Imagine Cup 2008 – Sri Lanka Finals

The long waiting event among university students/ high educational institutes of Sri Lanka, the Imagine Cup 2008 final round of the local competition happened yesterday. Once again a team from University of Moratuwa consisting 2 members from Faculty of Information Technology and 2 members from Faculty of Engineering won the competition. Well done team!!!.

2^nd Place (1^st runner-up) of the competition went to a project called "EDUMS" from Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT) and 3^rd place again won by a project called "Cleaning License Management System" form University of Moratuwa, Faculty of Engineering.

This is the 4^th consecutive time a team from University of Moratuwa won the competition. Competition held on last 3 years, won by teams from University of Moratuwa, Faculty of Information Technology.

The winning team will represent Sri Lanka in the global finals in Paris, France. Congratulations team and bring the pride to Sri Lanka.

Well. That is one side of the story. On the other side can we satisfied with the overall standard with the event this time. In my personal view I see the standard become decreasing year by year. I know this is not the feeling only of me, as I discussed with other regular Imagine Cup fans, they too feeling this. I know organizing of this kind of event in this scale is not an easy task. But as a winner of 2006 competition I feel the standard must be persisted. The support given to presenting teams, specially the basic facilities was not up to the level and the time management of overall event is another concern. Priority must be given to presentations, to run them smoothly, because presentations are the expectation of audience. Wish the organizers too have noticed this and hope to see 2009 event in good quality.

Again well done teams…

Maximum RAM support for today Windows operating systems

This is the maximum RAM limit for some of commonly used operating systems as of now.

Version	Limit in 32-bit Windows	Limit in 64-bit Windows
Physical Memory Limits for Windows Vista
Windows Vista Ultimate	4 GB	128 GB
Windows Vista Enterprise	4 GB	128 GB
Windows Vista Business	4 GB	128 GB
Windows Vista Home Premium	4 GB	128 GB
Windows Vista Home Basic	4 GB	128GB
Physical Memory Limits: Windows Server
Windows Server 2008 Enterprise	64 GB	2TB
Windows Server 2008 Standard	4GB	32GB
Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2, Enterprise Edition	64GB	2TB
Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition	64GB	1TB
Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard Edition	4GB	32GB
Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition	32GB	64GB
Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition	4GB	16GB
Physical Memory Limits: Windows XP
Windows XP	4GB	128GB

Even though operating system limit of RAM is as above, the actual RAM can be installed is depend on your hardware as well, specially on Motherboard.

Complete list of maximum RAM support is available here at Microsoft site.

Maximum RAM limit in Windows XP / Vista

The maximum RAM supported in Windows XP (4GB) has become a subject to lot of discussions. The reason for this limit is address-apace limit in 32-bit operating systems. Even though it is said to be 4GB of maximum, you won’t actually get 4GB, because of part of address-space is used to PCI devices, Graphics card, etc. So it is only 3.23GB is shown in System Properties.

What about Maximum RAM limit in Windows Vista

Does Vista resolve the problem? Even though Windows Vista consumes lot of RAM compare to earlier operating systems, the maximum limit of RAM supported in Vista is also 4GB.

But some people may feel it is not enough 4GB of RAM, if they are used to run couple of VPCs in their workstation. The most suggested solution for this issue is move into 64-bit operating systems, which is not a practical option for most of us. (Because you need hardware upgrade too)

The other solution (for me the best solution) is to use a server operating system. Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition supports 32GB of RAM. Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2), Enterprise Edition supports 64GB of RAM. Please note that it is only Enterprise Edition supports this amount.

These operating systems support Intel-provided memory address extension called PAE (Physical Address Extension) to overcome address-space limit. Support for PAE is provided under Windows 2000 and 32-bit versions of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. 64-bit versions of Windows do not support PAE.

Execute a JavaScript in PageLoad , when using custom controls in ASP.NET

I know that most of you are familiar with adding client side scripts in ASP.NET custom controls for various events, preferably for ‘onclick’ event of controls. The common way is adding script as an attribute of the control.

btnSubmit.Attributes.Add("onClick", "enableDateValidator();
document.getElementById('lblE').style.display='none';")


Here is the way to add a JavaScript, which will be run on pageload.

Protected Overrides Sub OnPreRender(ByVal e As System.EventArgs)

Dim script1 As String
script1 = " alert(‘Test’);"
Page.ClientScript.RegisterStartupScript(Me.GetType(), "EnableDisableControlScript1", script1)

End Sub

It is important to note that, if you are using ClientID of any control, implement the script inside the OnPreRender Overrides method. Otherwise you may face some problems with client side ID of your control.