Archives for 2007

Bandwidth survey in Mauritius

28 June 2007 By Avinash Meetoo 13 Comments

I want to do a study of the real bandwidth that we get through our ADSL connections in Mauritius. I want to show that we are getting only a subset (I would say < 40%) of what we are actually paying for. I want to do the survey over 7 days (from Monday to Sunday) on at least 5 different ADSL lines (i.e. I need 4 volunteers). I think that we can time how long we need to download a 1Mb file from the US and Europe at different times (say, around 8:30, 16:30 and 22:30) This will obviously produce 5 x 7 x 3 x 2 = 210 different bandwidths which when averaged will produce a pretty good estimate. Who wants to help? I need 4 people with MyT at 256kbit/s. It would be best to start the experiment on Monday 2 July to cater for the 1Gb limitation. As you can easily calculate, the experiment will only use 7 x 3 x 2 x 1 Mb = 42 Mb of your 1Gb quota... There is an ongoing discussion on Facebook on this.

Facebook and the Web 2.0 GetMoBlog group

26 June 2007 By Avinash Meetoo 9 Comments

Like many many people all over the world, I’ve finally discovered Facebook! It’s (obviously) one social networking site but with a twist: it has a 100% public and open API which enable anyone to enhance the site. And guess what… Facebook features more than 1000 user contributed “applications”…

Consequently, it seems that everyone who is someone on the web is moving to Facebook.

For example, I’ve set up my own Facebook profile and we can be friends :-)

GetMoBlog aka Xchange Platform

Last week, I met Marc Israel and Patrick Beeharry both from Microsoft and we talked about the lack of general awareness of Web 2.0 among Mauritian individuals and companies (Of course, I’m not referring to young people here as we all know that they are fully aware of those things :-) )

What we realized is that we should organize a kind of workshop by the end of the year where anyone willing to talk about Web 2.0 could do so. The fact that those two are from Microsoft is only a coincidence. They are interested in Web 2.0 as I am (i.e. out of curiosity and passion and not because they are being paid to be interested if you understand what I mean).

In order to start identifying those willing to help and participate in the workshop (and in order to start some preliminary (i.e. cool) discussion on Web 2.0 in Mauritius), a group has been setup on Facebook called GetMoBlog (that name was chosen by Marc Isreal and refers to the fact that most people interested in Web 2.0 have a blog…)

Linux User Group of Mauritius

I’ve also created the LUGM group on Facebook to complement the website.

Come in and let’s start the cool discussions! Everyone can participate!

The budget speech and the University

16 June 2007 By Avinash Meetoo 16 Comments

Yesterday, like most Mauritians, I listened to the Budget Speech 2007-2008 while attending to my usual chores.

Personally, I like that duty is being removed on microphones, speakers, MP3 players like the iPod Nano, etc. I also like that duty is being removed on kitchen appliances etc. but I understand that those measures are somewhat trivial…

Another nice measure is the fact that there is now only one flat rate of 15% for (taxable) income tax. If my brain works correctly, this means that I will pay less tax compared to previous years and this is a good thing.

I was surprised to see that there is no measures announced for increasing the penetration of computers and Internet in households. As I’ve said so many times, we are missing the boat here…

There are a number of measures directly related to the University of Mauritius. I quote:

p9 – 53. we are amending legislation to give the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) full authority to allow foreign training and educational establishments in all fields to set up in Mauritius.

p38 – 228. Our vision is to transform Mauritius into a knowledge-based economy. We have, therefore, opened the country to international institutions of learning. Ramachandra Medical School and Eastern are part of the first wave that we plan to attract. Several institutions of high repute have expressed a keen interest to develop a campus in Mauritius. In addition to becoming a hub and attracting foreign students, the entry of tertiary institutions will broaden the opportunities for our children to have access to Tertiary Education.

Personally, I welcome the arrival of other tertiary institutions. Of course, this might be detrimental to the UoM as far as the number of students enrolled every year is concerned but I sincerely think that the best students will continue to choose the University of Mauritius if we, academics, can focus on quality teaching and research.

Having fewer students might be the best thing ever to happen to the University of Mauritius… given our limited budget and limited infrastructure.

Another interesting measure concerning the University and us, academics, is:

p24 – 140. Seventh, as we develop the knowledge hub, and with more tertiary education institutions being set up in Mauritius, Government will encourage the setting up of University-SME Partnership Programme. The universities can establish consultancy arms to provide managerial, financial and technical advice to SMEs on demand.

Consultancy is an activity which can prove to be highly beneficial both in the financial and the intellectual senses to all parties: academics, SMEs and the country as a whole. Many of my colleagues and, of course, myself are willing to participate in consultancy activities.

My opinion on the budget

I’ve read the Budget Speech this morning and there are not a lot of extravagant measures in it. My feeling is that the Minister of Finance is trying to strengthen the economy of the country without being irresponsible. I believe that economic growth (croissance) is needed if Mauritius wants to succeed.

I don’t know whether this will work or not but I am somewhat positive.