About
“Life would be much easier if I had the source code.” - Anonymous
I’m a software developer at heart, love getting down and dirty with code from all walks of computing. My interests are in Desktop software development with C/C++, .NET (C#/CLR), Java and some Assembly just to help me remember how fun programming can be sometimes. I enjoy the low-level side of Operating System internals and hope to end up writing OS’s one day when (and if) I finally grow up. I work primarily on Windows but learning to write for Linux & BSDs. Currently I’m a Senior Analyst Programmer working at Hammond Street Developments Pty Ltd.
I was born on All Saints Day (the day after halloween) in 1984 at Saint Michaels Hospital in Sri Lanka where I lived for the first 7 years of my life, my first school was St Thomas College in Mount Lavinia which is a prestigious school in SLK with an impressive list of Alumni. I’m currently residing in Melbourne, Australia where I have been since 1991.
My name is pronounced Thoo-shan, but for ease I tell people its 2-Shan - it can also double up as a peace sign. I also go by the names affectionately dubbed over the years: toosh, tooshie, 2can (toucan), 3shan, Shan, MrShan, MrT (I pitty the fewl who thought of that one), T-Dogg (shouts to my homeys, werd!), TwoPack (err yeah!) and in primary-school my first crush used to call me Boomerang (I named her Cigarette). I bought her lots of Jungle Chews and Jolly Ranchers which were like 5c back then. I must have figured I’d go in with the whole suggar-daddy angle. Nothing ever happend with her (no chance, wayyyy out of my league!).
Unfortunately I’m not cool enough to have a FriendFace, MySpace, Bebo etc etc account, so please don’t ask. I’m still old-school when it comes to socialising, never really got into the whole “hey thanks for the add” and “hey just saying hi, havent seen you in ages, miss you lots kiss kiss xxx” subculture. You will however find me on Digg and when I can be bothered I upload pictures on Flickr. I tried out SecondLife but found I needed to work on Life v1.0 first which could do with a Service Pack soon.
I’m a Windows (64bit Vista) and Linux (Ubuntu) user (#412328). Yes, I’m one of those strange people who think Vista is a step in the _right_ direction and while it may have some short-comings and quirks its definitely a much better operating system than Windows XP is (or was!) providing you run Vista on a decent bit of hardware. On the Linux front I love the power and freedom Linux gives its users, such configurability and vast amount of software & tools is astounding. I spend most of my time in CLI land (either via SSH on Windows or in a terminal) and think CLI is too l33t. The Ubuntu box (ZEUS) is our designated server box and runs our entire network at home. Previously (back before 2005) Windows 2003 (and previously Windows 2000) was the designated server Operating System. I don’t really care much for the OS by the fruity company.
I never liked iPods but think the new iPod Touch is kind of cool but a little fragile like all things Apple. I caved in and bought my first iPod in 2007 purely to use in the car - damn standardisation would help and now have a iPod Touch which I use for my daily music needs. I’ve owned an MP3 player since 99 - a Diamond Rio PMP300 - which I thought was PiMPiN good at the time with a whopping 32Mb of memory! One of the fondest memory I have of the unit was being asked if it was “one of those new Sony MD player thingies” at my local swimming club back then. When I told the guy at the front counter it was a MP3 Player he was clearly taken back wondering wtf that is but never really asked what an MP3 was.
My taste in music is embarrassing and filled with variety - which I think is good. When it comes down to it I like RnB and Hip-Hop but love the music of the decade I was born in. Dont tell anyone but I totally dig the 80s and early-mid 90s. But also listen to lots of House and some Trance. Sometimes when its running Last.fm keeps track of my habbits. I’m not one for eye candy when playing MP3s, so I use WinAMP v5.x (with the classic theme) and tune into Club977 the 80s Channel or HitzFM. I try and avoid iTunes as much as I can.
All machines in the house run either Folding@Home or World Community Grid (stats on the right) to help donate unused cycles to research including the PS3.
I own a Sony Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and a Nintendo Wii, but I hardly play any of them - I love the Wii! I do however finally know how it feels to own all three consoles, damn I’m so sad. The PS3 is for Bluray, the Xbox 360 is for HD-DVD and a game or two when I’m bored (or when friends come around for a Halo/CoD skirmish). The Wii I bought for my sister but I sneak some play in every so often.
I play mostly Action FPS & Racing games with the occasional simulator, my favorites include Unreal, Quake & Halo Series and recently Call Of Duty 4. I was a heavy Warcraft I, Warcraft II & Warcraft III player back in the days along with Starcraft, Doom, Duke and Quake player. Having played the demo so often I eventually gave up and bought the full Warcraft games which I still have today - but play rarely. I have never played World Of Warcraft in fear of getting addicted to it.
I get addicted to things pretty quick especially drinks. I don’t drink alcohol - though I started enjoying wine recently - but went through a Cuke or “Coke” (as in Cola), c0ff33 (still) and Red Bull, V phase. Do you see a pattern? I have a tall/large Mocha in the morning which lasts me a while (I take a few sips every so often). I’ve been told its unhealthy to drink like that but it feels weird wasting it so quickly. I always have my c0ff33 after I get to work, I’m not one to buy one and drive to work drinking it.
I drive a silver Subaru Liberty MY06 model and think Subaru’s - aside from Audi’s - and AWD in general are awesome cars. I believe the only way to drive is manual, auto cars are just too pansy. My first car was a white Toyota Camry 92 model that father bought for me. Our neighbor bought it from us and still uses it today.
In my free time - hold up what? - I try and get outside and enjoy the sun whilst we can. I also love dogs and trained a customs puppy by the name of Zeus who was a cute Labrador pup that’s now working as a fully trained Customs puppy for the Australian Federal Police. We now have a proper dog, a Manchester Terrier by the name of “Neo” (because he’s “The One” - geddit? haha yeah ok!) who’s a bundle of fun.
My life revolves around Movies and TV shows, but I watch very little (if any) TV at all in reality and hate the likes of Big Brother - cant stand bogans on TV. My favorite movie growing up was “Terminator 2: Judgement Day” which I memorised line for line and thought I was pretty cool. When “The Matrix” came in 1999 it became my new favorite. Other movies that come to mind that I enjoyed thoroughly include The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, Star-Wars Trilogy (original) and many more I cant recall right now. My favorite genres are Action, Comedy and a whole lot of Thrillers and Horrors. There are a few romantic movies that struck accord with me, with Bridget Jones being one and Love Actually. Don’t tell anyone, my street-cred will plummet.
My favourite actors growing up were Chuck Norris and Arnold Schwarzenegger after my father brought back movies from Saudi on VHS tapes (lucky he didnt bring back BetaMax!). Delta Force and Missing in Action being another two movies I spent most of my early life (5-10) watching, I guess I didnt turn out that bad in the end. In terms of TV, I’m a huge fan of The Simpsons, Futurama and Family Guy in terms of animated series. I grew up watching Seinfeld and still watch episodes every so often today but I have moved onto other great series like Curb Your Ethusiasm. I’m also a huge fan of LOST, The IT Crowd, The Office (both the UK and US versions), The Big Bang Theory (no its not porn!), Everybody Hates Chris and got into Prison Break and Heroes but lately I havent caught up on them. I’m a big supporter of Australian comedy so and love Frontline, Summer Heights High and We Can Be Heroes to name a few. I thought that the cancellation of Arrested Development was baloney as its probably the best series (asside from CYE) to air on TV, such a dumb move on the networks part. I own all my favourite series on DVD and watch a random episode every so often at night after work before heading to bed. My sleeping hours range from 6-8hrs with the occasional all nighter back in highschool which I cant quite do these days without the help of my trusty and always helpful friend Caffeine.
I’ve traveled a little in my time (outside of work needs), from my home-country Sri Lanka, to Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, South Korea and Japan. I fell in love with Japan, the food and their culture - the fact that its still intact in this fast moving westernising world. Photos of my trip to Japan are on Flickr, I spent almost 2.5 months in the country even though I originally only planned on going there for 6 weeks. In the first month and half I visited from Tokyo down to Fukuoka and Okinawa which included Nagano, Nagoya, Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, Nara, Hiroshima, Fukuoka/Hakata, Nagasaki and Okinawa. The rest of the time I “lived” in Tokyo enjoying the people, the food and the weather. One day I’ll eventually write up on my journey properly, for the moment the photos are the only things to go by. I’ve also visited the US many times and Canada once and wouldn’t mind settling in Vancouver one day.
Well there you go, thats all the information I can spill right now.