A Day in a Life

Some people have asked me why I don't update my blog anymore. I too started to wonder where my time actually vanishes. So one day, I decided that I will record down every single little thing that I do. I tried to write down everything faithfully, but there were many occasions that I just simply forgot -- especially when two or more people were in my office at the same time. In addition, many emails were not accounted for. That day I had an article deadline approaching, so I tried to focus on writing that article. In addition, I was in the process of finishing a grant application.

This is a story of a one normal day in my life.

• 7:00 My alarm goes off.
• 7:06 My alarm goes off again.
• 7:12 My alarm goes off and I get up.
• 7:15 Breakfast.
• 7:28 Shower.
• 7:30 My driver beeps me that he has arrived. I'm not even close to being ready.
  
• 7:48 I get to the car.
• 8:08 I arrive at university.
  
• 8:09 I was supposed to meet the deputy provost in the morning, but I see him walking towards the lecture halls: so no meeting this morning.
• 8:10 At my office door one of our IT lecturers complain that he's got headache: I give him painkillers.
• 8:12 I begin editing the article.
• 8:28 A students comes in to bring his late homework.
• 8:31 Two students come in to talk about their presentations today afternoon.
• 8:55 Students leave.
• 8:56 Class representative comes and asks me if we can switch C language quiz to be given Wednesday because he's in Dar es Salaam Tuesday.
• 8:58 Back to writing the article...
• 9:01 A colleague from Theology department SMS:s me, asking about who she should contact about a computer problem. I send two numbers to her.
  
• 9:04 A student brings in another try on his failed homework; I check it.
• 9:06 I head to the main building in order to meet the provost concerning a number of things: a work certificate for a teacher, a research permit, a published joint article, and some other things.
• 9:16 In front of the provost's office cashier stops me and asks me to come in to collect two cheques.
• 9:25 I see the provost, but he's with the bishop and a member of parliament, and we decide to meet at 11:00.
• 9:27 Back to my office, and back to the article...
• 9:30 I set my phone to silent mode so that I can work.
  
• 9:40 A colleague comes in to have a chat about our research project; I show her a book on syllabus design.
• 9:47 First-year students come in to borrow our department's digital camera.
• 9:49 I prepare and print out a borrowing list for the digital camera.
  
• 9:51 First-year students come and sign off the digital camera.
• 9:52 I can see that Global Outreach has called me twice. But I'm talking to my colleague so I decide to call them back right after the meeting.
  
• 10:02 I decide with my colleague that when I meet the provost, we will continue with administering our questionnaire. She sees that I'm a bit busy and decides to print the questionnaire somewhere else than on my printer.
• 10:03 Back to writing the article...
• 10:05 An email arrives from the Finnish embassy: they need my contact information: I start filling up the form.
• 10:14 Another student comes in to show his homework; we check it together and I help him with some corrections.
• 10:15 I send my information file to the Finnish embassy.
• 10:17 I grade, in Moodle, the homeworks of those students who popped by this morning
• 10:21 One student comes in and complains that he can't log on to Moodle. (He has forgot his password. I reset the password.)
• 10:23 Back to the article...
• 10:27 Student comes in to tell that "Moodle works again".
• 10:28 Back to the article...
• 10:37 The article I'm writing reminds me about another great topic for an article: I email my colleague about it.
• 10:40 Back to the article...
• 10:59 My phone reminds me to go and see the provost; I head towards his office.
• 11:15 I'm still waiting for the provost; he has gone somewhere.
• 11:16 I see the provost again, and the bishop and high-ranking party official give a go-ahead for our meeting. We have a nice chat and make some decisions about future plans.
• 11:45 Back to my office; back to the article...
• 11:46 An Indian colleague comes to tell me that his wife is coming to teach in our program from February on.
• 11:50 A Spanish colleague comes to pick up his work certificate.
• 11:53 With the Spanish colleague we sign 23 students' course certificates.
• 12:00 Spanish colleague tells me that he's interested in coming to teach at Tumaini: we have a half an hour chat about the possible ways of organizing that.
  
• 12:28 I visit another colleague to inform her about what we decided with the provost.
• 12:30 We agree that our data collection is going to get complicated and decide to go out to university park for a talk over a snack.
  
• 12:55 We can't figure out the best way to continue with the data collection, so we call a Tanzanian colleague about if we can meet him for advice.
• 13:05 Tanzanian colleague invites us to meet him already today at his house at 17:00.
• 13:11 Back to my office: back to the article...
• 14:15 Still working with the article (One hour of uninterrupted work!)
• 14:16 Somebody is ringing the bell at the main building. I get a bad hunch about today's 14:30 student presentations...
• 14:25 Students come to my office and ask me if the class is canceled due to a visit by a member of parliament to Tumaini. Quite soon I give up and cancel the class. At least, if my students are listening to the MP, I can focus on my article.
• 14:27 Global Outreach calls about missing field trip reports; I feel bad for forgetting about the missed calls.
  
• 14:28 I post to Moodle a template for field trip reports.
• 14:29 Our dean comes to my office and says that I should come to listen to the MP. I try to decline, but he gently forces me to come.
• 14:32 I pop into my colleague's office and tell her that she should come and see the occasion.
• 14:33 I arrive at the venue: nobody's there yet.
• 14:40 My colleague also arrives: we're almost the only people in.
• 15:10 Finally the occasion begins. And of course it's in Swahili and about a thing that doesn't concern me at all.
  
• 15:15 I notice that I'm standing at such a central place that I can't leave now.
• 15:55 After 40 minutes of talks in Swahili I decide to leave even if it's a breach of protocol.
• 15:56 Back to my office again: I send my colleague the unfinished article and ask if she can figure out a way to salvage it.
• 15:57 I open my ethnographic notes and write down a couple of paragraphs about my observations today.
• 16:16 I write email to SPSS's Kenyan office in order to ask if they've already sent me my copy of SPSS.
• 16:17 I write a colleague at Finland that students will receive their certificates by snail mail very soon.
• 16:18 I begin to read and edit a colleague's proposal for a nationwide competition on students' community development projects.
• 16:40 My colleague's husband comes to pick us up and take us to our Tanzanian colleague's home.
• 17:02 We meet our Tanzanian colleague and plan data collection procedures.
• 17:40 Back to home; my colleague's husband dropped me to my house.
• 17:42 The housekeeper has left so I heat up my food: beans and salad today.
• 17:55 I open my computer while eating, and surf information about my grant application
• 18:15 I read the news in Finland.
• 20:05 Skypeing back home to Finland.
  
• 20:30 Finish Skypeing, continue with the grant application.
• 22:00 I read international news.
• 22:25 Back to the grant application.
• 23:05 Close down the computer and get to bed.
• 23:15 zzzZZZ

I think that this story tells not only about my life, but also about why I don't answer all my emails. I still have the time to read every email, though!

Setting the Record Straight

I've received quite some emails about this matter, and I must inform you that the reports of my death are (about 46 years) premature.

Yes, I was in a car accident in Tanzania. No, none of us got hurt badly. Yes, my car is a wreck. What happened was that me and three of my friends were driving the 290-km motorway from Mbeya to Iringa. About 40km from Mbeya there was one of those big potholes that African roads are notorious for. My friend tried to steer clear of it, but the car hit the hole, spinned over a couple of times, and collided head-on with an oncoming 35-ton fuel tanker. Three Finnish doctors from Ilembula hospital: GP, surgeon, and anesthesiologist were there in less than an hour, just to find out that none of us was really badly hurt.

Yes, a close call, but not quite there yet.

Editorial Correspondence

An email to the editor of a book on innovations in IT education (who invited me to contribute an article on the philosophy of computer science):

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Dear editor,

I am a professor in a small university in a developing country, and after your kind invitation in November I asked you whether authors in developing countries can get a discount price when publishing in your book (originally US$110 per page.) You replied me that your organization may consider that in the future. Unfortunately I had to decline your invitation, because my university cannot afford to pay 1300US$ for my contribution to your book.

Concerning your kind review request for the very same book in this January: I am happy to review your chapter proposals at the cost of US$110 per page. As I work in a small university in a developing country, I may consider a lower price in the future.

Best Regards

M. T.

Censoring the Net

I've always had an issue with censorship in the Internet. Now my issue became a practical problem. I'm currently at Dubai, and wanted to see how the Finnish health care union salary debate proceeds. However, someone in Dubai thought it's in my best interests to not see that page (what "information security"?). The image below shows how I was caught red-handed:
Now this problem brings me to my issue with a porn-free Internet zone. A really nice idea indeed: who would want to oppose it? However, the problem is: who's going to be the one who decides what is pornography? In Finland people rarely consider a glimpse of breast, as in Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus", offending; but in the U.S. Justice Department the statue "Spirit of Justice" was actually at some point of time covered with drapes. What is more, there are people for whom any portrayal of a woman without a veil or burqa is offending.

So, when designing a porn-free Internet zone, who shall decide what is porn and what is not? Should we aim at creating an Internet which doesn't offend anyone? Or should we vote for a democratic, worldwide majority decision? Or what? Or should we consider particular cases? Vote about particular cases? Text-only Internet (with some words censored)? Does anyone have a really good idea?

No Problem with Laplace's Computer

The idea behind Laplace's Computer is that in principle one can predict the future exactly and accurately. Only a couple of small things are needed. First, the universe must be deterministic. Second, one should know all the forces and laws of nature and be able to model them precisely. Third, one should know all the positions and velocities as well as other properties of each and every item that the universe is composed of. Fourth, one should have a computer with enough computing power to run a model of the universe. Now, given the current state of the universe and the laws of nature, one could compute the future states of the universe.

First I thought I had a big problem with Laplace's Computer. The problem is that when a computation is being executed on a computer, that computation changes the computer's states. And because computer's states are physical things (swarms of electrons), changing computer's states alters the universe. So while computing the future states of the universe, the computer should also take into account how its modeling of the universe will affect the universe. And it should also take into account how "taking into account how its modeling of the universe will affect the universe" affects the universe. And so forth.

So Laplace's Computer cannot work, on the pain of infinite regress, unless--and this is the beautiful part--the computer is not in this universe. Is that a problem to you?