Creative Christmas Advertisements

Here are few very creative Christmas advertisements,

Artificial Intelligance at its best : EpiSimdemics

US researchers are focusing on creating a simulation of movements of all 300 million Americans. This is a huge project and they are going to use this to predict contagious diseases, such as a flu epidemic, might spread through different regions. That is the first step but there can be lots of hidden agendas here. Anyway it is a very interesting work, lets see how its going to come out in the near future.

Read Full Article Here : http://www.physorg.com/news148018856.html

Dooms Day 2012: Leaks Found in Earth's Protective Magnetic Field

Does the Dooms Day 2012 is going to be a reality???? I just saw this news post in the web and according to that, This field (Earth's Protective Magnetic Field) is protecting our planet from severe solar storms. And it has leaks in some unexpected locations. So according to NASA the bottom line is "When the next peak of solar activity comes, in about 4 years, electrical systems on Earth and satellites in space may be more vulnerable".
In about 4 years is very much close to 2012 December 21st, which is the date of Doomsday according to Mayans mythology. And if these leaks will get wider and the impact of the solar storms can be more severe than just an electric blackout. (Am I seeing Crocodiles in the basin???) So hope its time to go back to your prayers guys.

Read the full article here : http://www.livescience.com/space/081216-agu-solar-storm-shield-break.html

Retrun row numbers from a TSQL query

I came across a situation where I need to get the row numbers together with the result set. And finally found a very tricky way of doing it which I felt worth sharing;

SELECT col1,col2,(SELECT COUNT(*) FROM Table1 T2
WHERE T2.pkid <= T.pkid) AS rownumber
FROM Table1 T

And if you have a where condition it will return the original row number regardless of the no of the filtered rows. Hope this will be helpful to someone.

Second life : The revaluation of modern web

If you have ever heard of Second life (http://www.secondlife.com/) you must know how exciting it is. When I came across this for the first time I felt like it will be the next generation of web. It has given a birth to the most lacking part of the web (virtual representation of the community).
For those who don’t know what it is this is how SL defines itself:
"Second Life® is a 3-D virtual world created by its Residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by millions of Residents from around the globe. "
When you get registered there you can create an avatar which is basically virtual you. And you can build your own house according to your own design. You can buy stuff using Linden Dollars (SL currency) or start your own business. Also there are lots of events everyday you can participate from community service events to fashion shows. The most important thing is each and every person you meet there is actually a real person. And also for the people who do code can use Linden Script Language (LSL) to code a small game or a highly complex program. If you build something interesting you will have a good consumer market so you can earn money. And also you can exchange your Linden Dollars to USD at any stock exchange inside the SL.
This site has initialized in 2003 and now it has more than 1 million residences, so if you go there you can meet lots of people and if you are smart enough you can be rich or famous in the second life. There is a real chance that you may feel the second life is better than your first life. At the moment there are people who has addicted to this and spent most of their time in this virtual world and live less time in the real world.

JR the Savior for Sri Lankan Politicians

There are lots of controversies regarding yesterday’s mass strike planned by opposition parties. But as a whole it was a failure even though Mr. Lal Kantha says it was a trial run. And once again Mahinda Rajapaksha government was able to come out of the trouble.
As far as I think people had 1980 July incident in back of their mind and that’s what made this a failure. So it’s another instance where JR's tactic has paid out for this generation of politicians. We have heard lots of people(even presidential candidates) blaming for Executive presidency as well but all these time each and every President has benefited from that. So the things he did still count well being for today’s politicians. He has done his part in the history for the politicians to survive for another decade or two. Also he has ruined our chances to develop as a country by making stupid decisions which we haven’t reverse even after more than 30 years. And we have no hope those will happen in the future as well. All together we are a hopeless nation with bunch of selfish politicians.

Cartoon by Dasa for Lankadeepa says it all

Ajantha Mendis : Rising of a Legend

I was so fascinated to watch Medis in action yesterday against India. It was a while since we saw Sri Lankan Cricket team doing this well in a competition. Followed by Jayasooriya's brilliant innings in the upfront it was all Mendis show. Following are the few interesting comments I found :
"It was like you were playing something else, and the ball was something else. I won't really blame the batsman, we couldn't pick the deliveries. If you see our bowling, it was the best bowling line-up we could offer when we wanted one more extra batsman in the side. They tried their best and we could have got 274 but for the Mendis factor." - MS. Dhoni
"I wonder how good he was as a kid at carrom. Take the "red" boy!" - Crickinfo Live Scorer on Mendis
"We had never played him before. We had only seen videos and you can visualise and all, but he was difficult to pick out there in the middle. We never had any real reply against him." - MS Again
"A mystery spinner he has been thus far. The mystery is now out in the open and every batsman is out to solve it. The real challenge for Mendis, of uncertain categorization, to maintain that secrecy, begins now. " -Osman Samiuddin
"Dhoni, whose innings stood out for its sensible approach, was mesmerised even at the press-conference. For every question demanding explanations for the defeat, he the same answer: Mendis." - Sidharth Monga
'The 23-year-old plays his cricket for the Sri Lankan army. I suggest he's going to make a right officers' mess of hundreds of international batsmen's stumps in years to come" - Sportingo's Mark Rivlin

Dialog TV is on a role to suicide

I am highly disappointed with DTV's channel selection. When the Zone Reality went off they have introduced a real crap channel called NDTV Good Times which is giving a very bad time. In contrast to the Zone Reality which is one of the very few quality English channels in DTV this is really heart breaking. Given the fact that there a hell of lot of Hindi crappy channel's and adding more to it when dropping quality ones, where are they really going towards. In my opinion they are going to fell in to earth.

Indian's run feast against Pakistan

I was watching the sensational batting performance by Indian's yesterday over Pakistan. It was absolutely wonderful to watch. When Shewag and Suresh clearing the boundaries I was just wondering how big this ground is. But its Karachchi one of the biggest grounds. It was unbelievable, and there is no doubt that they have got some influence from IPL. And the other thing is 300 is no more a winning total in 50 over format. Everybody talks about T20 is killing 50 over cricket, but what I saw yesterday was 50 over cricket is improving from T20.
In the post match interview only I got to know that the Karachchi has 85 meter boundary and its so big. Anyway its wonderful batsmanship by Indians. Thanks a lot guys for the entertainment.

SQL Server 2008 RC 0

SQL server 2008 RC 0 is now can be downloaded from Microsoft website. But when I see the new fetures list, what I felt was its not a big step forward. Nothing much I could found other than some great marketing words.
Anyway below is the some statistics about Microsoft exams on SQL server;

According to Microsoft, as of early 2008:
· 149,590 people have received the SQL Server 2000 MCDBA certification (to be phased out in early 2009)
· 24,939 people have received the MCTS: SQL Server 2005 certification
· 4,006 people have received the MCITP: Database Administrator certification;
· 1,596 people have received the MCITP: Database Developer certification
· 801 people have received the MCTS: Business Intelligence certification.

So it's clearly droping isnt it.

Problem of debuging ASP.NET in VS

I came across with this issue while I was trying to debug a web service in VS. There are few things you have to look into if you come across something similar this.


1. Go to the properties of the particular website in IIS using inetmgr. Then go to the ASP.NET tab and set the .NET framework to the correct version.
2. In the directory security tab you have to check the Integrated Windows Authentication.
3. The other thing is related to IE browser. You have set Local Intranet authentication to either automatic login in the intranet zone or automatic login using uid and pass.


Hope this helps.

Nice Sri Lankan joke site

I came across a nice joke site today url is http://www.udurawana.com . This is from that site

At a party a Mervin S sees a beautiful girl and invitesher to dancewith him...
Mervin S : Can I dance with you?
The Girl : I'm sorry I'm a lesbian..
Mervin S : It's ok. It's ok.. I'm a THOMIAN

There are lots of cool jokes like this in the site. Enjoy ..

Sri Lankan Wedding rituals in the 16th Century

Sharp at the auspicious time his uncle brought the blade towards his cheek. He was going to have his first shave. He wore a grave look on his face, covered with the bristles of the first dawn of hair. He gulped once or twice and tried to stay still as his manhood was shaven off. He was seventeen. Tomorrow he would be getting married.
She stood on the pooruwa clad in the traditional Osari. Deep black eyes, young and innocent like the eyes of a doe, peered through the jewellery, worn to match those of the goddess Paththini. The black irises shone as brightly as the "thalla" on her forehead. As her uncle began to pour the water over their entwined fingers, she felt his arm brush against her. She glanced at him through the corner of her eye. She had not seen his face clearly yet. She only had a vague feeling that he was thin, had fair skin and curly black hair.
Lunch, called the "adara batha" (the meal of love), lasted for over three hours. The bride and the groom seated at the head of the table ate from the same plate. When he thought no one was looking, he pushed pieces of fish towards her. She took them timidly, but picked at her food. She found it an effort to mix the curries on her side of the plate and raise her hand towards her lips. The eyes of the entire table were on her, she thought.
The sound of the gunshots fired into the sky when she had first stepped onto the compound of her husband's house, still lingered in her ears as she was shown their bedroom. She sat at the edge of the bed and waited quietly for him. The black teak furniture gleamed in the light of the big kerosene lamp beside her. Outside, everything was quiet except for the never-ending chorus of a group of Citerns. He came in quietly and closed the door.
She turned towards him and saw his face for the first time. He had curly hair, a thin face and dark black eyes. He smiled down at her. She began to stand up. But he moved towards her, placed his hands on her shoulders and gently pushed her back on to the bed. Seating himself beside her, he raised her chin towards him. She looked into his eyes and saw the gentle sparkle in them. Her heart began to beat rapidly. Strange emotions began to engulf her. She buried her head on his shoulder. His hand moved towards her hair. Slowly he began to loosen the knot tied to the nape of her neck. She could feel his fingers tremble as they encountered the thick black stresses.
The chatter of two squirrels in the garden announced to the world a new day had dawned. The door opened and her mother-in-law came in. The girl lay on the bed, her thin, lithe body wrapped in a white sheet. She looked as radiant as the flowers in the sal tree outside. He stood at the window with his back turned towards the two women. She recollected the night she had spent with him, when he had known her as only a man could know a woman. Now she got up and began to get dressed as her mother-in-law held her clothes and the white sheets to the sunlight, and examined them thoroughly.
From the curve of his cheeks, she could see her husband was smiling to himself. And she knew the same smile would be on her mother-in-law's face as she took a coin from her bosom and tied it to the edge of the bed sheet. The coin meant the girl had proven her virginity. She would be accepted into the family as the wife of their youngest son.
Source : http://www.lankalibrary.com/

Fuel price hike

The continues rise of fuel prices in Sri Lanka and around the world has made peoples life very uncomfortable. It's really affects largely to countries like us. Either you are rich or poor, it has some serious impact. So what are the practical solutions we can think of.
I think the best thing we can do at the moment as a country is to reduce the consumption. Government also has a big part to play here. If you look at a road at any time in Colombo what you will definitely notice is lots of cars, vans and big buses around. Some cars are just to satisfy one persons traveling requirement. Also buses lots of them, I think we have to go for a better public transportation than this. Trains are the best solution also a boat service. But I am very surprised why any of these government hasn’t take any initiatives towards this. Just imagine having a tunnel train service for at least Colombo city limit. This will definitely save lots of money and time for us. I think most of the people will use Public transport if it is up to that standard.
So without fighting over facts that we cannot change we have to think out of the box here. And implement these things asap. Otherwise we will be waiting till oil comes out of our sea forever.

Error installing SQL Server 2005

I came across a problem while I was trying to install SQL Server 2005 on a virtual server. First Windows installer doesn’t allow to install through a remote connection. So I had to copy all the installation disks data to the server hard disk. And then when I tried to run the setup it gave me this error "There was an unexpected failure during the setup wizard". I was clueless and finally found that if it is installing from a network share or a hard disk the files must be properly structured. The server disk (disk 1) data must be copied to a folder with name Servers and the tools disk (disk 2) data must be copied to a folder with name Tools. These two folders must be in a one folder root as well. Then it worked fine :) Hope this will help ....

Related MSDN KB article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/916760

My Car

This is my car its a Nissan Presea R11. Looks cute doesnt it :)

Nice Picture

This picture was taken by Dominic Sansoni. It is really a cool photo. I am really not a photographer and I know nothing about the art behind it. But simply it did catch my attention from a single glance at it. Just drop in to his blog where he has lots of classic stuff.
http://dominicsansoni.blogspot.com

Ebooks

Here is a good website which has heaps and heaps of ebooks. The specialty about the site is it has huge variety of ebooks nearly related to every field.

www.b213.net

Sri Lanka's Ethnic conflict

First of all I must say I hate politics. But at the moment my county is at war because of political madness. Majority of the Colombo community is jubilant by the war, but for me no matter who gets most of the kills at the end of the day we have lost HUMANS. I really disappointed about the way things happening around me. What I seen every where is growing disappointment in Tamils, Sinhalese as well as Muslims. I believe this can drive us in to a major conflict than what we have now. One of my friend told me in England, inside of some Tamil dominated restaurants they have banned using Sinhala. Everyday both LTTE and SL Forces kill some people for both parties they have good solid reasons (everything is humanitarian missions) but what about the people who get stuck in between?

I have one of my cousin work in Sri Lankan Airforce Palali camp and I know how hard for their parents and relatives to bare it. Every news which says about LTTE attacks are brings them sleepless nights. I think some fundamentalists in down south of the Island does not feel this as they always cry out for blood.

Your comments are welcome.

Microsoft CRM 3 Report Customization

When I was doing some customizations on standard CRM 3 reports I found that it is much difficult to edit existing complex Datasets. Visual Studio 2005 IDE itself does not support to edit these complex datasets in Query builder. So it is really a headache to edit the SQL statements instead. The really bad thing is if you manage to change the SQL statements (which is a nightmare) when you trying to save the dataset VS 2005 get stuck (most of the time) or will take lots of time (actually more than that).

So I went mad trying to do this tedious work. Finally found a work around which is worth sharing. Inside SQL Reporting services, report file(.rdl) is actually XML file which contains connection details, dataset queries, reporting fields and every detail which required generating the report. So what I did was editing this XML file, but one thing you should remember is never try to understand the XML file. Just find the required query you want to edit and change it and save the XML file. Now you can open the dataset it in the VS and modify the report.

Happy coding..