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 :)