Wela's Blog

As all of us know only SLT provided true unlimited broadband facilities. Every other service provider implemented this thing called the ‘Fair User Policy’ which is a load of crap putting barriers to heavy internet users  like me. I have tried WiMax connection from Dialog which after couple of months they applied this FUP. Also I have tried dongles from Dialog, Mobitel and Airtel which is the same … Some of them without a shame advertise saying they are providing 7.2 mbps connections which is actually the speed of the device not the speed of the connection.

My SLT ADSL connection started giving problems 3 weeks ago and when I called the support center they informed that there is a known problem which they are attending to and to wait 1 week till they fix it. After one week when I called back it was like I called a different planet. They were telling me to upgrade to a higher package if I want a higher speed and still it might give me higher speed. So they wanted me to start paying Rs. 5500 instead of the 2900 I’m paying currently to see whether it works. Don’t customers in this country have a thing called right?

I have a feeling that they are purposely reducing the resources in the current package to push customers to go for a higher package. WTF?

I just checked IMDB after a long time and woo! hoo! Toy Story 3 has grossed over a billion dollars. Too bad I still haven’t had time to watch it.

So all in all there are seven movies who has done this. Avatar is leading the bunch while Titanic is in the second place. Lord of the Rings: Return of the king, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, Alice in Wonderland and The Dark Knight are the rest in the group.

What do you think the next one in line to make this big number? I think the upcoming Harry Potter, Transformers III and Avatar II etc will be good candidates.

It’s just around the corner … As you might already know it was announced that ALL Microsoft employees will get a free Windows Phone 7 when it is released in each country. However since it’s not officially going to be released locally I have no clue when I will get it .

Simplicity is given a new meaning with this release of Windows Phone. Home page UI looks extremely simple and my grandmother should be able to use it.

As always it is way before anything we have enabled the developers to start developing applications way before the device comes out to the market. You can download the free developer tools from http://developer.windowsphone.com/. One thing really exciting here is that the UI is based on Silverlight. I cant even imagine the kind of possibilities this will enable for Windows Phone. Silverlight has done some wonders in the web since the first release. I was going to download the tools for a very long time, but never got the time to do that. Since tomorrow is a holiday I just started downloading (internet connection @ home is messed up these days) and going to develop a demo app tomorrow.

Despite my previous bad experiences of using several Windows Mobile devices I’m very much looking forward for this.

As of now we have 6 technical communities in the country. Now! don’t panic if you have registered only in few of these. Yesterday a dude called trying to figure out which one he should register. So for his sake and for many others who might have similar confused sentiments I just thought of writing this.

In a short summary we have 4 Technical communities, but 6 Technical Community Websites represent them. Total member count goes over 8,000 as of not and expected exceed 10,000 registered members by end of 2010. Student Champ Community is lead by Microsoft Student Ambassadors and currently we have 10 of them. Other technical communities are lead by the Most Valuable Professionals.

Among these .NET Forum, IT Pro forum and both MSDN and TechNet sites are developed using Community Server. SQL Universe was originally developed using the same but recently was migrated to DotNetNuke. Student Champs websites is 100% developed by students using ASP.NET 3.5.

Sri Lanka .NET Forum .NET Forum is the largest Technical Community in the country with over 6000 registered members, and dedicated to talk about .NET and other related technologies. Started in July 2004 with few enthusiasts and have grown at a phenomenal rate due to the commitment of couple of passionate individuals. Monthly Meeting Date: Every first Thursday of the month URL: http://www.dotnetforum.lk

Sri Lanka IT Pro Forum This community currently have a approx. 1000 registered members. Started in 2005 as the Tech2Guys community and was later renamed to Sri Lanka IT Pro Forum. Dedicated for discussions on Microsoft Server Technologies. Monthly Meeting Date: Every last Wednesday of the month URL: http://www.itproforum.lk

SQL Server universe Started in 2007 by couple of SQL Server gurus, this community now have about 600 registered members. Dedicated to discuss about Microsoft SQL Server and related services such as Reporting Services, Analysis Services etc. Monthly Meeting Date: Every third Wednesday of the month URL: http://www.sqlserveruniverse.com

MSDN Sri Lanka This was is a new addition to the developer community in the country with the focus on adding more blogs and resources into the community. Launched about a year back and this has already grown to a base of 200 members and 20 active bloggers. URL: http://www.msdnsrilanka.net

TechNet Sri Lanka This also was a new addition to the IT Pro community in the country providing more resources. This was also launched parallel to the launch of MSDN Sri Lanka portal. URL: http://www.technetsrilanka.net

Microsoft Student Champs Currently being the largest student technology group in the country this has about 200 student champs as active members. There are 10 Ambassadors who lead the community. Monthly Meeting Date: Every first Friday of the month URL: http://www.champs.lk

So to summarize … if you are a developer go and register in .NET and MSDN Sri Lanka Forums, SQL Universe also can be recommended for developers. If you are an infrastructure professional you should register in IT Pro Forum and TechNet Sri Lanka forums. If you are a hard core database guru you should take the SQL Universe, Since SQL is not integrated with .NET it might help in registering in both developer forums as well. If you are a university students you can register in the Student champs community,in this case your registration will be activated only after considering by the Student Ambassadors.