Wela's Blog

When in Paris ...

Wela — 7/14/2008 11:31:47 AM

Was wondering what more I can write about Paris, because it's such a wonderful place. There is lot more to write ... this time it's about Cars ...

Well! Cars ... Immediately after a we came out from the airport saw a Benz with a 'Taxi' sign on top. Didn't get much amazed to see it because it's a classy taxi in Singapore and several other places. But after hit the road to go to the hotel there were Benz all over the place with the 'Taxi' sign on the top. Oh! Crap! ...

First it was Benz, then BMW, Peugeot, and the list goes on ... basically all the "high class" cars we see here in Sri Lanka are running huree! in Paris as taxies. What a brain refresher.

Then we started wondering what are the "high class" vehicles that "Paricians" use. Audi was kind of a common car as there were many but no taxies. Then there was Lamborghini, Aston Martin, Rolls Royce, Bentley and many other really cool cars. Considering the fact that Paris is a damn expensive place I wonder how much these folks pay for these cool cars.

In case if you are wondering what about the majestic looking "Chrysler" ... Well! there were couple of those looking great indeed, but on the way back to the airport saw one with a "taxi" sign on top. Crap! There goes my dream car #*&!&@^&&*@#*&$$(!@

Imagine Cup 2008 - Photos from Paris ...

Wela — 7/11/2008 2:48:36 PM

Check my facebook account http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=27868&id=647028074

Imagine Cup 2009

Wela — 7/11/2008 2:41:46 PM

The world is asking for your help/ Can you hear it?

People are starving. Diseases ravage communities and no matter how hard they try, some people cannot get a basic education. The environment is in trouble and we have to help the world develop in a sustainable way. It seems like too much to take on. But we can't just throw up our hands and give up. Answers could be found in any one of a thousand ideas that happen every day. Solutions might be in the next few lines of code, a photo or even a simple game that catches on and teaches the world a lesson.

These are the first steps to doing something that really matters. Technology can be a force multiplier on the ideas and that's why the Imagine Cup happens every year.

We need everyone - software programmers, hardware developers, artists and dreamers - to imagine a better world - then make it happen. Over 150,000 students from over 100 countries will come together and compete to help find the answers. And no matter who comes up with the best solutions - everybody wins.

One World. Unlimited Possibilities.
For 2009 the Imagine Cup in challenging the world's most talented students to "Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems facing us today". For some this will be using technology to help a brother or sister get an education and for others it will be about entirely new approach for medicine or finding ways to counter the inequalities that exists between genders around the world. It may be ensuring the sustainability of our planet and might even be as focused as universal primary education. Yeah, it's that important.

In 2009, the Imagine Cup world finals will be held in Cairo, Egypt. Egypt is one of the most populous countries in Africa and the Middle East and the great majority of its people live near the banks of the Nile River.

Egypt is famous for its ancient civilization and some of the world's most famous monuments. Winners will find that this magical nation holds the key to history, ancient civilization and perhaps the future of technology.

And oh yes ... there's also the pyramids!

Imagine Cup 2008 - World Finals

Wela — 7/11/2008 2:35:36 PM

I'm back in Sri Lanka and back in office. Imagine Cup 2008 world finals event was held on 8th Tuesday.

Check the Live Space for more details http://imaginecupfinalsinparis.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!3881675633140DB4!650.entry

Imagine Cup 2008 - Software Design Semi Finalists ...

Wela — 7/5/2008 10:48:20 PM

Software Design semi finalists were announced few minutes ago and following is the list of countries who made it.

Congratulations! to all of them and best of luck with the next round of presentations.

Australia
Slovakia
Portugal
Brazil
China
France
Hungary
Singapore
South Africa
Korea
Croatia
Russia

Imagine Cup 2008 - Compatitionsare on ...

Wela — 7/5/2008 1:46:31 PM

Yesterday afternoon team Sasrutha presented their solution to the first panel of judges and in few minutes time they are presenting to the second panel of judges. Final score will be determined by summarizing both scores. Fingers crossed ...

For the short film team ... they are on the run shooting / editing the film. I don't understand much of it :) ... but I had to do one scene in the film. Had to drink almost a gallon of water as a part of that. Phew! Will upload more details later.

Imagine Cup 2008 - Kick started in grand style ...

Wela — 7/4/2008 5:11:53 PM

Last evening Imagine Cup 2008 World Festival Event officially?kick started in grand style. Well! @ Microsoft we always do everything in grand style.

Ride to the city hall where the opening ceremony was held was a very interesting one. WE were taken on a brief city tour on the way to the city hall from the hotel. Got to see many awesome places in the city. It looks like we are going to need months to visit?all these places. Never mind ... there are few key places :) ... First the press, staff and other invitees were moved in to the hall and then the students were brought in, in a parade. After officially welcoming the students by the Deputy Mayor in Paris and few Microsoft folks including John Phillip, Joe Wilson etc, music continued till very late ... btw: Even @ 10 in the night it's not dark here.?

Architecture in the city hall was unbelievable. Attention to detail in every single thing is truly spectacular. Checkout the photos ...

Both our teams ...

Magnificent Buildings throughout the city ...

Inside the City Hall ...

Imagine Cup 2008 - Paris ...

Wela — 7/2/2008 8:02:05 PM

We arrived at Paris this morning and it really is a beautiful city. Trip was a whooping 10 hour long direct flight but it was ok. There were many fun topics to talk about the trip ... one being a team member (don't want to mention the name because he was serious about this) slipped a soft drink all over and pretty seriously he accused the pilot for going over a pit. (Guess he couldn't find what to call 'turbulence')

Loads of old styled buildings?are everywhere and it is indeed a super busy city. Not sure whether these old looking building are really old or recreations based on the old architecture. Anyways looks pretty amazing.?From the airport to the hotel it took almost 2 1/2 hours as there were many ...?I mean many ... traffic light stops on the way. Folks! Aren't we easily get annoyed by the 5-6 traffic lights on the base line road.. In Paris I'm talking about that multiplied by 10 :) ... Yup! it was really annoying ... after every 50 meters there is a traffic light stop.?

Since we arrive at the hotel early we took a walk down few streets and also we just walked around the Eiffel Tower. It's truly is fantastic. Don't ask why we didn't go to the top :) ... right now the top priority is the competition. After that I think we are going there in the city tour. If not we'll find time to go to the tower. How on earth we can go to Paris and come back without visiting the Eiffel Tower.

Will upload the photos later today ...

Tour de France - Imagine Cup 2008 World Festival

Wela — 6/30/2008 3:57:53 PM

In a little bit over 24 hours time, two Sri Lankan teams ... one in the Software Design Category and the other in the Short Film Category are heading to the beautiful city of Paris, France to take part in the Imagine Cup 2008 World Festival. As always it is Imagine Cup World Festival is a big ... I mean really gigantic event ... and as Tommy Boy says? it's going to be the brightest spot on the planet for a whole week. Young champions from all over the world are going to be in Paris and I have doubt that this is going to absolutely amazing ... like last year, year before and years before that. But it's going to be bigger and better for sure.

Software Team

Software Design team 'Sasrutha' who won the local competition will be presenting there solution 'Haritha Prayathna'. Team is from University of Moratuwa. Dasuni and Supunmali are from the Faculty of Information Technology and Chethiya and Sapumal (Leader) are from the Faculty of Engineering. They will be competing with 60 other teams on site. After the Local event they have practiced their presentation many times and perfected the solution and they are going to face an international panel(s) of judges and also going to face some tough questions ... I think that's cool because these folks are ready for anything.

Short Film Team

Short Film team who made the film 'Friends' also consists of four members, Buddhika (Leader) and Malika are from SLIIT while Gimantha is from Tec Sri Lanka and Salinga is from National Institute of Technical Education of Sri Lanka. They have made it to the world top 6 teams in the Short Film category. On site they have a 36 hours challenge.

Apart from the onsite competitions this is going to be a action packed fun week as there are many activities planned. This is the fourth time Sri Lanka participates in Imagine Cup. 2005 - Yokohama - Japan, 2006 - Delhi - India, 2007 - Seoul - Korea. Folks! ... take a look at these 8 faces very well, because they are representing Sri Lanka in the Olympics of Technology ... the Imagine Cup. Best Wishes to both teams. I'm planning to write about the event live from France throughout the week.?

Woo! oo! ... France ... Here we come ...

.NET User Group Meeting - June 2008

Wela — 6/2/2008 10:48:26 AM

Session 1: Game Developmentwith Microsoft XNA Game Studio
Intorduction to Microsoft XNA Game studiowith Visual Studio 2008. Basic features,exmples and games.?

Speaker: Uditha Bandara

Session 2: Imagine Cup 2008 Sri Lanka Winning Teams Solution
Imagine Cup 2008 Sri Lanka winning team is in the process of preparing to face the world finals in Paris, France in July. They will be presenting their winning solution @ this months user group meeting.

by: team Sasrutha (Sapumal, Chethiya, Dasuni & Supunmali)

Date: 4th June 2008
Time: 6.00 PM - 8.00 PM
Venue: Microsoft Sri Lanka, No. 42, 11th Floor, DHPL Building, Nawam Mawatha, Colombo 02
Entrance: FREE

Traffic in Colombo ...

Wela — 5/31/2008 10:50:35 AM

As most of ya'll already know there is a new traffic plan being executed in Colombo these days ... or may be still being tested.

Yesterday it became really annoying because got badly stuck in the traffic. But today morning i just came to Colpitty without any issue. I mean not even a single traffic light after the townhall round-a-bout. That was really cool. But just found that there are some major blocks in some other areas. In a way police experimenting on new routs to minimize traffic jams in Colombo is really nice. But making us ginipigs to test it out is not cool. How about using a computer simulation to try this :) ... Anyways as an outcome of this effort if police can minimize the traffic jams in at least all the major routs ... it'll be awsome.

Let's wait and see ... when the 'one-way' plan was implemented several months back that also created lot of haa hoo. But now it seems to be working out really nice. It's good that somebody in the traffic control department thinking in the right direction.

What's next ... ?

Wela — 5/27/2008 8:00:30 AM

Not exactly sure why ... during the last wee I got 4 calls with the same question ... "when are you having the next Tech.Ed?". The answer is ... exact date time is not yet decided ... but hopefully soon. Personally I think its time to have a Tech.Ed. But there are hundred different things that should fall into place. Above all the security situation in the country.

So what's next? ... Imagine Cup 2008 World Festival in Paris, France.

Invitations!

Wela — 5/11/2008 4:36:30 PM

Another one on social networking :)??? Everyweek I turn down at least 10 invitations from friends and also from unknown friends to join their network on something online. Among those Flickr, Friendster, LinkedIn, Hi5, LiveJournal, Multiply, MySpace?are there. In the best interest of time i'm accepting only Windows Live Spaces and Facebook invitations. Well! not that those to also eats up some time, but we need some sorta online presence to keep the beat going.

Most of these invitations I just ignore ... sorry fellas. Btw: those unknown friends I have menioned above are not actually unknown. Most of them I have met at some point during a presentation or something. But still I have to ignore the invitations to join the websites because there is only a limited time to do everything. If I accepted all those invitations, by now I should be a member in like 50 of those networking sites and should have about 1000 friends.

If any of them sends me an email i'll be replying for sure. So for any urgent and important matters ... lets stick with the good old emails :)

Web 2.0 developers rank MSN/Live higher than Google, Yahoo and Facebook

Wela — 5/8/2008 12:13:26 PM

Web 2.0 developers rank MSN/Live higher than Google, Yahoo and Facebook

By Heather Havenstein
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9082558&intsrc=hm_list

Web 2.0 software developers ranked Microsoft's MSN/Live Windows developer program higher than competing programs offered by Internet leaders Google, Yahoo, Amazon, eBay, Facebook and PayPal, according to results of an Evans Data Corp. report released today.

The "Users' Choice: Web 2.0 Developer Programs" report is based on the results of a survey of more than 400 developers, who rated developer programs from the seven companies in 13 categories, including API functionality, blogs, marketing assistance tools/SDKs, Web services, documentation, support and forums. The Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. programs were ranked right after Microsoft Corp.'s. While the recent opening of Facebook's development platform has garnered lots of attention for the social network, it ranked next to last among the seven Web 2.0 development programs included in the survey. Amazon.com Inc. and eBay Inc. also ranked higher than Facebook, with all of them ahead of last place PayPal Inc.

Microsoft scored high in user satisfaction for its Web services, software development kits, documentation and forums. In the Web services category, Microsoft came in on top this year after ranking last in the year-earlier survey.

"As Microsoft moved from the relatively closed-in MSN portal to the more Web 2.0 savvy Windows Live collection of services, users have begun to recognize it as a provider of top-notch Web services," according to the survey.

Google ranked second among the surveyed developers by scoring high on API functionality, available marketing assistance for Web 2.0, a solutions directory and options for ongoing communications like RSS. Yahoo ranked third in overall developer programs, dropping from its second-place finish in last year's Evans survey. The researcher said that Yahoo benefited from what users called strong technical resources. EBay dropped from third to fourth place in this year's ranking, with lower grades for its Web services program. The online auctioneer did get strong marks for the functionality of its APIs, marketing assistance, forums and SDKs. Facebook ranked sixth out of the seven developer programs in its first year in the survey. The most highly ranked feature of the Facebook program is the functionality of its APIs.

"While the company's API functionality is rated very high by developers (placing third among the field of seven), Facebook lacks the support resources to help developers," the study said. "Facebook fares poorly among users of its APIs for the available documentation, marketing assistance and ongoing communications. While there is tremendous interest in the Facebook social networking platform, Facebook still has not capitalized on the buzz by providing the supporting information to continue driving developer interest."

The report went on to note that Microsoft and Google allow users to profit the most from the applications they develop, through their integration capabilities and lack of downtime. According to Evans, 26% of developers using Microsoft's MSN/Live programs said they have generated "significant" profits from it, while 23% said the same for PayPal, 15% for Amazon, 13% for Google and 10% for Facebook. Meanwhile, 38% of developers said they had not benefited financially from using eBay's developer program, while 36% said the same for Yahoo, 33% for Amazon, 27% for Google , 20% for PayPal and 9% for Microsoft.

Developers say they have had the most difficulty integrating their applications using the Facebook technologies -- 77% said they had experienced at least some degree of difficulty integrating Facebook technologies with their apps. Facebook was followed by eBay and Yahoo as the hardest to integrate. Only 40% of developers said that Amazon technologies are difficult to integrate, while 45% said the same of Google. The companies that developers said offer the strongest integration capabilities are Microsoft, Amazon and Google.

Facebook ...

Wela — 5/7/2008 7:17:59 PM

For sure most you reader are Facebook acount holders and some might be very active members. As you all know facebook has taken the social networking to a whole new level. All this time I had an account but never got a chance to play an active role. Many of my friends were telling me ... I tagged you in facebook, I sent some flowers to you in facebook, I poked you in facebook bla bla bla. For some of these I replied pretty late ... sometimes months later ... sorry fellas ... on a busy busy schedule.

No wonder many companies around the world have already banned access to facebook within the corporate network, because unknowlgly facebook eats up .. or can i say wastes an awful lot of time. I have nothing against facebook though. I think it is a fantastic tool. I have seen some folks running complete events using facebook as a tool. Features like compare friends, superwall, image tagging are really interesting stuff.

So guys ... if you are?a facebook member be mindful about the time you are spending on it, make sure it won't mess up your other work.

.NET User Group Meeting | Heros Community Launch

Wela — 5/5/2008 3:06:05 PM

First of a series of Heroes Community Launch Events is scheduled to happen with the May 2008 User Group Meeting. Please drop an email to admin@dotnetforum.lk with the subject 'i'm attending - <Username>' to reserve a seat. Only 70 User Group Members will get the opportunity to attend this event.

Session: New features for ADO.NET in .NET 3.5
ADO.NET has certainly evolved very fast in the last few years. This session talks about some of the new technologies such as Linq to SQL and the ADO.NET Entity Framework and helps developers understand the technologies under the ADO.NET stack.

Date: 7th May 2008 (Wednesday)
Time: 6.00 PM Onwards
Venue: Microsoft Sri Lanka Training Room (42, 11th Floor, DHPL Building, Nawam Mawatha)
Entrance: FREE (please reserve your seat)

Imagine Cup 2008 Sri Lanka Finals

Wela — 4/29/2008 12:13:45 PM

For the fourth consecutive year, the Sri Lankan leg of the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2008 came to a grand close on the 22nd of April, at the Galadari Hotel Colombo, when the best of the six software design finalists bagged the championship title. Team Sasrutha from the University of Moratuwa, is the lucky team to head out to Paris in July this year, to compete at the Global Finals.

This year the competition was bigger and more challenging than the last couple of years. Running the event was a tedious task as there were like a zillion things that I had to look into. Thanks a ton to my colleagues and GPR for the support.

This year the judging panel was headed by Professor P.W. Epasinghe, Chairman ICTA. Other panel members were Mr. Harsha Purasinghe, Chief Operating Officer,?Microimage (Pvt) Ltd., Mr. Ranil Pathirana, Finance Director, Hidramani Group of Companies. Mr. P. Semasinghe, Director ? Natural Resources, Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources. Mr. Sriyan de Silva Wijeyeratne, Country Manager, Microsoft Sri Lanka.

WINNER: Team Sasrutha from university of Moratuwa, Faculty of Information Technology and Faculty of Engineering Project: Haritha Prayathna	1st Runner-Up Team Gagana? from Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology. Project: EDUMS	2nd Runner-Up Team Will Power from university of Moratuwa, Faculty of Engineering. Project: Cleaning License Management System
GreenTeam taking a small break after the tiring work. They did a fantastic work at the event supporting me to run the event smoothly. Myself and everybody @ Microsoft are highly impressed by the contributions made.	This year we had over 700 registrations from Sri Lanka. most of them were present @ the event. Bunch of them having fun during the entertainment by B&S. As usual the fun gang is in the back rows :)	Entertainment from the university of Jayawardenapura Management Faculty students added some great color to the event. Thanks to Lasith and Dushan for organizing this. i'm sure everybody enjoyed this.

I should specially mention the 2 Short film teams and the game development teams who made it to the second round. Team Tear from University of Colombo School of Computing and Team Genes|Pictures from Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology made it to the second round in Short Film. Now! if you remember both these teams made it to the second round last year also and team Team made it to the world 6 finalists. Teams DreamX and Team Agies Studios from Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology made it to the second round in Game Development. These 4 teams have few more days to submit the second round entry. Best wishes for all 4 teams ... they are just one step closer to bring Sri Lanka to the world finals. Woo! Hoo!

What's next ...

Software category winning team have already started preparations for the Imagine Cup world festival. Other category teams have to work on the round 2 entries.

Imagine Cup 2009 will be announced within the next couple of months. Be prepared ... it's going to be bigger, better and more challenging.

Microsoft Tech?Ed SEA 2008 - Early Bird Promotion

Wela — 4/9/2008 9:08:45 AM

Tech.Ed SEA, Microsoft?s premier and largest annual conference, is back with full force! Invite your customers to attend! This is the opportunity to experience and realize the full potential not only of the technology, but of their own! Early bird offer : Register before April 30, 2008 and save more than 45% on registration fee! To find out more, go to http://www.microsoft.com/malaysia/techedsea2008/

Imagine Cup 2008 Sri Lanka Finals

Wela — 4/9/2008 8:21:21 AM

As most of you might already know Imagine Cup 2008 Sri Lanka is taking place on 22nd April. Things in my schedule is really busy and i'm pretty sure its the same for all the team members.?If you are interested in attending the event please feel free to goto the website (www.imaginecup.lk) and request for an invitation.

Date: 22nd April 2008
Time: 2.00 PM Onwards
Venue: Grand Ballroom, Hotel Galadari, Colombo 01

Sites I check every day

Wela — 3/27/2008 7:58:28 AM

Couple of guys have asked me what are the sites that I check every day. Well! there is like couple of hundred in my blog reader. Among them there are few which I visit everyday and check out.