It's Monday!
It's not all doom and gloom. Some people actually look forward to a new week and its new opportunities, and some people actually DELIVER, so you know it's not all bad. It's sad that bad is the norm, so we actually find it exceptional when people actually do their jobs. Anyway, I did promise to commend the good, and call out the bad and the ugly. On we go...
This post is about a team of drug dealers. I don't know their boss, but he/she has done a good job by picking out a team on the ground that makes you feel pretty darn good. Drug dealing can be a tricky business. Customers have all kinds of wants (not NEEDS, because somehow many Ghanaians find something to moan about), and very few are loyal to their dealer.
So, typically, one needs some drugs, and may or may not have a prescription for them. Walks into the nearest pharmacy (or one they happen to spot as they carry on their way), hands over the prescription (or just mentions the name of the drug), and the person behind the counter swaps it for the cash. The latter bemuses me. I reckon the pharmacists assume that when you mention the name of a fancy drug then you are probably a doctor (who knows better), or you HAVE been told by a doctor and just don't have the prescription on you at the time. Besides, who is going to abuse non-recreational drugs that are supposed to lower cholesterol or something such.
Anyhow, I digress. The point is that the above is very typical of Ghanaian pharmacies. There isn't usually familiarity leading to extra-special service if you're not a neighbor. Only a few pharmacists or attendants will go a bit further to prescribe a suitable alternative or even explain side effects/risks associated with a drug. Did you know (and I didn't till a few years ago) that "take before/after meals" actually means 30 minutes or maybe an hour before/after a meal makes a drug most effective? I do need to point out that I've been to several pharmacies where an attendant isn't actually a trained pharmacist but is basically like a librarian who knows where every drug is.
So, I was pleasantly impressed when I discovered the Pharmhaus Pharmacy tucked away in a little corner of Adjiringanor (East Legon). I was first hooked on the name, a play on "farmhouse." While generally unrelated to drugs, I find the name delightfully clever in the facts that it is unique, yet familiar, and it still gives you an idea of what the business is about. I understand its inspirational and there are deep meanings to some of the names, but how many "Lomnava" chop bars, "Enso Nyame Ye" provision stores and "Auntie Lizzy" drinking bars are we supposed to have around the country? Clever business names make the business owners appear not just clever, but extremely cool. Same goes for nicknames, so something like DJ Humility sounds rather bewildering. But that's another chapter.
So, I strolled into Pharmhaus to buy something random which I now cannot remember. It was late, but they were open. Three young people were relaxing at various points of the shop, but they all perked up when I strolled in and greeted me pleasantly. The shelves were neatly arranged, and there was a very modern, light and airy look to the place. Its a design trend that's become popular in developed countries, and a few local businesses such as CFAO motors have adopted this sort of design.
I think I've been to Pharmaus a couple of other times since then, but the most recent occasion was to get some drugs for my wife. At this stage, I need to point out that I had a [now second] favourite pharmacy in our general area which was in the lead for a couple of reasons. I'd bought the very same drug for her from a couple of other places, where it cost more. Significantly more. Now this other pharmacy is pretty close to home, so I decided to just ask when I passed by on the way home one evening. The pharmacist was very pleasant and we had a good chat, so although she isn't always available, I have been shopping there.
So, for various reasons, we urgently needed to buy some more drugs last Saturday, while juggling having to wash the car, track down a thief, attend a traditional wedding and a birthday party. Eventually, we managed to do the first and last bits of the juggling act, but it was as late (*sarcastic emphasis*) as 1945h that we hit the road, looking for an open pharmacy. I was weighing the risk of getting close to home to check out the "former favourite" place, considering the fact that it will be hard to come back into town to find another place if they were already closed. Then, I realised Pharmhaus was still open, so decided to check them out. I was a bit worried that the drugs may be more expensive (it is a rather fancy looking joint too), so I went in hesitantly.
There was a family inside, being attended to, and there was an old man (clearly satisfied), who had just been seen to. I only caught the end of his conversation:
"Thank you. You have a very nice place."
The pharmacist responsed,
"Thank you sir. Have a good night."
I thought to myself, "yeah, I should echo that I also think their place is very nice., plus this pharmacist is also quite well-mannered."
\Then, he greeted me, asked how we could help and I gave my request. He called on a colleague to pick it up, as it was across on the other side of the shop. I peeked at the price, holding my breath.
It was the same. As the other favourite. Hmm, I was feeling very tempted to bump them up the scale of "favourite places to shop"
Then the gentleman asked, "Excuse me sir. Please do you live around here?"
I told him where I lived. I wondered why he was asking.
"Oh, we had wanted to give you our card. We are able to do deliveries, or you can call and check on the availability of some medicine, or even ask us to reserve it if we are low on stock."
Ohhh Yeah! I grabbed the card. The deal was sealed. I told the Mrs, very excitedly. Then I thought to myself. What was I so excited about? Weren't they doing what should be done anyway? After all:
I walked in and got my drugs.
Basic courtesy was applied. It's the least one can expect as/from a Ghanaian.
If I need to make phonecalls, most pharmacies print their numbers on the prescription envelopes and plastic bags anyway.
They were just doing my job.
But if any of you has been to pharmacies regularly (and I know many of you have. For malaria stuff, to fill prescriptions, to buy prophylactics, etc etc) you will agree that they're not places where you expect great service, a pleasant environment, and friendly, proactive staff. If you know of any others though, please do comment below. Until then, I know where my favourite pharmacy is...
Peace...
Monday, 21 November 2011
Friday, 18 November 2011
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY - To Deliver or Serve? You Decide
How embarrassing. I can't remember the last time I signed updated my own blog. It's now got me wondering how many people are reading. I have to face the terrible reality that there are no fans clamouring for me to "give them some more!" or whimpering that, "it's been a while since you posted. I miss reading from you."
I apologise to my non-existent fans. Life happens. I will try to blog as often as I can, especially since we keep getting SERVED and some of us don't complain about it. So... on my mind today is Information Technology. Actually it's been on my mind for a few days, basically because many of us don't really understand it well enough, and yet, voice strong opinions on its use, misuse, abuse or abolition.
My aim with this post is simply to demystify some conceptions about technology. I feel many of us don't have enough information to deal with during these discussions. Some people are technology-averse (wonder why), others are extremely friendly, and some think they are way up there because they can do a few more things on a computer than the average Ghanaian (little do they know).
Technology basically involves the use of tools and processes to achieve tasks quicker or more efficiently. Obviously, the hammer, as simple as it is, will fall under this definition. Think about it carefully - you can break stuff apart, or fix stuff together with a nail, by applying minimum force. Try doing that with your own hand, even with maximum force.
Information Technology, or IT, is a fashionable term for explaining what computers do - Process raw data into usable information. It's one of those phrases that is conveniently all-encompassing, especially since the first (and often only) thing that comes to mind when people talk about computers is the personal computer. But a personal computer is just a device made of a few circuits and chips that allow it to transmit, access, process and store information. Hang on, doesn't that same definition apply to mobile phones, calculators, cameras, robots and satellites, to name a few?
You're not supposed to realise this in the first place, because many of these devices have specific functions, and we often can't be bothered about how they work in the first place. But, they're driven by computer processors, and it's these same processors that allow us to easily integrate a good number of the above together in one device. You're also not supposed to realise this because the goal of an information processor (aka computer), is to work in the background and present you with a result you can use. So long as it does what its supposed to, who cares how that takes place?
Well, someone has to care. Obviously the person(s) who develop the processors and give them instructions - after all, you didn't think the computer is supposed to instinctively know what to do, did you? If computers had that ability, they will quite likely stage an uprising, as is commonly theorised in Science Fiction. I will come back to this in a bit.
A computer works with a pre-defined set of instructions, which we may call it's "programming" or "software." These instructions are not based on the capabilities of the device (which are endless, so long as they are logical), but rather on its expected use. So, I can instruct a calculator to add up numbers based on rules of a simple number line because I expect someone to perform basic arithmetic tasks. Or I can provide an input device on a telephone which allows one to key in numbers, and connect a phonecall at the press of a specific button on the device. Or, I can instruct a robot to walk around in the city of Accra, because I have in mind what the terrain is like.
Like I pointed out, the capabilities of any computer device are limitless, and that means anyone, with the right application of technology, can get any of the above devices to do things that have not been planned for. Despite our genius, we are so limited as humans that we will never be able to plan for everything, which means we have to constantly improve on IT (and the instructions driving it). More importantly, we need to specify clear instructions for each anticipated scenario, because once the device cannot process an operation, it often fails to do anything other than let you know "I've encountered an error, I am going to crash!" What's up with that? Ain't got no initiative, yet they are supposed to be smarter than us.
Well, that's the reason for the good old "Garbage in, garbage out" phrase. A computer is only as good as its instructions. They are good servants, but not independently innovative enough to become bad masters simply because their "learning behaviour" or even "artificial intelligence" is also based on other instructions. That's why Science Fiction, as scary as it can be, remains in the realms of the imagination.
The point is that, each process the computer needs to perform comes with instructions, and many of them become very complex. It's easy to type on a blog, perform a Google search, update your facebook status, because a lot of work has gone into the behind-the-scenes process. I know I'm not the only one who'll find it ludicrous if you added the numbers four, six, eighteen and nine and got upset because the calculator showed you a result of 37, instead of 46 that you were hoping for. Excuse me?
Same way, if you select your preferred schools, write an exam, and have a school assigned to you based on how well you performed on the exam, you shouldn't knock the technology just because you don't like the school. I digress... Or do I? It's someone's responsibility to consider the number of candidates, the number of schools and places available per course, the people's selections, etc before setting out instructions to assign the schools. How do you blame him/her if every single child in the country has access to free basic education, yet there are only a limited number of spaces at the secondary level for some of these children. Surely the computer is not looking at sending them to my house is it? Feedback is important for improving the programming, but it needs to be useful feedback. Not to say I don't feel your pain if you get an unattractive school, but there are also those who will bribe and arm-twist to get their children into schools they don't deserve, and you also use up spaces that should go to the deserving ones.
New technology is also often difficult to deal with. There are people who wrongly estimate its uses, inputs and results. Nothing too wrong with that, but sometimes there are resources lost or wasted when one needs to resolve a failure or even train on how to use the system. Who determines what's acceptable loss in some of these cases? Are some of the risks even worth it? But even worse, because it is untested, the cases for determining the appropriate programming may be limited, which means that it is more likely to fail from the unknown than if it was technology that's been used for a while.
Let's consider this simple example of a complex program - We're programming a robot to walk. Sounds easy enough right?
Well, we first need to get the robot to take steps - put one foot ahead, maintain balance and place the next foot forward. Let's call this the Stride module. Eventually, the robot should get the hang of Striding forward. But what happens if the robot encounters an obstacle? Should it stop? Turn around? Go through it? Determine an alternative route?
Dear me, so many options. Guess the more important question should be "what type of obstacle is it?" Ok, let's consider its a staircase. Going up. Well, we need to modify the Stride module so that the robot can climb up a staircase. And if it's going down also. Let's not also forget that bit about maintaining balance when taking steps. And also add something to return to normal stride when at the top/bottom of the stairs.
What about a door? Can the robot open it? Or a wall? Should the robot stop, put forward its hands and search for a door along the wall? Which direction should it go in first? What if one direction leads to a fall? You know, like a cliff? Say... we didn't even think about a cliff in the obstacles above. What is a cliff anyway? The absence of ground to walk on? If its just a little gutter, can't the robot jump over? What if the obstacle is at waist height? Like a railing or ledge? What if its a hanging branch at shoulder/head height? Can the robot bend over? Hmmm, we need to update the Stride again if the robot has to be bending or jumping.
The point of all this is to show how complicated it can be to develop a simple program. Although, once you get it right, that robot (or whatever device), will work wonders. But, those wonders are only as good as what "garbage" you put in. So, hopefully, if I have shed more light on this for you, you can decide just how eager you are to adopt or abolish any type of technology.
Peace...
I apologise to my non-existent fans. Life happens. I will try to blog as often as I can, especially since we keep getting SERVED and some of us don't complain about it. So... on my mind today is Information Technology. Actually it's been on my mind for a few days, basically because many of us don't really understand it well enough, and yet, voice strong opinions on its use, misuse, abuse or abolition.
My aim with this post is simply to demystify some conceptions about technology. I feel many of us don't have enough information to deal with during these discussions. Some people are technology-averse (wonder why), others are extremely friendly, and some think they are way up there because they can do a few more things on a computer than the average Ghanaian (little do they know).
Technology basically involves the use of tools and processes to achieve tasks quicker or more efficiently. Obviously, the hammer, as simple as it is, will fall under this definition. Think about it carefully - you can break stuff apart, or fix stuff together with a nail, by applying minimum force. Try doing that with your own hand, even with maximum force.
Information Technology, or IT, is a fashionable term for explaining what computers do - Process raw data into usable information. It's one of those phrases that is conveniently all-encompassing, especially since the first (and often only) thing that comes to mind when people talk about computers is the personal computer. But a personal computer is just a device made of a few circuits and chips that allow it to transmit, access, process and store information. Hang on, doesn't that same definition apply to mobile phones, calculators, cameras, robots and satellites, to name a few?
You're not supposed to realise this in the first place, because many of these devices have specific functions, and we often can't be bothered about how they work in the first place. But, they're driven by computer processors, and it's these same processors that allow us to easily integrate a good number of the above together in one device. You're also not supposed to realise this because the goal of an information processor (aka computer), is to work in the background and present you with a result you can use. So long as it does what its supposed to, who cares how that takes place?
Well, someone has to care. Obviously the person(s) who develop the processors and give them instructions - after all, you didn't think the computer is supposed to instinctively know what to do, did you? If computers had that ability, they will quite likely stage an uprising, as is commonly theorised in Science Fiction. I will come back to this in a bit.
A computer works with a pre-defined set of instructions, which we may call it's "programming" or "software." These instructions are not based on the capabilities of the device (which are endless, so long as they are logical), but rather on its expected use. So, I can instruct a calculator to add up numbers based on rules of a simple number line because I expect someone to perform basic arithmetic tasks. Or I can provide an input device on a telephone which allows one to key in numbers, and connect a phonecall at the press of a specific button on the device. Or, I can instruct a robot to walk around in the city of Accra, because I have in mind what the terrain is like.
Like I pointed out, the capabilities of any computer device are limitless, and that means anyone, with the right application of technology, can get any of the above devices to do things that have not been planned for. Despite our genius, we are so limited as humans that we will never be able to plan for everything, which means we have to constantly improve on IT (and the instructions driving it). More importantly, we need to specify clear instructions for each anticipated scenario, because once the device cannot process an operation, it often fails to do anything other than let you know "I've encountered an error, I am going to crash!" What's up with that? Ain't got no initiative, yet they are supposed to be smarter than us.
Well, that's the reason for the good old "Garbage in, garbage out" phrase. A computer is only as good as its instructions. They are good servants, but not independently innovative enough to become bad masters simply because their "learning behaviour" or even "artificial intelligence" is also based on other instructions. That's why Science Fiction, as scary as it can be, remains in the realms of the imagination.
The point is that, each process the computer needs to perform comes with instructions, and many of them become very complex. It's easy to type on a blog, perform a Google search, update your facebook status, because a lot of work has gone into the behind-the-scenes process. I know I'm not the only one who'll find it ludicrous if you added the numbers four, six, eighteen and nine and got upset because the calculator showed you a result of 37, instead of 46 that you were hoping for. Excuse me?
Same way, if you select your preferred schools, write an exam, and have a school assigned to you based on how well you performed on the exam, you shouldn't knock the technology just because you don't like the school. I digress... Or do I? It's someone's responsibility to consider the number of candidates, the number of schools and places available per course, the people's selections, etc before setting out instructions to assign the schools. How do you blame him/her if every single child in the country has access to free basic education, yet there are only a limited number of spaces at the secondary level for some of these children. Surely the computer is not looking at sending them to my house is it? Feedback is important for improving the programming, but it needs to be useful feedback. Not to say I don't feel your pain if you get an unattractive school, but there are also those who will bribe and arm-twist to get their children into schools they don't deserve, and you also use up spaces that should go to the deserving ones.
New technology is also often difficult to deal with. There are people who wrongly estimate its uses, inputs and results. Nothing too wrong with that, but sometimes there are resources lost or wasted when one needs to resolve a failure or even train on how to use the system. Who determines what's acceptable loss in some of these cases? Are some of the risks even worth it? But even worse, because it is untested, the cases for determining the appropriate programming may be limited, which means that it is more likely to fail from the unknown than if it was technology that's been used for a while.
Let's consider this simple example of a complex program - We're programming a robot to walk. Sounds easy enough right?
Well, we first need to get the robot to take steps - put one foot ahead, maintain balance and place the next foot forward. Let's call this the Stride module. Eventually, the robot should get the hang of Striding forward. But what happens if the robot encounters an obstacle? Should it stop? Turn around? Go through it? Determine an alternative route?
Dear me, so many options. Guess the more important question should be "what type of obstacle is it?" Ok, let's consider its a staircase. Going up. Well, we need to modify the Stride module so that the robot can climb up a staircase. And if it's going down also. Let's not also forget that bit about maintaining balance when taking steps. And also add something to return to normal stride when at the top/bottom of the stairs.
What about a door? Can the robot open it? Or a wall? Should the robot stop, put forward its hands and search for a door along the wall? Which direction should it go in first? What if one direction leads to a fall? You know, like a cliff? Say... we didn't even think about a cliff in the obstacles above. What is a cliff anyway? The absence of ground to walk on? If its just a little gutter, can't the robot jump over? What if the obstacle is at waist height? Like a railing or ledge? What if its a hanging branch at shoulder/head height? Can the robot bend over? Hmmm, we need to update the Stride again if the robot has to be bending or jumping.
The point of all this is to show how complicated it can be to develop a simple program. Although, once you get it right, that robot (or whatever device), will work wonders. But, those wonders are only as good as what "garbage" you put in. So, hopefully, if I have shed more light on this for you, you can decide just how eager you are to adopt or abolish any type of technology.
Peace...
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