Free E-Books

Microsoft is providing free 3 ebooks for Visual Studio 2008.

Below are the topics.
1. LINQ
2. ASP.NET AJAX
3. SILVERLIGHT 1.0

Download

7 Ways to Work Faster on Slow Connections

I found a useful article in Microsoft web site which provides 7 ways to work faster on slow connections.

Read the article

Bomb Blast

Watch LTTE Human Bomb in Action !!!

View Video

Well Done

Congratulation to our Murali for becoming the world's leading wicket taker for test cricket. Hope that he will get 1000 test wickets and become the worlds leading wicket taker in one day matches as well.

MP3 Players

Are you planning to buy a mp3 player and do you want to compare prices of different players provided by different companies. There is a very nice and good site which is called “save buckets” which you can use to do buy a mp3 player for your need. From this site you can compare latest prices of hundreds of mp3 players.

Acedamic Second Shot

Microsoft is providing a second shot offer for acedamic students. To get register for that offer please visit below link.

Register

Royal Thomian - Water Polo

Sending Newsletters using C# 2.0

1.Without using MSMQ

using System.Net.Mail;
using System.Data.SqlClient;
using System.Messaging;



2.With using MSMQ

//This function will send the message to the msmq if the server
//fails to send the email
private void sendNewsletterMSMQ()
{
if (MessageQueue.Exists(@".\private$\Newsletter") == false)
{
MessageQueue.Create(@".\private$\Newsletter");
}

MessageQueue objQue = new MessageQueue(@".\private$\Newsletter");

SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection("server=localhost;uid=sa;pwd=password;database=Newsletters;");
SqlCommand comm = new SqlCommand("SELECT DISTINCT Email FROM NewsletterEmails", conn);

SqlDataReader dr;

MailAddress from;
MailAddress to;

SmtpClient objClient = new SmtpClient();

objClient.Host = "host";
objClient.Credentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential("user name", "password");

try
{

conn.Open();

dr = comm.ExecuteReader(CommandBehavior.CloseConnection);

while (dr.Read())
{
from = new MailAddress("admin@admin.com");
to = new MailAddress(dr[0].ToString());

MailMessage objMail = new MailMessage(from, to);

objMail.Subject = "Newsletter";
objMail.IsBodyHtml = true;
objMail.Body = "HTML CODE";

try
{
objClient.Send(objMail);
}
catch
{
objQue.Send(objMail.To[0].Address.ToString());
}
}

dr.Close();
}
catch (SqlException sqlEx)
{
Response.Write("Database error: " + sqlEx.Message);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Response.Write("General error: " + ex.Message);
}
}


//This function will start reading the msmq
private void readMSMQ()
{
MessageQueue objQue = new MessageQueue(@".\private$\Newsletter");

string[] types = { "System.String" };
((XmlMessageFormatter)objQue.Formatter).TargetTypeNames = types;

objQue.ReceiveCompleted += new ReceiveCompletedEventHandler(queue_ReceiveCompleted);

objQue.BeginReceive();
}


//Event handler for the ReceiveCompleted event
private void queue_ReceiveCompleted(object sender, ReceiveCompletedEventArgs e)
{
try
{
string toAddress = e.Message.Body.ToString();

sendNewsletterMSMQ(toAddress);

AyuviQue.BeginReceive();

}
catch
{

}

}


//This function will send the email to the specified address
private void sendNewsletterMSMQ(string toAddress)
{
if (MessageQueue.Exists(@".\private$\Newsletter") == false)
{
MessageQueue.Create(@".\private$\Newsletter");
}

MessageQueue objQue = new MessageQueue(@".\private$\Newsletter");

MailAddress from;
MailAddress to;

SmtpClient objClient = new SmtpClient();

objClient.Host = "host";
objClient.Credentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential("user name", "password");

try
{
from = new MailAddress("admin@admin.com");
to = new MailAddress(toAddress);

MailMessage objMail = new MailMessage(from, to);

objMail.Subject = "Newsletter";
objMail.IsBodyHtml = true;
objMail.Body = "HTML CODE";

try
{
objClient.Send(objMail);
}
catch
{
objQue.Send(objMail.To[0].Address.ToString());
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Response.Write("General error: " + ex.Message);
}
}

American Green Card

U.S Department of States have opened the 2009 Diversity Visa Program (DV-2009) now. The people who wish you apply for this lottery can now submit their applications.

The application submission period for DV-2008 is from 12:00PM EDT (GMT -4) on October 3, 2007 to 12:00PM EST (GMT -5) on December 2, 2007.

If you are intrested apply now.It's totally free.

Apply

Developer Day 2007

Yesterday I attended dev day 2007. It was an greate event from which we learn lot of technical things such as VS 2008 features,C# 3.0, LINQ and Silverlight.

The feature that I was intrested was about the ability of VS 2008 to debug java script like normal .net language. It also provides IntelliSense feature for java script as well.

So finally I must thank Wela(MDE) for orgernizing such an event and hope that there will be more events such as dev day in near future.

Tiny URL

Do you want to get a tiny URL from a big URL and use that tiny URL instead of the big URL. I found out a site which provide that functionality.

Visit http://tinyurl.com/ for more information.

Second Shot at Microsoft Certification

Microsoft is providing an extra chance to pass any Microsoft IT Professional, Developer, or Microsoft Dynamics certification exam--free. In order to get this you must register.

Register

DevDay

Dev Day is going to happen on 16th October 2007 at Mount Lavinia Hotel. For more information and to get register please visit below link.

Register

National IT-BPO Capacity Summit 2007 - Career Fair

This career fair is going to happen between 1st-2nd September at BMICH.

The career guidance fair is open to parents, career counselors from schools, O/L and A/L students and also existing middle management professionals, who might be interested in entering the growing IT-BPO industry. All other stakeholders in the industry such as potential employers, educational and training institutions will also be present.

For more information please visit www.nics.lk

Vacancy for a software developer

Outlook mails to your mobile

There is a free software which you can use to receive your emails and Outlook data to your mobile phone.

With that software

1.Receive your emails and Outlook data anywhere, anytime
2.Handle your schedule and meetings via your mobile device
3.Enjoy synchronized Personal Information Management (PIM)
4.Access information about your Contacts, anywhere, anytime

Download free software

Develop php applications using Visual Studio IDE

There is a php integrated development environment based on Visual Studio. With VS.Php you can design, develop, debug and deploy Php applications within the Visual Studio IDE.

Download

.NET User Group Meeting August 2007

VSTO development using VS.NET 2008

By: Prasanna Amirtalingam (MVP - Visual Basic)
http://www.prasanna.ws

By now you heard the Visual Studio 2008 Beta2 is released.
So join us to take a look at some of the new designers available in Visual Studio.NET 2008
which simplifies programming for office. This session would also show how easy it is
to extend the Microsoft Office platform in embedding custom business logic.

Date: 1st August 2007
Time: 6.00 PM onwards
Venue: Microsoft Sri Lanka Training Room, 11th Floor, DHPL Building, Nawam Mawatha, Colombo 02
Entrance: Free (as usual)

Office File Conversion

Now youcan convert your old (non office 2007) documents into office 2007 documents. Visit below link and download the software.

Download

Visual Studio 2008 Downloads

Download Microsoft Visual Studio code name "Orcas" beta 2 release and other related stuff by visiting below link.

Download

Code in .NET 2.0, Build for Java, Run on Linux!

I found out a site which provide a plugin for Microsoft's® Visual Studio 2005 IDE which enables you to produce .NET Web and server applications that run on Tomcat under Linux® and other Java-enabled platforms, without having to rewrite your C# or Visual Basic code.

The plugin can be freely downloadble.

Download

Imagine Cup 2007

Congradulation for the teams who won 1st (Team : SARA, Application : ISECED
),2nd (Team : MaTHaKa, Application : KAMZA
) and 3rd (Team : Sanhitha
, Application : Iddhipada
) place in Imagine cup 2007 Sri Lanka which held yesterday.

I must congradulate other 3 teams who came up to the finals.

I wish all the best for the team whome are going to Korea for the world finals and hope that they will bring proud to Sri Lanka.

Finally thanks Wela for inviting my self and Dumidu for the event.

Bradby Express To Kandy

Hurray....

Our rugger team won the first leg of the bradby last Saturday. It was a very joyfull time for us seeing our team winning the first leg.

Hope that the our team will win the second leg as well and get the Bardby trophy.

Free SMS

Do you want to send free SMS messages? Then become a member in below site.
Site

Advantages
* Free SMS every day;
* Directly 20 free SMS credits;
* Your own number as sender;
* Follow status report of your SMS;
* Earn free SMS free and simple;
* Phonebook & SMS History;
* Group SMS and Plan your SMS's;
* SMS anonymously;
* And many more!

Developer Toolkit

There is a toolkit called Facebook Developer Toolkit which you can use to develop cool windows and web aplications.

Download Toolkit

Free Microsoft Certification Exam

If you are going to do your first Microsoft exam you can do the exam for free. This offer is only for students and faculty members only.

Get more information

.NET User Group Meeting June 2007

Introduction to Windows Communication Foundation

Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) is the platform for building new generation connected applications in Windows.
In this session, Buddhike will be talking about the WCF fundamentals and walk you through a demo to show how to get started with this powerful & exciting technology.
Session prerequisites: Some WS-* required ;)
Level: 200

http://blogs.thinktecture.com/buddhike

Date: 6th June 2007
Time: 6 PM onwards
Venue: Microsoft Sri Lanka Training Room, 11th Floor, DHPL Building, Nawam Mawatha, Colombo 02

Dinner Dance

Bradby Express

.NET User Group Meeting May 2007

Session 1: Introduction to SQL Server CE Programming
Speaker: Fiqri Ismail (MVP - Visual Developer - Device Applications)
An Introduction to access the System.Data.SqlServerCe class libraries programmatically. This will allow you to create/delete Databases, Tables and add/modify/delete Data programmatically using Visual Basic.net

Session 2: Introducing Microsoft Silverlight
Speaker: Merill Fernando (MVP - ASP.NET)
Microsoft® SilverlightT is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web. Join Merill to learn from a developers perspective on how you can extend your web applications with Silverlight.


Date: 9th May 2007
Time: 6 PM onwards
Venue: NDB Auditorium, DHPL Building, Nawam Mawatha

Wishes

Yesterday one of my best friend (Ishan) got married with his love Thiloshini at Trans Asia hotel. It was a very happy day for me.

Wish them a happy wedded life.

Congratulation

Best wishes for Sri Lankan cricket team for becoming the Runners up of ICC Crocket World Cup 2007. All of the Sri Lankans thought that our team will win the world cup this year but unfortunately bad weather prevented the Sri Lankan victory.

But next time hope that Sri Lankan team would be able to win the world cup as the world cup 2011 is going to be held in asian countries.

Free Online Backup

There is a site which provide 2GB of free online backup. The site encrypts the data and stores those data for backup.

Create your free account now.

Register now

SQL Server User Group

There is a user group and a forum (http://www.sqlserveruniverse.com/) which will be launching. The first user group meeting of the new forum will happen on Thursday (5th of April) at the Microsoft Office.

The meeting shedule...

1. Implementing ETL Solutions with SQL Server Integration Services
Speaker: Dinesh Priyankara

2. A Simple BI Case
Speaker: Gogula Aryalingam

Finally I wish all the best for the new user group.

MCAD

Hurray......

I got through from the exam which I did on yesterday. Now I have earned MCAD which was a goal in my educational life.

Hope to become MCPD by doing the relavant upgrade exam near future.

Microsoft Partners: save up to 30% on exams, plus free practice tests

Visit below links and get discount on VS 2005 exams and get free practise tests.

1 .Exclusive Certification Exam Savings
2. Free Practice Tests

Windows Vista Hardware Assessment

Do you want to check weather your PC is capable of running Windows Vista???

If so there is a tool which you can use to check.It's totally free.

Download

Big Match

Today the "Battle of the blues" (Royal Thomian Crcket Match) going to be started at SCC grounds.

Wish and hope that this time Royal Team wins the match.

.NET User Group Meeting

March .NET User Group Meeting

Session 1: Ribbon customization for VSTO developers

Speaker: Prasanna Amthralingam

Office 2007 brings many interesting possibilities for VSTO developers to incoperate their custom application with Office 2007. This session talks about the customization that can be made in the UI for office 2007 in incoperating custom applications.

Session 2: Developing Messaging Applications with MSMQ

Speaker: Joy Rathnayake

MSMQ is Microsoft's solution for developing Messaging Applications. MSMQ is a piece of software which does message queuing, serialization, etc. free of cost for Visual Studio developers. Visual Studio 2005 simplifies task of developing messaging applications with in built MesageQueue component.

Date/Time : 7th, March 2007
Venue: NDB Auditorium, Navam Mawatha.
Entrance: FREE

Windows PowerShell 1.0 for Windows Vista x64 Edition

Now you can download Windows PowerShell 1.0 Installation Package for Windows Vista x64 Edition for free.

Download

At Last Received

Last year (2006) July I ordered the Free Partner Product DVD for .NET 2005 and yesterday I received the cd after 7 months.Cool.

SMARTPHONES EASY TARGET FOR HACKERS, EXPERTS WARN

My Friend Bhagya sent me this below link which says "
SMARTPHONES EASY TARGET FOR HACKERS, EXPERTS WARN". I thought that this article will be useful for the people who use smart phones.

Read the article

Download Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office Second Edition

Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the 2007 Microsoft Office System (Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office Second Edition or VSTO 2005 SE for short) is a free add-on to Visual Studio 2005 that empowers developers to build applications targeting the 2007 Office system. Developers can now harness the benefits of the 2007 Office system platform and create Office-based solutions using the professional development environment of Visual Studio 2005.

Anyone who has a licensed version of Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office or Visual Studio Professional and above (either standalone versions or via an MSDN Premium or Professional subscription) is eligible to download a free copy of VSTO 2005 SE.

Download

Ten Secrets of Effective Management

Ten secrets of effective management from the pros.

The costs of poor management are severe and manifest themselves in countless negative ways including demotivated, demoralized staff, high staff turnover, reduced employee productivity, increased employee uncertainty, a client/company disconnect and increased customer complaints. While a plethora of literature exists on the myriad ways managers can up their performance and positively impact and influence their companies and their teams, below we outline ten basic management tips from the pros.

1. Lead don't manage

Leaders who 'inspire' their teams to perform by example and by communicating and eliciting excitement for a common vision, mission and set of values and goals are far more effective over the long run than their more subdued counterparts who 'manage' rather than 'lead'. While managers control, meddle, limit and demoralize, the leaders excite, enthuse and infuse the organisation with their own contagious positive energy, motivation and dedication to professional principles and ideals as well as their solid, passionate and unwavering commitment to the company and the clients. Leaders manage less rather than more and while guiding and overseeing broad strategic issues and communicating closely with their teams, refrain from regularly interfering in the day-to-day tasks and workloads or micromanaging. As people take their cues from the boss, the boss's principles, tone, work ethic, values, workstyle, energy and motivation will largely influence and determine the corporate culture.

2. Hire the best

A manager's performance is a direct function of the performance of his team - by definition his role is to achieve a specific output or desired result through his employees and as such there is no substitute for surrounding yourself with the best possible players in the field and grooming them to excel. Confident managers are not afraid to hire Grade A players, they do not fear such employees will downplay their own track record or undermine their profile and abilities. To the contrary, good managers recognize that top performers will lift the whole division and will reflect directly in purely positive terms on their boss. Grade A players are motivated, driven, energetic, innovative, have the right attitude, aptitude, experience, abilities and their enthusiasm and quest for excellence usually sifts through the entire organization infusing it with renewed vigor and competitiveness. Just as excellence is contagious, so is mediocrity and incompetency - good managers are vigilant to never permit mediocrity in the front door and to excise it immediately should it rear its uncompetitive head before it manifests itself further across the organisation to everyone's detriment.

3. Set clear goals

Setting goals is the first step towards achieving peak performance. These goals must be clear, specific, reasonable and attainable. The team must be able to articulate these goals in no uncertain terms and commit to them. Once the expectations are set, training programs and resource allocation can be tailored around these milestones and performance measured accordingly. A team that cannot articulate the company's mission and goals and their own is a team destined for failure. A team set unreasonable, unrealistic goals is also set for failure. Good managers understand what is reasonable and attainable and ensure that the teams have the tools, training, infrastructure, resources and know-how necessary to achieve these goals. A good rule is to tell your team "what" needs to be done and "why" and leaving them to determine the "how" based on their best professional judgement and all the resources and know-how made available to them.

4. Listen to your team

A good manager listens to his team, closely monitors the issues they are facing and acts as a sounding board for their concerns, problems and ideas. Good listening starts with being open minded and approachable and involves paying close attention and making an effort to truly understand the issues raised while respecting the different viewpoints, communicating your understanding and offering nuggets of wisdom, direction, guidance or advice where sought for or appropriate. Ask questions where you are unclear about something. Probe. Reiterate key points to make sure you understand correctly. A manager divorced from the unique needs of his team cannot begin to motivate or inspire them toward a common goal. A manager who listens with objectivity, respect and discipline translates into a team that listens, both to each other and to the client and this is often the first step towards a winning, client-oriented service and product line. Good listening need not stop with the team - ideas, feedback and advice can come from anywhere, often from unlikely sources, and a good manager is always receptive to them.

5. Communicate effectively

Effective communication means clear, concise and timely communication and open lines of communication between the manager and his team. This goes beyond effective listening to communicating the mission, goals, standards, values and job expectations, giving ongoing and regular feedback to employees, seeking and acknowledging feedback from the team on decisions that affect them, relaying both positive and negative news in a timely manner, motivating and coaching the team and positively reinforcing employees in both public and private for jobs well done.

6. Respect your team

A good manager is consistently and unwaveringly respectful towards his team in attitude, words and actions. They do not look down on their teams nor do they consider themselves above maintaining a healthy, robust and direct line of communication with them. Good managers never belittle, humiliate, embarrass, threaten or otherwise undermine the integrity of their employees. When they need to criticize they do so professionally, constructively and in private; in public they laud, commend and motivate. Good managers never single out an employee to publicly flog or scream at nor do they create a culture where anger, ranting, raving, blaming, accusing or screaming are acceptable. Autocrats and dictators fail as managers over the long run; respectful leaders win the loyalty and commitment of their teams and succeed.

7. Create a learning culture

Teaching is a high leverage activity - the amount of time you spend training and coaching an employee or group of employees will generate a high return on investment that should with positive ramifications infiltrate many levels of the organisation. While you teach, your own learning and understanding of the subject matter will be enhanced. Make sure your own training and self-education remains uninterrupted as you progress up the career ladder even as you teach and provide training programs for subordinates. In this knowledge-economy age we live in, education, skills, knowledge rapidly become obsolete and it is essential to stay ahead of the productivity and innovation curve through constant training and education. Competitiveness necessitates a highly trained workforce - make sure you allocate key resources including some of your own precious time to the regular and ongoing training and development of employees. Groom them for success and cultivate great future leaders by providing the best training feasible while continuously updating, refining and enhancing your own skills.

8. Delegate Don't Abdicate

Good managers don't hire a team then do the job themselves - they delegate then supervise, monitor, inspect and provide feedback. Delegating does not mean a handover then washing your hands clean of the project - delegation without supervision is abdicating! Make sure you set a clear schedule for follow-up and regularly track progress towards agreed goals. Managers who delegate without ensuring their teams receive the proper resources, tools and training are setting their teams up for failure. Similarly, managers who assign responsibilities then rob their subordinates of all decision-making ability and authority while maintaining complex bureaucracy and rigid, archaic policies/procedures are dooming their teams to failure. Finally, managers who meddle, control, micro-manage and routinely take over tasks that veer off-course rather than leaving their subordinates to take charge and see the project through to completion are also inefficiently allocating valuable resources and undermining their subordinates. Employees who are routinely divorced of their responsibilities in such a manager cease to feel accountable and eventually lose motivation.

9. Remove barriers to success

Make sure the policies and procedures in place in your company help rather than hinder peak performance and success. Workplace rules and regulations should be minimized and facilitated to be easy to comprehend and follow rather than a barrier to success. Any rules/procedures, bureaucracies or other boundaries that paralyze, delay and frustrate rather than catalyze the efficient production process should be rethought and wherever possible removed or alternatives found. Workers should be encouraged to constantly innovate and optimize on their work processes and output and work processes should consequently be flexible enough to allow for this constant redefining and innovation. Strive to give employees freedom - the unfettered freedom to create, innovate, improve and exceed all expectations and performance targets.

10. Focus on the Customer

Effective managers realize that the customer is the real boss. Customers through their purchasing decisions hire and fire employees every day and their actions, attitudes and habits ultimately determine the shape, focus and size of the organisation. A boss's focus on the customer will permeate the organization and create a customer-driven organization where everyone realizes that they work for and are ultimately paid by the customer. All positions in an effective organisation should be geared towards either getting or keeping a customer. The successful manager will take responsibility for training the employees in the fine art and science of getting and keeping customers while removing all corporate and procedural barriers that fetter these activities.

Annual Meeting

Royal College Group of 2001 Annual meeting was held at Royal College Main Hall last Saturday (27th of January) at 5pm.

On that day selected the new commette for the year 2007/2008 and I also got selected as a commette member.

Hope to give my 100% for the upcoming projects of our group.

Windows Vista Launch in Sri Lanka

Windows Vista Launch in Sri Lanka in going to happen to 15th of February at BMICH.For more information please visit below link.

Windows Vista Launch

SQL code Intellisense for Oracle SQL plus & SQL Server Query Analyser

Please visit below site and download full featured free version of the software.

Download

Ultimate free E Books Collection

I found out some sites which provides free books to download on various topics. So visit these sites and download them for free.

1. E-Books
2. Mobile & PDA
3. Web site
4. Resources
5. MagazineZ
6. Medical Books
7. Science & Engineering
8. Books

Earn Money By Emails

I found out two sites which pay you when you read the emails of those sites. If you want to earn money by reading emails please visit below links and start earning money.

It's totally free.

1. E Mail Pays You
2. Our Paid Mail

Sri Lankan Government Information

1. Information in Sinhala
2. Information in English

Reference : Lasiru's Blog

Tamileelam National Registry of Persons established

"Well Well Well it's not good what is happening in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan Government should do some thing about this."

The Civil Administration in Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) administered regions in NorthEast has launched Tamileelam National Registry of Persons on Monday, January 01. The programme was inaugurated by the Commissioner of Tamil Eelam Department of Registration of Persons, S Jeyenthiran, by issuing the first national identity card to LTTE leader Velupillai Pirapaharan. The card will function similar to the Social Security Number (SSN) used in many western democracies, where the number uniquely identifies an individual.
A Tamileelam national registration number is to be assigned to each person of the Tamil nation to strengthen the effectiveness of a computerized administration, S. Jeyanthiran, told TamilNet.

The Registration Number will be used by the Tamileelam administration as the main index in most computerized administrative records of individuals including tax records, employee records, patient records, student records, and credit records.

Officials of Sri Lanka Administrative service in Jaffna said that the Sri Lanka's National ID card is mainly used to identify, access entries in security related data, and has not been fully integrated with other administrative computerized data records.



TamilNet: 01.01.07 Tamileelam National Registry of Persons established

New Car

Last week bought a car(Toyota Cressida) for my family. Although the car is a second hand diesel one it was in good condition.

Thanks for Lassie(my brother's friend) who helped us a lot to buy this car which was in good condition.