I went to yet another LFM/SDM social event at the Cambridge candle pin bowling alley where I met more cool LFM students like Brian and Jackie. I played a round of candle pin bowling with Dinesh, Shiv, Evans, and Evan's significant other. The turnout was decent but nonetheless fun. Big thanks to Uday for organizing it.

After bowling, Ilana expressed interest in going to the post party that I have been advertising on the SDM email circulation. The party is 1 of the 2 parties that Paul throws every year, one in the summer and the other during the week before X'mas. His party is always cool and fun. However, it is Paul's summer party that is definitely the party to attend. There's plenty of company and it features a series live music performances at the backyard by his musician housemates and friends. They even provided a few kegs of beet for all their guests. I drove Ilana from the bowling alley to Paul's party and started drinking at 8:30pm, just when the band was starting to play. Only Dave and Matti from the SDM cohort showed up later at the party. The usual suspects from my non-SDM friends like Denise, Angela, Eimear, Camille, Blanche, Ketan, Jesse, Squibby, Milt, Joe, etc showed up at the party. It was great catching up with them as I have not had the chance to socialize with them because of my busy summer schedule. Also, since I have not hung out with sister since childhood, it was a little weird to see my sister getting hit on by guys at the party. I seriously have no idea how to react to that. Nonetheless, the company was great and I had a really good time. Thanks Paul.

I am actually quite drunk right now and need to wake up by 7:30am tomorrow to go canoeing with some of the people at the party. I don't even know if I have even written a coherent blog entry. Neverminid, I need to get some shut-eyes now. So good night...

8/6/2005 1:49:09 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [0]

Social

I have just learned from Ilana's blog that one of my favorite bars in Boston, the Littlest Bar, is wrapping up its business by December to make way for condominium development. I have many fond memories at the Littlest. After all, this is the bar where I met Liam, Siobhan, and most of my Irish friends, many who still remain as my good friends. Liam once said that the Littlest is one of the most authentic Irish bar in Boston while Siobhan celebrated her 21st birthday - a day of legalized drinking in America - at the Littlest. Aptly named, the Littlest is indeed Boston's littlest bar. Imagine putting about 35 people into an area of a 150 sq ft. In spite of the confined space, they still manage to get a band of Irish folk musicians to play at a corner, a bartender to serve a pint of good guinness, and a bouncer to stay guard at the door. Their space management is impeccable. But all this doesn't matter anymore, the bar will be gone by December. It's really sad to see this landmark go. Damn you condo developer...

8/5/2005 2:58:05 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [4]

Rants

This guy is unbelievable. Ultra-marathoner Jim Dreyer com endured the chilly currents of Lake Superior to complete a 54 mile swim across Lake Superior yesterday. You should check out his website. He is perhaps the first to swim across all five of the Great Lakes. From his website, you find that his greatest accomplishment is swimming 350 miles across the length of Lake Michigan in 30 days. Wow...

8/5/2005 1:26:15 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [0]

Sports

Robbie Allen, a fellow classmate of mine, had posted links to 2 wonderful essays written by Paul Graham's on entrepreneurship a few weeks. Graham has once again intrigued us with a new thought-provoking essay about Open Source. The essay covers not about Open Source products like Firefox or Linux but highlights why the underlying processes and the people in Open Source are often more successful and less costly than those in some professional environments. This essay isn't about IT or computer programming, it actually has a lot of relevance in building successful creative, innovative enterprises by applying some of the observations and best practices in the Open Source environment. I find the following paragraph in the essay most very relevant to my career path that I currently taking:

Hackers tend to think business is for MBAs. But business administration is not what you're doing in a startup. What you're doing is business creation. And the first phase of that is mostly product creation-- that is, hacking. That's the hard part. It's a lot harder to create something people love than to take something people love and figure out how to make money from it.

8/4/2005 11:13:13 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [0]

Business

As a followup to my previous post on Apple's Might Mouse, here's an in-depth review by Ars Technica. My argument still stands, multiple-button mouse stays and to hell with the old argument about appealing the 1-button mouse to new users. Who hasn't use a 2-button mouse before? More choices is better than no choice. So Apple, if you reading this blog, ship the Mighty Mouse with all new macs.

8/3/2005 1:46:21 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [0]

Mac

For years, I have complained that Mac is way behind in a world of multi-button mouse usage. I have never seen a multi-button mouse product from Apple or a double-button trackpad in Apple's line of powerbooks/ibooks. On MacOSX, the right mouse button click has traditionally been emulated with a button click on the mouse while holding the CTRL key on the keyboard. On the trackpad, this translates to an awkward twisting and bending of fingers in trying to hold 3 buttons/keys with one hand; what a friggin' pain that is. Computers have become so ubiquitous in today's world that grandma can now survive with a double button mouse. So give us a double button mouse/trackpad!!!

Well, I finally got my wish with Apple's release of their first 2-button mouse called the Mighty Mouse today. That's music to my ears. I hope that the next line of powerbooks will spot a familar technology for the trackpad.

8/3/2005 1:13:37 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [2]

Mac

Today, we have Josiah Collens from MITRE as guest lecturer in our System Engineering class. He spoke about TBMCS one of the 2 case studies we need to do for our final project for this class. I said in a blog entry last week that I was going to work on the other case study, the Jet Engine optimization case analysis. But after listening to today's talk, I am now inclined to work on the TBMCS case as it relates closer to my professional background. Yeah, I know my wishy-washy self is surfacing again, but I'll take whatever that appeals to me.

8/2/2005 1:03:02 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [2]

School

I am planning to not only give my website a new look but to migrate the website to a Linux platform in the next few weeks. Now that I am primarily a mac user, it doesn't make sense for me to continue using .NET on my website. I am particularly looking for a web host that offers MySQL, PHP, and MovableType in their hosting plan. Any advice from anyone from cyberspace?

8/2/2005 1:38:56 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [0]

Blog

Today's FAMA class was unusually boring. Worse, I was feeling sleepy from last night's burning of the midnight oil on the Supply Chain/Operations case study. As a remedy to my drowsy problem, I usually distract myself from the class by surfing the web. But today, I didn't end up bidding on Ebay or playing on-line poker. Instead, I had quite a productive time finishing up our final System Engineering reading quiz during lecture. Indeed, time well spent listening to lecture and finishing homework.

8/1/2005 7:16:40 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [2]

School

I went back to my old place to clear the weeds that have been growing at the front of my condo so that the front will look nice for the coming open house. Before long, my old neighbor came by to where I was weeding and started instructing where I should weed. She then made a remark that her perennial plant that was growing at that spot in the garden is now gone and that someone must have stolen it. She then alluded that other neightbors may have come and stole the plant. I always avoid communicating with my old neighbor as much as possible but I felt compelled to come back with a strong and logical rebuttal to her statement. And I said: "Why would someone come and steal your plant that is firmly planted on the ground?" She tried to refute my response, but each time I gave that logical, unwavering, and stern sounding rebuttal: "Why would someone come and steal your plant that is firmly planted on the ground?" She finally gave up and went back to her house. At last, some peace and quiet. In the back of my mind, somehow I am not surprised if I was once an unsuspected victim of such pejorative remark.

8/1/2005 7:06:04 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [0]

Rants

My favorite place to go for a Sunday brunch has always been S & S Deli in Inman Square, Cambridge. But today, I found another place in South End call Metropolis Cafe that is worthy of excellent Sunday Brunch. Like the ever evolving South-End, Metropolis Cafe is hip and eclectic. The place also looks clean and well decorated. The only setback is the confined space in the restaurant, about 30 seats in a room a size of 2 ordinary living rooms (about 500 sq ft, I think). Eimear and I both tried the Monte Cristo, a meal consisted french toast, ham, pear, and cranberry chutney. It was awesome. The chutney was well prepared and go went well with the rest of the food. Overall, it wasn't too sweet as I would expect but we were disappointed that we couldn't taste the pear in the dish. Nevertheless, I am definitely coming back to this restaurant to explore its dinner menu in a not-so-distant future. For today's experience, I give this restaurant a 8.5 out of 10.

7/31/2005 9:24:02 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [3]

Food

I received an email from Sonny, a fellow classmate, on Friday about a class call Innovation Teams (or better known as i-Teams in Sloan). Sonny praised that it is one of the best classes that he have taken. According to the course website, i-Teams is described as follows:

I-Teams (2.937, 10.807, and 15.371) is looking for entrepreneurial graduate students to bring innovation to the marketplace. Apply now to participate in this course this Fall! When you join an i-Team, you and other highly qualified graduate students spend a semester collaborating with MIT research labs and mentors from the business community. You work as part of a team with winners of Deshpande Center grants on a specific project to assess the commercial prospects of scientific and engineering breakthroughs emerging from MIT's preeminent labs. You're guided by the labs' Principal Investigators, faculty from the MIT entrepreneurship Center, and leaders of local businesses. Together we determine technological directions and identify product markets. Together we deliver on the promise of bringing MIT-born innovation to fruition.

I was involved with a $50k team, which specializes in nanotechnology, last spring semester. It was truly an exciting and humbling experience; I realized simultaneously that how I know and don't know about commercializing a technology from the experience. The i-Teams course definitely sounds like a cool class and I am interested in taking it to learn more about commercializing a new technology. But interested student can only join the class by applying for it. Let's see how much motivation I get in the next few days to write and submit the application.

7/31/2005 8:33:14 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [1]

School

I have not rested for the last 6 weeks. I am jumping from one task to another without resting or relaxing. The 2 time suckers, besides work, at the moment are school and selling my condo. But I am seeing light at the end of the tunnel now. The summer semester is coming to a close in less than 2 weeks and I am finally putting my old apartment on the market next week. I can't wait when I can actually sit down and just goof off doing absolutely nothing and not feeling guilty about being unproductive.

To prepare my old apartment for sale next week, I cleaned and fixed my old apartment the entire day. Unfortunately, the installation of fence panels at the side of the house took up substantial chunk of my afternoon time. Other than the fence, I have been productive in fixing a bunch of things around the house. However, my first pass on the grouting in the bathroom didn't turn out the way I wanted it to be. The problem was that I didn't use the sponge to gives that nice finishing touch. Anyhoo, I regrouted the tiles, this time with the sponge, and bathroom tiles never look better.

7/30/2005 11:37:30 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [0]

Personal

I went to a schmoozing event for LFM, SDM, and SF students at the Enormous Room earlier this evening. It was a causal social event organized by one of the Sloan Fellows for the purpose of meeting people from three academic programs at MIT Sloan. Other than being affiliated with the MIT Sloan brand name and being at MIT for the summer semester, we really don't interact much together other than perhaps meeting one another at the hallway. Thanks to the organizer. This was a good idea of meeting other cool students at Sloan.

Starving for food, Ilana, John Haj., and I went down to Green Street Grill - another fine establishment - where John treated us for a sumptuous meal. Thanks John. We then went to another MIT party where we met more cool people from Aero/Astrospace graduate students. The highlight of the party was the exchange of anecdotes between SDMers and Aerospace students on Prof. Crawley. Overall, a fun night. We should do this more often to meet more people in other parts of MIT.

7/29/2005 11:33:14 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [2]

Social

Awesome, my spanking new Adobe Creative Suite Premium software package has finally arrived. I purchased the product last week to take advantage of Adobe's incredible student offer on their 4 most popular creative software. The first order of business is to spice up my website, which is looking a little dull now. I plan on using the software to create a new mind-blowing design for this website during the short school break in 2 weeks.

7/28/2005 11:10:28 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [1]

Personal