Since I started my academic program at MIT, I have not been able to, either deliberately or unintentionally, stay abreast of the latest developments in the software and Internet industries. Still lamenting from the fact that I was barely able to explain Web 2.0, I decided to sit in as a guest listener at Cusumano's Software Business class yesterday to listen to the presentation of student's term projects on various software-related businesses and technologies. Thankfully, Cusumano has graceful enough (albeit a little reluctant) to let me sit in the class, which normally has a policy of no listeners. I was impressed by most of the presentations. The Digital Media Content, Mobile Industry, RFID, and Web 2.0 presentations are my favorites. They were well presented and insightful. Overall, the 3 hours spent in that class was worth the effort as I learned some new business and technological trends and landscape in the IT world - a good summary of what I missed the past year. Even though I am now trying to make inroads to nanotech and management, my strongest technical expertise is still in software. I should really stay on top of the latest developments in the software industry.

12/3/2005 7:30:59 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [3]

School

I love it when the Daily Show (TDS) points out contradiction of a politician's current position with a comment that was made in the past. This was from 2 nights ago:

Jon Stewart: A couple of weeks ago, Congressman John Murtha, a very hawkish democrat and former marine from Pennsylvania came out with a support of withdrawal of U.S. troops. And this drew a response from Ohio freshman Congresswoman Jean Schmidt after she had talked to a Marine colonel.

[Footage of Jean Schmidt speaking]

Jean Schmidt: He also asked me to send Congressman Murtha a message that cowards cut and run, Marines never do.

Jon Stewart: Boy freshmen grow up so quickly. You know what. I remember (eh...) Congresswoman Schmidt, back in September, (eh...) her first address to the Congress. This is how she was talking:

[Footage of Jean Schmidt speaking]

Jean Schmidt: I pledge to walk in the shoes of my colleagues and refrain from name calling or the questioning of character. It is easy to sink to the lowest form of political debate.

Jon Stewart: Yeah, it is (eh…) amazing. But clearly Jean Schmidt is (eh...) showing us that the shelf life of idealism in Washington is [John counting fingers, whispering September, October, November...] 2 1/2 months. Ouch...

12/2/2005 2:41:12 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [0]

The Daily Show

One of the perks of being at MIT is that students get to form teams with other entrepreneurial minded students and enter the $50k competition to compete for the best business plan at MIT. Prelude to the $50k competition is the $1k competition, which serves as warm-up to the big event. Ever since I went to my first $50k competition event, I have been hooked to entrepreneurship. Back with a vengeance from not getting into the finals of the last $50k competition, our team was one of the 10 winners in last night's $1k award ceremony. We won the tiny tech category. It was a good team effort. The next stop: the $50k competition next spring.

12/2/2005 1:52:16 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [1]

Entrepreneurship

Ever since I knew that Randal Pinkett was on the Apprentice, I have been drawn to the show every Thursday night. And why not? Randal is a friend of a friend and MIT alum. It is not often that one gets to root for someone on a reality show. Besides, I am also curious how a Sloanie would perform in the Apprentice. So far, Randal has been performing great; he played smart by solidifying his status early in the season by wining twice as project manager. But Randal was close to getting axed by Trump 3 episodes ago by having the wrong station number written on a poster during a presentation to the XM Radio executives. After falling out of favor with the Donald, Randal was all fired up to win back credibility. So Randal took the role of project manager, responsible for advertising Shania Twain's fragrance in last week's episode of the Apprentice. So aggressive was Randal in winning the task, he sabotaged the other team by buying over all megaphones (a critical hardware that made Randal win and the other team lost) that the opposite team had reserved at Radio Shack. The move was somewhat questionable but Randal was later praised by Trump for such move. Well, like they all say, it's all fair in love and business. Tonight, Randal has finally made it to the final 2. Both Randal and Rebecca - the woman on crutches - will be on the finale next week. I was hoping for a showdown between Randal and Alla - the 2 contestants whom I consider the strongest on the Apprentice. Too bad, Alla got fired tonight. Well, 50 bucks on Randal for becoming the Apprentice.

12/2/2005 12:31:55 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [2]

News

Lately, I have been hearing a lot about Web 2.0 - not just from the usual SDM software geeks like Yoav, Robbie, and Ilana but from other people who aren't software centric. Yesterday, I was asked "Hey MIT guy, you should know this. What is Web 2.0?" I shrugged and then proceeded to B.S. my way through by saying that Web 2.0 is a new paradigm in the Internet and it has something to do with AJAX, which makes the web is more interactive and blah blah.... The truth is I had no idea what I was talking about. Nonetheless he accepted my explanation and said "So it is like web services and wikipedia, huh?", which I then answered with a grin, "Exactly."

Being a geek myself (yeah, high marks on the geek test done 2 weeks ago), I felt embarrassed for not knowing what Web 2.0 is. So I did a little googling and found this out. Coined by Dale Dougherty, an associate at O'Reilly Media, Web 2.0 is a term that is used to describe the transformation of the Internet from an information-based architecture to a user-centric platform with applications and services centered around user's needs. Technologies like blogs, bit torrent, wikis, rss, web services, and of course AJAX (I was right after all) contribute to the evolution. This technological shift has social and economical implications. The empowerment of individual users through open communication, knowledge sharing, and decentralization led to radical changes in social networks and behaviors. For example, blogging has now replaced personal website as a form of communicating one's thoughts to friends and the rest of the word. Last but not least, new businesses, with Google being the prime example, have already started to exploit the potential of Web 2.0 by offering software products that intimately involve the users in the development cycle. Here are some good links for further reading on Web 2.0.

• Tim O'Reilly orginal article on Web 2.0
• Wikipedia on Web 2.0
• Tim Berners-Lee on semantic Web 2.0 (a different take on Web 2.0)
• Web 2.0 relate businesses

12/1/2005 4:11:39 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [7]

Internet

I came back home after another good game of basketball with fellow SDMers and felt like I was hit by roofies. I took a nap on my couch. About an hour later, Camille called and asked me to go running with him. Feeling really guilty about my pathetic sedentary lifestyle lately, I reluctantly went running with Camille. In hindsight, it was a good choice, since tonight was unseasonably warm and the run really woke me up. I had a good pace running the 5 miler. It was a good run.

Afterwards, we went to my favorite eatery/bar in Harvard Square, Grendel's Den - where everything on the menu is 1/2 price after 9pm with an order of beverage. But don't let the price fool you about the quality of their food. Even for someone like me who is extremely picky with food, I really enjoy Grendel's food. They have a good selection of vegetarian food and atypical bar food. Check out their menu here.

11/30/2005 12:21:16 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [1]

Personal

Today, we had Ricardo Valerdi as guest lecturer in our System & Project Management (SPM) class. He spoke about Constructive System Engineering Cost Model (COSYSMO), a model to estimate cost in complex, large-scale system engineering projects. At first, I consider the model to be some hocus-pocus black magic model that anyone can arbitrarily create. However, towards the end of the lecture, I think I am pretty much sold on the benefits of the COSYSMO model. I think that any concept (complex or simple) has to have a supporting tool to prove its worth. You can download COSYSMO model written in Excel from here. There is also a wealth of information about COSYSMO at Velerdi's website.

11/29/2005 11:54:33 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [9]

School

I am such a loser. I spent all of my time this long Thanksgiving weekend doing homework. Well, it paid off though. I am done with the last opportunity set (an esoteric name for assignment) for System Architecture. It was like writing a mini-thesis for the first question of the assignment. What a relief that I am finally done with the assignment. In hindsight, there is a benefit from working on this assignment. The first question of the assignment was a good learning vehicle for me to sum up everything that I have learned from this class and analyze the concepts critically. I also have a pretty good start on the final write-up on the principles of System Architecture.

I have also met with my team to put the finishing touches on the grand report for our term project for the Introduction to Technology and Policy class. From day 1, I hated the project research subject that was assigned to our team. While the rest of the team is stoic about the subject, overall we were quite efficient and had everything done on time so far. I have to commend my team for the good efforts. Still, I can't wait for this term project to be done and over with.

It's going to be a busy night tonight. I am aiming to get the final assignment for System Project Management (SPM) and final report for Innovation Teams (i-Teams) done before going to bed. I think I can do it. I am working with Kevin and Ilana on the SPM assignment later tonight and I only need to review and edit my sections for the final report for i-Teams. On tap for tomorrow, the final write-up for Leadership Development. At this rate, my fall semester should unofficially be over by Thursday. Nice...

11/27/2005 5:26:44 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [1]

School

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. My turkey dinner earlier tonight was at Hanri, Denise, and Bruce's apartment (aka 217). It was good to see them as I have hung out with them since Fanny's going-away party more than 2 months ago. I have also met other guests at their apartment for the first time: Charlie (the new roommate), Alex (a Romanian PhD student at MIT EECS), Natasha, Katrina (Natasha's sister), and James (Katrina's husband). Food and the wine selection were good. For my part, I contributed a dish of stuffing done in a somewhat non-traditional way with seasame bread crumbs, chestnuts, shallots, saffron, chives, and mushrooms.

Right now, I am trying to finish up the last System Architecture opportunity set, which I dread. The class started on a high note but it has just been dragging on and on the past few weeks. Somehow I feel that the opportunity sets lately have been regurgitating the same topics over and over again.

I have been trying to get all my remaining assignments of the semester done by next week so that I can start writing my thesis proposal and hand it out to potential thesis advisors before school ends. Anyway, enough break... back to more writing for System Architecture.

11/24/2005 11:54:37 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [4]

Personal

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