Wela's Blog

Breaking News! - 4 teams from Sri Lanka enters Imagine Cup 2009 World finals

Wela — 6/17/2009 3:10:29 PM

Breaking News! - 4 teams from Sri Lanka enters Imagine Cup 2009 World finals

It's with great pleasure & pride that we announce the 4 teams from Sri Lanka who have made it to the Imagine Cup 2009 World Finals to be held in Egypt. What makes their entry a great achievement for Sri Lanka is that, this is the highest number of teams representing our country at the finals in the history of Imagine Cup.

A total of over 800 students from Sri Lanka stepped up and signed up for the competition this year to solve the toughest problems facing us today. This year?s local competition winner from SLIIT is joined in ranks by three teams from the University of Moratuwa in Embedded Development, Robotics and Algorithm and MashUp categories, who are all highly energized and poised to make Mother Sri Lanka proud.

This year, being declared the Year of English and IT in Sri Lanka, seems the ideal occasion to bring the big trophy to Sri Lanka. Do join me in wishing the teams Good Luck at the World Finals in Cairo!!


?					?
?	Team: Mahee Team Mahee Consists of Akila Jayasooriya, Chathura Jayasinghe, Dunith Kankanamage and Lakkana Perera from Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology won the Imagine Cup 2009 Sri Lanka competition and fully geared up to compete in the world finals in Cairo in July. ?	Team: SAS_EN Four members Amila Sajayahan, Sanjaya Ratnayake, Anuruddha Ranatunga, Ruvindee Tharaka from University of Moratuwa, Faculty of Information Technology got together this year to compete in the Embedded category. This team represented Sri Lanka in the software design category in Imagine Cup 2007 world finals.	Competitor: Aravinda P Aravinda is from University of Moratuwa, Department of Computer Science and Engineering. Following the great passion he has for Electronics, Computers and Robotics he took his chances and excelled at the Robotics and Algorithm category by making to the top 6 competitors.	Team: Sasrutha Dasuni Kannangara and Supunmali Ahangama are from University of Moratuwa, Faculty of IT. They have being friends since school days. They were members in the 2008 Sri Lanka software design winning team and this year they too the challenge to compete in the Mash Up category and made it to the world top 6.	?

Progress on my blog ...

Wela — 6/2/2009 5:32:36 PM

Well! in case if you remember ... a long time ago I started developing the next version of my blog. Time has passed and new technologies have come and the old ones looks ... absolutely old ... But I havent moved an inch on the new blog development in ages. In terms of technologies ... I think i'm getting dumb and dumber :)

Right now i'm in a really busy schedule. Well! I was in a busy schedule those days also, but competed to the current busy status those were like teasers. Now you must be wondering what the hell am I busy with ... there are many things keeping me busy busy these days ... among those ... the new born baby, upcoming Imagine Cup Egypt tour, final preparations for the Imagine Cup world competition, preparations for the next Microsoft financial year, tons of meetings etc are there. But above all ... Software for the 21st Century project is taking?a majority of my time.

Wela Junior ...

Wela — 5/28/2009 7:45:27 PM

As some of you might already heard the good news my wife gave birth to a baby boy last Monday. He is yet to be given a name. Yup! a Wela junior ... both mother and the baby are fine. However staying in the hospital even for 2 days was boring as hell. A big thanks to the doctor and the staff who supported throughout the whole adventure.

Thank to all my friends for the wishes. btw: thanks for the suggestions form friends to name the fella ... one suggested to have 'Silverlight' or '.NET' in his name. :|

One more thing ... i'm really glad is that the little fella is born in a country where there is no war :)

Imagine Cup 2009 Sri Lanka Finals - SLIIT takes gold spot!

Wela — 5/25/2009 5:17:56 PM

Imagine Cup 2009 Sri Lanka

Imagine Cup 2009 Sri Lanka? Premier Software Design Competition had its exalted grand finale on 18^th May 2009. Top 5 teams presented their projects on stage, in front of a panel of judges and large audience of over 500 distinguished guests. Among the attendees were almost 100 academic staff members, software company representatives, 60 media representatives and over 300 students. Each team was given 20 minutes to present their project followed by a 10 minutes Q&A session with the judges. During the Q&A rounds all teams faced some tough questions covering several different aspects of the projects including feasibility, financial viability etc.??

The coveted Imagine Cup 2009 Software Design Sri Lanka championship was won by team Mahee from the Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology.

WINNER

Team: Mahee

Project: MISEEFA
From: Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology

Miseefa attempts to grant access to more people to better healthcare around the globe. The system provides a general healthcare solution while focusing on the maternal healthcare in the underserved communities into a considerable depth. System revolves around a unique, low cost, mobile hardware device called a "Medical Chair" and the rich set of applications embedded ensures a better user experience when consuming the services of the chair. The data gathered during a "channeling session" are handled intelligently to improve the health level of the community.

1st Runner-up

Team: Legal Advisors

Project: Legal Advisors

From: University of Colombo School of Computing

The World as we know it today, operates with an accepted set of standards and conditions that ensures every human being can lead their lives with dignity and freedom. Though the governments do their best to fulfill the basic requirements of each society, still we seem to lag far behind in certain communities in various circumstances. If the society is aware of their rights the world would be a different place than now?? In most 3rd world countries, women experience great hardships that pose a challenge in upholding their basic human rights. In certain communities, young girls are deprived of education and are subject to malnourishment from early childhood, some are forced in to child marriages, women are sexually harassed at their work places & in public transport, and most of the time is paid a lesser salary. But if they are aware of their rights and in a better position to protect themselves? the story won?t end like this?

2nd Runner-up

Team: InnoWorks

Project: Travel Green Ceylon

From: University of Moratuwa Faculty of Information Technology

One of the main problems that the world is facing today is Global Warming and the climate changes associated with it. The main reason for global warming is the emission of Green House Gases, and among those, CO₂ accounts for more than 50% of the total emissions. One way of reducing the amount of CO₂ that is being released to the environment is by reducing the number of vehicles that are in use. This can be achieved by promoting the use of public transport.

The objective of our system, Travel Green Ceylon is to promote the use of public transport by reducing the shortcomings in the public transport service that is currently being experienced by the commuters. As a result, more people will start utilizing public transportation modes for their daily travel. This will result in the reduction of CO₂ emission into the environment, thereby increasing Environmental sustainability.

Egypt ... Here we come (in July) ...

Where the party is going to be ....

Wela — 5/14/2009 10:30:24 AM

It's that time of the year again ... where one city becomes the brightest spot on the planet for a full week ... It's Imagine Cup time. World Finals are taking place in early July. As you might already know this year Cairo, Egypt is going to be the brightest spot as all the talent from around the world, students who are going to solve the toughest problems facing us today ... best and the brightest from?over 300,000 competitors from around the world will be heading to Egypt.

As many of you already know as of now i'm on fire doing the final touches for the big event in Sri Lanka ... Imagine Cup 2009 Sri Lanka Finals is taking place on 18th May ... that's next Monday. As always it is we do it big and in style in Sri Lanka. Was going through some old photos and suddenly saw the onces of the Imaigne Cup Parties ...

In 2006 we had a the party in the hotel garden, 2007 we promoted ourselfs :) and had the party in one of the most exclusive (not to mention the expensive) joints in Seoul - the Woo Bar. In 2008 we again did it in style under the bridge ... it was an exclusive club under the Alexandre bridge. I wonder where we are going to have the party this time. Let's hope ... on top the pyramids baby ....

2006 - Hotel Garden Party

2007 - @ Woo Bar

2008 - Under the bridge

2009 - ???

It's going to be an action packed Summer ...

Wela — 5/14/2009 7:44:28 AM

Just checked the apple movie trailers section after a long time. And It's going to be an action pack couple of months ahead as several awsome movies are in line to come.

Among them ... Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen, Terminator - Salvation, G. I. Joe,?Harry Potter - Half Blood Prince, StarTrek etc. I'm sure at least one of these will make it to the billion doller list as all these are either the second part of previously very successful movies or are based on legendary stories, cartoons we all enjoyed years ago.

Also couple of good cartoons are also in the line ... i'm looking forwrad for UP and Astroboy.

What on earth is wrong with Adobe?

Wela — 4/24/2009 10:48:03 AM

For the past 6 years I have been using Adobe Photoshop and it has been a fantastic piece of software. Recently I self learnt how to use Illustrator and InDesign because those two also became quote essential for me. But started trying a trial version of CS4 few days ago and ... its awful. I have no clue whats going on here. Seems like Adobe have put a significant effort to enhance the UI. But by doing that seems like they have sacrifised performance.

I dont think this is due to something wrong with my laptop. It's a super fast laptop with a Vista Experience Index at 5.3 and a whooping 512 MB dedicated VGA. Above all I was using Adobe CS3 applications without any problem. Now with CS4 I have to wait after every brush stroke. Anyways i'm not a expert designer. Can any experienced designer help me? Am I missing anything here?

So Close ... not any more ...

Wela — 4/16/2009 7:34:06 AM

Couple of month ago I wrote about the movie Dark Knight mentioning that it is almost about to total a billion dollars. Few minutes ago I checked the IMDB site and guess what! .... Dark Knight had made it to the billion dollar movies club.

So far only 4 movies have ever made it there ... Lets see how the upcoming movies Terminator Salvation, Transformers Revenge of the Fallen, StarTrek etc will do.

No more work ?

Wela — 4/15/2009 4:04:31 PM

This is a historical moment! well! at least for me. After trying really hard for many long hours even in holidays I have finally cleared up my tasks list in outlook, sent out all the draft mails in my Outlook Drafts folder and actioned all the things I have noted in my 'Today' notepad.

Normally whenever an important email comes to my inbox and if i'm not in a position to reply or do the needful at the time I flag it and put a completion date/time. Depending on the importance of the mail I reply or complete the task. Normally there are many task items in the list :) .... there were few times it exceeded 100 ... ?No matter how many items I clear every day ... at the end of the day there is a new list of things as mails keeps coming. But right now there only 2 items on my tasks list and i'm going to clear it out in the next hour.

Some cases I have to search for information and write long replies with information which means if it is taking couple of hours/days it can result a draft email in the Drafts folder. Had 31 draft mails in the folder on last Wednesday when I went home for holidays. But as of now ... only 3 draft emails which i'm just about to send out and clear. So you can imagine how the holidays were like. Well! it was not that bad. During holidays found time to do many things ... emails, couple of movies, new year celebration, spent time with my wife, met couple of old friends etc.

Normally I have a text file on my desktop named 'today' with a list of items I want to finish within the day. While I manage to finish most of the things in this today list of mine few remains based on the importance. Right now this is also down to one action item ...

So I have like few moments to feel cool. Because .................?more mails will come.

Shooting panoramic like a master, and it rocks

Wela — 4/6/2009 11:07:08 AM

Another cool feature in my new HTC Fuze. I can shoot panoramic photos without using any additional tools etc. Check these out. You can do the same using the Panoramic option in Windows Live Photo Gallery. But doing it using the phone is much better because I can check the panoramic view right away.

View from my seat ....

Moments before we start the vehicle parade to the R. Premadasa Ground to start the one day match

@ R. Premadasa Ground Yesterday

How good it can be ...

Wela — 4/2/2009 8:03:21 AM

Couple of months back when I got my Lenovo X61 Tablet PC I thought this is it. Being 64bit and with a whooping 4 GB of RAM and Vista Experience Index rating @ 3.5 ... it was a fantastic machine ... until Yesterday.

I got a new Lenovo ThinkVantage W500 with 4 GB RAM. Dang! Vista Experience Index is @ 5.3 ... its super fast, super hot ... and its super super :).

Well! this is going to be my backup laptop for user group and students presentations. Yup! Guys, we now have a laptop for our user groups.

Finally ... Fuzed ...

Wela — 3/30/2009 10:51:01 AM

After a long frustrating 3 weeks finally I managed to get my new Windows Mobile HTC Fuze. Well! It's all worth it. This phone is off the hook!. There were many steps in between the previously mentioned steps about going through TRC, Import & Export control etc, which included filling couple more forms to be given out to different departments, writing couple of letter to be given to several places ... Hell! I have written a total of 8 letters to clear this phone from detainment. After all this I decided NEVER to receive/order any mobile phone or similar stuff like this. Funny thing is if i'm hand carrying the unit ... no trouble or whatsoever. Take my advice for it friends ... I suggest that you do the same. But if you have plenty of time to waste ... then no problem. However I must add a special thanks to one lady at Inland Revenue Department (Asst. Commissioner, Tax Payer Services). Most of us have bad experiences or at least think that services in most government departments are slow. Surprisingly even though operating under great difficulties after the recent terrorist attack, staff at IRD processed my?VAT number in?20 minutes.

Getting use to the new HTC TouchFlo 3D UI was a bit difficult at the beginning. But after spending couple of hours with it got use to it. New TouchFlo UI is really cool and gives? quick access to everything you need frequently. For a moment I was wondering whether to get rid of the TouchFlo UI and jump back to the usual UI with SPB tools. But where's the fun in having an old UI in a new phone. So I decided to stick with TouchFlo.

On a different note ... Processor and Memory in this phone is more powerful than one of the old computers I had. Can't even imagine the kind of phone we'll have in another 5 years.?Also in a quick comparison with my very first phone Sony Erricson T610 this is like 50 times advanced.

Once again ...

Wela — 3/6/2009 12:04:02 PM

Once again an incident which really pisses me off. Couple of days ago I got a new Windows Mobile free of charge, from overseas of course. Just now received the documents from FedEx mentioning it has been detained @ customs. To clear the phone I have to go to Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (TRC) to get a TRC Approval, then to Import & Export?Control Department to get an Import Control License and then to Inland Revenue to get a VAT No.? .......... WTF?

Don't these guys have more important work than trying to detain my little phone and try to send me around for hours ... perhaps days to get these documents. Everybody talks about e-Government and streamlining these processes, and make things convenient to the general public. Seems like all those are fairy tails and a loads of BS after all. Or may be i'm totally mistaken and there is a good enough reason to do all these. However I can't see any such reason.

up and running again ...

Wela — 2/28/2009 8:18:52 AM

Once again I was in a crazy busy schedule in the last couple of weeks and didn't even notice my domain is expired. Thanks for few friends for reminding. Site was Off line for 24 hours.

Went and renewed the domain for 5 years.

Are you working in a web company?

Wela — 2/24/2009 12:47:39 PM

Are you working in a web company as a developer or a designer. If you are ... think for a second on what you are developing/designing ... whether you put your attention to web standards and final touches.

A website for a customer is a face to his company or in this case a face to my project. As the supplier if you screw things up at the end it's going to look really bad on the customer. unfortunately most companies don't understand about web standards and importance of getting the site done according to the web standards. and the development house makes an advantage . However if the customer is well knowledgeable on the web standards, its going to be hell for the supplier because he wont be able to play their bullshit game anymore.

Couple of weeks ago I hired a vendor to develop a website for a project which I'm planning to launch here @ Microsoft. I decided to select this vendor due their profile, quality of work and recommendations. Personally I too was happy with their quality. I wont mention their name here beause this is not to point any fingers at them. I have already quality of the stuff delivered seemed amazingly crap.

Absolutely no web standards were followed. Halfway through I had to give them a lecture on the web standards hoping they will get a feel of the quality I'm expecting. but very dissapointly there were no improvement ... or very little improvements.
Another thing is trying to do things in the same old way we used to do 5-6 years ago. Developers who worked on this project has absolutely no clue about the enhancement in ASP.NET during last 5 years. Initially I didn?t understand the reason for the delays because as i see some were very simple things to be implemented. When I looked at the source code all became very clear.
Consistency of pages with the rest of the pages ... I don't even want to talk about. Imagine you having different pages in your site in different styles ? May be it is ok to have the promotional website for HELL in such a way.
Navigation adds several extra clicks to reach a page. Scenes of usability is absolutely ZERO!

But after couple of rounds of discussions they managed to get the functionality of the site working with only few hiccups. Which is fine as it is a project and there is always room to do bug fixes. But what good of a functionality which is not following the standards and which is not user friendly.

So If you are working in a web development house as a developer or a designer and you have no clue about the web standards and best practices go and learn those. If you don?t feel like learning i think it?s better that you quit.

A New Microsoft Site Devoted to IT Pros -- Thrive

Wela — 2/16/2009 6:51:17 AM

"Thrive" is a newly launched Microsoft initiative for IT Professionals. You can find information related to your IT career development, technical skills, and alignment with business. Also, check out the videos on virtulization and desktop optimization.

What is the Azure Services Platform?

Wela — 2/8/2009 9:49:17 PM

The Azure? Services Platform (Azure) is an internet-scale cloud services platform hosted in Microsoft data centers, which provides an operating system and a set of developer services that can be used individually or together. Azure?s flexible and interoperable platform can be used to build new applications to run from the cloud or enhance existing applications with cloud-based capabilities. Its open architecture gives developers the choice to build web applications, applications running on connected devices, PCs, servers, or hybrid solutions offering the best of online and on-premises.

Azure reduces the need for up-front technology purchases, and it enables developers to quickly and easily create applications running in the cloud by using their existing skills with the Microsoft Visual Studio development environment and the Microsoft .NET Framework. In addition to managed code languages supported by .NET, Azure will support more programming languages and development environments in the near future. Azure simplifies maintaining and operating applications by providing on-demand compute and storage to host, scale, and manage web and connected applications. Infrastructure management is automated with a platform that is designed for high availability and dynamic scaling to match usage needs with the option of a pay-as-you-go pricing model. Azure provides an open, standards-based and interoperable environment with support for multiple internet protocols, including HTTP, REST, SOAP, and XML.

Microsoft also offers cloud applications ready for consumption by customers such as Windows Live?, Microsoft Dynamics?, and other Microsoft Online Services for business such as Microsoft Exchange Online and SharePoint? Online. The Azure Services Platform lets developers provide their own unique customer offerings by offering the foundational components of compute, storage, and building block services to author and compose applications in the cloud.

Read the full article @ http://www.microsoft.com/azure/whatisazure.mspx

Microsoft "Oslo" SDK - January 2009 CTP

Wela — 2/5/2009 11:16:09 AM

"Oslo" is the code name for the Microsoft's next generation application development platform. The goal of "Oslo" is to provide a 10x productivity gain across the application lifecycle (design, development, and management). "Oslo" leverages domain-specific models, languages and tools to achieve this goal.

The SDK contains documentation, samples, copies of the ?Oslo? models written in "M", and tools designed to help you write your own models in "M", including the code name ?Intellipad? tool for code name ?Oslo?.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=f2f4544c-626c-44a3-8866-b2a9fe078956&displaylang=en

Everyone has a song inside ?

Wela — 1/19/2009 1:27:26 PM

Guys ? this should be one of those must see type software apps. It?s another cool one from Microsoft Research Labs and it?s amazing. It?s called Songsmith.

What is Songsmith?

Songsmith generates musical accompaniment to match a singer?s voice. Just choose a musical style, sing into your PC?s microphone, and Songsmith will create backing music for you. Then share your songs with your friends and family, post your songs online, or create your own music videos.

Where can I get it?
A free trial download is available on our download page.

What if I don?t know how to write music?
Songsmith is for you. Get your first taste of songwriting just by singing into a microphone, then explore different styles and arrangements, even if you don't know the first thing about music theory.

What if I do know how to write music?
Songsmith is for you too. Songwriters can use Songsmith as an ?intelligent scratchpad? to work with new melodies, quickly turning your scratch recordings of new ideas into richer, deeper explorations. Musicians can also play instruments right into Songsmith, instead of singing.

Broadband Bullshit ?

Wela — 1/10/2009 5:28:29 PM

Don't know how many of you are already experiencing this. But I'm sure everybody who purchased a dialog broadband connection(http://www.dialog.lk/en/mobile/technology/3g/unlimited_mobile_broadband.html) experiences this. Couple of days ago I also bought a Dialog broadband connection, because they advertise about an awesome bandwidth. Being person who is always hungry for more bandwidth :) ? I didn?t think twice in buying this. Actually I saw some blog posts here and there about the line being slow, but didn?t expect it to be this bad ? or can I call pathetic. Being a Dialog customer for a very long time I hoped that they will provide a much better service than this.

The website says ??The customer will experience 7.2Mbps download and 2Mbps Upload speed up to usage of 5GB. Once usage passes beyond 5GB, the quality of service will be downgraded to download a speed of 384kbps and upload a speed of 64kbps and will continue for the next 1GB usage?? ? but I wonder when it?ll work in the said speeds. Right at this moment I'm using it and its not even working at 5% of the speed they say it is. At the speed it?s working right now, seems like they will never have to worry about a customer exceeding 5GB for a month. Because in this speed you need couple of hours to even download a 100MB file. Let?s say somehow I exceed the 5GB download limit for a month ? according to what Dialog says they will be reducing the bandwidth, but I can pay Rs. 100 extra per day and keep the bandwidth as it is. WTF! it is already working slower then the reduced speed. So what?s the point in paying.

My question is simple ... if Dialog cant give a service ... why on earth advertise and sell it? right now I know for sure there is nobody in Dialog who can give a solid answer for this. I have called the support line couple of times and the answers were very inconsistent ? support agents gives different excuses ? sometimes it is due to a system upgrade, some other times it is due to ?some? technical error which they are looking into ? seems like nobody knows? Last time when I called the support agent said it is a shared line with several users in the same area ? that is well understood and perfectly fine. But shared among how many users? It seems like all the users are on the same shared bandwidth which is creating this utter mess.

So, finally I decided to get rid of this useless broadband connection because most of the times this is slower than a dialup connection. Actually these so called broadband connections are good for people who haven?t experienced broadband speeds. If anybody from dialog is seeing this ? guys ? cut the crap! ? and go and do some studies on the actual speeds of real broadband connections. Also most importantly STOP cheating customers.

Seems like nothing can beat the SLT ADSL speeds at the moment. At home still my primary connection is a 512kbps SLT ADSL and it works at the said speed almost all the times. Seems like to I'm going to have to stay stuck with the 512 kbps speed for a very long time.