2024 Various Personal Thoughts

Below are various personal thoughts in 2024 that I posted on LinkedIn

2024-1- WizKids

It was 2015. I had turned 40 a year before and had just spent two years far away from tech as a lean Six Sigma black belt. My past employer, Verizon, launched their first hackathon within the company. Anyone with an idea was welcome to join, and other members were welcome to join one’s team. I was hesitant at first to join because I was afraid of the embarrassment if colleagues half my age (and half my responsibilities being 40 years old) could come up with a project and spend the required 48 hours to come up with a proof of concept, a working demo, or a presentation. Sitting in my cube, pondering about joining the hackathon, I thought, “What the hell, let me join and see what happens.” I thought about the real-life problem I was facing as a parent. How can I get my kids to spend less time on the Internet? Of course, I was not the only one who had the problem. When I submitted the proposed idea for the hackathon, two colleagues at Verizon asked me to join my hackathon team. Once the hackathon event started, we had 48 hours to do something. Our answer to the hackathon challenge was WizKids, a custom software running on a Raspberry Pi hooked to the Internet router that acts as a proxy server and a parent’s portal. Parents will create math problems via the portal. Whenever our kids attempt to access the Internet, WizKids will lock up their Internet access and prompt them to solve a math or science problem. The more problems they solve, the more time WizKids will allow them to use the Internet. WizKids then went on to receive the top prize award at the first hackathon! What was even more rewarding to me personally is that my fear of not competing because of my age is absolute nonsense. Entrepreneurship can happen at any age. I am close to 50 now, and my energy and passion continue strong, even though I may look older now than the photo below. If you are young, younger than me, old, or older than me, and have an idea, don’t hesitate. Go for it!

2024-1- Career

I started my first professional job as a computer technician in 1996. From then on, I progressed through the ranks at various companies I worked for until becoming a vice president in IT up to 2023. This year has been an important milestone in my career because it is the year that I decided that I no longer wanted my technology ideas or projects to be controlled by those that I work for. Instead, I wanted to be influenced and influence those who appreciate my skills and share my passion. I also wanted it to be less about managing and more about selflessly guiding others in technology and innovation. With that, 2023 has been a gigantic shift in how I approach projects and problems requiring technology solutions, especially in AI. As I carved my new path, I learned new ways of personal discipline, self-motivation, and problem-solving. I have let go of all the corporate titles and chose my professional title as “principal AI consultant” because it is what I do and will be doing for the foreseeable future. Some might think it is a demotion from a VP to an individual contributor. It is not! It is the most valuable promotion and the proudest title that I carry. The title carries over not just the last 20 years of my professional experience but goes way back to my childhood when I first picked an Atari at the age of seven and started helping others with computers ever since. I thank all my family, first and foremost, my customers, mentees, my network of friends, for a great 2023. I look forward to an amazing 2024.

2024-1- Big Book

I was caught reading the 1300+ pages of the Encyclopedia of Computer Science page by page. I can’t get enough computer knowledge. : 💾

2024-2- Common Sense Does Wonders

All these technical skills, problem-solving, and not missing a beat with emerging technologies that I have accumulated, leveraged, and kept myself ahead throughout the past decades are paying off. The reward has never been materialistic nor monetary for me, but rather mental, happiness, and energy to innovate and tackle everyday problems through design, analysis, code, and results. I am focusing on all #AI and #genai stuff. If you know me, you recall that I was passionate about #ai over a decade ago, and even more, if you include everything I was obsessed with in computers. The pleasure that I get in problem-solving, whether it is through an old-school way or a modern-day, is equally the same. The critical part is always to focus and constantly break down the problem on paper or in note-taking. Feed your human neurons with a healthy diet, and try to (emphasis on try) avoid beating yourself too much when you screw up. Nothing is magic. Common sense does wonders! #mentorship #tech INFOCOM AI

2024-2- Green Screens

Tribute to #retrocomputing when we used green screens! (Many of us still do..) INFOCOMET

2024-2- SME

It took me 20 years out of 40+ years with computers to realize that I am more happy being a consultant and subject matter expert than being hands-off. The gloves are off. Always bare my hands on the wires! Zzzzzz #mentalhappiness #middleagemindset

2024-4- Uncle Sams

It’s April, and Uncle Sam is all around, reminding us that it is time to pay the taxes. A lot of focus has been on e-filing, but one point gets overlooked is accounting software to track one’s expenses throughout the year. Whether it is for the home or business, every other day, some new app comes up and promises to make your life easier by automatically connecting to your bank account, categorizing your spending, and maybe (if you paid extra) it might even do that taxes for you. I wouldn’t be surprised if people are already uploading their financials on ChatGPT and are attempting to find refunds. Even though I am all with automation and #genai stuff, I make it a habit to do it the organic way: double-entry accounting, reconciliation of transactions, and tracking of investments. I have been using the open-source app GnuCash, licensed under the GNU GPL license. I keep the data throughout the years on my storage, encrypted and adequately backed up. I avoid uploading my banking data to cloud solutions no matter what. I then work on my taxes through an e-filing process on my own. I have no interest in the advertisement of professional tax companies that promise you refunds. I never did. It takes a considerable effort to learn the tax rules, especially the worksheets that ask you to add two values here, multiply one value by another there, and then sum everything and divide with another … (sigh). It is a learning experience that is prone to mistakes but improves as time passes. If you are a person like me who prefers to handle things on my own, do check gnucash.org

2024-4- Home Wires

I have been frustrated with the degraded internet quality in our two-story house. Initially, I focused on everything being wireless with a router connected to a one-g fiber to the home. Some devices would pick a 2.4 GHz WiFi, while others would connect to a 5 GHz. I have a mini data center in my house - multiple devices doing their stuff. So, over a couple of weeks, I turned the house’s network upside down. I installed two-gigabit switches, two routers-turned-access points, one dedicated router connected to the ONT, an Ethernet connection, and Ethernet cabling for dedicated devices throughout the house. I then configured dedicated local IPs for the devices. Then, I added a UPS for the critical equipment and surge protectors for everything. I even changed one of the breakers. Now I have the internet in the house under full control. #geekiness

2024-4- Waiting

I was reviewing my old stuff and found this note I wrote one day while waiting for a job offer from a past employer: what seemed endless, even if it was for a brief moment, was waiting for a job opportunity. It was more like, “How much will they (the employer) value my prospects?” or “Am I valuable to them?” The employer is holding the money at that moment and will call the shots just like a card dealer at a casino. They have thousands of resumes at their disposal. Through a mix of careful calculations, financial spreadsheets, and management feedback, they will make their selections. The receiving end, the candidates, are waiting. There may be several offers at the table or possibly none at all, but they must wait, regardless. Waiting can lead to increased anxiety, panic, and stress. We are humans, not machines, after all. Then, after the selection process is complete and the candidate is matched, another form of anxiety starts to take shape: acceptance, competition, and survival in the new workplace. This is followed by dissatisfaction, misalignment, betrayal, incompetence, and inability to adapt to the new environment and/or lead to success, career breakthroughs, and massive return on investment for both the employer and the employee. Then, the cycle repeats itself time after time. Is it all worth it?

2024-4- Find Another Job

During my Lean Six Sigma Black Belt days, I showed my mentor how to develop even better data analysis using Python and machine learning; he said something like, “I don’t care. Do it using Minitab”. At another time, I showed management and staff how to use AI for medical Q&A and voice digital assistants and build an innovative hub. I was told that the priority is securing the wifi, not the innovation. At another incident years back, I suggested an innovation playground and was told to find another job. The moral of all this is that if you believe in yourself and management doesn’t believe in you, don’t just stand there. If they don’t get you, someone will; if they don’t, then do it yourself. Believe in yourself.

2024-5- INFOCOMET

I started INFOCOMET (formerly INFOCOM AI) a year ago. It was the best decision I made in my professional career. All the love and passion for code and computers that have often caused more pain than happiness throughout my corporate life are now deeper, stronger, and more powerful in me than ever before. I am able to be my true self, share my passion with others, and work with NO corporate bureaucracy over my head.

My self-grading first-year startup report:- bootstrap my way through the tech stack. Don’t buy services that you do not need at first, such as cloud services, software, or paid services for things that you can do. Grade: B- organize organize organize: take meeting notes (and tag the notes), keep a daily log of what you are doing, don’t lose it, secure it, and make it searchable for you only. Grade: B+. (Don’t go for an A because that time spent will take away from the core task - the work itself)- work-life balance, personal health, rest, exercise, and social life: Grade: C- but my number one supporter, my wife, is my lifeline and is understanding. - love the passion of the work: the code, the AI, the machines, and everything with computers: Grade A+- complete dedication to customer needs, tackling the issues, and solving problems they have: still being graded.

1st self-owned business anniversary. Exactly one year ago, May 11, 2023. I gave up my role as VP, an executive, and a corporate employee to start my own business, INFOCOM AI . The words INFOCOM AI stands for _ Information _ Communication * Artificial Intelligence. The four words that I focus my solutions on 24/7 and is what I always seek to deliver. The past year was challenging because starting from scratch is never easy. There is even a name for it: “the cold start problem.” With the strong support of my wife, Mayssaloun Tay- She/Her , I persisted, and I am happy with where I am right now. I gained the joy back with code I somewhat lost when I moved to the corporate world twenty-two years ago. That’s because I was always held back in what I could do because of management politics. I was constantly reminded to do my job as a manager and not to be hands-on. The job made it this way, even if they didn’t always explicitly say it. Not anymore. I love how I code, and I love everything about computers. That is who I am and how I am continuing as a 50-year-old geek in a couple of months.

2024-8- jobs and Race

My honest answers if I were to be hypothetically interviewed for a job, what is your race: human, not robot what is your gender: computer person what is your preferred programming language: it depends on the use casewhere did you work in recent years before your recent job: in companies that frankly were too obsessed with hierarchy and money rather than doing something beneficialwhat is your preferred ideal job? I love what I do todayHow would you help others? Sharing love for computers and hoping it can be infectious What do you think of generative AI? Overhyped. Many things can be done and have been done without it. It is helpful in some cases, but if you get too dependent on it, you will get locked up in the dungeons of the big companies that own the models. A follow-up to the previous question: What can then be done? Every engineer should learn the bare metal of computers before claiming to be an expert. Companies should embrace AI but should not be blindsided by the fact that everything must be done with AI. Do you think AI will replace humans? The famous sci-fi author Isaac Asimov quoted a dictum about computers and AI in the 80s regarding human teachers being replaced by machines: “Any teacher who a machine can replace should be!” I will generalize it by saying that if a machine can replace a skill, it should be replaced because the person owning that skill should always differentiate themselves and be more valuable than the machines. If humans keep improving their skills, then they will never be replaced. Hence, human education always matters! Where do you see yourself in the next future? Freedom of mind is the most important asset for me. I made the mistake most of my life of working for others who controlled me and rejected my code because it did not benefit their $$$ mindset. Others pushed me put out because I disrupted their statusquo. I will always help and work to help others, but I will never trade my freedom for those that only think about money.

2024-8 Tech Detox

My wife and I are in Mexico on a long-overdue vacation. I promised myself that I would not think about tech while I was there, so I didn’t even bring my computer(s) with me. Instead, I got a computer-related book and a notebook to write about computers. So, it is not precisely tech gadgets, right? Thankfully, my wife understands me after 30 years together. While staring at the seafront with a brain continuously thinking about computers, it got me thinking that a detox from computers is not 100% possible. Once you are in, you are in. I love the experience of not having a computer keyboard right now, except that my fingers are wondering where the mechanical keyboard is right now, and I am also I’m typing right now using my phone. Nevertheless, we, geeks or not geeks, need a break from time to time

2024-8 Vic-20

My first personal computer was the Commodore Vic20, which I bought in 1984. Forty years later, my last computer is once again a Vic20.

2025-4-1 Labor Day

Today is Labor Day in the US. Labor Day in other parts of the world falls under a different day. Nevertheless, such a day is supposedly a celebration of every person working their ass off to make a living, raising a family, and enjoying life during or after a hard day of work. Immigrants, blue collar, collar, locals, young, old, mom, dad, son, daughter, grandfather, grandmother, and any worker is to be celebrated. Supposedly, the one that earns money through labor work is the one to be celebrated. Yet, we are heading into an era of AI and automation that is generating, rightfully or wrongfully, massive layoffs. Those without jobs on this labor day are indeed not celebrating. They are desperately trying to find employment. I would not celebrate Labor Day when we are not benefiting society during the age of AI. I would encourage everyone who earns money not to do nothing on this Labor Day but rather, in any way possible, help those who are unemployed.

2024-9-27 50th birthday

My 50th birthday coincided with disturbing events in my beloved country, Lebanon. On a positive note, I met the founder of Atari, Nolan Bushnell, who founded Atari 50 years ago. It is with Atari that my computer career first began at the age of six. The first thing that I said to Mr Nolan was thank you for what you invented, which shaped my life forever. I then got my 50-year Atari signed by him. it will be framed and hung in my home office as a reminder of such a beautiful invention.

Framed the two critical events in computer history: Allan Bushnell-signed 50yr Atari, the period where video games rocked the world, and, right before it, the Homebrew Computer Club was the place that inspired legendary geeks, namely Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs to build the Apple I, hackers shared their personal computer hobbies, and Bill Gates famously broadcasting letter demanding everyone to stop pirating Altair BASIC by Microsoft.

2024-10- Chess Mode

• A 3-minute casual, anonymous game is a sweet spot for me between playing chess for the sole pleasure of the game and allowing me to focus and think deeply about the project at hand. I don’t know who I am against, and the other does not know about me either. The game is timed as a 3-minute blitz game, which means that it ends either with a checkmate or the clock running down for the opponent. I used to play 1-minute games for fun, but 3-minute are my favorite. With anonymous mode, the game is at its raw best. When stuck in an AI or coding project, I switch to chess mode. It is the best way for me to solve problems.

• A perfect example of when someone tries to be a smartass and loses. I was playing a chess game anonymously against an anonymous person. I had the black pieces and the other had the white pieces. I was losing and ended up solely with a king and no other pieces. The opponent had a queen and some pawns and could have checkmated me. Instead, that person decided to turn the pawns into four queens. That is a 36 to 0 score advantage against me. Even when losing, I don’t stop until it is a checkmate. What then happens next? Power does not necessarily turn into a win. With the opponent turning the pawns into four powerful queens, I was left with only the king, forcing a stalemate in the game because I strategically positioned the king so I could not move the king while not under threat (or check). By chess rules, this ended with a draw. Ouch to the opponent…. Lesson learned: never give up in the middle of a game. The power of the mind can defeat those with the upper hand even when under losing conditions. Forcing a draw against a sure win is as mentally rewarding as a win, if not more.

2024-10-1 Work Mode

I saw this sign at a nearby coffee shop, and it reflects how I feel about my INFOCOM AI business. The idea of working for someone else is no longer what I do, and I will not do it. I deliver, and I give all the love in what I do. I always share and am never selfish; when I am wrong, I am wrong. I do not make up stuff or hide behind LLMs. What I do is genuine. I am proud of what I do.

Beautiful words found in a Leuchtturm1917 journal: “writing by hand is thinking on paper. Thoughts grow into words, sentences and pictures. Memories become stories. Ideas are transformed into projects. Notes inspire insight. We write and understand, learn, see and think - with the hand.

2024-10- On Teaching

I will teach this January at Clark College what I consider a sexy course for geeks like me: computer organization and assembly language. Assembly language is the closest to the bare metal of machine code language that computers understand.

I will give my current students at Clark College a midterm in digital logic in electronic circuits. It is the first time that I am on the other side of the classroom tables. 🤣 feels different.

I work with computers at two extremes. On the minor side, I teach college students the hardcore logic of computers—the bare-bones logic design of circuits, including NAND gates and flip-flops. On the major side, I deeply code AI-related solutions. In between, I keep myself preoccupied with computer stuff, systems thinking, and deep thinking - all computer-related. Bits and bytes a day, all day, and every day keep me happily achieving everyday. INFOCOMET

I taught the following course at @clark college this semester: ENGR 250 - Digital logic design, testing and implementation, including Boolean Algebra, Karnaugh map and design of logic circuits to solve practical problems using sequential/combinational/synchronous/asynchronous circuits, application of standard SSI/MSI/LSI logic systems, design/test/implement development cycle and Verilog/ Hardware Description Language (HDL). For the upcoming semester, I plan to teach ENGR 270 - Digital Systems and Microprocessors: continuation of the Digital Design sequence. Covering synchronous/asynchronous state machines, shift registers, arithmetic circuits and devices, microprocessor internal and system architecture, design and subsystem interfacing, assembly language, and programmable logic devices, design for test, documentation standards, and use of computer-based tools. The course brochure is https://lnkd.in/geEfgdjH. If you know of college students in the Portland / Washington metroplex who wish to get super geeky, they should enroll in Clark and join the learning community. I want to thank Izad Khormaee for all the material he made available for the classes and made it easy to get on the instructing part without letting it disrupt my professional priorities.

Today is the final exam for my digital logic design students at Clark College. What’s cool about being a teacher is that you can incorporate your passion into the course material. So, part of the final exam requires the students to design the electronic schematic of the Atari joystick - the handle for movement and the fire button 🕹️. I wrote up the problem statement that you are a co-founder of the Clark-Ari gaming company, and you are designing the first gaming joystick:)

2024-10- The Bank

After my trip to the dentist (previous post), I stopped at the Bank to create a savings account with a (surprise) 0.01% interest for my business. The bank lady said, “I am a small business expert; let me help get the most out of your account.” The conversation went like this. She said, “You should take advantage of our high-reward credit card.” I said that I didn’t want credit cards and I only use debit cards. I have one credit (Apple card) for travel, and that is it. That killed the mood. She said you get a cashback reward for every dollar spent. I said I don’t value any rewards with spending. I prefer to be less motivated to spend and spend only what I know I have (debit), not what I don’t have (credit). She then said you should take advantage of our line of credit. Don’t you want to lease a car or get money to make money? I said I don’t have debt and prefer to pay off things first. She said that others usually take money and pay interest to make money. I said I don’t do that. I prefer to build on what I have. The whole conversation was weird, but it happened while she finalized my 0% savings account. She was eager to have me out of the office after completing the paperwork. That did not take long.

2024-10 Anti Social Media

I think AI has turned social media into antisocial media. Here is why

1. Social media providers are promising and pushing more generative AI content on their platforms. The providers’ AI-generated content will take precedence over human-generated content because the providers are convinced that their creations are much more attractive than those by humans. This will be particularly noticeable on platforms that are losing to the popular human-generated content on TikTok today.

2. The ability for a natural person to sign onto the platforms is not as easy as before, such as solving a puzzle or matching photos, because the platforms need to prove that you are a human. That is not bad, but I don’t think it was intended for that purpose. Platforms should prioritize protecting consumer accounts from hacks instead of protecting their content from hacks. Governments should penalize companies that were hacked rather than defend them since such companies failed to prioritize security and privacy over profit. Also, such platforms reject AI bots from signing up, but they will push more of their own AI bots onto their platforms and maybe others.

3. More and more digital products, mainly social media, are embracing AI over building tools that bring more human interactions. I can’t think of any recent viral product that improved the way humans communicate with each other. If you can think of one, please share.

With generative AI that technically steals human-generated content to fuel its models with data and people spending more time interacting with bots, I see us heading to a future where less human-generated content and less human-to-human communication will take place. How often do you see people today chatting rather than sharing content?

What I like right now is to sit in a coffee shop in a Spanish or Italian town and talk with those around me, or, even better, borrow the DeLorean Time Machine car from the Back to the Future movie and head to a 1970s Beirut coffee shop.

2024-10 House Cleaning

Close to thirty years ago, at my first office job, an old man regularly cleaned the place. He would bring him a 3M spray, ask me to pause from working for a second and clean my computer keyboard. Then, he would wipe the desk and the screen. He always had a smile on his face, which a young adult like me would find reassuring, no matter what the problem was. To me, he looked happy, satisfied, and content. As for my 20 or so-year-old version, I was not pleased with anything except my love for my wife, my girlfriend at the time, and my passion for computers. There is always something to get angry at while coding; the irony is that you can’t code well when angry. Seeing an approving smile can turn technical problems into elegant solutions. Since then, whether working in an office or my home office, I have always remembered that smile while regularly cleaning my workplace before I do any work.

2024-11- Linux

It was 1997. I walked around the American University of Beirut, giving Linux CDs away, and I could not convince them to use them. Hardly anyone had a clue what they were. My fellow students at the time were accustomed to Unix mainframes on campus and Windows machines at home. They viewed computers from a coding angle and not from a hacking angle. To this day, I still have trouble convincing many to use Linux, even though Linux machines are running on most computers worldwide.

2024- Al-Computer & Electronics Magazine

When I was a 12-year-old, computer-passionate kid fleeing Beirut to my our village in the South of Lebanon in 1986, my grandfather once took me with him to a nearby city to get some farming supplies. There, I saw an Arabic-edition computer magazine called Al-Computer & Electronics. I later came to find out that it was the first Arab-based magazine in the region. I became obsessed with the magazine because it was my only window to the developments in the computer world. There was neither the Internet nor BBS or anything that tells you what was going on with computers at the time. The Vic-20 home computer that I had was not listed in the magazine because the magazine was geared to personal computers, except at times when the magazine included program listings for the Commodore 64, which I dreamed of having. I did not even know anyone that I could talk to or listen to about any of the machines. None of my soccer buddies knew anything about computers. So it was only me and this magazine that was affordable for me to buy and dream of those magnificent machines. Much of the words in the magazine did not make sense to me. It was looking at the pictures of computers that gave me the most pleasure. This magazine has been out of print for a long time. A few years ago, I contacted someone from the publishing house about acquiring any digital copies of this magazine, and I was told that there was some corrupt work at their office where someone took the entire archive and no copies exist. Only copies of this magazine are sold on eBay, and one can find some copies at thrift book stores in Lebanon if they still exist. Luckily for me, I managed to acquire the first edition of the magazine that is dated March 1984.

2024- Quitting Alcohol

Twenty-five years ago, I quit 2 packs per day smoking because I hated the urge of being controlled by a cigarette. Plain yogurt saved the day. In the middle of 2024, I quit alcohol for good due to its potential impact on my health. I was only a casual drinker, but I am now fifty. My father passed away from liver cancer. Though correlation is not necessarily causation, I intend to stick to a healthier lifestyle, though it can be less joyful than when you have some spirit in your body. Quitting drinking cold turkey was not easy for me, not because of the drink itself, but because it was socially awkward around friends. Right before 2025, I quit red meat after feeling disgusted from watching a documentary on how American mega farms treat their cattle. Quitting red meat raised eyebrows, especially from my kids, who thought I had gone insane given my reputation for eating just about anything. I had to keep a solid stance on the subject with my kids, who think I am either bluffing or that I will succumb the moment I see a fatty-delicious steak on a grill. My 2025 resolution is to say boringly healthy. What is your 2025 resolution? #2025