Erudite Relics of Loc Huu Ho

Article by Christoph Koutschan
Original Source Here

After a long discussion with some of my RISC colleagues about what the 5 most important algorithms on the world are, we couldn’t reach a consensus on this question. So I suggested to perform a little survey. The criterion for suggestions was that these algorithms should be widely used. Further we restrict ourselves to the fields of computer science and mathematics.

As I expected the number of different suggestions is close to

5 * (no. of participants)

In the following you find the results (in alphabetical order) of this survey (which of course is highly non-representative since most of the participants are computer scientists). Read the rest of this entry »

I challenge you to increase your potential by 500% in the next 30 days by doing this one simple thing. Best of all it is free and you already know how to do it.

Make it your intent each day to identify and eliminate limiting beliefs.
What is holding you back? I can just about guarantee it is not really the world. Our limiting beliefs are crippling and self imposed.

It is hard for me to articulate the explosion of your potential that will happen when you do this exercise. Let me give you an example of what happened this morning. By any account my handwriting is illegible. It is so bad that one day when I gave a lecture someone asked me what language I was writing in. I must be capable of good writing but something has been blocking me. I realized that it was simply that I had a fear of someone reading something personal that I had written down. Probably there was some point in my life when I was worried about this and maybe it was even valid. I also feared that I would not be able to write fast enough.

I simply gave myself permission to release the fears and started writing in my notebook. If I showed you my notes from the beginning of this exercise and then after it there is no possible way to know that it was the same writer. I do not even recognize it as the same writer! The change literally occurred within seconds of releasing the fears. What silly, self imposed rules and fears are blocking your potential? I am looking now for I assume is a long list of my own.

Make it your intent each day to identify your limiting beliefs, examine them and throw out the ones that make no sense. I challenge you to increase your potential by 500% in 30 days.

Think positive. The future is bright. Despite the endless bad economic news, the mere fact that you have the technology to read this posting means that you have more than 90% of the world does.

It is my intent to inspire and learn from each and every person I meet in 2009. I welcome your comments. I hope there is a pulse out there!

Deja-vu all over again. This time it was more of an administration login error, instead of completely crashing my WP. So I finally fixed the problem now. Apparently, all I had to do was replace the functions.php with a more recent one to remove the stumbling block that was preventing me from logging into the admistration dashboard. So I’m glad that’s all fixed and I could start posting stuff I have while I’m here in Orlando, FL.

Alrite so today starts and ends the first day of my second month in. Yesterday I went in for my blood test and to refill up on the drug. I’m starting to get used to this whole moisterizing and sunblock application on a daily basis it’s so not boyish. Besides my face feeling really painfully tight at times, I’m getting used to it…just 3 more months. Anywho…need to sleep haven’t had much sleep this week and it’s outerly tiring…zZzing.

So…spent most of today learning and discussing about the complexities of poverty and how technology can affect such areas. The UofT chapter did an awesome job for having to come across some difficulties last minute. I got to listen to various viewpoints and how certain people view the world (well more sarcastically than anything from a certain individual but the remarks were quite mind opening since the questions were more from a devil’s advocate). I really like the technology and culture workshop portion of the mini-conference because of the addition of the tricky application of how technology has come second nature in our lives. The conference was well worth the time on a Saturday and the 5$ in exchange for meeting and talking to people with simliar minds and interests. Here’s a brief summary of the day:

Development Day is a day-long conference, helping participants explore the intricacies of human development, participatory approaches, and EWB’s methodology. It forms a strong foundation for future discussions and workshops, as well as bringing together like-minded people in a casual, yet intensive setting.

Schedule

9:30 — Registration

Introductions, mingle time, and an ice-breaker.

10:00 – 11:15 — Root Causes of Poverty

Introductory systems analysis of the causes and effects of poverty, with a focus on the differences between proximate and ultimate causation, and what are some ways to think about how to affect change and reduce poverty in these systems. This workshop will be led by Camila Campos Herrera and two of our chapter’s returning overseas junior fellows, Mina Shahid, and Rachel Alexander.

11:30 – 12:30 — Appropriate Technology

This workshop links the way technology implementation has occurred in the West and how these practices might be applied or modified in international development initiatives. Anastassia Pogoutse and Shankar Manoharan will deliver this workshop with the help of Risako Shirane, a Global Health student who worked on a water filter purification project in Cambodia.

12:40 – 1:15 — LUNCH

Food with both vegetarian and vegan options. Fair Trade refreshments will be served throughout the day.

1:20 – 2:30 — Culture and Technology

An exploration of how aspects of technology shape Western culture. This workshop will focus on how we are individually and collectively influenced by the adoption of various kinds of technology. Cherisse Diaram and Michelle Chen will facilitate this workshop with the help of Jiayi Zhou.

2:30 – 3:30 — The Engineers Without Borders Approach

We will be discussing how technology is currently used in the EWB approach to international development. Martin Giroux-Cook (past chapter president, overseas volunteer) and William Li (past chapter president, overseas intern) will share their experiences and expertise.

3:30 – 4:10 — iDevelopment Wrap Up

An interactive conclusion to the conference that will bring it all back to the here and now: what technology, culture, and international development has to do with YOU. Saifu Li will deliver this exciting and reflective conclusion to the day with the assistance of Maria Fauquie.