So News @ MIT Sloan, the weekly newsletter for students, staff, and faculty at MIT Sloan, has once again decided to make me a star. The last time they interviewed me was for my survival story in the Thailand tsunami. This time, apparently my blog along with Yoav's, Ilana's, and a few other Sloanies' were noticed by Diana, one of the newsletter writers. She is currently researching a story about MIT Sloan student bloggers and would like to know why we blog despite our very busy schedule. If I decide to participate in the story, it means that my identity and the url of my blog will be published on the newsletter. My blog will certainly see an increase in hits from students and even faculty members, and I am not sure if I am ready for that yet. I am also concerned that my blog may be a little dry on content and that my writing may not be eloquent enough for massive viewing by my peers. On the positive side, since I started blogging seriously 6 months ago, my rhetoric along with self-articulation and self-expression have improved dramatically. Broad exposure of my blog will challenge me further in blogging more eloquently.

So to those of you who have been reading my blog regularly, what do you think? Should I get my blog mentioned on News @ MIT Sloan?

7/13/2005 7:18:31 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [17]

Blog

I had my mid-term examination for my accounting class today and I really don't know how well I have done. This accounting course on steroid is taught by Prof. Plesko who puts students on a trial-by-fire basis by using real financial statements (or 10-k) in all lectures, homework assignments, and even tests. This is a testimony of why I like this class: it keeps it real. I concur with Prof. Plesko that it is important to learn the fundamentals of accounting and apply them to the analysis and synthesis of real financial statements.

Nontheless, there's one word to describe today's test: OVERWHELMING. We were given 15 pages of material that resembles a typical homework assignment in today's examination. Instead of working in team of 4 and taking days to complete the work, we were given 1 1/2 hours to work on the problem set individually. The "cheat sheet" that I have meticulously compiled was hardly any use in a context where time is the essence. It's not exactly a setback for me because I felt that I really understand the material and had used the right approach in tackling the questions in the test; but I know that I have committed a few stupid mistakes like extracted the wrong information from a different fiscal time. It's probably not A grade stuff but I should do fairly well (I hope).

7/13/2005 6:41:18 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [10]

School

I used to shop at Whole Foods, located down the street where I used to live, for grocery almost everyday. It was in effect my personal pantry (like I used to call it). Unfortunately, I have not shopped at the place since moving to my new apartment. Today, I finally stopped by at the supermarket after class to pick up my favorite bagels - Iggy's Bagels. While shopping at Whole Foods did relive my withdrawal syndrome somewhat, I also felt weird due in part to my recent disengagement to the store. It seemed like eons since I last stepped my foot onto the store.

7/12/2005 12:30:11 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [12]

Personal

While having lunch with Noah at Hi-Rise Bread Company (or Hi-Price as I like to call it) in West Cambridge on the weekend, I have discovered what is perhaps the best sandwich that I have ever eaten. It is call Fern's Problem Solver. I have never been disappointed by Bread Company albeit expensive, so this place gets a 8.5/10 rating from me.

7/12/2005 12:02:03 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [13]

Food

On Friday, I attended the "Networking & Interview Workshop" organized by Helen Trimble - the SDM career placement officer. The person who presented the workshop was Dan King, a career development consultant with Career Planning & Management. It is no surprise that the theme of the workshop is networking, in particular Dan urged everyone that the key of finding in one's ideal job and consequently getting hired is networking. In all, I walked away from the workshop with some new ideas and inspirations. The most interesting data that I found in the workshop is that today, 70% of the professionals found their jobs through networking and only 5% of the pool found their jobs through job postings. I am still not buying King's questionable figure, but I do agree that networking is significant in landing someone his/her dream job. In any case, John, a fellow classmate has effectively summarized King's prominent ideas in his earlier email:

1. Always prefer networking methods to getting a job over “open, public knowledge” methods: you’re in more control when networking.
2. Always be on the lookout for networking contacts, even at the barber, hairdresser, or donut shop. But never ask your networking contacts directly for a job, that's a NO-NO.
3. Never, in an interview, climb up on the table with your elbows and get too "in-your-face," or conversely, slouch way down and adopt an "I don’t care" posture.
4. Never let your leg get to rockin’, or shuck and jive, bip and bop, keep your limbs relaxed instead of communicating nervousness. Fold hands in lap if necessary.
5. Never lick your palm and shake hands like a wuss. Conversely, do not “bone crush” your interviewer in an annoying display of male dominance.
6. Always have an answer to the most common interview question: “Tell me about yourself.”
7. Always have an answer to the most common “gotchya” question and its variants: "What is your weakness?"

Well John, thanks for the summary. Of course, these are some of the highlights of Dan's workshop.

7/11/2005 11:27:45 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [16]

Business

Sorry folks, I have been missing in action in blogspace because I was up the wall busy the last couple of days. Interestingly, I seem to have more thoughts in my mind whenever I am busy. Thankfully, I was able to jot some of these thoughts on paper and update my blog with them retrospectively.

7/11/2005 11:16:43 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [12]

Blog

Last night was the second time this semester that the SDM staff has treated us to a sumptuous meal at Summer Shack. Good food and I have say that I can really get use to such treats.

I arrived late at Summer Shack last night as I had to spend 1 1/2 hour prior to sort out the mess with the cable installation fiasco at my new apartment. To be frank, I'm not the biggest fan of Comcast. But what can I do? They're the only cable provider in the city of Cambridge and I am addicted to Comedy Central and the Sci-Fi channel, and broadband Internet. I simply can't live without my cable connection. Before I digress further... The crowd at Summer Shack has dwindled down substantially when I arrived. I hung out for another hour before a group of us decided to head down to Harvard Square for more boozing. Disappointingly, not every one who said that were going to the bar ended up at the bar. Robbie, Jeff, Paul, and Jason... Where the hell were you guys? I didn't stay for long at the bar as I had wanted to retire early. We were all lame.

7/8/2005 11:30:49 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [14]

School

I just added another fellow SDM student's blog, which is written in Spanish, to my blog roll. I found it while surfing on Matti's blog site.

7/8/2005 1:14:58 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [8]

Blog

When I turned on my IBM Thinkpad last Monday night (right after the firework to do my homework), what I saw was that dreaded Blue Screen of Death. It said something to the effect of "Interrupt 5 Error, Windows kernel panic." The next thing I knew, the Wi-Fi stopped working and for some reason, the ethernet and power management were affected as well. This isn't very good considering that (1) I don't have time to mess with this shit, (2) this is the second lemon that I had with PC laptops this year. The good news is that it is an IBM and their service is good. The bad news is, based on my experience, it takes at least a week to get the computer fixed and I really need a computer for school. I tried fixing the laptop for the next 12 hours but it was both futile and frustrating. As a last resort, I decided to abandon the evil empire of PC and move onto the greener pasture of Mac. Yes, I have decided to embrace the Mac by acquiring a powerbook 12" on a special education promotion by Apple.

The PC applications that we need to use in the SDM program are: Excel, Word, Matlab, AIM (Trillian), and Web browser (Firefox or IE). Well... These applications are also available on the Mac as well!!! In the last 6 months, I have witnessed Matti and Dave used their Mac at MIT without any problems. Now that I no longer doing any software development on the PC, I am free of any allegiance to the PC/Windows platform. So goodbye spyware, plug-n-pray, Windoze, and virus, and hello Mac.

7/6/2005 10:46:36 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [11]

Mac

Sometimes I don't even understand me. As if the stress wasn't enough for me after moving my apartment and that I still have 3/4 of my stuff still unpacked, I decided to host a BBQ at my old place for over 35 people yesterday!!! I am friggin' nuts. I got ZERO study done over the long weekend. But you know what, it is well worth it. Like they say, it builds character. In any case, the BBQ at my old place was a huge success. Over 35 people, mostly from the SDM cohort and their better halves, showed up. It's good to finally hang out with Rajeev, Srini, Binoy, and Alex socially.

Perhaps a diplomatic death trap, I was behaving like a dictator ordering people what to bring before the BBQ event. To make matter worse, I overestimated the amount of food to bring. Ooops(GRIN) ... Needless to say, we had a good variety of food ranging from Kebobs (compliments of Jeanne) to Spare Ribs (my creation) and as always, it was still gluttony at the Chow's.

After the BBQ, the crowd strolled down, in their own separate groups, to the Charles River to watch the fireworks. The people whom I was with were able to find a good spot in the middle of Harvard Bridge (Mass Ave) to catch a good view of the spectacular firework.

7/5/2005 10:40:52 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [9]

Social

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