Microsoft might release SQL Server source

Microsoft is thinking about releasing their source code of SQL Server as part of their shared source licensing program. Read more about it at:
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-5587451.html

Oracle developer tools for Visual Studio.NET

When developing applications using VS.NET and SQL server you can do lot of database specific functions from the VS.NET development environment itself. So if you are using Oracle as the back end for your applications you develop using VS.NET and require the same level of integration you can download the Oracle developer tool beta 2 from the url below:
http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/dotnet/tools/index.html

Communtiy Server 1.0 released

The open source forum software Communtiy Server 1.0 is released and is available for download. This is something we were looking forward to as we were planning to migrate the dot net forum onto the community server.
The download is available at http://www.communityserver.org/forums/473043/ShowPost.aspx

Compatibility test your .NET apps for 2.0 framework

Testing to make sure your application created on the .NET 1.1 framework can run on the 2.0 framework can be a hard task. The good news is you can submit your application and microsoft can do it for you. Read more about it at JRoxe's weblog.

I am in Australia

I am in Melbourne on some work and will be staying here for the next couple of weeks. This is my 3rd visit to the land of kangaroos. Will be having a heavy workload over the next few days since i need to finalize a few customizations on a product i developed here...
Since my return date is on the 4th of March i guess i'll be missing out on the .NET user group meeting on the 2nd of March :-(

Horoscope for the Year of Rooster.

I don't believe in horoscopes but while i was in one of the coffee shops in colombo i just picked up a magazine with horoscopes for the current chinese year (the year of Rooster). I was born in the year of Sheep. My horoscope said i should be very careful dealing with people and contracts to avoid getting lawsuits. And the efforts i put in my career will not reap the same amount of benefits. To make this a successful year i have to put double the effort and take the initiative in making decisons.
Well the biggest consolation was the fact Bill gates was also born in the year of sheep. So ok double the efforts and take the intiative is the way to go this year (thats for both Microsoft and Me) ;-)
Any other Sheeps i know out there? (Ps: If you are born in 1919, 1931, 1943, 1955, 1979, 1991 then you belong to the family of Sheep)

Inspirations from blogging

I really love blogging, and i mean it so seriously. I love blogging so much that i have been persuading a few people i know to start blogging. Even at the place i work blogging is alien to many people (we have two bloggers at my current work place) So just an inspirational note to them on what has changed in my day to day life since i started blogging

You have to keep your promises: When you make a promise and you really want to make sure you keep it, the best thing to do is blog about it. Cos now you have made an open statement and you will be thinking twice before breaking it.

More people listen (read rather): Don't u love it when people really read about your thoughts and your work and your ideas. Well thats exactly what you get with a blog and u have the widest audience you ever could get.

You are not alone: Just imagine you rambling about some problem you faced and someone commenting saying "Hey guess what, i faced the same issue. And i ended up doing this..." and suddenly it gives you a feeling you are not the only one who went through this.

So guys seriously start blogging

Say what you feel

"Say what you feel" : now that seems very simple right. Unfortunately i always find it very tough to do that. And i end up doing things i dont like or want to do, but have to do becos of the fact someone wants me to do it that way. I am pretty sure that situation is pretty common being in the software development industry. So what might the benefits (consequences) of saying what you feel? maybe a few lost jobs and not pleasing a few people... but i guess at the end, the sense of knowing you did something just because you thought it's sensible and correct and not to please a few people is satisfaction enough.
I guess i seriously need to start
Questioning more on what others say if i feel it's stupid or wrong
And spend more time on things that i really want to do
And say what i feel more often...even if it is going to get me into trouble

Actually all these thoughts came up while reading a blog entry in kathys blog about the donkey kicking incident... BTW Did u start getting those inspirational ideas after this kathy ;-)

ASP.NET 2.0 Using Visual C# 2005 training

This is a downloadable ISO image of a training on ASP.NET 2.0 using visual C# 2005 by AppDev. You can download it from the following url:
download url

.NET love story

This is a funny valentines special...

I have a managed heap of memories regarding you - none of which are IDisposable. Therefore I am compiling my references, and persisting them to you in this file, which is ISerializable and will last for generations (at most 3)

Check out the full extract at
http://weblogs.asp.net/palermo4/archive/2005/02/14/372170.aspx

My first Tin and Vat

Ok i hate these government offices but i had to go to get my Tin and Vat number to release off the MSDN pilot hard drive. It was a tough time with running up and down but was a bit easy since Wela had already told me what i should do. And finally there it was, those two small pieces of documents that kept me away from getting my hands on the hard drive from Microsoft.
So finally handed over the documents for clearing and waiting for the shipment to come home. Hopefully there won't be any other problems in clearing my package from customs.

Pattern share

Did u ever wish that you had a good catalog of patterns from various authors organized into one proper catalog for quick reference? Well check out www.patternshare.org. It's a great catalog and very informative.

MSF goes agile

This is exciting... an agile process as part of the MSF. Agile software development processes are different in that they are more focused on results with visible rapid increments. You can check on the upcoming MSF agile process at
http://blogs.msdn.com/team_foundation/archive/2005/02/07/368599.aspx

And if you want to check out on a good book on agile software development check out the following book from Alistair Cockburn
Agile Software Development

Trackback added to my blog

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

The importance of unlearning...

This is a real good blog entry from Kathy on the importance of unlearning. Like her books her blog is very informative as well. This blog entry is a must read:
http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2005/02/the_future_is_n.html

Google maps

Well I seem to be all locations today but if you haven't checked out Google maps yet check it out. It's just awesome. But i wonder when Srilanka will be covered as well so I can just give a search on places to have a nice Koththu Rotti (Chopped dry bread) while on the road ;-)
maps.google.com

My Blog location

Just a peek at where in this world i am blogging from using Microsoft Mappoint.
Check the side bar...

Submit your blog as well at:
http://www.csthota.com/blogmap/submit.aspx

OOP is much better in theory than in practice... WTF

I hate commenting on others ideas and beliefs but this article really made me keep my resolutions apart and say something about it. I dont think the author has any idea on what OOP is or has never practiced it. And his idea on code reuse by copying and pasting really puts me off
You can read the article at http://www.devx.com/DevX/Article/26776/0/page/1
Any comments on this?

SCJP for the Tiger platform beta experience...

Beta exams were called out for the SCJP for the tiger platform and i just couldn't resist doing it. It was a long time since i used java on a project but decided to get my hands dirty on it.
Unfortunately didn't get enough time to study. I used the Java 5.0 developers notebook and javaranch to prepare. The exam was a bit tough and i was sitting and doing it for 5 hours (I took 4 hours and 45 mins). But i love to keep myself upto date on both java and .NET technologies which motivated me to do the beta.
As for passing the exam i am not very sure though... I did very well on design related issues on OO (I love OO) but didn't do so well on threads (I hate threads). Have to wait and see how it went.

February .NET user group meeting

We had our monthly .NET user group meeting yesterday. Manzi did a presentation on Software usability engineering which was very useful and informative. He also showed the use of the finger print reader... This small gadget is very useful and i was planning on buying one for the past few weeks. So finally placed an order for it today.

Software patterns catalog

This is a really good catalog of Patterns for reference by various authors. The catalog is by no means final and you can add patterns that you have encountered as well. Check it out at:
http://www.patternshare.org/

Peek .NET 2005: Default instance for forms

Looks like default instance are back into forms again to give Visual Basic 6.0 developers migrating to Visual Basic.NET the familiar way to reference forms without actually creating instances.
Dim frm as New MyForm
frm.Show()

can be done in VB.NET 2005 simply as
MyForm.Show()

This will show the default instance of MyForm. Personally I don't like this feature much as this might lead to some bad practices. I guess implementing a Singleton pattern is much more cleaner and makes more sense. But since it is there in VB.NET 2005 maybe some developers do prefer this method...

Imagine cup workshop

Did a small workshop yesterday along with Wela and Jinashri, for a few university students at the Microsoft regional office here in colombo. The workshop was on how to develop web services and mobile applications using the Microsoft.NET platform.
The purpose of the workshop was to show how easy it is to develop these types of applications even for a newbie to the Microsoft.NET platform. Most of the participants were new to the .NET platform. We did a few demonstrations as well as some informal QA sessions.

Enterprise library released.

I am sure lot of .NET developers are using application blocks to speed up development. Now the enterprise library is released with all these application blocks put together. Just downloaded it today and will be doing some work on this in the next few weeks.
You can check it out at the link below:
Enterprise application library