News

Farewell Bernadette, Howard, Leonard, Penny, Sheldon, Amy and Raj

29 May 2019 By Avinash Meetoo Leave a Comment

Last night, Kyan, Anya, Christina and I watched the last episode of The Big Bang Theory.

Pictured above is the last scene from this last episode 279 after 12 years where the group of friends, Bernadette, Howard, Leonard, Penny, Sheldon, Amy and Raj (from left to right), have dinner in Leonard and Penny’s apartment like they always tend to do, even though Leonard and Amy had won the Nobel Prize in Physics only two months before.

Some of the 279 episodes were not too interesting. Sometimes, as geeks ourselves, we felt that instead of being a series for geeks, it was a series about geeks. I loved the last season though. Lots of fun. Lots of questions answered. And a lot of emotion in the last episode.

But I also have to admit that, because we have been watching The Big Bang Theory for 12 years (i.e. since Anya was 4 and Kyan 2), Sheldon and the others pretty much had become our friends.

So, farewell dear friends. It has really been a nice journey.

FM radio stations available in Mauritius

27 May 2019 By Avinash Meetoo Leave a Comment

Here are the various FM radio stations which can be listened to in Mauritius. The indicated frequencies are those which I use in Quatre-Bornes (i.e. the centre). I have also added a “separation” column, which is simply the difference in frequency compared to the immediately above radio. For example, the frequency of NRJ Maurice is 3.1MHz more than that of Radio Plus.

Separation	Frequency	FM radio station
–	87.70	Radio Plus
3.1	90.80	NRJ Maurice
2.4	93.20	Radio France Internationale (RFI)
0.8	94.00	Taal FM
2.1	96.10	Planet FM
1.2	97.30	Kool FM
1.9	99.20	France Inter (Réunion Island)
0.2	99.40	Best FM
1.4	100.80	Radio One
2.4	103.20	Wazaa FM
1.2	104.40	Top FM

While doing this calculation, I realised that France Inter (which is broadcasted from Réunion Island and which therefore has a weak signal) is just 0.2MHz distant from Best FM (which has a very strong signal). Personally, I believe that this 0.2MHz might explain why when I am travelling towards the University of Mauritius, for example, France Inter is slowly “covered” by another station. This might well be Best FM…

Anyway, from this post on Frequency Modulation, FM Sidebands & Bandwidth, I have learned that 0.2MHz is the minimum acceptable frequency separation. Their exact words are: “To take the example of a typical broadcast FM signal that has a deviation of ±75kHz and a maximum modulation frequency of 15 kHz, the bandwidth of 98% of the power approximates to 2 (75 + 15) = 180kHz. To provide conveniently spaced channels 200 kHz is allowed for each station.”

Maybe I should offer a small advice to MBC and MTML: Change the frequency of Best FM to 100.00MHz and everyone will be happy :-)

A simple map for Addictive Drums

30 January 2019 By Avinash Meetoo Leave a Comment

I am quite a fan of Addictive Drums 2. One thing which is quite surprising about this plugin though is that 6 octaves are used to trigger the various drums in various ways, unlike a lot of other drum plugins which tend to use 1 or 2 octaves. To make things easier for me, I created a map for Addictive Drums which I find simpler to read and understand that the map which is used in the manual:

Download it for free in PDF format by clicking on the map above or here.

Enjoy :-)