Today's guest speaker in my i-Teams class was Prof. Eugene Fitzgerald who spoke about entrepreneurship and the semiconductor industry. He shared his entrepreneurial experience with the class on starting 3 companies in the semiconductor and advanced materials industries.

Prof. Fitzgerald stayed around after class to talk to students who were eager to listen to his insights to the evolution of the semiconductor industry. He suggested that if we are going to start a new enterprise in the high-tech industry, it is okay to create a breakthrough product that initially foster poorer performance. The word "poor" as explained by the professor doesn't allude to non value-added. A product may have poor performance but if it is inexpensive to produce and that the market is ready for it, the production/sale of the product will still be a viable business model. At this point, I uttered "Hey, isn't this is disruptive technology" as described by Clayton Christensen. I have always heard how disruptive technology should be handled in corporate strategies of incumbent companies. Christensen did suggest that incumbent companies create spin-off companies to pursue new breakthrough technology. However, in the context of a new startup, it is refreshing to hear how disruptive technologies or innovations are considered and harnessed in pure startups. After thanking Prof. Fitzgerald for spending the extra time with the students, I found out that he is currently working on a project with 2 circuit designers whom I know at a startup company that he co-founded. What a small world...

11/21/2005 10:49:55 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [1]

School

Last night, I celebrated Brian and Eimear's birthday at a party organized by Eimear and her roommate Anna. Good fun as usual with the usual suspects and many of Anna's friend being there. Being that it was Brian's big 3-oh, I decided to do shots with him early so that I can get him drunk. Unfortunately, that plan backfired as I was doing too many shots with too many people too quickly. Needless to say I was hammered just after 11pm. For the next 6 hours, I have no recollection of what had happened - it was as if that 6 hours of my life was completely erased off my memory. I remember taking a shot of Tequila and the next thing I knew, I was waking up at 6am with the nastiest hangover.

Afterwards, Eimear, Nathan, Brian, Blanche and I went for a brunch at Renee's Cafe to recap and exchange anecdotes from last night. I was particularly amusing to listen to stories about what I did last night but without me remembering anything about them. I feel really embarrassing about the whole incident but apparently people were at least entertained and they all said that I didn't cause any mischief or grief to anyone. Oh well, at least, I am a happy drunk then. I am going to take nap now, I still feel like crap. No more senseless drinking for me, I getting too old for this.

11/20/2005 3:50:53 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [5]

Social

I had more thoughts on DRM after my last blog entry on Sony...

Based on the same argument on companies asserting their draconian control on what consumers can or can't listen to, other media content providers and software companies are just as bad as Sony. I don't think that consumers should willy nilly copy and distribute music without regards to copyright laws. Digital Rights Management (DRM) is set of technologies to control the use and distribution of digital media and for many businesses a primary technique used to prevent revenue loss due to piracy. I don't necessarily have any problems with DRM technology, my biggest concern is that each company has their own proprietary DRM technology - Apple and Microsoft each has its own DRM technology that are not compatible with each other. Again, what we need is an open-standard DRM that interoperates among different media content providers.

11/19/2005 1:59:37 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [1]

Thoughts

If you haven't been following news on technology recently, there has been a public outcry over Sony's use of a controversial anti-piracy technology called XCP that installs spyware on users' computer without their knowledge or consent. In the beginning, Sony had defied public protest insisting that the use of such technology was justified and worse did little to rectify the situation. Finally, with the threats of class action lawsuits and with almost every security firms issuing warnings against viruses exploiting the security flaws in XCP, Sony made the following announcements:

• Sony will recall all its copy-protected CDs from the stores.
• Sony will allow customers who have purchased CD that uses the controversial First 4 Internet copy protection software to exchange for new CDs and MP3s.

The recall of millions of CDs and exchange of CDs are an expensive operations for any company. But, the longer term costs of this debacle are Sony's damaged reputation and litigation costs from angry customers. For customers who actually bought the CDs, they feel that Sony is punishing the people who have actually chosen to buy the product.

I agree with Bob Fahey who wrote an excellent article on the Sony debacle. He said the bigger problem with Sony is that they have not embraced the open-standards by integrating them into their media business model. Fahey wrote:

"The essence of this struggle is that while some elements of Sony understand the need to embrace open standards, coexist with competing systems and give consumers some degree of freedom in terms of how they use the products they have paid for, there are clearly factions at the corporation who don't grasp how crucial that approach is, and wish for a more tightly locked down, proprietary future."

Open-standard and open-source have become prevalent paradigms in today's world. Sony missed the opportunity to compete head-on with Apple iPod perhaps with reasons that they see MP3 as a threat rather than an opportunity for their core business.

Next, Sony's thuggish attitude and draconian protection scheme only serves to alienate itself from its customers. In an age of open information flow and diverse consumer choices, customers can always look for an alternative solution. Again, Fahey articulated this point well:

"However, this may well be the difference between life and death for Sony, because users are no longer happy with the idea of being locked into what they can and can't do with media they've acquired. Sony's competitors understand that, at least to a certain degree. They understand that the music business wasn't damaged by evil pirates sitting around plotting their downfall, it was destroyed by the failure of the music industry to offer a legal, sensible alternative to an entire generation of people who wanted their music on their PCs, streamed over their networks and loaded onto their miniscule flash memory players - and for whom the only route to that desired result ended up being peer to peer networks. They understand, at least partially, that if you lock down what a legitimate user can do with media so tightly that he can't acquire it, watch it, play it or listen to it where he wants and when he wants, he'll become frustrated and may well turn to the pirate version - which carries none of the restrictions that you unfairly impose on your paying customers. They understand that if you treat customers like criminals, you'll turn them into criminals."

I used to be a big fan of Sony products and I didn't mind paying premium prices just for the brand name. These days, however, Sony products have terrible quality and aren't cool anymore. Personally, this whole Sony fiasco left a really sour taste in my mouth. Why would I trust them now especially when I don't have loyalty to their products anymore?

11/19/2005 1:48:45 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [3]

Business

I had lunch with one of my friends yesterday. He voiced his dissent that he has been receiving either a 3% or no raise in the last few years. He said that he is a hard working person and that he is getting really discouraged because he wasn't properly compensated. I understand and empathize his frustration because I consider him not only a diligent but a good performer in what he is doing.

I thought about his issue on wage raise after lunch and this was my initial reaction. For the past 2 years, 3% is generally considered the inflation rate in this country. The economist in me is saying that if someone is given an annual 3% raise, he/she isn't getting any raise at all because despite the 3% wage increase, his/her wage was adjusted sorely for inflation and not for his/her performance or even extra workload. In other words, real wage for my friend has remained unchanged and in the years when he received no pay raise, his real wage has actually gone down. Worse, my friend has been filling in the jobs of people who were let go due to corporate downsizing a few years ago. With his above-average performance, proven experience, and added responsibilities, shouldn't he deserve a raise that is beyond a mere 3%?

11/18/2005 1:35:27 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [1]

Business

At the end of last summer, I purchased 3 books with the intent of reading them before my fall semester. I have only finished reading Freakonomics, which I highly recommend to anyone who has read it already. The other book Truth against Logic was a bit of a disappointment. I have finally found time to read Tom Friedman's book The World is Flat, which I really enjoy. The World is Flat is a pager-turner and it echoes many of the things that I have been hearing in classes at MIT - globalization, innovation processes, India, China, etc. I hope to share my thoughts on the book and the issues that it discusses on this blog as I read more of it. For starters, Yoav contributed this link that is critical of Friedman's work.

11/17/2005 6:05:34 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [2]

Personal

I listened to a public radio news program yesterday where Rob Gifford, a China correspondent for NPR for 6 years, was interviewed. It was a very insightful and thought-provoking show. Here are some of the highlights from the show:

• Actually, the central Chinese government is keen on addressing problems, especially the younger bureaucrats. The curse of the Chinese civilization, as it has always been, isn't the officials in Beijing, but the local officials. The problem is in the provincial government, they have the tendency to cover up. Furthermore, most of the corruption in government happens at the local level. (Very true).
• China is still 1-party and can still be a police state if it wants to. But ideologically, communism doesn't exist in China anymore. No one in China believes in communism anymore. Also, the Chinese economic model is clearly a capitalist one. The question is: What is going to replace communism in China? The big thing that seems to be emerging is nationalism.
• China was the middle kingdom, the most advanced civilization in the ancient times. After the 1700's, they were humiliated by Western powers and Japan. For 150 years, they have been playing catch-up and have been getting it wrong time after time. Now they are hungry, they are close to catching up to the rest of the world.
• Westerners may say that the Chinese system is a socialist system without true democracy. The Chinese are going to say: so what, call it whatever you want. As long as we are better off now than we were years ago.
• Here's the paradox of a 1-party state. The 1-party state can push through some terrible policies. But a 1-party state can also push through good economic policies with such vigor and efficiency that multi-party states can't do.

11/17/2005 1:44:37 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [6]

Politics

The last few lectures in our class, Introduction to Technology and Policy, was given by Prof. Dan Roos, a co-author of the "Machine that Changed the World." Overall, I really enjoyed his lectures on the automotive industry. One item from his lectures that I found interesting was that in terms of labor rate, there are 2.5 retirees for every worker at GM. This number prompted me to think... What this means is that an average worker is indirectly responsible for paying the retiring pension cost of 2.5 retirees. On top of that, GM pension funds are still under funded by a few billions dollars!!! Actually, according to statistics that I saw in one of my readings, GM is being competitive on wages with the rest of the automotive industry. But on a whole, the labor cost at GM is just astronomically high due in large part to legacy cost. There are other factors that contributed to GM's current woes, and legacy cost is definitely one of them.

11/15/2005 11:50:19 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [1]

Business

I have been writing intensively over the last weekend. I managed to compile a write-up for the small project assignment for my System Architecture class, where our team did a critical analysis of the Mac OS X architecture. It was a really fun paper to write since operating systems and UNIX system programming are subjects that I am interested and familiar with. As much as I had been ranting about Mac and disagree with many of Apple's human interface choices (like the 1-button mouse and the ridiculous copy folder behavior), I find the Mac OS X an elegant design. At the system level, Mac OS X has integrated open-source technologies with closed-proprietary technologies very well. Underneath that snazzy looking Aqua interface, which is designed entirely in-house at Apple, is an open-source UNIX-based layer that works well. Anyway, it was a fun assignment and there is so much more that I could have written. Now, it is up to Greg to edit and polish up the paper for submission on Wednesday.

I have also spent significant time last weekend on composing a business executive summary for the $1k competition with the same people from last year's $50k team. I thoroughly enjoyed the writing exercise for $1k competition as it has allowed me to think about creating a business to pursue opportunities in the marketplace.

11/14/2005 11:06:47 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [2]

School

After reading Ilana's blog entry on her nerd test, I have decided to take one myself.

Oh my gosh... I am nerdy. I scored exactly 87, same as Ilana. The result of the test indicated that I am "High-Level Nerd. You are definitely MIT material, apply now!!!" Indeed.

11/14/2005 11:53:34 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [6]

Personal

Here is another rant on the Mac. On Windows, when you drag a folder onto the top of a folder with the same name, the system will recursively merge the content of both folders. On the Mac, you replace the entire folder when you do the same operation. This really pisses me off big time because I lost a bunch of important data. Sometimes I wonder the wisdom of switching to Mac.

11/13/2005 11:55:47 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [6]

Mac

Lately, the trendy Boston South End has been my favorite place to hang out and dine. On Friday night, I went out for a nice dinner with Michelle at Tremont 647 in the South End. One of the highlights of going Tremont 647 is to sample their unorthodox menu items. However, I found myself craving for steak that night and ordered something ordinary: the ribeye steak done medium rare. The steak was good although not out-of-this-world as I would expect for the price I paid. Overall, the dinning experience was positive and would recommend this place. However, I wished we hadn't sat that close to the smoky kitchen as our clothes smell like grilled steak when we left the restaurant. Afterwards, we stopped by at the Garden of Eden for more wine, coffee, and pastries. I tried their homemade Mogador cake, which consists of layers of chocolate mousse and genoise, toppled with a layer of raspberry glaze. The cake was great. I am drooling for more pastries already... I will go back to this place for more sinful indulgence.

11/12/2005 11:21:00 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [2]

Food

On Thursday night, I went to the Middlesex Lounge to check it out. I have heard that this place is extremely popular with MIT graduate students, especially those who are living at the Sidney-Pacific dormitory. This place is definitely larger than the Enormous Room, 2 blocks down the street. The DJ spins good trippy house music. The Middlesex Lounge reminded me of some of the chic lounges and dance clubs that I had visited in Europe and judging from the crowd that night, I have to say that most people there are indeed from Europe.

11/12/2005 11:20:24 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [3]

Social

My mac is driving me crazy these days. I am quickly realizing the limitation of a mac; yep, I still think that they are overrated. Anyway, my latest complaint is that I can't read attachments in emails that were sent from Microsoft Outlook. Apparently, all file attachments sent by Outlook are encapsulated into a single attachment file called winmail.dat and there's no native support on Mac OS X to read this file. Thankfully, after a quick google on this issue, I found this program called TNEF's Enough, which opens the winmail.dat file and extracts the embedded files.

11/9/2005 7:40:25 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [1]

Mac