I heard this on the radio earlier today: always sprinkle grated cheese before adding sauce to the pasta. This tip makes perfect sense, the warmth from both the pasta and sauce melts the grated cheese, and consequently blends it into the sauce more effectively.

11/9/2005 6:11:17 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [4]

Food

I have been listening the following music albums, which I acquired last week:

1. American Idiot by Green Day
   I have never given a 5-star rating (like that in iTunes and iPod) to every song in an album until I listened to this album. Yes, it is that good and deservingly so - after all it did win the Grammy Award for the Best Rock Album in 2005. In this album, Green Day has demonstrated significant music refinement and maturity while still maintaining the raw style that we hear in Dookie. But what I really like about this album is Green Day's forays into rock operas in grand punk style with a thoughtful theme on today's social woes in America. Wikipedia has a great article on the interpretation of the album's story. This is a great rock album, I highly recommend it.
2. Demon Days by Gorillaz
   Ever since I heard that iPod commercial featuring the song Feel Good Inc. by Gorillaz, I have been wanting to get my hands on the actual music CD. I am not disappointed with this CD.
3. Franz Ferdinand by Franz Ferdinand
   The first time I heard of Franz Ferdinand was from the Sony PSP commercial that featured the band's signature rock anthem, Take me Out. I won't call the music album groundbreaking; but being a sucker for post-punk revival music, I consider this album a must-have in my iPod.
4. Live at Stubb's by Matisyahu
   This album features a rabbi look alike singing Reggae - an odd combination but Matisyahu is quite an accomplished Reggae artist. I find this album refreshing since I don't get to hear a lot new Reggae materials these days. The song "King without a Crown" is a masterpiece.
5. Bridging the Gap by the Black Eyed Peas
   I have only listen to this album once so far but I like what I am hearing.
6. X&Y by Coldplay
   My least favorite Coldplay album. It is not that is bad but the earlier Coldplay albums are a lot better.

11/8/2005 12:26:10 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [1]

Music

Wow... women really like men who dress well. Case in point... I went out with a group of friends, which included a significant number of women, last friday to the Burren at Davis Square for a few pints. That night, I was wearing a tan suede leather blazer/jacket with a green t-shirt - a polished look of tan leather paired with an apathetic green t-shirt. The women were raving about how nice I dressed that night. The comments from them were very positive and, I have to admit, ego-boosting as well. The truth is that I bought the leather blazer from the Garment District for $5 and probably after friday a great investment. But I will definitely keep this in mind: always dress to look your best.

11/7/2005 5:14:03 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [1]

Social

What happen when you get Western celebrities to appear in Japanese commercials? It is often hilarious because they are often acting foolish. Sometimes, they seem so out of place that the commercials look simply weird. I have just found this website that is dedicated to Western celebrities moonlighting in Japanese commercials. Perhaps it is of no surprise that one of the funniest commercial that I have seen is one by Arnold Schwarzenegger. You will get a got chuckle from these 2 video clips:

1. Schwarzenegger on energy drink, Booye 1
2. Schwarzenegger on energy drink, Booye 2 (even funnier)

Let me know if there's any other noteworthy clips that worth laughing at.

11/4/2005 11:48:51 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [4]

Humor

To prep up MIT students who are interested in participating the upcoming business plan competitions at MIT - the $1k competition in the fall and the $50k competition in the spring - the $50k organizing team arranged for a class on business executive summary writing earlier tonight. Our guest speaker was Ian Carver from Price Waterhouse Coopers who has significant experience in advising startups. Without going into too much details, Carver said that the following are the things that every VC is looking:

1. Addressable Target Market
2. Market Validation
3. Competition
4. Revenue Model
5. Management Team
6. Go to Market Strategy
7. Funding Requirements

11/3/2005 9:25:29 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [0]

Entrepreneurship

Yesterday, we had Prof. Don Lessard as guest speaker in our System Project Management (SPM) class. He spoke about managing risks in projects at all levels, from 1-person to large-scale enterprise-level. He mentioned the following story to illustrate a point in his lecture:

Two guys are out in the woods hiking. Suddenly, a bear started chasing them. The first guy took his pair of sneakers out of his backpack and started putting them on. The second guy asked: "What are you doing? You can't outrun a bear." The first guy, at this point, said, "I don't have to outrun the bear. I only have to outrun you."

Prof. Lessard said that the point he was trying to make with his story is this: In a competitive business context, you just have to "outrun" the other competitor. To do so, we have to create value, but value brings risk. Don't try to minimize risk because you won't get any value from it. Instead learn to manage risk. I like that advice.

11/2/2005 9:58:43 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [1]

Business

Happy Halloween everybody... So far, my day today revolves not around ghosts and goblins but rather the wonderful world of telecommunication. Lately, I have grown really bored in the class Introduction to Technology and Policy. I really need a lecture that has value and will prop up interest for that class. Well, my prayers were answered with Sharon Gillett - a TPP 95 grad - as the guest speaker in today's Intro to Tech & Policy. She was extremely engaging and her talk was very interactive. As an Electrical Engineer and someone who has been involved in IT for many years, I thought I knew everything about the telecommunication industry. I was pleasantly surprised to learn something new today, particularly how regulated the telecommunication (and broadband) industry is and the implications of a few landmark legislations that were passed for this industry.

I am currently working on a case study on Iridium - a satellite-based telephony company that went bankrupt in 1999, a year after the launch of its service. Surprisingly, the more I read about the case and doing research on the company, the more I like this case study. It is a classical case of a company possessing great innovations but in the end made some really bad business decisions and failed spectacularly. Also, for those who are currently taking Prof. Richard de Neufville's class on Real Options (aka ESD.71), the Iridium case presents a real life example where management should have defined a set of objective goals (rather than one that is based on experience and observations) and evaluates the project or long-term investment opportunities as real options.

10/31/2005 11:28:47 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [1]

School

One talk that none of my classmates blogged is Partha Gosh's talk on Leadership. Gosh was invited last Wednesday to the SDM business trip to talk about leadership. I had attended Gosh's talk on leadership that was part of my TPP curriculum a month ago and even blogged about it. Like before, I enjoyed his talk on leadership last week. I like like the spiritual and human value of what he was trying to bring to the table. Likewise, my TPP classmates like him so much that we invited Gosh back for more lectures on leadership development. Conversely, the reaction from my SDM classmates were mixed. I surveyed the class about the lecture and for those who responded, half of them liked the talk and the half didn't. One of my classmates said: "Why would I want to learn leadership from someone whom I won't want to follow?" That was an interesting quote because here is a bigger question: Should people who teach leadership exude presence and inspiration? True, Gosh's talk that night was a little dry and slow. Indeed, I think that it is much harder to talk about leadership to a group of people who are more mature and has significant professional experience than a cohort of students with the majority who are in their early twenties. Anyway, those are my observations. Oh, time to go for a run...

10/30/2005 4:52:48 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [1]

Sports

I meant to blog this a few days ago but I have been too lazy to do it. No, I wasn't busy; I have been feeling really lazy lately and I felt unmotivated to share any of my insights and thoughts on my blog.

Last week was filled with many social events and interesting activities at school as current students, incoming students (recently admitted), and alumni of the SDM program converged at MIT for a week long period of activities comprising the SDM business trip, SDM open-house, and SDM alumni conference. Also, there was the Sloan Innovation Period (or SIP) at Sloan, which I didn't participate it. Thankfully, Robbie blogged about his blogs on many of the fine talks that took place last week. Here are his notes.

10/30/2005 4:27:04 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [1]

School

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