From: azhar@duke.cs.duke.edu (D. Salman [Quintessential] Azhar)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.pakistan
Subject: Above all things (was Re: An (up-to-date) Update on SCPians ;-))
Keywords: duke
Date: 13 Aug 92 02:06:15 GMT
Organization: Duke University Computer Science Dept.; Durham, N.C.

In article <1992Aug12.141322.9448@newserve.cc.binghamton.edu> vu0208@bingsuns.cc.binghamton.edu (!) writes:
>In article <TcTDPB1w165w@spectrx.saigon.com> r3po@spectrx.saigon.com (r3po) writes:
>>and i dont know of any first-class CS/EE school that will hire its
>>own graduate (it is considered too damaging to the pretige of a good school)

>This is not true...i can sight two of many examples here:
>1) Dr. Yaser Abu Mostafa (an egyption) was accepted as faculty  by
>   Caltech after his Ph.D in EE.
>
>2) Dr. Charles Seitz (now at Caltech) was accepted as faculty by MIT
>   after he completed his B.S, M.S, and Ph.D at MIT in EE.

	   MIT has a history of "grooming their own", and no such list
can be complete without the legendary Tom Leighton, who was tenured at
MIT four years after receiving his PhD from there. Nevertheless, all
generalizations simplify, and sometimes misrepresent, reality. In
fact, the quality of the scholar should be evaluated on personal
merit, otherwise how would you account for AI godfather's presence on
New Mexico State University faculty. 

	   As far as the quality of my own work is concerned, it should
hardly a topic for SCP. It does make a difference to those who know me
only in professional capacity. I would prefer if my SCPian friends
befriend or hate me for my personal qualities and weakness. I would
hope that my friends would accept me with my weakness, and emulate my 
strengths. I deliberately attempt to alienate people who befriend me
for my professional or materialistic success, and I hope those who
remain sincere to me shall do so because of my personality, and not
professional success.

	   Much has been said about Duke CS Dept by SCPians variably
familiar with the program here. I am thankful to Duke for providing a
very congenial environment for my intellectual development. I am also 
grateful to this department because it enabled me to tap the brains
of one of the greatest computer scientists alive (John Reif). I also
believe that this is the best place for my research, crypto-complexity
approach to forecasting. 

	   [Now, that was not my main message today... This was... ]

	   Above all things, I am grateful to the Almighty for bringing
me to a place where I was able to do honest research, without any
pressures to submit half-baked papers, or to falsify my results. I
pray that wherever I go, I will have the freedom to think and speak
freely. I pray that one-day I shall choose to trade all temporal
success for eternal religious scholarship, which I believe must be
based on a firm foundation of worldly scholarship. My only regret is
to neglect my religious and philosophical development. I think I'll
give me another few years before I give up on that....

>>r3po@spectrx.saigon.com

   Salman [I can't make you love me, if you don't] Azhar


-- 
"To have loved and lost is better than to have won.... For, the burden
of victory has to be shouldered throughout life, and all losses rest
easy in the insatiable abyss called grave." 
--- D. Salman [Quintessential] Azhar CS Dept Duke U  azhar@cs.duke.edu
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