Wela's Blog

Technically absolutely nothing wrong with it! but on the other hand something seems not right. Now, don’t get confused or don’t get to the attack mode … this is not one of those “this one is better than the other one” kind of a post. I’m just writing based on a serious long discussion I had with a very good friend mine who is a 100% Open Source dude. One thing I really admire about him is he actually lives and breaths OSS, unlike some so called OOS folks who talks about it and run Windows in their machines.

We just met after a long time for a beer (many beers apparently) and started talking about stuff and this topic popped up. Even though both of us wanted to stop the topic several times I think the dense alcohol levels wanted to keep it going. Anyways … after a 3 hours we were still good old friends and we were glad all other friends enjoyed the friendly fight.

When you really look at the OSS space there are plenty of software applications most of the times mimicking software in the proprietary world. The list goes on … Microsoft Office vs Open Office, Windows vs Linux, Adobe Photoshop vs Gimp, Microsoft SQL vs MySQL etc. Even the small apps like WinZip, CuteFTP, WinAmp have OSS flavors. In a world where people look at saving cost, still over 90% of the computer users pay big $$$ and stick with proprietary software when there are countless number of OSS applications available free. Honestly that doesn’t sound right. If it is free and still people are not using it there must be something seriously wrong with it. I think a significant contributor for this situation is the support and usability.

Most of you who read this post are for sure capable of dealing with any technical challenge to get your broken computer up and running, but if you look at the average computer user out there he/she just worries about getting the work done using the computer. So when installation of applications, updating, upgrading and using is bit difficult .. the average user naturally turns to the easier options. I think that’s what has happened. Companies like Microsoft, Adobe, Apple etc have gone an extra mile on this by Innovating new ways where average user can comfortably work with a computer.

In the corporate world … big companies have better things to worry about than IT problems. They need IT to be a contributor for them to run their business better and more efficiently. In this area I think the technical support and services is the main driving factor. Even locally I have seen companies who have gone and deployed a full stack of OSS software and struggle to keep things up and running due to lack availability of patch/update management techniques. Motive in deploying OSS was to save a quick buck which resulted in suffer to the mainstream business. Microsoft on the other hand have a much better approach and a solution to this problem through the System Center products.

Also another major enabler on this is situation is the developer platform. Most of the times when Microsoft releases a new tool or a version there is an SDK/API with it so developers can start their game. Recently Apple also realized the importance of having a developer force behind them, see the effect on enabling developers to develop apps for iPhone. Surprisingly I haven’t seen any similar trend in the OSS world except the popular saying that “the source code is available for you to do anything”. Well! having the source code of a massive software application is one thing and being able to understand and edit/change/update the complex C/C++ code is something totally different. For an instance lets say I found the complete blueprint of a space shuttle … if I think for a moment I’ll be able to engineer the entire shuttle and go to space just because I got the blueprints I must be a real idiot … a real ambitious one at that. For me … having the source code of an OSS software is somewhat similar. Take the total number of computer users in the world … how many of them are programmers, how many of those programmers are C/C++ programmers? and how many of those C/C++ programmers are capable of handling something so complicated. I’m sure the number is very small compared to the billion+ who uses computers.

My friend’s vision is “everybody should be using OSS because its free and the source code is available and you can do anything you wish”, while I stick with my end of the story where “masses of people should be able to access and use computers with minimum or if possible zero trouble and shouldn't have to worry about whether the source code is rectangular or circular”.

Anyways … things ended up with many unsolved questions … until next time bro …

I have had couple of really bad experiences with Windows Mobile over the years ... remember my 90000 paper weight.

Anyways this are a million times better after getting the HTC Fuze. right now i'm super excited about the Windows Phone (or can I call it the version 7). I'm using WinMo 6.5 at the moment with couple of custom applications from Resco and things are nice and smooth. Looking forward for the new and exciting stuff planned for the next major release of WinMo.

Despite all the ups and downs one thing I love the platform is the support for developers to develop apps. This time things are taking a much cooler route by adapting Silverlight into the core UI of the Phone. So ... Developers who cant wait to get their hands on the new device ... goto http://developer.windowsphone.com/ to get started.

Couple of days back I just saw the blog post in bink about the Windows Home Server, Code Name “Vail” and the demo video seemd pretty interesting. Especially the media streaming functionalities. So immediately I started downloading and when the ADSL failed @ home downloaded the balance 1.5 GB using teh dongle. It seems its all worth it. i'm yet to explore it fully. will write some more details next week after playing with it a bit more.

The mounting suspense of an eager audience was broken by the triumphant out-roar as a team of students from the University of Colombo School of Computing (UCSC) were proclaimed the proud winners of Imagine Cup Sri Lanka 2010. After an enthrallingly intense competition between 8 Teams from Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT), UCSC, University of Moratuwa and University of Peradeniya, the Team: Collectivists, comprising of the 4th year students: Gayan Garusinghe, Sudam Liyanage, Chanaka Upendra and Hasini Adhikari, bagged the magnificent Challenge Trophy for the first time, taking it to its new destination: the University of Colombo.

The Winning team: Collectivists, proposed a software design solution called “Speak-Up” which offered a common networking platform for social workers around the world to communicate their efforts, needs and the requirements of silent victims to compassionate hearts who are willing to provide financial and material assistance. The system included a number of innovative features from direction of financial assistance, to provision of relevant logistics, forums and more.

Winner Team: Collectivists from UCSC Project: Speak Up! Team Members: Gayan Garusinghe, Chanaka Upendra, Sudam Liyanage, Hasini Adhikari

1st Runner-up Team : HELY from SLIIT Project: iSponsor Team Members: Lahiru Ruhunage, Eranda Abeynayake, Hamza Naleer, Yohan Jayarathna

2nd Runner-up Team: Saggezza from University of Moratuwa Project: Ideal Lanka Team Members: Prageeth Sandakalum, Malsha Fernando, Jaliya Waidyathilaka, Eranga Kaluarachchi

This project was proposed in adherence to Imagine Cup 2010’s global theme which encouraged competitors “to imagine a world where technology helps solve some of the toughest problems”, reflecting along the United Nations 8 Millennium Development Goals.

Close behind the Collectivists, Team HELY from SLIIT emerged as the 1st Runners-Up whilst Team SAGGEZZA from the University of Moratuwa emerged as the 2nd Runners-Up. Team HELY presented a project named iSponsor aimed at combating the problem of Poverty by creating an environment where sponsors and beneficiaries would be able to interact and link up in a direct partnership. In contrast, Team SAGGEZZA proposed a solution to counter the same problem through its system: Ideal Lanka, a technology based platform for facilitating micro-investments in agriculture by directing funds from investors to required agro-bases.

Having offered fierce competition, Team JIIB from SLIIT, Team 4-Alliance from Moratuwa, Team SATURNIN from UCSC, Team Make-IT from Peradeniya and Team GREENBROS from UCSC emerged as the finalists.

Team GreenBros from UCSC Team Members: Nitish Kumar, Sahan Maldeniya and Charith Pathirana	Team JIIB from SLIIT Team Members: Janaka Bandara, Boominda Anushka, Iresh Bandara and Isuru Jayasooriya	Team MakeIT from University of Peradeniya Team Members: Rasika Bandara, Charitha Ranabahu, Mouly Gunarathne and Dhananjaya Dodanwela
Team Saturning from UCSC Team Members: Kalana Wijethunge, Chathika Gunaratne, Ajith Karunarathna and Lasantha Samarakoon	Team 4Alliance from University of Moratuwa Team Members: Madhusha Nanayakkara, Chanaka Herath, Madhuka Udantha and Mithila Karunarathna

For more details about the projects and teams please refer to http://imaginecup.lk/finalistdetails.aspx

This premier event, which was held on Thursday, 29th of April 2010 at the HNB Towers Auditorium, was attended by a number of students, faculty members, parents, members of the Industry and more, and was considered to be yet another successful execution of Imagine Cup, being hosted locally for the 6th consecutive time by Microsoft.

In high-spirits, the Winners from UCSC are now embarking on an extensive preparation as they get ready to represent Sri Lanka and present their ideas to the world at the Imagine Cup World finals which is scheduled to be held in Warsaw, Poland in July.

Finally i have migrated everything on my blog to the latest version of Blogengine. It was much faster than me developing a newer version. Only some major very interesting work on the CSS to create this UI.

Still a bit of work to be done. Have to migrate the Comments from visitors properly. and a bit of other stuff. Anyways for now I have a functioning blog, which is the most important.

When it comes to my blog I never wanted to use any of those ready made tools even though I knew those tools had everything needed and fully featured. All I wanted to do was to build it from the scratch ... just to feel good. I even started developing the second version ages ago but never got a chance to complete due to the busy scheudle and seems like never will be able to :(

Last Sunday started working on customizing BlogEngine.NET for another site and I'm suprised by the simplicity it gives when customizing the UI. Within 2-3 hours I managed to change the entier UI to the new look and feel I wanted. It was simple and clear.

Right now i'm thinking of migrating my good old blog to BlogEngine.NET ... any thoughts guys?

Last Sunday I went to the Lavinia Breeze with family to have dinner. Expectations were high as the advertising is good and more importantly I have been to a 'real' Brazilian restaurent when I was in LA last november. So wanted to have the Churrasco again.

Experience @ the lavinia breeze was utterly dissapointing. For that price there are plenty of good restaurents in Colombo to have a good meal. We were there for about an hour and they served meat only twice and even for that I had to remind couple of times. I'm not an expert in grilling meat, but i'm sure I can do a better job in preparing meat. Last BBQ we did with couple of friends was pretty awsome. Also had to ask and remind again after 15 minutes just to get a water bottle. May be there was something wrong with me ... because a group in the next table who came much later was served pretty fast.

Anyways i'm NEVER going there again.

James Cameron had done it again. Previously it was Titanic which stayed the top of the box office for a very long time with a whooping 1.8 billion dollar.

And now it is Avatar … already grossed over 1.8 billion dollars, and already on the top of the list as the highest ever grossed movie and well on the way to become the first ever movie to gross over 2 billion dollars.

Haven’t you watched it yet? I have already watched it thrice and will be watching it for the 4th time soon.

Just watched a making the movie short video about how it was made and its amazing. The new technologies, concepts and tools created for this movie takes the arena of movie making to a new height.

Well! If you haven't watched it yet … go now!

WOW! Tech.Ed is back. Last time when Microsoft hosted a Tech.Ed in Sri Lanka it was 3 years ago and I was not in Microsoft. But now i have the pleasure of putting together the whole event.

Things are going to be really interesting this time at Tech.Ed. Some pretty big names are involved in the list of speakers.

Will write more details later, for now just go to the site and register. http://www.teched.lk

A Big Mac is one of the coolest creations of the fast food industry. OR in other words its one of the three kings of junk food. Other 2 are of course the Zinger from KFC and the Whooper from Burger King.

Yesterday I went to McDonalds during lunch time to grab a quick bite and ordered my usual favorite meal … a Big Mac meal. The guy in the counter by mistake have given me a Chicken Big Mac (A WHAT!). I noticed this only after going to a table. Just thought for a second … ask to change this or give it a try. What the hell! I just decided to take a bite and see. Had two bites and … CRAP! who decided to call this chicken burger a Chicken Big Mac. It’s a damn insult to the Big Mac.

Once upon a time when my office was just walking distance from McDonalds I use to have 2-3 Big Macs a day. Now! In case if you are wondering how fat I am … don’t worry … Big Macs could never made me fat.

I LOVE MY BIG MACS … SO DEAR MCDONALDS … PLEASE DON’T SCREW IT :)