techie me

Nginx Pitfalls

2015-11-02T10:27:00.002+00:00

Dear Ama,

If you get this error for every nginx directive ("user" or otherwise)

[emerg] 18765#0: unknown directive "user" in /etc/nginx/conf.d/nginx.conf:1,

You should check that:

1) You have the nginx.conf file in the right directory, which will most likely be /etc/nginx
2) There is not default nginx file in the /etc/nginx/sites-available or /etc/nginx/sites-enabled directory.

Your life will be so much more easier.

Becoming a better developer

2015-09-30T02:25:00.000+00:00

These are resources I have found and used/ I am using that help me be a better developer.

Making Badass Developers

Why Retrospectives Are Important

2015-04-26T22:26:00.000+00:00

Retrospectives are like feedback sessions, except instead of being directed at one person, they are for the entire team, by the entire team, and worked on almost immediately.

Important characteristics of agile teams include continuous improvement and responding quickly to change. Retrospectives are an important component of this continuous improvement cycle. Done periodically, they allow the team to take time to focus on what the team has been up to over a period of time, to decide what they will like to keep doing, and to decide what they can do better.

For a faster continuous improvement cycle, retrospectives should be done at regular intervals, to ensure the team is keeping up with the changes an agile team is going through.

It is important that retrospectives are effective. The team should be able to see the positive changes effected by their retrospective. Otherwise, they begin to question what the use of the retrospective is, and why they should make time for it or keep to the dedicated time for the retrospective, instead of focusing on the ever looming project deadlines that never seem to go away.

One quality of an effective retrospective is that it is well structured. The retrospective should have a goal. For example, it could be to analyze a particular even that happened, maybe a website downtime, or, to review the past sprint. The team should understand and adhere to the Prime Directive. Everyone present should be able to remember, or given pointers to remember what happened over the period the retrospective is for. Then the team talks about what happened, what to keep doing, and what to improve. Everyone should be given a chance to talk, if they wish, and it is up to the retrospective facilitator should make sure not only the team leaders or loudest team members are being heard.

Another quality of an effective retrospective is that the outcomes are actionable, and can be completed before the next retrospective. Usually, long running actions, while useful, easily get tiring as they seem to be never ending. The team starts to think retrospectives are just a way to add more to the long list of tasks the team needs to get done, start to feel bogged down and lose their focus and edge on continuous improvement through retrospectives. Small actions that allow the team to fix the most important thing that gives them the biggest improvement allow for fast continuous improvement.

At some point in the teams life cycle, a retrospective of retrospectives may be useful. Seeing how far the team has come, actions that have come out of retrospectives that have really helped the team improve, and things they could improve about their retros, encourage the team, and help them even improve on the continuous improvement cycle for even better results.

One resource I love for changing up retrospectives to make them always engaging is http://www.funretrospectives.com. If your team is not running retrospectives, I encourage you to start for faster continuous improvement. Personal retrospectives are equally useful as well, for working on one's goals.

Useful IntelliJ/ RubyMine shortcuts

2015-02-26T21:35:00.000+00:00

These are shortcuts I use often and cannot imagine my JetBrains life without. You can survive with IntelliJ knowing few shortcuts but when you encounter dynamic Ruby using RubyMine, these shortcuts are a life saver.

These are used on an JetBrains editors running on a Mac OS.

1. Ctrl + G - Add selection for next occurence. Use as many times as you want to select next occurence of highlighted text.

This is like multiple column select on steroids, especially useful in RubyMine for a dynamic language like Ruby, where automatic refactoring (eg renaming a method), may do more harm than good. This shortcut, is oh-so-useful that you will begin to question what you had been doing with your IDE life before finding out about it.

Most common use case: (in RubyMine) Select all occurences of a variable in a file and rename, without worrying about changing some other method/variable in another file elsewhere in the codebase.

Press Esc to exit this mode.

2. Command + W - Select a block of code. Keep pressing to extend the selection to the surrounding code block.

Most common use case: Select some code for refactoring (parameter/variable/method extraction most of the time).

3. Command + Shift + W - Reverse of 2 above.

Most common use case: When you've gone Command + W trigger happy.

4. Ctrl + N - Create a new file in specified directory

Most common use case: Too lazy to be clicky mousy.

5. Ctrl + Tab + Left or Right - Navigate between open tabs.

Most common use case: When Command + E or Command + Alt + Left or Right can't help you find the file next to the one you are currently on easily.

6. Command + Alt + Left - Navigate to previous cursor position. Could be in same file or previous file.

Most common use case : Navigating through code with lots of hoops and loops. This shortcut is handy when you are just trying to understand a piece of code and you are not familiar with it yet to know your way around the codebase. Makes navigation a breeze.

7. Ctrl + Shift + Enter - Smart complete. Sadly doesn't work in RubyMine. Only IntelliJ.

Most common use case: Match up your brackets or insert your end of line semi-colon without moving your cursor over to the end of the line.

8. F3 - Next search result

Most common use case: Move to the next search result on a page without clicking or scrolling. Use Shift + F3 for the previous search result.

9. Command + E - Recent files/ recent search results / recent commit message

Most common use case: Really versatile command. Use in the editor window to access recently opened files, use in Commit window (bring up with a Command + K) to view recent commit messages, use in a Find window (bring up with a Command + 3) to view recent find usages.

These are my favorite and less widely known shortcuts I think may be useful to others. Will update as I find new and interesting shortcuts. Let me know how useful these are.

Android and other random stuff

2011-06-14T09:46:00.002+00:00

I'm currently working at Nandi Mobile. I love it here. The folks are friendly and best of all, they are helping me with the Android App of the century :). Yes I said it. Its exciting work for geeks like me..:). Hate to be called a geek but hey, what can I do? That's what others want to label me with. But I suppose it is better than a 'Legon student'. We all know what people think when they say 'Legon student' with that smirk on their faces. They think we are not serious people and like to have fun all the time. Every school has its fair share of non-serious students and serious students (like me...:)). After all, as the elders say in Twi, "efie biara, Mensah womu". But then again, people always give labels. What's with labels anyways? They are fun when you are on the giving side but not on the receiving side (sometimes). You are this, you are that,...and it goes on and on. Where do we draw the line? At the truth? At where the labels are against the law? Where?

Anyways away from rambling and back to my exciting app development!!! Yay..:)!

tuxradar

2011-01-26T09:23:00.000+00:00

I just found this amazing site...http://www.tuxrader.com. It is simply amazing....nice code projects for beginner developers like me. It actually guides you to where to go, after you learn programming languages and you want to develop stuff but you just don't know what to do. It is cooooool...:). Can't wait to try out all the projects.

And oh, by the way, I'm back in Ghana now. The first two weeks were my adjusting period and now I can say I've very well adjusted to the heat and humidity (or lack of during this super dry harmattan), the time difference , I've adjusted to the dust everywhere, the frequent power outs, the use of old manual methods in this day and age of advanced technology....the food, the friends, the family, the lifestyle. I'm glad to be back home!

So check out TuxRader Linux! Adios~

Sometimes I can't believe myself

2010-12-14T03:37:00.000+00:00

Sometimes, I'm soo lazy I put my spoon in my bowl and can't even bring it to my mouth so that I eat. And sometimes, I amaze myself at how disciplined I can be and how far I can push myself, when I have to.

Last week and this week have been evidence. I can't quite remember the last time I forced myself to do something I didn't want to, just because I had to. But I really did. I have exams and I've never studied like this in my life before. I outdid my self :). My philosophy about studying was if you are tired, go to bed. But last week, I discovered a new philosophy: if you have to, make up your mind to do it, set goals, set a realistic time limit, and achieve those goals, no matter what it takes, before the time is up. I've heard this a lot of times from motivational speakers and the likes but I haven't really practised it. Or if I have, I don't remember. I've discovered how to push my self and push my endurance limits, higher and higher. I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength..:)!

And I'm going to apply this new found strength to every aspect of my life, even exercising (the dreaded word)...lol. How many of you have made up your minds to diet, exercise, set weight loss goals, blah blah blah, and have stopped along the way? Well, I want to say, if even I, as lazy as I can be, can push myself, you can too. Everyone else can!

And this leads me to this quote from Marianne Williamson I just remembered:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.' We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

And this is how Ama sees it!

Cloud computing

2010-12-06T16:46:00.000+00:00

I'm sure most of you have all heard about cloud computing, a revolutionary but some what has always been around technology that is changing the way Internet service is provided.

I too, had heard about it but not until I had to write a 10 page handwritten report on techology did I learn more about it. I hate homework...but I love that it makes me learn :). And of course, waiting till the last minute to write this paper hasn't helped (typical student behaviour).

But the more I learn about cloud computing, the more I realize how cool it is. Briefly, Cloud computing is Internet-based computing, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices on demand, as with the electricity grid. Details are abstracted from consumers, who no longer have need for expertise in, or control over, the technology infrastructure "in the cloud" that supports them.Cloud computing describes a new supplement, consumption, and delivery model for IT services based on the Internet, and it typically involves over-the-Internet provision of dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources.

I know I lost some of you just there. But I think cloud computing is amazing and I just want to blog a little about it. After this report (I'm now on Page 7 out of 10..I'm soooo tired), I can become your cloud computing resource person..:). If you need to know anything, contact me!

Goodbye

2010-12-02T15:16:00.001+00:00

Laziness is soo not good. I've managed to let it prevent me from documenting the amazing experiences I've had here in Seoul....

My time is almost up. As I prepare for finals and prepare to leave, I'm filled with excitement. I'm excited I'll finally get to see my family, friends and go back to what my life used to be like before I got here. In many ways, everything will be the same but some things will change. Because I have changed...for the better of course. I've grown in many ways.

As much as I'm excited, I'm also sad. One thing i don't like about travelling is saying goodbye. I guess no one likes to say goodbye. Goodbyes to good friend, good memories, good times. It is hard.

To the friends I've made in Korea, my happy endings, my inspirations, I can't replace you, I won't forget you.

Birthday parties, pyjama party, train trips, lunches and dinners, studying together, shopping, singing, noraeban, every nation church,teaching ghanian dance, sbf, samgiopsal, ~~ramion,~~ the library experience with the guys and our mini demonstration at the sookmyung's main gate, hangul, awesome korean language teacher, the talkative security man at int house 3, samgiopsal again, awesome sookmyung students, awesome international students, the guy in the yellow jacket..:),deleting my operating system and almost everything on my computer ...i won't forget

My Seoul Subway Experience

2010-09-05T12:37:00.003+00:00

Oh My! I had a terrible experience yesterday. Well in retrospect, not soo bad...

I was just going for a Bible Study oo...and I had to use the bus and subway, on my own, alone, in a strange land, where everything is in a different language. Oh what a day! I had to ask soo many people for help at each step of the way. Some even offered to help me when I hadn't asked. I guess they could read the lost, confused look on my face very clearly. They were soo kind and helpful, even though some couldn't speak English. Those who invited me were also helping me a bit but then my cell phone battery died. As for the cell phone issue, I don't even want to get started on it. Anyways, I got to my destination safely, and met my host. I give thanks to God. Now, I can say I'm an expert on the Seoul subway system, and I can read maps very well now, a good that has come out of all the confusion I went through..:)

Seoul

2010-09-01T15:06:00.002+00:00

Allright...so I'm in Seoul now, studying Computer Science for a semester (exchange program). I love Korea...the people are really friendly. From the Korean Air to Yongsan-gu, I've met really nice people, who are always ready with smiles.

Today was our first day of class. Finally...boredom over. When I was working during the vac, I just couldn't wait to get a break and when I finally finished, I was so bored stiff, I started to learn...yes, I, Ama, started to learn without anyone pushing me..lol...yes I was that bored.

But I love programming...it is fun. I don't need anyone to push me to code! And it looks like my classes this sem are going to be amazing. Algorithms (if I don't get an A in that course, call me ******)....who can guess what that is? Yea so algorithms, networking, systems interface (unix based...yay!!!) and database design and query language (that will be a bit boring...sorry Oracle, Microsoft Access, Postgres, Mysql lovers...you are my friends but y'all know I just love hardcore programming and not just business oriented solutions..:)).

We had a welcome party today, for all the international students. It was cool. But you know me. I'm not the 'hey, lets have fun, easy-going' type. So I did my best to be nice and friendly to those whom I came across. But if I came across as unfriendly, please forgive! And after the party, folks met somewhere to chill again and guess who was absent? Me. I was busy sitting behind my PC, coding...hmm...the pressures of my dreams.

Slowly, little-by-little, I will get there. I will achieve what I dream of.

Little by little, the light in the distance so far away, gets brighter each day.

Right now, I'm just living like no one else, so that later, I can live like no one else! Yea! That's right, Dave Ramsey! (His quote doesn't apply to money only...it relates to every aspect of our lives. Those who don't know him, check him out. You can click on his name. He's great!)

The elements around are killing my creative spirit...I can't flow anymore. I'm sleepy now, and running out of words...:). I'll keep you posted!

Picture Collages

2010-08-28T12:51:00.001+00:00


Thursday: nIAgRa fALLS ( So beaUtiful!!!), wiNe taSTinG


Tuesday: WonDerLanD!!!

Monday: IOI ConFeRencE, wAitInG fOr CoNtestAnts tO Come Out Of COmpeTition RoOm


Sunday: OPeNinG ceRemoNY, PRacTice SesSion, ConEStoGa Mall


ThE wEeK in PicTUres!


Friday: CloSINg CereMONy

Sorry! No Pics for Wednesday....

IOI 2010: The rest

2010-08-27T19:24:00.002+00:00

Ok..so I've been a bad blogger..I know...I've just been soo busy over the past couple of days. The IOI is over now. It ended on Friday. Ghana put up an improved performance but still not good enough to get a medal. But we still have hope...What are we without hope?

So I'm just putting up some pictures to give you a visual idea of everything that happened.

IOI 2010: Day 2 & 3 (Monday and Tuesday)

2010-08-17T22:21:00.004+00:00

Ok...so yesterday didn't end as well as it begun. The contestants weren't able to keep up the pace. But we are still hopeful. Tomorrow is another day and is also Competition Day 2. We pray for better results.

Today, we(IOI leaders, contestants, guests and others) went to Canada's wonderland, an amusement park with many attractions. But I went on only two rides, mainly because the were long queues for almost every ride, and the second, free falling 230 feet on Drop Tower left me with a head-splitting headache...I'm so tired right now.

On our way back, I had an interesting chat with the Chinese team leader, Hong Wang. He spoke about Artificial Intelligence among others...now that's something I'd like to pursue further, after my undergrad studies. Maybe I'll open a research institute in Ghana, dedicated to that..who knows?

Like I said, I'm really tired, still have a headache, which implies i can't really talk much. In an equation form, it goes like this

tiredness + headache -> inability to type much / think coherently for long periods of time

And so, since a picture speaks a thousand words, I'll put up pictures...in a bit.

L8r folks!

IOI 2010: Day 1 & 2 (Sunday and Monday)

2010-08-16T13:31:00.003+00:00

OMG!!! I'm soooo excited now. Catch all the action live on http://www.justin.tv/ioi2010. There's also a live scoreboard and Gh is doing well. One of our contestants has answered one question is in the 7th position. I hope he is able to continue like this and answer all the 3 other questions. I'm so excited for him!!!

To all of you who don't know what's happening, I'm in Canada for IOI 2010 (www.ioi2010.org) and today is Competition Day 1. There will be two competition days and the contestants will have 4 tasks, algorithmic in nature, to solve within 5 hours, for each day. Our contestants this year are Elias Awudu, Jonathan Mishiame and Cecil Arthur. There are 83 countries from all over the world representing, with over 300 contestants.

So we are still waiting for the contest to be over with.

Yesterday was boring. I was soo jetlagged yesterday, soo sleepy, soo tired. We had the opening ceremony at Waterloo Recreational Centre. It was kinda fun, with performances from Waterloo Cheerleaders, Waterloo's All Male Acapella Band and others. But after that, the rest of the day was boring. Francis and I went to the mall briefly, to buy a multi-socket. The people just kept tossing us...how can a multi-socket be in the Health and Beauty section of a store, and not in Electronics??? Funny init? But we found one there, and also in Travel, but not in Electronics. Aside that, the mall dey be waaa..can't wait to go shopping (Ma pls don't say anything). Maybe I'll go today after the competition.

Waterloo is really nice (Me tu ky3 ma Canada - borrowing this line from Nana Osbey Don Capo Cheers...check him out from facebook...lol). Yesterday, I finally saw some people outside of the University Campus. But I guess it is not strange that I hardly see people outside, considering the fact that Canada has the second largest landmass but a relatively small population.

So right now, I'm in the Cafeteria, sipping some Coke (Coca-Cola and not coke), blogging, facebooking, gmailing, and waiting with all the other leaders for some clarification requests from the contestants, if they have any, whiles the competition goes on. Catch you all later!

I'm out!

IOI 2010: Day 0 (Saturday)

2010-08-15T10:59:00.002+00:00

We (the Ghana Team) got here (Canada) safely. The journey was loonnng...so long. I slept and woke up, slept and woke up, slept and woke up again, and we still hadn't reached Canada! And the transit was even more boring. But I give thanks to God that we are all safe.

At the Toronto Pearson Airport, we were detained by immigration for a looong time. The immigration officer kept on asking us the same questions over and over again. "What are you doing in Canada? How long will you be here? How many bags do you have checked in? So what is IOI about? So you have 1 bag each checked in? How did you hear about IOI ?....". Meanwhile, we were in the same queue with the Dutch team, whom, by the way, he had given clearance quickly. At least he didn't call his supervisor to come and check on us. In Bulgaria last year, we were unfortunate to arrive on Sunday, the day after all the other teams had arrived. We were at immigration for over 20 minutes. One officer would call another, he'd check our documents, then call another officer to come and check them, then he'd call another...All the people we came with in the plane had been cleared. We were the only ones left. But I understand. So many Ghanaians have gone to European/ American countries and have never returned. How do they know we are different?

University of Waterloo is cool. Infact Canada is cool. One thing I noticed was the absence of people walking on the streets. In Ghana, there is no main street I've seen without pedestrians. Even on the motorways, you'll find one or two individuals walking. But here, you just see cars, buildings and well organised roads. Oh, when will Ghana get to a place of an organised road system?

I met two Ghanaians here, who are students of the university. I didn't expect to see any. For all our IOI trips, I'd never met a Ghanaian. Not even when when we were in Egypt. So you can imagine my surprise when someone came to me and said

Maame akwaaba. Na 3tis3n?

I was so shocked I couldn't respond...lol. Nice surprise!

The food is ok. You know how picky I am...but I managed. Apples, meat, drinks, no vegetables, a little rice...you know, the usual...hehe. How I wish my brothers were here, esp Phil...(family abi you know why I'm saying esp Phil...:). Miss you all ).

Today (Sunday) is the opening ceremony day. Gotta go get ready!

last week

2010-08-10T09:06:00.000+00:00

So this is our last week before IOI (www.ioi2010.org). Its going to be crazy..i have to be with the contestants here at the Centre and also finish up stuff at Legon.

Right now, i'm preparing a review of Kruskal and Prim's algorithm. They perform the same job. But they are just a bit different in implementing. What they do is to find the minimum spanning tree in a graph. A spanning tree is a subgraph which contains all the nodes in a graph, with no cycle. A minimum spanning tree has, in addition to the properties of a spanning tree, the least total weight of all the edges in the graph.

So we apply Kruskal's or Prim's when we want to minimize cost but visit every node or vertice.

Just so you know!..:)

Its been a while

2010-08-06T11:15:00.002+00:00

I know right?

Keep in touch...I'll start to post actively, soon!!!

Day 6, Friday - And it all comes to an end

2009-08-14T23:24:00.003+00:00

It has been a long road and finally, we have come to the end...at least, for now. Today was the awards ceremony. Ghana couldn't obtain any medal, but performed better than last year. Just as the black star of hope rises with the Ghanaian flag each day, we hope to rise, and show the world that Ghana too, can reach high.

A 14 year old from Belarus won the first place. He was awarded with a gold medal, and some other medal (I've forgotten the name). This is his third gold. Impressive!

As I get ready to leave (at 3.00AM) for home, I plan for the future, immediate and later. From what I have seen and realized, there is so much more to be done, that can be done moving from a limited point of view, on to a broader perspective. And I believe we can. I believe in myself, I believe in Ghana, I believe in God.

Day 5 (Thursday), ɛndɛ so biom….

2009-08-14T05:08:00.002+00:00

Today too…

Francis and I decided not to go for the excursion to the Black Sea, because the idea of spending 10hrs traveling to go and see a sea for 1 hour or more wasn’t very appealing to us. Instead, we decided to do something more exciting..guess what? SHOPPING. (See the way I’m screaming it…it is not like I bought plenty things too. Just a few clothes (wink wink)).

Oh! Today too, I was late for breakfast. I woke up at 9.45AM, breakfast ended at 10.00AM. I managed to do some one or two things and found myself in the elevator at 10.05AM (We are on the 11th floor). Usually, Francis is the one who presses the buttons in the elevator and down we go, to the reception. This time, he wasn’t with me and me too, I forgot to press the button so that it will go down. I was busy preening and primping before the mirror, whiles the lift was still on the 11th floor! Breakfast too was going…oh charlie. After 5 min of preening and primping, I started to wonder ‘Why hasn’t the elevator reached the reception. Am I stuck? What am I going to do?’. When I turned to look at the buttons, I realized I was still on the 11th floor and hadn’t pressed the reception button. I could have knocked myself! Just as the lift was about to reach the reception floor, I decided the powder on my face was too much, and so I had to go back to my room to clean it up. I went up again, then came down. By the time I got to the restaurant, the food of course was GONE. The way I was hungry! I finally managed to procure some tiny cup of coffee. These white people…they don’t know the cups we drink from at home…ah!

We went shopping in the afternoon, like I mentioned earlier, right after lunch. I can assure you that I really heaped my plates. Yes plates. Over here they give you those tiny side plates as plates for meals. When Francis saw the manner of things I put on my plates, he said ‘I can see you are really hungry’. I didn’t take it easy on the food koraa.

We came back around 7.00PM. Plovdiv looks like Accra, with potholes on many streets, and grass growing at odd places. But it has taller buildings everywhere, and generally, things are more organized. People don’t drive anyhow and you don’t find dogs who are not afraid of cars, walking aimlessly on the streets. And in this season, the sun sets after 8.00PM. That is a bit unsettling. As at 6.30, whiles we were waiting for the bus, the sun was still shining, hot and furious. Here, the sun really burns. You can actually feel the rays piercing. But the funny things is, you don’t sweat too.

We had dinner late this evening. The contestants say they had fun at the Black Sea and spent about 3 hours there. After dinner, the leaders had their ‘ouzo’ party. A lot of drinking goes on there. But I didn’t get to witness it because I wasn’t interested, and was very tired. I came straight up to bed, this time, remembering to press the button for the 11th floor on the lift.

You guys think I’m chilling eeh…lol. Ahia for chilling. When I was busy waking up everyday at 4.30AM to go to work and arriving at 7.00PM, learning Discrete Math, abi you guys were relaxing. Now, it is my turn. :)

After shopping, waiting for a bus

Day 4

2009-08-12T22:59:00.002+00:00

As for today di333, I really WALKED, barefooted and on stones.

I woke up, late as usual, but I was in time for breakfast. Well, kind of. I had an interesting chat with one Bulgarian guy who is in Operations Research. I've always been interested in that, even as a child. Who knows, perhaps, I might just get involved in OR.

We (Francis, Meto, and I) went shopping whiles our contestants were busy sweating in the conference room :). I bought shoes, shoes, shoes. There was one I couldn't just resist. I just had to go back to the shop and get it. I love it already. Can't wait to wear it everyday in Gh. The shoe will start crying "Ama I beg, please stop wearing me" :).

We came back for lunch...I ate well well. If by the time I come to GH, my cheeks are so round, no one recognizes me, don't be surprised. "Onipa 3ny3 ne k3se kwa ..:D".

After lunch, I came to rest but George wouldn't stop worrying me with GHOSS problems. Eventually, I ended up having no rest, as I had to rush with Francis to Novotel Plovdiv, to take pics with the contestants, and then back to get ready for our VIP dinner with the mayor of Plovdiv.

What a dinner it was! Service--very poor(the waitress was giving more than 50% of her attention to some gentlemen who were smiling at her plenty), Food--served in sessions, none had what I liked but I had to eat anyway since it wasn't a serve-yourself like in the hotel. But of course, I had the staple coca-cola, bread, and chicken and that was ok for me. And we even sat in a different room from the mayor. So much for VIP dinner! But I guess that was my fault coz I made Francis and I late so we got the back seats.

We finally decided we had had enough after the food and service (for which I am very grateful but could have been better) got us fed up, and decided to leave the Old Town, where we had the dinner to the bus stop, where our bus was supposed to be. To end the long story, I had to walk barefooted because my heel kept getting stuck in the spaces between the stones on the floor (the whole floor of the Old Town and most of the streets in Plovdiv have been paved with proper stones or pavement blocks) and to the hotel because the bus wasn't around and most of the leaders were also doing the same.

The way I was tired when we came! We walked for about 45 min and got to the hotel shortly after 12AM. I still can't believe I still am awake. It is now 2.40AM. Gotta sleep or else, tomorrow, I'll be late for breakfast, AGAIN!

Day 3 - 4

2009-08-12T22:02:00.003+00:00

Whew! What a long day! I can hardly keep my eyes open but I have to get this done with now, or never.

Day 3:

I woke up, as late as usual, and finished dressing right when breakfast was over. There was a bus at that moment, waiting to take us (leaders and deputy leaders) to the AquaPark. We(Francis(deputy leader) and I) managed to grab some fruits, eat some cereal, go for a second helping and managed to run after the bus and enter it :).

On this day, there was no competition. The plan for today was to have half of us go to the AquaPark in the morning and the other half go to a Carting and Bowling place and later in the afternoon, switch.

Switch, we did. Both places were boring(for me...me naa, I don't like going out much) but they both had their moments. At the AquaPark, I was tanning my skin(as if it already isn't black enough..lol), whiles Joel was busy swimming and sliding all over the place. Francis was taking pictures and the others were well, ...just having fun.

At the carting place, I didn't do much either. Just walking about, talking, taking pictures. The rest of the team went bowling...which was interesting. Of course I didn't participate because sports just ain't my thing!

After we came back to the hotel, we went straight to a General Assembly meeting, afterwards, dinner and then a meeting with the other African team leaders to discuss the possiblity of another AIO (African Olympiad in Infomatics). Then those who had to translate the tasks for Competition Day 2 did, whiles we whom's contestants needed no translation, went off to do our own stuff. I, as usual, came straight to bed!

Day 0 - 2

2009-08-10T10:30:00.002+00:00

We left Ghana at 11.45PM on Saturday night. We finally got to Bulgaria after many queues and checks and got to our hotel around 11.30PM, Sunday night. 24+ hours without a bath..whew!

I'm the Deputy Leader for Ghana's team for the International Olympiad in Informatics, IOI, which is being held in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. I helped in training the contestants (4 of them) for the competition). It was quite an experience for me, having to wake up at 4.30 AM and travel to work and back everyday. But it was a nice experience. Now, we are in Bulgaria, to see what we can do for the IOI.

Our flight was smooth. I didn't like the food. But that shouldn't be any news because I'm very picky. So I ate bread and biscuits. We stayed in Rome for 8 hours. The airport was very busy, with many shops and people going in and out. Everything at the airport was expensive, even water! We had an American breakfast which was advertised as serve-yourself, and so we thought was one price for everything you take, not knowing it was different prices for every group of food you pick from...these Italianos..! After 8 boring hours in the airport, with non-free internet which we didn't use, we left for Sofia, Bulgaria.

At Sofia, the one who was assigned from IOI committee to pick us didn't show up. So after waiting for over an hour, we hired a car from the Airport to Hotel Novotel, Plovdiv. The journey to Novotel, Plovdiv took about an hour and thirty min.

All our travel was worth it. The competition seems better organized than last years, which was hosted in Egypt. (Although there was some mix up with the IOI 2009 t-shirts we were supposed to receive. I ended up with a t-shirt which is so big, I look like a mosquito in it). The hotels are gooooooooood. The contestants are in Novotel, and the leaders in "Park-Hotel Sankt Peterburg". The hotel is plush, services excellent. Food...leaves much to be desired. It seems the main meal here is meat - chicken, suasage, pork, lamb, ... Where is the rice??? Oh. The way I'm hungering for rice - jollof, plain, waakye, vermicelli.. , any rice. It is just meat, meat, meat , meat, bread, drinks, vegetables, fruits...hmmm. And oo...every country has its own room. There is no sharing of rooms with people from other countries (like in Egypt). So I have my own room, a very nice room. And I'm happy about that.

It is Day 2 now and we (the leaders) are in a conference, whiles our children are in Day 1 of the competetion. They didn't have a lot of time to rest because we arrived yesternight, instead of Friday as we originally should have. The Olympiad actually started on Saturday. But I have confidence in them. We will have our results by 5PM this evening for today's round of competition. A guy from Syria is giving a talk now on Taking Kids into Programming (Contest) with Scratch (http://www.learnscratch.org). It sounds interesting, introducing kids to programming without actually teaching them coding first. They get used to problem solving before coding. I want to listen so I'll update later.

Women in the workplace? If I can, let me.

2009-07-17T08:46:00.007+00:00

No one ever said it will be easy...

A few days ago, a friend wanted to hire someone to work on her company's website. She said she didn't want a girl. The one who was also looking for personnel for her said he wouldn't give her a girl. They all agreed that a female would be less hardworking than a male. I was very surprised and shocked!

What happened to the national campaign 'Send Your Girl Child To School'? What happened to 'If You Educate A Boy, You Educate An Individual But If You Educate A Girl, You Educate The Whole Nation (Dr. Kwagyir Aggrey)? Why do a lot of Ghanaians promote 'Educating The Girl Child' if they wont give them a fair chance at the work place? Most people just hire a few ladies in their workplaces because they don't want to be thought of as sexist. What happened to equality? What happened to gender equality? Why do we relegate women to the background?

It is true that biologically, women are != men. And that wouldn't change. But what about intellectually? Isn't that what matters the most in the work place? If I am able to, in a few hours, produce what a man can when he stays at work for a full day + overtime, why shouldn't I be hired? Because as a female, the probability that I will work longer hours == 0?? That is not right!

If we wouldn't give women a chance to prove themselves in the work place, then we might as well as keep our female child at home so that a man would come and marry her and be overly protective of her (by virtue of her gender), so that we don't waste our money on education...giving her a sewing machine to while away the time. That is the mentality of a lot of Ghanaians.

If I am diligent and spiritually, physically, emotionally and mentally sound, please give me a chance. Do not relegate me to the background. I can and I will. If you don't give me a chance, I will create one. Yes, I will. Do not discriminate me by basis of my gender.

Check this The Role of Women in Ghana's development

GHOSS

2009-07-03T19:31:00.000+00:00

Ghoss is the Ghana Open Source Society. "It aims at promoting the use of open source software in Ghana. It also aims at providing the facilities required to make its members proficient in the use of open source technologies.

We have group meetings twice a week. We mainly work on projects that all members are assigned to. Every so often we invite people to come and give tech talks on different IT topics. Members are also expected to give presentations from time to time. We also have a membership grading system, an idea borrowed from the oriental martial arts, where members get graded up to higher and higher levels as their skills and experience within the community increases.

Anybody who is interested can become a member. To become a member, you will have to come to one of our meetings and register as a member (currently). Our membership is only restricted by resource constraints. We need to make sure that all members are properly mentored during their initial phase. If there are no mentors available, they you would be put in queue in invited as soon as a mentor is available.

GHOSS is sponsored by the Chale Group." Lorenzo Cabrini, Founder