Aston Martin in Mauritius

Just got the news from L'express this morning , HM Rawat and Leal have made up a company that will sell luxury vehicules in Mauritius.

Some models that will be provided include the Aston Martin , Porsche and Ferrari. Its absolutely thrilling to see these beasts on our roads.



However the article mentions that the vehicles need to be ordered a year in advance . In the case of the legendery bond car do expect the price to soar up to 7 million rupees and guess what our Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam just bought himself one ..lucky dude!

Enter the N95

Just as am having a look at the N93 Nokia is already announcing the N95 (.. dont know the actual release date though).



With a 5M Pixel camera , the N95 has already got its community of fanatics worldwide. This is one smartphone am definitively gonna follow the coming months .

Check out the details of the phone allaboutsymbian and Nokia website .

Power your enterprise from a container

Initially found out about the Black Box project from Eddy Young , on his blog entry.

The idea as Sun suggests is simple and innovative and the recipe is as follows take your average everyday shipping container , wash it up , do some electrical wiring , install some racks , place your servers , routers and switches weave everything up in a network and there you have the utilmate power house the BLACK BOX.



And to tell you the truth its a rocking good idea . Now Sun has less hassel when it has to ship servers world-wide. However I do wonder how practical it is if your company is on the nth floor of some building , would the Black Box go through the elevator ...or the stairs :p .



Some interesting popential uses of the Black Box have already emerged on the net .

N93 Arrived in Dodo land

Nokia N93 has arrived in our stores or more precisely at Cash and Carry where its being sold off at Rs 25,900 something + VAT which is quiet a lot of money.

I mailed the guys at HM Rawat but didnt get any response back , preciously they told me that the N93 would arrive in mid -August this year.

Am still wondering whether I should get it coz of the prize. I was at Cash and Carry on Saturday to buy a Dual Core PC with 1GB RAM , cost around Rs 34,000 + VAT and the quality of the product I received in return was really not what I was expecting. The casing which looked great on the shelves , suddenly revealed that it was not something really strong and my keyboard is already broken the keys get stuck inside.

Mind you the thing does not come with Windows XP , so you actually need to install Windows yourself or alternately have Cash and Carry install it for you for a mere Rs 2000 something :S .

But the Dual Core Processor at 3.+ GHz is quiet nice to work with thus am not complaning too much coz thats the main thing else I would be depressing too much.

However I took the opportunity to ask to see the N93 , there was one guy there that said something about having it in the back store and whether I would take it immediately. That sounded stupid to me given the price I would expect to have a proper look at the object. I told him so and he said well maybe they were out of stock (as they sold one this morning...) but he readily hushered me to a pc and typed the url to the N-Series N93 specs page where he was dumb struck himself by the spec details of the N93. That was really annoying , me who had thought that I could have a look at last at the phone arrrrrg.

Summer is here

Had to blog about this
its damn hot at nite ,
falling asleep becomes an eternal fight,

mosquitoes have started flying high ,
creating chaos to most newspapers' delight,

children play here and there ,
and the beaches are full everywhere,

time and again i look at the dates,
but all that my calendar states,
is that summer is here to stay.

That was a dumb poetic tentative wasn't it loool ;)?

Mondial auto 2006 and prototypes

Every car fanatic would know it if you happen to be in Paris until the 15th of October make sure to put Paris Expo , Porte de Versailles , on your travel map coz thats where you will find all the new models coming out from the different makes this year.

If however you are like me far away from "La Replublique" well there is only one alternative satellite .. M6 around 6:30pm on Sundays will give you insight on the different models being exposed and all the new trends in the motorvehicle industry.

The Mondial is also the opportunity to view some of the coolest prototypes on the market like the cool and feline Peugeot 908 which comes in 2 versions one is the sedan which is a real beast and technology-wise it rocks with PDA-controlled door locking and bluetooth enabled environment with touch screeens displays on board to control your habitat.The other version of the P 908 is going to be used for the "24hr du Mans" and is a race car.










Citroen's C-Metisse as its name implies offers a hybrid propulsion system that combines conventional petrol and electric motors to run this baby.



The Audi 2008 is also one of my favorites with its fast and furious style design and it does look like Will Smith's Audi in I-Robot.


There's a link to the new cars on displays http://www.caranddriver.com/autoshows/8672/2006-paris-motor-show.html.. thanks ashna :)

Hotmail and Yahoo have a facelift

The mail providers Yahoo and Hotmail have yet again upgraded their service to keep their heads out of the water in the battle of who will dominate the email arena.

Yahoo Mail Beta offers a very interesting and user-friendly interface that makes reading your inbox quiet an enjoyable experience.






The downside is the connection speed and the tons of gimmicks and adverts that fill up your screen at times but on the overall I like it a lot.

Hotmail on the other hand , re-branded Windows Live Mail , offers a new interface too , although I would tend to prefer the Yahoo one. It is however customizable but right now you can get Live Mail only if you have registered for beta version testing...which i did ;).



Unfortunately Microsoft's baby also suffers from being sluggish , you get this annoying "Request being processsed" messaged being displayed whenever you click on a link and that just spoils the fun.

Both Live Mail and Yahoo Mail now make use of AJAX-like gimmicks , normally I would have thought that this should have decreased loading time of pages but its suprising to find that both mail providers warn their customers that if you want to use the AJAX version of their interface , it is recommended that you have a broadband connection!!

Category: Mauritius,Hotmail,Yahoo,Mail

Saturday at Casela

2006-09-23 - Casela 029
Originally uploaded by ledodo.

Started with my friends who decided to make a list of places that we could possibly visit during the weekends since we were missing Birmingham's Bull ring so much.

We thought hey why not visit the Casela as most of us hadn't set foot there since junior school... I know that was a weird thought.. I haven't set foot in the Champs de Mars children playground too since junior school ..maybe thats where we are heading next week :P..

After a long journey through port-louis , petite-riviere and bambous .. the traffic jam ..the endless pointless humps on the roads..the shady oasis of Casela greeted us.

Didn't have much hope that it would be a really exciting day but when we saw the duckies funnily moving their little tails , we thought hey its not going to be too bad after all.

Had a really nice saturday there , the cost of the ticket is a little bit expensive at Rs200/something but hey they do have a lot of beaks to feed.

It was really hot though, the 2 tigers were hiding in the shades. There are a number of birds such as the peacock who roam freely inside the zoo , at one point we saw like 4 peacocks staring at a seagull's cage as if mockingly saying hey buddy look at us we managed to escape ..heheh...or more preciseky.. quiiiiik quiiiik quiiiiiiiik (I Know i can talk peacock now )

There a host of other animals such as wallaby , kangaroo , thousands of different bird species , gold fishes , endemic plants ,etc...

As activities there is tilapias fishing (...which you need to release them afterwards...thats dumb) , quad-biking (requires reservation and does cost quiet a lot of money) , a safari and mini-golf courses..

There was also a giant draughts set , which you can play its located just behind the restaurant.

I wanted to bring one little orange duckie with me but the thought of waking up every morning to feed it made me give up any ideas for little duckie's prison break.

Dont expect to see any noise making , ferocious wild beasts at casela but strangely its a really relaxing place to be in and you really wanna come back ..believe me.

Category: Mauritius,Zoo,Casela,Animal

The mobile fish

Ever felt sad looking at your favorite fishy in its bowl swirling around in its restricated space... well you wont be sad anymore after you see Mobile Fish.



Equipped with a camera at the top of the bowl which monitors your fish's movements , the camera directs wheels on which the bowl is set to turn in the corresponding direction.

However it was noted on engadget that the fish kept turning round ...so did the bowl... must have been a tipsy fishy.

One pre-requisite though if you see your fish going towards the motorway please make sure that its got its driving license and fastened its seat belt.

Category: Mauritius,Fish,,Gadget,,Robotics

My Luck

At times I feel like the luckiest dude on the planet , everyday when I wake up , I check my mail I win a lottery in some far end corner of the globe like the states or the UK. People harass me so as I come collect my prize but am really so lazy..even to collect money.

At times some people send me mails about Top Secret plots in Africa and they send me all kinds of links which I must visit. I also gets loads of business ventures in this continent , I guess given the time I am receiving their kind invitation I must be knowing more people in Mozambique and Zaire than in my own country.

Last month I had a tragedy some really far relative which I never met or heard of before sent me a mail on his dying bed (... yes he had wifi in his house), in his mail he gave away all his wealth to me . Its all mentioned in the Will he scanned as attachement (..yes he had a scanner next to his dying bed).

Only mails i really cann't support are these mails about pharmaceutical products .. i say its really none of their business! :P

Category: Mauritius,

Fondue - Geneva

Fondue - Geneva
Originally uploaded by carine_chan.

Carine's flickr page here she is eating fondue alone as usual without inviting me !!!..mechant..eee!

Do you have a cold or a flu ?

Here in the southern hemisphere we are slowly preparing to greet Summer , at last the days of sneezing and coughing are going to end whilst our friends in the Nothern hemisphere will gradually have there dose of sunshine diminishing to a cold and pityless weather.

Its then the time to catch a cold or a flu. Did you know that there is actually a difference between the two and that both can be treated with off-the shelf pharmacy products instead of going to a doctor who would inevitably rip you of some bucks? However if you get an influenza and require anti-biotics you do need the prescription from a doctor , depending on local health policies in your country.

I came across a pdf explaining this whilst suffering from a acute influenza in the UK last month. It explains clearly what you should do and some very interesting facts about treating yourself when you suffer from these illnesses.

And of course don't forget to keep some tissues with you they are always really very handy ;) .

Resource

Battle Against Cold and Flu

Category: Mauritius,UK,Flu,,Influenza,,Cold

Venom

Check out the new Spiderman 3 trailer and weblog here .

However the movie is to come out next year more precisely on the 05/04/07 . I really wanna see venom in action , this promises to be really wild.

Category: Mauritius,Venom,Spiderman

N93 officially on sale

My future phone is now in stores in the UK and US , the N93 is the latest baby from Nokia N-series phones.

I can't seem to get the price of the phone though normally in Mauritius it could easily be above the Rs25,000 range .

I did found one being sold on eBay at £7.72 which seems to be really absurb.

Vodafone UK mentions that the phone's price has not yet been fixed , so still have to wait a bit. As I will be in UK "theoritically" next week I might be having a peek at it at their shop.

Category: Mauritius,Nokia,N93

Choosing the right Mauritian ISP and Internet Package

Lately I have been noticing that many people have suddenly switched to ADSL or WIMAX (Nomad) , frankly I was taken aback ...since I don't even have a connection at home(..modem burnt out) :P.

Mauritians no longer hesitate to take a Rs500+ something package to enjoy the bliss of surfing the web...which is a good thing ..at last we can say babye to our dear old dial-up modem.

So here is a list of things that you should consider (Please correct me if am wrong) , when you do take your Internet Package:

---------Nomad :

Frankly I got to install a Nomad Kit at my cousin's house she was completely loss as to how to configure the thing. So she called me I came over realized that there was only a USB connection , then was equally puzzled as her until I figured out that a LAN connection had already been created and that she could as it is surf the web.

So the plus side I would say is that installation is simple and that it is easy to get a Nomad package at any Nomad stand, no need of any big paperwork.

Also you can take the kit with you and install it on your friend's pc , so thats cool.

The bad thing is the connection speed which is I must say awfully slow. I just hate having to wait for my pages to appear let alone download something. So thats a minus .. along with the fact that coverage is not guaranteed everywhere.

Also note that the Nomad box needs an AC current so if your power socket is near to your window then your really a lucky bunny.

Packages offered:

64kbps - Rs 550

128kbps - Rs 890 --my choice of a better option

512kbps - Rs 1900

------Wanadoo ADSL:

Obviously if you are taking an ADSL connection from Telecom Plus this would mean that you connection would be faster than Nomad. However the big disadvantage is the paper work and you have to wait for the telecom guys to come over and install the gimmicks for you which can take a while ..heard it took like 2 whole weeks.

Personally I dont have much patience, when I buy something i intend to have a quick and good service.

Unlike Nomad your ADSL kit is dedicated only to your phone line , so you can't really take it with you..argggh.

Packages offered:

Home 128 - Rs 950 /month

Home 128 - Home 512 - Rs 1,540 /month

ADSL 1 M - Rs 6,410 /month

Note: These prices are going to go down by Rs 100 in a few days

-------My.T :

My.T is the latest offering from Mauritius Telecom basically its the Wanadoo ADSL plus certain additional features:

My.T Watch - allows you to watch films and TV streamed over the internet

My.T Surf - surf the web thats is Wanadoo ADSL

My.T Call - allows you to make cheaper phone calls at discounted rates

So basically from what I understood you will be provided a LiveBox which is a small rectangular box with wires going into a TV Decoder for you to view new channels on your TV .

The LiveBox also acts as a WIFI server making your house WIFI-enabled.In human language this means that you can connect to the internet without the need of wires .. you just require to add a WIFI card (which the telecom will add for you) to your pc.

So installation is not that straight forward as the Nomad.

Here with the Rs950 + VAT package you get a clear 256Kbps connection which is really fast , so surfing is like a breeze along with the fact that you enjoy a 2MBps connection locally within the country...awesome.

However there is a big "BUT" there is a limit to this freedom and that is 1Gb if you download the equivalent of a ..lets say DVD on you pc well you would need to pay on top of the monthly fee Rs0.50 per megabyte which really is so annoying ...arrrg .. just when you thought that you could download all those freebie movies and software on the net.

So do take care of the amount of stuffs you download with this package.

There is also the TV remote which allows you to pay for a movie and view it. Now there are some channels which are available for free like TNT and some films which you do have to buy .

But believe me the film listing is ..really aweful and aweful is a small word ..the movies available are just plain bad. People choosing that should consider newer flicks , movies just out on DVD or something ..comeon who is going to watch The Army of 12 Monkeys , i already saw that a couple of dozen times....There's even bobby there ..aaaah awful.

So I personnally wouldn't go for My.T for just the tv stuff , go get Canal Sat instead!

----> So my Choice would be for the My.T package although the 1G limit is annoying still its 256Kbps for an affordable price and who knows maybe in a couple of years they will upgrade the level of the programs too!!

Resources:

ADSL Availability Check
My.T Homepage
Wanadoo ADSL
My.T Film listing


Category: Mauritius,Telecom,Surf,Broadband,Price

How to fry an egg without fire

Its lunch time your hungry nothing in the office kitchen except an egg , your stomach starts growling, you ask yourself why you didn't take your wife's smelly tuna sandwitch and you become deaf by the noise your tummy makes... well not anymore!!!

One guy found the solution to your problem , fry the egg with your laptop!!!

Laptop nowadays although being 'almost' as powerful as regular desktops do have something really annoying , they emitt a lot of heat and this can be really uncomfortable if you have to actually place it on your lap while watching tv or in the plane for example.



The guy pictured above demonstrated that by literally frying an egg by placing it at the back of the pictured Macbook. Don't know if it tastes as good as being fried on a pan but hey thats better than becoming deaf from your stomach noise :P .

Category: Mauritius,Laptop,Egg,Cuisine

Winter 06 ..CODENAME plan wrecker

We have come yet again to our annual weather report. People currently on dodo island are suffering from windy , cold and rainny conditions . Tell you how it is, you wake up in the morning wash your car ,its sunny , you get on the road , starts raining , get to the office , its windy and ruins your mood and your plans , not to forget that it dirties your car again...arggh.

Haven't been to the beach yet but heard that it was however full with tourists....not very intelligent to come to us in winter when its summer in europe. Anyways this ends our annual weather report.

Category: Mauritius,Weather,Rain

New job TNT

NewJoB job = (NewJob) new Challenge("TnT");

;) Moved out of Accenture now at TNT Express.



Category: Mauritius,TNT

Port-louis labelled Satellite Map

Labelled Map of some of the main places of port-louis , haven't finished it yet but its a start :P.

Category: Mauritius,Port-louis,Map,Google

Google earth 4 Street level Mauritius

Google earth 4 (newest version from Google) now allows you to view street level map of Mauritius , you can see cars , trees , i even saw my water tank on top of my house this is really a great achievement .




See above labourdonnais street , port-louis, MAURITIUS!



See above view of a hotel in the north.



Above view of Champs de Mars horse racing field

Mind blowing satellite pics ,Thanks Google i love you!!!!!!!!

Category: Mauritius,Google,Map,Port-louis

Cinemoris.com brilliantly funny

Cinemoris.com is an absolutely must see site if you are fan of Komiko , Sam Amigam and other Mauritian comedy artists.

All the videos are delivered via utube so this means you can view the videos online you can also download utube movies via keepvid.

Great work people!!

Category: Mauritius,Cinema,Cinemoris

Microsoft Soccer Scoreboard

Enjoy the world cup live and direct with Microsoft's Soccer Scoreboard which brings world cup news directly onto your desktop !!.

Beware however that you require to have a genuine version of Windows to be able to download this software ;) .

Meanwhile check out the next matches of your favorite teams:








Category: Mauritius,Windows,Soccer,Football

LaszloMail 100% flash experience

I've been waiting for a while for laszlo systems to deploy their laszlo mail service which is made on top of the opensource laszlo system rendering an lzx xml to a flash application.

Laszlo mail offers you a neat conventional interface but which is completely Macromedia Flash based allowing real time content to be displayed in your inbox without the need to refresh you page.So what you would do is just sign in and leave your inbox page as it is , if a new mail arrives it will automatically be displayed in your inbox without the need for you to constantly click on refresh or inbox links.

Registration is free and you don't require any invites gimmick to get started.



However currently laszlo only provides 250MB storage capacity and is largely defeated by GMail offering a similar type of service with 2GB(+) storage and AJAX enabled inbox with integration of GTalk which is an Instant Messenger.



Compared to Goowy which also a flash based email client , Laslzo mail is really simple interface-wise although complete . Goowy is more flamboyant offering free online storage ,games , an online desktop and a free IM client which is able to connect to MSN , Yahoo,etc...

The laszlo mail service is a brilliant showcase by laszlo systems to show the power of this framework , i used the framework myself and i think it really shines high.

There are not many people who have registered yet so if you want to get your nick appended to @laszlomail.com , you better hurry!

Category: Mauritius,laszlo,Laszlo Mail,Inbox,Mail,Flash,Java,Gmail,Goowy

Hibernate Quickly free sample chapters

A new hibernate book is out called Hibernate Quickly of which 2 chapters are available for download :

1. Chapter 3 - all configuration tweaks and explanation of the different entities in hibernate - excellent to get started

2. Chapter 6 - explains how to query objects.

So now you got resources for hibernate configuration and HSQL querying , who said that you needed to buy books ?? :P

Category: Mauritius,Hibernate,Java

Checking if your PC can run Windows Vista

Windows Vista is the new OS that is to replace Win XP and if you are planning to install Vista on your system is a good thing to see before hand if there are any system requirements which are required.

This is where the Windows Vista Advisor comes into play. Download it and run the system scan to see if there are any upgrades hardware or device wise that are needed to make Vista happy on your desktop.



In my case Vista is complaining of lack of an additional 14 Gb , taking the fact that my system is really a development geeked up system , this means that Vista is sure is going to take a lot of resources.

Category: Mauritius,Windows,Vista

World Cup highlights on Yahoo

The football World Cup site is officially hosted on Yahoo at http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/ .

Site is well made and really puts you in the centre of this world event. It provides useful information such as matches to be played , videos of previous matches , a map of the different stadiums.Along with that click on the classic menu button to view all the legends and history that made the World Cup over the years.

The match schedule section is an important tool for any world cup fanatic. It gives the score for the A-H groups and the match times.

Really a must see!!

Category: Mauritius,World Cup,Football

Google Spreadsheet

Following my sign up to Google Spreadsheet , I was invited in the limited testing of this new product from the Google labs.



I still can't understand who would eventually use such a service , who would disclose sensitive data online , but I guess people would use it for trivial data storage and display. Consequently i created a dummy Pizza eating world cup ..since i was a bit hungry.

Manipulation is exactly similar to that of Microsoft's excel , i do wonder if there are any patent infringes ..they are really really similar.

Whats annoying however is that there is no direct link to access spreadsheet from either google or your gmail. The only way i can access my account is by going back to the approval mail sent by google for my spreadsheet account.



But apart from that spreadsheet is really a full fledge worksheet minus the charts generation.


Category: Mauritius,google,Excel,Spreadsheet

Our solution to the Chikunkunya problem

The Mosquito Mega Catcher is one pollution free solution to our Chikunkunya mosquito problem . It uses a strip of octenol (to generate a scent that resembles breath), a UV bulb, and flashing LEDs to attract mosquitoes near it and then sucks them inside the container.

According to boing boing one reader says: "In a USDA suburban test, our trap captured up to 1,200 mosquitoes in a single night and diminished mosquito populations over an entire acre."..........i say AWESOME .

Only problem that I can see is that Chikunkunya operates in the day , at least thats what our scientists reckon.

Category: Mauritius,Chikunkunya,Mosquito,Reunion,France

Shooting war

Shooting war is what you can call a next generation comic book , which has learnt to adapt itself to its readers. People nowadays go online more than they go to a library and this comic book really is a blog with chapters coming out every week or so.



The story is about the war in Iraq that goes on in the future. The graphics are really beautifully set and the idea seems to be interesting since you do have a control on the scenario since you can actually post your comments to the author.

Category: Mauritius,US,Iraq,Cartoon,war

Google Sketchs your house and universe

Google Skechtup is one blasting tool from Google which allows you to create your 3D universe. Installation is pretty simple and works pretty fast on my system compared to other 3D authoring tools such as AutoCAD.

With Google Sketchup you can create your dream house in minutes , you don't need to have an advanced designer background to get started.

I made the house pictured above within 15 minutes and that too on first try , so shouldn't be difficult for anyone.

Whats even neater is that you can export your house on google earth, giving your google earth map 3D diagrams which is absolutely mind blowing.

Category: Mauritius,Google,Google Earth,Google Sketch Up