woops, sorry, trying to tune my new spamfilter and failing. -- rgds,
Reinier Battenberg Director Mountbatten Ltd. +256 758 801 749 www.mountbatten.net On Tuesday 23 March 2010 15:51:18 Reinier Battenberg wrote: > Congs Daniel! Well done! > > (and be sure we will ask you to present your project at the LUG any of > these days :-) ) > > > Hi All, > > I think this was mainly lack of information: few people actually knew of > > the code jam in Uganda. Though we have low internet penetration, we > > still have thousands of developers. Only 2 Ugandans, did the > > qualification round. Only I qualified. (unless I didn't look through > > well). > > > > Also, > > Allow me to blame the education system, just for a second. I'll rant > > about Computer Science at MUK because I think that’s where we'd have most > > logic programmers from. I love the theory very much, but if it's not > > geared towards solving real life problems, it's not going to help much, > > The problems presented at the code jam were problems requiring > > application of some mathematical principles taught at our good > > University, but at the time I was studying Gaussian elimination (Last > > semester, I think), I thought it was just some drill we had to go > > through, the lecturer didn’t make it any better by giving us application > > problems, but rather typical matrix problems, mainly reduction to echelon > > form. > > > > I think more emphasis should be put on Maths, Data & programming > > structures classes, as opposed to every Computer Science semester having > > atleast one art like (Research Methodology). And not every semester has > > a Maths or Data structures class. Programming is also quite lightly > > taught, not going into depth by sticking to the "Java in 21days" > > syllabus. > > > > Not sure what the Egyptians or south Africans teach their Kids, or if > > they learn on their own, but in a country where most people learn from > > class, the syllabus better teach them how to solve some real life > > problems. > > > > Also I think we spend too little time in class: > > http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704207504575130073852829574 > >.h tml?KEYWORDS=chester+e+finn > > > > Three hours a day at MUK? That's less than 20% of the time most students > > are awake. And that doesn't include weekends. So students spend less > > than 15% of their time at campus in class. And that's not considering the > > classes they inevitably miss. > > > > Damn, this has been lengthy! > > Well, maybe this is just my small minded observation so I'll ask to be > > corrected. > > > > Here's google's analysis: > > http://code.google.com/codejam/contest/dashboard?c=438101#s=a&a=4 > > > > Daniel. > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf > > Of Jan Oscar Holbo Rasmussen Sent: Tuesday, March 23, 2010 11:53 AM To: > > Linux Users Group Uganda > > Subject: Re: [LUG] Egypt, South Africa And Nigeria Account For More Than > > 80% Of Google Code Jam Africa Qualifying Contestants > > > > Hi all! > > > > On Tue, 2010-03-23 at 11:01 +0300, McTim wrote: > > > On Tue, Mar 23, 2010 at 10:53 AM, Richard Ngamita <[email protected]> > > > wrote: > > > Why in your opinion we have only 3 countries accounting for > > > more than 80% of the qualifying contestants? > > > > > > 3 biggest Internet markets in Africa probably. Makes perfect sense > > > that the larger markets have the best coders. I don't understand all > > > this nationalism re: the Internt in Africa. It's a transnational > > > thing, let's not navel gaze this too much. > > > > I completely agree that it is a transnational thing and that nationalism > > is not the way forward. However, it might be an indicator, that countries > > like Kenya, Uganda, etc, that should have the connectivity available lag > > behind in interest and/or skills. > > > > The lack of interest in itself may not be a negative marker (apart from > > the FOSS community) but the lack of skills could be. Skilled/trained > > labour was what lifted India and the IT/Tech industry there. It has > > created a local economy from international business (by increased local > > income spent at local markets, shops, etc, creating secondary and > > tertiary jobs). > > > > If Uganda and the rest of (East) Africa falls short on education, it will > > always be "the poor brother". While not being a instant > > one-size-fits-all solution to Africa's problems, education leads to > > opportunities, which leads to positive prosperity (one that reflects > > positively on the surrounding community instead of negative prosperity > > created from theft, corruption, etc). > > > > I went for a one-day conference on development aid in Africa. One of the > > points raised was, that Asian and African countries had the same average > > income and growth rates in the 1960's. > > > > I like the Watoto motto: "Rescue a Child - Raise a Leader - Rebuild a > > Nation". Education, but formally and informally is the better part of > > the 2 last sentences. > > > > Jan > > > > -- > > Jan Rasmussen > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Email: [email protected] Blogs: http://janholbo.blogspot.com > > Web: http://www.kaddu.dk http://janholbodk.blogspot.com > > Twitter: @JanHolbo http://kaddulinux.blogspot.com > > (http://twitter.com/JanHolbo) > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Views expressed are my own and can not be attributed to anyone else > > > > _______________________________________________ > > LUG mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/lug > > > > LUG is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ > > > > All Archives can be found at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > > > > The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including > > attachments if any). 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The List's Host is not responsible for them in any > way. --------------------------------------- > _______________________________________________ LUG mailing list [email protected] http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/lug LUG is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ All Archives can be found at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. ---------------------------------------
