by Wela on 27 November 2007 21:58
I think the IT Pro Forum and the User Group is back to it's former glory. Right at this moment the November Meeting is going on in the training room and there are 50 participants. Thanks to Padman for all the hard work put in to this. I'm going to have to get another bigger place very soon. Woo! Hoo!
Two sessions are happening in this meeting ...
Session 1: Introductory Session on Windows Sever 2008 by Afraz Mohomed (1 hour)
- Editions Comparison
- New features
- Role based Deployment
- Active Directory Improvement
- Windows Hypervisor
- Live Demo –Feature Based
Session 2: Implementing Organizational portal using MOSS by Mohomed Shamin (1 hour)
- Creating portal sites
- Adding web parts to the main site
- Creating task list, document libraries, and configuring
- Workflow creation
- Excel publishing
- Forms publishing
- My site creation and overview
- Enterprise Search configuration
by Wela on 25 November 2007 23:46
First thought of writing about how you can become an MVP ... but then decided to write the opposite of that because everybody knows how to become one. In case if you don't know you can find more details @ http://www.microsoft.com/mvp or drop me an email on wellip@microsoft.com and i'll provide more info. As I see it there is no fixed equation or '21 days dummies reference' guide or something like that explaining how you can become one. Activities you do in the technical communities does matter a lot. Doing presentations @ user groups, online postings, writing articles, helping others in technical matters and being a technical expert in a particular area are the key things that can drive you to the award. But there is no such fixed equation like ... ''5 presentations + 100 online posts + 2 articles = MVP'' ... I think what matters the most is being a selfless person, passion for technology and willingness to share your knowledge among others.
Anyways this post is not about 'how to' ... it is about 'how not to'. Just thought of sharing with ya'll few experiences I came across during the past couple of months about some people who wants to become MVPs and who had no dang clue about the program. There was one guy who wants to become an MVP because he wanted to jump to a new office for a big salary. When I asked him why do you want to become an MVP he had guts to say that. When I asked what is your plan to give something back to the community, he had no answer. Then there was another fella who wanted to become and MVP because he was planning to jump to USA and he was thinking that the MVP award is kinda his ticket to US. Suddenly he called me as told 'I want to become and MVP really fast, can I do a presentation in the next user group meeting and get the award after that'. Recently there was another guy who actually made a business proposition to me ... funny world ... he told me 'wela ... somehow make me an MVP and i'll give you anything you need'. Seemed like he was a disparate wannabe. Tough luck boy ... you wont be able to buy me or any other MVP for that matter.
On the good side there are few individuals who are really interested in receiving the award, but who understands the responsibility of it ... and I think they deserve it because they are doing lot of value additions to the technical community. We are keeping our eye on few and in the future they have a high chance of getting nominated for the award :). So folks, now I think you have an idea about 'how to' and 'how not to'
by Wela on 25 November 2007 00:40
Went through my photos collection to find some old photos to send to a friend. While doing that I selected the below photos which I think are ideal Vista wallpapers. Infact I used some of these as my wallpaper at the time it was taken. Click on the thumbnail to view the high-res.
by Wela on 23 November 2007 20:31
I spent a considerable amount of my time on traveling to the distance places to share technical knowledge. Continuing the journey ... yesterday Primal, Wajira, Buddhika and me went to the University of Ruhuna Engineering Faculty @ Galle, Hapugala. Kudos to Charith, our coordinator for the hospitality and organizing the event.
We started the proceedings with a presentation about the Microsoft Student Champ program and Primal, Wajira and Buddhika did it. Then I continued with a long presentation on Silverlight. It's great to see some real interests on the latest technologies. Q&A session was in a satisfactory level. Finally it was the Imagine Cup 2008 intro session. This year there are many who are competing from Ruhuna.
Few photos ...
On a separate note, Ruhuna Hapugala is having the best hardware resources I have seen in any university. One lab they showed me is having over 150 computers and most with 2 GB RAM. This is great as it opens up opportunities to students to try our new technologies without hardware being a barrier to do that. Also I got to know that there is a plan to increase this number up to 1000 computers, so there will be one dedicated computer for each student. That's awesome ... and I think thats how it should be in every IT University/Faculty. I think all the other universities in the country should have a look at this place :)
Looking forward to do more similar sessions in the near future.
by Wela on 21 November 2007 00:01
I have been using wela0@hotmail.com as my MSN Id for a very long time ... as I remember for about 6 or 7 years now. Very rarely only check my emails there and it was purely dedicated for the Messenger. there are many contacts which I don't even know who they are. Also there are many contacts that are inactive like forever. On the other side amount of SPAM mails are hitting the roof. Anyways after the LIVE updates SPAM is very low.
So within today i'm going to change it to my new LIVE Id wela@live.com. Will send invitations to all the active contacts.
by Wela on 20 November 2007 00:17
by Wela on 20 November 2007 00:13
Woo! Hoo!
Long awaited VS2008 is out :) well! at this moment only MSDN Subscribers can go and download from the website. It 3.9 GB. I have already started downloading and have to wait 6 more hours.
by Wela on 14 November 2007 02:23
The Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) version 5.0 contains the necessary tools and documentation to evaluate and mitigate application compatibility issues before deploying Microsoft® Windows Vista, a Windows Update, or a new version of Windows® Internet Explorer® in your environment.
The Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) 5.0 helps customers understand their application compatibility situation by identifying which applications are compatible with the Microsoft® Windows Vista® operating system and which require further testing. ACT helps customers lower their costs for application compatibility testing, prioritize their applications, and deploy Windows Vista more quickly.
You can use the ACT features to:
- Verify an application's compatibility with a new version of the Windows operating system, or a Windows Update, including determining your risk assessment.
- Become involved in the ACT Community, including sharing your risk assessment with other ACT users.
- Test your Web applications and Web sites for compatibility with new releases and security updates to the Windows® Internet Explorer® Internet browser.
Version: 5.0.5428.1056
Download
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=24da89e9-b581-47b0-b45e-492dd6da2971&DisplayLang=en
Source: Bink.nu
by Wela on 11 November 2007 23:58
Last Saturday (10th) Prasanna, Joy Padman and me headed to Peradeniya University to conduct the second .NET Day for this year. If ya'll remember we had the first one in March. This time it was to a new group of students ... mainly first and second years'.
Altogether we did 5 technical sessions. Started the day with the Intro to .NET 3.0 and then language features of C# by Joy, after that I did a presentation on ASP.NET. After the lunch break Prasanna did two sessions on Mobile Application Development with .NET and Smart Client development. Finally after all the technical sessions I did a small presentation about Imagine Cup 2008.
Event was well organized and kudos to the new .NET team or the efforts put into this. New .NET Team ... yup ... the old gang is leaving the university in few months time and they are in the process of handing over things to the new team.
Also a big thank to Prasanna, Joy and Padman for taking the day off from the busy schedules.
by Wela on 11 November 2007 00:18
Microsoft Research accelerates efforts in high-performance and multicore computing. Daniel A. Reed will join Microsoft Research as director of Scalable and Multicore Computing, reporting to Senior Vice President of Research Rick Rashid. Reed is an expert in high-performance computing, multicore architectures and scientific applications, as well as a leader in U.S. information technology research policy.
Reed is the director of the Renaissance Computing Institute, a major collaborative venture of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Duke University, North Carolina State University and the state of North Carolina. He is also a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), and is the current chair of the board of directors of the Computing Research Association, which represents the interests of the major academic computing departments and industrial research laboratories in North America.
“Multicore processors represent one of the largest technology transitions in the computing industry today, with deep implications for how we develop software. At the same time, the emergence of software as a service creates new R&D needs for very large-scale datacenters for service delivery,” Rashid said. “Dan brings to Microsoft Research the kind of vision and expertise that will help us unleash the potential of software for these new computing paradigms.”
Reed is one of the world’s leading experts on parallel computing, large-scale system design and related domains. As a member of the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee he chaired the subcommittee on computational science, which produced the report “Computational Science: Ensuring America’s Competitiveness.” He also co-chaired the 2007 review of IT research by PCAST, which produced the report “Leadership Under Challenge: Information Technology R&D in a Competitive World.” While director of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 2000 to 2004, Reed was chief architect of the National Science Foundation’s TeraGrid, a nationwide open-computing infrastructure for science and engineering research.
“Two great forces are reshaping computing: multicore processors with unprecedented power and the explosive growth of software services hosted on megascale data centers,” said Reed. “There’s no better place than Microsoft Research for me to explore next-generation hardware and software designs that address these fundamental technology challenges.”
Source: www.bink.nu