So far, this weekend has been great. I spent most of this weekend taking numerous study breaks to spend time with several classmates who will be leaving MIT by the end of the semester. For brunch yesterday, Robbie, Yoav, Ilana, Deming, John W., Paul B., and I went for some really good crab-meat dumplings at a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown. I haven't had Chinese food that good for ages, I really like the food there. A return trip to the restaurant is definitely in the order.

Later that night, I hung out with Paul B. again at the Middle East for beer and Shawarma before heading to MIT to meet Ilana and John W. to watch a screening of the March of the Penguins movie. Sitting in 26-100, the room where most movie at MIT are screened, was reminiscent of my undergrad days. The movie is great and I will write about this movie later. Unfortunately, both Ilana and John were no-shows at the movie. :-(

I also started my winter running this weekend by making 2 runs yesterday and today with Camille. I didn't run that well today as my Honey Smacks with milk (been in the fridge for more than a week) was acting up half way through the run. That resulted in a very cute female runner overtaking us. We started catching up to her but with me being in a bad shape we were in no position to catch up to her. So I told Camille to take it for the team, leave me behind, and catch up to her. Hmmm... I wonder if he got her number?

12/11/2005 3:42:02 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [1]

Personal

With the war looming in Iraq and the current political discourse on America's dependency on foreign oil in a post-9/11 world, it makes it all more relevant to watch Syriana, a serious movie about the politics of oil. Last friday, l went to see the movie with Camille and Brian. My take on the movie is mixed. As you would expect, this movie relates to the human fragility of greed. In the struggle for wealth and power, tragedies and betrayals are inevitably the norm not the exception. I enjoy this aspect of the movie where I am able to step in the vast, complex world of the most powerful industry on Earth. I also like the shuffling of between scenes of lawyers and oil men brokering deals in Washington and the disenfranchised Pakistani migrant workers in the Middle East However, there are 2 things that I don't like about this movie. While I don't see the type of self-righteousness (something that I detest) that is often pervasive in many political tinted movies, I do find several aspects of the movie largely exaggerated. Another problem that I have with this movie is the large number of storylines that unfolds during the movie although at the end of the movie, the storylines were weaved together quite nicely. Nonetheless, you can get a quite lost in the middle of the movie especially with such a complex background and numerous disparate characters to contend with. Overall I enjoy the movie as it makes me think about the questions of U.S. energy and foreign policies in a post-9//11 world. I give it a 70% rating.

12/11/2005 2:22:02 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [1]

Movies

MIT recently launched 2 podcast sites to encourage members of the MIT community to contribute podcasts. For podcast submissions from departments, labs, and MIT sponsored events and lectures, visit the IS&T podcast site. For informal podcasts contributed by individuals, go to IS&T Podcast Wiki.

12/7/2005 11:46:28 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [3]

School

Stephen Colbert, the anchorman of the Colbert Report and a former senior correspondent for the the Daily Show (BTW which correspondent on the Daily Show isn't a senior correspondent), was interviewed by Terry Gross on Fresh Air earlier today. You can listen to the interview here. You will hear none of Colbert's usual satire on the interview, but it is nonetheless humorous and insightful.

12/7/2005 11:15:22 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [2]

The Daily Show

In our iTeams class yesterday, we had a panel of VCs and entrepreneurs who led an open, interactive Q/A style discussion about their experience in the VC world. Here are the notes that I took from the session:

• What are VCs looking for people in a team?
  It takes a deep understanding of the technology to bring it to the market and presented in a way that people in the market may care. For a high-tech startup, the people need to be deep in the underlying technology and still be broad to know how business can be generated. (I realized VCs in the high-tech sector value technologists who are business savvy than pure MBAs who maybe know something about technology. At the end of the day, it's really the technologist's idea that is going to bring value to the firm and business people can always be replaced by people of the VC's liking).
• On sustainability...
  It is the job of the CEO to make the startup stay alive long enough to get lucky. Have confidence in yourself. Entrepreneurs who mess things up are the ones who worry too much. Don't do it for money, do it for business and the money will come.
• On startup team dynamics...
  There is a lot of smart people, don't over analyze.
• On funding...
  If you can stay away from VC, do it. Get funded by other means, like government SBIR. VCs are awful to deal with. Don't take money from VC without calling the CEOs who deal or had dealt with them before. If you hear hesitation from CEO, that is enough to tell the entrepreneur what the CEO thinks about the VC. Without a doubt, non-diluted funding is wonderful.
• On strategies...
  Staged business models are great. Getting into a market is the best way to understanding a market, but may also be the riskiest especially without funding. Find markets that technologies can solve the problem completely.
• On the roles of the founders...
  Keep an open mind, do what best for the company. Be thoughtful. Make mistakes a lot and quickly, then stop. As a founder you will be bombarded with endless day-to-day activities so do things that have value-added. Also, you want to establish good rapport and trust with investors.

12/6/2005 6:54:56 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [0]

Business

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)

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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