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Get ready for Tech.Ed 2006 Srilanka

Get ready for the biggest technology training and conference for Microsoft technolgies. Be there for learning and networking and be a part of the wave. Check out http://www.teched.lk/ for more details

Triple booting my laptop

I was planning to format my laptop and get it ready for the next few projects and technolgies i am interested on and need to work on. I needed Ubuntu linux, Windows xp and Windows vista and finally got them installed all.
So right now the GRUB boot loader loads and can choose between ubuntu or the windows boot loader. If windows boot loader is chosen then i get the choice to boot either vista or xp.
Had some problems setting up my thunderbird email client to work with my mails. I want to be able to access my emails and share the same thunderbird profile while i am in ubuntu or one of the windows OS. Finally got that setup as well (Thanks Charith), and now need to install all the development tools and set things up.

Sun developers summit 2006

Last friday i was at Watersedge at the Sun developer summit 2006. The organizing of the event was not that good and was not properly planned at all. I primaily went for the session on JME development using netbeans ide session but it was cancelled.There were a few silly comparisons made with microsoft technologies, such as saying swing has a data model for componenets and it was better than using the add method to add the data to the components as used in MS technolgies. MS developers do not use add method to add data to components. They use data source and data binding and have been using that to seperate data model from the component(view) for a long time.
A session of interest was the one on project tango on the work done on interoperability between java web services (JWS) and windows communication foundation (WCF).

Gadgets galore

I wanted to buy a good mp3 player for a long time. After reading some reviews on ipod, though it had the coolness felt it wasn’t what i was looking for. The problems with ipod seemed like poor battery life, gets scratched very easily and the file formats supported by ipod with video was very limited. So finally decided to for the Sansa mp3 player from SanDisk. After using it for a week it seems good enough for me and got to see how it behaves in the long run.
Was looking for a digital camera as well and didnt have any second thoughts in going for the Canon S2 powershot camera. It is pretty awesome and worth for the money.

Working for someone or working for me

I have been toying with the idea of completely giving off my full time job and getting totally into contracts and working on my own for a long time. I was a bit worried about not having a steady income if i go into contracts leaving my full time job but then again i had to turn down a few opportunities that came by because of the fact i had a full time job. I am right now managing both but spending less time on my contracts. But so far the best exposure and money does come through the contract jobs compared to a full time job.
So when i came across this flash movie "Declaration of Independence", i kept asking myself whether i should take the plunge into being my own boss and working for me.

Long layovers and flight schedules

I have been ignoring my blog lately the past few days due to some heavy workload. I am still in california and i am supposed to return from here on the 12th of this month. Looks like i will be having a long layover of 18 hours at the tokyo airport and airline agents just confirmed that they cannot provide hotels during that time.
So if anyone knows any good places inside the narita aiport to sleep for 18 hours do let me know.