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

Awesome flickr photos

Its amazing how photos uploaded on flickr can be such a delight to the eyes. As a picture is worth a 1000 words I leave you with 5000 words to understand what i mean . ;)











Category: Mauritius,flickr,Photo

Extortion Virus Code

This is the weirdest ..(and most intelligent) virus I've seen so far.Named Archiveus this virus combines all files in your My Documents folder and you can't open any of them unless you have the proper password. The virus actually asks for a "ransom" !!! You must give money to the extortionist so as he sends you the password to regain access to your files.

The full story can be obtained from slashdot .

Someone fortunately did actually crack open the password which is : mf2lro8sw03ufvnsq034jfowr18f3cszc20vmw."


Category: Mauritius,Virus,Windows,,Archiveus