Long rangers owe the future

.....Today, as LTTE is using their famous civilian shields against the advancing troops, SL Army is correctly utilizing their deep penetrating units to break through that shield. Right now, LRRP is operated on reconnaissance and combat patrols, to obtain highly vital intelligence, or to perform highly dangerous raids and ambushes. These brave soldiers penetrate through rebel civilians and live in jungles for days and nights collecting intelligent news. Some time they fade themselves out among civilian, looking for their next target. Their success on far too dangerous operations and the extraordinary kill ratios has given that vital support the SL Army is desperately needed at this juncture.  To me, the success of this war is heavily depends on the mastery we shown on utilizing our deep penetrating units. How well we use them, the sooner the end of this war will be......

Perhaps, for the first time in the modern world, a guerilla war is beginning to end. A terrorist outfit who fought for many decades is taking their last breath. The experts who argued negatively about the war have changed now. Today they say “The LTTE can be defeated militarily”.  However now these experts are searching desperately for something to earn their next living. These war/ political experts have found a new mantra now, they say “These Tamil terrorists can be defeated militarily, but it remains unclear how the government would pacify and control the large Tamil-speaking areas in the north”. But according to the way it is progessing now, you never knows when they have to stop chanting this mantra and have to look for the next new mantra.

We know that we can defeat this terrorist outfit now. However, that could in my opinion is equal to killing every Tamil in the north and east as well. One thing is clear. We cannot isolate the terrorist from the civilians. That also means wiping out the terrorist equals to wiping out the Tamils. So after all the new mantra that all these experts use to chant these days is having some meaning too.. So, where are we now, how we can win this war then?

I think, we have the answer with our deep penitrating units. At this dawn Sri Lankan army is patrolling around the inner skirt of Kilinochchi, the strong holds town based in far end corner of north. We fought this war many times before but failed until this time. For the first time in the history of this war SL Army has introduced a new unit called LRRP so called long rangers. They are a lonely unit consist of four to six silent men, equipped with modern day state of art technologies. This unit has mastered the covert operations against the rebels in the north. They can successfully penetrate deep into the jungles and assassinate key LTTE figures, hiding in those concrete bunkers.

According to my humble view point, the long rangers owe the future of this war. We will have to deploy more and more LRRP units in the near future. 

Today, as LTTE is using their famous civilian shields against the advancing troops, SL Army is correctly utilizing their deep penetrating units to break through that shield. Right now, LRRP is operated on reconnaissance and combat patrols, to obtain highly vital intelligence, or to perform highly dangerous raids and ambushes. These brave soldiers penetrate through rebel civilians and live in jungles for days and nights collecting intelligent news. Some time they fade themselves out among civilian, looking for their next target. Their success on far too dangerous operations and the extraordinary kill ratios has given that vital support the SL Army is desperately needed at this juncture.  To me, the success of this war is heavily depends on the mastery we shown on utilizing our deep penetrating units. How well we use them, the sooner the end of this war will be..

Finally, as long as Sri Lanka gets rain, we will have forests, as long as we have forests, terrorist will hide, as long as the terrorists are hiding, the terrorist will attack, as long as the terrorists are attacking, the war will not be over, as long as a war, the LRRP is needed. So even after the war, long ranger will rule the north and east jungles. You will hear about them living among civilians collecting intelligent news. It will be a regular scenery to watchful eyes, to see units of four silent men scrolling out/ in through the dark dry zone forests in the future. 

So as I told you before, very soon these political experts and military experts have to look for their next mantra. In the same time LRRP units will have more and more works to do, at least for next ten years, no matter when the war will be over.

On our way to defeat LTTE?

North battle front, as it stand today

After many decades of war, now we started seeing a light, a light that can ultimately lead us to settle (believe me, I hate to say that is a political settlement) this ongoing problem in the north. Currently, Sri Lankan Army is waiting at the edge of Killinochchi town, waiting to fire their first shot. Everyone believe that the moral of the SL soldiers are at its peak, where as the moral of the LTTE is at its lowest. But still the hardcore enemy units yet to face the army with their maximum power.

Captured areas

Yes, troops are doing well in the battle fields, and ironically everything seems to be falling in our way, favoring us. The moral of the tropes and the gun power, all right. But we shouldn't forget that the serpent is still alive. Today, we are sitting on a volcano, which mean a one big blast can turn everything upside down. I know it is merely impossible to LTTE to stop the current offensive operation through a military fight-back even with their strongest units. However, they can delay it for couple of months. Apart from that, we need to remember that it is a war fare with a guerrilla unit. It is said that, when you are fighting with guerrillas, it does not matter how many military wins you gain, if you lost once, then you are considered a defeated, and guerrillas become the winners. This alone is enough for us to understand the importance of not losing the grip till the very last end.

But I am getting frustrate as I started to see that we are releasing the grip little by little while trying to celebrate a victory, which we haven't gain yet. If you look at the three items that I have listed below, you will notice, that still there are things that are not in our control. These are some important but vastly neglected (at least to my view point) areas that Sri Lankan military must look into...

1. Are we really killing terrorist as much as we exploit our gun power?
   
2. Where is the LTTE suicide attackers squad, there were 4000 at the start of this war, did we destroyed all 4000?
   
3. We win the military war, but can we still get defeated in the political war?

The effectiveness of our gun power, are we really killing terrorist as much as we exploit our gun power?

It is obvious that LTTE defense strategy has two goals

1. They are building new defenses to delay army from marching towards their strong holds
   
2. They are trying to get as much carders escaped from the offensive attacks while making us waste billions on military spending.

used to escape from Army Attacks

We know that LTTE is using this new strategy of digging the ground deep, making zigzagging trench lines, running from one place to another, it is obvious that they create these not only to use as a wall against the advancing troops (specially against Armoured Corps) but also to use as a escaping option, even under heavy firing with minimum damages to their carders. However on the other hand SL Army units such as DPU (Deep Penitrating Unit) can use the same to their advantage too.

Anyway, if LTTE is not losing the man power as much as we think they are, it is going to be hard at the end for us to get that easy win. They will deploy all their men for a final fight, possibly with the added support of some chemical weapons, air force (I mean that hutu hutu planes) too. That can make our win, a not a win. But the good point is that as long as we have a long term plan (I am sure we have), which make us stand a step ahead of them, it will not stop us from winning this war. We will win this war, but they can cause delays to it. But in the other hand, more time we take to finish this war mean more money we spend over this, is that a strategy too? Can this war be a well calculated withdrawal plan from LTTE side. That mean LTTE withdraw, while army is attacking, until we finish our money in the government treasury. Because even if government can corner the LTTE, they can still hide themselves among civilians and escape.

In another aspect, if they are going to lose it at the end anyway, then why are they trying to delay our win? Is it an indication of a hidden agenda? I know it is not uncommon these days for a soldier to see LTTE carders fleeing. But why?? Are they really afraid of us??? or are they preserving their carders?? Let's take that as a point to think about little more...

East is fully cleared now

If you look at the numbers, it is not hard to realize that SL Army has expertise this war now. They are damaging the LTTE without much damage to their side. Still all units need to be at their peak till the very end for us to avoid a possible MAJOR, MAJOR disaster at the last part of this war, by a possible counter attack from the LTTE side.

How many of them still remain in the LTTE suicide attacker's squad, there were 4000 at the start of this war, did we destroyed all 4000?

This is one of the strongest points that LTTE has to their advantage. Right now we all know that they are not successful in launching attacks on civil areas in the southern part of Sri Lanka. In simple term, we don’t see bus bombs anymore, as counter attacks to offensive operation in the north. But is it really because that they don’t have that secret network (we know that army arrested all key player of this game) they used before or is it just one of their new strategy? What if they are waiting till a right moment to use their suicide squad in massive scales? What if they are preparing for a sudden major attack (TNA MPs?) if so, are we ready for that? The President is the most important, second is the army commander with Gotabaya/ Basil Rajapakse to follow up, these are the most import key figures that drive this force.

It is like a chess game, if you get the king, no matter what, this movement will turn in 180 degrees tomorrow and go in the complete opposite direction. We need to have our intelligent units look in to these area as well. The question is what plan the LTTE is having, with their suicide bomber squad..

We win it militarily, but can we still get defeated in the political war?

Army Commander addressing a key US Military Group

(SL Army is becoming the world's best unit for guerrilla war fare)

LTTE intelligent unit is surely not aiming toward gaining a military victory now. I think their main goal is to gain a political win, they have their diplomats deployed all around the world working hard, while most of our ambosaders sleeping in the day after parting at night (We lost the seat on the UN Human Rights Council). I know LTTE is secretly raising funds for US presidential candidate Barak Obama. As far as it stands today, Barak Obama has a very high possibility of winning this election too. But from our side the government's diplomats are too very strong. I can see they are laying their plans too. China, India, Russia, and Iran hopefully will stand in our side. But if US stand against us, there going to be some major problems in industries like IT and Garment. They are the ones who heavily depends on US market. So a possible trade band from US, can make tens of thousands of professionals thrown on to the road (it is too early for a such conclusion though). As far as the government diplomatic strategies are concern, I have a great faith on them, and I can see they are thinking too.. So it is going to be a chess game again. Let’s hope for the best.

Sri Lankan MPs Fighting in the Parliament

Now it is proving, that we can win the war no matter what and also let's assume that we can win the faith of the global communities as well but when it comes to getting all greedy Sri Lankan politicians to act together, that is where the real fight going to start. Unfortunately as it stands today it is going to be a fight in between Sinhalese vs. Sinhalese. Who is going to support which side in this war??

It is going to be an interesting future... But at the end if north settle down to a provincial council unit. It is no matter who comes to power in Eastern or North those two chief ministers are going to be the government most loyal ministers. That is given that weapon used by ltte would still hang around every corner of these two provinces..

Is the legendary emperor Ravana a myth?

I say NO, let me explain why..

In Sri Lanka you can find so many names of places, cities, waterfall, mountains and folklore that have direct relation to the story that you read in Ramayanaya. While having all these stories around me, and failing to link each other with reasonable facts, I am still not convinced that Ravana is a myth..

As an example there is a city with the name "Nuwara-Eliya" which assumed to be the city of which Hanuman (Monkey king) burnt with his tail. The local villagers in Sri Lanka talk about this story. They say that the name of that city originated after this incident. The Ramayana also has a similar story to back this up...

There is a waterfall is Sri Lanka with the name Ravana-Ella which assumed to be the place where Ravana kept Seetha (Wife of Rama) after taking her from India. In Ramayana, it claim that Ravana kept Seetha in a flower garden with beautiful waterfalls.

There is a mountain, and local claim that it is the place where Ravana used to land his flying machine or Dandumonaraya. There is a flying machine that Ramayanaya talk about too..

There is a kingdom of Sri Lanka (second ancient kingdom, according to Mahawamsa) named Polonnaruwa, which assumed to be the place where Ravana’s grandfather lived and meditate. He was a very powerful irishi with the name Pulathisi. The city he lived was called Pulathisi-Pura (Pura stand for City in Sinhalese) and even to date Sri Lankan use this name for that city.

So I can go on and on to show you many evidences in Sri Lanka that can be compared to the stories you read in the Book (Ramayanaya). So what I am trying to highlight here is that we need to find links in between the independently born local stories in Sri Lanka and the book before we claim that Ramayanaya or Ravana is just a myth.

I know that knowing that there is a link alone cannot scientifically prove that Ravana exist or Ramayanaya is true, but it is a handful to stop calling that it is a myth and start aggressively study further..

Aba Film, Where are we??

Good attempt, kiddos to the team..



To start with, I know that I am not going to talk about any good points here, but that is not because that there isn't any but because that I believe talents like constructive criticism more. So I opted to point at some stuff that one can improve.

I would also like to note that this writing is mainly done base on the movie trailers that you can find in you tube. Okay, this comment has done purely focusing on certain areas where I felt that this film has failed to convey the message it trying to convey. let's have a crack at it..

-The music of the movie, I think it is good in most cases but some time it has failed to stage that old, historical, secretive, uncertain feeling, that you get when you read/ talk about a legend. I think in that sense music need little more improvement to reach to that international standard, which Sri Lankan directors always talk about..

-The core part should be the actions of this film. The fighting seen of the movie need lots of improvement too, I think the team that act on most of the fighting seen need at least 100 more times of training before even considering taking those seen that they have put in the actual film. Their movement (Kata = Adimaru) are just childish. I never saw a single movement, that I can be happy about, which shows the characteristic of a matured fighter. I think this director has completely missed that important segment of the film. By looking at what is out there I can say you have just play the fool out of our heritage. These actors have failed to show the smoothness, quality, accuracy that you would expect from an ancient “angam” fighter. I don't think you have done enough research on this..

-The character selection for prince Aba has not work *that* well either.. his voice, look, action are too young, and immature to match the real hero (prince abaya) that lives in Sri Lankan’s mind. Additionally as an example I noticed that when he moves the sword it is like, not he moves the sword, but the sword moves him :-)...

-We are talking about a society that wear costume and capture, train horses/ elephant, and use iron (mean who has invented the technology to extract iron)... OK hold it right there, what does that mean to you?, that mean that this society is a well *seasoned* and civilized one right, okay now.. what does that mean..? that mean you need to think little more than "this" before you putting up that palace for the king, alright?? Additionally you need to be intuitive in weapons selection/ designing too, you are thinking them like vaddas, and that is completely wrong. I think you would have creatively desinged the weapons to show their ivolvement.

I am sure that you have put lots of effort in to this film already, but I think it is not enough. I can give you many example of some choices you have made, that contradict with other stuff that you find in this film.

-Battle field/ castles/ palace - I see a small mistake in there too, apparently I see that mistake in all of the Sinhala movesof this kind. I think Sri Lankan directors got to do lot more research on Sri Lanka battle field/ castle before starting to copying them from Chinese, Indian or American films. You need to think, what it would be like an ancient Sri Lankan battle field? A fight seen in Anuradhapura cannot be like a seen done on a desert land, can it??? Like this film has, is it effective trying to chase down someone while riding on a horse in a place like Anuradhapura?? Is the horse ride effective at all there?? How they would have used hourses/ elephants to their advantage?? What I am trying to say is that think about the land shape/ land diversity, it is not a flat ground that you can ride a house at a super speed and hit hard one on one, face to face (just like in films like troy or ashok does). Film directors need to think creatively and find it.. Because we as viewers need to see how the ancient Sri Lankan would have utilized, taken advantage of the natural barriers around them. But sadly I have never seen any doing it yet. but YES with this start I am sure many will followup..

so overall this is a GREAT ATTEMPT!!

References

Aba Sinhala film at you tube
Aba Sinhala film at you tube
Aba Sinhala film at you tube

What is the difference between Abstract Factory and Builder design patterns?

The two design patterns are fundamentally different. However, when you learn them for the first time, you will see a confusing similarity. So that it will make harder for you to understand them. But if you continue to study eventually, you will get afraid of design patterns too. It is like infant phobia, once you get afraid at your early age, it stays with you forever. So the result would be that you never look back at design patterns again. Let me see whether I can solve this brain teaser for you.

In the image below, you have both design pattern listed in. I am trying to compare the two one on one to identify the similarities. If you observe the figure carefully, you will see an easily understandable color pattern (same color is used to mark the classes that are of similar kind).



Please follow up with the numbers in the image when reading the listing below.

Mark #1: Both patterns have used a generic class as the entry-class. The only difference is the name of the class. One pattern has named it as “Client”, while the other named it as “Director”.
Mark #2: Here again the difference is the class name. It is “AbstractFactory” for one and “Builder” for the other. Additionally both classes are of type abstract.
Mark #3: Once again both patterns have defined two generic (WindowsFactory & ConcreteBuilder) classes. They both have created by inheriting their respective abstract class.
Mark #4: Finally, both seem to produce some kind of a generic output.

Now, where are we? Aren’t they looking almost identical? So then why are we having two different patterns here?

Let’s compare the two again side by side for one last time, but this time, focusing on the differences.

Abstract Factory: Emphasizes a family of product objects (either simple or complex)
Builder: Focuses on constructing a complex object step by step
Abstract Factory: Focus on *what* is made
Builder: Focus on *how* it is made
Abstract Factory: Focus on defining many different types of *factories* to build many *products*, and it is not a one builder for just one product
Builder: Focus on building a one complex but one single *product*
Abstract Factory: Defers the choice of what concrete type of object to make until run time
Builder: Hide the logic/ operation of how to compile that complex object
Abstract Factory: *Every* method call creates and returns different objects
Builder: Only the *last* method call returns the object, while other calls partially build the object
Sometimes creational patterns are complementary: So you can join one or many patterns when you design your system. As an example builder can use one of the other patterns to implement which components get built or in another case Abstract Factory, Builder, and Prototype can use Singleton in their implementations. So the conclusion would be that the two design patterns exist to resolve two type of business problems, so even though they look similar, they are not.

I hope that this shed some light to resolve the puzzle. If you still don’t understand it, then this time it is not you, it has to be me and it is since that I don’t know how to explain it.

Get trained to ask the right questions?

I face/ deal with customers a lot as part of my work. To be success with clients it is very important to have a good communication skill. Though I am not the guru to teach you how to improve communication skills, I have my two cents that I would like to write here, hoping to give some help...

When communicating, it is very important to ask the right question and also to give the correct answer. This is a skill or rather art, that one need to master, especially if you are in the same business as I am in. I know that this sound simple for native English speakers. But for someone who’s English is not their mother language, this is a big issue. As the out sourcing industry is booming, I can see a bottle neck is getting created in Asian countries, hurting their growths due to this issue. They know the technology and they know how to do it, but still fail with that weak communication skill. This is an issue that needs to be addressed immediately. The people, who are in IT industry, need to have good communication skills to sustain and grow. Even if you are a native English speaker, if you don't have that skill to explain something well, you will fails, especially when gathering requirements for a new IT project. So, how you improve communication skill? First thing is to understand whether you really have a communication issue. Okay..

How you understand whether you have a communication problem?

Best thing to do is, to put you on a test. This is my suggestion..-Go to an online news groups, forum or even group chat board, and use that as a test tool to evaluate your communication skills.

How you going to use news group to evaluate your communication skills?

Let's assume that you have some kind of a problem related to a software system that you are building these days. Login to a news group (Microsoft news group is recommended, if you are using MS technologies) and just ask the question. You will get an answer within a very short time. While reading the answers, be careful about replier’s response about your question. Some of them will criticize about the way you have asked the question. If they say that your question is not clear, not descriptive enough bingo.. You indeed have an issue with the communication skill.

Once you realized the issue, work on it. When you ask a question just don’t assume anything (I heard someone said that assumptions are the mother of all fuck-ups. Let me tell you this, he is right) just think that you are dealing with someone who knows nothing about what you are talking. Then try to explain the issue that you want to get an answer with extreme care. Obviously to master the skill of ask the question right will take some time. Take your time and do this over and over until you feel confident about what you are asking.

Think about the order in which, you brought up your points, and also the depth, you go to explain important sections. I have seen some people write the most important item at the last making it wholly difficult to understand. Some even forget to note it. Some start the writing from the place where he stops thinking. Avoid all these. If you do this long enough I am sure that you can improve..


How you write a complete answer?

Next, is to find a way to give a complete answer to a question. Here again, use the same news group as the test tool. This is little more difficult, and also takes little longer. Come to the news group often and carefully wait for a question to arrive that you know the answer. Once you see the opportunity, jump at it and write a neat answer. If you do well you will get the reward but if not (if a confident individual in his bad mode sees your answer) you will get beaten until you are dead. Let yourself punished for bad answers. At the start you will write some bad answers. If someone criticizes your bad answer, don't hide yourself. Think that as a blessing, he is giving you an opportunity to improve your communication skills. So argue with him and try to defend yourself, this will give you the confident and also the pressure that you need to learn more. Once you practice this often you will gain the confident and also may stand tall among those gurus. Remember, this will take at least a year to season you as a confident individual who can communicate well in a news group.

How the experiences in News Group help to improve the communication with a customer?


Who do well in a news group, will do well with customer. Take it as the norm. Now you will know what to tell, how to order the items in your email, and how to dim an issue, how to highlight an issue, while doing all these keep a very good relation with your client. It is like the way government deal with media, what government release to media, how they handle media, same applies when you handle a customer.

So that’s it. Hope someone may learn something out of this..