US News posted a special report entitled "America's Best Leaders" with profiles and stories of the top 25 leaders in America. My initial thoughts were: In a land of more than 250 million people, are these the best leaders that we have? I strongly agree with the selection of a few individuals who made it to the list and remain ambivalent on most individuals on the list. Ultimately, while I may not agree with the positions or values of certain individuals, it doesn't necessary mean that they are bad leaders in my mind. But I simply baffled by Condoleezza Rice's appearance on the list - I don't think I agree with her values or policies, nor do I think that she's a good leader. Can someone tell me what positive impact she made in the last 5 years (yes this is one of the criteria in the selection process)? Where is Rudy Giuliani and John McCain? Why aren't they on the list?

10/26/2005 8:41:12 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [4]

News

I attended the Lux Executive Summit on Nanotech the last 2 days at Charles Hotel in Harvard Square. I am used to listening to the academic and technological viewpoint of nanotechnology at MIT. It was refreshing on get a different perspective on the business impact of nanotechnology from industry leaders and analysts. Here are some notes from the conference.

• Many customers and investors aren't sophisticated enough to understand nanotechnology. Unless they ask, don't explain to them about the technology. Explain the applications of nanotechnology and how people may benefit from them. For example, start off by saying that nanotechnology enhanced-batteries have a longer lasting battery life. Your laptop will last much longer with one of these batteries.
• 3 industrial segments impacted by nanotechnology are:
• Manufacturing and materials
• Electronics and IT
• Biotech and life sciences
• Nanomaterials face huge barriers as traditional companies maybe reluctant to adopt this new technology. Manufacturers are more concerned about process change than the technology.
• Startups can't sell their nanomaterials based on technology, they have to have a case for lowering their costumers' overall cost with minimal or no process change.
• China will become both the largest consumer and producer of nanotechnology by 2010.

Sorry for the short list of notes, I wasn't really taking notes at the conference.

10/25/2005 11:49:57 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [2]

Technology

After living in the U.S. for almost 2 years, Lana and Chris will be leaving for their home country Australia next Wednesday. As a close friend of the couple, I stop by at a little get-together that Lana had organized last night at the International Restaurant & Pub in the financial district of Boston. Because the pub doesn't serve food after 6pm, we had decided to go to Houston's in Quincy Market for a sumptuous dinner; but the long line deterred us from eating there. I am glad that we finally ended up at Nebo, a hip, upscale pizzeria in the North End, since it gave me the chance to say hi to some SDMers who were dinning at the restaurant. It was my first time at Nebo last night and I immediately liked the place. I think Nebo is a great location for chat over a glass of wine and some antipasta dishes or gourmet pizzas - note to self, this is a great date location.

But food aside, Lana and Chris will be missed. They are the most genuine and generous couple I have ever met. I thoroughly enjoy their company during their stay in America. Fair Dinkum, I have also picked up a lot of Aussie slangs from Chris. Listening to Lana and Chris's talk about Australia last night made me want to visit Australia again. I am definitely planning to make a trip to Down Under some time soon. To Lana and Chris, have a safe trip back to home and all the best in your life in Australia.

10/22/2005 4:17:22 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [0]

Social

Taking advantage of the gorgeous autumn weather this afternoon, Kat and I went for a run in West Cambridge, Watertown, and Allston. Since Kat was relatively new to Cambridge, I led the run and took a few detours off the beaten path to better show her the hidden neighborhoods. We made a quick stop over at Mount Auburn Cemetery, a magnificent landscape in the fall, before running along the Charles River to catch the rowing teams practicing for the Head of the Charles, a regatta taking place on the Charles River this weekend. The Harvard side of town is hopping with people and activities today in anticipation of the regatta. The almost 2 hrs run turned out to be a fun event.

10/21/2005 7:06:49 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [0]

Personal

2 days ago, I blogged about my concerns on the termination of "This Weekend in God" now that Stephen Colbert has his own news show. My concerns turned jubilation when Rod Corddry summoned the "God Machine" and did a remarkable, hilarious rendition of "This Weekend in God" last night. Kudos Rob for continuing my favorite segment on TDS.

10/20/2005 11:39:53 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [0]

The Daily Show

One of the reasons why I bought in an Apple powerbook was because my IBM thinkpad broke down last July. I finally sent the thinkpad back to IBM for repairs last week. It was still under warranty, so why not? Yesterday, I received my thinkpad with the motherboard and BIOS replaced. The newly repaired laptop is working very well and it has been a relief not seeing the blue-screen-of-death when I power up the machine. More surprisingly, I realized how much I miss Windows when I was using the laptop earlier. Sometimes I think that Mac OS X is simply overrated. Sure Mac OS X is snazzier than Windows, but in terms of functionality both operating systems are about the same. Both my thinkpad and powerbook have the same system configuration with 1.5GHz CPU and 512 MB RAM. Yet my powerbook is consistently slower than my thinkpad. Word and Excel on the PC are a lot more responsive than their counterparts on the Mac. But the mac isn't without merit. My 12" powerbook is still the lightest and smallest laptop I have ever used. Wireless and bluetooth support on the mac is still top-notch. OmniGaffle still beats Microsoft Visio hands down.

I am going to continue using my powerbook but it's good to know that I have a backup in case my powerbook dies.

10/20/2005 11:21:16 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [2]

Mac

Ah... the reporter was paddling in what looks like a river until 2 guys walked by her canoe. It then became apparent that the canoe is really in no more than 4 inches of water. Here's a video of it.

Jon Stewart: "What? It's very interesting. Very rarely has the media cover anything with that kind of depth. In this case it's only only inches deep."

Touted as the show to watch if you have the balls, The Colbert Report (TCS) premiered last night with Stephen Colbert, one of my favorite correspondents from the Daily Show (TDS), as the anchorman. Being a spin-off of TDS, it uses the same tried and true satirical formula of TDS. While TDS reports on the the hypocrisy and contradictions of politics and the news media, TCS is supposed to make fun of news talk show and media pundits like Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity. And you know what, I love it. It's like having the a 30-minute extension of TDS or what I consider the best show on TV right now. Colbert was hilarious last night although it still has some way to go before it catches up to Stewart's smooth, relaxed presentation style. Colbert seemed a little tense and unsettled when he was interviewing his guest. Still, the gravitas face-off with Stone Phillips last night was entertainingly funny. I see myself sticking around on Comedy Central after TDS. I hope that Stephen Colbert will continue "This Weekend in God" segment on the Colbert Report.

10/18/2005 6:19:07 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [1]

The Daily Show

I have a lot of zen today, which I attribute to a good weekend of partying with my buddy Brian. The great thing Brian brings with him whenever he is in town is his amazing ability to gather everyone that we know together. So it is no surprise that Eimear, Blanche, Alberto, Brian, and I spent a good portion of Sunday at 647 Tremont to catch up with one another's life. It was a great time.

Speaking of 647 Tremont, I have wanted to visit the restaurant ever since I heard about its pajamas brunch where their staff and some customers are dressed in pajamas for brunch. But I was a little disappointed by the pajamas thing during my first visit to the restaurant yesterday. Now that I have seen it in person, I just don't see the novelty in seeing people wearing pajamas while eating. While the food quality is above average, there's a certain lack of freshness that makes it fall short of outstanding. I tasted my friend's Enchilada and found it to be too rich and overloaded with oregano. I had the pizza with bacon, potato, cheddar, scallion, and toppled with eggs done over easy. I have to admit the pizza is creative and quite tasty but the dough just wasn't as fresh as I had hope. It's just me, fresh, warm, and tasty dough is something that I look for in a delicious pizza.

10/17/2005 11:48:35 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [1]

Food

I am turning the TV off, the New England Patroits game is getting too painful to watch. This is a good choice since I also need to focus on finishing up my homework. With the way the Pats are playing now, I don't see them playing in the playoffs; but then again, the entire AFC East is playing so bad at the moment, the Pats may still stand a good chance.

10/16/2005 6:30:17 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [2]

Sports

It was interesting to see 2 different groups of my friends coming together this weekend. One group is made up of people I know from MIT and the other group consists of people I knew prior to MIT. You might think that these 2 disparate groups have very little in common. But in reality, they all share one thing in common - they all read my blog. Moreover, through my blog entries, blog comments, and links to friends' blogs, my diverse group of friends have unknowingly crossed paths in some point in their life before.

A case in point, I introduced Yoav to Brian as the guy who is the first to comment on my blog entries. Brian immediately recognized who this guy is. Likewise, Yoav had apparently read Brian's travel blog prior to meeting Brian last Friday. When I introduced Ilana to my friends at Blanche's party, people apparently recognized her as the lady of the pink blog than some random stranger at a party. On the other hand, Yoav and Ilana are always keen on meeting the real Siobhan, whom had made several comments as well as being mentioned several times on my blog. It also find it amusing when I hear people citing my blog. Today, Eimear cited several interesting material not just from my blog but from the blogs that are connected from my blog site. Last but not least, I sometimes have random people coming to me to tell me that they have read my blog and enjoyed doing it. Overall, it is a highly gratifying experience knowing that I have readership and that people are some how connected to one another through my blog.

10/16/2005 4:12:21 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [2]

Blog

It was blast at Blanche's birthday party last night. I was also happy than Jon and Ilana came out to the party and hung out with us. Disappointedly, Bruce, Denise, and Hanri were nowhere to found at the party despite responding with an affirmative YES to the Evite. I suspect that I will be seeing less of them now that Fanny has returned home to Amsterdam.

Despite the downpour yesterday, the turnout last night was great. I met Andre who is a bartender at the Asgard, a favorite hangout for a lot of MIT students. Nice... By 12 midnight, the living room, kitchen, and balcony was packed with people. By the time we left at 2:30am, the beer in the fridge and the cooler were all gone. Thanks for inviting and happy birthday, Blanche.

10/15/2005 7:41:58 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [0]

Social

Brian, my buddy from San Francisco (although currently on a 1-year work stint in NYC), arrived in town on Thursday with plans to visit HBS and MIT Sloan as a prospective student.

Having arranged a campus tour with HBS in advance, he successfully completed the first objective of his big tour by noon on Friday. However, since he couldn't schedule an official campus visit with Sloan on time, I arranged a unofficial tour for Brian. I recruited Yoav to act as ambassador for an afternoon class that Friday with Brian and took Brian for a tour around MIT afterwards.

I think Brian's tour of HBS and Sloan was a productive one as he mentioned to me at the end of the MIT campus walk that he now felt much more motivated to continue his essays on the application forms, which he has been dragging for some time. Curiously, I asked him about the contrast between HBS and Sloan, and he said the following:

• It seems like everyone in HBS is either in consulting or banking prior to HBS. At MIT Sloan, most students seem have an engineering background or from the high-tech industry.
• HBS campus is simply gigantic and clean but exclusive. MIT Sloan is small and the overall MIT campus looks a little dull but very functional.
• When comparing between the case studies that he attended at Sloan and HBS, Brian has this to say: Sloanies tend to draw more their experience in case studies than HBS students while HBS students tend to be more touchy-feely in their discussion. But Brian did express it is really hard for him to qualify on this comment since both case studies and class compositions are very different from each other. For benefit of readers who are not entirely aware of the context. The Sloan class that Brian had attended was Software Business, which a good portion of its students are from the SDM program and the Sloan Fellows program - both programs with students with significant work experience. On the other hand, the class that Brian attend at HBS was Organization Behavior, which might explain the touchy-feely discussions.

Finally, good luck with your application to B-schools. I hope that you get accept to the school of your choice.

10/15/2005 7:18:55 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [0]

School

Two blog entries on politics in 1 day... Is that enough insights into the world for you yet, Siobhan? Actually I didn't really generate those insights, I merely provide links to them.

Anyhoo... I paid a visit to the MIT Writing and Communication Center to consult their writing coaches. I have been writing a lot of papers lately but I feel that I still somewhat unproductive in producing what I would consider well-written works. I felt that I still have plenty of room for improvement. Here are some notes from my session:

• It's very hard to do write everything in one fell swoop (no draft)
• Writing is like engineering design. It is done in several iterations (drafts) with each iteration getting closer to the final product
• Just write down anything that comes to mind on the first draft. Content first, worry about flow later
• Proofread your work verbally. Reading your sentences out loud helps to uncover hard-to-spot typos more effectively
• If you are proofreading strictly for grammatical errors, try reading your essay backwards and aloud. This way you separate the content from words

10/13/2005 8:01:10 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [1]

School

2 days after I wrote about yet another sober view of the state of competitiveness and education in America, I saw this interesting article about the erosion of U.S. science on Slashdot.

10/13/2005 5:19:48 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [2]

Politics

Here's an interesting commentary that I heard on The Marketplace Radio a few nights ago. I will try my best to reproduce what was said on air:

"You would think that times and pump prices being what they are, that all the oil and gas that are produced in this country would stay in this country. The more we keep you would think, the lower price it would be. It's supply and demand, and all that. Don't look now, but a part of supply is on its way overseas. Refineries make the residential oil that the warms your home. Part of the reason why home heating oil is skyrocketing is there are barely enough refineries meet demand. Oil companies like it that way. A scare commodity keeps their prices and profits high. So the push on in Washington to increase American refinery capacity. There is one catch though. If you want to see prices fall, oil companies have sell their oil and petroleum products here in America, not in Singapore or Chile. You see, right now in the period of peak demand and limited supply, oil companies are exporting our home heating oil all across the globe. That has created shortage right here, at home and driving up the price. The department of Energy data show that oil companies have exported 1 1/2 billions more gallons of liquid heating products in the first 7 months of 2005 than during the period last year. That amounts to about 20 times greater than the size of the entire Northeast Strategic Reserve for Heating Oil. At the same time, the department of Energy numbers show that imports are falling. With a severe Winter warning, that's a recipe for big profits for oil companies and impossible choices for consumers. The poorest has to choose between food and keeping their family warm. It's a choice that no family has to make in America. Legislation had passed in the House of Representatives last week gave new subsidies to oil companies that build refineries but the bill gave no new restrictions on where the petroleum products could be sent. In other words, it's all carrots but no stick."

10/13/2005 5:13:11 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [1]

Politics

How do they do it? I mean Apple!!! A month after the iPod Nano was released, Steve Jobs surprised the world with yet another version of the iPod. This time, it is an upgrade for the iPod line and as it turns out most of the rumors of a video iPod is true after all. Surprise, surprise... Apple signed a deal with ABC to distribute ABC TV shows like "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives" through iTunes and watch them on iPods.

10/12/2005 8:34:15 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [4]

Mac