Are you reading pornography?

My entire blog is marked as pornography by Virtusa internet usage policy enforcement engine. So by their classifications you are reading pornography right now. I’m totally pissed off with the idiots who created the filter. I mean.. I don’t mind if they just blocked my blog, but categorizing it as pornography is an insult.

Bluetooth Viruses

I keep Bluetooth on in my Nokia 6230i at all times. This lead me to notice that in the past couple of months Bluetooth viruses has spread a lot in Sri Lanka - at least in Colombo and Kandy. When ever I’m in a public place, I receive data posts from various devices. This is not occasional anymore as it was earlier. This happens almost every day.

The firmware based mobile phones as mine, has little threat so far. But for smart phones running Symbian and Windows mobile it’s a different story. If you accept to receive any incoming data, it would be just like executing an exe from an unknown source - without a virus guard running.

One of my friends is in the mobile industry. So I asked him what are the common Bluetooth viruses in Sri Lanka. The most common one as he says is Cabir, a proof of concept virus which does nothing more than scanning for other Bluetooth devices around and sending itself to them, draining the battery and reducing performance in the process.

Read more info in : http://news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/mobile/0,39020360,39183104,00.htm

There are of cause anti-virus software available for Symbian and Windows Mobile smart phones. So if you are using a smart phone and don’t have an antivirus software installed in it - it’s time you get one installed.

Nonsense as usual

Today my sister had taken the car so I took a bus to work. To start with the 176 Nugegoda - Rajagiriya road was closed from Nawala junction. So all the traffic was being routed towards Narahenpita (173 route) then the Baseline road was closed from Kirimandala mawatha. So the bus went to the Baudhaloka mawatha through Horton road took Kinsey road to Borella. Not to mention heavy traffic. This journey took me over one hour; which usually takes less than 30 minutes. So why is this? The parliament is gathering. The poor lot of MPs are scared that they’d be assassinated. Of cause the amount of money and time wasted are of no value to them…

I wish I had a 4X4

Colombo has the largest concentration of SUVs and other off-road vehicles in Sri Lanka. On an average day many would wonder why they need 4X4 vehicles in a town. But not today. Almost every road is drowned some where. It was horrible. I drove through 3 such places today, Narahenpita road, Jawaththa road and Royal avenue. Water was 2~3 feet deep at some places. I was so afraid the car would get stuck.
It was pouring continuously since last night; and if not for the call that I had to attend in the morning – and I missed – I wouldn’t have come to work today.

Kevin Mitnick's story

Kevin MitnickKevin David Mitnick (born August 6, 1963) is one of the most famous criminal hackers to be jailed. He was arrested by the FBI on February 15, 1995. Mitnick was convicted of wire fraud and of breaking into the computer systems of Fujitsu, Motorola, Nokia, and Sun Microsystems. He served five years in prison (four years of it pre-trial), 8 months of that in solitary confinement, and was released on January 21, 2000. During his supervised release, which ended in 2003, he was restricted from using any communications technology other than a landline telephone.
[From Wikipedia]

Here is his story

Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi networks are getting popular in Sri Lanka. Most people use them without realizing the risks involved. Of cause even the Cyber Café’s pose this kind of threats.

Read Jim Becher's post Network Intrusion / Invasion

We have a new president

Right now, the election results stands 50.3 for Mahinda Rajapaksha and 48.4% Ranil Wickramasinghe. So our next president would be Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksha.
The presidential election was considered to be real crucial by many because the fate of the country is vastly dependant on the next president. 75% of the registered voters have cast their votes this time.
But the victory seems to be marginal. That means there is a conflict of expectations within the country. Neither of the candidates has a strong force backing them.
As I see it the propaganda battle was unitary Sri Lanka and locally built economy vs division of power and foreign aided economic. Ultimately every one needs peace and a healthy economy for the country. The choice was on how to achieve it.
There was also a concern about safeguarding all religions and their rights. But I think only a small percentage considered this as a crucial factor. There aren’t many truly religious people left in the country any way…

Who is an ‘extremist’?

11 November, 2005 Feature Article
SinhalaNet by Dr.Kingsley Heendeniya


It is common these days to find the word ‘extremist’ used to vilify and caricature persons and political parties. Since no person or party has joyously shouted ‘I am an extremist!’ the concept is used pejoratively, particularly at a time when the Presidential election is nearing its climax, to frighten, bias and deter voters. In the time of the Buddha, there was a spectrum of views and he divided them into two: nihilistic and pleasure seeking or worldly. But when he declared his Teaching ‘the middle way’ he did not imply it is a bit of this and a bit of that. In fact, he discarded and rejected all views as speculative. Views are not insights. Views are inferences arising from conceiving, perception, interpretation, prejudice, like, dislike, adherence and obsession. They are subject to error and distortion of truth.

The accusation is made particularly against two main political parties, the JVP and the JHU. The LTTE and supporters of Elam are called ‘extremist’ because of avowed habitual terrorist ways. However, the JVP and JHU vehemently maintain they are progressive, egalitarian and socially committed to promote racial, religious, cultural tolerance and brotherhood. There is no present evidence that they promote hatred, evil, violence, genocide, greed and intolerance. However, we cannot ignore that the majority population is Sinhala Buddhists and ‘fighting’ for their rights is not thereby a denial and abnegation of the rights of others. To spread false percepts is defamatory, unfair, naïve and stupid because that is in fact extremism with base motive. Note that I am not here commenting on ‘fundamentalism’ prevailing in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Does WebServices queue messages?

Today, during a discussion the aforementioned questioned aroused in my mind. So I did some research and found this pattern which is used by webservices for communication. Thought people who are interested about webservice communications would like to read it,

Work satisfaction

Have you ever felt unsatisfied with your own work? A need to improve? Well I have felt it before, and I feel it now.
It’s really hard to make up the mind to leave office at the end of the day. And when I finally do leave the office it’s real hard get my mind off work. And this doesn’t help my productivity.
Hmm… should try and relax… working out and meditation should help…

Say hi to new look

I had enough with div tags and editing templates done by other people. So I created a template with tables… I’m no UI designer, so there are some tweaks needed. But it feels much like ‘me’ now. If any one wants the template drop me a mail and I’d mail that to you.

Requirements, use cases, discussions, R & D etc.

Yes, these are the things that keep me busy nowadays. And still I feel I’m behind targets (my own). I have lots to post about but really limited time to spare.

BTW check out the SQL Server Management Studio Express . It’s a nice piece of tool (especially when you don’t have license for the SQLServer 2005)

Flowers - Thanks!

This morning when I returned to my desk from a training on security, some one had placed two jasmine flowers near the small Buddha statue I have on top of my monitor :D very pleasing.. But I don't know who did it.. No one in our team was here, and no one I can think of would do it... Who ever did it… Thanks A LOT

Nokia N-Series - second wave

(Thanks mahesh for this nice article)

At the Nokia Mobility Conference, Nokia today presented the new addition to the N-Series - the N92, N80 and N71 multimedia phones. All three are 3G devices with high-resolution cameras, S60 OS (former Symbian Series 60), Bluetooth, FM radio and miniSD card slot.
The Nokia N92 is the first GSM phone with DVB-H receiver, making it possible for users to watch and record live TV broadcasts. The market for commercial DVB-H broadcast services is expected to spread during 2006. The dual hinge design (similar to Motorola MPx) and the QVGA display will provide comfortable TV experience. The Nokia N92 also features Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and infrared connectivity, card slot, FM radio and 2 megapixel camera. The mobile device is planned to be commercially available in mid 2006 with an estimated price of 600 euros.
The Nokia N80 is the world's first handset to feature UPnP technology. This allows it to be used as a remote control for swapping content via Wi-Fi between compatible PCs, audio equipment and TVs. The slider phone has a 3 megapixel camera with macro mode and video capture with digital video stabilization. The Nokia N80 has the same high-resolution display we know from Nokia N90 - 352 x 416 pixels, up to 262,144 colors. The Nokia N80 should be available in 1Q 2006 with an estimated price of 500 euros.
Nokia N71 is something we have seen already from the numerous leeks on the web. The 3G clamshell phone has QVGA display, 2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, but no Wi-Fi. Nokia N71 is planned to be commercially available in 1Q 2006 with a price of approximately 400 euros.
Also today Nokia introduced the new identity for the Symbian OS Series 60 - from now it will be called simply S60. The first announcement for the S60 platform is a new Web browser with MiniMap based on the WebCore and JavaScriptCore components of Apple's Safari Web Kit, the industry's smallest and fastest open source full Web rendering engine. The new browser will be able to show the web pages in their original layout and will help the scroll navigation through page miniatures.

:. My next phone is going to be a N80.. I feel it..

Framework 2.0 and the SDK are available for downloading

For those of you who aren’t as lucky as others to get hold of VS 2005 (which is released today) the .NET Framework 2.0 and the SDK are available from Microsoft. So get hold of an IDE (the beta 2 IDE works fine) or stick to notepad and start writing code. They’d work… (if they compile that is)

Reflections

I try to avoid them. Not just in .net but my reflection as well. Both slows things down. Look in to a mirror & see

Goals

Should there be a goal in every life? Some target to live for? I think it's an excuse to have one... Guess for what? :->

Haloscan

I found this site named Haloscan which adds commenting and trackbacks to blogger and other blogs. And I used its automatic feature to add the script to my blog. It seems ok... but all my old comments aren't visible :).

Have to edit the template so they showup too... hmm.

Getting things started

Today I moved in to a new cubicle with others who are on the CRM team. Reinstalled Windows 2003 on my machine and am in the process of installing other required software. It’s like a new beginning… I’m excited about it.

Tight coupling

I hate tight coupling. And no, I'm not talking only about software.
When ever there's a relationship be it software or liveware or any
other ware for that matter I hate it when things are so attached to
each other. There should always be a way to separate things easily. It
would prevent lots of things from getting overly complicated. Now
those people who are so dependent on others, who doesn't virtually
have an independant existence would find this to be some what a
mysterious. Yet give it a thought. Things would be much simple if that
is the case

--
Posted using my Nokia 6230i

Microsoft strategy vs What I want to be doing

I usually don’t fall asleep quickly after I get in to the bed. I usually spend an hour or so thinking about various things before giving in to sleep.
Last night I was giving a thought about what Yik Joon Ho said about Microsoft strategy during the Tech.Ed. He said in his own words that Microsoft is making tools as such that the developers do not have to know much about technology, rather they should know about the business.

His example on this was that a development tool which has voice recognition to which you could speak in plain English and it would generate code for you! So in that context software engineer would be some one who could explain the business in English. Well it would be some time before this technology comes out from Microsoft, yet I find it alarming. We already have some one in our project who can explain the business in English; and we call him the customer!

Ok. Forget about that scenario. Just look at Visual Studio 2005, our immediate future. Does that require the same level of expertise required for using VS 2003? No. Alarmingly only stuff you have to manually code is the business logic. Every aspect of the deployment environment could be developed using drag and drop! Distribution, Data repositories, application layering… you name it. So what would become of us?

I personally do not want to be a business specialist talking to computers. I love coding. And I want to be coding in years to come. So I guess I have to either move towards tools development or move away from Microsoft technologies. Looking at the future I don’t see a probability of much tools development opportunities arising in Sri Lankan IT industry. And having worked with US based customers for some time now, I don’t think even in US there would be as much opportunities I would have liked.

What’s worse is that I don’t have any other talent from which I could make a living… Wait… I have won best actor couple of times during my school days… hmm :-?

Any tools development companies out there like to hire me?