Hi all,
I know!!! Its been a while!!! I have been busy with loads of stuff mainly work!! I did go through a nice little training session on Linux!!! Hurray!!! IT was in french - it was tough at the start, but we managed to get through it (alive). lol.... It was very interesting. The trainers were Niry Andriambelo from Madagascar and Shafeek Sumser who is from Mauritius itself!
It was so interesting and i have learnt a lot of stuff! Last week i went to Port-Louis and it was so irritating to see all those hawkers who were blocking the pavement and many people literally had to walk on the streets. someone will get run-over one day and then only will the government react. There have been places specially designed for them and yet this irresponsible folks still block the pavements. They claim that the spaces designed for them is far from the town center: They are operating illegally and yet they are choosy! This reminds me of the saying beggars can't be choosers. They sell cheap and poor quality stuff without any sort of guarantee and they do not even pay their taxes properly.
C'est un laisser-aller dégoutant de la part des authorités.
One other thing which got me on my nerves was the abuse that one minister does in particular, Well many of you might not remember the days when our honorable deputy prime minister came and cried on TV during the prime time (your know the 30-minute news whereby the goverment gets 20 minutes) when he swapped parties just to be in the government this guy always seems to be in a hurry to go somewhere. His 'motards' just cut straight across your way to stop you and allow his car through, i tend to think that he is always in a kind of emergency, like he's got chronic diahhroea or something...if thats is the case i would request the manufacturers of Mercedes to install a toilet seat in his next car. He has to bear one thing in mind, people need to get to work in time in this country, if he is not competent enough to plan his own itinerary, then he is definitely not good enough to take part in decision-making for our country. I will let you guess who that old guy is! Ok we will just call his Dr Honorable Chronic Diahhroea. In the next BR 22, i hope we have toilet seats installed! It is just disgusting to witness those double standards, the speed limit on the motorway is 90 km per hour and the driver of BR 22 easily goes over 120, and yet you have policemen who ride in front of him, who go even faster... Un abus de position revoltant.
Roule brite mort vite...i wish you this irresponsible driver!!!
I wish you all a very prosperous year 2009 and loads of happiness to you all and your families.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Irresponsible Students!
Hello you all,
Looks like the previous post got popular!
I read something today, in fact it something i heard a couple of days ago about an Afghan student got sentenced to death for having downloaded an article on the role of women in Islam and distributed the article to his teachers and friends in his University (Balkh University). A complaint was lodged against him, and he did not even have the right to a lawyer. His name is Sayed Pervez Kambaksh , and he is aged 23. Human rights group of the UN are trying to convince Mr Hamid Karzai to intervene, but it so happens that as per the Independent Newspaper of the UK, the guy who passed that sentence, Sibghatullah Mojaddedi, happens to be a key ally of Karzai. Some people are also pressuring Karzai to execute the sentence as soon as possible.
Picture of Mr Kambaksh (Source:Picture from Reuters)
Rahimullah Samander, the president of the Afghan Independent Journalists' Association, said: "This is unfair, this is illegal. He just printed a copy of something and looked at it and read it. How can we believe in this 'democracy' if we can't even read, we can't even study? We are asking Mr Karzai to quash the death sentence before it is too late." Source (Independent.co.uk)
With our Attorney General who happens to be a Human Rights thingy....doesn't Mauritius have a say in this??? For as far as I know , Mr Kambaksh is human as well.
There is a petition (which i signed earlier today)to urge the Foreign Office of the UK to do something, i think that if you believe in democrary its your responsibility to add your name to the list. What about UOM students are they to busy with elections??? They guy is a student as well!!!Par solidarité estudiantine, faites donc quelque chose!!! I even created the Support Sayed Pervez Kambaksh Group on FB
The full article is here:
Anyways!
Well I did a cyberlaws lecture today, and i was appalled by the lack of responsibility of some students (both guys and girls). Last week I had given them some thing to prepare on a comparison between Local Computer Related laws and the laws in the UK and most of them did not bother prepare.This is an attitude which i personally find:
1. Disrespectful
2. Disgusting
3. A true demonstration of the culture du 'ferfoutisme de certains etudiants'
4. Lack of seriousness in their studies
What they do not realise is the importance of the assignment!
Because we have to analyse whether our laws are adequate or not. But some of them do not have adequately developed brains to understand that. All i got as excuse for them not preparing was that they were not present when i gave the assignment, while others gave me stupid smiles, and still others gave me Hi-Sense gazes.
Result will definitely show, as they happen to reflect the amount of work put in, specially since its a weightage-5 module!
God Save us all!!!
Looks like the previous post got popular!
I read something today, in fact it something i heard a couple of days ago about an Afghan student got sentenced to death for having downloaded an article on the role of women in Islam and distributed the article to his teachers and friends in his University (Balkh University). A complaint was lodged against him, and he did not even have the right to a lawyer. His name is Sayed Pervez Kambaksh , and he is aged 23. Human rights group of the UN are trying to convince Mr Hamid Karzai to intervene, but it so happens that as per the Independent Newspaper of the UK, the guy who passed that sentence, Sibghatullah Mojaddedi, happens to be a key ally of Karzai. Some people are also pressuring Karzai to execute the sentence as soon as possible.
Picture of Mr Kambaksh (Source:Picture from Reuters)
Rahimullah Samander, the president of the Afghan Independent Journalists' Association, said: "This is unfair, this is illegal. He just printed a copy of something and looked at it and read it. How can we believe in this 'democracy' if we can't even read, we can't even study? We are asking Mr Karzai to quash the death sentence before it is too late." Source (Independent.co.uk)
With our Attorney General who happens to be a Human Rights thingy....doesn't Mauritius have a say in this??? For as far as I know , Mr Kambaksh is human as well.
There is a petition (which i signed earlier today)to urge the Foreign Office of the UK to do something, i think that if you believe in democrary its your responsibility to add your name to the list. What about UOM students are they to busy with elections??? They guy is a student as well!!!Par solidarité estudiantine, faites donc quelque chose!!! I even created the Support Sayed Pervez Kambaksh Group on FB
The full article is here:
Anyways!
Well I did a cyberlaws lecture today, and i was appalled by the lack of responsibility of some students (both guys and girls). Last week I had given them some thing to prepare on a comparison between Local Computer Related laws and the laws in the UK and most of them did not bother prepare.This is an attitude which i personally find:
1. Disrespectful
2. Disgusting
3. A true demonstration of the culture du 'ferfoutisme de certains etudiants'
4. Lack of seriousness in their studies
What they do not realise is the importance of the assignment!
Because we have to analyse whether our laws are adequate or not. But some of them do not have adequately developed brains to understand that. All i got as excuse for them not preparing was that they were not present when i gave the assignment, while others gave me stupid smiles, and still others gave me Hi-Sense gazes.
Result will definitely show, as they happen to reflect the amount of work put in, specially since its a weightage-5 module!
God Save us all!!!
Monday, September 1, 2008
Avinash goes away!
Hi all,
Last week was the last week of my dear friend Dr Scheme, we went for lunch together at a wicked restaurant called Coco des iles at Roche-Brunes, and we had a wicked time, their interior decoration and artifacts they used to serve food is very original.They served rice in a coco-fesse which was cut in half, others had 'satini rekin' in a coconut shell.
They when i got back to uni i had the privilege to attend Dr Scheme's last lecture titled: Convergence of Technology whereby he talked about WEB 2.0, Apple iPhone, Semantic Web and...
See Below!
I found it very interesting and learnt quite some stuff. We had a good time and someone even asked me a question (as Avinash introduced me later in his lecture) concerning E-Commerce Payment Processing. Then we went at Avi's place for a beer and Christina made some delicious little snack and they kids were singing and reciting poems and i had a good time.
Friday was officially his last day and it did make me kind of sad when i saw him packing his stuff. Anyways he felt he needed to explore new horizons and i wish him all the best.
Friday also meant my first programming lab with some first year students, while getting them to test some programs, i was shocked to find out that some were struggling with questions to find area and volumes of geometric shapes. They probably relied too much on the list of formulae for HSC...how sad!!!
By the way, i sorted out my aquarium and look at what it now looks like!! Its so cool!
On Saturday, i while helping out some student, i got carried away while explaining Quadratic Equations, then i braked!!!! else i would have turned this programming lecture into a Maths class! I still believe that there is a teacher's contribution into making a student love or hate a subject!
So what do you think?
Last week we also heard about the 'Decoller Pas coller' campaign against pasting of posters and billboarding, what silly is that they got student to do that during college hours, i believe that they would be better off at school. They could have done that during the week-end. Let's hope and pray that this commendable initiative also last until the elections next year and that the authorities do not turn a blind eye when the political parties start putting posters on bus-stands and round abouts.
We are also hearing discussion about the reluctance of some teachers to work till 15 00, we'll this will delay their private tuitions! How will they manage???? Money they earn by selling their knowledge surely outweighs their professional conviction in doing their job in their respective schools!
So disgusting - To them, may be that education is no longer a service, but more of a business!
At times the parents are to blame as tuitions are fashionable and sometimes the students are at fault as they do not study hard enough at school and pay to learn the same things at college - that's if the teachers work at college (I was lucky, as I had marvelous teachers, and i am thankful to all of them). Especially Mr Kalachand and my tuitions teachers Mr Ram SATHAN and Mr Pourannen Sungeelee, i owe much of what i am to them!
A Teacher's job is not to teach, but to inspire. Isn't it Mr Meetoo!!!
So what is your opinion!
Last week was the last week of my dear friend Dr Scheme, we went for lunch together at a wicked restaurant called Coco des iles at Roche-Brunes, and we had a wicked time, their interior decoration and artifacts they used to serve food is very original.They served rice in a coco-fesse which was cut in half, others had 'satini rekin' in a coconut shell.
They when i got back to uni i had the privilege to attend Dr Scheme's last lecture titled: Convergence of Technology whereby he talked about WEB 2.0, Apple iPhone, Semantic Web and...
See Below!
I found it very interesting and learnt quite some stuff. We had a good time and someone even asked me a question (as Avinash introduced me later in his lecture) concerning E-Commerce Payment Processing. Then we went at Avi's place for a beer and Christina made some delicious little snack and they kids were singing and reciting poems and i had a good time.
Friday was officially his last day and it did make me kind of sad when i saw him packing his stuff. Anyways he felt he needed to explore new horizons and i wish him all the best.
Friday also meant my first programming lab with some first year students, while getting them to test some programs, i was shocked to find out that some were struggling with questions to find area and volumes of geometric shapes. They probably relied too much on the list of formulae for HSC...how sad!!!
By the way, i sorted out my aquarium and look at what it now looks like!! Its so cool!
On Saturday, i while helping out some student, i got carried away while explaining Quadratic Equations, then i braked!!!! else i would have turned this programming lecture into a Maths class! I still believe that there is a teacher's contribution into making a student love or hate a subject!
So what do you think?
Last week we also heard about the 'Decoller Pas coller' campaign against pasting of posters and billboarding, what silly is that they got student to do that during college hours, i believe that they would be better off at school. They could have done that during the week-end. Let's hope and pray that this commendable initiative also last until the elections next year and that the authorities do not turn a blind eye when the political parties start putting posters on bus-stands and round abouts.
We are also hearing discussion about the reluctance of some teachers to work till 15 00, we'll this will delay their private tuitions! How will they manage???? Money they earn by selling their knowledge surely outweighs their professional conviction in doing their job in their respective schools!
So disgusting - To them, may be that education is no longer a service, but more of a business!
At times the parents are to blame as tuitions are fashionable and sometimes the students are at fault as they do not study hard enough at school and pay to learn the same things at college - that's if the teachers work at college (I was lucky, as I had marvelous teachers, and i am thankful to all of them). Especially Mr Kalachand and my tuitions teachers Mr Ram SATHAN and Mr Pourannen Sungeelee, i owe much of what i am to them!
A Teacher's job is not to teach, but to inspire. Isn't it Mr Meetoo!!!
So what is your opinion!
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Python going strong!
Hi all,
I have been very busy these days with preparing lecture notes and running around jumping from one lab to another and from one lecture room to another! As far as the Python lectures are concerned, I am enjoying every single bit of it...who could dream of being paid to have fun!
Anyways, i just hope i am able to kick in some programming logic in the students' heads!Most of us are thrilled by the performance of the Mauritian Magician, Bruno Julie, its just nice for a little country like ours to have a sportsman on the podium!
Unfortunately enough, there is that issue with Bert Cunningham, looks like some people are not to happy when cases of suspected corruption are brought in the limelight. How can a democratically elected PM say that a commission of enquiry will not prove beneficial to the nation nor to the institutions of the country. Using lame excuses like waste of money and the fact that there is already a body (ICAC) which deals with such things.
Perhaps our PM needs memory supplements (Or may be he is busy with those ministers 'ki p lev paquet rester?'), some of the cases brought forward by Mr Cunningham date as far back as year 2000, and our stupid system (reflecting the people who designed them) stipulates that the Independent Commission Against Corruption cannot enquire about cases prior to its creation (yet its called independent). Consequently those who claim they 'pas guette figure pou agir' have their hands tied. Had a commission of enquire been set up may be they would have been able to shed some light on those allegations irrespective of when these suspected frauds occurred.
In my opinion, there are some big shots who might be involved. What image does mauritius project in the region? A country where a man who is doing his job is getting treated like a criminal and whose competencies are not being recognised. Worse still, looks like some people at the MRA are scared to. The compensation meant to be given to Mr Cunningham amounted to Rs 6 million, yet this got reduced to about Rs 1 million because apparently he violated the conditions laid down during the negotiations. So did the conditions prevent him from pointing fingers to those he thought as being corrupt.
He also said that he submitted all the documents to the necessary institions for investigations and the said documents got lost....maintenant la question qui brule mes levres est: A qui profite cela???? definitely not to the honest tax payer.
Amazing! Documents incriminating some people tend to get lost so easily nowadays! Or people suspected of fraud always tend to get sick just before their hearings start! Wonder how our good folks who were named in the enquiry for frauds at MCB/NPF or Maurtius are doing these days,i hope much better since the cases against them have been dropped.
Sa meme appele l'ile paradisiaque sa!
Paradis Fraudeurs ek Triangeurs!
Bon Courage Mr Cunningham,
Allez Bruno, met li K.O! lol...:)
What do you think?
I have been very busy these days with preparing lecture notes and running around jumping from one lab to another and from one lecture room to another! As far as the Python lectures are concerned, I am enjoying every single bit of it...who could dream of being paid to have fun!
Anyways, i just hope i am able to kick in some programming logic in the students' heads!Most of us are thrilled by the performance of the Mauritian Magician, Bruno Julie, its just nice for a little country like ours to have a sportsman on the podium!
Unfortunately enough, there is that issue with Bert Cunningham, looks like some people are not to happy when cases of suspected corruption are brought in the limelight. How can a democratically elected PM say that a commission of enquiry will not prove beneficial to the nation nor to the institutions of the country. Using lame excuses like waste of money and the fact that there is already a body (ICAC) which deals with such things.
Perhaps our PM needs memory supplements (Or may be he is busy with those ministers 'ki p lev paquet rester?'), some of the cases brought forward by Mr Cunningham date as far back as year 2000, and our stupid system (reflecting the people who designed them) stipulates that the Independent Commission Against Corruption cannot enquire about cases prior to its creation (yet its called independent). Consequently those who claim they 'pas guette figure pou agir' have their hands tied. Had a commission of enquire been set up may be they would have been able to shed some light on those allegations irrespective of when these suspected frauds occurred.
In my opinion, there are some big shots who might be involved. What image does mauritius project in the region? A country where a man who is doing his job is getting treated like a criminal and whose competencies are not being recognised. Worse still, looks like some people at the MRA are scared to. The compensation meant to be given to Mr Cunningham amounted to Rs 6 million, yet this got reduced to about Rs 1 million because apparently he violated the conditions laid down during the negotiations. So did the conditions prevent him from pointing fingers to those he thought as being corrupt.
He also said that he submitted all the documents to the necessary institions for investigations and the said documents got lost....maintenant la question qui brule mes levres est: A qui profite cela???? definitely not to the honest tax payer.
Amazing! Documents incriminating some people tend to get lost so easily nowadays! Or people suspected of fraud always tend to get sick just before their hearings start! Wonder how our good folks who were named in the enquiry for frauds at MCB/NPF or Maurtius are doing these days,i hope much better since the cases against them have been dropped.
Sa meme appele l'ile paradisiaque sa!
Paradis Fraudeurs ek Triangeurs!
Bon Courage Mr Cunningham,
Allez Bruno, met li K.O! lol...:)
What do you think?
Monday, August 11, 2008
My first Python Lecture
Hi all,
Today I delivered my first Lecture in Programming Methodology, i talked about computer systems, compilers, interpreter, and Programming Methodology.
While preparing my slides, i wanted to include some nice graphics and pictures so that it become slightly less predictable. For the first time, i used Open-Office to prepare lecture notes.It took me some time to work round the interface, but it was worth. I also saved a Powerpoint compatible copy just in case Open-Office was not installed on the PC i might be using.....this happened to be a very wise decision. Unfortunately, with the Powerpoint compatible format, the presentation had lost some of its 'bling-bling'. Text-boxes and Picture-frames were translated and ... The RGB projector had to be re-initialised as it was displaying upside down. Luckily a friend helped me out.
After that, i managed to start my lecture, nice little intro, little side notes about computers, scientists, mathematicians and i even managed to get a picture from the movie "Lost in translation" to explain conversion of High-Level to machine-level language.
The last part of my lecture was about the Butterfly Effect and Chaotic Systems, what a marvelous side note: Edward Lorenz, I believe that the Students need not learn things by heart, or just for the sake of knowing stuff, knowing about the persons behind the discoveries might help too. Another reference was made to Algebra and Musa Al Khwarism...
Then later on during the day, i had a lab session during which i managed to get them to use Linx and Dr Python, some other students used Kate+Konsole, but it was ok on the whole. Some students are very good, which i find encouraging. Though i had a couple of issues with some slight differences in syntax, i managed to get all the programs working.
Then got back home and watched TV, then there was a very very very short Powercut, when they released the power, i.e about 1 second later (seriously, it was wickedly quick), the TV, the DVB receiver, along with the Microwave oven got damaged and they are not switching on now!.I called 130 (CEB Hotline), and i am meant to call at the nearest CEB office to tell them about it....which i will not fail to do!!! Whose gonna pay for my 29" TV....definitely them!!! They have to learn the lesson about those shitty powercuts at random times.
So boring aint it, home without TV during the Olympic games!!!
Today I delivered my first Lecture in Programming Methodology, i talked about computer systems, compilers, interpreter, and Programming Methodology.
While preparing my slides, i wanted to include some nice graphics and pictures so that it become slightly less predictable. For the first time, i used Open-Office to prepare lecture notes.It took me some time to work round the interface, but it was worth. I also saved a Powerpoint compatible copy just in case Open-Office was not installed on the PC i might be using.....this happened to be a very wise decision. Unfortunately, with the Powerpoint compatible format, the presentation had lost some of its 'bling-bling'. Text-boxes and Picture-frames were translated and ... The RGB projector had to be re-initialised as it was displaying upside down. Luckily a friend helped me out.
After that, i managed to start my lecture, nice little intro, little side notes about computers, scientists, mathematicians and i even managed to get a picture from the movie "Lost in translation" to explain conversion of High-Level to machine-level language.
The last part of my lecture was about the Butterfly Effect and Chaotic Systems, what a marvelous side note: Edward Lorenz, I believe that the Students need not learn things by heart, or just for the sake of knowing stuff, knowing about the persons behind the discoveries might help too. Another reference was made to Algebra and Musa Al Khwarism...
Then later on during the day, i had a lab session during which i managed to get them to use Linx and Dr Python, some other students used Kate+Konsole, but it was ok on the whole. Some students are very good, which i find encouraging. Though i had a couple of issues with some slight differences in syntax, i managed to get all the programs working.
Then got back home and watched TV, then there was a very very very short Powercut, when they released the power, i.e about 1 second later (seriously, it was wickedly quick), the TV, the DVB receiver, along with the Microwave oven got damaged and they are not switching on now!.I called 130 (CEB Hotline), and i am meant to call at the nearest CEB office to tell them about it....which i will not fail to do!!! Whose gonna pay for my 29" TV....definitely them!!! They have to learn the lesson about those shitty powercuts at random times.
So boring aint it, home without TV during the Olympic games!!!
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Summer Time!
Hi dear readers,
Well looks like Daylight saving will be applied this year. Daylight saving time, was first proposed in 1907 by a certain William Willett, it is intended to allow people to make the most of daylight hours during summer, and reduce the amount of energy spent in artificial lighting (and heating..though not really applied to our local context)
Benjamin Franklin, during his visit in Paris, proposed DST as a means to save on candles used in street lighting. Well, according to some research, DST has effects on traffic and criminality.How much this is true is hard to quantify.
The interested reader is more than invited to visit the wikipedia article How it works? Well usually in the last Sunday of october you are expected to move your clocks one hours backwards and in the last sunday of march, you are expected to move them forward....it is the exact opposite in the northern hemisphere because the seasons are reversed...
Well talking about the DST, i watched the parliamentary debates on TV earlier on. At some point in time one deputy was annoyed by a remark of another member from the opposite side of the house. The tone of the discussion worsened, and there reached a point where the speaker had to intervene to calm them down and request each member to withdraw their respective comments.
There is something disgusting which happened, the speaker said that the recording were inaudible as the members were seated and were not recorded. This is silly! Another things which highlighted the stupidity of the system is the fact that all remarks made in any language apart from english and french is not recorded, this explains why our deputies (notice that i did not say respected representatives, as they are neither respectful not do they represent me)...in other words, they can abuse themselves using creol and yet nothing is recorded. This might explain why parliamentary debates are not broadcast live on TV, as this will show to the population how their representatives behave.
Furthermore, when the speaker suspended the proceeding for 30 minutes to view the recordings, the cameraman made a 'gros plan' on the leader of the opposition as if to wait for any reaction which would used to present a (or another) bad image of him. I believe that the national tv station is meant to be impartial,but we know that about 15 minutes of the news is reserved for members of the government, whereby they would broadcast whole speeches at length, as if they news editors are unable to summarise they essence of the speeches. By now we have enough TV channels to broadcast the whole debates, but are all the elected persons ready (or civilised enough) for it. I am tempted to say that only time will tell.
Gavin
Well looks like Daylight saving will be applied this year. Daylight saving time, was first proposed in 1907 by a certain William Willett, it is intended to allow people to make the most of daylight hours during summer, and reduce the amount of energy spent in artificial lighting (and heating..though not really applied to our local context)
Benjamin Franklin, during his visit in Paris, proposed DST as a means to save on candles used in street lighting. Well, according to some research, DST has effects on traffic and criminality.How much this is true is hard to quantify.
The interested reader is more than invited to visit the wikipedia article How it works? Well usually in the last Sunday of october you are expected to move your clocks one hours backwards and in the last sunday of march, you are expected to move them forward....it is the exact opposite in the northern hemisphere because the seasons are reversed...
Well talking about the DST, i watched the parliamentary debates on TV earlier on. At some point in time one deputy was annoyed by a remark of another member from the opposite side of the house. The tone of the discussion worsened, and there reached a point where the speaker had to intervene to calm them down and request each member to withdraw their respective comments.
There is something disgusting which happened, the speaker said that the recording were inaudible as the members were seated and were not recorded. This is silly! Another things which highlighted the stupidity of the system is the fact that all remarks made in any language apart from english and french is not recorded, this explains why our deputies (notice that i did not say respected representatives, as they are neither respectful not do they represent me)...in other words, they can abuse themselves using creol and yet nothing is recorded. This might explain why parliamentary debates are not broadcast live on TV, as this will show to the population how their representatives behave.
Furthermore, when the speaker suspended the proceeding for 30 minutes to view the recordings, the cameraman made a 'gros plan' on the leader of the opposition as if to wait for any reaction which would used to present a (or another) bad image of him. I believe that the national tv station is meant to be impartial,but we know that about 15 minutes of the news is reserved for members of the government, whereby they would broadcast whole speeches at length, as if they news editors are unable to summarise they essence of the speeches. By now we have enough TV channels to broadcast the whole debates, but are all the elected persons ready (or civilised enough) for it. I am tempted to say that only time will tell.
Gavin
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Why?
Hi all,
I hope you are doing fine. I have just found my keys, i had lost them and i had everyone at home look for them.I was just going through my blog earlier on and i realised that most of you do not really comment on my blog when i get Philosophical. This is serious!
You have to get the essence of your life, and at times it pays to ask fundamental questions. Anyways, a chacun ses trucs.
I had a look at UOM's blog today and one of the things mentioned was the need to write the postings in proper french...its gonna be hard for many (including me).
Well today, we had lunch with our new colleague Prof. Stefan Brandle, who is a very nice gentleman from Indiana, he speaks french, English, German, and does understand Creol as well...He is Fulbright scholar and will he spending a whole year with us. We got him introduced to one of our local dishes: Roti Cari and he said he liked it.
We'll see with the other stuff...
Anyways take care of yourselves
G@V!N
I hope you are doing fine. I have just found my keys, i had lost them and i had everyone at home look for them.I was just going through my blog earlier on and i realised that most of you do not really comment on my blog when i get Philosophical. This is serious!
You have to get the essence of your life, and at times it pays to ask fundamental questions. Anyways, a chacun ses trucs.
I had a look at UOM's blog today and one of the things mentioned was the need to write the postings in proper french...its gonna be hard for many (including me).
Well today, we had lunch with our new colleague Prof. Stefan Brandle, who is a very nice gentleman from Indiana, he speaks french, English, German, and does understand Creol as well...He is Fulbright scholar and will he spending a whole year with us. We got him introduced to one of our local dishes: Roti Cari and he said he liked it.
We'll see with the other stuff...
Anyways take care of yourselves
G@V!N
Friday, July 25, 2008
Some Philosophical thoughts i want to share!
Hi all,
I had a lovely and very profound discussion with a friend today and we talked about what motivates people. Well not everyone is motivated by the same things. Some people want money, others fame, others satisfaction, others fulfillment of their dreams,still others recognizance. And all this depends on choices we make. At the moment we make the choices, they seem meaningless, but when we take time and look back we realise their true importance.
I have always said one thing, do the things which make you happy and do not procrastinate! Because on one day in your life there will be no tomorrow. The best pleasures in life are free, how many of you have taken the time to admire the stars in a clear sky at night, how many of you have enjoyed the sight of the reflection of a full-moon in the lagoon, how many of have had their fingers grasped by a baby, how many of you have seen a rainbow and said to yourselves that the drizzle was worth it, how many of you have watched the sunset on the beach with people dear to your heart, how many of you have been so happy that they cried?
And yet we are 'A la poursuite du bonheur (avec la peur de la mort qui nous poursuit)'. Do we need to carry on this pursuit, or simply grasp it.
Avinash has the habit of saying that his job in not to lecture but to inspire, which I perfectly understand, as it is so true. When i was young(er) there were a couple of my teachers i admired, and this probably explains why I chose to be a lecturer, hoping that i might inspire at least one student in my career.
I was watching a documentary yesterday, and the last sentence struck me, it was the words of a Moroccan Nomad who said to the guy doing the documentary: "Vous avec l'heure, mais moi j'ai le temps cher monsieur",
Well unfortunately for us we are so much caught that we forget the most important thing in life which is: LIVING. We spend so little time being happy that when we reach that feeling we lose time understanding it and then we feel that when we are happy time flies and when we are suffering, time lingers....is it true?
Any one willing to share any philosophical thoughts are most welcome to express them....by the way i will be posting some pictures soon, just to show you that stars are not out of reach!
By the way i have reached 500 visitors on my blog since its creation...hurray!!!lol!
G@V!N
I had a lovely and very profound discussion with a friend today and we talked about what motivates people. Well not everyone is motivated by the same things. Some people want money, others fame, others satisfaction, others fulfillment of their dreams,still others recognizance. And all this depends on choices we make. At the moment we make the choices, they seem meaningless, but when we take time and look back we realise their true importance.
I have always said one thing, do the things which make you happy and do not procrastinate! Because on one day in your life there will be no tomorrow. The best pleasures in life are free, how many of you have taken the time to admire the stars in a clear sky at night, how many of you have enjoyed the sight of the reflection of a full-moon in the lagoon, how many of have had their fingers grasped by a baby, how many of you have seen a rainbow and said to yourselves that the drizzle was worth it, how many of you have watched the sunset on the beach with people dear to your heart, how many of you have been so happy that they cried?
And yet we are 'A la poursuite du bonheur (avec la peur de la mort qui nous poursuit)'. Do we need to carry on this pursuit, or simply grasp it.
Avinash has the habit of saying that his job in not to lecture but to inspire, which I perfectly understand, as it is so true. When i was young(er) there were a couple of my teachers i admired, and this probably explains why I chose to be a lecturer, hoping that i might inspire at least one student in my career.
I was watching a documentary yesterday, and the last sentence struck me, it was the words of a Moroccan Nomad who said to the guy doing the documentary: "Vous avec l'heure, mais moi j'ai le temps cher monsieur",
Well unfortunately for us we are so much caught that we forget the most important thing in life which is: LIVING. We spend so little time being happy that when we reach that feeling we lose time understanding it and then we feel that when we are happy time flies and when we are suffering, time lingers....is it true?
Any one willing to share any philosophical thoughts are most welcome to express them....by the way i will be posting some pictures soon, just to show you that stars are not out of reach!
By the way i have reached 500 visitors on my blog since its creation...hurray!!!lol!
G@V!N
Monday, June 23, 2008
'Democratisation de l'acces a L'Education' ...yes but at what cost?
Hi u all,
We have all heard that the government intends to provide access to Tertiary Education to all eligible students, and as per their definition, eligible students are those who have at least one A-Level....implies that with an 'E' in Maths is now eligible.
Should they really apply this measure, i believe that this will weigh heavily on the National Economy. A quick question i ask is: Do all jobs 'created' require the potential applicant to have a University Degree.
Furthermore, i believe that there is something more subtle going on....Let's assume that a School-Leaver is meant to be looking for a job, and given the current situation, finding a job is hard...Consequently, it could be that ensuring that most of the school-leavers join Uni implies that they will not swell up the unemployment statistics...What a Crafty Measure!!!
To mask the level of unemployment, get them to uni... They are just delaying the problem...
Several countries have faces problems when they educate too many people..They end up with over-qualified people, and worse still, since many cannot find well-enough paid jobs, the people then try 'Greener Grass Elsewhere', resulting in brain drain.
Reputable Universities usually have entry requirements as high as 3 B's....wonder where our decision makers are getting their inspiration from....for the one time they are not copying from Europe, they are making a mess of it all.
It is a fact that not everyone is has the ability to join university.. University Education is meant for people who really want to get it and who work hard enough for it.
I would not want to witness a bunch of Spiky-Hair, Piercing Loving, gum-chewing, and Techtonic obsessed teenager wearing Riped jeans being given something they have not worked hard enough to deserve. (Teenager ..yes..though they are 18 or more, i have doubts whether their mental age matches this high!)
What do you think?
Gavin
We have all heard that the government intends to provide access to Tertiary Education to all eligible students, and as per their definition, eligible students are those who have at least one A-Level....implies that with an 'E' in Maths is now eligible.
Should they really apply this measure, i believe that this will weigh heavily on the National Economy. A quick question i ask is: Do all jobs 'created' require the potential applicant to have a University Degree.
Furthermore, i believe that there is something more subtle going on....Let's assume that a School-Leaver is meant to be looking for a job, and given the current situation, finding a job is hard...Consequently, it could be that ensuring that most of the school-leavers join Uni implies that they will not swell up the unemployment statistics...What a Crafty Measure!!!
To mask the level of unemployment, get them to uni... They are just delaying the problem...
Several countries have faces problems when they educate too many people..They end up with over-qualified people, and worse still, since many cannot find well-enough paid jobs, the people then try 'Greener Grass Elsewhere', resulting in brain drain.
Reputable Universities usually have entry requirements as high as 3 B's....wonder where our decision makers are getting their inspiration from....for the one time they are not copying from Europe, they are making a mess of it all.
It is a fact that not everyone is has the ability to join university.. University Education is meant for people who really want to get it and who work hard enough for it.
I would not want to witness a bunch of Spiky-Hair, Piercing Loving, gum-chewing, and Techtonic obsessed teenager wearing Riped jeans being given something they have not worked hard enough to deserve. (Teenager ..yes..though they are 18 or more, i have doubts whether their mental age matches this high!)
What do you think?
Gavin
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
In a free world, who needs Windows and Gates...all we need is Linux (and a good bandwidth)!
Hi all,
Last Poll Results!
'Un petit pas pour l'homme mais un pas de géant pour l'humanité'...This is what i said to myself when i installed Linux, Hardy Heron on the Office PC.
Hard to leave 14 years of a using Windows, it all started with Windows 3.1 on a 386 SX with 4 MB RAM, in 1994...and DOS-Shell...... Those were the days!
I already had a dual boot Vista-Linux on my Laptop, then i was so happy with it that i said to myself, that i might get more used to Linux if I used it in office, so i got a copy and off i went! Linux ready!
I had a little issue though, i have put the hostname 'Gavin' for my computer and then i sad to myself that i might change it to a funnier name, my friends had called their terminals Sugarbabe, Honey, Sexy... so i wanted to change the hostname to Pixie-Doux!
with the help of the owner of Sexy and Honey, i looked for the command to change the hostname, we came up with a sudo command...hummmm!! sudo, for once i am using it:
Last Poll Results!
'Un petit pas pour l'homme mais un pas de géant pour l'humanité'...This is what i said to myself when i installed Linux, Hardy Heron on the Office PC.
Hard to leave 14 years of a using Windows, it all started with Windows 3.1 on a 386 SX with 4 MB RAM, in 1994...and DOS-Shell...... Those were the days!
I already had a dual boot Vista-Linux on my Laptop, then i was so happy with it that i said to myself, that i might get more used to Linux if I used it in office, so i got a copy and off i went! Linux ready!
I had a little issue though, i have put the hostname 'Gavin' for my computer and then i sad to myself that i might change it to a funnier name, my friends had called their terminals Sugarbabe, Honey, Sexy... so i wanted to change the hostname to Pixie-Doux!
with the help of the owner of Sexy and Honey, i looked for the command to change the hostname, we came up with a sudo command...hummmm!! sudo, for once i am using it:
courtesy: http://elliottback.com/wp/archives/2006/09/03/sudo-make-me-a-sandwich/
So i typed:
sudo hostname Pixie-Doux
It seemed to work fine, but when i rebooted the PC, and tried
hostname
It gave me the old name, i.e Gavin, i tried something more radical, by trying to change the hostname file from the folder /etc/hostname by writing
sudo vi /etc/hostname
However, i think i had done something wrong, I even tried to change it as any 'Normal' person would, i.e System settings->Network Settings....
Then i did something wrong...but I do not know what, All the sudo commands I was typing were not getting executed, they were giving me the 'unable to resolve host Pixie-Doux' error message, neither were any changes i was trying to do from the administrator login.
Worse still 'amateur comme je suis', i did not have a root login on the system to login and revert to the previous hostname...quelle stupidité.
The owner of Sugarbabe then kindly advised me to have a root user created as soon as the problem was sorted....
It was time to call Dr Scheme, and as soon as i told him i needed some help in Linux, his reply was 'Ki zafaire tone faire foiré encore la?'
Anyways, la fin justifie les moyensm he booted the pc using the CD, then used some Hocus Pocus Commands at the console, and badaBoom! Everything was operational!
Then i quickly applied Zetwal's advice and created the root account by typing:
sudo passwd root
Can't wait to experiment more on linux! I have found the long lost pleasure of using commands!
Pas conner ki mo pou casser encore lor Linux...anyways, I learnt many things my breaking other things.....lol!
Gavin!
Monday, June 9, 2008
Alternatives to teaching programming methodology IN C++
Hi all,
Right now i am unable to phone or send text messages from my Orange Cell Phone.....
This situation is so bad...At times, sending your text messages is simply impossible..How long do we have to suffer from the whims of Orange? Hopefully, there is no Fair Use Policy on texts or call time.... Anyways...I believe that Orange should have the decency to inform its customers using a text message that the network will be down...in case they have planned service upgrades.
I am faced with a fundamental question. Having myself learnt programming methodology in C++, I was wondering if we could use another language instead. Many times, i have had students whinging and whining about the complexity of the C++ syntax.
However in my opinion, the essence of programming methodology is not the language used for the implementation but it is in fact allowing the student to 'think' in a series of simple stepwise manner...i.e 'to think algorithmically'...subsequently, the use of a programming language to implement this thought becomes a trivial issue.
I have noticed that some students face difficulties imagining the different steps to be followed such that a solution is devised...I said devised...not implemented.
The implementation of a solution is trivial once you know exactly what are the steps that make up the solution. If our students find C++ tough..then i believe then we could look for alternative languages with more or less the same capabilities, because as I said it is more important to inculcate problem solving abilities and programming concepts than a specific language. We need to show them 'how to think'...and not 'what to think'...and definitely not 'what to think in C++'...coz some people tend to lose their thinking capabilities at the sound of 'C++'.
Programming is an art...the essence is the inspiration (The Aha moment!) and the expression are the codes...irrespective of the language used.
Would Romeo and Juliet be a less grand and less emotionally-stirring masterpiece if Shakespeare had written it in French (Assuming he knew French!)? Alors le langage n'importe que peu. L'idee ou l'inspiration est fondamentale, l'expression n'est que secondaire. Qu'en dites-vous?
Please vote and comment.
Right now i am unable to phone or send text messages from my Orange Cell Phone.....
This situation is so bad...At times, sending your text messages is simply impossible..How long do we have to suffer from the whims of Orange? Hopefully, there is no Fair Use Policy on texts or call time.... Anyways...I believe that Orange should have the decency to inform its customers using a text message that the network will be down...in case they have planned service upgrades.
I am faced with a fundamental question. Having myself learnt programming methodology in C++, I was wondering if we could use another language instead. Many times, i have had students whinging and whining about the complexity of the C++ syntax.
However in my opinion, the essence of programming methodology is not the language used for the implementation but it is in fact allowing the student to 'think' in a series of simple stepwise manner...i.e 'to think algorithmically'...subsequently, the use of a programming language to implement this thought becomes a trivial issue.
I have noticed that some students face difficulties imagining the different steps to be followed such that a solution is devised...I said devised...not implemented.
The implementation of a solution is trivial once you know exactly what are the steps that make up the solution. If our students find C++ tough..then i believe then we could look for alternative languages with more or less the same capabilities, because as I said it is more important to inculcate problem solving abilities and programming concepts than a specific language. We need to show them 'how to think'...and not 'what to think'...and definitely not 'what to think in C++'...coz some people tend to lose their thinking capabilities at the sound of 'C++'.
Programming is an art...the essence is the inspiration (The Aha moment!) and the expression are the codes...irrespective of the language used.
Would Romeo and Juliet be a less grand and less emotionally-stirring masterpiece if Shakespeare had written it in French (Assuming he knew French!)? Alors le langage n'importe que peu. L'idee ou l'inspiration est fondamentale, l'expression n'est que secondaire. Qu'en dites-vous?
Please vote and comment.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Mesures Reactives, et Operation Coup de poing!
Hi all,
As usual, last poll results,
we were all shocked hearing what happened to that student at Quatre-Bornes while she was taking the bus to get to her exams....but we have also witnessed the reactive measures of the local authorities, the cleared the bushy tracks leading to the Shoprite bus-stop...Apres la mort, la tisane... do they always have to wait until someone gets killed or abused?
The very day i was disgusted to hear a member of the police force describing an operation against drink-driving and the carrying of weapons in cars and .. He termed his operation as being 'proactive policing'...Cher Monsieur L'agent, si vous voulez faire du 'proactive policing' efficace, faites cela un Vendredi ou un Samedi soir... sinon shhhhhh!!!! Et faites le de sorte a ce que tous ceux interpellés recoivent le meme traitement, qu'ils soient fils de fermier ou fils de ministres or deputés. Since I am fed up hearing stories of double standards, ou la politique de deux poids, deux mesures dans notre petite ile paradisiaque!
Great are the words like Operation coup de poing....bla bla bla......If the right people were at the right places by a vast 'Operation Coup de pied' ou 'Lev Paké Aller'...may be we will live in a safer country, right now I am not sure if the Commissioner of Police is back or if we still have an Actor....sorry an Acting Commissioner of Police in his place. Well with a salary of Rs. 110 000 , he'd better be back quickly.
We hear high rank police officers or ministers talking about safety and security...but these are just words. I wonder if they would allow the wife and or daughters be outside the house on the roads after six....
The safety in Mauritius is Questionnable! With the number of thefts, murders, rapes.... Furthermore, there are several cases of murder and... which are yet to be solved...famous case are interrupted due to the accused suddenly falling ill, or lack of proof...It is just disgusting that people get away with murder simply because of their connections... Inquiries are only dropped due to lack of proof....what the hell is that....is it really lack of proof or lack of competence...
Instead of Having Dall-Puri Police Officers (Since the walk in pairs, probably fearing the wind might carry them away, as they are soo skinny) or Ace police officers (coz now the new trend is to walk in group of four...4 Aces!!), or the SMF who are mostly sleeping right now, i believe we should have night patrols...these guys are paid from each and everyone's taxes...so they better provide a service! Some are twice my size, i wonder if they can sprint for 30 metres to catch a thief.....
My regular readers, you might have read in one of my previous post that some roads in my locality have been resurfaced due to a possible visit from the PM, the later did not turn up......and as per Mr Boodhoo, it was because it was agreed by the members of the organising committees that there should be no political speeches during the visit. Interested readers can read the full articles on Le Mauricien Newspaper Website...Quelle Deception ...les politiciens sont meme prets à utiliser des lieux de prière pour des discours à connotation politiques.... How lowly!
Anyways....i was not personally thrilled to meet him...but luckily the roads got resurfaced.
Anyways, i finished correcting most of my scripts, and funnily enough some people managed to fill a queue implemented using a linked list...how inventive!,
I need to inform you of a couple of things...
The Integrity of a message DOES NOT refer to the honesty of the person who has written it.
The Refresh rate of a monitor...is NOT a special mechanism which prevents it from burning.
The Resolution in computing terms has nothing to do with Decision Making,
And When it comes to Transmission media in Networks, there is not such thing as a Wireless Cable
Its amazing what you can come across!!!!
As usual, last poll results,
we were all shocked hearing what happened to that student at Quatre-Bornes while she was taking the bus to get to her exams....but we have also witnessed the reactive measures of the local authorities, the cleared the bushy tracks leading to the Shoprite bus-stop...Apres la mort, la tisane... do they always have to wait until someone gets killed or abused?
The very day i was disgusted to hear a member of the police force describing an operation against drink-driving and the carrying of weapons in cars and .. He termed his operation as being 'proactive policing'...Cher Monsieur L'agent, si vous voulez faire du 'proactive policing' efficace, faites cela un Vendredi ou un Samedi soir... sinon shhhhhh!!!! Et faites le de sorte a ce que tous ceux interpellés recoivent le meme traitement, qu'ils soient fils de fermier ou fils de ministres or deputés. Since I am fed up hearing stories of double standards, ou la politique de deux poids, deux mesures dans notre petite ile paradisiaque!
Great are the words like Operation coup de poing....bla bla bla......If the right people were at the right places by a vast 'Operation Coup de pied' ou 'Lev Paké Aller'...may be we will live in a safer country, right now I am not sure if the Commissioner of Police is back or if we still have an Actor....sorry an Acting Commissioner of Police in his place. Well with a salary of Rs. 110 000 , he'd better be back quickly.
We hear high rank police officers or ministers talking about safety and security...but these are just words. I wonder if they would allow the wife and or daughters be outside the house on the roads after six....
The safety in Mauritius is Questionnable! With the number of thefts, murders, rapes.... Furthermore, there are several cases of murder and... which are yet to be solved...famous case are interrupted due to the accused suddenly falling ill, or lack of proof...It is just disgusting that people get away with murder simply because of their connections... Inquiries are only dropped due to lack of proof....what the hell is that....is it really lack of proof or lack of competence...
Instead of Having Dall-Puri Police Officers (Since the walk in pairs, probably fearing the wind might carry them away, as they are soo skinny) or Ace police officers (coz now the new trend is to walk in group of four...4 Aces!!), or the SMF who are mostly sleeping right now, i believe we should have night patrols...these guys are paid from each and everyone's taxes...so they better provide a service! Some are twice my size, i wonder if they can sprint for 30 metres to catch a thief.....
My regular readers, you might have read in one of my previous post that some roads in my locality have been resurfaced due to a possible visit from the PM, the later did not turn up......and as per Mr Boodhoo, it was because it was agreed by the members of the organising committees that there should be no political speeches during the visit. Interested readers can read the full articles on Le Mauricien Newspaper Website...Quelle Deception ...les politiciens sont meme prets à utiliser des lieux de prière pour des discours à connotation politiques.... How lowly!
Anyways....i was not personally thrilled to meet him...but luckily the roads got resurfaced.
Anyways, i finished correcting most of my scripts, and funnily enough some people managed to fill a queue implemented using a linked list...how inventive!,
I need to inform you of a couple of things...
The Integrity of a message DOES NOT refer to the honesty of the person who has written it.
The Refresh rate of a monitor...is NOT a special mechanism which prevents it from burning.
The Resolution in computing terms has nothing to do with Decision Making,
And When it comes to Transmission media in Networks, there is not such thing as a Wireless Cable
Its amazing what you can come across!!!!
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Two angels get called back!
Hello dear readers,
Poll Results:
I know that some of you were craving for a posting. And I do agree that there hasn't been any for the last week or so! Well reason being my laptop broke down again and till yesterday, i was without one. The guy at LCI kindly agreed to give me a laptop on loan it is a G-Max, nothing compared to my Toshiba A-200, but it is still better than nothing.
Well those who are close to me know my favourite saying: 'Live every single day as if its your last day on earth'. Well i am saying this as a piece of advice to you all because you never know when you will die or when someone dear to your hear will.Two of the persons i know/knew passed away on Thursday, and i need to get used to not seeing them.
One of them was a girl,she was such a young, lively, and ever smiling person, that I am yet to accept that she is not gonna be seen anymore.
The other one is a guy, who was my friend since 1997, we had loads of fun and we was someone whom i really appreciated. He was always to the point, and lived every single day fully. Whenever had difficulties but he always surmounted them and he was a source of inspiration when it came to dedication and determination with regards to things he loved. . He was a very good person and a great guitar player. I will miss him. Though we have always met haphazardly at parties, and stuff or just on the roadside, it was always great to talk to him.
God Bless you my fallen angels. When you fell from the heavens we wanted you to stay, but unfortunately He called you back!
I cannot even imagine how hard it must be for the parents. But then I realised that they need good people in Heaven too. I am sure that people will tell them that they have to be strong and take care of themselves, and the others...when you are in this situation, I am sure that these are only words. I will only pray that God gives them courage to live through this extremely hard phase.
That is why it gets me on my nerves when people are mean and hurt others for no reason. When you are faced with this situation, you are just wonder about life...
What is life?
If without life, a body is a corpse, then life is everything that allows a body to do things that a corpse cannot, like talking, smiling, comforting, and.... For one second i wondered yesterday, This 'life' is so ethereal, you cannot see it, feel it or anything, but you can see its manifestation. We sure can try to 'define life' using scientific explanation... but IMHO, it is more subtle, or even magical. You can only feel it.
Life, just like Love....Life when you see the person u truly love and for a fraction of a second you miss a breath and you get the feeling that your heart has stopped beating for a microsecond, before it starts to beat faster. If this has never happened to you, then you have missed something essential!
Life is so complex to understand, that i only try to understand some of its philosophies. I personally take every day as a 'lifetime', I am born when i wake and die when i go to sleep at night, and i try to help as many people as I can throughout the day, (it's for good Karma...or so i heard..I do not want to be cockroach in my 'next life' Hihihi..being a human is hard enough!!!)
Anyways, now i know that some of us have an extra angel watching over us.
Well many of you might have seen the video below, from the Website of Le Défi
Well i believe that at times it really happens that students really behave as mannerless brats...unfortunately their parents still perceive them as 'babies'. Are we creating 'des Enfants Roi'...as termed by Francoise Dolto (you might not know who she was the mother of Carlos, the French singer who passed away lately).
This reminds me of an article I read ages ago on L'Express France, about how children should be seen, I would strongly advise you to have a look .
I belong to a generation whereby corporal punishment was not legal but kind of acceptable, if the teacher slapped, it was for a reason, and I was (probably still am)not an easy not, and i remeber the one slap I got once which changed everything, and I am thankful to the teacher for that one slap!
We have to bear in mind that the average students spend more time at school or college than at home, so i believe that it is at School that there is more potential to shape OR Re-Shape his personality. The respect students have is no way near as it used to be. With students not respecting their schools/ colleges as institutions, where are we heading. Will they ever respect members of the society.
Its just unfair that only one student got slapped in the video, because actually the one using his mobile phone in class should have got his share too... Because i am sure that mobiles are not allows in class....'Quel manque de respect envers l'authorité?'
A simple example would be those idiots listening to music on a really high volume in the bus or in public places without any consideration for others. These idiots should ask Father Christmas for 'B100DY Earphones'. The wearing of uniforms should be really enforced and with little of no variants. Furthermore, to me it seems that some people believe that evolution process did not provide them with enough 'holes' or orifice (or....... but i dare not say) so they make some more with piercings ...... well i am not against that but i think that the regulations in schools should be enforced. Well as an excuse they may say that it's fashionable...kindly allow me to tell that that fashion evoles, so what will they do when piercings are not fashionable anymore .... 'acheter mastik pou bouche trou'!!! Anyways... Pas moi ki bizin fer lecon a nous banne dirigeants!
Well I was pleasantly surprised yesterday, the roads not far from where i live are being resurfaced...i found it weird coz the National elections are due in about two years time....but then i happened to learn that the PM will be coming round my end next week. See if you need infrastructure in your area, like street lightings, road-resurfacing and pedestrian crossings, its way simple...invite the PM over for a function..and then everything will happen by magic. LOL...Sacré Pays!!!
As usual, comments welcome!...
G@V!N
P.S. It drives me mad and sad when I hear people, who in my opinion are either intellectual dwarfs, or emotionally deprived or plainly immature and dysfunctional take a picture from a blog and forward it to someone else just for the sake of gossiping or start an argument..it is just cheap...there is more to life than creating trouble for others... Anyways...a chacun ses plaisirs!!
Poll Results:
I know that some of you were craving for a posting. And I do agree that there hasn't been any for the last week or so! Well reason being my laptop broke down again and till yesterday, i was without one. The guy at LCI kindly agreed to give me a laptop on loan it is a G-Max, nothing compared to my Toshiba A-200, but it is still better than nothing.
Well those who are close to me know my favourite saying: 'Live every single day as if its your last day on earth'. Well i am saying this as a piece of advice to you all because you never know when you will die or when someone dear to your hear will.Two of the persons i know/knew passed away on Thursday, and i need to get used to not seeing them.
One of them was a girl,she was such a young, lively, and ever smiling person, that I am yet to accept that she is not gonna be seen anymore.
The other one is a guy, who was my friend since 1997, we had loads of fun and we was someone whom i really appreciated. He was always to the point, and lived every single day fully. Whenever had difficulties but he always surmounted them and he was a source of inspiration when it came to dedication and determination with regards to things he loved. . He was a very good person and a great guitar player. I will miss him. Though we have always met haphazardly at parties, and stuff or just on the roadside, it was always great to talk to him.
God Bless you my fallen angels. When you fell from the heavens we wanted you to stay, but unfortunately He called you back!
I cannot even imagine how hard it must be for the parents. But then I realised that they need good people in Heaven too. I am sure that people will tell them that they have to be strong and take care of themselves, and the others...when you are in this situation, I am sure that these are only words. I will only pray that God gives them courage to live through this extremely hard phase.
That is why it gets me on my nerves when people are mean and hurt others for no reason. When you are faced with this situation, you are just wonder about life...
What is life?
If without life, a body is a corpse, then life is everything that allows a body to do things that a corpse cannot, like talking, smiling, comforting, and.... For one second i wondered yesterday, This 'life' is so ethereal, you cannot see it, feel it or anything, but you can see its manifestation. We sure can try to 'define life' using scientific explanation... but IMHO, it is more subtle, or even magical. You can only feel it.
Life, just like Love....Life when you see the person u truly love and for a fraction of a second you miss a breath and you get the feeling that your heart has stopped beating for a microsecond, before it starts to beat faster. If this has never happened to you, then you have missed something essential!
Life is so complex to understand, that i only try to understand some of its philosophies. I personally take every day as a 'lifetime', I am born when i wake and die when i go to sleep at night, and i try to help as many people as I can throughout the day, (it's for good Karma...or so i heard..I do not want to be cockroach in my 'next life' Hihihi..being a human is hard enough!!!)
Anyways, now i know that some of us have an extra angel watching over us.
Well many of you might have seen the video below, from the Website of Le Défi
Well i believe that at times it really happens that students really behave as mannerless brats...unfortunately their parents still perceive them as 'babies'. Are we creating 'des Enfants Roi'...as termed by Francoise Dolto (you might not know who she was the mother of Carlos, the French singer who passed away lately).
This reminds me of an article I read ages ago on L'Express France, about how children should be seen, I would strongly advise you to have a look .
I belong to a generation whereby corporal punishment was not legal but kind of acceptable, if the teacher slapped, it was for a reason, and I was (probably still am)not an easy not, and i remeber the one slap I got once which changed everything, and I am thankful to the teacher for that one slap!
We have to bear in mind that the average students spend more time at school or college than at home, so i believe that it is at School that there is more potential to shape OR Re-Shape his personality. The respect students have is no way near as it used to be. With students not respecting their schools/ colleges as institutions, where are we heading. Will they ever respect members of the society.
Its just unfair that only one student got slapped in the video, because actually the one using his mobile phone in class should have got his share too... Because i am sure that mobiles are not allows in class....'Quel manque de respect envers l'authorité?'
A simple example would be those idiots listening to music on a really high volume in the bus or in public places without any consideration for others. These idiots should ask Father Christmas for 'B100DY Earphones'. The wearing of uniforms should be really enforced and with little of no variants. Furthermore, to me it seems that some people believe that evolution process did not provide them with enough 'holes' or orifice (or....... but i dare not say) so they make some more with piercings ...... well i am not against that but i think that the regulations in schools should be enforced. Well as an excuse they may say that it's fashionable...kindly allow me to tell that that fashion evoles, so what will they do when piercings are not fashionable anymore .... 'acheter mastik pou bouche trou'!!! Anyways... Pas moi ki bizin fer lecon a nous banne dirigeants!
Well I was pleasantly surprised yesterday, the roads not far from where i live are being resurfaced...i found it weird coz the National elections are due in about two years time....but then i happened to learn that the PM will be coming round my end next week. See if you need infrastructure in your area, like street lightings, road-resurfacing and pedestrian crossings, its way simple...invite the PM over for a function..and then everything will happen by magic. LOL...Sacré Pays!!!
As usual, comments welcome!...
G@V!N
P.S. It drives me mad and sad when I hear people, who in my opinion are either intellectual dwarfs, or emotionally deprived or plainly immature and dysfunctional take a picture from a blog and forward it to someone else just for the sake of gossiping or start an argument..it is just cheap...there is more to life than creating trouble for others... Anyways...a chacun ses plaisirs!!
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Pro-Active or Over-Reactive!
Last Poll Result:
Yesterday, i accidentally watched local news..they were fighting..sorry arguing - or probably discussing about the importation of 'Du riz Ration' from India.
To me this is a useless debates because many people do not really consume it('Du riz Ration'...I would like to thank my newly appointed Editor, Tantine Polo, for this clarification. ....)..may be we should look for other sources of import for rice if we really want to find a solution to the predicted shortage of rice. And what annoyed me was the fact that once more the speaker (who rarely speaks) was nearly sleeping while many Assembly members were chatting and reading (some aloud).
Mr Speaker Sir, I have a suggestion. It would be appreciated if the Honourable Members of the House could post their questions and answers on a website and we could all read...its is annoying to look at someone read...because i can do that too...and on top of that, on TV, there are loads of censoring happening.....sorry may be i should have said montage or editing.
May be the members of assembly should be introduced to blogging....this would facilitate the proceedings of the assembly. Many ministers have no clue about their 'dossiers', and any one with the intent to asking a question will need to send the question(s) beforehand, and the minister would have an adviser or P.S. prepare an answer. The Minister would then simply read it aloud.
Does someone need special abilities to read aloud....?
I tend to think 'No', so do we need Readers in the Assembly...i tend to think 'No'...so why are my taxes wasted then.......
If ministers were good enough why not have debated like in the House of Parliament of the UK, whereby anyone can ask any question at any time to anyone in the house.... And on top of that the whole debated would be broadcast on TV...
Beacoup seront prets a sacrifier Tulsi, Sindoor, Luna et ... pour voir ce qui se passe dans le parlement.
Some answers to questions asked were like 'Quand mo ti la mo ti fer sa, et to ti dire sa....Quand to ti la to fer pire... bla bla bla'..... worse than kids fighting for a sweet, or toy!
Well today we were meant to have torrential rains and thunderstorms... So based on these forecasts, our Minister of Education decided to close the schools early to avoid the happenings of the 26th March 2008... Very wise, except that as usual..Meteo ine Faner! We have recorded only 74 mm of rainfall ...way far from the '100 mm' . 26mm difference and the schools were closed, and last time...because of a couple of millimetres..students went to school and lives were lost....Someone found a logic in that?
There is no logic in that. Then the other decision about allowing civil servants to get home early because of the rain and power failure...how much does a decision like this cost?
Let me tell you then: Several millions of Rupees. Our third world....sorry our 'developing' country cannot afford that!
Well due to the forecast bad weather afternoon exam sessions we canceled, and we had to get home. Imagine all UoM students + all civil servants trying to get back home at roughly the same time... So bad...may be we should work on a 'plan d'évacuation d'urgence' because right now our transport system sucks! Traffic Jams ......
This situation also allowed us to witness something: Some Bus Operators (according to the radio 'Certains Operateurs Individuels') were refusing to pickup students, whilst some others were asking for cash fares off the students.... This is so dis-honest! Hopefully the Authorities will do something about it...Mais ne dit-on pas que l'exemple vient d'en haut?
Seeing the situation on the bus-stops, some students and I decided to walk to Rose-Hill from where it would be easier for us to get a bus...what a walk that was..we had a lovely time chatting, and joking around.
Yesterday, i accidentally watched local news..they were fighting..sorry arguing - or probably discussing about the importation of 'Du riz Ration' from India.
To me this is a useless debates because many people do not really consume it('Du riz Ration'...I would like to thank my newly appointed Editor, Tantine Polo, for this clarification. ....)..may be we should look for other sources of import for rice if we really want to find a solution to the predicted shortage of rice. And what annoyed me was the fact that once more the speaker (who rarely speaks) was nearly sleeping while many Assembly members were chatting and reading (some aloud).
Mr Speaker Sir, I have a suggestion. It would be appreciated if the Honourable Members of the House could post their questions and answers on a website and we could all read...its is annoying to look at someone read...because i can do that too...and on top of that, on TV, there are loads of censoring happening.....sorry may be i should have said montage or editing.
May be the members of assembly should be introduced to blogging....this would facilitate the proceedings of the assembly. Many ministers have no clue about their 'dossiers', and any one with the intent to asking a question will need to send the question(s) beforehand, and the minister would have an adviser or P.S. prepare an answer. The Minister would then simply read it aloud.
Does someone need special abilities to read aloud....?
I tend to think 'No', so do we need Readers in the Assembly...i tend to think 'No'...so why are my taxes wasted then.......
If ministers were good enough why not have debated like in the House of Parliament of the UK, whereby anyone can ask any question at any time to anyone in the house.... And on top of that the whole debated would be broadcast on TV...
Beacoup seront prets a sacrifier Tulsi, Sindoor, Luna et ... pour voir ce qui se passe dans le parlement.
Some answers to questions asked were like 'Quand mo ti la mo ti fer sa, et to ti dire sa....Quand to ti la to fer pire... bla bla bla'..... worse than kids fighting for a sweet, or toy!
Well today we were meant to have torrential rains and thunderstorms... So based on these forecasts, our Minister of Education decided to close the schools early to avoid the happenings of the 26th March 2008... Very wise, except that as usual..Meteo ine Faner! We have recorded only 74 mm of rainfall ...way far from the '100 mm' . 26mm difference and the schools were closed, and last time...because of a couple of millimetres..students went to school and lives were lost....Someone found a logic in that?
There is no logic in that. Then the other decision about allowing civil servants to get home early because of the rain and power failure...how much does a decision like this cost?
Let me tell you then: Several millions of Rupees. Our third world....sorry our 'developing' country cannot afford that!
Well due to the forecast bad weather afternoon exam sessions we canceled, and we had to get home. Imagine all UoM students + all civil servants trying to get back home at roughly the same time... So bad...may be we should work on a 'plan d'évacuation d'urgence' because right now our transport system sucks! Traffic Jams ......
This situation also allowed us to witness something: Some Bus Operators (according to the radio 'Certains Operateurs Individuels') were refusing to pickup students, whilst some others were asking for cash fares off the students.... This is so dis-honest! Hopefully the Authorities will do something about it...Mais ne dit-on pas que l'exemple vient d'en haut?
Seeing the situation on the bus-stops, some students and I decided to walk to Rose-Hill from where it would be easier for us to get a bus...what a walk that was..we had a lovely time chatting, and joking around.
We all reached home safely, this picture was taken on top of a bridge between Reduit and Ebene - it was a shortcut which got to Rose-Hill quicker. We all managed to get home safely (as most of them are currently online on MSN).
Unless we review or issue a Plan D'evacuation D'urgence, the next time a natural calamity strikes or a wrong forecast by the Met Services (though this seems more likely :-)) is issued we will face major problems in getting people from their workplace back home or vie-versa.
Our Mobile networks ware jammed as people were worried and were trying to find out how their dear ones were and how they were doing. Messages and calls were not going through. Welcome to the Cyber Island!
Well lets get to something else:
Today was the programming paper...lovely paper I'm tempted to say but, some found it hard. The exams were a little bit troubled by one or two little power failures, but on the whole it went on fine...can't wait to finish correcting now (I have not yet started this process by the way!)
I know some students tend to be creative in exams lets see what masterpiece they come up with. The funniest one i came across once was that the refresh rate of a monitor is : 'A special mechanism which the cools down the monitor and prevents from overheating'.
Well..we'll see this time!
I will also request you to pray for the families in China who have lost a dear one.
What shocked me was the fact that the Chinese Prime minister is not opening China's frontier's to foreign aid...its either because of National Pride or sheer stupidity...I think all help might be useful, and this is fuelling controversies about China and the Olympic games...but that will be for some other post..lol.
Spent some time discussing with someone, X, today about whether or not it is ethical to put some other person's lecture notes on one personal website....I strongly disagree unless prior permission has been obtained. This constitutes an infringement of copyright. But X said that knowledge is universal..which i agree, but deep linking a url in a webpage is not nice, and not legal either. Nor is the downloading of lecture notes/resources , harbouring it in one's personal server and providing a link to that resource from one's website. Come on Mr X, respect the work of others..at least ask them, i would personally not refuse...but hw many wouldn't..... unless you ask, you'll never know!
Hopefully with the heavy rain, the price of vegetables will not increase to much as a sharp rise in the price of vegetables like carrots will not be easily bearable!
As usual comments are welcome.
Gavin
Unless we review or issue a Plan D'evacuation D'urgence, the next time a natural calamity strikes or a wrong forecast by the Met Services (though this seems more likely :-)) is issued we will face major problems in getting people from their workplace back home or vie-versa.
Our Mobile networks ware jammed as people were worried and were trying to find out how their dear ones were and how they were doing. Messages and calls were not going through. Welcome to the Cyber Island!
Well lets get to something else:
Today was the programming paper...lovely paper I'm tempted to say but, some found it hard. The exams were a little bit troubled by one or two little power failures, but on the whole it went on fine...can't wait to finish correcting now (I have not yet started this process by the way!)
I know some students tend to be creative in exams lets see what masterpiece they come up with. The funniest one i came across once was that the refresh rate of a monitor is : 'A special mechanism which the cools down the monitor and prevents from overheating'.
Well..we'll see this time!
I will also request you to pray for the families in China who have lost a dear one.
What shocked me was the fact that the Chinese Prime minister is not opening China's frontier's to foreign aid...its either because of National Pride or sheer stupidity...I think all help might be useful, and this is fuelling controversies about China and the Olympic games...but that will be for some other post..lol.
Spent some time discussing with someone, X, today about whether or not it is ethical to put some other person's lecture notes on one personal website....I strongly disagree unless prior permission has been obtained. This constitutes an infringement of copyright. But X said that knowledge is universal..which i agree, but deep linking a url in a webpage is not nice, and not legal either. Nor is the downloading of lecture notes/resources , harbouring it in one's personal server and providing a link to that resource from one's website. Come on Mr X, respect the work of others..at least ask them, i would personally not refuse...but hw many wouldn't..... unless you ask, you'll never know!
Hopefully with the heavy rain, the price of vegetables will not increase to much as a sharp rise in the price of vegetables like carrots will not be easily bearable!
As usual comments are welcome.
Gavin
Friday, May 9, 2008
Exhilarating!
Hi all!
I know that many students are currently taking exams at UoM, I hope that that they are not finding it too hard!
Well yesterday, i managed to get my biometric reader, the M2-Hamster Plus, working, its is cool and right now, its working in a stand-alone mode, and the speed of identification and verification is not bad at all. The only saddening thing is that the whole integration kit will word on a server running windows only.....how miserable is that......I hope to find a way of introducing some linux in the whole process!!!.I have been thinking about a few stuff lately, and one of them includes the use of graphs to map keyboard latencies and use statistical metrics to derive similarities in typing patterns. Another one would be to use pressure gradient and vectors using a a graphic tablet to identify people online. Well these are just ideas for the time being, i believe its worth investigating.
I managed to RIP some CDs yesterday, now this operation is done very quickly using Media player. Not so long ago (3-4 years back), ripping a single song would take about 5 minutes, at that time i was using a software called Audio Grabber 1.8....'comme quoi, on n'arrête pas le progrès'. By the way yesterday some of you might have seen the my MSN display message: 'In love with Music, biometric and sooo much more...' well i found my long lost wireless headphone...
Now finally i will not be disturbing anyone at home with my music........
By the way little server was admitted to Intensive Care yesterday, its graphic card needs to be replaced along with its hard disk..... then hopefully it will work fine once more....looks like little server will soon turn into a Biometric Template Comparison Server......i just need some time for this......The only thing i am worried about is whether the Celeron 500 D processor will be powerful/quick enough. However 'qui ne tente rien n'a rien!'
Well I am off now...hoping there are no embargoes on Carrots and Polos!!!
:-)
I know that many students are currently taking exams at UoM, I hope that that they are not finding it too hard!
Well yesterday, i managed to get my biometric reader, the M2-Hamster Plus, working, its is cool and right now, its working in a stand-alone mode, and the speed of identification and verification is not bad at all. The only saddening thing is that the whole integration kit will word on a server running windows only.....how miserable is that......I hope to find a way of introducing some linux in the whole process!!!.I have been thinking about a few stuff lately, and one of them includes the use of graphs to map keyboard latencies and use statistical metrics to derive similarities in typing patterns. Another one would be to use pressure gradient and vectors using a a graphic tablet to identify people online. Well these are just ideas for the time being, i believe its worth investigating.
I managed to RIP some CDs yesterday, now this operation is done very quickly using Media player. Not so long ago (3-4 years back), ripping a single song would take about 5 minutes, at that time i was using a software called Audio Grabber 1.8....'comme quoi, on n'arrête pas le progrès'. By the way yesterday some of you might have seen the my MSN display message: 'In love with Music, biometric and sooo much more...' well i found my long lost wireless headphone...
Now finally i will not be disturbing anyone at home with my music........
By the way little server was admitted to Intensive Care yesterday, its graphic card needs to be replaced along with its hard disk..... then hopefully it will work fine once more....looks like little server will soon turn into a Biometric Template Comparison Server......i just need some time for this......The only thing i am worried about is whether the Celeron 500 D processor will be powerful/quick enough. However 'qui ne tente rien n'a rien!'
Well I am off now...hoping there are no embargoes on Carrots and Polos!!!
:-)
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Coriolis forces, Induction Chargers, Photoluminescent Paints and ElectroMechanical UPS
As usual, the title says it all!
Currently many students are busy with their exams and unfortunately...the number of scripts we have to correct is increasing by the day!
I was online sometime ago, and i noticed a funny display message, please see below:
Currently many students are busy with their exams and unfortunately...the number of scripts we have to correct is increasing by the day!
I was online sometime ago, and i noticed a funny display message, please see below:
If you cannot see it properly it reads: 'Why is it zat all zose lecturers have a smile and seem happy....If only they knew how zey are being cursed'
Come On!!!
Anyways, I hope there are exceptions to that statement!!!!
I had a very nice little conversation with Yash yesterday...in what started as a theological discussion on Agni ('The Hindu God of Fire') who consumes all the offerings made during prayers, and brings them to the actual Gods. Since all the offerings are burnt, the delivery service is quicker than FedEx. I know this comparison will shock some of you...
Well lets get back to the conversation with Yash, we were talking about forces, inertia and ... then i told him about a phenomenon i read about sometime back. Its called Coriolis forces, its due to the rotation of the earth about its axis.
This is why a whirlpool in a basin, and cyclonic winds spin in opposite directions in the north and south hemisphere.
You can read more about it. Avinash also told me that in one episode of James Bond, he used this technique to know in which hemisphere he was. Our conversation led us to Eco-Light and Photoluminescent paints.. Just think about it people - lets assumed we used photoluminescent paints on our buildings, we could consequently decrease the power used for street lightings in towns by switching on the lights later.
We also talked about electromechanical UPS using a magnetic field to decrease power loss due to frictional forces. I also told him about my MSc Project Supervisor Professor Norman Revell, one of the brightest persons i met, who wanted to make a universal charger to charge mobiles, cameras, wireless mouse, coffee.... using an induction charger which looked like a mouse pad and which was USB powered. Unfortunately, Professor Revell died last year, a big loss to me, because he was a very inspiring person, and participated tremendously to MSc Project, by his sharp supervision and he helped me get in touch with industry people from Polaris UK and also a very famous researchers from Oxford. Rest In Peace Professor Revell. God Bless you humility and kindness
Well I met someone interesting lately, and its Miss Carrot, she is very good company and she is very funny. We fight a lot...no we argue a lot...no! no! no!..rather we discuss a lot. Its always nice to chat to people with different perspectives...it opens up the mind..and as someone once said....The mind is like a parachute: It works best when it is open! Anyways, Miss Carrot is very nice and funny!!! She has a lot of imagination and gosh she is sharp, and impulsive!
I am looking forward to doing something soon: put a feedback form online as one of my 'famous' poll questions.....i think i will do that on the 30th of May....at least the students will be able to tell me what they think, and i will disable moderation for that day, that is the comments will appear instantaneously on the blog ....well that 'instantaneously' might mean after minutes ....we are still in a third world country when it comes Internet Speed...come on Mauritius Telecoms......sorry Orange.....it is so unfair....The fair use policy is sooooo unfair.
About a week ago, I was watching the news on TF1 and the french Minister of Education Xavier Darcos, whereby he suggested a 'besoin de la France de se recentrer sur les fondamentaux'. Please read this article..its very nice. The french were used to being very good in Maths, but looks like its changing and their Minister is worried about it...they are willing to decrease the content of the syllabus of other subjects to devote more time to Maths and French Language. I was in the bus this morning and there was a form 4 girl who as unable to find the roots the equation below by factorisation.
Y=3 x2+8x+4....where are we heading....may be our syllabus needs to be REVIEWED and and to me reviewed DOES NOT MEAN SIMPLIFIED.
If a country like france is doing it and taking the right steps when they see a decrease in performance, may be instead of removing stuff like Iterative methods like Newton-Raphson and ......may be we should do the same! Else our students will keep getting worse...and i am worried because they need to pay for my pension
Lol....many of you might still be waiting for the politics section...unfortunately, i have not watched the news lately.
So see you soon!!!Saturday, May 3, 2008
Programming Marathon!
Well,
Most of you should have seen the different political rallies of the 1st of May. Once again we have seen the bias of some media in the coverage. Certain political parties got 20 minutes of news coverage whilst others had a total of 5 minutes. Futhermore, in the news...the slips of the tongues of some speakers were elegantly erased during the 'montage'. Fortunately i listened to the speeches live on the radio and once again had a laugh at the lack of competence of some.
Unfortunately it seems that when one is not in the good books of the MBC, all the slips of the tongues are broadcast...just like that leader of the opposition party who is not in the parliament (wonder who leads them there...) his slip of the tongue pic pic pac pac was in the news.... he nearly said TIC TAC (just like the sweet), or Tic Tac Tic Tac...(like a ticking timer for a bomb....).
IMHO, some people capitalise on the position of their parents...as this is often the case in local politics. An one particular rally, the political preference of our dear President was often cited...just as if they wanted a snowball effect for his son.....
'Incompetence, quand arreteras-tu de ronger notre arène politique?'
Our attorney general rightly enumerated the different reforms to legal system...outstanding.... I got a quick little question though..can't we have a 'health centre' or dispensary in our courts of justice, i have seen may people suspected of financial fraud go through the legal system unpunished simply because they were 'ill' some even went to court on stretchers...may be in the court was in a clinic or vice-versa we could have given 'un semblant de justice'...worse still...this has set precedence to other suspects in the same case where suddenly they were ill (Wonder if this condition is called 'une maladie de convenance')....... may be instead of having magistrate in the courts...we should have doctors shouting 'ORDER!!! ORDER!!!', and as punishment people could be given injections or could be hanged using a stethoscope.
Yesterday was a challenge, 4 hours of revision for Programming in ELT2...'Qui dit mieux?'...lol
Hopefully this will help the students for their exams. We went through most of the chapters and unfortunately for me, the data projector kept overheating and shutting down..this was slightly getting on my nerves. At some point in time i went to get a white board marker and a 'duster'.
I nearly lost it when a bunch of students started chatting among themselves and i calmly addressed them..luckily they understood et 'Le silence qui regna par la suite était digne de celle d'une cathedrale'.
When i got back home, i had a quick little tour on MSN, i was amazed by the display message of one of my friends who turned 26 yesterday..it was 'Today's my birthday, I bought a PSP to feel younger', well Gio... no comments.
I then started having a look at the assignment of some students...it seemed obvious that some had copied from their friends, or they could have someone who did the program for them... Many programs did not have a structure, some hardly used functions, and repeated the same block of codes again and again...but the most shocking thing was that someone used GOTO in the programs...we are in 2008...have you not realised that? I bet the use of better programming constructs would improve the readability of the codes. Anyways.....
Anyways, I am eagerly awaiting feedback from my students to know what are my weaknesses, so that i can improve my lectures next year.
Most of you should have seen the different political rallies of the 1st of May. Once again we have seen the bias of some media in the coverage. Certain political parties got 20 minutes of news coverage whilst others had a total of 5 minutes. Futhermore, in the news...the slips of the tongues of some speakers were elegantly erased during the 'montage'. Fortunately i listened to the speeches live on the radio and once again had a laugh at the lack of competence of some.
Unfortunately it seems that when one is not in the good books of the MBC, all the slips of the tongues are broadcast...just like that leader of the opposition party who is not in the parliament (wonder who leads them there...) his slip of the tongue pic pic pac pac was in the news.... he nearly said TIC TAC (just like the sweet), or Tic Tac Tic Tac...(like a ticking timer for a bomb....).
IMHO, some people capitalise on the position of their parents...as this is often the case in local politics. An one particular rally, the political preference of our dear President was often cited...just as if they wanted a snowball effect for his son.....
'Incompetence, quand arreteras-tu de ronger notre arène politique?'
Our attorney general rightly enumerated the different reforms to legal system...outstanding.... I got a quick little question though..can't we have a 'health centre' or dispensary in our courts of justice, i have seen may people suspected of financial fraud go through the legal system unpunished simply because they were 'ill' some even went to court on stretchers...may be in the court was in a clinic or vice-versa we could have given 'un semblant de justice'...worse still...this has set precedence to other suspects in the same case where suddenly they were ill (Wonder if this condition is called 'une maladie de convenance')....... may be instead of having magistrate in the courts...we should have doctors shouting 'ORDER!!! ORDER!!!', and as punishment people could be given injections or could be hanged using a stethoscope.
Yesterday was a challenge, 4 hours of revision for Programming in ELT2...'Qui dit mieux?'...lol
Hopefully this will help the students for their exams. We went through most of the chapters and unfortunately for me, the data projector kept overheating and shutting down..this was slightly getting on my nerves. At some point in time i went to get a white board marker and a 'duster'.
I nearly lost it when a bunch of students started chatting among themselves and i calmly addressed them..luckily they understood et 'Le silence qui regna par la suite était digne de celle d'une cathedrale'.
When i got back home, i had a quick little tour on MSN, i was amazed by the display message of one of my friends who turned 26 yesterday..it was 'Today's my birthday, I bought a PSP to feel younger', well Gio... no comments.
I then started having a look at the assignment of some students...it seemed obvious that some had copied from their friends, or they could have someone who did the program for them... Many programs did not have a structure, some hardly used functions, and repeated the same block of codes again and again...but the most shocking thing was that someone used GOTO in the programs...we are in 2008...have you not realised that? I bet the use of better programming constructs would improve the readability of the codes. Anyways.....
Anyways, I am eagerly awaiting feedback from my students to know what are my weaknesses, so that i can improve my lectures next year.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
After Soooo Long!!!
Hi all, i know its been a long time!!! I missed you too!!!
Well I finally managed to get my Biometric Reader last week and there was kind of a little problem with the payment...the accidentally charged my credit card for $ 562 when in fact i manged to strike a deal off them at $ 312...luckily they rectified that mishap...and i am having fun through the documentation of the M2-Hamster... it can easily integrate with any SQL compliant database, and uses a template server where all the matching is done before giving access to the Application/Database Server....i am eager to try all these out!!!
During the Programmig lecture on Friday, i showed the students an application of Graphs (as an Abstract Data Structure) in belief mapping... whereby they can identify core beliefs and supportive beliefs. I am sure they do not realise the use of this, and they will probably never put that tool into practice...but it helped me at times.
The topic of my programming lecture was Graphs..and i tried to bring as many uses f graphs as possible. Apart from Artificial Intelligence, route finders...another use of graphs is in those social networking services like facebook, where they count number of friends, suggested friends, mutual friends...... anyways...who said programming was not cool!!!
As all weekends...the last one was long, and enjoyable...two of my friends/colleagues got married and we went to have diner at their place. Then on Sunday, I watched a little cultural show for the Tamil new year on TV, the minister of Arts and Comedy.....nearly said that Varusha Pirappu (New year According to the Dravidian Calendar) is the celebration of the Chinese new year!!! What a joker!
Later on, some friends came round for a BBQ...thx Anwar for your BBQ lighting skills....
Admirez l'expert!!! I bet I would still be trying to light up the fire had you not been here...
Dr Scheme happened to get on very well with my dad, and it was enjoyable...except that li pas ti p arrete vide dans mo verre!!!....he knows what i am talking about.. i'd better not reveal!!!
Looks like someone is listening carefully to my dad...or is he getting ready to say something..... Sudha...get your flowers!!! Ene dialog Le Vers Cresson pou lever la! lol
I think the kids have a wonderful time...especially when i told them that football is allowed in my living room!!! (as usual mum had securely put her porcelain vases away!!...just wish she'd put them away forever!!!...lol)
Well i am back to basics.... well Visual Basics actually...got an old book back, SAMs Teaches you Database Programming Using Visual Basics in 24 hours.... y not!!! Best of Luck Sams!!
Just watched the news...Looks like bus fares anre going up again...by 28% next Monday...well i know the price of Petrol has gone up...but i think that the Free bus fare to students is weighing heavier that expected on National Expenditure! So the extra cost is passed directly to us! Could we expect otherwise.....arrete rever camarade!
I find it unprofessional that our MPs get questions before hand and simply have to read in the assembly....any one could do that...even an educated 10 year old...is that 'L'age Cerebral' of our PM??? lol...Looks like he needs some training on Nintendo DS using Brain Training by this famours Japanese Doc. (Dr Kawashima if i am not mistaken)!!!
While he was READING ALOUD.... someone else behind him was reading a magazine in silence.. Looks like the Responsable de Communication du PTR is in dire need of education! But how can that be..that person was the minister of education some time back!
Anyways!!
Well as always....feel free to comment!
Well I finally managed to get my Biometric Reader last week and there was kind of a little problem with the payment...the accidentally charged my credit card for $ 562 when in fact i manged to strike a deal off them at $ 312...luckily they rectified that mishap...and i am having fun through the documentation of the M2-Hamster... it can easily integrate with any SQL compliant database, and uses a template server where all the matching is done before giving access to the Application/Database Server....i am eager to try all these out!!!
During the Programmig lecture on Friday, i showed the students an application of Graphs (as an Abstract Data Structure) in belief mapping... whereby they can identify core beliefs and supportive beliefs. I am sure they do not realise the use of this, and they will probably never put that tool into practice...but it helped me at times.
The topic of my programming lecture was Graphs..and i tried to bring as many uses f graphs as possible. Apart from Artificial Intelligence, route finders...another use of graphs is in those social networking services like facebook, where they count number of friends, suggested friends, mutual friends...... anyways...who said programming was not cool!!!
As all weekends...the last one was long, and enjoyable...two of my friends/colleagues got married and we went to have diner at their place. Then on Sunday, I watched a little cultural show for the Tamil new year on TV, the minister of Arts and Comedy.....nearly said that Varusha Pirappu (New year According to the Dravidian Calendar) is the celebration of the Chinese new year!!! What a joker!
Later on, some friends came round for a BBQ...thx Anwar for your BBQ lighting skills....
Admirez l'expert!!! I bet I would still be trying to light up the fire had you not been here...
Dr Scheme happened to get on very well with my dad, and it was enjoyable...except that li pas ti p arrete vide dans mo verre!!!....he knows what i am talking about.. i'd better not reveal!!!
Looks like someone is listening carefully to my dad...or is he getting ready to say something..... Sudha...get your flowers!!! Ene dialog Le Vers Cresson pou lever la! lol
I think the kids have a wonderful time...especially when i told them that football is allowed in my living room!!! (as usual mum had securely put her porcelain vases away!!...just wish she'd put them away forever!!!...lol)
Well i am back to basics.... well Visual Basics actually...got an old book back, SAMs Teaches you Database Programming Using Visual Basics in 24 hours.... y not!!! Best of Luck Sams!!
Just watched the news...Looks like bus fares anre going up again...by 28% next Monday...well i know the price of Petrol has gone up...but i think that the Free bus fare to students is weighing heavier that expected on National Expenditure! So the extra cost is passed directly to us! Could we expect otherwise.....arrete rever camarade!
I find it unprofessional that our MPs get questions before hand and simply have to read in the assembly....any one could do that...even an educated 10 year old...is that 'L'age Cerebral' of our PM??? lol...Looks like he needs some training on Nintendo DS using Brain Training by this famours Japanese Doc. (Dr Kawashima if i am not mistaken)!!!
While he was READING ALOUD.... someone else behind him was reading a magazine in silence.. Looks like the Responsable de Communication du PTR is in dire need of education! But how can that be..that person was the minister of education some time back!
Anyways!!
Well as always....feel free to comment!
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Riders
Hi all,
Poll results, 16 out of 18 voted that We become old when we let ourselves believe that we are!
Astounding but expected results! So to all of you who think they are old, you probably are not.
Anyways, this posting was meant to be for yesterday, i had typed something really nice...and then, just when i clicked on post....'La connection à haut debit a fait des siennes'... J'étais rouge rage..well do not forget that I am an Orange customer!!!
One thing no one is really talking about is that Emtel, which is the main competitor of CellPlus( ...sorry Orange) is rather quiet....lets hope there is not Rebranding there also...whereby, Emtel would go Orange too!!! lol!
Emtel, has the potential to be a decent player when it comes to ISP. With its 3.5 G network, which offers a decent speed (1.8 Mbps), it could be a serious competitor. May be it needs to review its marketing Strategy to decrease its cost. In Scandinavia for instance, a mobile operator has done something very interesting:
People are given free Internet connectivity provided they install a small (and rather low cost) emitter/relay on their rooftops. The Electricity supply is paid for by the customer, and the only investment by the operator is for the antenna and maintenance.
Consequently this allows the operator to setup a 'wide' network providing enhanced coverage of an area. Then people would just connect to the network and pay for the usage. The 3.5 G doongle offerred by Emtel is currently at around Rs 6 000, which imho is expensive. Should they reduce the hardware cost as well as the price for the different 3.5G packages, this service will quickly gain popularity.
Well on Monday, many of us got delayed going to work because of traffic jam on the motorway from Phoenix to Port-Louis. There were several excuses...sorry explanations for these:
1. Broken down bus
2. The third lane was not open
3. The guys and gals who came for the SADC comference were going back.
Whatever be the case there is one practice which i do not agree with: that's the wastage of resources.
I will explain how: When you are stuck in a traffic jam, you most probably stress out, you probably get late, and you do not operate at '100%' efficiency. Furthermore, when your are stuck in traffic, your engine is kept on, so you unnecessarily burn fuel. This is a waste of money.
On top of that we are increasing the emission of carbon compounds (Greenhouse gases), Sulphur compounds, and Tetra-Ethyl lead added in fuel causes damage to lungs.
I have just attended a little talk by folks from Orange Business Services, and they also provide Telepresence services...Should we organise teleconferences, we would save on fuel, thus reducing our 'corporate carbon foot-print' as rightly pointed out by the speaker.
Wouldn't that be cool- instead of wasting money and jet-fuel we could organise all these international conferences as tele-conferences. For the people who attended the conference on Poverty in Africa...we are acknowledging poverty on the one hand and wasting money on the other, lets use technology to save money!!!!! .
Talking about carbon footprints:
All those people who attanded the SADC conference used Mercedes and other 'grosses cylindrées' to move around- i think they use a lot more fuel than any other cars. Furthermore, something else they were assigned riders to provide them priority on the motorway. Well there are two explanations for this practice:
i. our leaders want to show that we have a good transport system - fast and efficient (though we all know the truth)
ii. they have wrongly planned their journey and need to do a 30 minutes journey in half the amount of time.
Well one other thing was the fact that the cars they were using had number plates on which the names of the country was written. I personally saw two of those. I do not remember what was written on the first one, but on the second one it was Mozambique. This is illegal i think, If the representatives had difficulty remembering the correct number plate they could have put flags belonging to the respective countries.
The Use of Riders (Motards!)
To many of our ministers, the use of riders ( paid from tax-payer's money) is common practice. They would stop traffic on motorways or round-abouts to allow the ministers through...unless they have chronic diarrhea whereby they urgently need to go to toilet- this is not admissible. Its should not be the case that because of someone who is irresponsible in planning a trip you get delayed going to work. Someone please quote the part in the Road Traffic Act whereby it is written that ministers have priority. I believe that we could make better use of these riders to regulate traffic, to escort ambulances, fireman's trucks... anyways...since this is a logical and practical suggestion, i am sure that it lies out of the range of the brilliant minds of our advisers paid at Rs 150 k.
The riders are paid using each and everyone's taxes! so lets make a fair use of them!
Poll results, 16 out of 18 voted that We become old when we let ourselves believe that we are!
Astounding but expected results! So to all of you who think they are old, you probably are not.
Anyways, this posting was meant to be for yesterday, i had typed something really nice...and then, just when i clicked on post....'La connection à haut debit a fait des siennes'... J'étais rouge rage..well do not forget that I am an Orange customer!!!
One thing no one is really talking about is that Emtel, which is the main competitor of CellPlus( ...sorry Orange) is rather quiet....lets hope there is not Rebranding there also...whereby, Emtel would go Orange too!!! lol!
Emtel, has the potential to be a decent player when it comes to ISP. With its 3.5 G network, which offers a decent speed (1.8 Mbps), it could be a serious competitor. May be it needs to review its marketing Strategy to decrease its cost. In Scandinavia for instance, a mobile operator has done something very interesting:
People are given free Internet connectivity provided they install a small (and rather low cost) emitter/relay on their rooftops. The Electricity supply is paid for by the customer, and the only investment by the operator is for the antenna and maintenance.
Consequently this allows the operator to setup a 'wide' network providing enhanced coverage of an area. Then people would just connect to the network and pay for the usage. The 3.5 G doongle offerred by Emtel is currently at around Rs 6 000, which imho is expensive. Should they reduce the hardware cost as well as the price for the different 3.5G packages, this service will quickly gain popularity.
Well on Monday, many of us got delayed going to work because of traffic jam on the motorway from Phoenix to Port-Louis. There were several excuses...sorry explanations for these:
1. Broken down bus
2. The third lane was not open
3. The guys and gals who came for the SADC comference were going back.
Whatever be the case there is one practice which i do not agree with: that's the wastage of resources.
I will explain how: When you are stuck in a traffic jam, you most probably stress out, you probably get late, and you do not operate at '100%' efficiency. Furthermore, when your are stuck in traffic, your engine is kept on, so you unnecessarily burn fuel. This is a waste of money.
On top of that we are increasing the emission of carbon compounds (Greenhouse gases), Sulphur compounds, and Tetra-Ethyl lead added in fuel causes damage to lungs.
I have just attended a little talk by folks from Orange Business Services, and they also provide Telepresence services...Should we organise teleconferences, we would save on fuel, thus reducing our 'corporate carbon foot-print' as rightly pointed out by the speaker.
Wouldn't that be cool- instead of wasting money and jet-fuel we could organise all these international conferences as tele-conferences. For the people who attended the conference on Poverty in Africa...we are acknowledging poverty on the one hand and wasting money on the other, lets use technology to save money!!!!! .
Talking about carbon footprints:
All those people who attanded the SADC conference used Mercedes and other 'grosses cylindrées' to move around- i think they use a lot more fuel than any other cars. Furthermore, something else they were assigned riders to provide them priority on the motorway. Well there are two explanations for this practice:
i. our leaders want to show that we have a good transport system - fast and efficient (though we all know the truth)
ii. they have wrongly planned their journey and need to do a 30 minutes journey in half the amount of time.
Well one other thing was the fact that the cars they were using had number plates on which the names of the country was written. I personally saw two of those. I do not remember what was written on the first one, but on the second one it was Mozambique. This is illegal i think, If the representatives had difficulty remembering the correct number plate they could have put flags belonging to the respective countries.
The Use of Riders (Motards!)
To many of our ministers, the use of riders ( paid from tax-payer's money) is common practice. They would stop traffic on motorways or round-abouts to allow the ministers through...unless they have chronic diarrhea whereby they urgently need to go to toilet- this is not admissible. Its should not be the case that because of someone who is irresponsible in planning a trip you get delayed going to work. Someone please quote the part in the Road Traffic Act whereby it is written that ministers have priority. I believe that we could make better use of these riders to regulate traffic, to escort ambulances, fireman's trucks... anyways...since this is a logical and practical suggestion, i am sure that it lies out of the range of the brilliant minds of our advisers paid at Rs 150 k.
The riders are paid using each and everyone's taxes! so lets make a fair use of them!
Friday, April 18, 2008
Orange, Apple and Ice-Cream
Hi all, I must confess that the poll results are very very surprising, I was not expecting such close outcomes!
Yesterday we had the opportunity of listening to CEO of France Telecom at UoM, very bright guy (a juger par ses accomplissements) and brilliant businessman (a en juger par ses stratégies).
Well I believe he is a brilliant businessman mainly because he has a clear vision regarding the future of his organisation, he is sharp in his responses, his 'strategies d'intégration'...
Orange actually donated Rs 2 000 000 to UoM, which is a good initiative. Lets hope they CEO comes in and regularly repeats this deed. Regarding a question about when the iPhone would be available (and fully usable) in Mauritius, Didier Lombard explained the strategy of Apple which was that of a geographical deployment.
In Europe for instance, iPhones are fully usable only in UK, Germany and France. This clearly demonstrates the Apple's Strategy of exploiting markets where there are big mobile phone users. In Mauritius, though we are rather heavy mobile users, the market size is comparatively small....But as Didier Lombard mentionned...'Il y a de l'espoir'.
Another colleague enquired about how Orange intended to cater for the fact that on average, people in Mauritius pay less for mobile services a compared Europeans. He outlined the fact that there was a tension between Orange's QoS and the amount of money people were willing to pay.
In other words...would Orange decrease QoS parameters to match the amount of money locals are willing to pay.
The answer of the CEO of France Telecom was very diplomatic.
Today, i had a wicked time at Uni, though i know my students had a tough time understanding Tree operations like delete and insert....when they code it, i am sure that they will sort these out, and they will call the destructor for the class doubt:
~doubt();
Well someone made me ask myself a fundamental question today....
Quand devient-on vieux?
Well the obvious reflex action...was to see what did the word young mean, contrast it with the word old and then come up with an answer:
Wikipedia defines 'young' as: Young refers to the quality or state of youth.
It then defines 'old' as : Old may refer to Old age .
Unfortunately it related old as a state or a thing which may refer to age...
For once i tend to disagree.... being young or old has nothing to do with age! It is a subjective thing...rather a perception, or even a state of mind.
Can we be young at sixty and old at thirty? I am sure that many would simply laugh...others would just smile!!!
To me, a person starts growing old when he stops being young... :-)... funny you might say... Let me explain it differently:
Starting from the assumption that its relative state and that it is a state of mind... I would say that a person gets old when he sees 'the others' as being young.
Note that a simple change in mindset would make all the difference... What if i change the sentence to... when he sees 'the others' as being youngER. This would imply that the person sees himself as young too......
IMHO it is all about perception!
Anyways... a good friend of mine organised a little ice-cream party today to celebrate his promotion. The Ice-Cream was wicked and we all enjoyed it. He was very nice and he impressed us by the speed at which he would prepare them.
Enjoy the sight, and imagine how nice it tasted!!!!:
The discussion started rearding wedding love and....and then it gradually got into Theology and Hinduism, and we unanimously appreciated the discussion.
Well being quite passionnate about some 'little stories' about Gods, Saints, the 'Why's of rituals', and .... 'J'en ai eu pour mon compte!'
It ressembled a crash course in basic Hinduism! As i am used to saying...It was Wickedly COOL....What made it more interesting was the fact that constant reference was being made to the contemporary lifestyle, and what are the universal lessons which can be learnt from Holy Scriptures (Vedas, Bible, Quran, Gita, ....) irrespective of their origins!
As i have said before:
Religion is just a set of names.
Lets just have faith (irrespective of the name of the Entity in which we have faith)
Despite being an engineer, that person made it very clear of the lessons which we should learn.
Interesting parallels were being drawn between Science, Religion and our life.
I would like to voice out my apreciation and admiration to that person!!!
I know for fact that all those present share equal admiration reagrding the clarifications which that person brought ...though the appreciation of some might be more equal that others, G.Orwell in Animal Farm!!!)
I will let you guess who that person is!
Comments Welcome!!! (as always!)
OOH Lord........ It is now 23 00 and Google Mail is down!!!! How will I survive!!!
Yesterday we had the opportunity of listening to CEO of France Telecom at UoM, very bright guy (a juger par ses accomplissements) and brilliant businessman (a en juger par ses stratégies).
Well I believe he is a brilliant businessman mainly because he has a clear vision regarding the future of his organisation, he is sharp in his responses, his 'strategies d'intégration'...
Orange actually donated Rs 2 000 000 to UoM, which is a good initiative. Lets hope they CEO comes in and regularly repeats this deed. Regarding a question about when the iPhone would be available (and fully usable) in Mauritius, Didier Lombard explained the strategy of Apple which was that of a geographical deployment.
In Europe for instance, iPhones are fully usable only in UK, Germany and France. This clearly demonstrates the Apple's Strategy of exploiting markets where there are big mobile phone users. In Mauritius, though we are rather heavy mobile users, the market size is comparatively small....But as Didier Lombard mentionned...'Il y a de l'espoir'.
Another colleague enquired about how Orange intended to cater for the fact that on average, people in Mauritius pay less for mobile services a compared Europeans. He outlined the fact that there was a tension between Orange's QoS and the amount of money people were willing to pay.
In other words...would Orange decrease QoS parameters to match the amount of money locals are willing to pay.
The answer of the CEO of France Telecom was very diplomatic.
Today, i had a wicked time at Uni, though i know my students had a tough time understanding Tree operations like delete and insert....when they code it, i am sure that they will sort these out, and they will call the destructor for the class doubt:
~doubt();
Well someone made me ask myself a fundamental question today....
Quand devient-on vieux?
Well the obvious reflex action...was to see what did the word young mean, contrast it with the word old and then come up with an answer:
Wikipedia defines 'young' as: Young refers to the quality or state of youth.
It then defines 'old' as : Old may refer to Old age .
Unfortunately it related old as a state or a thing which may refer to age...
For once i tend to disagree.... being young or old has nothing to do with age! It is a subjective thing...rather a perception, or even a state of mind.
Can we be young at sixty and old at thirty? I am sure that many would simply laugh...others would just smile!!!
To me, a person starts growing old when he stops being young... :-)... funny you might say... Let me explain it differently:
Starting from the assumption that its relative state and that it is a state of mind... I would say that a person gets old when he sees 'the others' as being young.
Note that a simple change in mindset would make all the difference... What if i change the sentence to... when he sees 'the others' as being youngER. This would imply that the person sees himself as young too......
IMHO it is all about perception!
Anyways... a good friend of mine organised a little ice-cream party today to celebrate his promotion. The Ice-Cream was wicked and we all enjoyed it. He was very nice and he impressed us by the speed at which he would prepare them.
Enjoy the sight, and imagine how nice it tasted!!!!:
The flavours included Kulfi, Citron, Amande and Chocolate ...along with caramel syrup and other nice little things which enhanced the look as well as the taste.........
Well i would like to say a big thanks to him.
Just after the party, some people stayed back for an informal chat and I must admit that it was worthwhile. A very wise person has shared his knowledge or should I say wisdom with us....The discussion started rearding wedding love and....and then it gradually got into Theology and Hinduism, and we unanimously appreciated the discussion.
Well being quite passionnate about some 'little stories' about Gods, Saints, the 'Why's of rituals', and .... 'J'en ai eu pour mon compte!'
It ressembled a crash course in basic Hinduism! As i am used to saying...It was Wickedly COOL....What made it more interesting was the fact that constant reference was being made to the contemporary lifestyle, and what are the universal lessons which can be learnt from Holy Scriptures (Vedas, Bible, Quran, Gita, ....) irrespective of their origins!
As i have said before:
Religion is just a set of names.
Lets just have faith (irrespective of the name of the Entity in which we have faith)
Despite being an engineer, that person made it very clear of the lessons which we should learn.
Interesting parallels were being drawn between Science, Religion and our life.
I would like to voice out my apreciation and admiration to that person!!!
I know for fact that all those present share equal admiration reagrding the clarifications which that person brought ...though the appreciation of some might be more equal that others, G.Orwell in Animal Farm!!!)
I will let you guess who that person is!
Comments Welcome!!! (as always!)
OOH Lord........ It is now 23 00 and Google Mail is down!!!! How will I survive!!!
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Passion or Obsession?
Well many might wonder why the choice of this title!
I was wondering a couple of days ago, whether it is normal that a guy spends hours solving a programming problem...or looking for and fixing a bug.
Then I asked myself...Could the passion I have for programming turn to obsession (or has it already?)...well i cannot answer.
Discussing that with some friends today...i got a variety of answers! Some said..the obsession is the passion, others said that that's the fun of it...and others said keep going...it cannot kill you!
As some readers are aware, i am always inclined to optimising codes in C++ implementations. How far will this take me?
Well actually yesterday's posting was simply something i wrote one day while I was still at Accenture...i.e about one year ago..and i found it lying in one of my folders.
Anyways, the reason for no proper posting in the last few days was that i was stuck with a programming bug and i finally managed to solve it with the help of a student (Thx Kervin!!!).
It was about adding a node to a binary tree.
void BTree(TNode * T, TNode *K)//where K is the node to be added
{
if (T-> getKey()< K- > getKey())//We will add to the right subtree of T
{
if (T-> getLeft()!=NULL)
{
insertTree(T- > getLeft(), K);
}
else
{
T- > setLeft(K);
}
}
else//We will add to the right subtree of T
{
if (T- > getRight()!=NULL)
{
insertTree(T- > getRight(), K);
}
else
{
T- > setRight(K);
}
}
}//function
There was another implementation which i studied when i was a student, but this one seems easier...even though the other one achieves exactly the same operation.
The fact that i was stuck for hours with the fact that i had an extra recursive call
in a function similar to the one i obtained from wikipedia (Passionate reader, please read!):
void InsertNode(struct node *&treeNode, struct node *newNode)
{
if (treeNode == NULL)
treeNode = newNode;
else
if (newNode - > value < treeNode- > value)
InsertNode(treeNode- > left, newNode);
else
InsertNode(treeNode- > right, newNode);
}
It seems to me that he is passing a pointer by reference (how subtle is that?, and since it is a structure, no member function...i thought of that too...how cool..., so, InsertNode need not be a member function of the class BTree..HIHIHIH!!! )....
I tried it, but i did not manage to get it working. Well i agree that he made use of a structure...but that not the issue...i will have to try it again tomorrow!
Well...right now..i am asking myself a question:
Can we be obsessed about our passion, or passionate about an obsession!
Comments welcome!
I was wondering a couple of days ago, whether it is normal that a guy spends hours solving a programming problem...or looking for and fixing a bug.
Then I asked myself...Could the passion I have for programming turn to obsession (or has it already?)...well i cannot answer.
Discussing that with some friends today...i got a variety of answers! Some said..the obsession is the passion, others said that that's the fun of it...and others said keep going...it cannot kill you!
As some readers are aware, i am always inclined to optimising codes in C++ implementations. How far will this take me?
Well actually yesterday's posting was simply something i wrote one day while I was still at Accenture...i.e about one year ago..and i found it lying in one of my folders.
Anyways, the reason for no proper posting in the last few days was that i was stuck with a programming bug and i finally managed to solve it with the help of a student (Thx Kervin!!!).
It was about adding a node to a binary tree.
void BTree(TNode * T, TNode *K)//where K is the node to be added
{
if (T-> getKey()< K- > getKey())//We will add to the right subtree of T
{
if (T-> getLeft()!=NULL)
{
insertTree(T- > getLeft(), K);
}
else
{
T- > setLeft(K);
}
}
else//We will add to the right subtree of T
{
if (T- > getRight()!=NULL)
{
insertTree(T- > getRight(), K);
}
else
{
T- > setRight(K);
}
}
}//function
There was another implementation which i studied when i was a student, but this one seems easier...even though the other one achieves exactly the same operation.
The fact that i was stuck for hours with the fact that i had an extra recursive call
in a function similar to the one i obtained from wikipedia (Passionate reader, please read!):
void InsertNode(struct node *&treeNode, struct node *newNode)
{
if (treeNode == NULL)
treeNode = newNode;
else
if (newNode - > value < treeNode- > value)
InsertNode(treeNode- > left, newNode);
else
InsertNode(treeNode- > right, newNode);
}
It seems to me that he is passing a pointer by reference (how subtle is that?, and since it is a structure, no member function...i thought of that too...how cool..., so, InsertNode need not be a member function of the class BTree..HIHIHIH!!! )....
I tried it, but i did not manage to get it working. Well i agree that he made use of a structure...but that not the issue...i will have to try it again tomorrow!
Well...right now..i am asking myself a question:
Can we be obsessed about our passion, or passionate about an obsession!
Comments welcome!
Monday, April 14, 2008
The stare.
There she sat on this old dusty bench. In five years, she had taken the toll of ten. Sitting on this dusty bench she was indifferent to the persons running around on this busy Monday morning. Lonely in this mad crowd, now and then she would lift her head to reveal those eyes ravaged by this blank stare. It surprised me how eyes, without any expression, could express so much by expressing nothing. .
Her radiance had faded and next to her was a man holding a white plastic bag which was transparent and I could see a little box of powdered milk.
She seemed to be asking herself how she got where she was. In her early twenties, she was writing or had already written the last chapter of her life and sound asleep in her arms was a baby, ignorant of the turmoil haunting her mother. If I could ask the baby a question, it would be: ‘How is someone who is lost, help you find your way through life?’
Her radiance had faded and next to her was a man holding a white plastic bag which was transparent and I could see a little box of powdered milk.
She seemed to be asking herself how she got where she was. In her early twenties, she was writing or had already written the last chapter of her life and sound asleep in her arms was a baby, ignorant of the turmoil haunting her mother. If I could ask the baby a question, it would be: ‘How is someone who is lost, help you find your way through life?’
Thursday, April 10, 2008
UoM students help the victims of the torrential rains
Hi All,
Hope you had a wicked day dear readers!
Some of you might wonder about the poll, well why the subject?
I was reading the papers on Sunday and there was an interview of SOMEONE on L'Express Samedi of the 5th April, that SOMEONE said: 'Je ne me laisserai pas dicter par la rue'.
Hope you had a wicked day dear readers!
Some of you might wonder about the poll, well why the subject?
I was reading the papers on Sunday and there was an interview of SOMEONE on L'Express Samedi of the 5th April, that SOMEONE said: 'Je ne me laisserai pas dicter par la rue'.
I have a question: 'Serait-ce que la voix de la rue n'est pas importante car il n'y a que leurs voies qui comptent?'
Well the question on my poll was: 'Do you believe that La voix de la rue est la voix du peuple? '
Well the question on my poll was: 'Do you believe that La voix de la rue est la voix du peuple? '
If you equated 'Voix de la rue = voix du peuple' (as i did), an coupled with a quote from Alcuin (Charlemagne's lead advisor on eclessiatical and educational affairs): , i.e. Vox Populi Vox Dei
By Transitivity, the 'Voix de la rue would have been the voice of God '....I'll not get that far not to be accused of blasphemy!
However:
Nec audiendi qui solent dicere, Vox populi, vox Dei, quum tumultuositas vulgi semper insaniae proxima sit
Which when transliterated to English gives:
those people should not be listened to who keep saying the voice of the people is the voice of God, since the riotousness of the crowd is always very close to madness
Which can be true because the behaviour of someone in a group is different from that same person in isolation!
Well, in our country, people are by nature quiet except when a major thing happens, i.e. mainly when lives are wasted/lost ? Then you have something which ressembles a micro-riot, whereby people express themselves in what i believe is 'La voix de la rue'.
We have to differentiate between 'LA voix de la rue' and 'UNE voix dans la rue'.
Is it that what 'the people' think does not matter?
Vox Populi, Vox Dei = The voice of the people is the voice of God.
I think Vox Populi sounds fainter than the Vox Consuasor (voice of the advisor) to someone's ears. Based on the poll results, it seems that: 'Le voix de la rues n'est pas celle du peuple'.
Well I have a question for you....'Qui sont-ceux qui s'expriments dans la rue alors?' Awaiting your comments!
We are lucky to be in a democratic country, i.e. we can express ourselves freely and openly...but what use is that if we are never listened to?
Everyone has witnessed the demonstrations to boycott the route of the Olympic Torch in Paris because of the 'embargo one free speech' in China. In the Chinese news, the fact that there was a demonstration against China's policy was not mentionned in any news report in China???
As the coverage for the path of the Olympic Torch, we had a picture of the torch next to a picture of the Eiffel Tower.
Call that censoring!
OK! Lets stop it there! Just in case my blog is censored! lol!!!!
7 packets gaufrettes, 4 packets biscuits cabin and 2 gros sachets du thé! This was our little contribution for the victims of last weeks torrential rains. (All these were bought from Jame's and the Cooperative, which are two shops which are not far from uni)
I would like to first thank my friends (Spiderman, Bahamas 1908, Avi, Christina and me) for contributing and congratulate the students of UoM (inlcuding Zoro Jackpot, Tigroo and Coldplay) who put up this initiative!
By Transitivity, the 'Voix de la rue would have been the voice of God '....I'll not get that far not to be accused of blasphemy!
However:
Nec audiendi qui solent dicere, Vox populi, vox Dei, quum tumultuositas vulgi semper insaniae proxima sit
Which when transliterated to English gives:
those people should not be listened to who keep saying the voice of the people is the voice of God, since the riotousness of the crowd is always very close to madness
Which can be true because the behaviour of someone in a group is different from that same person in isolation!
Well, in our country, people are by nature quiet except when a major thing happens, i.e. mainly when lives are wasted/lost ? Then you have something which ressembles a micro-riot, whereby people express themselves in what i believe is 'La voix de la rue'.
We have to differentiate between 'LA voix de la rue' and 'UNE voix dans la rue'.
Is it that what 'the people' think does not matter?
Vox Populi, Vox Dei = The voice of the people is the voice of God.
I think Vox Populi sounds fainter than the Vox Consuasor (voice of the advisor) to someone's ears. Based on the poll results, it seems that: 'Le voix de la rues n'est pas celle du peuple'.
Well I have a question for you....'Qui sont-ceux qui s'expriments dans la rue alors?' Awaiting your comments!
We are lucky to be in a democratic country, i.e. we can express ourselves freely and openly...but what use is that if we are never listened to?
Everyone has witnessed the demonstrations to boycott the route of the Olympic Torch in Paris because of the 'embargo one free speech' in China. In the Chinese news, the fact that there was a demonstration against China's policy was not mentionned in any news report in China???
As the coverage for the path of the Olympic Torch, we had a picture of the torch next to a picture of the Eiffel Tower.
Call that censoring!
OK! Lets stop it there! Just in case my blog is censored! lol!!!!
7 packets gaufrettes, 4 packets biscuits cabin and 2 gros sachets du thé! This was our little contribution for the victims of last weeks torrential rains. (All these were bought from Jame's and the Cooperative, which are two shops which are not far from uni)
I would like to first thank my friends (Spiderman, Bahamas 1908, Avi, Christina and me) for contributing and congratulate the students of UoM (inlcuding Zoro Jackpot, Tigroo and Coldplay) who put up this initiative!
The black part is the head of one of my friends who preferred remaining anonymous because she claims not to look good enough on the pic!
I finished correcting another batch of Programming papers! Pheew!
Only three more batches left! Finally i got someone who scored 100% in the test!!! So ...there is hope!
I would like to invite all readers who have a different opinion (on any posting) to comment and then we will discuss... Previous readers who have commented are aware that all comments are published within 12 hours! So no censoring happens here! So feel free to voice out!!!
Only three more batches left! Finally i got someone who scored 100% in the test!!! So ...there is hope!
I would like to invite all readers who have a different opinion (on any posting) to comment and then we will discuss... Previous readers who have commented are aware that all comments are published within 12 hours! So no censoring happens here! So feel free to voice out!!!
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Long Tiring Week-end!
Hi All,
Well, its been a while since i last posted something, the reason being that i was terribly busy!
I managed to finish my exam papers today and handed them for moderation.... I am still left with loads of scripts to correct.
Well, its been a while since i last posted something, the reason being that i was terribly busy!
I managed to finish my exam papers today and handed them for moderation.... I am still left with loads of scripts to correct.
Well on Friday, i invigilated for Avinash's Test...It was soo cool! The paper was probably one of the best i saw...a proper paper for Uni students. The questions are a bit like those in Programming with Pearls....It takes a very good understanding of the logic to implement the solution smartly. Anyways!!!!
On Saturday, i was quite busy! And i had a party to go to at night!!! Had a wicked time...as i always do at parties!
However, the best day was Sunday...my SBM mates organised an outing to Plaine-Champagnes, and Le-Mornes, and it gave me the opportunity to meet those old folks (they are young however!) The whole Ops Team from Level 4 was there as well as SBM support, and my dear 'Kaspikan'! Elle se reconnaitra!
When we arrived at Plaine- Champagne, we all rushed to the trees bu twe had to venture quite far in the forest to get the 'Goyaves de Chine', one of the girls got stung by a wasp!!! Poor Wasp!
I managed to get a couple of goyaves and that was enough to satisfy me!
We all got in the bus and headed to Le Morne! The 'ambiance' the bus was very cool!
Though it was hot inside the bus we were well-equipped with 'Cans of the Mythic bird' and
The view was wicked! Have a look at the pictures below: My Nikon 4600 is amazing:
We were singing and teasing (no need to tell who was leading!!!) Then when we got there! As usual. i watched Montagne Le Morne and thought about the slaves, i even sang Sega Le Morne in the bus (its my favourite).
Then we had lunch, drank coconut water and headed home!!! I was tired!
On Sunday, the Programme La mer organised by the some Uni Colleagues was cool! Except that (a usual) only (some of) the youngest members (Avi n co., Bahamas 1908, Pascal, Spiderman and Raj.....i am preserving their anonymity...lol!!!) were there, may be we should add a clause in the invitation (Avi, you know which one i am talking about..)
I bought a brand new Volleyball and while playing on the beach, i accidentally hit an old lady on the head (i hope this would put her ideas in place!) the ball ended up in tents, near people... I think people are safer when we are in our offices behind our laptops and PCs.
I bought a brand new Volleyball and while playing on the beach, i accidentally hit an old lady on the head (i hope this would put her ideas in place!) the ball ended up in tents, near people... I think people are safer when we are in our offices behind our laptops and PCs.
The we played UNO and dominos and knocked out some 'Cold cans of the mythic bird' 'La Chaleur Oblige'. The consequence was that we had to go to the toilet...well i was shocked!
I wonder what idiot wrote this down....he has made a 'faute d'orthographe': Les contravenant seront traduit en justice.
If he did French till CPE and passed, he would have realised that he should have written: Les contravenant seront traduits en justice. Lets just call that erreur de frappe: this term is trendy these days!
Anyways, the dialog of the day!
'Anou all boire ene la biere cotte Ya-Oune'...Slip of the tongue, isn't it Avi, ki zaffer ine cause sa hein???
We then went to Raj's place for a 'visite de courtoisie', had a long and interesting chat with Spiderman n co! lol...
Avinash and I decided that we should give the Nobel Prize (thx mandela!) to the guy who invented/discovered the 'Mythic Bird'.....he should be given the G.O.S.K title, i think he deserves it more than many other ppl who already have this 'badge'.
Then went home, and when i woke up this morning, check the view!
Then got ready and off i went to work!
I gave the students a lovely assignment today!!! Simulation of Harbour Traffic using queues! I hope they enjoy it! Let's make them use their brains a bit more.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
