Teaching without a PhD

Is it a good idea? Really?

Cost of Service

This post is probably going to be the most naive thing you have ever read. It is also probably the reason why I am not on a path to a stable financial life.

So many people were smart in only going to school to find something that will make them money or secure their future. Take it from someone who is paying for it now. If you are doing well in school, choose something that WILL guarantee you security (financial and social). It does not matter how hard you work or how many years of education you have or how many honor societies you get into, you have to eat food, and food costs money.

An idiot like me signed up for computer science because it made natural sense. I know some people don’t think of computer scientists as anything worth anything, but for me, I was really intrigued by the idea that I would put my ideas (in the form of algorithms, programs and patterns) into systems that will simplify activities for people. Even today, a lot of people could probably work 3-4 hrs a day.

It is difficult to let go of the repetitive stuff because most people want to have control, but if they let the computers do some of the work, then they could spend more time on other things (family, friends, innovations).

Of course some employers will probably feel like laying off a whole bunch of people, but I think that the people should then be paid to oversee the software (not in technical terms but in a supervisor role). For example, a lecturer who has digitized his lessons and all can simply play videos for half the time, and then answer questions the other half (and I bet his/her mind will be more fresh to deal with helping students understand the material).

Time to go.

The King and the Horse

Recently, I have been working on the big bang. Big bang is supposed to do for software what the big bang did for the universe. At least, the universe of my software development life. The first chapter is called Genesis.

I have not thought of becoming a king, but I definitely do not want to be someone’s horse. My choice had already been made before this first battle. If I win it means I have to work harder to stay ahead. If I lost, it meant that definitely a lot of things waste my time so I need to focus more.

Honestly, 13 days of work cannot compete with a few years of a company. Even so, why spend time figuring out some system when I can be making a better system? It will be hard to stand alone, but to do so will prove to myself that I am strong enough and good enough. Maybe, then people will stop questioning what I am capable of even though they are looking to me for something.

It is happening everywhere to people with much more than I have. Genesis will begin small but will soon expand to everything. This is one time where I have to put my beliefs first. Exadus will be soon, but not for a year or so. Interesting thing is that the designs are there, but it just takes time to bring them into reality.

Social Networking – very lite

I finally decided to get more visibility on the web. Seems a lot of people find it hard to locate me. So many long lost friends (I must write a blog entry for each some time, just so they know that I am like an elephant – can remember stuff).

Hi5::

This one is interesting, but I find it rather boring. A lot of people like to post random stuff on the boards and walls. And some seem to have infected accounts that keep posting spam and requesting for friends. Not to say that this is everyone’s experience, but just mine. The cool thing though is that many people are on there, so I found a lot of long-lost very quickly.

Facebook::

I never joined in college. College life for me was more real than virtual so I didn’t see the need. Now I am out, I do think people are on there, so I did join for just the Alumni connections. If you search on facebook, you will probably find me. If you forget my name, go look at a project or assignment we did together :p . With facebook, I really am tired of all the status updates (which I am yet to figure out how to turn off). It is totally ridiculous that even bbc (a news website) allows users to simply pick what blocks appear on their pages (hint to facebook… if you don’t want to spare the database space, just allow the person to store such settings in cookies m-kay???). So each day I log in I see a lot of annoying status updates. Hi5 has the same problem.

So if you are wondering what I want to use social networking for, I want to use it for social networking but only for items I am interested in. For some people I send small messages (I know you are wondering why I don’t use email). The whole friends thing is a lot like opening up someone’s contacts. It is really nothing new but it seems it is just allowing things that the email companies and website communities weren’t allowing people to do (like search for other people they might know).

I really don’t feel like joining all the social networks. I know there are tools to allow me to join and publish to all of them, but I really don’t feel like spending any more of my youth configuring something like that. I will rather spend the time trying out some of the APIs for some of these (really interesting things, those).

Eventually, I predict that all the services will merge. I am working on something like that, but I can’t talk about it till I ask permission from my supervisor.

Research??? Okay!!

At long last, I have to get on with it. I am really tired of writing grants.

Scenario. My highest degree is a Masters degree. University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI) is cool and really awesome, but in Ghana that probably doesn’t count for much. So, I take a job lecturing (small department, but I might like the job sometimes). I really need to go back for a PhD at some point (because I am really tired of certifications and such), and also need to certify with a PhD what I think I am capable of.

To get into a top PhD program, I need a solid background, and maybe proof of research. Notice I didn’t say teaching experience and passion to be in academia because I am already learning a lot.

Back to the issue of research, I don’t get many grants because I suspect I am just a MSc graduate.

Change of plan. I will just do the work (my own time, money etc) just to prove that I am smart. That’s how I got into undergraduate anyway – I had to study for some examinations, take some extra tests and all to prove I was smart enough. Okay. Let’s get this on.

Of course, this means that I have to balance work and personal life (again). I really want to avoid lecturing courses that are low priority (high priority are those related to my area that I am interested in).  Currently, I am thinking systems, computer languages, knowledge, databases and intelligence. I would have added architecture, but I have to focus. In any case, all of these have merged in my head as one, and though a lot of universities try to seperate the subjects (to probably help people focus) I am glad to see that a few places like Berkeley do say somewhere on the CSc page (I will find link) that all CS has a common core that everyone requires (I am guessing Mathematics/Complexity Theory/Algorithms, Computer Languages/Systems, Knowledge/AI, Architecture/Hardware). At least, that’s what I think. Now to find relevant items to work on.

Since I do not have a lot of resources, I do make sure to get my professional memberships (the usual suspects), but with bad internet connections here, sometimes I think I utilize about 2-5% of my potential access. I might have to bite the bullet and spend a large chunk of my salary (which is already dwindling — relatively to cost of living) on a good internet connection. At least, that part of working and collaborating in Ghana is totally bust because I don’t have a good connection. I might have to freelance to make money to get stuff done. Already under a lot of pressure from family, friends and nature. Nature says I am getting old and not cute and running past by best before date.

I just spend 20 minutes of my internet time typing. Back to work, I go

Spokes and Hubs

This summer, we have this interesting person from the D-Star Network (I think it is affiliated with the Digital Study Hall) come to our university. The project has been replicated all over India and there are some very smart people on board. The main idea is to record video/audio (whatever people use in presentations) and then allow people to share them. Simple idea, but gets a lot of mileage. In your work involves presentations, then you have surely thought (at least once) about recording yourself or making slides to aid in your work. If you have even been in an audience, then you surely have had the urge or wish to pause, forward rewind, etc. This is part of the idea, but there is an emphasis on collaboration and feedback.

How it works is that organizations (or whoever) record material being presented by experts (e.g. mathematics lecture) in a context relevant setting (e.g. for students in a village). Usually, just the presenter is recorded, or at least what looks like the view from someone in an audience in the front row. “Mediators” are people who are trained to replay these videos and to then engage an audience. If you have ever read a book or article (which most of you have unless you wrote everything in the world) and need to speak on it,  imagine being able to have the author or an authority playing in the background (under your control of course). Chances are, you will have a better time since you will not miss any points or important facts/ideas, and will also get to spent more energy engaging and interacting (e.g. answering questions) than simply expending energy redoing everything. Mediation is a little tricky, but it is easy to do if the context is right. For instance, if it is a mathematics course you are recording for, you need to make sure the student demographics are right
(because if you bring in stand-in audience like cats, everyone can tell that the people are not asking appropriate questions and the recording gets boring or irrelevant pretty quickly).

Today, we went to Ewutu (there are 3 of towns with Ewutu-* in the Central Region of Ghana) to see community health workers putting this into practice (with the help of Julia). Already, human beings and the organizations around them are like hubs (sources of information) and spokes (people who carry on information). In the technology case, it means that recording happen and are archived at locations, and then people are trained to use them. This is very important because it enables the “experts” to extend their knowledge far beyond their time and geographical boundaries.

This is really a great idea. As to what I am doing, I hope to get in some projects that have to do with collaboration (using technology). My main concerns are connectivity and suitability (or rather capability) of devices (mostly mobile) available. I was feeling guilty about using technology when there are other basic needs, but the truth is that some people use their phones or mobile devices for games, sms and phone-in games, and other entertainment related things. So if they use it for important things like health, I don’t feel guilty so much.

Already, my summer is getting booked. I really like the project, but I have to balance it against my other work. Traffic is a work-killer. I hate traffic. If as much was invested in communications here (e.g. internet and such) so that some people could communicate instead of move locations it would save a bundle. I feel the urge to move out of Accra because it is way to crowded. Getting to work takes an hour and getting back can take the same or more. That is hours lost every day sitting in traffic. Sadly, I am most productive when I am fresh, so spending time in traffic does build up stress and tire me out even before I get to work.

It’s all worth it though, or at least I hope it will all be so in the end.

Opinions on Knowledge and Concepts

The purpose of this post is to summarize some of the discussions I tend to have with people when it comes to learning and knowledge. This discussion often comes up when people want to show off to me one thing or another that they discovered that they did not know. Sometimes in their desire to show what they just learned, they go on a rampage against anyone who has already gone through the excitement phase.

Anyone who reads a lot, listens a lot, discusses a lot, and thinks a lot will start to see patterns in the world (physical, abstract, logicial etc). There is so much information, data and experiences out there that people are often lost on focusing on instances of concepts. I can’t speak much on my smarts but for many things people are getting excited about these days, I have seen them in one form or another (and lost the excitement phase). There was an interesting article by Stonebraker titled “What goes around, comes around” and it is one of the readings I assign to students to remind them to put things in perspective. I try to keep things in perspective where possible.

When a person loses perspective or tries to focus on every single instance or example, they will probably suffer from information overload (i.e. so much to look at that they do not get much done) or tunnel vision (where they focus on a few examples and lose the big picture altogether). To lose focus is like a person who tries to learn a language by simply buying some dictionaries and proceeding to memorize (without practicing it or speaking it).

Often I sit in my office and people come by one after another, and most people ask questions which are often of the same kind in different forms. Sometimes, it degenerates into product versus product, or that they saw something applied in a way they had not seen before. I enjoy such distractions now and then, but for those that paint things as though it has need thought of, I quickly grow bored. I must thank all my teachers, lecturers, professors, and tutors because I actually remember a lot even though I am more or less poor right now.

The invention of the subject of “Software Engineering” is a good example of how several patterns and ideas can crystallize to something meaningful so that people can spend less time arguing and more time working. I am not certified for any particular product, but I can get anything I can think or imagine done. Sometimes, some people ask me questions of the general form “what should I use this for?” or “why do I learn this?” or “how do I do this?”. The honest truth is that a lot of things just seem self-evident to me, and I always tend to have a good idea where I am headed when I need to get something done. I have had those interviews where people ask me to list all the features of C++ or something (like asking a writer to list all the words they know, or an artist to name all the colors they know). In the case of C++, I felt tempted to write out the syntax rules for the person, and for the artist bit I answered that there are combinations of R, G, B and light intensity. Most of the time when there is something to be done, I just look at the environment of tools and resources and naturally get things done. It is something difficult to explain.

I hope that by now you are starting to see the patterns in what I am speaking of. Speaking of which, I really love the work being done by the likes of the W3C. I see some patterns and concepts in many areas of computer science and engineering. Unfortunately, I might have exhausted my goodwill as well as severely disadvantaged lecturing in a 3rd world country with scarce research resources. It isn’t all bad but I suppose that I have to simply sit down and prove to the guys at the top schools that I am worth 3-4 years of their investment and my collaboration.

Currently, a lot of people also ask me about specific technologies. Honestly, I am also interested in subjects like computational mathematics (e.g. theory and algorithms) and higher level subjects. In time, I will like to focus on subjects/courses relevant to my career instead of relevant to specific jobs (especially when people can learn them b simply reading/practicing more).

Oops. This almost turned into a rant, so I have to go.

Human Organization

Humans are so disorganized and seem to thrive on it. The economy thrives on it, families thrive on it, and individuals thrive on it. Imagine if all the data that is public knowledge is available and accessible (yes, I like what Google did with search (don’t worry, I am not anyone’s fan boy/whip so if you hang around, you will eventually see both praise and flaming for everyone)). We have to start pulling together our knowledge. In the future, I will like to see a knowledge net (similar to semantic web (yes, the W3C ranks highly on my admiration list)) where people can deposit (to avoid duplicate work and to enable sharing/collaboration) as well as utilize information. The technical challenges are huge, but if we keep things simple and avoid hiding behind protocol firewalls (this is when companies make it hard for you to use YOUR own data or info) things should get better.

The way things thrive of disorganization now is that everything is difficult o find and hiding information seems to be important for some organizations. Isn’t it a waste that people duplicate efforts all over the place. Just go online and you’ll see. If you take software, and in particular opensource, it seems that everyone is doing everything. Really annoying. There is a paper by Hoare (who is a scientist) but speaks of the direction that software engineering has to take to the point that it is about requirements and configuration. Why do I have to sweat bullets going through another poorly written API manual? Same applies to social issues. Trying to find what the laws are and how the apply is such a mess that it actually requires that people be trained as “lawyers”. Since the law is integral to the function of society, shouldn’t it be easily accessible to all who can at least read English. Same for computer science too.

This is not just a technical thing though, but human organization (politics, economics and such) have to all change. Everyday, people speak of human rights. Sure, I believe in human rights. However, we also need to talk more of human duty (to support humanity). With these two items (human rights, and human duty) we should build our laws (yes, some people will be very sad because their religisms, emotiosms, and opinionisms will be out (the isms aren’t a tribute to popular culture, but a reference to “orgasms” because people guard some things as though they were the rights to orgasm. Oh, and I don’t care what gets you going :p ))). It is all about open frameworks and standards (at least that is how technology has made strides in the past few years (imagine having to code linux all by yourself if you wanted to do an OS project, and think of how many people benefit from availability of artifacts)). Open frameworks and standards should also be applied to human organization. Too bad, but that includes politics and economics. Most of the paragraph is on politics, but let me briefly speak on economics.

I have always found economics interesting, but I only took one introduction course as an undergraduate. It is really sad that everything economic is so dependent on politics, whims, control and money. It is the reason why people clear forests and pollute water. I am really excited about carbon trading, but I have a feeling that people with resources will just dominate that market as well. Somehow, we need to be able to factor in the basic human needs: an environment to live in, food for sustenance, health, education, pleasure and entertainment. The last two are important, but pleasure and entertainment have to be balanced against the sustainability of social relationships.

The issue seems to start going into rights, duty, privileges and compensation so I’ll think on that and post later.

Introduction to Humanity

I wonder if people will react to me differently once they realize how I think. That is the problem with communication. Interesting though is that whether you communicate or not people will still think and make assumptions, so perhaps it is better that we all communicate.

There could be a price to be paid though. While it is “cool” these days to be a “communicator”, “leader” <insert favorite descriptor hear>*, people react to communication in different ways. There is so much that I don’t say that I would like to say, and the same goes for many people who are brave enough to speak the truth. Perhaps my supervisor or future boss or wife or something could be reading this and will probably not say what their true reactions are.

It is to be expected though, because part of the socialization of humans is the ability to control what is said and not said (where appropriate). Despite this assumption, it would be nice if more people learned to control their reactions and unconscious impulses. I know that the ability to make quick, approximate and stereotypical judgments is possibly part of the way (and how) we function. However, I encourage all people reading these pages to keep an open mind.

My current thoughts are a result of my experiences, and what I write is a function of these experiences (which vary of time and place). It is possible that I may write something that I might change my mind about (and I will try to keep it updated if possible). I should caution that I will not be politically correct all the time, and expect people to be as tolerant of me as they are for their poster-child disadvantaged group (non-heterosexuals, non-racially-dominant-residents, non-religiously-dominant-residents, etc). I hope I have the courage to write freely, but I must confess that I still have flashbacks of utter terror on people’s faces when they read my journals (yes, I do keep journals since I could scrawl (yes, that means writing, drawing and painting)).

On another note, do note that I take the liberty to write in a natural manner that makes sense to me. Usually on paper, I draw circles and boxes and link them with lines, but when I type I may use several nested parentheses. This is not because I did computer engineering/science but it is because I have a tendancy to organize my thoughts that I found computer engineering/science interesting.

You can guess what my reaction to some of the subject areas will be. Even computer science seems disorganized sometimes, but it is even worse in other subjects (my opinion only, and probably would be different if I were more educated in those other subjects).

My appointment just strolled in, so I’ll end here.

Welcome

Welcome to by wordpress blog!

WordPress is really interesting. Wouldn’t be here if Google’s blogger/blogspot implemented low-level permissions. However, wordpress doesn’t make it easy to manage pages. Sometimes I wonder if the people who code these things actually use them. At least, the API is there and the smallest component has the properties I need so I can built on what I need. If all works out (when I have free time) you will see more of me.

Oh, and if you are trying to find out more about me it is probably better to just ask or search. I have a very low but visible profile (for years now). Remember not to rely on rumors.

Thanks,

Gyamfi