Nuwan Online - Nuwan Weerasinghe’s Web Log

The whole country is so pleased to see our cricketers doing well in this world cup. All communities in Sri lanka love their National Side and our Tean is a collection of players from all Nationalities and Relegions. Besides all this, Amnesty International started asking our Country to Play By the Rules. With all these Pshychological hurdles, our team still was able to secure a place in the finals, and thats great.

Since 1992,a south Asian Country has been in a World Cup final in each occasion.

1992 - Pakistan

1996 - Sri-Lanka

1999 - Pakistan

2003 - India

2007 - Sri-Lanka

We should meet Australia In the finals as it would be the ideal final. Best of Luck for our Team!

For me, the most illfated decision made by Hitler during the Second world war was Operation Barbarossa or the invasion of Soviet Russia. Simple maths will prove that it takes virtually millions of soldiers to invade Russia due to her sheer size. But Hiltler went ahead with his plans and the rest is history.

The Gernman attempt to capture the city of Stalingrad is a bit of history itself as hundreds and thousands of both Germans and Russians lost their lives. A briliant movie on a Russian Snipper "Enemy at the Gates" is based on this Stalingrad siege.

But this is not the story…………..

Russian Leader Joseph Stalin had a Son serving in the Red Army at that Time ‘Jakov Djugahvili‘ who was a Senior Lieutenant. He was caught by the Germans during battle.

German Field Marshal Paulus who surrendered to the Red Army in the battle of Stalingrad was in the custody of the Russians. Hiltler suggested a prisoner exchange, Jakov for Paulus. Afterall its Joseph Stalin’s (Russian Leader) Son for a German Field Marshal.

Stalin’s reply for this proposal was………..

"A marshal would not be exchanged for  lieutenant"

This blog post certainly brought a smile to my face. Its well written!

For me the best part is about the one regarding the Chineese government

As the whole country (at least a majority of Sri Lankans) gets ready to celebrate yet another New Year, please spare a moment for those who are fighting in the north and east in our Armed Forces. The greatest sons and daughters of Mother Lanka. You will miss yet another New year. Your Parents, Wives, Children, Firends will not have "Avurudu" in your absance.

But we do understand your Courage and Bravery and we do…………SALUTE YOU………..OUR GALLANT SOLDIERS OF SRI-LANKA ARMED FORCES!

I was afraid at the beginning that my Short stint at a Consultancy would have had a negative impact on my technology skills. But thank god it has not happened as I’m still eager and hungry to go after anything new or interesting to learn. Naturally I’m a good reader and when a requirement comes for me to grab a new idea i never looked back.

So these days, I’m reading a good book by Ingo Rammer at Thinkteckture on .NET Remoting, and another book is yet to be started on Advanced Threading. Both these are on the Job Requirements at Zone24x7. Apart from that I got involved in some Unit Testing work as well which requires me to learn more on NMock. So has some reading to be done in there as well. I think It would be very difficult to move forward in Unit Testing some of our Mobile Applications without a proper understanding on Mock Object Utilization as the code is heavilly interacting with other classes. So testing in Isolation is never gonna be easy here.

Since I have explained my on the job reading/study assignments let me tell you what I read/study for sheer enthusiasm. First I want to get deeper into the .NET Micro Framework which so far is an ellusive target due to lack of reading/study material. So my random playing with the Micro Framework SDK is not currently taking me anywhere. But I’m happy to continue until such time I come across a book.Then I want to know more about Workflows. There should be a good reason for Microsoft to go bang bang with WWF, WCF(Indigo) and WPF and I need to find why. These are part of Vista and .NET Framework 3.0 as well. So I have an Idea to deep dive into WWF and see for myself and I have the book with me. Knowing the future directions in my industry is a must and when a company like Microsoft pours millions into something, it’s worth noticing that.

So here I am. I have got a hell of a lot to do and before everything I need to manage my time. But I truly enjoy what I’m doing and as hungry as ever.

One of the reasons why our whole nation is in this sad state of things is the lack of Accountability. Wikipedia says that Accountability is

"Assumption of responsibility for actions, products, decisions, and policies including the administration, governance and implementation within the scope of the role or employment position and encompassing the obligation to report, explain and be answerable for resulting consequences."

Sadly no one is responsible for anything here and a problem is nobody’s problem. From top to bottom, North to South, Among all ages, all communities this is the feeling. "Its Not my job".

No one is held accountable in a Military failure, Transport Chaos, Garbage Collecting. Even when an infant is given a wrong injection in a Govt hospital and the child dies…..still its nobody’s problem. This mentality has to change for good!!!!!!!!

Lets start from our children, and teach them from their very small ages that they are held responsible for what they do. Nevermind about our "Senior Citizens". Forget them………..Start with our future. This i think is the "Mother of All Current Problems" in Sri Lanka.

Lets be proactive…………………

Its interesting how the role of a leader is seen in different corners. Let it be Politics, Sports or even Terrorism, I think that those who are called as leaders are not born, but are made into a leader. Birth might help such as if you are born into a royal family, you automatically inherit the throne. But this does not make you a Good Leader.

In Cricket (Since its the World Cup these days), lot of Indians in particular has to say a lot about their Cricket Captain. But I believe that its not just the individual but the process which drills a Leader into a Good Leader. Either this process is through Learning or sheer Hands on Experience with the job.

Also certain leaders emerge with time. Churchil was the one for England during the TIME of Second World war.Li Quan Yu was the one for Singapore, and Arjuna Ranatunga was the one during the 1996 World Cup for Sri Lanka.

So I dont beleive in these NATURAL Leaders……….you have to go with your Instincts, and more importantly stick to them when the going gets tough and be accountable as a good leader.