Noulakaz

The blog of Avinash, Christina, Anya and Kyan Meetoo.

Mauritius

Barack Obama and Mauritian politics

By 11 Comments

Everyone with half a brain want Barack Obama to become the President of the United States of America next week.

76 American Nobel Prize winners are convinced that

Senator Barack Obama is a visionary leader who can ensure the future of America’s traditional strengths in science and technology.

The New York Times editorialist writes:

The United States is battered and drifting after eight years of President Bush’s failed leadership. He is saddling his successor with two wars, a scarred global image and a government systematically stripped of its ability to protect and help its citizens — whether they are fleeing a hurricane’s floodwaters, searching for affordable health care or struggling to hold on to their homes, jobs, savings and pensions in the midst of a financial crisis that was foretold and preventable.

As tough as the times are, the selection of a new president is easy. After nearly two years of a grueling and ugly campaign, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois has proved that he is the right choice to be the 44th president of the United States.

The Economist also endorses Barack Obama:

America should take a chance and make Barack Obama the next leader of the free world.

The Economist does not have a vote, but if it did, it would cast it for Mr Obama. We do so wholeheartedly: the Democratic candidate has clearly shown that he offers the better chance of restoring America’s self-confidence.

Even that bastion of capitalism, the Financial Times, wants Barack Obama to win:

A campaign is a test of leadership. Mr Obama ran his superbly; Mr McCain’s has often looked a shambles. After eight years of George W. Bush, the steady competence of the Obama operation commands respect.

Nor should one disdain Mr Obama’s way with a crowd. Good presidents engage the country’s attention; great ones inspire. Mr McCain, on form, is an adequate speaker but no more. Mr Obama, on form, is as fine a political orator as the country has heard in decades.

The challenges facing the next president will be extraordinary. We hesitate to wish it on anyone, but we hope that Mr Obama gets the job.

 

Of course, there are still lots of people with less than half-a-brain in America and they can still theoretically tip the balance towards the Republicans.

Personally, I want Barack Obama to win for a very selfish reason. If he wins, he is bound to inspire countless of intelligent, honest and hard-working persons over the whole planet to get into politics in order to make the world better.

What I really want is for such Mauritians to get into local politics. Mauritius deserves more competent people.

Alé Barack!

Effect of Mauritian summer time on Linux systems

By 24 Comments

As you all know, Daylight Saving Time is being implemented in Mauritius as from this Sunday 26 October 2008 at 02:00. The exact rules are

# Rule  NAME    FROM    TO      TYPE    IN      ON      AT      SAVE    LETTER/S
Rule Mauritius  2008    max     -       Oct     lastSun 2:00s   1:00    S
Rule Mauritius  2009    max     -       Mar     lastSun 2:00s   0       -

(obtained from the timezone database as used in GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Cygwin, DJGPP, AIX, Mac OS X, OpenVMS, Oracle Database, Solaris, Tru64, and UnixWare — everything important except Windows in fact. Read this if you’re still using that bizarre OS. Thanks to Swadesh Bucktowar of DCDM Consulting for that.)

The rules mean that:

  • On the last Sunday of October 2008 (the 26th) at exactly 02:00, we will save 1 hour (i.e. Mauritius Time will become GMT+5)
  • On the last Sunday of March 2009 (the 29th) at exactly 02:00, we will stop having the 1 hour saving (i.e. Mauritian Time will become GMT+4)
  • and this will repeat every year thereafter.

In more geekish words, here is what will happen:

Sat Oct 25 21:59:59 2008 UTC = Sun Oct 26 01:59:59 2008 MUT isdst=0
Sat Oct 25 22:00:00 2008 UTC = Sun Oct 26 03:00:00 2008 MUST isdst=1
Sat Mar 28 20:59:59 2009 UTC = Sun Mar 29 01:59:59 2009 MUST isdst=1
Sat Mar 28 21:00:00 2009 UTC = Sun Mar 29 01:00:00 2009 MUT isdst=0

 


Updated GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Cygwin, DJGPP, AIX, Mac OS X, OpenVMS, Oracle Database, Solaris, Tru64, and UnixWare systems will automatically change to the Mauritian Daylight Saving Time on Sunday 26 October.

The important word here is updated. If your system has not been updated for ages, then don’t expect the time to change by itself. You’ll have to do it manually.

I can confirm as of today 17 October 2008 that the following fully updated Linux distributions will switch to Mauritian Daylight Saving Time correctly and automatically:

  • Ubuntu 8.04 and derivatives like Kubuntu => use tzdata_2008h => OK.
  • Ubuntu 7.10 and derivatives like Kubuntu => use tzdata_2008h => OK.
  • Ubuntu 7.04 and derivatives like Kubuntu => use tzdata_2008h => OK.
  • Redhat Enterprise Linux 5 Client or Server => use tzdata-2008f => OK.

On the other hand, the following Linux distributions use an old version of tzdata which knows nothing of the Mauritian’s Government decision and the date and time will have to be adjusted manually (or, better, by replacing the old timezone database by a more recent one):

  • Redhat Enterprise Linux 4 => uses tzdata-2004e => BAD
  • Redhat Enterprise Linux 3 => uses tzdata-2003c => BAD
  • Redhat Enterprise Linux 2 AS => uses glibc-2.2.4 => BAD

(I’ve not checked for other distributions. Can someone please tell me about SuSE as I know this distribution is being used by some corporate users here?)

An important caveat

[Thank to David Marjolin for his important observation that the following won’t be an issue this Sunday but will surely pose a problem in March 2009]

It’s nice to know that the time will automatically change on Sunday but what about transactions occurring at that time? For example, let’s say someone uses an ATM at 01:59:58 on Sunday and this is normally what should have happened (let’s assume that this is done in one transaction containing two SQL statements with a 4 seconds time interval between them):

01:59:58 => First SQL statement
02:00:02 => Second SQL statement

But now, with this Daylight Saving Time thing, this is what will happen:

01:59:58 => First SQL statement
03:00:02 => Second SQL statement

Hardly problematic. But what about March 2009? The same transaction will occur thus:

01:59:58 => First SQL statement
01:00:02 => Second SQL statement

We’ll go back in time!

Will this work? Well, one can argue that systems developed in the US or in Europe surely take this in account (by recording everything using GMT maybe.) But what about systems developed in Mauritius where this eventuality was not thought of? Maybe we’ll have to modify them. Or maybe the best thing to do, as pointed out by Swadesh when I talked to him today, is simply to disallow all transactions from 01:59:00 to the new 02:00:00 (i.e. for one hour) if this is possible, of course.

What do you think?