Skip to main content

6 months since returning to Sri Lanka...

It's 6 months since returning to Sri Lanka.
In simple words "we are confused, but hopeful"

Though I spent 82% of my life in SL, it is not easy to adapt. Last 6 months have been tough for all 3 of us. Health & quality of life have been bad. It's not the country that we expected. While materistically country has gone ahead, sprit of the people has gone down. In a way can't blame people, I think they are confused too. Heat & humidity are not helping them either. However much I earn, it looks nothing. I just keep running from one thing to another to earn whatever I can. In a way, now I feel it was a big mistake not to earn something while in US after finishing PhD. All this running around not helping our family & parents either (one of the key reasons for returning). If friends in the US may wonder why we are so hard to get in touch, this is why. Given the current school system in the country & how it is messed up, we have to worry about son's future. While a couple of good private schools are available, that means 2 of us have run around even more. Already got a couple of advices to leave the country before it's too late. No time to stop & think or do research. Perhaps the only good thing is I'm teaching again, which I like. Even then, given the workload it is tough to retain quality & do a great job. I don't know whether the problem is in us or it's the system. I guess both.

We are hopeful about the next 6-12 months. Either we'll adapt or need to find another fit. One thing my PhD & US experience taught me is that try everything that you can imagine & find a way to do things no matter what. If it needs to be done, it must be done. So I'm not afraid to try. While some may see this as my foolishness, I'm hopeful some of those will work out. Anyway, need to stop running around & be more focused. Would love to spend more time with family. Health should not be skipped either. Of course need to do some research otherwise I won't get the research allowance next year. Which means even more running to cover up... Whatever it may be I want to be a producer not a consumer...

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

1. Building P2P Simulators with OverSim - Where to Begin

This could be a series of blog posts about extending or developing your own OverSim applications & overlay networks. OverSim has a minimal tutorial on writing your own application & overlay network; however, it doesn't show the big picture. So, I'm wasting lots of time playing with code & trying to understand the rest. Good thing is, I like it more & more as I understand. You need to change/develop only a few things, but finding out which ones is a hell of a task. I hope this will not only make my life easy but also will be useful to new comers. Here's what you need to do: You need some background on OMNeT++ OverSim extend OMNeT++. But sometime it has its own way of doing things (to make your task even simple) so understand the differences . Develop several OMNeT++ simulators. TicToc is a good one to start with. Extend it as you imagine. Read Towards a Common API for Structured Peer-to-Peer Overlays , which is the basis for OvseSim's AP...

Small Basic for biginners

Microsoft recently introduced Small Basic, a programming language for beginners. It's a strip down version of BASIC with only 15 key words. It seems to be a fun programming environment & definitely worth while trying. You can write both console & graphical interface enabled programs & even develop your own version of Logo. Some of the features include: Its free 15 key words that support basic programming concepts including conditions & iterations Intellisense & context sensitive help Define variables on the fly, no need to explicitly define them Graphic programming Subroutines Third-party libraries can be plugged, API is given It even comes with a simple but comprehensive user guide that introduce basic programming concepts & Small Basic. Though it's intended for beginners, even advanced develops can use it to write scripts that perform simple day to day tasks.

Distributed Systems Mind Map

Though distributed systems are inherently distributed, autonomous, and parallel, all textbooks that I have read so far are boring & serial, going from one topic to another as they are independent topics. Wondering about how best to present all related topics and their relationships in my class, I came up with the following mind map. I was able to explain most of the key concepts using a single example of a web-based business that started selling flowers. It was a student who suggested that we consider selling flowers. It turned out to be a good example, as there had to be a connection to the physical world where the business also needed a geographical distributed delivery system. Taught of sharing the mind map. Though most of those branches can be broken down further this level of detailed was sufficient for my class (by the way it took 1 hour to finish the discussion on this slide). Distributed Systems Mind Map