Madhawa Learns To Blog

Dark in here

2007-08-04T18:32:00.000+09:00

A woman takes a lover home during the day while her husband is at work.
Her 9 year old son comes home unexpectedly, sees them, and hides in the
bedroom cupboard to watch.Just after getting into bed the woman's husband
also comes home unexpectedly, she tells her lover to hide in the cupboard,
not realising that the little boy is in there.
After a little while the little boy says, "Dark in here.
The man, who obviously got a real fright not expecting to hear anything,
let alone from a little boy says, "Yes, it is."
Boy - "I have a football."
Man - "That's nice."
Boy - "Want to buy it?"
Man - "No, thanks."
Boy - "My dad's outside."
Man - "OK, how much?"
Boy - "$250"
In the next few weeks, it happens again that the boy and the lover are in
the cupboard together.
Boy - "Dark in here."
Man - "Yes, it is."
Boy - "I have football boots."
The lover, remembering the last time, asks the boy, "OK How much this
time?"
Boy - "$750"
Man - "Sold."
A few days later, the boys' father says to the boy, "Grab your boots and
football, let's go outside and have a game of soccer.
The boy says, "I can't, I sold my ball and boots."
The father asks, "How much did you sell them for and to who?"
The boy says, "To a friend of mine for a $1,000."
The father says, "That's a terrible thing to do, overcharging your friend
like that". "That's four times what they cost when they were new, I'm
going to take you to church and make you confess your terrible sin."
They go to the church and the father makes the little boy sit in the
confession booth and he closes the door.
The boy says, "Dark in here".
The priest says, "Don't start that shit again you little prick, you're in
my cupboard now"!!

Thanks Purvis for sending this e-mail. :D

Dumber

2007-07-31T15:18:00.000+09:00

A young boy enters a barber shop and the barber whispers to his Customer,
"This is the dumbest kid in the world. Watch while I prove it to you."

The barber puts a five rupee coin in one hand and two one rupee coins(1+1=2) in the other, then calls the boy over and asks,
"Which do you want, son?"

The boy takes the two one rupee coins and leaves.
"What did I tell you?" said the barber. "That kid never learns!"

Later, when the customer leaves, he sees the same young boy coming out of
the ice cream store. "Hey, son! May I ask you a question?
Why did you take two one rupee coins instead of five rupee coin?"

The boy licked his cone and replied,
"Because THE DAY I TAKE THE FIVE RUPEE COIN, THE GAME IS OVER
............
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............

Moral: When you think the other person is dumb, you are making a fool of yourself.

The Buffalo Theory

2007-02-02T18:19:00.000+09:00

A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo.

And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the
back that are killed first This natural selection is good for the herd
as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps
improving by the regular killing of the weakest members.

In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the
slowest brain cells.

Excessive intake of alcohol, as we know, kills brain cells.

But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In
this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells,
making the brain a faster and more efficient machine.

That's why you always feel smarter after a few beers."

Moral of the story: Keep drinking!!!!

How do you decide who to marry?

2006-10-31T03:32:00.000+09:00

I got this funny mail from my friend Purvis. Although this is rather old one thought to share with you since it’s so hilarious. :)

Check this out...

HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHO TO MARRY?

(1) You got to find somebody who likes the same stuff. Like, if you
like sports, she should like it that you like sports, and she
should keep the chips and dip coming.
- Alan, age 10

(2) No person really decides before they grow up who they're going
to marry. God decides it all way before, and you get to find out
later who you're stuck with.
- Kristen, age 10

WHAT IS THE RIGHT AGE TO GET MARRIED?

(1) Twenty-three is the best age because you know the person
FOREVER by then.
- Camille, age 10

(2) No age is good to get married at. You got to be a fool to get
married.
- Freddie, age 6 (very wise for his age)

HOW CAN A STRANGER TELL IF TWO PEOPLE ARE MARRIED?

(1) You might have to guess, based on whether
they seem to be yelling at the same kids.
- Derrick, age 8

WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR MUM AND DAD HAVE IN COMMON?

(1) Both don't want any more kids.
- Lori, age 8

WHAT DO MOST PEOPLE DO ON A DATE?

(1) Dates are for having fun, and people should use them to get to
know each other. Even boys have something to say if you listen long
enough.
- Lynnette, age 8 (isn't she a treasure)

(2) On the first date, they just tell each other lies and that
usually gets them
interested enough to go for a second date.
- Martin, age 10

WHAT WOULD YOU DO ON A FIRST DATE THAT WAS TURNING SOUR?

(1) I'd run home and play dead. The next day I would call all the
newspapers and make sure they wrote about me in all the dead
columns.
-Craig, age 9

WHEN IS IT OKAY TO KISS SOMEONE?

(1) When they're rich.
- Pam, age 7

(2) The law says you have to be eighteen, so I wouldn't want to
mess with that.
- Curt, age 7

(3) The rule goes like this: If you kiss someone, then you should
marry them and have kids with them. It's the right thing to do.
- Howard, age 8

IS IT BETTER TO BE SINGLE OR MARRIED?

(1) It's better for girls to be single but not for boys. Boys need
someone to clean up after them.
- Anita, age 9 (bless you child)

HOW WOULD THE WORLD BE DIFFERENT IF PEOPLE DIDN'T GET MARRIED?

(1) There sure would be a lot of kids to explain, wouldn't there?
- elvin, age 8

HOW WOULD YOU MAKE A MARRIAGE WORK?

(1) Tell your wife that she looks pretty, even if she looks like a Truck.
Ricky, age 10

Check out my new tech blog....

2006-07-18T03:36:00.001+09:00

http://www.geekswithblogs.net/madhawa

Claymore mines - like the one thought to have been used to blow up a bus in Sri Lanka

2006-06-16T16:54:00.000+09:00

Unlike most mines, claymores are placed on top of the ground rather than underneath, and can be detonated remotely at a moment for maximum impact. They fire steel shrapnel as far as 250 metres in a fan shape in front of where they have been placed...

Error while trying to run project: Unable to start debugging on the web server.

2006-06-14T13:40:00.000+09:00

Error while trying to run project: Unable to start debugging on the web server.

Today one of my friends faced this problem and asked me what’s wrong it may be. This is a frequently asking question. And I know not only him but you also have faced this problem at least once in your asp.net life.

So here is the article from Microsoft which provides a list of articles that describes some of the most common problems you may encounter when you are debugging asp.net applications in visual studio 2003.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306172

Two IT guys, gorgeous blonde and new laptop

2006-06-14T13:24:00.000+09:00

Got this from a mail sent by AJ. :)

Two IT guys were talking in a bar after work. "Guess what," says
the first IT guy, "I met this gorgeous blonde in a bar."

"What did you do?" says the other IT guy.

"Well, I invited her over to my place, we had a couple of drinks,
we got into the mood and then she suddenly asked me to take all
her clothes off!"

"You're kidding me!" says the second IT guy.

"Nope." says IT guy one. "I took her miniskirt off, and then I
lifted her up and put her on my desk, next to my new laptop."

"Really?" asked the second IT guy. "You got a new laptop?"

Get Ready for Windows Vista

2006-06-12T17:40:00.000+09:00

Windows Vista Beta 2 is now available for you to install, test, and enjoy. Here's the information you need to try it now.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/default.mspx

Let's light an oil lamp /candle to remember our War Heroes

2006-06-08T09:39:00.000+09:00

"They shall grow not old,

As we are left grow old,

Age shall not weary them,

Nor the years condemn,

At the going down of the sun,

And in the morning,

We will remember them.

When you go home,

Tell them of us and say,

We gave our tomorrow,

For your today."

Let's light an oil lamp /candle to remember our War Heroes...

Looking at Visual Sourcesafe vs. Perforce in a higher level

2006-06-07T19:55:00.000+09:00

These days I haven’t got much works, but some trainings going on in the new place. Couple of days ago Vidura (my project manager) gave me and couple of other new guys a training on their SCM (Software Configuration Management). It’s Perforce they are using which is a brand new thing to me. In my old place we were using Visual Sourcesafe although it’s giving us lots of problems. As all we know Sourcesafe is good for small projects which get small code base and all the members are in a small intranet. When network is going busy Sourcesafe is messing all the things up and be the Source(un)safe.

There are lots of similarities in Sourcesafe and Perforce I noticed. But it’s easy to point out differences than similarities. Main differences I noticed are

1. Perforce keeps work space (working folder in Source Safe) information in the server but Sourcesafe in the client machine.

2. Perforce has Atomic Commits (this is implemented via change lists) when we checking in files but Sourcesafe hasn’t got.

There are other additions which both softwares have but these two are the main architectural differences I think.

Anyway I don’t think it’s fair to compare these two softweares by myself only since I haven’t got experience with Perforce. So check following links that would give you the whole picture on Sourcesafe vs. Perforce.

And great thing is Perforce is free for 2 user license. So you can use this great software in the home for your SCM.

http://www.perforce.com/perforce/sourcesafe.html
http://www.keysolutions.com/blogs/kenyee.nsf/d6plinks/KKYE-6PHRH8

Skyscrapr the window on the architectural perspective

2006-06-06T14:37:00.000+09:00

You can't build a stable system without a good plan. And you can't develop a good plan without a strong model that fits the needs of the organization. A coherent vision of how all of a system's parts need to come together that protects you. Without a plan you risk inefficiency, or even chaos, for your organization.

How essential is good system architecture? It can be the difference between growth and stagnation, availability and breakdown, or success and failure.

Skyscrapr is your window on the architectural perspective. Discover the different disciplines of system architecture, as well as perspectives on building successful systems. Check out our architects' blogs, learn about industry trends, download webcasts, watch videos, find training, and more.

https://www.skyscrapr.net/

UFO Cases Directory

2006-06-05T21:28:00.000+09:00

Ma man Asela a.k.a MIB sent me this link. Check this out.

UFO Cases Catalog - All Cases: Sorted by Most Recent First

The Da Vinci Code book...

2006-05-30T13:51:00.000+09:00

Today I got The Da Vinci Code, the book on which the most controversial movie these days is based on, from my new friend Pervis. Although the movie has been banned here in sri lanka book has not. And yesterday I checked a DVD shop out but there was the camera copy of the movie. I think original copy will be available soon in the town.

http://www.danbrown.com/novels/davinci_code/reviews.html

Visual Studio .NET 2005 Keyboard Shortcuts

2006-05-30T13:46:00.000+09:00

Today early in the morning my friend Anuradha sent me a link which I was badly looking for. Keyboard shortcuts for Visual studio 2005. I know you will love it. :)

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/files/Visual%20Studio%20.NET%202005%20Keyboard%20Shortcuts.htm

Microsoft Visual Studio Code Name “Orcas” - LINQ CTP (May 2006)

2006-05-29T14:19:00.000+09:00

Now you can download Microsoft Visual Studio Code Name “Orcas” - LINQ CTP (May 2006) from here.

This release adds significantly to the LINQ functionality previously available. Highlights of this release include:

*Productivity enhancements via DLINQ designer and debugger support within the Visual Studio 2005 IDE.

*Support for a broader range of development scenarios thanks to new databinding and ASP.NET support.

*Ability to integrate LINQ with existing code through features like LINQ over DataSet and DLINQ improvements including inheritance

*Feedback driven features including deep stored procedure support, since the earlier CTP.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/data/ref/linq/

If you drive, you don't drink...

2006-05-24T12:51:00.001+09:00

Think abt this fellas...

Robust Tool to Reverse Engineer .net Executables into High Level Language

2006-05-17T19:24:00.000+09:00

Dis# (DisSharp) is a powerful tool to reverse engineer MSIL code into a human readable one. In addition to the support for a choice of programming languages and the latest .NET 2.0 innovations, it offers unique processing of metadata, name import from PDB files and documentation import from XML files, inline code editor and a host of other features. Their synergetic force results in amazingly accurate decompilation.

When working on PE source code it is often helpful to disassemble the code and check individual instructions. Visual Studio provides a standard tool which goes to some extent with the job. But oftentimes it's not enough. Dis# makes the next step in the code analysis and decompiles executables to help the user verify the code, find bugs and vulnerabilities, or just study algorithms to ensure the applet's interoperability. Relying for some part on the self describing nature of .NET Portable Executables, the program amends their metadata with local variables and runs a series of code transformations and simplifications. With an amazing speed of over 2000 methods per second it transforms the binary code into a high level language very close to the original source code. Besides the optimization of the code itself, the program offers several options to optimize the view. It can expand abridged names into full namespaces, present constants as either decimals or hexadecimals, provide Unicode Chars, Type Detail, Single Statement Brace and other options. ...

Download the tool from here,
http://www.netdecompiler.com/index.html

[Thx Chamindu(magneto) for the link]

Another e-book link...

2006-05-17T19:19:00.000+09:00

Another cool e-book link. Check this out.

http://www.en911.com/ebook/1-1.htm

New site of Ministry of Defence, Public Security, Law & Order

2006-05-05T16:50:00.000+09:00

Yeah... it’s not a hoax man. It's real. At last it has happened. Check this out and book mark it for the truth over craps of tamilnet (pro site of LTTE).

http://www.mod.gov.lk/

Saying good bye…

2006-05-02T01:07:00.000+09:00

I left the Kandysoft (previously known as Logical Systems) after working there more than 2 years. That was the best place I worked so far. Learned a lot of things and had a very good time. If I merely say, that’s the place I grew up as a developer. I had the chance to learn from the best mentors like Dinesh and Buddhima.

Not only me but Dinesh is also leaving the Kandysoft. So we two arranged a small treat for our friends at “Muhudu Mituro” at Mountlavinia beach. That was a nice small joint we used to gather for things like this. So everybody was there except couple of guys who got other important appointments and girls because of traveling problems.
I was very sad ‘coz Gogula, one of my best friends and also our official photographer (who are using Sony Eriksson W800 phone for snapping) wasn’t there. Believe me he is the best photographer I’ve known. : ). So sad to say there are no snaps.

Anyway with the fall of dark we all got drunk and talking and talking and talking, but nothing about software development. Oh boy, we had a lot of fun remembering our past at the company. : )

Not only the knowledge but I earned a lot of good people from this place. We were not just friends but like a family. So leaving them was the hardest feeling I got some times back as I could remember. I really miss you guys.

I wanna say thanks all who came to have a great time with us.

And I thank all the people who gave me tremendous support at Kandysoft when I really need it and I wish all the best in their future.

Good bye Kandysoft!

Watching TV and chatting at the same time

2006-04-28T19:24:00.000+09:00

A patent filed by Microsoft has recently been approved by the United States Patent Office (USPTO). The patent describes a "multimode interactive television chat" system, where the user can view television while simultaneously selecting links available from the show, which may include chat forums revolving around said program.

The TV display and chat interfaces are designed to appear on a single screen at the same time, each in their own frame:

"displaying the video signal and the one or more chat communications on the display in a first display mode, such that the video signal is displayed in a first frame that has a corresponding size and position on the display, and such that the one or more chat communications are displayed in a second frame that has a corresponding size and position on the display."

The practical upshot of this, I suppose, is that you can continue watching Gilmore Girls while simultaneously texting on your remote control "OMG LORELAI IS SO HOT" to the delight of other viewers. While the merging of these media may seem silly to some, it has already started happening. Canadian music station Muchmusic often devotes a full third of the picture display to scrolling fans' inane cell phone text messages, and there have been times when I've turned on CNN and inexplicably seen a TV camera's view of a computer screen displaying somebody's blog. Read more...

"Have your say" for recent bombing in Colombo

2006-04-27T02:31:00.000+09:00

BBC is conducting a "Have your say" section for recent bombing in Colombo. Pro-tiger sri lankans living abroad are using this to white wash the bloody tigers.

Now, it's your responsibilty as true Sri Lankans, to take part in this have your say and express the "REALITY" to the international community. It's your National Responsibility.

http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?threadID=1584&&edition=2&ttl=20060426041501

Installing Team Foundation Server

2006-04-26T19:46:00.000+09:00

Last couple of days I was trying to install Team Foundation Server in one of our servers during my other works when the time permitted. The server I was trying to install on was a fresh one that only got Win 2k3 Standered Edition and Sql 2005. I just installed the SharePoint with serveice pack 2.0 which is a prerequisite and tried with installing TFS. But it's got failed and gave Error 32000. So I googled abt it and found out some workarounds, worked on those and tried again. Once Again there was that damn Error 32000.

Then I realized this is not an easy one. I downloaded the installation guild from
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=E54BF6FF-026B-43A4-ADE4-A690388F310E&displaylang=en .If you wanna install TFS be death sure to download and read this even before installing the OS in the mc.

Ok, then I read and followed each and every instructions they have given. Yes… then there was the success.

So then I tried with installing Team foundation Client in my working mc. Then the real shit happened.

The BOSS

2006-04-20T12:57:00.000+09:00

One day a man goes to a pet shop to buy a parrot. The assistanttakes the man to the parrot section and asks the man to choose one.

The assistant says, ''$2000.'' The man is shocked and asks the Assistant why it's so expensive. The assistant explains, ''ThisParrot is a very special one. He knows typewriting and can typeReally fast.'' ''What about the green one?'' the man asks.

The assistant says, ''He costs $5000 because he knows typewriting and can answer incoming telephone calls and takes notes.'' ''What about the red one?'' the man asks.

The assistant says, ''That one's $10,000.''The man says, ''What does he do?'' The assistant says, ''I don't know, but the other two call him "BOSS".

Aj is online now...

2006-04-19T13:28:00.000+09:00

Well... finally one of my closest homies who didn’t use to blog has started doing it now.

Check him out @ http://www.anjanaonline.com/.

Using GenericDatabase class in EntLib for .net 2.0....?

2006-04-06T00:30:00.000+09:00

In the previous Enterprise Library versions, it was necessary to have an Enterprise Library Database-derived class for every ADO.NET managed providers. So as we know there were Database classes for SQL Server, Oracle and DB2 But if we wanna use any other managed providers, we had to find or build our own Database class.

In Enterprise library for .net 2.0, there are SqlDatabase and OracleDatabase class and a new GenericDatabase class. The GenericDatabase can be used with any .NET managed provider including the ODBC and OLE-DB providers that coming with .NET. But there is a problem. That is it doesn’t support all of the functionality we got with SqlDatabase and OracleDatabase classes.

I’m gonna use GenericDatabase class ‘coz I could extend my application to use any DatabaseProvider in future. But the thing is I'm not sure what features I’ll lost because of this.
One disadvantage I know is the overloads that use parameter discovery do not work (since these methods aren’t supported on .NET’s DbConnection or DbCommand classes).
But we can build our own classes deriving Database class to support that functionality.

Anyway guys, if you have any experience on EntLib for .net 2.0 and have used GenericDatabase class, pls enlighten me on features we lost.

Google in 10 years...

2006-03-29T12:13:00.000+09:00

[Got from a mail by Buddhima]

Good design is not an accident...

2006-03-21T03:42:00.000+09:00

Well… we have finished hard part of shifting the company and may start to work tomorrow or day after tomorrow. New place new beginning right: )

Anyway this post is not abt that but a problem I'm facing these days.

I know it is how important to share your ideas, designs etc... between your colleagues right. If you are an associate architect you have to have senior architect to associate with no.... But what happens if there is no one? And all others are struggling like you. That would make you feel really really bad. Especially if you have just thrown in to architecture or maturing in to it and have got 3+ years of experience in software development and have a huge enterprise application to design. If you wanna be a good architect I believe you have to work with senior architects. They will guide you, correct you, rescue you, teach you and specially will share their experience with you. I believe that’s makes a real architect.

Anyway I have my senior colleagues in to the rescue although they haven’t got huge experience with architecture. But believe me they are best and also thriving like me so we together as a team could do sth definitely good.

This is a nice post from Nick Malic although it's not talking abt peoples who are maturing in to architect.
http://blogs.msdn.com/nickmalik/archive/2006/03/10/549189.aspx

I couldnt help just posting the url only. So here is the artcle itself. :)

One potential often missed in a large IT organization is the potential for us to lift up another person's design skills. Perhaps we are competitive, or perhaps sometimes, we figure that "it's all the same anyway," but a lot of IT project designers don't want to show their designs to other folks.

But if I never look at your designs, how will I improve? And if you never allow me to offer feedback to your design, how will you improve?

Artists get this right. So do craftsmen. Emphasis is placed on being recognized. For that to happen, your design has to be in an understandable media, and has to be on display. Not on a shelf where someone COULD go look at it if they want to, but on DISPLAY, where other folks have no choice but to see it.

And then, not just to see it, but to compare, critique, appreciate, and exemplify. There need to be design competitions, and the winning of a design competition should mean something tangible, like a greater chance of moving up or a bigger bonus or even public praise and acclaim.
Smaller companies that don't have so many IT workers may not be able to participate, but they should be able to partake of the results. Acclaim should extend beyond the walls.
We do have "showcase" apps in Microsoft IT, but only where it will sell a product or illustrate how to solve a problem with MS tools. Not so much as a mandatory mechanism to bring out the best in IT design.

Otherwise, good design happens when a good designer accidentally has a good day or is accidentally assigned to a project that they would be good at. I mean "accidentally" because something is either an expression of the system that produces it, or it is an accident of the combination of skilled people and a project that suits them.

Making good design a part of the system, reinforcing it, rewarding it, and heaping public praise and acclaim on those who practice it will go a long way towards making excellence in design a normal part of life.

We are moving...

2006-03-20T09:36:00.000+09:00

This weekend was kinda busy one. Didn’t go home as usual but came to office. We Kandysoft New Zealand (Pvt) ltd are moving into a new place at Kirulupana from Nawala office. We wont use anything belongs to the old office except people. :)

So we have new machines, servers, desks, chairs…etc... Everything is new. So have to install software’s into 30 mc’s. Not an easy task since most of the mc’s has to have VS 2003, 2005, SQL 2000, 2005 and lot more…

New place at Kirulupana seems cool but not that roomy like the old place. And parking problem we always had at Nawala is also there. Will see what happens…

A comparison of Microsoft C# 2 to Sun’s Java 2

2006-03-10T02:45:00.000+09:00

This article is compiled by Dare Obasanjo. Interesting thing is this is looking at C# from a java developer's prospective. :)

http://www.25hoursaday.com/CsharpVsJava.html

How to recruit the right person for the job?

2006-03-09T17:56:00.000+09:00

Aj had sent me this email. Enjoy... :)

Put about 100 bricks in some
particular order in a closed
room with an
open window.

Then send 2 or 3 candidates in
the room and close the door.
Leave them alone and come back
after 6 hours and then analyze
the situation.

If they are counting the
bricks.
Put them in the accounts
department.

If they are recounting them..
Put them in auditing.

If they have messed up the
whole place with the bricks.
Put them in engineering.

If they are arranging the
bricks in some strange order.
Put them in planning.

If they are throwing the
bricks at each other.
Put them in operations.

If they are sleeping.
Put them in security.

If they have broken the bricks
into pieces.
Put them in information
technology.

If they are sitting idle.
Put them in human resources.

If they say they have tried
different combinations, yet
not a brick has
been moved. Put them in sales.

If they have already left for
the day.
Put them in marketing.

If they are staring out of the
window.
Put them on strategic
planning.

And then last but not least.
If they are talking to each
other and not a single brick
has been
moved.
Congratulate them and put them
in top management.

Set NTFS file system folder permissions programmatically

2006-03-07T03:25:00.000+09:00

Check this out...

How to programmatically set NTFS file system folder permissions by using Active Directory Service Interfaces in Microsoft Visual C#

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/899553/EN-US/

World's Fastest, Most Expensive Car

2006-03-07T03:03:00.000+09:00

When your car costs more than $1.2 million, travels over 230 mph, and hits 62 mph in 2.5 seconds, you do not sit in a passenger cabin — you sit in a "survival cell."

Wanna buy this... :)
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Moms/story?id=1406161

Using pointers in C#?

2006-03-07T01:58:00.000+09:00

Have you ever thought that we could use pointers in C#? Yes we could. I did it for fun 2 years ago when I was at iDial Networks among some strong C, C++ programmers. : )

Anyway today one of my friends asked me how to do that and I refreshed my knowledge on that so thought to share it here.

When you are using pointers in C# you have to tell the compiler about that clearly using unsafe keyword.

You can use unsafe modifier in the declaration of a type or a member. So the entire extent of the type or member will be considered as unsafe.

The scope of the unsafe context extends from the parameter list to the end of the method, so pointers can be used in the parameter list also.

unsafe static void FastCopy (byte* ps, byte* pd, int count)
{
// unsafe context: can use pointers here
}

You can use unsafe code blocks also like this.

unsafe
{
// unsafe context: can use pointers here
}

If you have unsafe code in your program, you have to specify the /unsafe compiler option. Otherwise you will get a compiler error. Unsafe code won’t verifiable by the CLR.

Unsafe code is in fact a "safe" feature from the perspective of both developers and users. Unsafe code must be clearly marked with the modifier unsafe, so developers can't possibly use unsafe features accidentally, and the execution engine works to ensure that unsafe code cannot be executed in an untrusted environment.

For more info in unsafe code refer to this.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/csref/html/vcwlkunsafecodetutorial.asp

Why visual studio 2005 doesn’t support importing class diagrams into vsio ?

2006-03-03T02:37:00.000+09:00

Well… guys… I think you have used class diagrams in Visual Studio 2005. That’s cool right. Not like crappy interface we have seen in vsio it has very nice interface.
But some times we want to have our class diagrams in visio ‘cos Visual Studio does not supporting diagrams other than class diagrams. So if you are designing your application you may have to have couple of other type of diagrams too right. Domain, Use case, Robustness etc etc…

Problem is we can’t export our class diagrams into visio in VS 2005 but to an image only. I wonder any plug-in is available for importing VS class diagrams into visio. Any idea….?

Have fun with ASCII Art Generator

2006-03-03T02:06:00.000+09:00

Today when I’m searching the net for an article found this in Code Project. Actually it’s not related to what I was looking for. But… it’s cool and fun. I'm a big fan of ASCII arts. Check this out.

http://www.codeproject.com/aspnet/AsciiArt.asp#xx1179779xx

What is CMM (SEI Capability Maturity Model)?

2006-02-25T01:52:00.000+09:00

Capability Maturity Model® Integration (CMMI) is a process improvement approach that provides organizations with the essential elements of effective processes. It can be used to guide process improvement across a project, a division, or an entire organization. CMMI helps integrate traditionally separate organizational functions, set process improvement goals and priorities, provide guidance for quality processes, and provide a point of reference for appraising current processes.

You could find good tutorial about Capability Maturity Model Integration here and
could download MSF for CMMI® Process Improvement, (Beta) here.

These days I'm dipping into software development processes. So you could expectt more posts on that in near future between technical things. :) Stay tuned.

Doing my workout again...

2006-02-06T16:54:00.000+09:00

I started doing my workout again. : )

Went to the gym early in the morning with Harsha. Oh boy starting all over the schedule again is not an easy task.

I had to face lot of humors of other members in the gym also. I told lot of things justifying why I didn’t came about 6 months. But it didn’t help since that bugger (Harsha) ruined everything telling I was too lazy to come.

What suddenly made me running to the gym was rise of my blood pressure. I’m in average body type and slim. Wonder how I got high blood pressure?

Rocking the Launch...

2006-02-03T12:26:00.000+09:00

Anuradha, Jagath, Janaka, Anjalee, Sumudu and Buddhima were missing here...

VS Launch Rocks!!!

2006-02-03T09:51:00.000+09:00

Well… just came from BMICH after the vs launch. Its theme was “Ready to Rock the Launch”. Did it really rocks?

Yes it really rocks. Credit should go to Wildfire for the entertainment night. I met lot of guys from the .net forum including fiqri, yeschandana, lolitha, and charith. This is the first time I met Lolitha and Charith although we have known each other in the web :) . Lolitha was with us throughout the entertainment night with a bear in hand : ) All those guys are really cool fellas who are doing a wonderfull job at the forum.

And I also had a chat with Buddhike, MVP who specialized in distributed architecture. He is a laid back fellow. I wish get some help from him to improve my skills in distributed architecture.

Well… I’ll upload some of the pics we got from the event later.

Business Rules Engine (BRE)

2006-01-30T14:09:00.000+09:00

When resaerching on distributed architecture, I found good white paper on business Rule Engines.

Business Rules Engine (BRE) is one of the most critical components of a Business Process Management Solution. It plays a significant role in the creation of agile business processes, implementation of the business logic involved in a process and enforcement of business rules and regulation. It helps in capturing changes within a process easily, thereby reducing the downtime for implementing the changes to the business logic.

Download the white paper...

Researching on .net 2.0

2006-01-28T14:45:00.000+09:00

Well… I’m kinda busy in these days. Researching on .net 2.0 :)
Boy… I love researching.

My areas are…

Using new features of .net 2.0 for creating robust type safes middle tiers and n-tier applications

Using Base classes and Factories of Ado.net 2.0 for creating robust data access layers

How we can get use of VS Team System diagramming tools, code management and Version management (VSS) features to do better management of code within the team? (this is the hard and extended part I think : ) )

New features of dot.net 2.0, C# 2.0 and Ado.net 2.0 should be covered.

As you can see I got a lot of ground to cover. We are going to start to develop our first .net 2.0 application soon. It will be an n-tier enterprise application which will be ported from an existing vb6 application. I’ll get an acting part of designing the architecture of the application.

Enterprise Library for .NET Framework 2.0

2006-01-24T14:16:00.000+09:00

Enterprise Library for .NET Framework 2.0 has released.

Download it from here...

China map lays claim to Americas

2006-01-17T12:35:00.000+09:00

A map due to be unveiled in Beijing and London next week may lend weight to a theory a Chinese admiral discovered America before Christopher Columbus.
The map, which shows North and South America, apparently states that it is a 1763 copy of another map made in 1418.

If true, it could imply Chinese mariners discovered and mapped America decades before Columbus' 1492 arrival. ...

[Buddhima gave this news early in the morning]

How to insert values to identity column explicitly

2006-01-12T01:28:00.000+09:00

How many times happened to you that break the relationships apart to truncate the tables just for reset the identity columns? Nevertheless it has happened to me so many times.
But yesterday I got to know there are smarter ways to do that.

One is setting IDENTITY_INSERT property to ON. It’s so easy and effective.

Syntax is
SET IDENTITY_INSERT [ database. [ owner. ] ] { table } { ON OFF }

Example
SET IDENTITY_INSERT employees ON

Arguments are
Database - Is the name of the database in which the specified table resides.
owner - Is the name of the table owner.
table - Is the name of a table with an identity column.

Keep on mind that at any time, only one table in a session can have IDENTITY_INSERT property set to ON. Otherwise if you try to set for another table SQL server returns an error.

Looking back to last year and next…

2006-01-10T02:33:00.000+09:00

mmm… another year is gone… that was my 3rd year surviving in software development world and 2nd year in .net. Well… have I achieved my targets last year? Were there any targets?

Most importantly I was doing my 2nd year in a one company. I used to jump from one company to another staying not more than 6 months in a one place. What makes me to stay there? There were lot of reasons but primarily there are good peoples.

Last year lot of things happened to me in carrier wise. Continuously I hit the top in developer tests in the company and got rewarded. I got a designation I planned to achieve in couple of years later. Well now I have to work very hard to fit into that. Last year I learned lot but I couldn’t satisfy whether I got enough.

Finally I brought a car. There were lot of humors went in the office on that lol…
Ok, I got lot of plans this year on the car. Have to install good audio system and may be some modifications… will see…

I achieved to MCAD and this year has to continue that into MCSD as well as look for new .net certifications.

My brother who is a SL naval officer came back from India after 1 year special training at Indian navy. My home got filled with joy since he was at home after one year and we a are very bounded to each other. But that joy doesn’t seem to last long as the war is like to start again. In the first day when he is returning home from Trinco a terrorist attack kills 15 SL naval personals. That convoy was the same that my brother transported but on its second trip.
Couple of days ago brother called me and told another tragedy happened to them. Tigers had attacked one of their Dvora’s that was patrolling in the sea. That also killed 13 naval personals including his 2 fellow officers. You have to have someone in security forces if you want to feel how tension it is.

Thinking about friends it’s a wonderful year. I got couple of good new friends. Ludmal, AJ and Gogula. (hay Lud we got to know last year or before that???) Those three are really good guys anyone should have. Anyway Ludmal is not working with us anymore. That’s sad. Hay we miss your company pal… we miss your songs and guitar but also a great relief to all … just kidding man… I remember we cried when you were singing songs and playing the guitar (he always dreaming like that)
To Dinesh last year was very special. …now he is a father of two children’s. Hay be more responsible man… you are older now… just kidding…. Hay this man is very good in bearing responsibilities.

From the first day in the Logical Systems this guy gave me a very big hand to improve my programming skills since I was a newbie to the field. Still I could remember in the first day he teaches me how to use collections instead of datasets. Sometimes we had little arguments also. But… boy in most cases he was right. (I think he can remember I had used select * in sql queries ha ha…) His sql skills were awesome. If I have achieved sth in these 2 years this man has to be responsible for that. (Good or bad …lol…)

And Dinesh was awarded as MVP which is the most important thing happened to my friends. His great contribution to the software community not only SL finally awarded. Well done man keep it up. We are proud of you.

Thinking about drawbacks of last year, I can remember I paid fees for some exams but didn’t do. That’s wont happened in this year. :) And I got full membership of a gym and half membership of another but didn’t workout in either. Have to go back to gym this year…

So what will or should be my future targets?.... No matter what I’ll doing but have to do it right… good or bad… that’s it…I don’t think I’ll do any bad things right… :)

When should not Design Patterns be used?

2006-01-06T00:35:00.000+09:00

mmm... my previous post's title should be "When should not Design Patterns be used?".
My mistake. :)

Thx Mahasen for correcting me.

When should Design Patterns be used?

2006-01-04T09:34:00.000+09:00

1. When the application being built today will not change, the code accurately captures all requirements, and there are no planned enhancements or features. The application you are building will be the first and last release.

2. Your application’s code requirements are unique. No software engineer has ever built anything like it. The program does not deal with any of these routing issues like object creation and event notification.

3. There is plenty of time to prototype all of your new design ideas. Alternatively, you are so confident of your ideas that they do not require any proof-of-concept testing.

4. Everyone on your team has worked together for twenty or so years. If you ask Bill to try the “thing-a-ma-jig” trick, he knows exactly what to do. The team already processes a common design vocabulary, so you don’t need to learn someone else’s.

Well… I read this in a book called Professional C# Design Patterns Applied. Anyway I can’t agree with all by 100%. What do you think?

Merger of Seagate and Maxtor

2005-12-23T00:42:00.000+09:00

Two of the largest hard drive manufacturers today announced a planned merger worth $1.9 billion. Subject to obtaining shareholder approval as well as regulatory, the combined company would find Seagate acquiring Maxtor. Read more...

Multiple row insert of data in a single database call

2005-12-22T09:48:00.000+09:00

Yesterday one my friends asked me how to insert data of an xml document in to the SQL Server 2000. He was looking for the best method to do that. And he mentioned about OpenXML to do that.

What’s the heck this OpenXML???

OPENXML is a Transact-SQL keyword that provides a rowset over in-memory XML documents. OPENXML is a rowset provider similar to a table or a view. OPENXML allows access to XML data as if it is a relational rowset by providing a rowset view of the internal representation of an XML document. The records in the rowset can be stored in database tables (similar to the rowsets provided by tables and views).

You can find more info at http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/xmlsql/ac_openxml_94mk.asp

Check out these links also...
Insert Data into SQL 2000 Using OpenXML & ADO.NET
Inserting XML formatted data into SQL Server 2000
Use OPENXML to Minimize SQL Server Database Calls

Migrating from Microsoft SQL Server and Access to MySQL

2005-12-20T09:13:00.000+09:00

Now MySql is using everywhere because of it is open source and Cross-Platform. So sometimes it is not a wonder that we have to convert our existing MS databases to MySql. Last night I found that this article by Mike Hillyer is really good because it is discussing not only methods to convert but advantages and disadvantages also.

Check this out.

http://dev.mysql.com/tech-resources/articles/migrating-from-microsoft.html

Ganja plantation in parliament

2005-12-16T00:08:00.001+09:00

Army commandos who were in searching the Parliament premises for security reasons had spotted abundantly growing Cannabis plants in a garden located on the second floor near the 'Odeon Hall' where only members of parliament could gain access.

Following an immediate probe, parliament staffers have been questioned since no outsiders are allowed to enter the area.

I wonder why MP’s haven’t been questioned in this incident since they are also visitors there. :)

When Google will go to next level?

2005-12-14T08:56:00.000+09:00

Yesterday when I was trying to log into Google talk it gave me an error saying that my password is incorrect. I tried several times and then it’s got locked. I’m death sure that I entered password correctly. I think that cause by a bug or sth… This has happened couple of times to me.
Gmail is also behaving unexpectedly sometimes. Still yahoo mail is better than Gmail. Yahoo never gave me errors.

Now it’s quite long time that Gmail is hanging around in it beta stage no? mmm when Google will go to its next level?

Our boyz @ Excel world

2005-12-13T09:10:00.000+09:00

Rear row:
Me,Asela,Buddhima,Sumudu,Dinesh

Front row:
Panduka,AJ,Nalinda

These are the guys who are rocking KandySoft...(few are missing Anuradha, Nalin, Gogula & Sanjaya)

Looks like SWAT team ha...:)

Interviewing

2005-12-13T08:55:00.000+09:00

Well… Mahasen had an opportunity of interviewing people at virtusa recently.
I was also interviewed by virtusa and failed about 2 years ago :)
Main reason was hadn’t got any idea about the interview. Hadn’t got prepared etc…

Anyway if you are on job hunting these days I recommend you to read this.
Its worth to read since there are really good points.

http://mahasen.blogspot.com/2005/12/interviewing.html

How serious are you about audio?

2005-12-02T02:41:00.000+09:00

Are you serious about audio?
Check this site out.

http://www.sonicflare.com/

It’s got daily updates on supper speakers, Home Theaters and the Digital Audio Revolution.

Apache Tomcat/4.0.4 - HTTP Status 500 - Internal Server Error

2005-12-02T02:22:00.000+09:00

Last night I tried to pay my internet bill online. Actually it’s a Lankabell CDMA phone bill since I have dedicated that to connect to the internet.

As usual it’s a damn slow connection so I couldn’t complete the payment. So there was a message saying that I can not complete the payment and a back button. I clicked that back button and what happened? It gave me “Apache Tomcat/4.0.4 - HTTP Status 500 - Internal Server Error”. :)

Optical Disc Features 1.6 TeraBytes of Storage Capacity and 120 MBPs Transfer Rate

2005-11-25T19:06:00.000+09:00

Maxell Introduces the Future of Optical Storage Media With Holographic Recording Technology

Maxell Corporation of America, the technological leader in advanced recordable media, and InPhase Technologies are bringing a revolutionary technology to market - holographic media. With uncompressed storage capacities achieving 1.6 TeraBytes per disk and data rates as high as 120 MBPs, holographic technology is a true breakthrough in optical media. These features, along with a long archival life, make holographic media a compelling choice for storage and archival requirements....

Cracking.............

2005-11-14T03:39:00.000+09:00

well... there is a thread going on at .net forum. About Hacking & Cracking. Actually not exactly abt Hacking & Cracking but abt discussing things related to Hacking & Cracking at the forum.

I also shared my view on that putting the guy who tried to criticize cracking, into the ground. But I don’t feel comfortable as lot of folks is still using pirated software’s including me. Specially students.

How I forget the knowledge & advantages we gained because of those crackers and there pirated softwares. So where I would be now if they didn’t exist?....................
Where Sri Lankan IT industry would be now if they didn’t exist?....................

At last I got WeFly247 DVD

2005-11-11T09:40:00.000+09:00

Well at last I got WeFly247 DVD. Since they didn't ship it to Sri Lanka I put the delivery address to a place in Australia. That’s a place of AJ’s friend and she mailed that DVD to us. (Thx should be going to Aj and his friend)

So this process got long time and thing is now I haven’t got VS2005 B2 but Release Candidate Edition installed in my mc.

I wonder source codes will work or not in Release Candidate Edition.
Still haven’t got time to check the source codes out.
Any ideas? And do anyone played with WeFly247?

Going to be the first on the sun!

2005-11-04T16:23:00.000+09:00

Russian President Putin, American president George Bush, and
Srilankan Ex PM Ranil W were talking one day.
Putin said, "We were the first in space!"
Bush said, "We were the first on the moon!"
Ranil W "So what, we're going to be the first on the
sun!"
Bush and Putin looked at each other and shook their heads.
"You can't land on the sun, you idiot! you'll burn up!" said
Putin.
Ranil W replied, "We're not stupid, like you all. We're going at
night!"
You all know I brought the Peace in the night ..no body knows
hah...hah..ha..

The Most Powerful Subwoofer in the World!

2005-11-01T12:25:00.000+09:00

Hyperbole galore, the Eminent Technology TRW 17 is, as you shall see, the most powerful subwoofer in the world, achieving FLAT response down to 1Hz. 1Hz! Human hearing is rated from 20Hz to 20kHz but you can actually feel sound way below that -- and so can your neighbors and your neighbors' neighbors.
Click the links below to read our take on the most revolutionary bass product this century.

http://www.eminent-tech.com/main.html [Official Site]
http://www.sonicflare.com/archives/eminent-tech-trw-17-the-most-powerful-subwoofer-in-the-world.php

Oh boy when I get one of this? :)

Love your job but never fall in love with your company, because you never know when the company stops loving you!

2005-10-28T12:53:00.000+09:00

"Love your job but never fall in love with your company, because you never know when the company stops loving you!"

It’s the truth. Isn't it?
Do you believe in this? Well… I do and I think you better do.
What do you think?

Skills, knowledge, abilities and experiences are only useful if you are at the right place

2005-10-28T12:36:00.000+09:00

I got this wonderful story today morning by an email from one of my good friends. It’s little bit old & circulating since some time. But I thought it's worth to share.

A mother and a baby camel were lazing around, and suddenly the baby camel asked....

Baby: Mother, mother, may I ask you some questions?

Mother: Sure! Why son, is there something bothering you?

Baby: Why do camels have humps?

Mother: Well son, we are desert animals, we need the humps to store water and we are known to survive without water.

Baby: Okay, then why are our legs long and our feet rounded?

Mother: Son, obviously they are meant for walking in the desert, you know with these legs I can move around the desert better than anyone does! Said the mother proudly.

Baby: I see. So the hump is to store water when we are in the desert, the legs are for walking through the desert and these eyelashes protect my eyes from the desert...
Then what the hell are we doing here in the Zzzoooooo!

Moral of the story is:
"Skills, knowledge, abilities and experiences are only useful if you are at the right place"

We gonna start a company blog...

2005-10-24T18:29:00.000+09:00

Well.. well.. guess what? We gonna start a company blog server. :)

We are using "telligentsystems Community Server", the best community server at all time. We are doing config things today & most probably blogs will be available tomorrow afternoon.

mmm... then I can host my blog there...right... But it's very sad to leave Blogger... :(
It's almost one & half years I'm blogging here. Anyway I haven't decided whether I'm gonna maintain one blog at company blog server or maintain blogger one also.

You may can reach my company blog at http://community.kandysoftglobal.com/blogs/madhawa/default.aspx from tomorrow.

Installed Visual Studio 2005 Release Candidate

2005-10-21T14:13:00.000+09:00

Yesterday night I was bit busy with installing Visual Studio 2005 Release Candidate. I couldn’t install it in the win 2003 server since I haven’t got sp1 installed. So I tried with Win Advance server 2000. Its already got VS 2003 installed. After installed VS 2005 both works fine. No conflicts. :)
mmm now it's time to play with VS 2005. I hadn’t got enough time with beta releases because of heavy office works.

Hexadecimal Display in debugging in VS 2003

2005-10-20T20:14:00.000+09:00

Nalin, one of my colleague informed me that when he debugging in Visual Studio 2003, variable values are displaying in hexadecimal. Everybody confused. Some guys told it is problem with the mc, virus etc…
But guess what had happened? I found that there is no problem but in “Options -> Debugging -> General” he had enabled "Hexadecimal Display". He was telling that he didn’t do that. I also couldn’t think he would do that kinda thing.
By the way if he didn’t do that how it could be happened??? :)

Mixing Forms and Windows Security in ASP.NET

2005-10-19T18:25:00.000+09:00

Well... In a asp.net application that I'm working on these days I have to implement both Forms and Windows authentications. If user got windows credentials we have to capture the Windows username, if possible, and otherwise redirect users to a login screen.

Seems difficult ha... yes it is. But luckily I found a good article that describing how to do that.

Check this out
http://msdn.microsoft.com/asp.net/articles/security/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnaspp/html/mixedsecurity.asp#mixedsecurity_topic1

Custom development ???

2005-10-19T17:43:00.000+09:00

Custom development is that murky world where a customer tells you what to build, and you say, "are you sure?" and they say yes, and you make an absolutely beautiful spec, and say, "is this what you want?" and they say yes, and you make them sign the spec in indelible ink, nay, blood, and they do, and then you build that thing they signed off on, promptly, precisely and exactly, and they see it and they are horrified and shocked, and you spend the rest of the week reading up on whether your E&O insurance is going to cover the legal fees for the lawsuit you've gotten yourself into or merely the settlement cost. Or, if you're really lucky, the customer will smile wanly and put your code in a drawer and never use it again and never call you back....

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/SetYourPriorities.html

Did u ever feel the pain of "Custom development"? I bet u did...

It works on my machine...

2005-10-18T18:30:00.000+09:00

This is bit old one but really cool :D. One of my friends had e-mailed me today.

Top 20 replies by Programmers to Testers when their programs don't work

20. That's weird...
19. It's never done that before.
18. It worked yesterday.
17. How is that possible?
16. It must be a hardware problem.
15. What did you type in wrong to get it to crash?
14. There is something funky in your data.
13. I haven't touched that module in weeks!
12. You must have the wrong version.
11. It's just some unlucky coincidence.
10. I can't test everything!
9. THIS can't be the source of THAT.
8. It works, but it hasn't been tested.
7. Somebody must have changed my code.
6. Did you check for a virus on your system?
5. Even though it doesn't work, how does it feel?
4. You can't use that version on your system.
3. Why do you want to do it that way?
2. Where were you when the program blew up?

And the Number One Reply by Programmers when their programs don't work:

"It works on my machine"

Tech.Ed

2005-10-14T22:12:00.000+09:00

Tech.ed is over now. I attended first 2 days and it’s awesome. This was the first and only this kind of event I have attended. Mainly I attended “Database, Mobility & Embedded” sessions and found Gaurav Khanna’s and Vinod Kumar’s sessions were great. Even though I was not into embedded devices programming I had to attend those sessions ‘cos someone in our company had to catch new trends in embedded development. Any way I attended those sessions but not to my favorites with a little bit annoyed mind.

But from the first session by Gaurav I was really impressed and thought I’ll continue with this stream in tech.ed. Then it was vinod kumar and he also great. Only problem with him to me was he is not ending his sessions on time. Because of this, some times we didn’t get enough breaks among sessions. Any way I think vinod got a bit tight schedule & he covered lot of things in a very short time.

I attended one session of Wiliam tay and boy its great. (But I really felt in difficulties on getting what he is saying because of his accent) That session was abt “Transactions in Web Services and WS-OtherThings Developers Love to Hate”.

And end of the second day we got an entertainment night and we all had lot of fun. And 2 of my colleagues (Panduka, Buddhima) got gifts and we drank and danced till the end. Our ex colleague Ludmal (e-solution) & my friend Munasinghe (virtusa) joined us.

From this tech.ed we learned lot of things. We should thanks to all who put their shoulders on Tech.Ed including our MVP’s. And another thing I’m not satisfied with is welcome kit we got. That bag and T-shirt were not in good quality. Lot of guys couldn’t wear that t-shirt (too small) even though it had labeled as large. :)

Couldn't upload more images because of the slow connection speed. I'll add more pics in next week.

Singapore jails bloggers

2005-10-11T14:13:00.000+09:00

Two chinese men who penned racist slurs about Malays on their interweb blogs have been jailed by a Singapore court.
Animal shelter worker Benjamin Koh Song Huat, 27, was jailed for one month while Nicholas Lim Yew, an unemployed 25-year-old, was jailed for a day and fined £1500.

Guys, be careful.... It could happen here also. :)

full story

Spring.NET - Dependency Injection and more...

2005-10-11T08:10:00.000+09:00

Spring.NET is an application framework focused on helping build enterprise .NET applications. It provides a wide range of functionality such as Dependency Injection, Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP), data access abstractions, and ASP.NET integration.

Based on the Spring Framework for Java, the core concepts and values found in Spring.Java have been applied to .NET. The 1.0 release of Spring.NET contains a full featured Inversion of Control container and an AOP library. Subsequent releases will contain support for ASP.NET, Remoting, and data access.

Guys this is really cool, believe me... I checked that "Dependency Injection" using Spring.Net couple of weeks ago. Hadn't got time to explore the depth.

You can download Spring.NET from
http://www.springframework.org/

Here is the home.
http://www.springframework.net

Be on alert! I'll post wut I experience.

I wonder wut to do...

2005-10-11T07:54:00.000+09:00

mmm...
5 more days to the project delivery…(wut I’m on @ work)
gogula will cover ma back...:) (thx man)
6 more days to the exam...(I hate those things)
nothing have done :( (it's usuall)
go to hell bloody exams
anyway I’m gonna fail…
one more day to tech.ed
so folks, I'll be there :D

China Plans Its Own Next-Gen DVD Format

2005-10-09T01:12:00.000+09:00

From a previous post I talked abt the war between Sony corp and Toshiba on HD-DVD formats right... (Toshiba is now backed by Universal Studies along with Intel and Microsoft)

Guess wut will be da next party to join ....
Check this out.

http://www.sci-tech-today.com/news/China-Plans-Own-Next-Gen-DVD-Format/story.xhtml?story_id=013001G932RQ

Sulanga Enu Pinisa’ removed from Cinema Theatres

2005-09-26T13:59:00.000+09:00

(23rd September,2005 - 13:45 S.L.T)

The National Film Corporation has decided to stop screening the Sinhala film ‘Sulanga Enu Pinisa’ from the cinema theatres immediately which won an international award at the Cannes Film Festival in France recently.

There had been severe critics on the film accusing that the director Vimukthi Jayasundara has tried to ridicule the armed forces and village lads and these characters are only fabrications which are not found in the relevant sectors.

It is learnt that the ban on screening has resulted the above reasons. However the producer of the film Mr Upul Shantha Sannasgala has filed a case against this decision alleging that this has been done to allocate another new film in the Corporation theatres and said that he will remove the film from other centres as well against this decision.

The great SL Army

2005-09-23T16:10:00.000+09:00

The Story behind One haitian guy ran in to the Kilik Camp at Haiti and saying that 'Please help me my wife is going to deliver a baby ...Please give me your ambulance to go for Hospital. While our guys arranging the Army Ambulance to give that poor man but again he was shouting that she is read for delivary. So I do not know what to do ...he exclaimed. She is lay on the road. No body help us... Please... Please do some thing... The time was 2 am. What to do the baby is comoing for new world litle by little. But that Mother was laying on the road and shouting continously. Nobody there to help them. Nobody there to lookfafter them. Nobody there to advise them... U just think U may be that father... or U may be that mother shouting with labour pain on the road. Then what are U going to do. What is yr position...The God... Will he come to help U ?...

No my dear... There were not that type of incident happened. Our Sri lanka Army guys only there to help them. They woke up our Army Doctor. He ran to the place without his Uniform. Ambulance puts its head light to the road. Our Sri lanka Army soldiers light there toach to light the road theater. Sissors and Gloves were going here and there.Bloods every where on the road...Listen... The environtment suddenly changed. All smile with hope and one boy baby was cring. Can U imagine why this baby was criyng at that time That because The Sri Lanka Army Peace Keepers doing their United Nation mission on the road with the toach light when the God washed his hands.

Major Laknath de silva @ Haity

Toshiba have doubled the storage capacity of the single-layer HD DVD-R disc

2005-09-22T20:04:00.000+09:00

Toshiba corp announced that they have developed a 30-gigabyte dual-layer HD DVD recordable disc, doubling the storage capacity of the single-layer HD DVD-R disc it developed earlier. They are saying a DVD-R disc can record data only once.

Sony corp is promoting a separate format called “Blue-Ray Disc”. It is very sad that these two corporations couldn’t agree on a common format :(

Well... this is a bit like C# and Java from Microsoft and Sun.

Is there room in the software industry for a low cost provider, someone who uses the cheapest programmers available?

2005-09-22T18:32:00.000+09:00

Couple of weeks ago Sohona had mailed me this very interesting article by Joel Spolsky.
Which describes how disastrous to hire unskilled developers considering the low cost. I’m not a management personal. But sometimes I have seen that’s happening everywhere in the software field.

My question is will 100 or more jerks make an art work that made by a great artist?

Check this out....
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/HighNotes.html

Finding Effective Leaders

2005-09-20T20:19:00.000+09:00

I found this interesting chapter yesterday when I was dipping into some e-books I got. Thought you will really like this.

For the person in charge of putting together a project team, the first task is to decide who will work on the project. This seemingly simple (but more often complex) decision can dramatically affect the project's outcome.
Finding leaders within an organization is not a difficult process. By definition, leaders are recognized by those they work with. It's important to remember that we are talking about leaders here, not bosses. Every organization has its share of managers, directors, and so on, but the hierarchical structure of an organization does not determine who the true leaders are. Actions and characteristics, rather than job titles, identify leaders.
Why do we need leaders? Because we have so many followers. It's important to realize that labeling people as leaders and followers does not imply a value judgment. We must have leaders to be successful, but we must also have followers. Leaders provide direction for the team. Followers get the work done. The team needs to strike a balance between its leaders and followers. It must decide what to do and then must do it, so both leaders and followers are equally important and valuable. An absence of either leaders or followers will hinder the project's success.
Certain characteristics are present in many leaders. Common qualities of leaders include:

Understanding and meeting the needs of others.

Communicating well with groups and individuals.

Earning the respect of internal and external customers.

Displaying commitment to well-defined purposes.

Making a positive difference.

Having confidence in his or her abilities.

Practicing good problem-solving skills.

Helping others to develop their skills.

Many people will read this list and say, "I do those things." More people will read this list and say, "I intend to do those things." But being a leader also means knowing the difference between intent and impact. When measuring their own success, people measure their intent; when measuring other people's success, they measure their impact. The impact that leaders have on others may or may not be their intent, and leaders' intent may not have the impact they were striving for. The proper way to measure people's leadership skills is by the impact they actually have, not by their intent. We can summarize this concept by saying, "Other people's perceptions are reality."

Database Refactoring

2005-09-13T19:37:00.000+09:00

Well, after long time no? I was very busy in last few weeks. Guess wut? Enjoying my first project leading experience :) I think we did well and we delivered first part (admin) of the application to the customer on time. It was an e-commerce web application. Little bit complex one. There were lots of technical stuffs that I experienced on the way but hadn’t got time to post. All the members of my team gave me a tremendous support and they did well although some guys are new to asp.net. Thanks guys!

Anyway when I took over the project some parts had started to develop. Since I don’t like to do things in improper way there were lot of refactorings in the codes went there. And in the databases also.
Here are some useful links on database refactoring.

http://www.agiledata.org/essays/databaseRefactoringCatalog.html

http://www.databaserefactoring.com/catalog/

Well, if u r thinking wut the heck of this database refactoring see below wut they say.

* A refactoring is a small change to your code which improves its design without changing its semantics.
* A database refactoring is a small change to your database schema (the table structures, data itself, stored procedures, and triggers) which improves its design without changing its semantics.
* Database refactoring is a technique which supports evolutionary development processes.

More work for the Intel lawyers

2005-08-09T14:04:00.000+09:00

Well there is not only AMD vs Intel war. Now Intel has filed a case in a Houston district court at the beginning of this month.

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=24483

Be a Software engineer by birth

2005-08-09T13:33:00.000+09:00

The Teacher asked the student to write "I Will Not Throw Paper Airplanes in the Class" 500 times.

AMD Files Suit Against Intel

2005-07-01T21:38:00.000+09:00

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. has filed a broad antitrust lawsuit against Intel Corp., claiming Intel illegally maintains a monopoly in the PC processor market. full story...

Use code snippets in Visual Studio 2005

2005-06-30T16:34:00.000+09:00

Visual Studio 2005 provides a cool feature called code snippets. We can use code snippet to type a short alias, and then expand it into a common programming construct. Code snippets can make writing program code quicker, easier, and more reliable.

U can use this feature in 2 ways. You can just create a programming construct and write code inside it or select lines of codes and then create a code snippet to surround that.

To create an empty snippet all u have to do is type a short name for the alias — a code snippet shortcut — then press TAB. To use IntelliSense menu u can press CTRL+K, then X. This will activate code snippet IntelliSense menu and u can select and press tab to insert that.

To surround with code snippets just select lines u wanna surround and press CTRL+R, then S. That’s all.

After u enter code snippet it will highlights editable areas and u can use tab to navigate trough those. And u can press enter or escape to cancel field editing and return the Code Editor to normal.

what is Effective Communication?

2005-06-29T19:14:00.000+09:00

Jack and Max are walking from religious service. Jack wonders whether it would be all right to smoke while praying.

Max replies, "Why don't you ask the Priest?".

So Jack goes up to the Priest and asks, "Priest, may I smoke while I pray?".

But the Priest says, "No, my son, you may not. That's utter disrespect to our religion."
Jack goes back to his friend and tells him what the good Priest told him.

Max says, "I'm not surprised. You asked the wrong question. Let me try."

And so Max goes up to the Priest and asks, "Priest, may I pray while I smoke?"

To which the Priest eagerly replies, "By all means, my son. By all means."

Moral: The reply you get depends on the question you ask.

Sumudu's gonna blog

2005-06-27T18:24:00.000+09:00

Oh yeah, finally he is doing that thing. Sumudu is another homey I inherited and implemented right. (anyway these days I prefer composition over inheritance :D) Senior developer got lot of experience in .net since the beta release. (hay guys I'm talking abt days that there were no IDE's for .net right...).

You can reach his blog here. http://www.sumudusharp.blogspot.com

Keep da good works up man!

How Speech Recognition Works—And Doesn't Work

2005-06-27T18:12:00.000+09:00

Well, I'm not much interested in Speech Recognition technology and related things. But I know it’s a hot topic over the web lot of folks curious abt. If you are, check this out.

My dream phones have released

2005-06-17T17:01:00.000+09:00

Check these babes out! W800 W600

Does your role in the development team effects in performance tuning?

2005-06-13T19:04:00.000+09:00

Ok guys, its abt performance again. You know in a development team all members have to keep performance in mind right… But that affects ur role in the team.

Performance affects different roles in different ways:

· As an architect, you need to balance performance and scalability with other quality-of-service (QoS) attributes such as manageability, interoperability, security, and maintainability.

· As a developer, you need to know where to start, how to proceed, and when you have optimized your software enough.

· As a tester, you need to validate whether the application supports expected workloads.

· As an administrator, you need to know when an application no longer meets its service level agreements, and you need to be able to create effective growth plans.

· As an organization, you need to know how to manage performance throughout the software life cycle, as well as lower total cost of ownership of the software that your organization creates.

And other crucial thing is when to approach into the performance in the life cycle of a project. This is for architects right...

Reactive vs. Proactive Approach

"If you're very lucky, performance problems can be fixed after the fact. But, as often as not, it will take a great deal of effort to get your code to where it needs to be for acceptable performance. This is a very bad trap to fall into. At its worst, you'll be faced with a memorable and sometimes job-ending quote: 'This will never work. You're going to have to start all over.'"
Rico Mariani, Architect, Microsoft

Performance is frequently neglected until a customer reports a problem. In other cases, performance is not evaluated until system test or initial deployment. In either case, you may not be able to fix the issue by throwing more hardware at the problem.

There are several problems with a reactive approach to performance. Performance problems are frequently introduced early in the design and design issues cannot always be fixed through tuning or more efficient coding. Also, fixing architectural or design issues later in the cycle is not always possible. At best, it is inefficient, and it is usually very expensive. You experience increased hardware expenses and finally increased total cost of ownership.

But in proactive approach you know where to focus your optimization efforts and its decrease the need to tune and redesign as well as expensive hardware upgrades. This will leads to reduced operational cost and total cost of ownership.

TV Stick - Smallest USB TV tuner

2005-06-13T14:10:00.000+09:00

Hay guys, from my teen ages I got huge interest in gadgets. So you can expect lot of posts on those things apart from software engineering in my blog. I think you guys will love that.

So today when I was browsing the web I see this cool TV stick that I always dreamed about. But it will take couple of months to buy that in Sri Lanka right.

Three IT consultants

2005-06-09T20:04:00.000+09:00

Mahasen had mailed me this funny thing. But there is a serious story behind that right... to make ur face into a monkey face Check this out... :D

One day, three consultants, one from Wipro, one from Infosys and one from Virtusa, went out for a walk. They were old buddies from engg. college,and they were together for a college reunion. For no apparent reason, they went into a zoo and passed a monkey.

Being in the same business and from the same college, there was a little bit of a peer competition going on between themselves - they couldn't resist testing themselves against each other - especially the Infosys guy. Said he to the others: "Why don't we prove who is the best among ourselves?". Why not, said the other two. The Infoscion said "Let's have a test. Whoever makes this monkey laugh, works for the best firm". By mutual agreement, the Infoscion took the first turn.

Being a pure logical strategist, the Infoscion tried to make the monkey laugh by telling jokes. The monkey stayed still. As a more practical consultant, the Wipro guy tried to make funny gestures... ... no good, the monkey stayed put... Now, comes the guy from Virtusa... being the practical guy he was always trained to be,

He whispered something into the monkey's ear, and it burst out laughing at him. The other two were astonished. How did this guy manage to beat them? No way they were going to accept defeat so easily.
So the Wipro guy said "OK, let's take another test. Let's make this monkey cry !!" So there they went again, applying the same methods as before. The Infosys guy narrated sad stories, The Wipro guy made sad gestures, And they failed again... Then, the guy from Virtusa again whispered something into the monkey's ear. And lo! Patting the Virtusan's shoulder,it started crying,

The other two just could not believe their eyes! So the Infoscion said "OK, you've won twice. If you can win just this one, we will bow to you. Let's make this monkey run". And he barked at the monkey and ordered him to run. Of course, it stayed where it was. The Wipro guy, true to his type, pushed and prodded the monkey - still no go.

So...here comes our Virtusa guy again, and whispers into the monkey's ear. The monkey just takes off! It runs and runs as fast as it can, as if it was scared to death! The other two surrendered.

Said they: "OK, we give up. You're the best among us, and you work for the best firm of the three. But please, please tell us your secret," they begged him. "Well", said the Virtusa, "The first time I made it laugh, I told it I work for Virtusa. The next time, I told the monkey how much I get paid...so it started crying. And then I told him that I was here for recruitment!!

The most powerful audio processor ever built

2005-06-06T20:46:00.000+09:00

The most powerful audio processor ever built will soon be providing previously unimaginable benefits to users around the world. Delivering such benefits as accelerated frame-rates in games, providing the most realistic headphone surround experience and even adding back in to music the sparkle that is lost during MP3 or WMA compression - this new technology is going to transform the world of entertainment. Whatever you enjoy doing, if it involves audio, is never going to be the same again!
Check this out on Creative site or read a review here.

Via to launch Pentium M pin-compatible CPU ?

2005-05-18T14:54:00.000+09:00

There is a rumor here that VIA planning to launch a socket 479 compatible CPU. Interesting eh? Seems both Intel and AMD will get good competitor. Then what we will get? :)

How compiler decides a method to inline or not?

2005-05-17T12:55:00.000+09:00

When I’m dipping into improving performance of managed code I got wondered how compiler decides a method to inline or not.

Ok, First I’ll tell you what is method inlining (to whom, think what’s the hell is this inlining).

As all we know there is a cost associated with method calls; arguments need to be pushed on the stack or stored in registers, the method prolog and epilog need to be executed and so on. The cost of these calls can be avoided for certain methods by simply moving the method body of the method being called into the body of the caller. This is called Method In-lining. The JIT uses a number of heuristics to decide whether a method should be in-lined. The following is a list of the more significant of those (note that this is not exhaustive):

• Methods that are greater than 32 bytes of IL will not be inlined.
• Virtual functions are not inlined.
But if your virtual method is sealed its candidates for inlining as well as other compiler optimizations also.
• Methods that have complex flow control will not be in-lined. (Complex flow control is any flow control other than if/then/else; in this case, switch or while.)
• Methods that contain exception-handling blocks are not inlined, though methods that throw exceptions are still candidates for inlining.
• If any of the method's formal arguments are structs, the method will not be inlined.

But note on, those things might be change in future versions of the JIT.
And other thing, don’t compromise the correctness of the method to attempt to guarantee that it will be inlined.
Pretty interesting? ha

Gigabyte Enters Mobile Phone Market

2005-05-16T15:15:00.000+09:00

Gigabyte Communications, established last June, said it plans to launch its first mobile phone under the Gigabyte brand in the July-September period. The handset will be targeted at the high-end segment, which accounts for about one-fifth of the nation's NT$42 billion (US$1.35) market.

Gigabyte enters cellphone market

SOAP exception when dealing with XMLA

2005-05-12T17:12:00.000+09:00

We got a web application which accessing SQL Analysis Service through XMLA. Some times when we accessing it gives a SOAP exception. We tried everything (restating services and server also) but failed. Reinstalling XMLA SDK solved this problem but as you can understand it’s not the solution since this thing happening several times per day.

Today I changed application pool of XMLA web service and guess what? It solved the problem. So I create a dedicated application pool for XMLA and things going smoothly now. But not sure what will happen next. If this will work well, I'll add our web application also to that application pool.

Enjoy True 5.1 Channel Surround Sound without a room full of speakers

2005-05-12T17:03:00.000+09:00

Turtle Beach is showing off their new ‘Ear Force’ line of headphones, designed for gamers and movie watchers who want 5.1 surround sound without dealing with actual speakers. The X-51 is a folding pair, while the HPA are an amplified, slightly higher-end pair. The X-51s can be had now for around $80, while the HPAs are on pre-order. Both models come with a boom mic, suitable for voice chat or just hearing yourself breathe from each of the headphones 8 speakers (center, rear, and front on one layer, with subwoofer on top. Pretty crazy).

Product Page [TurtleBeach]