It is 2009

It is here. 2009. And as always, it is filled with expectations.

Well begun is half done.

So I created 14 issues in Carbon Jira this morning. And became the lucky one to create the issue number 2000.

People usually expect a new year to be more prosperous and a better one than the last year. They often make plans. But most of the people would say, the plans did not work out and not everything went well when they reach the end of the year. In a way it is good, to have some hopes and some fresh energy with a new year. However, it a must to realize that plans never work but planning does. In other words, it is not good enough to have a plan only at the beginning of the year. Rather you should have a plan to renew plans throughout the year. Also, you have to have set the stage last year, for this years plan to succeed. If you did not do proper plans last year, you cannot expect your new year's plans to succeed out of the blue this new year. Now, do not worry, if you did not have any plans last year, at least it is good that you have a new year now, so start now for so that you would be ready by next year.

As for WSO2, the right stage has been set for a prosperous 2009, thanks to the Carbon push we had towards the end of 2008. By mid 2009, we would have one of the most stable, unified, flexible, agile and robust middleware platforms that the enterprise have ever seen. With the economic crisis that the world is facing right now, I am sure that a considerable number of enterprises would embrace WSO2 middleware platform by the end of 2009.

People say, the only way to get out of the economic crisis that was faced in 2008 is to work harder in 2009. Well, in the last three months of 2008, WSO2 folks already did that. 18 hours per day was average. There were at least three occurrences where I only slept 2 hours and got back to work. And thanks to all those hard work, we would have more time this year to relax and innovate. Because, hard working must always be backed up with innovation.

As for the plans for 2009, I think one of the key things that we should focus is productivity. If we can cut down time spent on routine stuff through simple productivity tips, then we would have more time to relax and innovate. From simple things like using home and end keys on the keyboard, instead of keep on pressing the left and right arrow keys to advanced stuff like formatting the code in proper fashion needs to be addressed. I think we should make our folks pursue "in search of productivity".

The other thing is to move from 'I did it my way' to 'we did it our way'. That is what Carbon was all about. But we need to build on that.

Then to focus on quality. Quality as in "fit for purpose", and not necessarily being "technically superior".

There are many things that I learnt during the past few months, working with Carbon team side by side. I would write about those time to time. But the most important one is that plans never work, but still planning is a must. And the other important aspect is that, you should get down to the ground and work on the fields to realize the real difficulties of those who are working on stuff. It is so easy to rationalize how something might have been done, and question why it was not done the right way. However, most of those rationales get blown up once you are on your feet doing the task on the ground. On the other hand, when you are on the ground with others, you know it yourself, and others cannot fool you; no more fairy tales possible. Nothing is as real as knowing the reality for real.

May 2009 be the year that all realize the realities. 

 

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¸„ø¤º°¨ NeW YeAr.....

Santa is off for the year, next it is time for new year

Santa is off, after this year's seasonal job. The new year is around the corner.

This was a happening year, personal, work place, mother land, regional, global - basically at all scales.

Stage is set for many happenings. War in Sri Lanka is supposed to end next year, Obama becomes US president next Jan 20, Oil hit the highest price levels in history and fallen like hell, world hit by one of the worst economic crisis, world food prices as well as temperature rising at a constant rate.

For me, the most notable happening in the year of 2008 was the terror in Mumbai, India. First, it was shocking to see how brutal the terrorists were. Just imagine that you have locked yourself in a hotel room, seeking safety from the killers walking in the corridors, they knock on your door, and if they got to know that you were there, they would rip the door apart with a grenade and spray bullets into the room. Such was the terror according to some people who were there. Second, it was shocking how long that the Indian security forces took to overcome the terrorists. Despite India being a state with nuclear weapons, it took more than 48 hours for them to overcome just 10 terrorists. It shows the uselessness of WMD when it comes to fighting terrorists. However, the most lasting message out of Mumbai terror was neither the brutality of terrorists nor the inability of the security forces to overcome the terrorists sooner. Rather, the lasting and more touching facts that immerged from terror were the stories of humanity and bravery and courage. At the top, I think, is the nanny who ran away with the infant, the child of the Rabbi that was slaughtered. Then there were stories of hotel workers shielding people from the bullets sprayed by the terrorists. And some people saving others. I think those should be the stories that we should remember from this terror.

2008 has proven that, terrorist are innovating. LTTE acquired light aircrafts and just imagine how devastating that could be if they decide on a suicide mission with one of those planes. Mumbai terror was innovative in the way it was carried out. I think, the counter terrorism tactics world over is too focused on current threats. Rather the world should learn on focusing on future threats and countering them. US is fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, trying to keep terror away from home. But they are too focused on fighting terror camps and finding terror leaders. But, how many are focused on preventing the terror organizations recruiting new people? The kind of things that these terrorists do, need a certain kind of minds. And with most of the counter terror tactics that most governments world over are practicing, more terror minds are created. For example, take Israel. These days, they are bombing Gaza like hell. While killing few terrorists, they also kill and injure many innocent people. The chances of those people, specially kids becoming future terrorists are so high. Same with US. They show their fire power, and bomb Pakistani and Afgan villages, and they are creating more terrorists than they are destroying.

Right now, in Sri Lanka, there is a feeling that is created by the politicos that in 2009, terror would be over in Sri Lanka and we would live in peace, happily ever after. However, the truth is that, we would not have been fighting this was if the right things were done in 1956, 1977 and even in 1983. We are wasting billions of rupees, because very simple mistakes were done in the past. And killing all terrorists would not end this problem over night. After all, how do you know if all were really killed, that none of them blended with people, and they would not create problems in the future. There is no way that we can guarantee that. So unless something innovative is done to prevent creating future terrorists, problems would re-appear.

2009 would be a much better year, if people start thinking on preventing terror, rather than fighting it. It is time to innovate on preventing terror, rather than letting terror minds to blossom, and spend billions on preventing them. It should also be noted that, spending on fighting terror is a good source of income for some. It would also be a good idea to either get rid of those, or find better sources of income for them. Because, those who live on terror would not want to let it go. And it is also important to know that, those who live on terror are not  really members of those "terror groups". Rather they are part of the system, like arms producers, arms dealers, NGOs that "help" displaced due to conflicts, news agencies that report on conflicts and terror groups, pharmaceuticals that provide the medical supplies and the list goes on....

Just think about it, and innovate, at lest in 2009....

It is Christmas

Wow, today is Christmas. 2008 is almost over.

Did not even feel that Christmas was reaching this time around. Was dam busy with Carbon. Did not even blog for past couple of week. Because, I thought, I would rather fix a Carbon bug in that time :)

Slept for 10 hours last night. Now I feel so fresh.

Carbon beta2 announcements have gone out last night, WSO2 Christmas presents this time around.

It is time to celibate holidays....

Carbon LOC

To Date:

Carbon Release Train Begins

Today, we released alpha packs of all WSO2 Carbon based products, namely, WSAS, ESB, BPS and Registry.

It is an outstanding achievement to see all these products go out today, together. Needless to say, this is a result of tireless and relentless efforts from the WSO2 team. Many folks are working at least 18 hours per day, and work continuous on weekends, and holidays. To begin with it seemed impossible. But we are doing it!!!

75% Done

At the end of November, we are about 3/4 done with Carbon.

I almost see the end of the tunnel.

However, I am really talking about completing code and functional testing. There are more unleaded areas in this battle, like docs, like unit testing. Well, the fact of the matter is, it is good at least we reached this stage, given the rate at which that we have to cover this vast amount of ground. So we have loads and loads of work in the months to come to keep us busy. 

With Carbon, it is the ESB that is going to be most benefited, with service management features such as security, RM, eventing coming into the picture. Now you can generate code for a proxy service, try it, secure it, and much more, thanks to the component architecture of Carbon. ESB team did not have to write a single code for it, rather they inherited the benefits from WSAS components. After all, they are all Carbon components. So WSAS too, can mediate messages too and become an ESB. Yesterday, process container (the BPEL component) could secure a service, again thanks to component architecture. You can really build what you want, either a house, or a palace, or a fortress, with WSO2 Carbon. Do what you want with your enterprise!!!