I just got entangled in a spending spree that started off out of no genuine need. Sigh!

December 2008, I was wondering how I could put my flimsy end of year bonus to good use. I thought now would be a good time to start to overindulge myself. After a half hearted failed attempt to buy a second hand Playstation 2 from my friend Girish (He would rather gift it to his niece), I decided to hunt for a better alternative. After some hearsay and research (am good at this) I came to discover that the Playstation 3 (PS3) was really a gem in terms of ingenuity and processing power. The platform had a decent set of games by that time even though they were expensive. But I guess the thing that kind of set me off in the decision to buy a PS3 was the fact that Sony subsidised the price of the console to match competition from the Xbox 360. In my mind a superior platform being subsidised was a real deal, I was convinced.

I rushed to Sony World at the Phoenix Commercial Centre with the firm intention to get out of the shop with a PS3 in hand. I did come out broke but with a smile as I held the box along with 2 games which I still cherish, FIFA 09 and Uncharted Drake’s Fortune. That was the first piece to my ‘home entertainment system’.

Owning a PS3 is great but there was one important thing that I overlooked (Clumsy me), my television. I bought a versatile 19′ XORO LCD TV about a year before. Its a great TV, it had an integrated DVD  player, it could be used as a computer monitor, it could read USB keys and Flash Cards … but it could not render HD content. There I was in front of a suboptimal system, playing a blurry FIFA. In my mind, the next target was to be a decent television.

Early November 2009, there I was still wondering on the ideal television to match my PS3. In the mean time I had acquired a few games like Infamous, Call of Duty:World at War etc.. I also learned that I was no good with car racing games, they are so realistic nowadays … the cars get damaged in no time with my crappy racing skills and I never managed to end a race properly. I guess I should blame the TV instead.

So now was the time to get at least an HD-Ready TV. I learnt from a good friend (Ziyaad) that HD-Ready TVs are a no go for PS3 owners so I focussed my attention on Full HD ones. The funny thing was that I visited quite a few shops and I dunno why I promised each and every one of them that I would buy their TV.

My choice set on a 40 inch Samsung Full HD LED TV which I saw at Galaxy, Trianon Shopping Park. It was sexy, slim and cute (My very opposite). It was also deemed to be very energy efficient.With the same uncontrollable urge as with the PS3 episode I bought it. Till now I never looked back even though I had a few chills down my spine when I heard the Minister of Finance reduce duty on LCDs a few days later for his 2nd 2009-2010 budget speech. The same TV now costs like Rs10,000 less. Nevertheless its a really nice TV with a great picture quality and but MBC only programmes could not do it justice. That brought me to subscribe to satellite TV.

The optimal platform is not only about picture quality but also about the sound. The TV had speakers but at the back of the display panel and the sound was hindered when I decided to hang the TV to the wall of my room. I needed a sound system. I considered the different home cinema systems on the market but I was not convinced with their output. I knew that the best sound would come from a 5.1 system but I also knew that it would be a hassle to wire and calibrate the lot.  This week I went to Bose in Trianon Shopping Park and had a demo of their systems.

My choice was set on a Bose Cinemate II, an entry level 2.1 system that was more than adequate for my room. It consists of two speakers and an Acousstimas Bass module. It was easy to install though I was required to buy two wall mounts to fix the speakers on each side of the TV screen. The sound is just plain great. I just happend to watch the Last of the Mohicans again to now really enjoy the epic sound track from John Williams. The system makes use of Bose’s TruSpace technology to deliver surround like performance with just two speakers.

What is left now? Before curbing down my buying urges for good (Its about time) I am thinking of integrating something like a media centre to the system. But that will have to wait.. since I am broke again. If only Mac Minis had HDMI. Sigh!

2009 did bring a few developments. Careerwise I had a taste of the good and the bad. I do not feel that I have achieved anything of significance during the year. It was like I choose to lay back and let the world go its own way instead of actively trying to influence it. Life has been hectic ever since childhood with changing objectives that were meant to stretch me even further.  Even though I never tried to exert myself, objectives were always somewhere in a corner of my mind reminding me all the time what I was set to achieve. This year I decided to let go and relax.  Planned travels for 2009 were kind of hindered by the unexpected circumstances and that left me disappointed for a short period of time.

2009 on the other hand was also a great year since I had the opportunity to meet new friends. I met people of unlimited charisma who kind of allowed me to rediscover the importance of simple pleasures  of life, mauritian seafood, Kishore Kumar songs etc.

Else, in no particular order:

• I enjoyed lecturing
• I indulged myself with an iphone and a LED TV
• I am reigniting my entrepreneurial endeavors
• I had a brief spell at the gym, I am too lazy for this
• As a result I got fatty

Tonight I had the opportunity of discovering, what I consider, a hidden treasure. A silent comedy of Charlie Chaplin, Modern Times (1939). I had no idea that a silent film would have that kind of effect on me. The background music and facial expressions of actors were more than enough to bewitch me for  one and a half hours. Prowess moves of Chaplin were at its best in a restaurant dance scene or even when skating blindfolded in a toy shop. The scenario was refreshing too, a love story of vagabonds, Chaplin and  Paulette Goddart, who somehow always end up in trouble in a quest to earn a living during the great depression.

One thing that really caught my attention in this year’s annual meeting between Tertiary Education Commission’s (TEC) top management and TEC funded MPhil-PhD students/Postdocs, was the speech from Hon. Bhushan Domah, chairperson of the TEC Board.

The well respected figure of the judiciary made a plea for more professionalism within all spheres of the Mauritian Society and especially Researchers. According to him our greatest limitation in today’s world is the fact that we have succeeded as a nation by being amateurs. We are comforted by this fact and continue to evolve as such. This situation could backslash and hit us hard in the face.

I could not agree more, today’s competitive world leaves no room for amateurs. Emerging giants already are racing forward and in no time could snatch away whatever we have and take for granted.

I must admit that that Hon Domah is right, amateurism is widespread in the country. During my spell in software development for example, there were several instances where I asked myself questions about the level of professionalism of the Mauritian engineers; commented code were being commited, bad indentation, huge functions, no reuse, blatant copy pasting. The attitude seems to be about making things work and not about making things right.

I am humbled when I gather how our forefathers toiled to earn a living.  I must admit that I myself am culprit of amateurism in some instances, I rarely exert myself and maybe it is time to change things. But those are all good intentions, I wonder how much time its going to take me to forget about all this. :S

I am a ardent follower of the concept behind the french saying “L’habit ne fait pas le moine”. Ever since I have resumed full time studies, I have never missed an opportunity to dress up casually, usually the a pair of cheap jeans, t-shirt, my alltime favorite “ubuntu” sweater and occasionally flip flops. During my spell at Accenture, I was kind of coerced by some obscure policy to dress up “formally”, a real nightmare.

The real trouble with dressing up is that your clothing need to be ironed which is quite a headache. Aside from the practical considerations, I think the trouble is that I remain to be convinced about the true rationale before giving this extra effort.

I spent the last two weeks at the Ministry of Renewable Energy and Public Utilities and to say the least I was the odd one out there with my jeans and t-shirt. I kind of found it amusing in having to explain my presence there to office attendants and having to bear with raised eyebrows on the first week. Its like people are trying to give significance to their functions through formal attires.

Some say that the way you dress reflects your personality and first impressions count but I follow the mantra that goes along the lines: Your inner self reflects your personality instead of your external appearance.

But I guess that’s something technical people have in common… i think.

Read more

Software Developers should never have dress codes.

I am to say the least dissapointed by the Mauritius Blog Tracker since it has been revamped.

I know that it is more colourful than the default wordpress theme but I am kind of nostalgic of how easy it was to read the aggregation of Mauritian Blogs on the homepage itself. Sadly now we are provided only with the title of the post and we require an extra click to access a preview of the content. This extra click is truly a pain and can hamper better dissemination of the blogs’ content.

I am also concerned as a blogger, I need to be really careful when picking the post’s title since it is the only way left to attract the reader, we can no longer rely on images or the preview. Also it seems that there is a delay before a post is featured on the tracker. My last post took about 2 days before being included, in the past it would have taken much less time. Another queer thing is that some of my posts never appear on the tracker. I suspect that the tracker is being moderated. That would explain the delay and the censoring of posts.

I understand that there may be spammers or people who do create objectionable content. Even us bloggers do moderate comments. But it is of my firm belief that any revamping should go towards increasing the usability of the service and not to add additional restrictions.Would it be a copyright issue? What are your views?

Google (google.mu) p casse pake mo dire mwa. Mo cam Leenakshi (Ki reste Bel Air) fek signale moi ki google p suporte langage Kreol Morisien ensam avec francais ek anglais.

Mo penser ki li ene pas dans la bonne direction coumsa mo cav apprane ecrire nu kreole plis bien. Ena bannes phrases assez comik couman “Bann zouti linwistic”, “konecte”, “Klicker pou dekonecter”. Selman mo tire chapo ar google. Deza grace a google map mo cav chek chemin aster zots p reconet nu langage. Siloyeee!

As announced at the University of Technology Mauritius’ (UTM) last convocation, UTM has the ambition to set up a Medical School. The project is being materialised by the signing up of an MoU with DYP Worldwide Ltd and it should start operating as from August of this year with postgraduate courses. The portfolio should include General medecine, Surgery, Pediatrics, Gynecology, Orthopedics, Radiology, Anesthesia, Psychiatry, Ophtalmology, Skin and VD. A campus is to be constructed at Rose Belle.

I do think that competition is a good thing and I do hope that it has for effect of lowering costs of medical education. Another fundamental aspect is the quality of graduates produced by the School. Questions have been raised in the past about the quality of other medical school graduates and this had for effect of lenthening the period of internship. Let us hope that the school produces doctors and specialists that people would trust their lives on.

I have always wondered in isolation why the rich are rich and why the poor are poor? Why do western countries live in abundance whereas the others lag behind?

Why is it that us of the developing world have to suffer the consequences of the financial crisis caused by excessive liberalism from western nations? The answer most probably is that it is they who have the money and we depend on them. We have our goods and services and the only people capable of buying the same are the westerners.

But how have we reached this state of things? I would be tempted to go for the theory that through colonialism westerners have exploited the riches of others and have as a result been able to put themselves in a position of dominance. They have successfully imposed their culture upon us.

But I guess the overriding factor is their curiosity and ability to innovate. It is this characteristic that have brought people to explore and go beyond known limits. Not only in the geographical sense of it but also intellectually.  Human kind has always sought to extend the boundaries of knowledge and it is the same knowledge that has enabled nations to have the tools and capability to dominate others.

The formal method of extending boundaries of knowledge is Research. It is my firm belief that richer countries have attained this position of dominance through research. Research is about creating knowledge but also inspiring ourselves of what others have found. Westerners through their curiosity have traveled and met civilisations who were willing to share their knowledge, ideas and inventions, for example the numeric system from the Middle East, zero from South Asia or the infamous gun power from Central Asia.

Through research they have found fundamental theory which when applied generates wonderful inventions from the safety pin to the iphone or less wonderful ones like sophisticated missiles or fighter jets. They are willing to market those inventions  and ideas to us.  In a legitimate quest of a better standard of living we willingly adopt those inventions and thus end up in a position of being dominated.

An example, why has Mauritius Telecom been forced to ally with France Telecom? Simply, I believe, MT do not have the necessary technological capacity to follow suit with recent  developments in the telecommunications sector or MT alone cannot afford to acquire the same. Such an alliance has enabled us today to enjoy ADSL, video on demand etc. We are indeed dependent on them.  It really ends up in a vicious cycle.

But we do have a way out and it is invariably through our own research. We would have been the master of our own destiny. All above ends up into one conclusion, we should invest more into the local research community. There is quite some potential around and should be encouraged. Give them the tools and means they can make wonders. Percentage funds allocated to Research & Development againts GDP is lower in developing countries. It again goes to the legitimate argument that richer countries have the money and thus can afford to invest in R&D, but this argument condemns us to remain in the vicious circle.

More and more bright minds are immigrating where their talent shall be put to good use. Why not give them the incentives to stay?

• gutentag, welt! #
• is runing jaunty! #