I'm getting a discount for Tech.Ed!

It’s been some time since I last posted @ dotnetforum.lk. But I’m getting a 25% discount for Tech.Ed :D

 

Checked with my PM and Tech Lead and got approved with a “hmm...”! This would be just before I start in the new project so the architectural experience would be really valuable as I get to use what ever I learn in a real life enterprise application as soon as I get back to work.

 

By the way my next project is going to be a CRM. Which would be written from scratch, with ASP .NET, C#, XML WebServices, using Oracle 9i back end. We have tight schedule with deal lines already fixed. So I won’t be able to post in my blog as often as now in the months to come.

Father's bus ride

My father had not gone in a bus for ages... But when my parents came to Colombo he didn’t retain his official vehicle which they came in. My sister had taken the car we use in Colombo to work last night. So when my father had to go to the central bank this morning he wanted to take a bus! Now this is adventure for him. And I got to join in for the ride.

 

When we got in to a 176 bus from Nawala junction, it wasn’t crowded but there weren’t any seats available. The back seat had a little space left but it wasn’t enough for an adult to sit. But as soon as my father got in to the bus he sat in the back seat wadding every millimetre of the seat. I bought tickets and stood near him.

 

Any one who has taken the 176 route know about the free rollercoaster experience. So need less to say what was in store for my father who has had a bypass a decade ago. About 2 kilometres on the way a girl got off from the back seat. My father was concerned about my comfort and called in a bit too loud voice, “Putha methanin indaganna” (Son come sit here) I kindly refused as there was hardly enough space for me to fit in. Soon a seat to the front became vacant and I sat there. Towards the end of our journey of 176 I looked back to see how he’s doing. He was holding the grill of back windscreen with one hand and the front seat with the other.

 

I’m quite certain that he’d remember the experience for the rest of his life.

 

I personally remarked that I’d never let him take buses again. I don’t want to take that risk again.

Intentions

When intentions change, so does the consequences. Because karma is intentions...

Crowded home

Yesterday my parents, aunt and cousin visited us. My mother came for a cardio clinic while my cousin is participating in national school games tomorrow. It’s been really crowded in our 2 bedroom two bedded apartment. Luckily sister had a night shift. I slept in the living room so the visitors could have the bed rooms.

My parents having lived almost their entire life in Kandy didn’t get any sleep last night as it was too hot for them in Colombo. My aunt and cousin didn’t complain but I doubt their comfort as well.

Talking about Microsoft® patterns & practices

Microsoft® patterns & practices home
Ludmal's blog

Read the thread

Closing down my technical blog

Should I close down my technical blog at MSN spaces and do all the technical blogging here with all other stuff? I feel like doing so... Any comments?

Things I wanted to write about but couldn’t

First of all, I wanted to write about politics in Sri Lanka with regards to the up coming presidential elections. But the political situation in Sri Lanka has been storming with so pathetic and humiliating events to an extent which writing about it in a blog has become a project I do not want to pursuit.

Secondly I wanted to write about the Buddhist cannon; which I would definitely write about in future as soon as I could find enough time.

Thirdly; I wanted to write about a lot of technical stuff. My technical blog hasn’t been updated for ages…I wanted to write about writing plug-ins for visual studio, customizing cruise control, using NUnit etc. etc. oh and not to forget Avalon… But my current engagements prohibit me from sparing time and research for such tasks. But hopefully by end of next month I’d be starting on a new project and would be able to write some technical stuff parallel to R & D of that project. (Hope I wouldn’t have to withdraw articles from codeproject like the last time – My R & D was billed to the customer so I did not have the rights to publish my designs)

Other than these there were some insignificant stuff that I wanted to write about but couldn’t due to various reasons.

Any ways if any one out there is interested in reading my views on a specific subject please let me know… I’ll do my best to write about it when ever I find time and publish it here.

Life without vision

I had to spend the week end without specs. It was horrible. Couldn’t watch TV, Couldn’t work with the PC, and couldn’t identify people until I bump in to their faces. Grr and I had to drive back and forth to Kandy! I almost killed 2 bicycle riders and hit a lorry face on. I’m so glad that I didn’t had enough bad karma!
And about specs.. My last pair cost only Rs. 4750/- that’s about US$ 47.5 but this time, may be since I told them (Eric Rajapaksha Opticians) that I’m in a hurry to get them they robbed Rs. 19,000 (US$ 190) from me!! Had no choice but to select the cheapest from their designer wear collection. They didn’t even showed me the Chinese brands :( oh and they promised to give them sharp at 10 am this morning… it was 12 when I finally left there.
Any ways… happy to see the world clearly again.. Instead of blurred images.

Sigma, I sent you an IM, couldn’t mail you as your mail address isn’t public. Thanks for comments

Things aren't good

A child broke my specs, had to drive to kandy without them, and having a fever. Oh, and the dog's in my bed!

Memorable revisit to GOF book

After more than two years since I first read "Design Patterns -
Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software" by GOF, I started
re-reading the book right from the begining. I have seen many books on
design patterns but non other does explain problem solution pairs as
tastefully and clearly as the four masters themselves.
The following sentence in the preface of the book is not only evidence
for their sarcasm towards engineers who show off than doing the right
thing but also gives an idea of how simple the design patterns are
once understood correctly and applied:
"the design patterns require neither unusual language features nor
amazing programming tricks with which to astound your friends and
managers"
They go on to say "Once you understand the design patterns and have
had an "Aha!"(and not just a "Huh?") experience with them, you won't
ever think about object-oriented design in the same way."
I think this is the book every developper should read, if they are
serious about getting to be good architects.
--
Posted using my Nokia 6230i

Opera uninstallation left a mess

After trying out Opera, I felt I’m better off with IE and the devtoolbar. So I uninstalled it. IE became the default browser again and things looked fine. But when I double clicked on Yahoo! Mail icon it didn’t open – Yahoo.. I thought. But when I typed a URL in run, I got a message saying application not found!
When I went to Folder Options and checked the association for URL:HyperText Transfer Protocol and URL:HyperText Transfer Protocol with Privacy they were still assigned to Opera. Grrr. I changed them back to IE and now things seem fine.
Wonder what else Opera left behind..

I left office around 7.30 last night, when i looked back from the car park, this is how the towers looked... and on most days they look the same after midnight...
Captured using a 6230i

Power Blog

I downloaded power blog, a really rich open source blog publishing application. This is my first post using it. Didn't go to the code yet - infact the 50MB zip is still being downloaded

I Used w.blogger earlier but it screwed my index last time. So thought of getting a new one.

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/pwrblog

Thank you - John Loudon McAdam!

I've installed the Answer Bar from Answers.com. In it's spotlight today it says: "Thanks to John Loudon McAdam, born on this date in 1756, we travel along smoothly-paved roads. A Scottish engineer, McAdam set himself to trying to improve England's poor roads. He came up with the idea of raising the path's surrounding ground and layering rocks and gravel which were then compacted with a roller, to form a "macadam" road. The first road in America to be macadamized was the National Road (later called the Cumberland Road), that eventually ran from Cumberland, MD, to St. Louis, MO. " hmm... lets start the day thanking John Loudon McAdam today...

Trouble with Hello

Up till yesterday, I had no problem with Hello, publishing photos using it was really easy. But yesterday it started giving me trouble. It didn't gave any error messages but it simply didn't post. So I was forced to use the web interface to publish photos. Is any one else experiencing this?

Solar flares captured

Solar flares usually can not be seen by naked eye. But when I captured the morning sun using my Nokia 6230i I was amazed to see them captured.

Kandy City Centre

Kandy City Centre is one of the largest business complexes in Sri Lanka on the making... Its located in the heart of Kandy city adjoining the Asias largest car park!
Captured using a 6230i

Father's birthday

Today's my father's birthday. In rememberance we had taken the
responsibility of offering morning alms to the mahamevna meditation
monastery in kundasale, kandy. We prepared alms in the morning and
took them to the monastery at 6.30 in the morning.
For some reason, I didn't feel like going with them. So I stayed back
home. When ever I go to a temple or a monastery I don't feel that they
are as good as I expect them to be. Hence I get really disappointed.
Too bad for a person who's seriously considering to become a monk.
I'm planning to pay a visit to the Kanduboda monastery which in my
belief is one of the best in the country. Hope I won't be disappointed
there. The head meditation teacher there, ven. Madawala Upali thero,
seems to be a well disciplined and achieved monk. One of the other
monks I like is ven. Pathagama Sumanarathana thero. I'd like to
practice meditation under guidance from one of them or their
disciples.

--
Posted using my Nokia 6230i

Among best friends

I spent the most part of the day today with two of my best friends
from school days, Sithira and NC, and the new member of our
brotherhood, Chamini, NC's girlfriend. We walked the streets of kandy
and hang out at city view junction near whales park.
It was really wonderful being together. Even though we hadn't had a
chance to spend time with Chamini before, she had been well informed
about two of us by NC. She had no trouble at all fitting in and we
felt like she was one of our own from the begging.
we talked about old times, things we did and said during our golden
times, adventures, mistakes, mishaps and every thing. And we all had a
great time.
The three of us has been best friends since 1998 and was able to coop
trough rough times helping each other and understanding. Chamini's
been NC's girlfriend since 6th november 2003. But because both me and
Sithira was in colombo we didn't had a chance to hang out together
earlier. After today we all are looking forward to our next get
together. I feel really bad about not remembering to take some photos
of ourselves today. But next time, I won't.
--
Posted using my Nokia 6230i

Memories of prasanna's stay...

Prasanna is a great car enthusiastic... and when ever he could spare few minutes, he was browsing car sites...

He owns a honda civic SiR and a nissan pulsar N1 spec and his Glanza V is for sale!


Prasanna always needed a little nap after lunch!
Captured using a 6230i

Prasanna's last day at office...

Over a year ago (2nd August 2004), Prasanna joined our company - month after I did. I knew him when we were up in Kandy but hadn't seen him for several years. He just got married when he joined in and was also fresh out from campus. I didn't know how good Prasanna was until I started to work with him. Over the first few weeks all I noticed was that he's punctual on coming to work as well as leaving! He came sharp at 9 am and left sharp at 6.

But with time passing by and getting to work with him closely I realized how good he was and how effectively he manages the 9 hours he spend in office. He always made sure that he puts in 8 productive hours to the project. His technical skills were surprisingly high for a fresh campus graduate. There were quite a few occasions where he surprised me with his skills.

Unfortunately for him... it wasn't the expectation of our project leadership. They expected long hours of work from every one and they never realized the potential of this naive engineer. All he required was a very little mentoring to become one of the best software engineers in the company. Had he received that I'm pretty sure he would have one day become a great architect.

Over time he realized his contribution is appreciated neither by the project leadership nor by the company management. He started to put on extra hours which were the only visible expectation. But unfortunately the perception was set firmly and it didn't seem to change. Over time he got discouraged, frustrated and heart broken because of this and decided to leave the company. When the project leadership realized his value, it was too late. The company management never seemed to realize it.

Today is the last day of Prasanna at our office. I wish him all the best at his new office and hope he'd receive the appreciation he deserves there.

This is my day time view... Stains on the glass is causing some shadows :(
Captured using a 6230i

Prasanna's Glanza on sale!

NOTE: This is a highly modified sports car. I’ve driven it and it’s amazingly fast.

SPECIFICATION (SPECS)

Displacement, cc 1331
Engine model 4E-FTE
Max.power (Net), kw(PS)/rpm 135 ps (99.29 kw) / 6400 rpm
Max.torque(Net), N*m(kg*m)/rpm 16.0 kg*m (156.91 N*m) / 4800 rpm
Power density 6.81
Engine type Water cooling serial 4 cylinder DOHC16 valve IC turbo
Engine information 2 mode turbo system
Fuel system EFI-D (electronic fuel injection)
Turbocharger Turbo with intercooler
Braking system, front Ventilated disk
Braking system, rear Disk
Suspension system, front The McPherson strut type coil spring (stabilizer attaching)
Suspension system, rear The trailing twist beam (stabilizer attaching)
(Specs by www.english.auto.vl.ru )

1996 Model (EP-91)
82K original mileage
Clutch plate/pressure plate/ release bearing/ timing belt/ fuel filter replaced recently
Running on Shell Helix fully synthetic engine oil

Aftermarket extras
Pivot Turbo Timer
TurboXS blowoff valve
TurboSmart Manual boost Controller
Autometer Pro-Comp boost gauge
K&N air filter
Fujitsubo-Giken JAZMA certified cat-back exhaust system
15" light alloy wheels with 195/50 low profile tires

Price - LKR 1.375 Million (Negotiable)

If interested, contact Prasanna on +94 77 7746690

My employer is hiring

After laying off some hundreds of employees few moths back my employer is planning to hire new staff to meet their revenue targets. The leadership addressing a company update yesterday said that they’d be hiring PMs, BAs, TechLeads, SEs and DBAs from the industry and some fresh engineers getting out from campuses.

The question is whether people would consider joining here after the past experience. The attrition rate of the company is quite high these days with many leaving the company for better stability, technology, salaries and other management and infrastructure related issues. The perception of the employees (especially in the lower levels of the hierarchy) towards the company is really negative. 6 engineers left from my project alone during this month. Most of the existing projects lack resources due to this reason. While there are quite a few projects in the pipeline, finding resources for them has become a challenge.

It is going to be a real tough challenge for the company to uplift the moral of the current employees. They may have to offer high salaries and other benefits for the new recruits to attract them.

This is my view out side right now... what do you think?
Captured using a 6230i

This photo is supposed to be over 50 years old. The tall guy to the centre from the left with the funny looking haircut is my mother's uncle (Her father's younger brother)
The original copy of this photo is found at "Galmaduwatta Rajamaha Viharaya" in Arangala, Kandy. The saga with this photo is that there has been a long rainless period during early 50s (51 or 52) and the Galmaduwatta Rajamaha Viharaya has organized a 7 day Pirith Chanting. (The large hut behind the crowd is the temporary “Pirith mandapaya”.) And on the 7th day rains flowed and continued till every well in the village overflow. People who still live from that era do recall this incident; so it can't be just a folktale. Amazing don't you think?
Captured using a 6230i

Last night on my way to drop Anuradha, We met Asela. While we were talking Anuradha captured this using my phone...
Captured using a 6230i

Got my licence back

This morning I went to Kadawatha police and got my licence back. It was 30 km drive back and forth from my office which took me about 2hours in the heavy traffic.
When I went to the police station they wrote me a spot fine paper which I had to take to the post office, pay Rs. 1100/- and take back the receipt to the police station to get my licence. The total cost for this entire procedure without taking time in to consideration is about Rs. 1500/-
All this for 65 kmph.

Just realized that there aren't any recent images of myself online... Here I am...
Captured using a 6230i

Cleaning it up...

We (Myself and my sister) aren't neat tidy and clean type. We do bath and all but don't really worry much about cleaning up the place we live. This really wasn't to the satisfaction of my father when he visited us last week when mother was in Colombo hospital.
So on Saturday he cleaned the place up for us (Being a good son, I helped him by cleaning up my own room J) It took us the whole day to make the place lesser a mess. 6 garbage bags were filled with dust, old newspapers, plastic bottles, rugs and you name it... we adoringly collected over one and half years (No! I'm not extravagating; we never cleaned it up after occupying that place in January 2004).


Fans...


Window frames...


In the process...


Can you see the total gym?


Appachchie (father) almost worn out...


This is the daughter of that dog I wrote about in "Karma and the dog"... Both of them live with us now...


That's a towel rack you are seeing...

Received a speeding ticket :(

I'm usually a bit fast driver. I don't own a sports car but the cars I drive decently produce good speeds. Sri lanka's speeding limit for town limits is 56kmph while highway (if you could call them so) limit is 70. My average town limit speed is 70 while 120 is my adrinalin prompted limit.

For this reason I have a radar detector in my car which sounds an alarm when a traffic radar is directed at it. This handy gadget has served me well for the past few months.
Today I was driving from Kandy to Colombo and passed few traffic cops holding speed guns without getting caught.

But once when the alarm went on, I didn't try to slow down as I felt I'm already slow. But they stopped me and showed me the reading, I was doing 65kmph and it was town limit. Mind you this was at 11.45pm! Yet they wrote me a ticket and kept my driving licence. I wouldn't feel this bad about it if I had done at least 80, I remember speeding over 100kmph at the same location. Besides it's humiliating to say I was doing only 65 :(

Any ways now I have to go to Kadawatha, which is about 10km away from where I work to get my licence. Not to mention the 'wonderful' service of sri lankan police that I'll have to deal with.

Mother discharged

She was discharged this morning. How ever palpitations are still there. We'll take her to kandy tonight.

Tension easing off

After the angiogram came normal, our worries of another surgery is gone. Even mother seems to be in better mental state. When I visited her this afternoon she was lively and happy; even though she was suffering from the pains of the wound (caused by the angiogram) and was also uncomfortable having to stay in the same posture for over 3 weeks now.

I just went to office for 2~3 hours today. Some times I feel really bad about having to neglect my office responsibilities; but when it comes to family and work, family always comes first for me. You can always find a new job. But not a new family!

I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to every one in my team for helping me out for the part 3 weeks or so.

Angiogram normal!

Mother had severe palpitations from last night. Her heart beats went above 100 several times. We were all worried. Father came from Kandy with brother this morning.
Mother underwent the angiogram around 10 a. m. and the result – normal!
The best explanation possible is the medicine given after the stroke melted the blood clot in her heart; and palpitation is cause by some thyroxine deficiency. Her thyroid was remover several years back and she’s taking thyroxine tablets daily.
Causes of palpitations are found here. What’s pathetic is I was never interested in these things even though I knew my mother has had palpitations earlier. But again; my sister is a doctor – she should have known better. But at the end it had to go this far for our alarms to fire.

Angiogram postponed

Mother’s angiogram was postponed till tomorrow because the machine which is used is malfunctioning.She is in good state compared to past couple of days but a bit nervous about the angiogram which is done with only local anaesthesia.
Angiogram is done by inserting a micro video camera with a guide wire attached to it in to vessels from upper thigh area and guiding it up to the heart. The entire thing is recorded in to a CD for later reference. More detailed description on how it is done is found here.
My mother has low cholesterol levels but was suffering from high blood pressure which is what caused the heart attack. High blood pressure cause small blood vessels to explode and cause blood to coagulate. When it heals the blood clot detaches in to the vessel. If it reaches the heart and blocks a small vessel that supplies blood to heart muscles, it causes a heart attack! So people out their with high blood pressure, try your best to control it to avoid a risk of a heart attack.
This site is dedicated for people with high blood pressure. Unfortunately I was too late in finding it.

Dhammika sutta

I know some people who don’t realize the consequences of alcohol and believe soft liquor does no harm. Yesterday I had a brief chat about this issue with a friend of mine… and wanted to share what Buddha has said about it.

"A layman who has chosen to practice this Dhamma should not indulge in the drinking of intoxicants. He should not drink them nor encourage others to do so; realizing that it leads to madness. Through intoxication foolish people perform evil deeds and cause other heedless people to do likewise. He should avoid intoxication, this occasion for demerit, which stupefies the mind, and is the pleasure of foolish people”

-Dhammika sutta

Mother awaiting angiogram

After consulting Dr. Ruwan Ekanayake, mother was admitted to the Colombo general hospital (aka NHSL) yesterday to undergo an angiogram today. Doctors suspect her constant palpitations and tire is because of a blocks in her coronary arteries. If the angiogram shows that’s the case, she may have to go through an angioplasty or in a worse case a coronary artery bypass surgery.
Before this she has undergone two surgeries. And we are a bit worried and cautious about a third.

My Yahoo! Photos

These photos and more taken from my 6230i are found at http://photos.yahoo.com/mahasen_virtusa

Back to blog @ blogger

After blogging for some time at Yahoo! 360 I realized blogging here is much better as the feature set available here is very rich :D.
So await frequent posts here

This is a photo taken from my 6230i, I just installed hello and picasa and wanted to check the functionality :D