Aaron Sorkin "Reaching for the Stars"

Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce to you the future hottest show on TV: "The Newroom". I just watched the premiere of this a few hours ago, and I am already hooked. I can't wait for my Sunday dose!

The HBO show is a fiction showing the backdrops of news TV shows. In this day and age where the role of the media is central to shaping the future of nations, numerous news organizations around the world are prone to political bias and misinformation campaigns for profit (ahem, Fair and Balanced ;). The Newsroom attempts at an ideal news show where the listener is not considered dumb, and accurate facts are presented without a spin, letting the viewers derive their own conclusions (watch trailer below).

To be fair though I have been looking forward to this for the longest time. Indeed, this show is written by my favorite screenplay writer of all time (he co-created and wrote half of my favorite TV show of all time The West Wing): Aaron Sorkin. He simply is a genius and his dialogues are like music to my ears: a pure joy!

The title of this post is inspired by a recurring theme in Sorkin's work. In a couple of President Bartlet's speeches in the show the West Wing, you can hear the following phrase "This is a time for american heroes. We will do what is great, we will do what is hard. This is a time for american heroes and We Reach For The Stars!!". In the premiere of The Newsroom, again, one of the characters (pretty girl with a British accent), also talked about "Reaching for the stars", when convincing the main character that they could do a worthy news show together, no matter their history (just watch the show!!).

You may not like the politically driven type of shows, but just for the art, give it a try!

Breaking the Rules for a better Tomorrow

Society: a bunch of entities interconnected and related through geography,physiognomy,  "culture", "beliefs" and/or institutions. The human version of this is quite fascinating: multicultural yet global, chaotic yet organized in its own way.That's where the Rules come in: laws derived from common sense, approved by the commoners and enforced for the common Good! 

These rules are however more tested and contested than not, more bypassed and purposely misinterpreted than not.Just think about the percentage of the world's population in jail, the number of crimes, the number of activists, the amount of law enforcement and military personnel out there. 

Rules are meant to be broken and often are, or to the least misused and abused for personal gain. My argument is simple: breaking the rules is not a nemesis to progress, on the contrary, it induces it. Indeed, because of infractions and through the complaints of activists and revolutionists, laws are repealed, modified and created; i.e. "mistakes themselves are often the best teachers of all".

Lets now look at all this from the computing technology perspective. The Society here is the Internet (diverse, interconnected, global) and other communication channels. Hackers play the roles of rule breakers, eager to test the system in place and show/fix weaknesses. Unfortunately, very few global rules exist, leaving the society at the mercy of wrongdoers.

Anonymous, Cyberwarfare, Viruses, Trojan horses, Malware, Stuxnet, Flame, stolen Linkedin passwords hashes, botnets, cell-phone hijacking, software key generators, illegal music and video download, Web vulnerabilities (SQL Injections, Cross-Site Scripting), privacy policies on websites, etc... These infinite avenues to abuse the system for fun and profit have got governments and cyber-security experts on high alert. What can we do to stop or at least reduce this?

White-hat hackers of the world, this is a calling: Learn how to break the rules, and use that knowledge to the make the Interweb a better place.

Also, check out this interesting conversation between Gary Mc Graw and Bruce Schneier, two big names in cyber-security: click here.

So You Think You Can....... Run For Office?

While at  a birthday celebration, some pictures of me were taken in a questionable state (you know C₂H₅OH) and I asked not to be shot again, just like I always do (not very photogenic), justifying my request by saying that I did not want these pictures to pop out years from now when I am campaigning for a public office . The joke flirted with my brain probably because I have been following the ongoing US presidential republican primary elections and I am shocked by how the most meaningless controversies are used to bring down adversaries.

I would have probably forgotten about this stuff if it wasn't for one sentence that one of my good friends, who was also in a happy place, said as a rebuttal to my comment: "Yeah, I could see you run for office". On the spot, I did not react to it, but its been bogging my mind since then. What in the world is there about me that shouts trustworthy or acclaimed leader and public servant, I have no idea... Heck I'm not sure I would vote for myself, I don't think I have seen enough of the world to be a leader of men.With that said, let's assume I actually do have the necessary predispositions. On what grounds, where, how and for what kind of office could I possibly seek election? (Notice that I said election and not nomination by an elected official).


In the US first of all, there is very little chance of that happening, I would probably need to start at a very local position in a county and maybe work my way up to congress or gubernatorial positions and besides these usually require the subject to have the U.S. citizenship (for at least 7 years to seek the House of Representatives), which is not a possibility for me right now. However, if I had a choice, I would definitely be registered independent as I am not from around here and i am already fed up by all the partisans woes.

My best bet is then in my beloved Cameroon, even though the current regulations in place do not encourage a young mind to come and serve and the environment is not really prone to people with a strict sense of duty and morality (not that I have any). If I manage to overcome these big walls that cloud the political spectrum, there is still the challenge of the message I would pass to the constituents I hope to represent. In the specific case of Cameroon, there is this concept (actually true or not) that the only way the country is gonna get better is by killing everybody that is older than 10 as they are already corrupted. My personal belief is that development is not happening majorly (not the only reason but i think the most important one) because the population does not love their country anymore.. I mean they wish they could (just looking at how patriotic we get when our soccer team is playing), but the condition in which their family live is a civic deal breaker. My campaign platform will then be based on restoring the pride and patriotism (Paix-Travail-Patrie n'est ce pas?). A tentative slogan would then be:


Fier d'etre Camerounais!
Proud to be Cameroonian!               


So would you vote for me if you had a chance? Why or why not?