August 2009

Raksha Bandhan

A very nice blog post of celebrating Raksha Bandhan in Mauritius

Swine Flu in Mauritius

pheww…the craze of the moment, the talk of the town

September 2009

Google in Mauritius

Great moments with the Googlers in Mauritius

How to hide your password

Some fun!

October 2009

My First International Conference Participation

Internet Data Centre Strategies was a conference of a very high level! At the same time I was also busy preparing for the launching of www.rtss.ac.mu for 2 October, Gandhi Day 2009 at RTI.

Mauritian Bazaar

Some fun!

November 2009

Prof Konrad Morgan: New UoM Vice-Chancellor

Encouraging blog comment from Prof. Morgan!

Google Wave: A new Communication Tool

An interesting research on this new E-Mail 2.0

Man, it’s not Carrot

Interesting discussion

December 2009

L’express.mu

Nice pictures taken by L’ express photographers

Well, that’s it: Some nice moments as a UoM Student/ Freelance Developer sharing via Web 2.0 during the year 2009!

Alright guys, we are less than 2 weeks (14 days) for the New Year!

Glupppp

Ouhhhhh….365 days elapsing very soon…

How was Year 2009 for you? For me, there is my Year 2009 in Review:

January 2009

New Academic Semester 2009
A new start…

February 2009

UML Case Tools presentation for the Software Engineering class at UoM

An absolutely amazing opportunity to be presenting CSE students before the Head of Dept of CSE, and one of the best lecturers that the university has!

March 2009

AMBCS (Associate Member of the British Computer Society)

Obtaining the post-nominals was a nice moment. I could feel approaching slowly but surely to the Corporate IT Professional world.

Air Mauritius – Hedging Strategy or Aptitude

Wow, via this blog post, I feel proud that I am a blogger trying to share the goodness of being a UoM Student. Sadek gave me the opportunity to talk on this blog post in his MSc Finance (Risk Management Module) class!

The joy of Winning Academic Prizes

Who does not love to win prizes??!! I always wanted to ponder a bit about past achievements, some day in my life

April 2009

Sandwich Students

An opportunity to think strategically for the 6-months training

Our “Littoul” Software Team

Real Team-Spirit. An example of Group work at the Univeristy. It was an unfogettable experience working with you guys for this .NET project.

June 2009

BCS Core Diploma Module

One of the most important exams in Student Life
Britain Got Talent
Some fun!

July 2009

Mauritian Bloggers Meeting 2

A cool day at the seaside with great friends who we see regularly Online!

Watch out for Part 2

Salut!

What do you think will be the best hits of the year in the following Category:

Hollywood

Stereo Love

Bollywood

Mauricien

Bhojpuri

We all read L’ express which has the motto: Sur, Fiable et Precis. Lexpress.mu, the redesigned website has some elements of Web 2.0. This is encouraging! I follow http://twitter.com/lexpressmu for real-time news update.

Hats off to the nice Digital Photography work. Below are some of my favourite pics from the website:

I love the Music of these guys, as well as of Eric Triton

Ahhh...the world cup..if only I could had the chance to lift it and shout: We (L'equipe d'Italy) are the Champions!!

eihhh...beaute fatale - Miss Mauritius 2009

This event was instantly made online via Web 2.0

Toyota

and you, what are your favourite pics?

Hey ! Thanks to wordpress.com for the nice Snowing Feature on the blog. This is amongst one of the reasons why I prefer to have my blog hosted on WordPress.com. The guys there, sometimes do amazing stuff!

Here’s the Pic of the Day!

Which one is mine, amongst the Three??

Recently, we have witnessed the rise of many .mu Websites. This is encouraging!

The current Mauritian Web Directory is on the Orange.mu Portal: www.orange.mu/WebDirectory/. However, we are all familiar with the term #OrangeMauritius #FAIL

Some of the current Mauritian Directories:

• www.moris.us (Mauritius Twitter Directory)
• mauritiusbloglist.blogspot.com (Mauritius Blog List)
• www.mauritiusblogtracker.com

and some NEW .mu websites:

• www.newsnow.mu
• www.levraijournal.mu
• www.ilebay.mu
• www.restaurants.mu
• www.funradio.mu
• www.rtss.ac.mu
• www.forum-maurice.mu

The Mission Statement of Mauirtius Web Directory (which shall be updated and published annually)

1. To have an updated profile of all websites for the Mauritian Market (sort of digg.com)
2. To have a reviewing system on the websites
3. To be Open Web , users register and post their website profile. Of course a moderation team should be here…
4. Profile of All Internet Professionals in Mauritius and promote Social Networking amongst them

That’s it… What do you think of this new idea: www.mauritiuswebdirectory.mu???

Finally the Rukmini Dwarka Dwesh Mandir is opening in Mauritius’ largest village Triolet! The Grand Opening Ceremony is scheduled as from 23 Nov till 29 Nov. There will be Bhagwad Katha everyday from 18:00 to 20:00 and Abhishek on 29 Nov.

This is the last time that we are having our usual ceremony in the small mandir. The latter was jam-packed today and believe me, the devotional level was at the highest. All devotees are happy for the Grand New Opening of Dwarka Dwesh Mandir…The first mandir in the world being located in Los Angeles and now the second one being opened in Mauritius, paradise island.

What surprised me is that there will be a “Raj Bhog” consisting of 1008 dishes! Wow Need to have a strong stomach for this… In the pic below is our new location for Mahaprasad, in the Open Air…

After Maheswarnath Mandir (The largest Shivalaye in Mauritius and the biggest one in Mauritius), here we are, Triolet is blessed with another one.

Here is the link for the location of the Mandir (Ahh, Google has not bought satellite images yet, hence the temple won’t be visible on the land)

Jai Shree Krishna!

I was happy to purchase some books on eBay during Aug-Sept 09.  It was another pleasure to receive them at home as fast as: from 1 week to 3 weeks. Yupi! E-commerce rocks!

So here are the new books which are proudly in my bookshelf:

Professional Issues in Information Technology

Author: Frank Bott

Professional Issues in Information Technology is the only textbook tailored specifically to match the syllabus of the BCS Professional Examination compulsory Diploma module, Professional Issues in Information System Practice, in its entirety. And, I am preparing for my BCS Core Module, as you already know.

Essentials of Management Information Systems

Author: Kenneth & Jane Laudon

This second book is the Primary text for the BCS Graduate Diploma module: Management Information Systems. This book rocks!

Finance for IT Decision Makers – A Practical Handbook for Buyers, Sellers and Managers

Author: Michael Blackstaff

Since, I have a close relationship with the world of finance, I could not resist this BCS book. Finance for IT Decision Makers covers those aspects of finance relevant to IT professionals in both business and non-commercial organizations who make or influence decisions about IT.

And finally, the new book that is still in shipping progress is:

Weaving the Web: The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web

Author: Sir Tim-Berners Lee

I want to read a book from the inventor of the World Wide Web.

Happy Reading to me!

We Follow is a new user powered Twitter directory. The site was launched by Digg founder Kevin Rose

The WeFollow site lists the top Twitter members in various popular categories (e.g. Celebrity, Blogger, Tech, Music, Social Media, etc.), displaying the Twitterers in order of the number of followers they have.

It’s quick and simple to add a Twitter account into the WeFollow index : simply select “Add Yourself to WeFollow” on the We Follow homepage and you’ll be redirected to your Twitter account. You’ll then be asked to send message to @wefollow with up to three hash tags that describe or define you as a Twitterer.

Excamples of some the popular categories being used include: blogs, entertainment, health, science, socialmedia, food, books, news, politics, movies, fashion, shopping, gadgets, gadgets, pets, and business.

WeFollow is a useful alternative to sites like Twitterholic that show only the most popular Twitter users overall. Websites like these have become dominated by celebrity twitterers as of late.

I have personally started to follow the following Twitterers:

1) Britney Spears! ” Yes! This is the real Britney Spears! We’ve got updates from her team, her website and yes, even Britney herself!” 

2) Evan Williams, CEO of Twitter (Dude, if Google acquired Twitter, would there be an improvement in Twitter Search? )

3) Coldplay- my favourite band who is considering taking a break from the music industry, so their fans don’t grow sick of their music.

4) Kevin Rose – Founder of social media site digg.com. Random ideas, entrepreneur, climber of rocks, video blogger, & tea drinker.

5) Tim O’Reilly – Founder and CEO, O’Reilly Media. Watching the alpha geeks, sharing their stories, helping the future unfold.

6) Dave Morin – The Facebook Guy

7) Twitter Tips – Twitter tips, tools, news & status from @SarahJL (radio DJ, dance teacher) & @QuantumGood (resident geek)

William Shatner – A nice surprise to see one of my favourite actors (Denny Crane in TV Show Boston Legal) on Twitter!

9) twt.fm – Tweeting Music, ahh something very interesting! My first Music Tweet : http://twt.fm/41013

10) Guy Kawasaki – RSSurai with Annie Colbert, Gina Ruiz, and Bill Meade

11) LFC TV  – eihhh I would had preferred Man U TV though!

12) Gary Vaynerchuk – Internet Marketer

13) Bill Crosby – Wickedly Smart Marketer

14) Daniel Brusilovsky – Young entrepreneur

15) startupstudent – Entrepreneurial quotes in the AM and blogging about entrepreneurship all time

Overall, weFollow is a great Web tool to find Twitter users to follow and promote your own agenda!

Img Src: Lemauricien.com interview

At the request of the representative of the Faculty of Law & Management, University of Mauritius Mr. Sadek Ruhmaly, Consultant Economist, conducted a two-day seminar at the Lecture Theatre 2. The topic of the talk: Hedging- An aptitude or a Strategy?

It was Mr. Ruhmaly who introduced the system of hedging at Air Mauritius in the late 1980s. This strategy was very successful at that time and he can be considered to be an expert in Hedging and Fuel energy.

The talk was held on two days: Monday 9th March 2009 from 13.00 to 14.00 and Wednesday 11th March 2009 from 12.00 to 13.00 (which actually ended at 15:30!).

Mr. Sadek has been cross-fertilised by great minds (S. Hawking, Lord Denning) and intellectually brilliant Mauritians.

Key terms heard: Poetry, literature, physics, pilot, Air Mauritius, Black Hole, Maths, Hedging, Strategy, freedom

Monday 9 March:

Most of the students from Finance and Law background were anxiously waiting at Lecture Theatre 2 for the opening of the talk. The lecture hall was jam-packed!

Mr. Sadek started with a “Good Morning” with a genuine English accent. Seriousness was seen on his face. He started with a statement: “Mon premier amour c’est la literature française et l’astronomie!” and read a French poem, he himself wrote last year. The poem describes his visionary views on Mauritius.

You come to the university to learn to think

The first issue was that “learning to think” is the most important thing in life. We have to be a Systemic thinker.

Being Fearless

“Those who know me, who have read about me, know that Sadek is not a Yes-Man”. He then told us the annecdote about his refusal (the only vote against) of the decrease of the Interest Rate at Bank of Mauritius.

Refinery Economics

Without the knowledge of refinery economics, it would be rubbish to talk about Oil Energy and Hedging. The below diagram was explained well:

The optimum equilibrium is not a static path.

Doing Nothing is a strategy but doing something when not required is Stupidity!

The choice of parameters in a formula is necessary.

Wednesday 11 March:

Despite being the Holi festival, the Lecture Theatre was full, again! However this time the duration of the talk was longer than expected. In the impressive CV of Sadek, we note that he is a Private Pilot, a Painter -Mystical Art, he likes Poetry and is a Mountaineer! Today he shared his passion with us. He brought some paintings which were displayed in the Lecture Theatre.

I have the crazy idea that if I would die, I would die with the most precious things that I carry in my bag!

Yes, Sadek indeed carries precious books/ documents in his brown bag. We were impressed by the number of book being shown to us, notably:

• Bhagvad Gita
• Geetanjali – Rabindranath Tagore
• Pensees – Blaise Pascal
• A Brief History of Time – Stephen Hawking
• A book on Japanese Archery

What is 1 + 1?

Ans: you have to specify your assumptions, what is the model. for eg. in Binary 1 + 1 gives 01!

A PhD is a substantial contribution to knowledge. Pushing the frontier into the unknown.

Philosophy

I want you to be free. On the eve of Independence, I want you to achieve Holistic Independence. Take for eg. the cutting of umbilical cord -> this is a freedom symbol.

The foundation of daring is fearlessness and selflessness. These two are the fundamental core of grace.

The body is a perishable product, but you cannot kill the ideas.

Don’t be in psychic prisons -> Groupthink

Stop just looking, start Noticing.

The most stupid thing is to ignore that has been great minds in the world.

There is a difference between doubt and uncertainty.

President Obama has to understand Black Hole in order to get out of this systemic collapse.

I talk about the world of Abstract. use of senses on Knowledge.

Sarcasm is the highest form of wit.

Grace

The first issue in strategy is Acknowledgement.

The most brilliant poetry is one that has mathematical balance.

Grace in Mathematics, Science, Art.

Hedging

Hedging can be an optimising strategy depending on the core of the business.

For each strategy there is a fallback strategy.

Playing Sudoku -3 at the same time and looking horizontally- need to have a lateral vision. Get your brain to work on 3 mysteries at the same time.

When you do hedging, don’t be caught in a circle of minds.

In Hedging, if you are distracted, you are losing.

You need not to have total control but total consciousness (of hedge funds which have a single agenda i.e. Portfolio maximisation). Control -> discrete ; Consciousness -> continuous

Economic Bubble burst because of Gargantua

Fundamental to Hedging is understanding the data

Hedging is freedom from uncertainty, moving from an unstable point to stable one.

At one point in time, you have to place your bets.

Tactical mistake -> no corporate strategy, no holistic view

Problem: options are mutually exclusive

Onion -> de layering and bringing to the core

Correlation does not infer causality.

Hedging is also an aptitude.

Strategy from the Nature

Hammerhead Shark

Fish Eagle

Microwave Generation

We, youngsters, we are of the Microwave Generation

Papyrus Parchment & Computer Science

Mr. Sadek shown us a parchment. It is the first encryption on Floppy Disk.

Caravanners are the fist Internet system in Human Civilisation

Last year, I was performing in: Transport Gratis! It was a great fun to be in a mini bus, proudly holding the small flag and shouting : ‘Transport Gratis, Trasport Gratis’ along with other actors/actresses in the transport.

This year, I have the opportunity to enact in the scenario of the Administration of the French in M’tius.  And the cool stuff is that, in the cultural show, my fleet will be the first

10 March 09: A Stage rehearsal. The podium was already built. The MGI and Fracois Mitterand artists were rehearsing. Other artists were also present and preparing for the grand day. The first Aiders were present.

11 March 09: Got my costumes. pretty cool! Today another rehearsal is scheduled. Gonna be fun

Oops major rectification. I just had the rehearsal with costumes and all that! My part is not on the French administration. Its the float of Municipality of Port Louis. The vehicle will be very nicely set up. The setting is still under construction but I am sure it will be completed in the coming hours.

In fact, my acting is about Acting at Port Louis Theatre. Ya, I will be holding Swords! so Watch out

Trying out my new costume! The sword is real...

12 March 09:

Today is the Grand Jour. Happy National Independence Day to everyone. Proud to be Mauritian. A big bus came to fetch all the artists. We reached Champ de Mars happily. I don’t know why, I was thinking of sword fighting of Pirates des Caraïbes during the voyage. Well, we finally reached our destination. After we have been allocated our respecting class in Port Louis SSS (now it has been renamed), we were required to test-practice in our very beautifully decorated float!

Then time for make-up!

and here we are ready So how do I look? (wink wink)

Time to get on the action now! Here we are on the track and we wait for our turn…

watching the holicopters in the meanwhile..

Image Courtesy: Lexpress.mu (Photo: Vijay Dhunputh)

and the firings..

finally here we enter the scene. Honestly it was a bit difficult to act on a moving truck. Was feeling a bit afraid of any sudden stop or acceleration on the part of the driver who has received instructions carefully. The fun part was how the truck driver and Official got into the truck? notice that the Dodo edifice covered the two doors on the side.

Image Courtesy: Lexpress.mu (Photo: Vijay Dhunputh)

It was cool intensive fighting. At the same time maintain balance and concentrate whilst having the temptation to be distracted and have a look around. Then came the part when the truck passed near the General Public. As usual, comments were being shouted:

Oh la les Piratessssssssssss!

Zoroooooooooooo

Pirates Des Caraibes

Capitain Jack Sparrow!

Coup so licou!

etc etc

Finally, whilst we were having dinner at the college, we were delighted to watch the fireworks live before us which started at 20:00 to end at 20:15 approx.

Image Courtesy: Lexpress.mu (Photo: Vijay Dhunputh)

Overall, it was an amazing new experience and greater pride and much more feeling of patriotism when you form part of a National Cultural Show …..Long Live the Key and Star of the Indian Ocean!

3 Cheers for the Republic of Mauritius………..

Posted in Personal, Review, That's Life! Tagged: Mauritian Theatre, Mauritius ]]> http://asheshr.wordpress.com/2009/03/11/national-day-celebrations-2009-at-champ-de-mars/feed/ 12 curiousEngine maurice ashesh testing make up pic attack pic i firings photo feu http://asheshr.wordpress.com/2009/03/04/who-are-geeks/ http://asheshr.wordpress.com/2009/03/04/who-are-geeks/#comments Wed, 04 Mar 2009 17:03:28 +0000 Ashesh http://asheshr.wordpress.com/?p=545 ]]>

While skimming books in the BCS Books24×7 eBook library, I got the opportunity to see an eye-catching title:

Leading Geeks How to manage the people who deliver Technology

by Paul Glen

I quote the introductory part of the book:

Who Are Geeks?

Geeks are the knowledge workers who specialize in the creation, maintenance, or support of high technology. They have job titles like programmer, product manager, project manager, quality assurance engineer, system designer, system architect, program manager, technical writer, help desk technician, deployment specialist, trainer, network manager, Web designer, database administrator, desktop support technician, or telecommunications specialist. Some of them may carry titles like chief information officer (CIO), chief knowledge officer (CKO), chief technical officer (CTO), development director, operations manager, and, on rare occasions, chief executive officer (CEO).

In short, geeks are the highly intelligent, usually introverted, extremely valuable, independent-minded, hard-to-find, difficult-to-keep technology workers who are essential to the future of your company.

Why Geeks Matter

Despite all the hype and hurry surrounding the new economy, a few simple truths shine through the fog:

• Over the past three decades, the pace of technological change has increased.

• Technological innovation remains one of the most important components of an organization’s ability to compete in the marketplace.

• Geeks are the people who deliver technological innovation.

Stereotypes about geeks abound. Unfashionably dressed, pimply, video-game-playing young boys rolling Dungeons and Dragons dice populate the comic pages of most major daily newspapers. Rich, self-absorbed, intelligent, ruthless entrepreneurs line the Marketplace Section of the Wall Street Journal. Kindly, wise, absent-minded professors dream brilliant yet unintelligible thoughts in their ivory towers and yet can’t remember how to tie their shoes.

Ahh, definitely, I gonna enjoy reading this book……:D But before, tell me, are you a Geek?

Today when I took a glance at ELT2 door’s, I was shocked. Our usual lecturer was being replaced by an American guy. He had an Apple computer. Honestly I was about to not enter the lecture theater and phone a friend to confirm that the class has been postponed.

Upon entering the class, Prof. Brandon, if I am not mistaken was explaining on Test Driven Development (TDD). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test_driven_development

Another interesting article on the subject matter can be found here: http://www.onlined.org/papers/000145.pdf. According to the article, test driven development is proposed in the classroom. An automated grading  strategy is used to assess student-written code and student-written tests together, providing clear and immediate feedback to students about the effectiveness and validity of their testing. This is achieved by webCAT – the Web-based Center for Automated Testing. Web-CAT is a plug-in-based web application that supports electronic submission and automated grading of programming assignments. The Web-CAT Grader supports traditional models of automated program grading, but also supports grading of assignments where students do their own testing. It helps encourage test-driven development (also called test-first coding), where students write small unit tests for each piece of code they add. Web-CAT allows a student to submit his or her test cases along with the solution, and grades on test validity and test completeness as well as code correctness. More info on webCAT here: http://web-cat.cs.vt.edu/WCWiki/WhatIsWebCat

The professor then continued with another presentation on webCAT, its functionalities. The Web-CAT Grader uses a web interface for student submissions and for reporting. The feedback provided to students was inspired by JUnit’s GUI TestRunner.

Then professor proceeded with JUnit and Java Doc. The presentation was hyper interesting.

Here’s an interesting video also : Extreme Test-Driven Development with UNA (Java)

Some questions followed by the software engineering community on 1: JUnit plugin on Eclipse and 2) the coverage of the our written code by webCAT

Prof. answered accordingly.

My favourite quote is: “Happiness in Programming!”

webCAT is a new feature at UoM. The lecturers at the CSE dept. are still experimenting with it. Our software engineering lecturer intends to give an assignment using the new system. No hardcopy to be submitted. Everything online and results also obtained instantly. The pending work is the creation of student accounts with their respective IDs.

Well let’s hope that this innovative feature at UoM brings us a unique experience as future software developers. Thanks CSE dept. for this great initiative and giving Computer Science students such a unique opportunity.

Posted in Geek Stuff, Java, Review, Software Engineering, Uni Student Life, University of Mauritius Tagged: Computing, corporate, Education, Open Source, University of Mauritius ]]> http://asheshr.wordpress.com/2009/03/03/test-driven-development-at-uom/feed/ 0 curiousEngine webCat TDD http://asheshr.wordpress.com/2009/03/02/foucault-on-biopower/ http://asheshr.wordpress.com/2009/03/02/foucault-on-biopower/#comments Mon, 02 Mar 2009 09:57:47 +0000 Ashesh http://asheshr.wordpress.com/?p=531 ]]>

Today the results of the Election in Mauritius will be announced. We already have some speculation. The elected candidate will have certain level of power restored.

For Foucault, biopower is a technology of power, which is a way of managing people as a group. For Foucault, the distinctive quality of this political technology is that it allows for the control of entire populations.

Some Definitions:

5. Power (224)-

“A more-or-less organized, hierarchical, co-ordinated cluster of relations.” Power is a characteristic of all relationships and, in fact, constitutes those relationships. All individuals exercise power, and are all subjected to it.

6. Bio-power (225)-

Power over life. It “exerts a positive influence of life, that endeavors to administer, optimize, and multiply it, subjecting it to precise controls and comprehensive regulations.”

7. Resistance (226)-

In Foucault’s system, this can be characterized by discourse that both creates and constrains.

At university, we make reference to French Philosopher Michel Foucault. Here is a very interesting video:

Interestingly:

Slide 17: “Open Source is becoming a strategy to attack proprietary code strategies”

Google Supports the Open Source community in a spirit of collaborative creation, one of Google’s Strategic pillars.

Very Interesting question:

Slide 20: Is PageRank a really competitive advantage?

Well the full online version of the study is available here:

http://www.fabernovel.com/sites/default/files/Google_14Q_en.pdf

Time is Money! n’est-ce pas?

RescueTime is a web-based time management and analytics tool for knowledge workers who want to be more productive.

An introduction to rescueTime can be found here: http://www.rescuetime.com/dashboard_preview

Product Tour: http://www.rescuetime.com/product_tour

Well, here are my personal statistics of RescueTime. I have set a new goal on this Free Management software and I will test this functionality. I hope it works koz I want to prioritise my computing time, specially during the SHORT uni holidays!

My top tags include:

• Freelance – working for clients
• Wordprocessing – working for university assignments
• Chat –
• music – ya, its a must, istn’t?
• email – an essential communication tool
• slideshare – inspiration is a must, isn’t?
• acrobat reader – to read lecture notes
• search – google.com, google desktop etc
• BCS – information from BCS sites
• socialising – facebook !
• university – online.uom.ac.mu , www.uom.ac.mu, vcampus.uom.ac.mu
• flickr – zoli photos
• facebook – the name says it all

My Top Apps and Sites include:

Microsoft Word – spent much time working on assignments

Windows Media Player – essential to benefit from the food of love – music!

ramjeeawon.info – ya, improving my portal constantly

msnmgr – ahem ahem, to talk with dear ones

powerpoint – Ya, much time spent on MS powerpoint, my powerpoints, I try to design them up to the high level

Conclusion

To conclude, give rescuetime.com a try, it will save you a lot of money time.

Well, yesterday was a great day: BCS members were invited to attend the prestigious Award ceremony: BCS IT Personality Award 2008 at Sofitel Hotel, Flic en Flac.

President of the Republic of Mauritius

I have just received the november 2008 edition of the magazine for the IT professional IT Now. A magazine which I receive every 2 months owing to my BCS Student membership.

First impression: waow – a nice baby boy on a mac viewing you with innocent eyes!

So the interesting articles are as follows:

Images in space

This article by Barry Blundell looks at emerging 3-D technologies

Here is the really worth watching video. It’s really very interesting:

Honestly, I would really like to view these images before my eyes! Blundell concludes with a comment made by Frederick Brooks:

Virtual worlds, or synthetic environments, technology holds great promise for medicine, for design, for training, and for science. It is ironically sadly characteristic of our culture that these promising uses will be enabled, if at all, as by products of our desire to be entertained.’

Honestly, I did not quite well understood the second line. Me better seek clarification with the author.

Interview with Karen Lawrence, author of Virtual Shadows: your privacy in the Information Society

Secondly, there is a fact that we line in an information society where we have to get used to everything in the offline world moving into the online world.  In similar vein with Web 3.0 or Second life. Karen says ‘ Everything that we do in our real life today is being digitally stored somewhere.’ Her book focuses on how perceptions of privacy are changing and how they will evolve in the future.

Testing

Tim Hunter MBCS CITP, an IT consultant speaks sense in this article. According thim, the  ‘us and them’ approach where defects are thrown over a fence back to developers, who correspondingly throw code fixes back over the fence to testers, isn’t always the best way to work.

His bottom line: ‘If you can’t trace requirements directly back to the actual data items that the programmer needs to develop his code – then you are not ready for development and testing to begin.’

ITIL V3

Another important article is on ITIL V3. ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) is the most widely accepted approach to service management in the world. ITIL V3 reflects new knowledge, technical innovation and thought leadership.  More information on the topic can be found on bestmanagementpractice.com. To better understand ITIL, maybe the following Glossary of Terms might be helpful.

Book Review: Microsoft 2.0 – How Microsoft plans to Stay Relevant in the Post-Gates Era

An interesting book review by Jim McGhie CEng MBCS CITP on the auther Mary Jo Foley’s valuable insight on Microsoft’s internal stucture and the political influences and who is likely to shape the organisation now that Bill  Gates has all but left the scene.

I want to read this book! Who want to buy a copy for me ? allez les altruists, where are you..

It was a fine university day. The birds were chirping and purple flowers blossoming. Until, our dear beloved and respected class rep. who is always devoted to her work (Nunds) gave me the golden opportunity to photocopy HRM notes on culture. One fine day, I sat down and I read it – because I do read sometimes, though very rarely: Chapter 3: Managing Culture by Stephen Linstead, under the section, The Origins of Organisational Culture, last 3 lines in paragraph 3 and I quote:

“A good film to watch, which relates to negotiated order, power and culture is One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1973) starring Jack Nicholson and directed by Milos Forman”

Given the vivid effects of better understanding HRM (in some way) after watching Office Space. I decided to take advantage of the broadband connection and download the movie from the information super highway. I sat down and with the dolby Headphone enjoyed the 5 Oscar Winning film. It was a fantastic film. Amazing performance by Jack Nicholson. Great screenplay. as well as being entertaining, great way of understanding concepts in Sociology and well as Psychology. Ref: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073486/

Ref: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Sociological Analysis

The movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is based on the experience of a criminal that elected to move to a mental institution to avoid serving his time at a prison work camp.

The criminal, Randall P. McMurphy, or McMurphy, as the other inmates call him, was under the impression that his sentence would be converted to the amount of time he would need to spend in the institution. What he did not realize was that once he was admitted to the institution, he would not be released until the medical staff felt he was safe for society.

McMurphy goes about living in the institution, and creates a society among several of the patients, which has a large impact on the structure of the institution. His relationships with the other patients in the ward develops into a society where thoughts and opinions grow and interfere with the flow of the institution’s rules and regulations, and friction is made between the authorities and the patients.

McMurphy strives to overcome the head nurse, Nurse Ratchet, and finds himself understanding the mentalities of the others in the ward.

Insanity

This movie’s theme is about insanity and how people on “the other side” of the wall view the term “insanity”.

Society

The term “society” is defined as a group of people that share a culture and common identity. This society is present when McMurphy is admitted to the institution, but he changes it by developing relationships with the other patients. This can be described as social influence. Social influence is where other people have an impact on and change the thoughts, perceptions, and behaviors of others.
When McMurphy first arrives at the institution, the other patients follow a structure in the institution where interactions with others are limited. Many of the patients are withdrawn from others, and only follow the daily “routine” assigned to them. This is a society of order and regulations, and the members of this society have a culture and common identity of being “insane” and in the institution for medical treatment.

Role Conflict

McMurphy changes this society by influencing the other patients. During his time in the ward, McMurphy develops relationships with the other patients and teaches them to interact with one another more completely. He also how to work towards what they wanted with both their accommodations in the hospital, as well as their personal goals for themselves and their success with their treatment.

While he is doing this, Nurse Ratchet becomes enraged at his attempt to change the system she strongly encourages and abides by. There is an unspoken feud between the two, and there is a role conflict between them as well. The role conflict is between the power of the authority, and the obedience of the patient.

Since McMurphy is expressing his desire for change, he other patients follow his lead and also demand their own desires. Nurse Ratchet begins losing her authority over the patients and McMurphy gains influence over the patients.

Group Power

The patients, led by McMurphy, form a group. This group interacts with one another, and recognizes their identity through their involvement with each other. Since there is only a group of patients in the entire ward that really interact with one another, this group becomes a primary group. These are the select patients that grow close with each other and possess common thoughts and desires.

There are specific norms in the institution that are expected to be followed by the patients, as well as the employees of the ward. McMurphy and eventually, the other inmates constantly violate these norms.

For instance, McMurphy bribes a security guard to allow his female friends into the ward with alcohol, and the patients have a party during their sleeping time. No visitors are allowed, and certainly no alcohol, but the patients enjoy themselves and disregard that they are violating a norm of the institution.

Culture

Non-material culture is present both inside and outside of the institution. The patients outside of the institution violated the aspects of non-material culture involving appropriate behaviors and patterns of interaction. This is why they are living in the institution- they violated these norms of behavior and interaction. Some of the patients were voluntary, but they felt that they were inconsistent with the interactions with others in their personal lives. Others, like McMurphy, were seen as dangerous or unhealthy to society, and their interactions or behaviors were inappropriate when compared with the non-material culture of their society.

Punishment

Due to the violated norms and inappropriate interactions of these patients, sanctions were the responses from the rest of society and also the medical staff of the institution. For instance, since the patients in the hospital were seen as unsafe to society, others sanctioned them by being placed in the institution. Also, when McMurphy violates the norms of the institution by rioting with the other patients, and he attacks a hospital orderly, he is given shock treatment to control his emotions and behavior. This sanction was a medical treatment that was deemed necessary by the hospital staff because they felt that McMurphy, as well as two other patients, were out of control and insubordinate to the norms of the institution.

Medicalization

Each of the inmates in the institution are prescribed and administered medications by the hospital staff to control their illnesses. In fact, there is one scene that emphasizes “medication time”, and each of the patients must take their prescribed medication in view of the head nurse. McMurphy questions the contents of his medicine, and is refused any information, even though it is his body the medicine is entering. This is a perfect example of medicalization, for these patients do not have a choice of whether they feel medicine is necessary for their treatment. The doctors make that decision for each patient based on their opinions and “expertise”. Many of these opinions are based on the ideals of absolutism, where the doctors determine what is either absolutely right or wrong in the patient’s behavior, and when it is wrong, what medical treatments are necessary for them.
When the patient’s do something that is considered wrong, it is defined as deviance. The patient’s deviance is determined by whether or not their action, idea, or attribute is offensive, immoral, or strange to society. For example, McMurphy was originally sentenced to a work camp, the crime he committed was statutory rape, which is considered immoral to society.

The expectations of these patients are to behave, think, and interact in accordance with society’s ideals. Because the patients stray from these expectations, their actions are considered violations. The reaction to these violations is first, the admittance to the institution, and after that, medicalization of the deviants once they have entered the institution.

Groupthink

Groupthink is present in the society of the patients, because at one instance, McMurphy pressures the others into voting with him for a decision that is made by the entire ward. This creates a unanimous vote among the primary group, and causes a patient outside of the group to vote by his own rationalizations. Groupthink is defined as just that- the process where pressures to achieve a unanimous decision influence and overwhelm other ability to decide for themselves.

Society Structure

This institution has the structure of a bureaucracy. Although this is not a place of employment for the patients, there are a set of rules and expectations that the patients are expected to follow, and the doctors and staff rule the institution. There is also a division of labor present among the staff, for certain employees have specific guidelines and defined duties for them to complete and work by. And there is also a hierarchy of authority in the institution, for certain professionals are deemed more important and therefore have more power and authority over the other employees. For example, the head nurse has more authority than the orderlies do, and the doctors have more authority than the head nurse does.

Social reconstruction

The patients, against some of the regulations of the institution, take collective action. The patients begin to violate the rules, and also voice their frustrations involving the policies they feel are wrong or unnecessary. At group meetings, which are supervised and instructed by Nurse Ratchet, the patients not only ask for change to fulfill their wants and needs, but they demand them as well. The patients also show their demand for change by violating the rules one evening, and having a large party after McMurphy bribes a security guard. The ideology of the patients is that of the want for mental freedom and also more changes they feel are necessary.

After the patients take their collective action against the authority of Nurse Ratchet and the institution’s policies and regulations, there is a collapse in the order of the ward.

In order for the staff of the hospital to regain control after the party the patients held, strict sanctions are administered to some of the patients, and McMurphy receives a frontal lobotomy as a “treatment” for his unwillingness to cooperate and abide by the rules and norms.

a video on Lobotomy:

Conclusion

After analyzing this movie, I now have a deeper understanding of many sociological concepts, and also of mental institutions and the lives and mentalities of the patients in them. I am very pleased that I chose this film, for it provided me with a lot to think about, and it gave me a chance to see a more in depth look about “insanity” and the way it is perceived by society. Although this movie was originally made for entertainment purposes, I think that it is a key factor in the learning and understanding of sociology and also psychology. I also think that it would provide a better understanding to all of us that remain on the “sane” side of the wall.

Here is the Novel eBook by Ken Kissey.