I got the chance to see the changes that the Facebook crew has put into action, since the 4th of February 2010, today when I log into my Facebook account. I think that you must really be addicted to Facebook to notice the change instantly. Facebook claim this to be a simplified design provides easy access to your entire Facebook experience. The applications on the taskbar has been moved to the top right, and you can now see who is online from your sidebar. Your notification has been moved to the top left, next to the facebook logo. A change is neither good nor bad. It just depends on how people see it. So what do you people think about the new Facebook look for 2010?

Year 2009 is over, and we are now in 2010. How many elaborated plans did you have for the year 2009 and how many of them did you achieve? How much experience did you gain from that elapsed year? Those may seem some quite silly questions, but didn’t you learn that there are no such things as silly questions? I remember 10 years back, when I watch a video clip of one of my favourite singer of that time, Mr Will Smith singing will 2k, he said that : You never now where you’re going, till you know where you’ve been! Those questions take all their sense after reading that phrase. Resolutions are good ideas, but retrospectives are complements to them.

I planned my year 2009 to mingle with the BEST and the BRIGHTEST where I should have turn the potentials into kinetics. I had a list of resolutions that I needed to accomplish by the end of year 2009, but unfortunately was unable to complete the list. To be honest, I only completed one during that year but all I can say is that all is not lost that is delayed . What I discovered is that everything that you learned from that year had its importance. I may not have completed my resolution list, but I discovered new ways to achieve them or did intermediate step to them. 2009 was finally a pivot year for me to achieve my resolutions. I have gain rich experiences that are too much to mention but however decided to share a few with you below:

1. I learn that:
   • Every time that I am rude to someone, I gave him the permission to be rude to somebody else
   • Every time I swear someone, I gave him the permission to swear somebody else
   • Every time I do not respect my engagement, I gave him the permission to do not respect his engagement towards someone else
2. I’ve lean that even if you no more trust in God, he still trust in you.
3. I’ve learn that you never get what you deserve from Man, but only what you have negotiated.
4. I have lean that your life is neither positive nor negative but neutral. This gives you the opportunity to see it as you want to see it. It is up to you to see the positive or the negative in it.
5. I have encountered the notion of the Law of diminishing intent
6. Your daily environment has a deep impact in your life. The more you harmonize it, the better your life become. I had change my desktop wallpaper to a more positive one and life start to change for the better.
7. I have missed a rendezvous with 2 friends that came on vacation in Mauritius from France.
8. I had the chance to meet new friends but unfortunately loose the friendship of one. I had the opportunity to renew with some old friends
9. I lived with Iraqis
10. I got some old memories from my drawers. Photos, old letters, ideas, etc.
11. I wrote my first short movie script.
12. I discovered a new passion, scuba diving.
13. I got my first car.
14. I finally put my new design on my blog.
15. I created an alter ego, which is going to be the hero of my novel.

My experience of day 1 of the mauritius Jota was quite good. I arrived at BP house at 13 o’clock and ready to help in the electronic workshop. After the official opening of the event by the chief comissionner, the activities started.

I was responsible to animate the electronic workshop and had two groups of about 14 scouts that was eager for knowledge. I started by introducing them to the difference between electic and electronics. After the introduction, I make them familiarise themselves with the different components found on regular electronics board, while introducing them to the resistors and capacitors with the help of analogies of dogs and water tanks. The children were quite receptive to the materials proposed to them.

After my session, I used my free time to do some photo shots with my digital camera (Samsung L110) and play with my newly discovered feature ( Exposure time). I also use part of my time to eat ( yes it is important to renew the energy after that day)

The 52nd Jamboree on the air (JOTA) and the 13th Jamboree on the internet (JOTI) will be held during the week-end of the 17th and 18th October 2009 through out the world. At mauritius, the jota joti will be at BP House, Trianon. If you are a scout and have access to the internet, be sure not to miss this event by joining the  various chat rooms specially for that purpose.

The theme for this year is “C3″ Climate Change Challenge. The various workshop that will be offered shall contribute to enhancing the participant awareness of environmental issues.

This year again I will give some help to the team organizing the events.

You can have more info on the Mauritius Scout Association website.

Facebook announced on its blog that soon (more exactly at 12:01 am EDT on June 13 2009) they will be allowing facebook usernames. Those usernames would be mainly used to replace the id=xxxxxxxxx normally found in the facebook URL. The reason behind this, according to facebook, is to make people to find and connect to you more easily; they will also have an easy-to-remember way to find you. You need to be aware that:
1. This will be on a first come first serve basis
2. Once you choose a facebook username, there is no way back. You cannot change or edit the name.

Do you people really need a facebook username? People have been able to find you on the facebook search and even on google by searching for your real name (you can give it a try, if you do not have a personal website, your facebook account normaly ranks first). I have more than 700 friends on facebook, and I don’t think that I am going to remember all those facebook usernames, so is the easy-to-remember scenario useless for me??

Facebook is also planning other way to use those usernames that will be revealed little by little. Until the 13 June, you can start to plan which facebook username you are going to choose to bind you account.

1. Great spirits have always been violently oppressed by mediocre minds. – Albert Einstein
2. Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. – Thomas Edison
3. Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. – Thomas Edison
4. You should prefer a good scientist without literary abilities than a literate one without scientific skills. – Leanardo da Vinci
5. Setting an example is not the main means of influencing another; it is the only means – Albert Einstein
6. I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn – Albert Einstein
7. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world. – Albert Einstein

Merry Christmas 2008 To you.

Mauritius Daylight patch

This concept of DST was introduced by William Willet in 1905. As he pointed out, DST does not change the length of the day but an opportunity to increase outdoor leisure activities during afternoon sunlight hours.

From a personal perspective, I can say that I am adapting to this situation. I wake up at 6.45 am (which would have been equivalent to 5.45 without DST), which is quite early for me. I just hope that it will remain like this through out the mauritius DST period. For a practical use, I did not change my clock at 2.00 am this morning. I did it just before going to sleep. I was planning to sleep from 23:00 till 07:00, so what was the use for me to wake up in the middle of my sleep only to chnage the time. Maybe that was what help me for the adaptation to that mauritian DST. As soon as I changed the clock by 1 hour, I started to feel sleepy.

There are some practical issues from this mauritius DST. Since mauritius was not using any DST in the past and as such there were no DST rules for mauritius. No rules simply mean no implementation into windows. So we need to manually change the timezone, until microsoft include an update for this, which will be in december 2008. Another issue is the use of satellites television. The programmation is normally delayed by exactly 24 hour or sometimes in live. This would normally be a slight shift in 1 hour, but until the 28 of october. After that they will apply their onw DST and there will be a lag of 2 hours.

This is a tranlated article that can be found at http://www.mauscouts.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=21&Itemid=34.

The 51st Jamboree on the air (JOTA) and the 12th Jamboree on the internet (JOTI) will be held during the week-end of the 18th and 19th october 2008 through out the world. At mauritius, the jota joti will be at ‘l’Oratorio route nicolay, port louis’.

This event will be under the responsibility of the Mauritius Scout Association (MSA) through its national and international communication commusions and with the collaboration of the 24th Port Louis from Don Bosco Scout Group, who will host the JOTA JOTI in mauritius.

The coordinators of JOTA and JOTi are Malcolm Madelon and Didier Camalboudou respectively.

you can have more information on jota joti at www.jotajoti.org or you can have more information about how to participate on the official website of the mauritius scout association – www.mauscouts.org