needed for the amazing Bugatti Veyron. Powered by a W-16 style, quad-turbo engine, the Veyron is commonly considered the Ultimate Supercar.

Number Three : Koenigsegg CCX
Top Speed: 250 mph
900 Horsepower

Number Four: Saleen S7 Twin-Turbo
Top Speed: 248 mph
750 Horsepower

Number Five : McLaren F1
Top Speed: 240.14
620 Horsepower
The McLaren F1 was made in 1994, 13 years ago, and it's still one of the fastest cars in the world.



Number Six : Ferrari Enzo

Top Speed: 217 mph
657 Horsepower
Ferrari's newest Mega-Car seems to have people crashing it left and right, but the drivers always walk away fine (physically). With only 399 of these ever made, the value of the car goes up with each crash.

Number Seven : Jaguar XJ220

Top Speed: 217 mph
549 Horsepower
Even older than the McLaren F1, the Jaguar XJ220 has been on this list since 1992.

Number Eight : Pagani Zonda F
Top Speed: 215 mph
602 Horsepower

Number Nine : Lamborghini Murcielago

Top Speed: 213 mph
633 Horsepower

Number Ten : Porsche Carrera GT

Top Speed: 209 mph
605 Horsepower

Number Elevan : McLaren Mercedes SLR
Top Speed: 207 mph
626 Horsepower

LTTE Child soldier next to Tamilselvan's coffin speaks loud and clear

Tigers were caught red handed when they published the photo of a ten-year-old girl in a military uniform just next to Tamilselvan's coffin, being carried by Tiger cadres in Vanni.The photo appeared in a pro-Tiger website that gave an account of Tamilselvan's funeral.
A local English daily (The Island) reproduced it on Page One yesterday (06). The paper also mentioned that the embarrassed Tiger website later cropped the photo to hide the truth. Still many have the unedited version of the photo as evidence to prove that Tigers are continuing their hunt to run their "Baby Brigade".
The issue of forced conscription of children by the Tigers has been discussed at various levels including the UNICEF. Each time this allegation was put to the Tigers, they claimed that they have imposed strict rules and regulations to avoid children (or underage) joining their organization.

Wheres Human Rights Watch & organizations? Those who were present at the funeral will vouch for this fact. It was highly unfortunate that high ranking Catholic clergies (Rayappu Joseph) and Hindu priests were there to conduct final religious rites were witness to this cruelty to children without any protests (terrorists?).

Read more on Asian Tribune

How to Install Ubuntu on Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 and resolve the Graphic Problem

When i checked my site traffic last few days, there was a considerable amount of requests related to "How to install Ubuntu on Microsoft Virtual PC 2007" or "Ubuntu Graphic problem on Microsoft Virtual PC 2007". I thought its better to guide my blog readers and show them a good resource place that they can learn all this with good graphical explanations (instead of repeating all and without violating the copy writes ha). Here is the link that you can use for step by step explanation on Ubuntu Installation on Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 and resolving the graphic problem.

Click here to view the step-by-step procedure

My advice here is, first finish your full installation on the Ubuntu on Microsoft Virtual PC and then start debugging on the graphic problem. For this you need to start your installation on text mood, not the graphic mood. You can use to following key combinations to start the text mood.

Clt+F4

One doubt that I had in the middle of the installation, where it asked to format the virtual hard disk. Don't worry this is not your hard disk C: partition. This is the virtual partition we selected way before the Ubuntu installation :)

If someone has any question on this, forward your request to my email sampathid2003@yahoo.com No scamming please and also please use a proper heading for your email, otherwise those will end up at my junk folder. Happy hunting on the Microsoft Virtual PC 2007!

Thamilchelvan Killed - Hurrah to Sri Lankan Air Force.....Keep up the good work

I was thrilled when i saw this news. First I didn't believe when I saw the news in the Defense.lk web. Normally we need to see both sides specially defense web as well as tamilnet web to get some sort of idea what happened actually. This case both posted similarly story. LTTE so called political wing leader (still ruthless terrorist tiger) Thamilchelvan killed by a pinpoint air raid by Sri Lankan Air Force. What else to say. Hip Hip Hurrah.....to Sri Lankan Air Force........cheers all Sri Lankan who hate Tamil Terrorism not the Tamil people. Its time for celebration..........







Read More at Defence web.......

Oracle DBMS..............

These days I'm having fun with Oracle. Ye, its kind of cool stuff, feels like mysql that we used to expertise on our past undergrad database class taught by Amalka , I guess Dr. Amalka Pinidiyarachchi by now : ) We used to work with mysql, SQLServer, Access (better to say every bit of MS Access). Now time for Oracle.
Subject is CS 5332 Database Theory class. Two weeks ago we had our first lab quiz and u know how much I got out of 100? 95 and 5 Bonus points add up to 100 marks. Yee.... I was bit scared usually like old days, b'se I started work for it just 2 days before the exam and I tried to solve the example queries given on previous lab classes. I was shocked when I realized that I didnt know how to write at least some simple queries mentioned on the lab examples! So, I just phoned one of my friend to know whats up with these questions and then she mentioned that there was another note that I need to read before working on the queries. Actually that note was the major one that we needed to work on, stupid me. I realized that there was only 3 hrs for the quiz and thought that gonna mess with the quiz this time. There was one such query I couldn’t hold I tried my best to understand I couldn’t do so, then the only thing tried to cram and memorize it.
Before the quiz, Prof Anne Nug, our professor for the subject explained what expected from the lab quiz and showed us the problem before hand. When it was started I was really nervous and couldn't help my self to start the work almost 10 or 15 minutes. After a while I saw that Krishan Pramod, one of my Indian buddy, got answer for the first questions. Oh I was pretty nervous at that time. I couldn’t realize what the hell with my output. It was not in correct format. Then Krishan told me that I need to change the linesize parameter to 250. Here it comes first one down. Two more to go. Then, my cramming helped me out for other 2 questions. I finished entire exam within 2hrs with another 1 hr left. Both those questions from the one that I had problems and that I memorized how to tackle it. Hurrah for my instincts. There was 3 main questions and 1 bonus question. This is how I scored on them,
First question 35/40
Second question 30/30
Third question 30/30
Bonus question 5/10

HALLELUJAH (shrek song)

This is one of amazing song I heard of. Especially the last singer kert Nilsun... amazing... wouldn’t expect such a beautiful voice... legendary. Keep coming back to this video.. It’s awesome!!! All their voices are beautiful! :) Lovely tight harmony

Awesome........u'd love it.

Click here to view the song

Ubuntu on Microsoft Virtual PC 2007

Last Thursday morning I spent alomst 5hrs on how to install Ubuntu on Microsoft Virtual PC 2007. One of Professor in Nims department asked my help to sort out problems he had on the preinstalled Ubuntu on MS VirtualPC in order to run it on Graphic mode. The graphic was trashy and couldn't see or execute anything on the graphic mode, though the text mode working pretty much. Started the work at Prof. Hahn's office around 7.30 am but was not successful till 11.30. I knew the problem was in emulated graphic hardware support on the virtual machine. It supports only 16 bit or less display color depth, which will leads to modify the display configuration manually. I found that if we can change the xorg.conf file, it would sort out everything. Problem was where to find it. Normally it should be in /etc/X11/xorg.conf but its possible to be at /target/etc/X11 or something like target/usr/lib/X11/xorg.conf
When I searched it on the web, I found several forums saying different locations for the xorg.conf location. Problem was I couldn't find it in any place. Started with fresh copy of the installation on MC virtual pc and started the text mode on the boot by pressing alt+clt+F1 combo. I was pretty much-fooled b'se it was in the middle of the installations, lots of packages specially graphics emulators not configured at that time. Silly me, I searched all around to find the file but no hit at all. Then I realized something wrong with the installations and continue the process again. It was almost 12 noon, I missed all my morning session at the international office. So I thought of taking the laptop back home and check it again at night.

When I started work again at night (that time the installation was pretty much done) and for my surprise I found the file at the default location /etc/X11/xorg.conf now the problem how to modify it to support only 16 bit. The file was read only and I didn't know how to make it modifiable on nano. GNU nano is a simple terminal-based text editor. Though not as powerful as Emacs or Vim, it is easy to learn and use. Nano is ideal for making small changes to existing configuration files or for writing short plain text files. Though its easy, had bit of problem on initial learing on how to work on it, specially how to exit from it :) we can see the commands on the editor but problem was on the representaion, its something like ^x for exit but how on earth I know this ^ means Clt key ha. Ok the orignal problem, how to open the file with wirte permission. I tried su and for my surprise I couldn't remember entered any super user for the system at the time of the installations, Mmm interesting ha. No super user on Ubuntu? Then I realiesed the use of sudo command. The actual command is like this,

sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup

this line just to backup the config file incase of any problem, that kind of things can happen. Then I used actual command for modifying the file
sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf

then by removing the line default '24' and change it to '16' hurrah here it comes Ubuntu on Virtual PC 2007.

May be I need to try installing Linux, Fedora & Ubuntu combo on my office PC too. Its kind of a cool stuff. But need to find some time.

15Hr stopover at London Heathrow airport - any comments???

***Update: I have a new post regarding transit visa here.

Yesterday we booked our tickets to Sri Lanka for the winter break. Hopefully if everything works well we'll be at Sri Lanka on December 13th. We both pretty much excited. Only problem is the long transit time we have to spend on the tour. We have 6hr transit at Chicago and bone crushing 15hr stopover at London Heathrow airport. We don't know what to do??????? Totally confused. Yesterday I talked to Pola (charith) regarding this, what he mentioned me that we can visit London on the stopover. But I have no idea what to do. Do we need transit visa for that, how much we need to pay for it? We already paid almost $3400 for the tickets, and don't wanna waste much on anything. But I'm worried about the 15hr waiting at the airport. We need to face this same transit problem on the way back. Same hours on the same places. I can remember how I spend my 6hr transit at LA on my first arrival to US, but its bearable, but 15hrs????Yesterday we booked our tickets to Sri Lanka for the winter break. Hopefully if everything works well we'll be at Sri Lanka on December 13th. We both pretty much excited. Only problem is the long transit time we have to spend on the tour. We have 6hr transit at Chicago and bone crushing 15hr stopover at London Heathrow airport. We don't know what to do??????? Totally confused. Yesterday I talked to Pola (charith) regarding this, what he mentioned me that we can visit London on the stopover. But I have no idea what to do. Do we need transit visa for that, how much we need to pay for it? We already paid almost $3400 for the tickets, and don't wanna waste much on anything. But I'm worried about the 15hr waiting at the airport. We need to face this same transit problem on the way back. Same hours on the same places. I can remember how I spend my 6hr transit at LA on my first arrival to US, but its bearable, but 15hrs????Yesterday we booked our tickets to Sri Lanka for the winter break. Hopefully if everything works well we'll be at Sri Lanka on December 13th. We both pretty much excited. Only problem is the long transit time we have to spend on the tour. We have 6hr transit at Chicago and bone crushing 15hr stopover at London Heathrow airport. We don't know what to do??????? Totally confused. Yesterday I talked to Pola (charith) regarding this, what he mentioned me that we can visit London on the stopover. But I have no idea what to do. Do we need transit visa for that, how much we need to pay for it? We already paid almost $3400 for the tickets, and don't wanna waste much on anything. But I'm worried about the 15hr waiting at the airport. We need to face this same transit problem on the way back. Same hours on the same places. I can remember how I spend my 6hr transit at LA on my first arrival to US, but its bearable, but 15hrs????Yesterday we booked our tickets to Sri Lanka for the winter break. Hopefully if everything works well we'll be at Sri Lanka on December 13th. We both pretty much excited. Only problem is the long transit time we have to spend on the tour. We have 6hr transit at Chicago and bone crushing 15hr stopover at London Heathrow airport. We don't know what to do??????? Totally confused. Yesterday I talked to Pola (charith) regarding this, what he mentioned me that we can visit London on the stopover. But I have no idea what to do. Do we need transit visa for that, how much we need to pay for it? We already paid almost $3400 for the tickets, and don't wanna waste much on anything. But I'm worried about the 15hr waiting at the airport. We need to face this same transit problem on the way back. Same hours on the same places. I can remember how I spend my 6hr transit at LA on my first arrival to US, but its bearable, but 15hrs????

I saw several posts regarding the possibility of getting 24hr transit to pass the immigration area of the London airport without visa. But I don't know whether its available for Sri Lankans. Both of us on valid F-1 student status with valid visa and I-20. Anyone with some ideas will be really appreciated. Anything to do in London Heathrow airport in this long stopover????????