Hi there!
My name is Rukshan, a wonderer, blogger, occasional coder and a health informatics guy.
I’m Rukshan Ranatunge, currently following my Master’s of Science degree in the field of Biomedical Informatics. I’m interested in digital health systems and achieving interoperability between digital health systems.
This is the place where I write about my musings in my everyday life, tutorials, adventures and misadventures, hot takes and everything in between. If you find my writing helpful, please leave a comment.
Latest musings
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Why teaching programming is so difficult?
Like I said in one of my previous posts, I just started my first semester in my MSc in health informatics. And the first semester has a module for object oriented programming. Some history I was lucky to learn computers since I was 10 years old, even though computers were mostly used in offices and…
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The framework trap
When it comes to programming, frameworks are there to make your life easy. React, Vue, Larvel, Bootstrap, I can go on and on to list your favourite frameworks. When it comes to web development, I love to use frameworks because, It helps me to follow best practises. Once I got used to a framework development…
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I sent this email asking my friends to switch to Signal
Hello ? I know you like to use WhatsApp, I use WhatsApp as well. One of the most important things in WhatsApp that differentiates itself from other messaging apps like Viber, Messenger and Telegram is WhatsApp’s privacy. WhatsApp chats are end-to-end encrypted. Which means once you hit the send button on your phone, WhatsApp scrambles…
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I sent this email asking my friends to switch to Signal
Hello ? I know you like to use WhatsApp, I use WhatsApp as well. One of the most important things in WhatsApp that differentiates itself from other messaging apps like Viber, Messenger and Telegram is WhatsApp’s privacy. WhatsApp chats are end-to-end encrypted. Which means once you hit the send button on your phone, WhatsApp scrambles…
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What if Parler was a decentralised network?
Recently Parler is getting lot of attention on online and mainstream media, and not for a good reason. This is because Parler is getting banned from almost every service they have been using, from Amazon’s AWS, to Twilio for SMS verification. They also got their app kicked off from both Google PlayStore and Apple AppStore.…
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Everyone should get a personal email address
Recently I sold my old MacBook Pro, and until I buy myself a new laptop, I had to log in to my gmail account from a windows laptop. So when I tried to login, Google flagged my attempt as an unknown device and wanted me to prove my identity. I thought they would ask for…
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Signal, thank you for not collecting my data. But I won’t use you.
Facebook has given an ultimatum for WhatsApp users to either share their data with Facebook or leave the service. And that date is February 8th. One of the most appealing things about WhatsApp is it’s end to end encryption. Even though their are other chat apps, no one provides end to end encryption to chats…
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Google launches Question Hub to tackle niche and long tail keyword queries
You are able to find answers to almost all common questions on Google. But there are some areas where Google fails to provide good answers. Personally or me when it comes to looking for an answer for a highly technical question in medicine, Google doesn’t do well in providing good answers. Most of the results…
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You might want to block Pinterest to save your data
I guess this is the first blog post of the new year, even though I’m not someone who is keen on celebrating a new year, I sincerely hope every one would have a very bright 2021. Most of you are enjoying unlimited internet at your homes, but sadly I’m coming from a part of the…
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Reddit mods please stop automated blocking
In a recent post, I talked about a dark practice that Reddit uses to funnel people to install their app. This is also a post criticizing Reddit, but not the people who make and run Reddit, but subreddits and their moderators. It’s increasingly getting difficult to submit anything to a subreddit, only to get a…
My Story
Read more about the guy behind this blog and what I’m up to.
Reach Out
I’m open to work on challenging projects in digital health.
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My Work
National Covid Health Information System
I helped in development and implementation of the National Covid Health Information System
FHIR Implementation
I’m currently engaged in implementing FHIR standards for the Ministry of Health Sri Lanka and achieve interoperability in healthcare.
Sri Lankan Open Data Portal for Health
I’m currently designing and developing the Open Data Portal for Health In Sri Lanka as part of my Master’s thesis.