A new decrease in the price of fuel has been decided in the Automatic Pricing Mechanism meeting yesterday night.

So here are the new prices :

Essence : Rs 39.80/L to Rs 36.85/L (-Rs 2.95)

Diesel : Rs 41.00/L to Rs 37.95/L (-Rs 3.05 )

Thanks to Carrot for giving me the link to APM, had lost it

So, here it is, again : The official site of APM

Have a nice day everyone…

© Yashvin for Yashvin, pages of my life, 2008.

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Categories : Articles & News, General, MRU,Police,Law
Post tagged with : APM, APM Mauritius, Automatic Pricing Mechanism, diesel decrease, fuel descrease, fuel desrease price, govt descrease fuel price

On the dawn of 17^th August 1744, the Saint Geran , a majestic vessel under the command of Captain Delamere appeared in the North of the island. It was its first trip in the region.

Six months earlier, that is, on the 24^th March, several passengers boarded the vessel at the port of Lorient, along with cargo which included windmills ordered by Mahe de Labourdonnais for Villebague Sugar Estate, situated near Pamplemousses.

All of a sudden, at two in the morning, the ship was violently shaken. The alarm rang. Everybody, some still asleep, rushed outside on the deck. They were terrified by what they saw. The main mast was broken, crushing the lifeboats under its weight. Merciless waves had split the vessel into two. The passengers knelt to pray, the crew made a raft, which rapidly sank with its victims.

There were only nine survivors inspired by the tragic plight of these lovers, Bernardin de Saint Pierre wrote “Paul et Virginie” in 1787.This novel which vents the charms of the tropic has become over the years, the symbol of love and fidelity.

C’est un navire dont les Mauriciens ont toujours partagé avec fierté les secrets, surtout quand Bernardin de Saint Pierre l’immortalisa dans son roman « Paul et Virginie «.

Armé de 23 canons, avec un tirant d’eau de 600 tonneaux, il fut lancé à Lorient le 11 Juillet 1736 le capitaine Laurent du plessis lui fit prendre la mer pour son premier voyage de Lorient à Pondicherry le 11 novembre 1739. Par la suite, il fut commandé par le Capitaine Porée de la Toche.

Le Saint Geran devait faire naufrage le 17 août 1744 au Nord de l’île de France, aujourd’hui appelée Maurice. Ce fut le Capitaine Richard de Lamarre qui accompagna le SAINT GERAN vers son destin, avec à son bord un équipage de 149 hommes, 13 passagers, ainsi que plusieurs esclaves.

]]> http://www.mauritiusblogtracker.com/2008/12/02/saint-geran.html/feed http://www.mauritiusblogtracker.com/2008/12/01/sites-internet-utiles-useful-web-sites.html http://www.mauritiusblogtracker.com/2008/12/01/sites-internet-utiles-useful-web-sites.html#comments Mon, 01 Dec 2008 15:14:52 +0000 Patrick Ng http://pngpingching.wordpress.com/?p=159

Voici les adresses de quelques sites internet qui pourraient s’avérer très utiles lorsqu’on a besoin d’un dictionnaire français et qu’on n’en a pas à porter de main.

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Here are the addresses of some web sites which could be very useful when we need a French dictionary, but don’t have one handy.

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       ]]> http://www.mauritiusblogtracker.com/2008/12/01/sites-internet-utiles-useful-web-sites.html/feed http://www.mauritiusblogtracker.com/2008/12/01/think-on-your-feet.html http://www.mauritiusblogtracker.com/2008/12/01/think-on-your-feet.html#comments Mon, 01 Dec 2008 15:10:13 +0000 joseph http://www.josephyiptong.com/?p=832

At Toastmasters, the members practice the art of thinking on one’s feet. Here are some tips which I collected from the web.

Staying Cool and Confident Under Pressure

“So, Susan, your report indicates you support forging ahead with the expansion but have you considered the impact this will have on our customers? Surely you remember the fiasco in Dallas last year when they tried the same type of project?”

Yikes! If you’re Susan, you’re likely feeling under pressure! You have to answer the question and allay the CEO’s concerns about the disruption to customers. What do you do? What do you say? How do you say it? What if you can’t think of anything to say?

This is not an uncommon situation. Whether you are put on the spot while attending a meeting, presenting a proposal, selling an idea, or answering questions after a presentation, articulating your thoughts in unanticipated situations is a skill. Thinking on your feet is highly coveted skill and when you master it, your clever and astute responses will instil immediate confidence in what you are saying.

When you can translate your thoughts and ideas into coherent speech quickly, you ensure your ideas are heard. You also come across as being confident, persuasive, and trustworthy.

Confidence is key when learning to think on your feet. When you present information, give an opinion or provide suggestions, make sure you know what you are talking about and that you are well informed. This doesn’t mean you have to know everything about everything, but if you are reasonably confident in your knowledge of the subject, that confidence will help you to remain calm and collected even if you are put unexpectedly in the hot seat.

The secret of thinking on your feet is to be prepared: learn some skills and tactics, and do some preparation for situations that might put you under pressure. Then when you do find yourself faced with unexpected questions and debate, you’ll be ready to draw on these tactics and preparation, and so stay poised while you compose your thoughts and prepare your response. Here are some tips and tactics:

1. Relax
This is often the opposite of how you are feeling when you’re under pressure, but in order for your voice to remain calm and for your brain to “think”, you have to be as relaxed as possible.

• Take deep breaths
• Take a second and give yourself a positive and affirming message
• Clench invisible muscles (thighs, biceps, feet) for a few seconds and release.

2. Listen
It comes as no surprise that listening is critical to thinking on your feet. Why do you need to listen? To make sure you fully understand the question or request before you reply. If you answer too soon, you risk going into a line of thinking that is unnecessary or inappropriate. To help you with your listening remember to:

• Look directly at the questioner
• Observe body language as well as what is being spoken
• Try to interpret what is being suggested by the question or request. Is this an attack, a legitimate request for more information, or a test? Why is this person asking this and what is the intention?

3. Have the Question Repeated
If you’re feeling particularly under pressure, ask for the question to be repeated. This gives you a bit more time to think about your response.

At first glance people think this will only make them look unsure. It doesn’t. It makes you look concerned that you give an appropriate response. It also gives the questioner an opportunity to rephrase and ask a question that is more on point. Remember, the questioner may well have just “thought on his or her feet” to ask the question, so when you give them a second chance, the question may well be better articulated and clearer to all.

By asking to have the question repeated you also get another opportunity to assess the intentions of the questioner. If it is more specific or better worded, chances are the person really wants to learn more. If the repeated question is more aggressive than the first one, then you know the person is more interested in making you uncomfortable than anything else. When that’s the case, the next tip comes in very handy.

4. Use Stall Tactics
Sometimes you need more time to get your thoughts straight and calm yourself down enough to make a clear reply. The last thing you want to do is blurt out the first thing that comes to your mind. Often this is a defensive comment that only makes you look insecure and anxious rather than confident and composed.

• Repeat the question yourself. This gives you time to think and you clarify exactly what is being asked. It also allows you to rephrase if necessary and put a positive spin on the request. “How have I considered the impact on customers in order to make sure they have a continued positive experience during the expansion?”
• Narrow the focus. Here, you ask a question of your own to not only clarify, but to bring the question down to a manageable scope. “You’re interested in hearing how I’ve considered customer impacts. What impacts are you most interested in: product availability or in-store service? ”
• Ask for clarification. Again, this will force the questioner to be more specific and hopefully get more to a specific point. “When you say you want to know how I’ve analyzed customer impacts, do you mean you want a detailed analysis or a list of the tools and methods I used?”
• Ask for a definition. Jargon and specific terminology may present a problem for you. Ask to have words and ideas clarified to ensure you are talking about the same thing.

5. Use Silence to your Advantage
We are conditioned to believe that silence is uncomfortable. However, if you use it sparingly, it communicates that you are in control of your thoughts and confident in your ability to answer expertly. When you rush to answer you also typically rush your words. Pausing to collect your thoughts tells your brain to slow everything down.

6. Stick to One Point and One Supporting Piece of Information
There’s a high risk that, under pressure, you’ll answer a question with either too much or too little information. If you give too short an answer, you risk letting the conversation slip into interrogation mode. (You’ll get another question, and the questioner will be firmly in control of how the dialogue unfolds). When your reply is too long, you risk losing people’s interest, coming across as boring, or giving away things that are better left unsaid. Remember, you aren’t being asked to give a speech on the subject. The questioner wants to know something. Respect that and give them an answer, with just enough supporting information.

This technique gives you focus. Rather than trying to tie together all the ideas that are running through your head, when you pick one main point and one supporting fact, you allow yourself to answer accurately and assuredly.

7. Prepare some “what ifs”
With a bit of forethought, it’s often possible to predict the types of questions you might be asked, so you can prepare and rehearse some answers to questions that might come your way. Let’s say you are presenting the monthly sales figures to your management team. The chances are your report will cover most of the obvious questions that the management team might have, but what other questions might you predict? What’s different about this month? What new questions might be asked? How would you respond? What additional information might you need to have to hand to support more detailed questions?

In particular, spend some time brainstorming the most difficult questions that people might ask, and preparing and rehearsing good answers to them.

8. Practice Clear Delivery
How you say something is almost as important as what you say. If you mumble or use “umm” or “ah” between every second word, confidence in what you are saying plummets. Whenever you are speaking with people, make a point to practice these key oration skills:

• Speak in a strong voice. (Don’t confuse strong with loud!)
• Use pauses strategically to emphasize a point or slow yourself down
• Vary your tone and pay attention to how your message will be perceived given the intonation you use
• Use eye contact appropriately
• Pay attention to your grammar
• Use the level of formality that is appropriate to the situation.

9. Summarize and Stop
Wrap up your response with a quick summary statement. After that, resist adding more information. There may well be silence after your summary. Don’t make the common mistake of filling the silence with more information! This is the time when other people are adsorbing the information you have given. If you persist with more information, you may end up causing confusion and undoing the great work you’ve already done in delivering your response.

Use words to indicate you are summarizing (i.e. “in conclusion,” “finally”) or briefly restate the question and your answer. So - what did I do to analyze customer impacts? I reviewed the Dallas case files in detail, and prepared a “What if” analysis for our own situation.”

Key points:

No one enjoys being putting on the spot or answering questions that you aren’t fully expecting. The uncertainty can be stressful. That stress doesn’t need to be unmanageable and you can think on your feet if you remember the strategies we just discussed. Essentially, thinking on your feet means staying in control of the situation. Ask questions, buy time for yourself, and remember to stick to one point and make that one point count. When you are able to zoom in on the key areas of concern, you’ll answer like an expert and you impress your audience, and yourself, with your confidence and poise

Huge disappointment & complete failure!

I don’t have any other words to describe the new version of l’express.mu, a site which I visited daily to get the latest news!

When I visited the site yesterday night (Sunday), the new “web 2.0″ was already online, with loads of errors.

I was going to blog about it, but however I said to myself, perhaps that they are on a testing phase, so I should give them some time, until today during which the site was going to be officially launched.

However, during the day, I noticed that Island Crisis had already blogged about this new version of l’express.mu where a guest author was complaning about the site itself.

On my way back home, my colleague Ashvin told me to check the site, since there was a .NET crash, the famous yellow screen

Bad strategy ?

According to me, the new version of l’express.mu should have launched, besides the existing one for many practical reasons.

Despite being a cyber island, where we are selling our expertise to foreign countries, an Indian Company (4C plus) has been selected for the development of the site.

Built with Latest Technologies?

Despite that .NET Framework 3.5 is already available since months, the web site has been developped using the 2.0 version :S

The lack of proper use of Ajax and awful UI is so obvious…

For example, when you click on the different tabs below, no feedback or loading image…and a few seconds later, you will barely notice that the “tab” has been changed!

You may also notice the time that the pages take to load or timeout problem due to server problems.

e-version?

As mentioned in an article by Avinash Meetoo, a flash web site is being used to offer an “e-version” of the newspaper.

Who would damn care about viewing a ‘real” format version of the newspaper, which takes ages to load and not practical at all to view in a computer screen?

Adverts à gogo!

If you succeed in surfing on the new web site, you may find something very annoying… the adverts!

I don’t understand why they have included so much adverts on the site, on the first day itself… Money? It seems the most logical answer…

I myself have been online since more than 2 years now, and I never considered putting adverts on my blog, not yet…

Amateurism!

Check out the picture that they included on this page!

I will be ashamed to put that, even on my personal web site!

Maintenance en cours

Since a few minutes(around 730pm MRU time), it seems that the technical team has decided to shut down the site (or part) by putting a maintenance notice, as below.

Future of Mauritian Bloggers?

I fear that l’express.mu and La Sentinelle group may blacklist myself and other bloggers for writing about this failure regarding the planification and deployment of their new web 2.0 site, but they should keep in mind that just as journalists are here to report incidents, bloggers are not so different

I sincerely hope that l’express.mu will reconsider their web site, and the whole process of planification, testing and deployment, and why not, change their development company?

Dont forget, DCDM Consulting is here

Cheers for blogging!

© Yashvin for Yashvin, pages of my life, 2008.

Click here to visit the Original Post |
14 comments
Categories : Articles & News, Blogging World, General, MRU,Police,Law, Web & Tech
Post tagged with : bad planning for express, failure express, le defi media, lexpress.mu, mauritian newspaper online, mauritius blog express, mauritius blog newspaper, new version express, new version l’express, new version newspaper, web 2.0 newspaper