I have been busy moving my apartment the last couple days. This is perhaps the most spontaneous move I have ever done. With the exception of the two ton TV, the whole moving endeavor went pretty well. I had planned to do the move next weekend; but I decided against the idea and moved this weekend instead since it is a long weekend. Thankfully, I was able to enlist my sister, Dave, and Matti to help me move. I have only asked them the day before the move but they have unwaveringly decided to lend me a hand. To Dave Owens, Matti Kinnunen, and my sister Alisa, thanks for those strong arms.

I am missing the brightness that I experienced in my old apartment, which has 9 skylights. There is also no deck at my new place and hence grilling is now considered a luxury of the past. Last night, I have already passed up on the pork chops, sirloin steaks, and bratwursts while doing my grocery shopping; this is very sad. On the bright side, it was time to move on. The rent on the new apartment is a steal and living across from one of my favorite bars in Cambridge is bonus. The best of all, I don't have to deal with condo politics at my old place anymore. What a relief.

Here are some important lessons that I learned from my moving yesterday:

1. If you own Ikea furniture, you can easily disassemble them and carry the individual pieces. I almost ruined my bookshelf for not taking the shelves out and carrying it as one big bulky unit.
2. It is amazing how much junk we accumulate throughout the years. I made a new rule during my packing: "If I haven't use an item for the last 2 years, I am not going to miss it anytime soon." This way, I got rid of a lot of junk.
3. Don't be like me, plan ahead of a move. I was lucky this time to be able to pack and move in 2 days.

7/4/2005 1:05:04 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [19]

Personal

I heard the discussion of being in the Billionaire List on NPR earlier tonight. From the radio... The commentator ask: How big is 1 billion? In terms of dollars, that's huge. Imagine having $1 billion as your net worth. But most people are lucky to even retire with $1 million. So, to put it in perspective, that's at least 1,000 lifetimes. I guess I won't be in the same league as Bill Gates anytime soon.

6/30/2005 8:55:26 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [5]

Thoughts

Contrary to my earlier ambivalence to System Engineering, something that I had previously documented, I am actually starting to like and even enjoy this class. The problem that I had with this class earlier was a result of my attitude that most of the tools and frameworks that were taught in System Engineering can only be applied in traditional large complex systems like aerospace, civil engineering, and other infrastructure related fields. Fundamentally, I didn't like the regimented approach of System Engineering and I believed that System Engineering inherently stifles and even contradicts innovation in Product Design and Development (PDD) process at many organizations. Therefore, I had the tendency to reject many of the concepts that were taught in class.

But as the course progresses, the concepts that we learned from class appear more cogent, especially as I began to evaluate critically on the underlying PDD processes at my company where I still work. Like any established companies, there are PDD projects in my company that have produced blunders as well as excellent results in the form of highly successful products. But as I began to ponder on these processes at my company, I can't help but to think that the causes of many failed projects stemmed from ignorance, confusion, and bureaucracy. While I acknowledge that some of the breakthrough products at my workplace are the result of minimal management oversight and the lack of robust PDD process tools, there were plenty of projects that could be improved with the application of the tools from System Engineering.

All the tools and frameworks that we learn from System Engineering have their flaws and merits. So I don't think there is a single tool that can be applied broadly across different engineering environments. Perhaps, to Yoav's chagrin, this is why there're no real-life examples to support the frameworks that the class discusses. One learns the tools and then applies them critically in real-life.

6/30/2005 6:33:34 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [23]

School

MIT Media Lab gave me this lousy icon for completing their online survey on weblog.

But seriously, if you blog, consider participating in the survey.

6/29/2005 6:22:42 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [10]

Blog

Today, we have students from a sister program of SDM in Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) visiting MIT today. The highlight of their visit was the clambake at Summer Shack in Boston. Being that it was my first visit to Summer Shack, I sampled the appetizers that were provided free by MIT and NPS. I thought that the appetizers weren't too bad for my taste. However, the dinner entrant was another story. Instead of Clambake (with steamed lobster) that most people had, I went with the flounder with crab and shrimp stuffing, which found it to be barely adequate. The dish wasn't fully cooked and the taste was a little insipid. For better seafood in the Greater Boston area, try Legal Seafood, Naked Fish, or East Coast Grill. Summer Shack gets a 6.5/10 rating from me.

After dinner, Dave, Ilana, Rajeev, Jake, John, and I along with some representatives from NPS went bowling at Kings, located next to Summer Shack. My first bowling game was one of the worst I have ever played. Thankfully, I made a good comeback by scoring over 100 in the second game. It was good to hang out with fellow classmates. Unfortunately, Matti and S, once again weren't allowed into the bowling alley because the place serves alcohol and both of them, being from Europe, don't have their IDs or passports with them that would allow them to pass the bouncer. I am sure he will have something harsh to say about this on his blog tomorrow.

6/28/2005 11:39:30 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [17]

Food

This is pretty much a regurgitation of Yoav's blog entry. As part of the career placement program at SDM, students who will graduate next year are asked to submit their resumes to compile a SDM resume book. But before a resume can be included in the resume book, the students need to consult and have their resume critiqued by Deborah Jancourtz, an external resume consultant. I took a radical approach to composing my resume by experimenting a new format and added new information, so that I can better take advantage of the consulation session. Indeed, the consultation with Deborah was very helpful.

I just wished that I had invested the same effort on composing my personal/professional profile on the SDM picture book last January. As usual, I didn't bother to proof read my profile before submitting my profile for publication. Reading the SDM picture book today, I realized how sloppy my writing was 6 months ago.

On an unrelated note... Due to the resume consultation session, I was 15 minutes late for my Financial and Managerial Accounting (FAMA) class today. I would usually have trouble finding a seat to sit, but it seems like 1/4 of the students in FAMA was missing from class today. I wonder where they were.

6/27/2005 7:39:25 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [0]

School

3 weeks ago, I briefly wrote about the poor social dynamics at the Harvard Extension School in this blog entry. I thought that the social dynamics at the SDM program at MIT would be different from that of Harvard Extension, but I am now having my doubts. A minority of the SDM students have been organizing events outside of school since our inception to the program. The earlier social events like dim sum and sushi were met with success. But those were the epitome of the last good social gatherings, which happened 6 months ago. Since then, IMHO almost every social event has been met with little success and even failure. For example, I was utterly disappointed with the turn out at last night's poker game at Rachael's, only Yoav, Jeff, John, and I showed up. I was hoping that poker nights would be a great opportunity for me to hang out with fellow students that I don't know well. For me, there are still people that I don't know very well despite being in the same class. Maybe I have not been reaching out to them? A possibility. But I digress, is the priority of social interaction ranked low among the majority of the students? Or is there is a general lack of interpersonal skills among us with me included? I don't know but I have been advocating the need for camaraderie for a long time. We need goodwill and lighthearted rapport among friends. I hope this will change with the next poker night, which location is still undetermined at this time, and the 4th of July cook-out at my place. To Rachael, thanks for hosting last night. It was fun for me to win with a few straights and flushes for a change.

6/26/2005 10:31:33 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [16]

Rants

The influence of the Hitchhiker Guide to the Galaxy (HHTTG) is so profound in today's pop culture consciousness and other aspects of life, that even if you have not read the book or seen the movie, chances are that you have encountered the following in some point in your life:

1. Asteroid Douglasadams was named after the author of HHTTG.
2. The Minor Planet Centre of the International Astronomical Union also named an asteroid Arthurdent after the main character in HHTTG, Arthur Dent.
3. Radiohead's song Paranoid Android pays homage to Marvin the Paranoid Android.
4. Radiohead's album, OK Computer is a reference to a phrase uttered by Zaphod Beeblebrox.
5. The popular instant messaging program, Trillian was named after a HHTTG character of the same name.
6. The popular online translation website, Altavista Babel Fish is named after the Babel Fish, a parasitic organism that is used as a translator, in HHTTG.
7. One of the most popular message boards on the Internet is GameFAQs' Life, the Universe, and Everything, which was named after the third book in The Hitchhiker's series.
8. South Park's Towlie often says, "Don't forget to bring a towel," an obvious nod to the sound advice of The Guide.
9. The game "GoldenEye: 007" features the "Mostly Harmless" multiplayer award for player who earned the least kills in a match. In HHTTG, "Mostly harmless" is the revised entry used to describe Earth.
10. The online children's game Neopets features an item called the Pan Galactic Gargle Slushie. This is the kiddie version of the The Hitchhiker's Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster. According to the guide, the Gargle Blaster is one the best (and most dangerous) adult beverages in this or any other galaxy.

Sources:
http://stuffo.howstuffworks.com/
http://www.google.com/
http://www.msnbc.com/

6/24/2005 12:59:26 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [6]

Movies

After reading Robbie's recent blog entry on career and passion for life and work, I felt I should write something to reaffirm and reflect on my career direction. It is no secret that I intend to continue working in the high-tech industry after graduation. I see the following technologies to be gain prominence in the next 3 years: Biotech, Renewable Energy, Environment, and Advanced Materials (Nanotech). So my rationale is to expose myself to any of these technologies while I am studying at MIT. Thankfully, with the SDM program, I am allowed to take both engineering and management electives. The SDM program is all about cross disciplinary studies, so why not make forays into other engineering discipline like Nanotechnology while I am at MIT. For my engineering electives, I plan on taking a couple of electives in the Material Science and Engineering department. On the other hand, unlike the MBA students, we, the SDM students, get only the breath of management. With a more limited number of mangement electives, I would like to make finance, the lingua franca of the business world, as part of the mangement electives that I will end up taking.

There are still plenty of opportunities for someone with a degree in System Engineering and Management. In fact, Siobhan who is currently interning with Morgan Stanley said, during an earlier conversation this week, that there is a huge demand of System Engineers in Wall Street to help firms build and integrate complex financial systems. Regardless of what one may ends up doing, I believe that opportunities abound and the future is bright. To Robbie, just remember this: Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

6/23/2005 11:24:46 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [18]

Thoughts

I have finally caught up with school last Monday. So in true celebratory fashion, I decided to take a break from school last night by going out for dinner with Rebecca whom I have not seen for a year and was in town for a visit last night. Later, we met up with Jonathan, Melissa, my sister Alisa, and Melissa's 2 friends whose names I forgot, to watch "The Hitchhiker Guide to the Galaxy" at Somerville theatre. I find the movie witty and hilarious, and it is better than I had expected. If you are nerd like I am, watch it. And yes, 42 is still the answer to all questions.

For those of you who remember the $50k team that I was in 2-3 months ago... John have finally decided to reward the team with a nice dinner at Ole Mexican Grill, one of my favorite Mexican restaurants in Cambridge, earlier tonight. It was good to catch up with the rest of the team members since we had practically lost contact (despite working/studying in the same university) with one another after winning the Massachusetts $125k competition. We are still not 100% sure what we want to do with our business venture as our underlying technology is still a little premature to ask for major funding from VCs.

I have to cut my blogging short tonight. Right now, I need to finish up my System Engineering homework, which is due in 8 hours. Thankfully, I just have to proof read what I have written.

6/22/2005 11:46:27 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [13]

Personal

I enjoyed today's System Engineering class, it wasn't as boring as the previous one. The materials that we needed to read before today's class were interesting and in some way help me to affirm the purpose of the SDM program and my reason for being in the program.

In today’s lecture, Prof. Clausing introduced the RCI (Requirements, Concepts, and Improvements) framework, which states that the concepts selection phase can only be performed after the requirements definition phase. So here’s my question: What about companies that develop products strictly out of concepts without going through a rigorous phase of requirements definition? Wouldn’t the requirements selection phase of the RCI framework stifle innovation? The design and development of complex products or services have the most benefit from the disciplined approach of System Engineering. However, in today’s competitive business environment, product development is no longer a left-brain driven discipline. In most cases, it is right brain thinking, not simulations and analysis, that brings about breakthrough products. In fact, in a recent Business Week article (I’ll look for the link later), companies are beginning to value right brain employees more than left brain employees for creativity.

6/21/2005 11:46:02 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [10]

School