kailash.balnac.com

What motivates us?

Kailash — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 21:42:49 +0000

The exact nature and complexity of people really surprises me. One assumption that often employers make is that money drives the motivation of their employees, the good old carrot and stick theory. I have seen many organisations use tactics like appraisals and performance bonuses to drive better performance.

Most organisations aim to direct people and expect compliance given that people are sufficiently remunerated. I guess that is a too simplistic way of making abstraction of what really motivates people to give their best.

For my part I believe that being listened to, to participate and being empowered to contribute beyond what is required is really important. I would rather participate to better meet objectives than being directed there.

Check out the video.

Things fall apart

Kailash — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 21:24:56 +0000

I have always been impressed and proud of Mauritius’ rich cultural diversity. Our forefathers have hailed from different continents, and at the same time have brought along their own culture with them. I am utterly impressed and proud when I see how the essence of their culture has been preserved. My opinion is that the integration of those different cultures has evolved into what we can call the Mauritian culture. Mauritian culture is also about what we have in common, the most blatant example would be our common language the Kreol. Check out the ‘nou pay, nou la bierre’ ad, it also very effectively portrays Mauritian culture.

Although I believe that it is very important to promote our common culture (for example I believe that Kreol should be taught at school), I feel that it is fundamental to preserve our ancestral culture. Recently I have become even more interested in the richness of our culture diversity.

The most recent example was during the Chinese spring festival, I had the privilege to witness a real display of culture at its best, a lion dance. Neat colorful costumes and acrobatics were a real feast for the eyes. The drums were enchanting to the soul. The best part was that the whole performance was driven by young people.

Another example was a fire-walking ceremony I witnessed for the first time a few months ago. It was a crescendo of drums and a real bouquet of colours. The drums were handled by young people who skillfully managed to drive the beat of everyone’s heart.

I could equally add all the festivals that we celebrate every year like Christmas, Maha Shivratree, Eid, Ougadi etc. My point is that these kinds of display of culture utterly shouts out aloud about our identity. Having the young perpetuating our ancestral culture is something we can really be proud of.

Unfortunately I can foresee impending threats to the preservation of our ancestral culture. We all know that religion is intimately linked to ancestral culture. Without the support of religion, ancestral culture can crumble and at the same time our identity.

I do not want to hurt anyone’s feelings but it is a fact that foreign sects are slowly gaining ground. Missionaries are popping out everywhere like mushrooms with aim of turning everyone into Ned Flanders (I know I chose a really lame joke to illustrate). Do not get me wrong, I believe in freedom of thought and freedom of religion. But I am really concerned, when I see the weak and the ill being targeted and thus by extension entire generations of people.

Some close to me have unfortunately fallen pray to these tactics. They have been stripped of their ancestral culture streaming from ancient civilisations and thus lost their identity. Their future generations are doomed in a similar way.

I know that our ancestral culture is strong but if we let go, I can foresee uniformity, I foresee the fading of our ancestral culture and traditions and I foresee utter dullness. As Chinua Achebe puts it so well “Things fall apart“.

I do not condone any acts of intimidation against anyone practicing the religion they choose. Instead a better way would be to reinforce our ancestral culture and the structures behind. For my part I am to participate and contribute further in the enhancement of my ancestral culture, so that my children can inherit from the same and perpetuate diversity. In this way we can ensure that our identity is to prevail.

Has this man solved our energy problem?

Kailash — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 05:11:47 +0000

MIT Professor, Dan Nocera, believes he can solve world’s energy problem with an Olympic-sized pool of water. Provide cheap energy to the developing world and predicts the end of the power grid as it would become cheaper to produce your own energy.

He and his team have actually discovered a catalyst to cheaply split water and use the energy.

Mauritius finally gets its App Store

Kailash — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 07:38:14 +0000

Rejoice iphone users! After some lobbying by mauritian iphone owners, Apple has finally launched Mauritius’ own iphone App Store.

Uptil now I have been using South Africa’s App Store to buy applications for my iphone. It was one of the few which accepted mauritian credit cards.

We can also now create iphone apps targeting the Mauritian Market. Guess I should give iphone app development a shot. For that unfortunately I need a mac. The perfect excuse to buy one.

Heard Android Apps are also gaining some pace these days and its based on Java. Most importantly it does not require any specific expensive platform for development.

Quest for a home entertainment system

Kailash — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 19:53:31 +0000

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.. 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 in perspective

Kailash — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 06:17:50 +0000

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

Modern times: Moments of pure bliss

Kailash — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 23:12:18 +0000

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.

Call for professionalism

Kailash — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 14:18:56 +0000

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

Dress Code

Kailash — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 01:40:42 +0000

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.

Software Developers should never have dress codes.

What’s up with the new Mauritius Blog Tracker?

Kailash — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 07:34:57 +0000

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?