A Night out with the Eagle

Tonight was one of those great moments in Kenya for me. A truly humbling and inspirational moment. We got to out and have dinner with Nathan Eagle. I had read about Nathan back at MIT when I was in the Media Lab. I read about him and starting EPROM, how involved he was with all sorts of amazing projects. I must say...I was at the edge of my seat the entire night. This man was/is incredible. The ideas he had, the projects with mobile technology he was working on. His lifestyle's pretty amazing as well. He's leaving for Beijing tomorrow....and then who knows where after. Yesterday he gave a talk on one of his projects he was working on...called txteagle. won't go into too much detail....cause i could spend pages talking about it...but it's basically paying people to complete tasks that normally computers could do but not as well as humans. From translating words to languages that not many people know about....to updating news reports, and even sending SMS messages on the current blood status at a local blood bank.....Nathan is incredible.

During our dinner conversation we talked about the companies in kenya...and how entrepreneurs have many barriers of entry into the mobile market...we talked about the students and computer science education here in africa....and how ways of expanding our program to other countries within the continent. i asked him some questions about his travels....his ideas...his life. he does so many things...to improve the community..and make it better...all while being an entpreneur...an innovator. And he has a wife as well....although he admits it's tough traveling all the time and not being able to see her. He told us he would be back to the states next summer...hopefully he'll be in the cambridge area...i would love to chat with him more often.

we departed to our seperate ways after dinner....i think we all agree Nathan Eagle is the man. So intelligent....yet so so humble. Amazing guy. I would be lucky if I ever became half as smart as him. And what's even more amazing is that he studied mechanical engineering while at Stanford for undergrad. pretty cool stuff. Michael was saying that if you have an idea....you can easily teach yourself the necessary skills to make your ideas a reality..with or without a C.S. degree....or even a degree at all. I joked while would people need to go college....or get a C.S. education....and even more important why he was doing his Ph.D. He told me so that he didn't have to go work. he's hilarious. i would want a job where i was free to do what i wanted. no restrictions....no cubicles. hearing nathan and all of his adventures...the people he's met....just absolutely incredible.

in other news.....things are starting to wind down...at least for us instructors. haven't been able to blog recently because i've been staying up preparing lecture slides...4 to be exact...on location awareness, bluetooth technology, persistent storage....and wireless messaging. i think i'm done with J2ME for awhile. Messed with Android all day today....familiarizing myself with xml and the android platform. We also decided to extend our stay till MOnday, the 20th of July...hopefully giving the students more time to work on their business plan and projects. It's going to be good....i know it. i'm already impressed with many of the projects that the students have done. i'll be sure to talk more about them soon in my next entry.

well...good night. we have class tomorrow ( saturday ) for this mobile boot camp that we signed up for back two-three weeks ago? i don't know....it's very unorganized by the people in charge....whatever. i'm happy to lecture and spread the joy of computer science education. untl next time...happy coding!