A review of 2009.
Blogging
For the first half of this year, my blogging frequency was pretty constant. But as soon as UOM resumed, the post count started dwindling down & this blog was almost threatened with extinction... I had to make a choice between Twitter studies & blogging. Instead, I came up with a compromise - at least 1 post per month, & I'm barely clinging to that resolution.
This state of blogging lethargy is expected to persist for the next 2 years. :(
Total posts: 313
Total comments: 2207
Most commented – 110 comments: Orange ADSL & My.T prices decrease on 1st March 2009!
Only 1 post did not have a comment – Nokia N86 8MP ;)
According to Google Analytics:
Total visits: 411,300
Total pageviews: 628,800
OS – Windows: 92.45%, Mac: 4.38%, Linux: 1.49%
Browsers – Firefox: 51.99%, IE: 31.87%, Chrome: 7.24%
Orange Mauritius
On the 1st of March 2009, Orange doubled the internet connection speed while maintaining the same price… & the same slowness - unusable between 6pm & 11pm. My 512kbps connection drops to 100kbps. It gets worst during holidays when speed drops during the day.
The only positive thing is that existing My.T users were given the choice not to pay for the additional TV channels.
A new fibre cable, LION landed in Mauritius, interconnecting Reunion & Madagascar for the time being, before extending to Mombasa in the future.
The good news is that the network of fibre-connected DSLAMs is already being laid by both Orange & Emtel. But there is no backbone to exploit its full potential - Eassy & SEACOM cables are expected to be connected to Mauritius next year.
28th September 2009 - Disaster. @OrangeMauritius joins Twitter & becomes massively unpopular. Check out some of the kind tweets that mention @OrangeMauritius.
In the wake of @OrangeMauritius's arrival on Twitter, a new Twitter meme was born. Following @OrangeMauritius is like ... manz mine bouille dans dipain. & so on...
& a hashtag as well, which has been used by almost all Mauritian tweeps - #orangemauritiusfail
Freebies
In 2009, I received tons of freebies.
On the 1st of January, I won several Rapidshare accounts & gave away one of them. (No, I won’t be organising any contest next year. Sorry.)
My good fortune vanished on Friday the 13th of March, & I had my PC power supply fried by a lightning bolt.
In April, I received a USB-powered plasma ball from Rapidshare. A really stupid choice because that thing is utterly useless to me. :|
In May, I got the chance to participate to the Microsoft’s Qui Veut Gagner Un PC competition. I managed to clear the first round & was among the 10 finalists. I did pretty well in the semi-final until the last question. A simple binary to decimal conversion stood between me & a laptop. & my brain failed me. :(
All I got was a Microsoft wireless keyboard & mouse. (& Sun got a PC!)
On Twitter, I won a domain from @NameCheap & a T-shirt from @District_Lines.
I thought 2009 would be very lucky for me, but my personal record of loserness remains untarnished - I still haven't won any major contest, competition or giveaway. o_O
Movies
My top 10 movies of 2009:
0. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
1. District 9
2. Gran Torino
3. Star Trek
4. Up
5. 2012
6. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
7. Public Enemies
8. Fanboys
9. Watchmen
10. X-men Origins: Wolverine
I had a mind-blowing experience watching Transformers 2 at the cinema - awesome CGI, massive explosions & Megan Fox gargantuan robots. But I have to admit that it had huge plot holes. That's why District 9 is the no. 1 film of 2009 for me. Star Trek fans will obviously disagree but D9 was the better sci-fi movie.
This list is quite constrained because I haven't had time to watch movies such as HP6, GI Joe, The Hangover, etc. & Avatar has neither been released in Mauritius, nor is there any decent rip on the web.
My track record with Hindi films is getting worst each year. I watched only 3 films this year!!
Music
The king of Pop, Michael Jackson died from an overdose of prescription drugs. A reminder of how not to live your life.
Linkin Park released a great song, New Divide, as Transformers 2 theme track & Atif Aslam sung his way yet again to the top of the charts with Tu Jaane Na & Tera Hone Laga Hoon from Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani.
Lance Armstrong & Michael Schumacher
The great Lance Armstrong was back in the Tour de France after a 3-year absence. Nevertheless, he still managed to finish 3rd, which means that next year's Grande Boucle will be a showdown between Armstrong & Alberto Contador.
The big news of 2009 - The Stig will be back in 2010! While he was unsuccessful in making a comeback for Ferrari as a replacement for injure Felipe Massa, Michael Schumacher will be racing under Ross Brawn for Mercedes. I can't wait for the 2010 F1 season to start! :D
Manchester United
2009 was definitely not a great year for Man Utd. While the team defended the Champions League title up to the final, the better team, Barcelona won it.
We lost Ronaldo to Real Madrid (bastardos!), Tevez to City (losers!) & bought Antonio Valencia & Gabriel Obertan. & the biggest surprise - of all strikers United could have bought, it was Michael Owen who joined on a free transfer.
The 2009-2010 EPL season hasn't been good so far. Only 1 defender, Patrice Evra (our best player this season), was not injured. With key midfielders turning into central-backs, United's performance has been mediocre. Hopefully, the January transfer window will bring in some much needed reinforcements. But given the inflationary prices, I doubt we'll be able to purchase the crucial creative midfielder.
The only consolation of 2009 - we won an 18th EPL title! (Which means that other club can no longer pretend to have won the most EPL titles, back in 1728.)
My top 3 goals of 2009:
Macheda vs Aston Villa
Ronaldo vs Porto
Michael Owen vs Manchester City
Climate Change
At the start of 2009, Barack Obama was sworn in as the US president. Big promises were made, some have already been fulfilled. In October, Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize, for reasons that are oblivious to most of us.
& at the Copenhagen UN Climate Change Conference, he demonstrated his sheer incompetence at convincing world leaders for a united stand towards tackling global warming with drastic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. You could say that he had his hands tied by powerful lobbies & senators back in the US. But if Obama cannot lead the world by example, who can? For me, the epic fail of the year is Barack Obama. No, he couldn't.
In Mauritius, we have our PM happily proclaiming how he got more money at COP15 from the rich countries. Will that money save Mauritius from sinking? Fighting global warming seems to be a lost cause...
Supercars
There were several supercars announced this year – the Aston Martin One-77, the Ferrari 458 Italia, the McLaren MP4-12C, the Lexus LF-A & the already available Lamborghini Murciélago LP-670-4 SuperVeloce & the Lamborghini Gallardo LP-550-2 Valentino Balboni. Best of the lot? No doubt the Ferrari 458 Italia. :P
Top Gear
Series 13 of Top Gear was pretty under-par compared to previous series, despite the unveiling of The Stig, Luckily S14 was much better & it was topped off by the best Top Gear episode ever, better than even Vietnam, Botswana & the Polar special.
The Bolivia Special was truly epic. An incredible journey throughout the Amazon jungle, the Death Road, one of the highest roads in the world at 5000m & one of the driest place on Earth, the Atacama desert (where the smallest living thing was Richard Hammond).
I did not even miss The Stig's South American cousin. Just one word - Wow! 10/10.
Windows 7
The best Windows OS of all time launched in 2009. Speed, reliability & usability were the main focus areas, not to mention the little tweaks & add-ons like DirectX 11, Virtual WiFi, XP mode, etc. that paves the way for future improvements.
Although I have yet to install Windows 7 RTM, I've been using many such apps/hacks that make Windows 7 a powerhouse. The best one is Microsoft Security Essentials, a lightweight & free antivirus solution. I'll surely write a post on that next year. For the time being, there’s my review of the Beta 1:
- Windows 7 Beta 1 Review: Part I – The Performance
- Windows 7 Beta 1 Review: Part II – The UI
- Windows 7 Beta 1 Review: Part III – The Bugs
H1N1
After the H5N1 bird flu virus, we had the H1N1 swine flu in 2009. Fortunately, the effects of this virus was no worse than seasonal flu. But the most worrying fact is that once a virus reaches pandemic levels, it becomes unstoppable. Even if you’re on an island in the middle of the ocean, you still can be affected. Now imagine if we have a deadly virus spread… :S
Mauritius - C'est un plaisir
Hey, Mauritius is the World's Leading Island Destination, & this is what they came up with!? Whether we like it or not, it's done now. We'll have to live with it. :|
What can I say? 2009 was the year when I transformed from a mild-mannered helpful tweep into a Jeremy Clarkson-inspired noob-&-twoob-bashing vicious Twilight-hating @orangemauritius-thrashing ruthless twat. Wow!
The Mauritian Pyramids
Arguably one of the most entertaining posts I’ve ever written. Quoting:
- This is a freemansory invention to bring mauritian people to a false religion and these pyramid are use for satanic ritual...
- Some spheres in Mauritius is now comparing the Great "Sphinx" of Egypt with the "LION Mountain" of Mauritius.
There is also the Amazing/famous Spiritual Park in Mauritius, which is near Pte Lascar.
The unbeileuvable "Energy Vortex" at Surinam.( which is now internationally recognised.)- Let me also point out that Mauritius has high energetic spots. It has been clearly pointed out of the Energy Vortex at Riambel, pt lascar spiritual park, we got the grand bassin, pieter both mountain as well as corps de garde, among other points.
- I can't miss to add concerning the 2012 phenomena. Its the date for a global ascension and i could see that Mauritius contains lot of these spots to help us for Ascension.
- we do have a phoenician past. just because we dont have documents does this imply that the phoenicians were never here..
- ..and let me add that the existence of portals/stargates are reported to exist round the planet...so y not one here?? mauritius is a mythical and mystical place, this is what i believe..
Read more on these 2 posts:
- The Mauritian Pyramids
- The Mauritian Pyramids II: More Than Meets The Eye
I’ll end this post with this EPIC Xkcd comic & a Happy New Year to all readers, bloggers, twitter followers, well… everyone! xD
