Art Blossoms in Colombo
Anoli Perera’s huge dress takes up half the room. It’s bright red and full of holes and looks like a giant bird taking to flight. When I first saw it from a distance I thought it was a fishing net.
I’m at the J.D.A. Perera Gallery which is showcasing some of the artwork of Colombo Art Biennale. Four years ago, which was when I last visited this part of Colombo, there was no art gallery here: just the modest buildings of the Faculty of Visual Arts. Finally these talented students seem to have got a place to hang their paintings.
Photo credits: Achala De Silva
As I walk past the displayed works, the brilliant and the meh, the blogger in me regrets not bringing a camera. I don’t, for they look much better in plain sight than through a viewfinder.
Anoli’s dress, titled ‘Elastic Dress II’ is part of ‘Second Skin’, a combined artwork that refers to ‘the female experience of dealing with the anxieties of change that their bodies are subject to’. Shirmal Silva’s photographs under the art direction of Dilki Perera explore this through a series of images where a woman ‘wearing’ this red dress is seen almost trying to hide from us within its many folds.
Dwarfed by the Second Skin, sitting in a corner, are Vaidehi Raja’s four beautiful woodcut and mixed media prints titled ‘Time for Reflection’. It’s a depiction of how one has little time for personal reflection in a world that is in a race to accumulate ‘things and titles’: an apt reminder to a generation that has more Facebook friends than real ones.
‘The Patient’ makes you sad.
Photo credits: Colombo Art Biennale
My favourite paintings at the Perera Gallery are by Jagath Weerasinghe, who also happens to be a Co-Founder of the event. ‘The Patient’ and ‘The Cause of Illness’, two concertina painted books, reminded me of some people close to my heart who depend on pills to maintain the proper functioning of their bodily systems. It was a beautiful and sad and at times sarcastic exploration of the interaction between the germ and the man.
A painting on a mat by Pradeep Thalwatta
Photo credits: Anjana Marasinghe
More works are on display at the National Art Gallery, and I walk past the new Nelum Pokuna Theatre, giant and imposing and clearly beyond the budget for most local artists, to this old bastion of Sri Lankan visual art.
In the middle of the gallery is the Indian artist Vibha Galhotra’s ‘Neo Monster’, although at the moment its all deflated and quite confusing. Apparently it’s a totally different experience when the air blower is working, for then that huge pile of nylon cloth turns into a giant backhoe loader, toy-like yet dramatic and formidable.
Menika Van Der Poorten – her name betrays her mixed roots – investigates the disappearing eurasian (Burgher!) presence in Sri Lanka through a series of portraits. The first thing that occurred to me as I saw them was The Jam Fruit Tree i.e. fictional characters, not real people. That probably tells what kind of an endangered species the Burghers are.
After the J.D.A. Perera, the National Art Gallery feels small, for after several minutes I have come full circle. Perhaps it’s the Neo Monster’s non-showing that causes me to leave early. As I step out on to the Nelum Pokuna Road, there’s a different kind of exhibition, familiar and expected.
Many aspiring artists sell their paintings by this road on the weekends, and one particular collection captures my attention today.
“Are these yours, Sir?” I ask from the thin old man sitting on a plastic chair next to them.
He smiles. “No, they’re my son’s.”
“I like his style,” I say, and his face brightens up.
There’s a set of three abstract paintings that attract me with their red earthy hues.
“How much are these?” I ask.
“Six thousand rupees.”
“What, all three of them?”
“Yes.”
That’s less than 50 dollars.
I ask him about his son and his art. This proud father brings those paintings every day of the week to sell by the road side, and he tells me that on weekdays I am to look for him on that spot over there on the other end of the road.
Inside the galleries, and outside, art is blossoming in Colombo. At galleries I go window shopping; out here by the road, I’m a connoisseur.
Fixing the Invoice Numbers
TL;DR: Invoice numbering will no longer be a nuisance to you.
CurdBee follows a very simple invoice numbering system. Every time you create an invoice, it’s assigned a number that was incremented from the previous invoice number. You have the full flexibility to change this to anything you want (other than a previously used invoice number).
This process looked good until we introduced Recurring Profiles. Invoices created from recurring profiles had an invoice number, which was derived from the Invoice No. given in the recurring profile and its iteration count. This produced invoice numbers such as INV001-1. Since there were no distinction between invoices generated from recurring profiles and manually created invoices, invoice numbers tend to get mixed up. For example, if you try to create an invoice after a recurring profile had generated an invoice, it will be suggested to use INV001-2. Then the 2nd iteration of the original recurring profile will be created with an invoice number such as INV001-3. At this point you will see the your invoices have totally unrelated invoice numbers and process of managing them becomes needlessly complicated.
A lot of you complained and we listened. Today, we have rolled out an update to solve these inconsistencies. The confusing Invoice No. field was removed from recurring profiles and was replaced with an optional Profile ID field. If you leave this field blank, invoices created from that recurring profile will always use an increment of the last invoice number in the system. So there would be a single invoice number flow, which is incremented serially.
However, if you want to provide a different numbering scheme to invoices created from a recurring profile, you have to specify the Profile ID field. The Profile ID will be used as the base(or prefix) of the invoice number and current iteration will be added as the suffix (ie. ProfileID-Iteration). This number scheme will be excluded from the regular invoice number flow and prevented from being mixed up with the other invoices as previously. The next iteration of the recurring profile will be guaranteed to have its corresponding invoice number.
Let’s illustrate this with an example: let’s say your main invoice number sequence is in the form of INV001-X, where X is the automatically incremented number. If you create a recurring profile with the Profile ID field blank, and the last invoice sent was INV001-14, when the invoice from this recurring profile is sent it will be assigned the number INV001-15. But if you had assigned a Profile ID as RB-1001, the first recurring invoice from this profile will be assigned the invoice number RB-1001-1, the next RB-1001-2 and so on, while your main invoice number sequence remains unaffected.
Hope this update would solve the troubles and confusions you had with invoice numbers. Please let us know if you still find any issues or see other ways to improve the process.
CurdBee On the Go
Ever since we launched CurdBee, one feature request kept hitting the top of the list quite often: CurdBee on mobile. Among the requesters the majority were iPhone users, followed by Android, with Blackberry, Nokia and others also making their presence felt.
CurdBee mobile was always on the plan, but it was on the back burner as we had to focus on other essential improvements. However, there came a time when a mobile version became that essential need. The first major call we had to make was whether we should go for native mobile application(s) or make a web optimised application or even both. We took our time to analyze all the pros and cons with these approaches and finally came to a conclusion on the path we should take.
We built a couple of prototypes using different platforms such as Sencha, jQtouch and jQuery Mobile during our initial experiments before finally settling with jQuery Mobile. The main reason for picking jQuery mobile was its compatibility across different mobile platforms. It took us a while to put together, and today we are releasing our first take on the CurdBee mobile experience.
At present, CurdBee Mobile is optimized for Time and Expense Tracking, as those are the features which most of our users will need on the go. Invoices and estimates can be viewed as well, with support for creating and sending them coming soon.
Try CurdBee on the go and let us know how you like it!
Interface Improvements and more
Over the last few weeks we’ve been quite busy making some vital improvements to CurdBee. These range from enhancements to the user interface to more complex workflows. A short while ago we updated the live codebase, and these improvements are now a part of your CurdBee experience. Here is a quick run through of the changes we have done with the latest update:
CurdBee Plus becomes Expansion Pack
Starting from now, we are going to rename ‘CurdBee Plus’ as ‘Expansion Pack’. Some of you were a bit confused with CurdBee PRO and Plus. As you may know, this add-on brings some essential enhancements such as the option to remove CurdBee branding, use your own domain and add taxes, discounts etc. to your account. We think the name ‘Expansion Pack’ sums up this important add-on very well.
Add-ons are now just a click away
CurdBee is one of the very few solutions with a truly on-demand pricing model: our free account comes with all the essential features to make your invoicing workflow perfect, which can then be extended with several add-ons to meet your exact needs. The new ‘Upgrade’ section is where that customization takes place, and we have improved it to make this process much easier.
This was necessary because we kept growing our list of add-ons (a lot more in the pipeline too) and also introduced CurdBee BIG which brought more complications to the original workflow. After weeks of careful planning, implementation and thorough testing we finally nailed it down to what you see under the new ‘Upgrade’ link. So go ahead and start customising your CurdBee experience now!
Introducing user profiles
With this update we are introducing a new user profile in addition to the business profile we had before. Why? We are working on several more ideas such as multi-user access, client accounts, etc. which will make CurdBee a comprehensive platform for SMEs, and we think this is just the right stepping stone in that direction. Stay tuned for more information about these developments in the coming weeks.
Messages
This new addition will work as a message archive featuring all the updates from feature releases to system alerts related to your account. If you are a user who visits CurdBee less often, you will find this handy as you can quickly run through the recent changes which may have taken place since your last visit.
Tweaking Settings and CSS3 Awesomeness
While making the above changes, we also made some improvements to the ‘Settings’ section by making it even simpler. The web geeks among you will notice that we now have our buttons done with CSS3. Although the look and feel remains the same as before, this has made the code leaner and load times faster.
We hope you will enjoy these changes. As always, please feel free to share your thoughts and suggestions with us.
Stripe for non-developers
The much anticipated payment service Stripe was opened to public last week. Compared to other payment services, accepting credit card payments with Stripe is unbelievably easy.
You don’t have to worry about setting up Metchant Accounts, unexpected charges (they only charge you 2.9% + 30 cents per successful charge) or data portability. Stripe will take care of everything for you and transfer money to your bank account at the end of the day.
Until now, Stripe was mainly popular among developers; since it required some programming skills to get up and running. But starting today, anyone using CurdBee can start accepting credit card payments for their invoices via Stripe. All you need is to enable the Stripe module and provide the Stripe’s publishable and secret keys. Now who says running an online business is difficult?
Stripe module for CurdBee is available free for BIG users. Others can enable it for just $2 per month. For a step-by-step guide on enabling the Stripe module, read this support article.
Please note Stripe is currently available only in US; but they are promising to expand to other regions soon.
CurdBee Alerts – Be in the know!
A while back, we introduced CurdBee Push Notifications, a way for you stay on top of your CurdBee account no matter where you were. However, with Notifo shutting down, we had to find an alternative messaging system for you guys. While we were at it, we made some big changes!
Today, we’re revamping our entire alerts system, allowing you to get your account updates via Email or SMS and even have it sent straight to your iPhone, iPad or Desktop via Boxcar. Under this new alerts system, you will receive notifications both when an invoice is viewed or paid, and when an estimate is viewed or accepted.
Here’s a quick rundown of the services we now offer.
Email Alerts are now enabled by default. You can turn them off, of course, but we think they’re useful to receive.
SMS Alerts is a $2/month module that gives you unlimited notifications to your mobile number. This service is currently only available to users from the United States and Canada.
Push Notifications for iPhone/iPad/Desktop via Boxcar is available as a free module for all users. Use it to receive quick CurdBee Alerts on your mobile device or computer desktop.
So, what are you waiting for? Have a look at the support article and take these new features for a spin!
You can help Amit to defeat Leukemia
Amit is one of those special people who came forward to help us when we were getting ready to launch CurdBee few years back. We just dropped him a mail inviting him to check CurdBee and share his thoughts, possible improvements we can do, etc. But we never thought he would even have time left in his schedule to pay attention to us, we being total strangers. But he did and replied back within matter of hours.
Today we think its our turn to help this wonderful entrepreneur, who’s fighting against Leukemia and is looking for a bone marrow doner from South Asian descent. If you are one of them who’s living in US, you can surely help Amit. Not a South Asian descent living in US? Still you can spread the word and we salute all those efforts.
Tony Bacigalupo wrote a detailed post about Amit and here’s an excerpt,
” Amit is the founder of the endlessly wonderful DIY photography site Photojojo. He’s the cofounder of Jelly, a casual coworking community which started in New York in 2006 and spread to over 60 cities worldwide, acting as the starting point for countless coworking communities. The original Jelly in New York was my first coworking experience, and my firsthand inspiration to dedicate myself to what would become New Work City.
Amit has leukemia. He was diagnosed only two weeks ago, but already so much has happened. He’s undergoing chemotherapy now at Connecticut’s Smilow Cancer Center in Yale-New Haven Hospital, near his family.”
Read the post and see how to contribute: http://tonybgoode.tumblr.com/post/11098100728/lets-help-amit-defeat-leukemia
Hello, B Labs!
We recently had the privilege of working with the fine folks at B Labs, an embedded software technology startup that aims to change how the embedded systems industry works. Have a look at what we did for them, and then read on for an interview with Bahadir Balban, their CEO.
Where did B Labs come from? What is your vision for the company?
We want to change the way mobile platforms are designed by making the virtualization layer as standard in all mobile devices. In servers, virtualization is well recognized, but in mobile devices, there is either an operating system, baremetal software, or real-time software. A hypervisor is a layer that brings all of them into one runtime.
In a competitive and yet highly technical field, how does B Labs differentiate itself from its competition?
There are several hypervisors out there for mobile platforms. All of them are focused on a proprietary niche. Today there is no wide acceptance of any solution. We want to use a strategy that starts small, but eventually influences the industry to adopt the technology.
What is the biggest hurdle facing the virtualization industry of today?
The biggest hurdle is that a hypervisor is seen as an additional layer among the aforementioned hardware and the OS, and current vendors could not make a sufficiently compelling value proposition to ignite the change.
What is the best part about working in the field?
Best part is that we might have a modest chance to make a change in a deep technology area that affects the mobile industry.
Why did you come to Vesess for your website revamp? What did you like about the experience, and what can we do better next time?
I think Vesess design talent is top notch. I believe with the budget we had you did the best, but if we had a greater budget, one step up would be also collecting information from us that would make our side less of a blocking factor in progress.
CurdBee Reporting Adds Year-to-date
Just under two months ago, we released Dashboard Reports as a feature for all CurdBee Plus users. Today we’re, modifying it slightly, removing the less useful Last 30 Days information feed (many users found it confusing!) and replacing it with a Year-to-date summary.
Of course, before you begin using this feature, you’ll need to head to Settings > System Preferences and set when your Fiscal year begins. This is a new setting that we’ve introduced and will default to January when you first login.
You should now see a Year-to-date summary on your CurdBee dashboard. We hope this will give you a quick and easy run down of the year in progress and motivate you to keep at it, even when the going is tough!
Authorize.net Emulation and Recurring Profile Updates
We’ve got two new features for you this week!
Third party gateways and Authorize.net emulation
Many third party gateways also allow you to use the Authorize.net architecture to process payments, and as of today, you can begin using them with CurdBee. To enable the emulation of third party gateways, visit your Authorize.net Module settings page, click the tick box next to Use a gateway with a Authorize.net emulator, paste your emulator URL in the Emulator URL field and click Save Changes. All transactions will now be forwarded to it. To test emulation, you can try a gateway like BluePay.
Create Recurring Profile from Invoices and Estimates
A requested feature, this update allows any invoice or estimate to be converted into a recurring profile quickly and easily. It’s just one of those things that we hope will make your workflow better, allowing you to spend less time invoicing and more time living!
Oh, we’ve also fixed a few minor issues.
Finished Recurring Profiles now show up as Completed
A bug in Recurring Profiles caused them to do something unfortunate in that they used to send invoices out for the number of occurrences specified and then just stop, leaving a future date specified as the Next Billing Date. This was confusing indeed, and more than a few users had problems with it. With this CurdBee update, this issue is now fixed, and completed Recurring Profiles should show up clearly as Completed.
Swiss German Number/Date Formats Added
As requested by our Swiss German users, we’ve added a new number format (100’000.00) and a new date format (25.08.2011) as well. Enjoy!
