Wednesday, December 4, 2024

Nunaliit on Ubuntu 24.04

CouchDB configured on Ubuntu 24.04
We have been evaluating Nunaliit to use it to visualize the database entries of our project. It was working smoothly on our old Ubuntu 18.04 laptop. However, when we got a new Lenovo, the Internet (both wired and Wireless) did not work in Ubuntu 18.04 as the drivers are outdated now. So we had to install Ubuntu 24.04 instead, as we obviously need an Internet connection.

Nunaliit on Ubuntu 24.04
That brought additional challenges to configure CouchDB (the database that Nunaliit uses as its datastore) and then install Nunaliit and create an Atlas on it. We followed the Nunaliit tutorial, but had to make certain changes to make it work on Ubuntu 24.04, as listed in this document. There could be better or easier approaches to get Nunaliit working on Ubuntu 24.04 that we did not test yet.

Thursday, November 28, 2024

Be intentional when you contact a faculty for grad school

Morning walk to work
I hear from students at times: "I sent  emails to 260* professors for my grad school and no one bothered to reply." I sympathize, but then ask, "Did you put the effort to write those emails?"

(*some really high unrealistic number!)

"Yes, I did. I spent a day drafting that email." Remember these are often not native English speakers. So, drafting that email can be intimidating. They can be intimidating to even native speakers.

"Can I see?"

"Sure."

"Ok, that is a well-written email. But you did not make a connection to why this university and why this professor. The email looks too random and not directed to this professor."

"Oh, I see."

"Can I see another email?" "

"Another email?"

"I mean, one you have sent to another professor?"

"Ok, here!"

"It is the same email!"

"No, I changed their name."


Now, you see the problem. They drafted one careful email. Sure, they spent one whole day drafting it. But then to send them to each individual faculty in different universities in different countries: all they did was merely changing the name in the "Dear Dr. ____"


Why should I reply to an email that was actually sent to 260 people? Some do not even bother to change the name. So, they make it easy by just sending "Dear Professor," I mean, "Dear Professor" is great. But the email should specifically say why you contacted me rather than an email that could be sent to other thousands of people.

In the era of ChatGPT, drafting these emails also do not take one whole day anymore. I receive many emails from students which I sense written by or with the help of ChatGPT. That is okay. But why should a professor reply to an email that was too generic? Same goes to employers too.

Sometimes I receive somewhat personalized email, but obviously phrases copy-pasted from my profile, even showing different fonts. For example, "I contact you because I share the same research interests as you: Distributed Computing, Wide Area Networks, Middleware, Telehealth, Circumpolar North.

I mean, if you really have that perfect overlap, your CV, experience, and email should reflect it more, rather than giving an impression it was copy-pasted from Google Scholar (because it was!).

Now, students complain, why should I waste an hour to send an email to a professor who would anyway ignore it. This is because you have already assumed they will ignore. In that case, there is no need to send at all, rather than doing a Russian Roulette of doing a numbers game and throwing arrows everywhere hoping at least one would land.

So, what should I do?

Consider an email as the first meeting. Find the professors and universities that you really like to work with. Be honest with yourself in the email. Do you really like all these research fields or are you just open to any field. Maybe skim through a few recent papers of the professor and their research team. Anything impresses you? No? Then probably better not to send that email at all. Yes? Maybe read more. In your email, mention what you liked about their research. Do you specifically like their university or city for whatever reasons? You can mention too. Spend an hour drafting each email individually and personally, rather than spending a whole day drafting a "perfect" email which you then mindlessly send to 260 people with no change except for name and email address.

I always want to reply to all the emails I get from students all over the world. But I also notice they were just sending as a mass emailing scheme. In the rare case I reply, those students do not even bother to reply back.

When I was a student sending such emails, my emails never got ignored. Because, those were intentional and carefully and personally written. So, focus on quality vs. quantity when you reach out to faculty for your grad school.

Good luck.

Thursday, October 10, 2024

Ditt KTH-konto kommer att deaktiveras / Your KTH account will be deactivated

KTH was my second university during my MSc. I had a higher attachment to Portugal and Lisboa because it was my first time living abroad and first time the freedom of living alone on my own. I was also affiliated with the Universidade de Lisboa for 7 years, 2012 - 2019, for my MSc and Ph.D. In comparison, I spent only one semester in KTH, the 3rd semester of my MSc. However, since it is an Erasmus Mundus double degree program, I also attended the KTH MSc graduation ceremony in 2015 in Stockholm, in addition to the one in Lisboa. In fact, the KTH graduation was really fun, in the Stockholm City Hall. It was huge and with all the friends, it felt very special. 
 
Most universities deactivate your email address once you quit or graduate. I have been affiliated with 8 universities so far, and only Universidade de Lisboa and KTH did not deactivate my account after I graduated and left. Well, until now. Now I received this email from KTH.

Ditt KTH-konto kommer att deaktiveras / Your KTH account will be deactivated
INFORMATION IN ENGLISH FURTHER DOWN
Detta meddelande går till dig som har ett KTH-konto men ej är anställd eller studerar på KTH.
KTH-konton är avsedda för de som för närvarande studerar eller arbetar på KTH kommer ditt konto att deaktiveras den 12 november 2024. Detta görs av såväl säkerhets- som resursskäl.
Det innebär att:

  • Du inte kommer att kunna logga in på ditt konto

  • E-postadressen kopplad till kontot kommer att sluta fungera

  • Eventuell automatisk vidarebefordran av e-post kommer att upphöra

Om det finns filer, e-post eller annan information som du vill ha kvar måste du själv flytta eller kopiera dem till din privata dator. De kommer inte att kunna återfås efter deaktiveringen av KTH-kontot.
Om du har behov av KTH-konto på grund av pågående arbete på/med KTH kontakta din uppdragsgivare som gör en bedömning och beslutar om en eventuell förlängning av kontot.

Informationen finns även publicerad på KTH:s webbplats:

Med vänlig hälsning
KTH:s IT-avdelning
KTH:s säkerhetsavdelning
INFORMATION IN ENGLISH
This message is for those with a KTH account but not currently employed or studying at KTH.

Your KTH account will be deactivated on 12 November 2024 as KTH accounts are intended for those studying or working at KTH. This is done for both security and resource allocation reasons.

This means that:

  • It will not be possible for you to log in to your KTH account

  • The email address associated with the account will stop working

  • Any automatic e-mail forwarding will also stop working

If there are files, e-mails, or other information on the account that you want to keep, you will have to move or copy them to your own computer yourself. It will not be possible to retrieve them after deactivation of your KTH account.

If you need a KTH account due to ongoing work at/with KTH, contact your responsible manager/equivalent who will assess and decide on the need for an extension of your KTH account.

This information is also published on the KTH website:

Sincerely
KTH IT Department
KTH Security and Safety Department

My KTH Profile

This is sad. I like my KTH email address. It is short and sweet - kpr@kth.se. So, even though my real use as a student in KTH lasted only for the semester in KTH (Spring 2013), I have used it more after. In 2023 - 2024, I participated in the KTH Alumni Mentor Programme, mentoring an MSc student from KTH. Such requests came to my attention only because of this account. After 12 November 2024, I won't receive such emails.

Although currenly outdated (I did not bother to update recently), I also have a nice profile at KTH, which will go offline too, I figure. https://www.kth.se/profile/kpr


I wish universities stopped deactivating emails after graduating or leaving the university, as these university emails form a large part of our academic identities.



Sunday, September 15, 2024

Google Summer of Code 2024 - Wrap up thoughts

A Successful GSoC 2024
Google Summer of Code (GSoC) 2024 came to an end this week with me filling the evaluation for the 4th (and final) contributor of our GSoC organization, Alaska. A group of open-source projects related to Alaska and crafted from Alaska. We could have named the organization "University of Alaska." However, we had interested mentors and support from other Alaskan entities, such as the state employees of Alaska and contributors from the AK Dev Alliance. So, "Alaska" is a more fitting name. The four projects' primary mentors this year were based in either Anchorage or Fairbanks, two of the populous (and popular) cities in Alaska. Given the GSoC happens in the summer, we couldn't show our mentees the true wilderness of Alaska in its blizzards and snow storms. But we did give a glimpse of the true north to our contributors. We had a great time as mentors. I am sure our mentees did too. They all did great work. We are very excited for the potential for GSoC 2025 and already polishing up project ideas, getting messages from interested contributors from across the oceans, and discussions of scaling up for more contributors/projects in 2025.

My personal story with GSoC started in 2009 with AbiWord. During those years, there was no limits on how many times one can be a contributor. So I was a contributor (we called that "GSoC students" during those days) four times. Twice (2009 and 2010) when I was an undergraduate in Sri Lanka, once (2014) when I was an MSc student in Portugal, and then the final time (2015) as a student again in Portugal when I was a PhD student. In between my stints as a student, I was also a mentor for AbiWord (2011 - 2013). During this time was my first time participating in the GSoC Mentor Summit 2011 in Googleplex. It was my first time visit to the US too! Since 2016, my role permanently shifted to being a mentor. Since 2019, I have been a mentor and an org admin, onboarding new mentors to the GSoC organizations that I am a part of.

So far my life has gone in 3 seasons: Sri Lanka (1987 - 2012), Portugal (2012 - 2019), and then Alaska. Time in Sri Lanka feels like childhood when I look back, although I was 25 when I left Sri Lanka. 2012 August - 2019 August is my grad school days. I lived in several cities during this period. But my base was Lisboa, Portugal. This was my second "season" and one filled with fun. Then I moved to the US. More specifically, the Lower 48. I moved to Alaska in late 2023. However, I started traveling extensively in Alaska from 2021 summer, and had traveled to Alaska four times before actually moving to Alaska. This makes me feel like I had been in Alaska for much longer. With the dark and vague memories of the COVID-19 days in the Lower 48 (2020 - 2022), my base had shifted to Alaska two years before I moved to Alaska. I moved to Lisboa randomly. But Alaska was a more careful planning. Time changes perspectives. With every move comes goodbyes, and also a new set of people. Except for the family, very few people stayed in my life across the seasons. This is probably true for all immigrants. But I am a serial immigrant, having lived in seven countries and nine cities. Every time I move to a new city, an inevitable question always lingered in my head - what/when is next. This is also probably the academic life. Grad student life as an Erasmus Mundus scholar came with mandatory mobility. I probably overdid it by moving across six countries during my grad school. But then postdoc in the Lower 48. A postdoc position, is by definition, a temporary one. Mine lasted 4 years, although officially I was titled a "Systems Software Engineer, Senior," allowing me to earn a bit more than a postdoc who is officially listed as a postdoc. Now that I am in a tenure-track position, I feel more stable in Anchorage. However, until an academic is tenured, they must be willing to move. I am aware of that. I looked back at my journey. I have evolved from being an introvert to an ambivert to an extrovert over my life journey. Many things changed in my life. A de-aged me would be entirely different from my younger-self, if we go back 20 years, to the first season. In such a dynamic nature of life, only one thing that remained constant - from 2009 to 2024. That is, Google Summer of Code!

Across various roles (contributor, mentor, and org-admin), I associated myself with different organizations. I presented GSoC to different audiences in Sri Lanka, Portugal, and the US (both Lower 48 and Alaska). I attended two more GSoC mentor summits. 2019 Munich was my favorite among the three. It was a new environment, first time outside the US. But it also felt nice to be back in person to the familiar settings of California for the GSoC in 2023, after the pandemic-induced virtual GSoC mentor summits in 2020 - 2022. In a way, 2023 felt like a trip in nostalgia to return to the Mentor Summit in California. The chocolate table has a story of its own. Then the unconference. Now I am prepared for the Oct 4 - Oct 7 Mentor Summit trip, likely the last professional trip of the year. This is also the 20th Anniversary of GSoC. As someone who was associated with GSoC for several years (2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024), most of my summers are filled with a GSoC memory - as a contributor (AbiWord, OMII-UK, and Emory BMI) or a mentor/org-admin (AbiWord, Emory BMI, caMicroscope, and Alaska). I love this constant in the otherwise ever-changing settings and people of my life.

I am very much looking forward to meeting familiar and new faces at my 4th GSoC Mentor Summit in less than 3 weeks. Cheers and long live GSoC.

Friday, September 6, 2024

That Feeling

A neighborhood cafe

I like this cafe. It is within walking distance of my home. It is nothing too special for someone who is not me. But it is unique in that it sells not just coffee but also plants. The name feels special too. That Feeling. Sometimes, you do not have a name for that feeling. I ended the previous blog post with a sad feeling, a feeling with no name. Feelings are like cocktails. Sometimes, you can point fingers at the ingredients. Many times, you cannot. Most languages do not have adequate words to describe the shades of love, friendships, and other relationships in the world. We have friends. Good friends. Best friend? I dislike that phrase. It assumes there is one best friend. You must break up with your previous best friend because you found another one. 

The interiors of That Feeling

Often we assign biological roles to friendships. In many countries across Asia, we call our older friends "elder brother" or "elder sister" and younger friends "younger brother" or "younger sister." We don't mean anything with that, as it is more of a matter of respect for the age rather than an actual sibling-like feeling. Then, I also intentionally declared certain friends to be brothers and sisters. But do we need close friends to be siblings, children, parents, or uncles/aunts? Languages lack words to describe feelings and relationships. We are using something that probably is close enough as a loose replacement. Maybe those brothers and sisters you made in friends are not siblings, after all. They are more than just a friend. You do not have a label on them. We don't care about words that much. 

 
Memories define us
Literature has words. But I look for words we use in everyday practice. Love, 爱, and ආදර are used more generally (for example, love my country/ආදර මගේ රට.) காதல் is used more specifically for love between romantic partners, although some people use it as in "love your country" too. There are other words, too. We have பாசம்/நேசம்/விருப்பம்/அன்பு/කැමතියි/desire/lust/... But we still don't have enough words in daily use (not poetic literature) to explain all the shades of love and friendships. I look for words like the 12 levels of friendships in Arabic. Nibras taught me a few Arabic words on Twitter. Hubb (love in general), Ishq (deep, passionate love, soulmates), Mawaddah (mutual fondness between friends), Rahmah (compassionate or merciful love), Gharam (romantic infatuated love, passion), and Hawa (romantic sentimental love). He also shared some similar words from Urdu: Mohabbat (love/affection), Ishq (passionate, intense love), Pyaar (casual term for love), Dosti (friendship), Izzat (respect/honor in a relationship), Khuloos (sincerity / pure love), Jazbaat (emotions/feelings), and Dil ki Baat (matters of the heart). I am sure we are losing something in translation here. Not everything is easy to translate. We need more such words for common use across all languages. For you and me. Not just for elites.

Random walks
But sometimes, we do not need words. Most of my beautiful friendships/relationships are with people who do not speak my mother tongue. I recall one of my favorite songs: உள்ளங்கள் பேசும் மொழி அறிந்தால், உன் ஜீவன் துடிக்கத் தேவையில்லை. இரு கண்கள் பேசும் வார்த்தைகளை, இரு நூறு மொழிகள் சொல்வதில்லை. This loosely translates to: "If you understand the language of the hearts, you don't need to beat your soul. Two hundred languages will not express the words spoken by two eyes."

At least for me, feelings are usually mutual. If I like someone, usually they like me too. Sometimes, I feel like I do not like someone, and I imagine that feeling is mutual, too. "I think I dislike you for reasons unknown to me. Do you dislike me too?" That would be borderline weird in a bad way. But that is rare. I like people more than I dislike them. But that is where the word "like" fails me. I like people in general. But I like-like a few specifically. I love them. The word "love" is loaded with layers of romance and patriotism. And morning coffee. I love my coffee with coconut cream.

Hello, fellow traveler...

Memories shape my perception of a place. Sometimes, we are all travelers. Other times, one of us is a local. Mahas taught me an Urdu word on Twitter. Humsafar. It literally means fellow traveler. While it is used romantically to refer to a soulmate, it could also refer to others. I like that. This reminds me of the sweet people I encounter on my journey. In a way, I treat new countries and new friends similarly. I personify the land. I fell in love with Portugal and Alaska almost instantly. Then, a few places took their time to impress me. Some cities did not even try. Maybe they did not want to be friends with me, and that is okay. The feeling is mutual. Probably. I often travel in Alaska during mid-winter. I got stuck twice in blizzard conditions. I had to stay two more nights in Fairbanks and three more nights in the Adak Island, beyond what I initially planned. Lands have a soul. Sometimes, they do not want you to leave.

People are like lands, too. You meet someone. They become friends with you. You learn about their culture. A little bit of their language. Their philosophy. And their mannerisms. There is a little bit of their country in them. If they are an immigrant, there are probably two or more countries. People you meet along the way influence you the same way the lands influence you. Fellow travelers, after all. Our universes collided at that little point in time-space. Will the place still be the same when we return, if not for the people? We met by chance once when we were strangers. Now that we know each other, will we meet again by choice?