Springfield, MO

It was a busy day. We packed our stuff, sort everything out and left Norman. Our plan was to get as close as possible to St Louis, MO by tonight. Finally, we stopped at Springfield, MO. Somehow we always stop at Springfield, MO in between Norman and St Louis. This is our second time stay in Springfield. In turns out that I always end up in some hotel room in Springfield. I have no idea about this city. I saw a long list of tourist places downstairs of our hotel. I think there are couple of popular places nearby. I will make some plan for Springfield someday. For tomorrow, our plan for tomorrow is to wake up early in the morning, have breakfast and start toward St Louis.

Real life

My next stop is Seattle, WA. I would be there for some time. This part of my life is often called real life. Like Fareed Zakaria, I also don't know why the other part is not real. The real life is not entirely new to me. I had a glimpse of it back in 06. I worked for KAZ Software Ltd for two years. I am not sure whether KAZ was like real world or not, I had enjoyed every moment of KAZ. I am still proud of KAZ. I met some brightest people there. I often think about KAZ, the more I think, the more I respect Wahid Aziz Chowdhury. I think he is the architect of such a great work place in Dhaka.

KAZ was not very famous when I started working for KAZ. I don't know whether KAZ is famous now or not. When I went to the interview I was not very sure about the company. Even when I joined KAZ, I didn't know much. I was kind of taking chance. But one thing I was sure about, I liked the people. I liked the people I met on my interview. So I was not too worried about the company. After all it is the people that make an organization.

I am going to join Amazon on May 27th. This part of my real life would be defined by Amazon. Amazon is a big name, apart from everything, I liked the people who interviewed me. I know that does not matter much for big companies like Amazon. But that matters for me. I believe I have to spent at least one third of my day with my colleagues. So, they need to be the way I want. Let's see what real life has for me.

Norman, OK

I am counting my last days in Norman. I came here in Norman from Dhaka back in 2008. Norman is the place how I know America. I have been living in Norman since then. Zafar was asking how many days I can recall out of my 5 years in Norman. I think I can recall pretty large number of days. I have tons of memories in Norman. I have my success stories, I have my failure stories. I saw my dreams, materializing into reality, I witnessed my dreams, evaporating into ashes.

Norman is one of the best places to live. I have enjoyed my days in Norman. I didn't know what to expect from Norman when I first came here. Everything was a surprise. I think as a college town, Norman offered way more than I expected. I meet my life parter here in Norman.

I think the beauty of Norman lies in its tranquility. It has an interesting attraction to its dwellers. Norman pretty much except everyone from everywhere. Life in Norman is usually very slow. It's not a very happening city. Today here is not much different from yesterday. Again, it has everything a modern city dweller might need on daily basis. In that sense Norman was perfect balance between busy and calm life. People who live here tend to keep living here.

I think I would miss Norman. I would miss its tranquility, its vive during the first week of fall. I guess my life won't have fall, spring and summer any more.

Dallas, TX

Shirshendu describes it best when he says every big city is like a giant blender, it blends everything. People are blended with their creations. Every big city has its own appeal to its people. We, the city dwellers can never leave them. We have a sort of invisible bond with our own loving cities. The bond that got into our gene long ago in Mesopotamia.

Every city has its own unique message to the visitors. And in my experience the message is not too hard to grasp. You would probably can tell once you rest your feet in the city. Somehow I never can grasp the message of Dallas. I have been in Dallas in numerous occasions. But still, I am not sure what is the message Dallas is trying to convey. In that sense, Dallas is always a mystery to me.

Dallas is a city of immigrants. I guess Dallas is the most accepting city. It accept anything from anyone. And it's beauty is it evaporates everything from everyone without affecting itself at all. I have been in other big cities. You can probably tell what differences immigrants have brought into the city. But for Dallas it is hard to tell whether there is any immigrant at all. Somehow everyone becomes a Texan after a while. Or maybe the message is how it changes everything on its own way. Maybe the message is don't dare to mess with Dallas, it will evaporates you.

Somehow, this city feels very dull to me. I don't feel the life in Dallas. This city has so many diversity but somehow I can't feel it's life at all. There is hardly any activity on the street. I feel like something is missing, everything is so polished and artificial. This city does not appeal me at all. But for sure it is as lovely as any other cities to their dwellers. I guess I will never get the message of it or may be recognise the message of it.

Doctor of Philosophy

I am often asked what's my blog is all about? I guess the straight forward answer is life journal. I think my blog is a life journal. I think in that sense, it would be incomplete without a post about recent course of events. I got my PhD!

What's interesting in that? PhD is an interesting diploma unlike any other I have stumbled upon before. It is an art that require superb craftsmanship. I don't think the dissertation defense has much importance independently. But the time one has to been throw to get to the defense is the lesson of PhD. It requires patience and tons of it. I have heard that many of my friends are not happy with their advisor, actually it is even worse. But I am not sure why? I think at this stage of our life we should understand there is nothing called absolute right or wrong. Advisors are human being and they are bound to differ with you in hundred different ways. And the lesson of PhD is you have to get it done, no matter what.

I am hoping PhD is meant to make one more tolerable to the ideas that he/she doesn't share. PhD doesn't teach you more interesting stuff in your area, it teaches you the overall human quality. Sure, you could read few more papers and books but if you think that's what PhD is all about then I suggest you better try something else. The reason over many years it is called "Doctor of Philosophy" not "Doctor of Computer Science" is because it is not meant to teach you Computer Science, it is meant to teach you Philosophy. The philosophy of patience, tolerance, perseverance and systematic way of thinking. Sure, I have read lots of books and articles but those are not the lessons I learned. They were just a media to learn the lessons of PhD.

At the end of the day, it is "Doctor of Philosophy," we are expected to learn and master the philosophy not computer science.

PhD!

Finally I got the oral presentation of my defense done. Last five years of work materialized throw my degree. I think I am happy. The milestone has been touched.

Google wave

I was exploring tumblr today. Tumblr is interesting. I think Tumblr was designed for mobile and they got superb mobile app for social networking. Then, I spend some time with Facebook home. Facebook home, no doubt an interesting concept but I feel like Facebook overestimated themselves. All of these remind me of google Wave.

I was not a big fan of google Wave. But then, I realized google Wave might have had better future if it would  have been released after mobile revolution. Google Wave was build on based on the idea that everything is a conversation. If you think about that in your desktop that sounds like chat but if you think about that for mobile, that is exactly what we call mobile social networking. In that sense, google Wave was little ahead of its time.

This is an interesting problem. A product no matter how good it is, if it is ahead of time, there is no hope for it. Look at tablet, it was a Microsoft's concept, just little ahead of time. Some people might argue, it is the software that didn't click back in 2000. But I would argue otherwise, the world was not ready. People didn't know what they are going to do with such a device. They didn't know in 2010 either but it was easy to figure out in 2010 but not in 2000. There was not enough content clouds at that time either. PC was used for content creation at that time as oppose to content consumption. So when Microsoft introduced tablet people found it less useful. Over the decade the world had changed a lot. PCs shift their usefulness. They become a content consumption device as oppose to content creation. So, lightweight devices like tablet found their sweet spot in the market.

I think the world is ready for Google Wave now. I am hoping that we would see a reincarnation of wave pretty soon.

Freedom of speech

Not that I am a big fan of Obama, I but I think in the current context of Bangladesh I might share a speech of him

I know there are some who ask why we don’t just ban such a video. The answer is enshrined in our laws: our Constitution protects the right to practice free speech. Here in the United States, countless publications provoke offense. Like me, the majority of Americans are Christian, and yet we do not ban blasphemy against our most sacred beliefs.

Moreover, as President of our country, and Commander-in-Chief of our military, I accept that people are going to call me awful things every day, and I will always defend their right to do so. Americans have fought and died around the globe to protect the right of all people to express their views — even views that we disagree with.

We do so not because we support hateful speech, but because our Founders understood that without such protections, the capacity of each individual to express their own views, and practice their own faith, may be threatened. We do so because in a diverse society, efforts to restrict speech can become a tool to silence critics, or oppress minorities. We do so because given the power of faith in our lives, and the passion that religious differences can inflame, the strongest weapon against hateful speech is not repression, it is more speech — the voices of tolerance that rally against bigotry and blasphemy, and lift up the values of understanding and mutual respect.

- Barack Obama

You might think there is no harm in something like Blasphemy law. Trust me, you know nothing about it :)

Mobile blogging

I don't write blog from my computer anymore. I have not been using blogspot Web interface for last two months. That's an interesting shift. It was quite predictable I guess. People like me who blog just for personal purpose don't have much thing to research. Blog in that case works more like personal tracker. It is no wonder the device that accompanies me most of my time would definitely have the upper hand when writing just for personal stuff.

I thing personal blogging would be one of those things that gonna be totally mobile in next few years. I guess social networking is another one. I just have one inconvenience which is typing. I hate mobile keyboard. I bought SwiftKey, but it didn't help much. Sometimes it becomes irritating. I guess there is plenty of room in this area. I guess there are lot of people who feel like me. That's why we see so many keyboard prototype surfacing on the Internet.

One interesting thing that gonna be very mobile is searching. When I say searching I don't mean researching. We do tons of quick search in our daily life for quick info. I guess mobile gonna take care of that from now on.

I see enormous potential on mobile devices for content consumption. But there is hardly any content creation. My biggest grievance is we cannot create content using Mobile devices except picture and video. That's why we see so many pictures and videos surfacing on the Internet now-a-days. I guess we are still lacking proper input method for these kind of devices. That's make me feel like these devices may not be in the market for long time. I do enjoy my devices though.

First draft

I just finished the first draft of my dissertation. I am feeling good. I have to revise it at least twice within next 15 days. I think writing the dissertation is a test of patience. Starting with an empty word file and watching it becoming bigger and bigger. I am thinking of adding one little thing today. I am going to send it to my advisor today no matter what. I have to prepare tons of materials for the course this week as well. I think I won't have much time this week. So I got to finish everything as quick as possible.

The clock is ticking real fast. I am going to defend my dissertation on April 17th, approximately one month from now. Thus I got to finish everything real fast. Life is pressing!