Wela's Blog

Being in Microsoft gives me access the loads of material to stay on top of all new technologies. However the amount of time I get to spent on those is very little. Suddenly out of the blues I got an opportunity to go to the PDC09 (Professional Developers Conference) in Los Angeles. Even though I was so excited about going to PDC … didn’t even get a chance to blog about it … that should give you an idea about the ‘busy’ level. Anyways right now I'm in LA and looking forward for a great event. Have already picked several presentations in to the ‘must go list’ … too bad there are many good parallel sessions.

Will write some exciting happenings from PDC as and when I get time. Next 4 days is going to be packed with techno stuff.

Phew! It's been a while since my last blog entry. As usual the busy truck hit me fully loaded and in style. Good things is it was never boring. Over the last couple of months I have (had to) changed many things in my life. Mainly long nights of work is not anymore a regular thing. Have other things to do after going home … well! the Wela Junior is now 6 months.

Well! Let's not call this a return to blogging. Things ahead are in 10 folds. Couple of big events coming up including eAsia Exhibition, Imagine Cup 2010 and Tech.Ed 2010 Sri Lanka. Yup! you read it correct … Sri Lanka will be hosting a Tech.Ed in 2010 … exact dates and more details will hit your way soon … i mean very soon.

Now! buckle up!

Raise your hand if you are not using Microsoft Office! If I ask this question in a public form I’m sure there will be either no hands going up or very few going up. This applies the same regardless of the industry you work in. Office applications are so close to us.

Guess what! How about a having it on your browser. Yeah Yeah! I know what you are thinking. Google Docs. Well! I’m talking about something looking and functioning like Office 2007 not just a basic user interface and functionality set like Google Docs. Yup! It was just announced that there is going to be a Office Web App attached to Windows Live.

Check this out, you'll be suprised.
http://windowslivewire.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!2F7EB29B42641D59!41451.entry

I have been using and a Microsoft internal only version of this this for couple of months and it looks fantastic and works like a charm.

Once again the busy storm hit me pretty bad. After the bowling tournament I was in a schedule dodging many balls. Many things hit me including a three wheeler. Yup! two weeks ago one three wheel driver knocked the hell out of me from behind. This was at Kelaniya. Until that time I only had heard about that three wheel drivers don’t have any ethics or road rules. Well! I really experienced it. They don’t give a damn about road rules. Idiot who knocked me just came in the main road at Kelaniya and turned to a by road at the same speed ... no signals, no slowing down. For my luck i was just there. Anyways luckily no broken bones, but a 2 square inch spot on my foot was scraped away and even after two weeks still not fully healed.

Immediately after the accident I went to the doctor for treatment. Nurse who treated the wound only looked nice and innocent … man she was a nurse bunny from hell! with no sense about pain or anything. Since then I had to go to her for treatments once every two days … once she almost poked the wound with a scissor.

Finally I managed to find some time to write this mail J. Firstly thanks for everybody who joined the bowling tournament on 15^th. It was a fantastic experience and I’m sure everybody who joined had loads of fun.

A quick summary …

As planned we started the event on time. We had a total of 14 teams competing for the big trophy. In total about 120 user group members joined the event. However few bailed out at the last minute … some didn’t even show up … may be they were scared J … competition was so stiff.

Round one went smoothly with some remarkable performances. Selva from team ADT Blasters became the top scorer of round one with 150 points. Team Navantis, ADT Blasters, Marmy Army, Teamwork Bumpers, Rolling Stones, Executors, Sri La and Yakumba scored the highest and made it to the second round. Round 2 was not smooth at all … it was a major battle. However teams ADT Blasters, Rolling Stones, Sri La and Yakumba made it to the top 4.

Throughout all the rounds ADT Blasters showed consistent performance. In round 1 they scored a total of 644 points, in round 2 they scored, 722), but seems like at the final round couple of guys in the team lost the grip of the ball. Oops!

Team Navantis was in the top league all alone, however last minute team Yakumba scored higher and made it to the top 4 sending team Navantis to the bench. Sorry folks!

Well! Well! Well! Did you know that there was a Cinderella story. Team Sri La was also very consistent on performance. Even though the team claimed that 5 out of 6 of their players are first timers they managed to crawl into round 2 at the eight position. Then surprisingly they managed to crawl into the top 4 teams too … again in the 4^th position … and finally they ended at the 4^th position, keeping things consistent. Next time folks! It’s the fun you had that matters.

Among the lot we had a team with a matching name for their performance. Team OOT (Out of Target) from SLIIT became the last of the first round living up to the name. Most of the shots were right out of the target. Woo! Hoo! But the team stayed with us till the event ends helping us to finish up the booze.

For team RollingStones I think all the practices they did before the event paid off. I saw them shooting some killer shots and scoring big points. In Round 1 and 2 they were balancing things and played a subtle game. But last round they were ruthless.

CONGRATULATIONS! To team RollingStones for taking the Technical Communities Challenge Trophy home. Take care of. Put your name on it. And bring it back next year J

Team: RollingStones
From: Assette Softwares Pvt Ltd
Team Members: Ajith Pushpakumara, Aneef Fashir, Jude Ellawala, Julius Fernando, Manoj De Rose, Prabhath Wijesinghe

Special thanks to everybody who supported me to run the event successfully. Especially Thulitha for making the announcements and helping to run the show on schedule. Jinath, Shaminda, Chandana and Gogula for supporting to coordinate the event and run the show on sight, Alan for bringing the fantastic beats which kept the tempo going. All in all it was a fantastic event.

Throughout the whole event Tariq from team ADT Blasters became the top scorer with a score of 177.

See ya’ll next year …

Check my Facebook and Windows Live Photo Gallery for pho

Yup! after a very successful Imagine Cup 2009 we are ready to start the game plan for the 2010. Imagine Cup 2010 world festival will be held in Warsaw, Poland in July 2010. Competition theme will remain the same as last year … which is ‘Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems facing us today’. Yeah you herd me correct … same theme … basically that means same applications from last year can be resubmitted … with enhancements of course. I think this is a very good thing as applications will mature significantly due to this.

Format of the competition has changed considerably, and you will see more details later. But, for now … GO SIGN UP!

Yesterday we had the first ever .NET Code camp here and it was a new experience for everybody who participated. Without me saying 100 words to explain it ... hit the play button below to see what the participants had to say.

A big thanks to Joy Pradeep, Jinath Premarathne, Prabath Fonseka, Dinesh Asanka, Chanaka Gamage, Chandana Athauda and Uditha Bandara for running the show there.

Thank You!

Well! the special user group meeting was conducted with over 150 members attending. Also after a very long time most of our MVP gathered in one place. unfortunately Padman, Chandana, Dinesh Priyankada and Kavinda couldn't join due to work schedules. A big thanks to the three presenters, Joy, Prabath and Fiqri for the wonderful presentations.

I have uploaded the group photo to facebook, go and find your self in there. Remember this photo, this is going to be one of those historical photos about the .NET Forum. In another 10 years time when we look back at how things were … we will definitely dig this photo out.

The game plan for the next big mission … few after the meeting actually asked me whats the plan to reach the new target of doubling the number of registered members in half the time … Well! you’ll hear more about this in the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned. I’m going to need everybody’s support to reach this tough target. But i have no doubt with your support we can get there.

Once again! thanks! to all out MVPs, top contributors on the online forum, speakers in the offline forum and all the members for doing a fantastic job to keep the forum up and running.

See ya @ the Code Camp on 6th Aug.