Installing vodafone HSDPA modem in linux

I got a Vodafone(Huwaei) HSPDA modem and installing it in linux was well, not a nice experience. I had ubuntu 7.1 in my computer and I had to install wvdial to get my modem to work in linux. That was not very difficult until I decided to update my system to ubuntu 8.04. Wvdial comes intalled in that version of ubuntu but strangely the modem would not work. I tried many things unsuccefully before i found an easy way out, upgrading the network manager.

If you are planning to use the vodafone HSDPA modem with linux my advise would be to update your OS to the latest version and then upgrade the network manager to 0.7.

In a debian based distribution such as ubuntu you can use the following urls to upgrade the network manager.

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/network-manager/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/network-manager/ubuntu hardy main

insert the above urls to /etc/apt/sources.list file and enter the command, ’sudo apt-get update’ to update the update list. Then update the OS using command, ’sudo apt-get upgrade’ or using update manager and the network manager would be updated to the latest version. Then making a connection using the modem should be straight forward.

Is a ban on Sirasa TV on the cards?

Watched news on SLRC for the past few days and every single day there was this news item about the wrong footages shown by Sirasa TV regarding that bomb attack.   Is it normal Sirasa bashing that everybody loves or are they laying the groundwork for a ban on STV? The so called National Television has always been more than happy to do the dirty work for the party in power. 

Sure STV is shamelessly biased but this shutting down of every dissent voice is more dangerous than that biasness. And why should a democratic country offer the power to the government to decide who should get the licences for broadcasting and who should not? There should be a national policy and a seperate regulatory commission for this task. Otherwise it is just politics.

One thing that worries me is that recently everybody has started to think and talk in the same way. Others are tagged as unpatriotic. I will end this with a favourite quote of mine.

Where all men think alike, no one thinks very much – Walter Lippmann