My top posts of 2012

20130317-highlights

I started blogging in March 2004 and, like a lot of bloggers, I blog a bit less now.

Here are a few of my highlights from 2012:

Feel free to revive the posts, comment on them and share them on social networks too.

Enjoy!

Gangnam Style Piracy

 
Gangnam Style is the most popular video on YouTube ever… as if I needed to tell you.

The video has been seen 978,000,000 times already. Simple maths tell us that it will probably reach 1,000,000,000 (1 billion) views in a few days.

Interestingly, one of the reasons this song and video are so popular is that PSY, the author, does not try to stop copycats. Thousands, including people here in Mauritius, have done their own interpretations of the song and posted them on YouTube. This has contributed massively towards the buzz for the official video. Naturally, PSY has managed to earn quite a lot of money, mainly by participating in TV commercials in Korea and elsewhere.

Piracy actually has helped sales and made an artist earn his living very very decently. Food for thought.

An update

The video has just reached 1,000,000,000 (1 billion) views on YouTube on 21 December (yeah, the day the world was supposed to end…) Read this very informative article on what Psy raps about and what Gangnam means.

Take Action : the Internet must remain free and open

I want the Internet to remain open and free. I don’t want some people and some governments to impose stupid rules on billions on us.

Read more here and here.

Take action now!

Made In Moris?!?

It’s funny how we, Mauritians, have still not understood that Kreol Morisien is a full-fledged language.

Take for example the Made In Moris campaign. What is  ”Made In Moris” supposed to mean? Why do people insist in mixing Kreol Morisien with English? Or French?

I have no problem using either Kreol Morisien, English or French. “Ine fer Moris”, “Fabriqué à Maurice” or “Made in Mauritius” all sound ok.

For example, for the local market, “Ine fer Moris” would be great. But for export products to France, “Fabriqué à Maurice” is good too and, of course, “Made in Mauritius” for all other uses.

What would you have chosen?

Now, coming to the three logos themselves, I must say I’m not too happy with any of them:

  1. The first one is way too complex and too, ahem, intellectual: a fingerprint in the shape of the island! It’s typically what non-designers come up with when they have to design a logo.
  2. The second one is too easy. Looks like a myriad of logos which are used everywhere in the world except that Mauritian colours are used.
  3. The third one is way too black and Facebooky.

Don’t tell me that criticising is easy while actually doing one logo is hard. I know that. But, as you all know, no one is paying me to come up with a logo.

In essence, don’t mix languages. Respect our Kreol Morisien.

And, please, come up with a nice logo.

Imagine a World without Free Knowledge

Imagine a world without free knowledge! This is what is going to happen if the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) are passed by the US Congress and Senate.

Wikipedia has been blacked out for the next 24 hours to raise awareness on this important issue.

Some people believe that they can dictate what other people know. I believe this is wrong. People should be free to decide how to get, adapt and create knowledge.

Knowledge needs to be free!

Update: Google (in the US only…), Reddit, Wired, Mozilla and WordPress are blacked out too. Glory to them.