Pop quiz: Where can you find 4 generations of student/teachers in a class? Apparently, in the Engineering Apollo class that some of my classmates are taking now. One of the professors, Prof. Young, invited his student, his professor, and his professor's professor to speak at his class. The relevance that these gentlemen brought to the class is their experience in the Apollo project some 30-40 years ago. This gets better, if you do the math, at least one of the 4 persons has to be about 70 years old. True enough, accordingly to Matti, Charlie Duke, the youngest of the bunch is 60+ years old. Read Robbie's blog for more information. Amazing!!!

4/30/2005 2:26:40 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [20]

School

I discovered 2 new cool places at MIT in the last 2 days - the MIT hobby shop and the Kresge auditorium. I spent some time at the MIT hobby shop with Matt and Dave to finish up the final prototype for our Product Design & Development (PDD) class. Both Matt and I decided to forgo our usual social and drinking activity at the Muddy Charles and finished fabricating the remaining pieces for our prototype. The next task on tap is the painting of the beast, which Spiros and Christian will do later this weekend. I hope that they add some serious "blink" to the beast to raise its cool factor up for next week's final presentation. So far, everyone in the team took initiative and volunteered for the work assignments. Thankfully, our team has not encountered the same team rants and horror stories that I heard from other teams. Anyway, enough discourse on team dynamics and PDD. The hobby shop is well equipped with woodwork and metalwork equipment, and has staff that readily provides advice and help to students. I totally felt like a geek hacking away with the saw and drill in the hobby shop today. But you can't spell MIT without the words, "hack" and "geek".

I went to the MIT Wind Ensemble concert in the Kresge auditorium with Eimear later that evening. The concert was fun and it was like going to a typical school or college sports event or art performance. I even thought that I have seen a few of the performers at the Z-center or along the Infinite Corridor before. The first repertoire was a little rough but the performers settled down and gave a fairly good performance the rest of the concert.

4/29/2005 11:45:58 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [13]

School

Here is an interesting article on the relationship between your political affiliation and the type of car you drive. So Camille, are you displaying repressed Republican inclination with the red Cherokee of yours? Thanks to Siobhan for the clipping.

4/28/2005 10:32:07 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [13]

News

My team brought back the "bacon" earlier tonight. Yes, we won 2nd place overall in the student category for our business presentation at the $125k competition. In additional, we won the coveted top prize of $25k rent credit to Cummings Properties. I am very excited and pleased that my experience at Analog Devices and sleepless nights of crunching the financial data have contributed to the team’s success.

No rest for us now, we need to focus in getting into the final round of the MIT $50k competition - the holy grail of all business plan competitions. To my some of my fellow classmates who have been telling me that my free time could have better spent on class work, I have this to say: "There's definitely more that one can experience beyond the confines of the classroom."

4/28/2005 1:03:42 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [18]

Entrepreneurship

Microsoft will be releasing solutions based on its new technology called Metro for the printing and electronic document exchange market. So I might be right after all, Microsoft is going after Adobe's market. It will be interesting to see how Adobe's products like Postscript, PDF, and the newly acquired Flash can fend off this new threat.

4/27/2005 3:02:02 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [21]

Business

My $50k team presented our executive summary to the judges at the $125k Business Presentation Competition for Clean Energy Technologies a month ago. Today, we will be making a pitch about our business in vapor deposition technology in the final round of the $125k competition at the Stata Building at MIT. We will be demonstrating our technology at the exhibition session between 4:30pm to 5:30pm before making our presentation after 5:30pm. I hope we win. Stay tuned...

4/27/2005 11:14:11 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [18]

Business

Swimming is now my favorite exercise. I love the feeling of tiredness and accomplishment after each swim. Most of all, swimming is a great cardiovascular exercise. I got my pool time at the Z-center where I swam 24 laps with occasional 2-5 seconds intermittent breaksearlier tonight. I have been good progress on improving my swimming. What a difference a month of lessons can do to one's swimming. It took me 26-30 strokes to swim a 25m lap a month ago. I was able to cover the same distance effortlessly wtih 18-20 strokes tonight.

4/26/2005 11:30:22 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [14]

Sports

I was listening to my recently downloaded songs by the Pixies on my iPod while walking around at MIT yesterday. As I turned a corner and walked along the Infinite Corridor, I suddenly found myself surrounded by those young and naïve undergraduates. I soon experienced a retrospection of me being an undergraduate listening to the same exact song on my walkman 12 years ago. I feel like doing something stupid and naïve then. Sometimes, reminiscences of yesteryears is good for the soul.

4/26/2005 8:24:42 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [15]

Personal

I have been watching a movie every weekend in April. I saw the Uber-violent Sin City two weeks ago. I thought that the cinematography and story plot was cool but the violence was unnecessary and just too graphical even for my standards. My verdict for Sin City is, watch it if you like violence. On the other hand, if you are looking a date movie that has something to do with Boston or the Boston Red Sox, then Fever Pitch is the movie for you. I saw the movie last week and I thought it was alright. The plot outline of the movie is about Drew Barrymore's character who is stuck in middle of her love relationship with Jimmy Fallon's character and his passion for the Boston Red Sox. I saw Kung-Fu Hustle last night and I really enjoy it. Thankfully, the movie is in Cantonese and thus retains the comical context of the movie. I have been a fan of the lead actor, Stephen Chow, for many years and have seen many of his movies before, so I am glad that his movie is finally making into America. However, I wasn't sure if the American audience was fully ready for his brand of humor. Judging from the audience's laughter and ticket sales last night, I think the response was good. Watch this movie if you love humor and kung-fu.

4/24/2005 11:46:15 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [19]

Movies

I couldn't help it, I caved to my craving for grilled mackerel teriyaki earlier tonight. Eimear and I went to one of the cafes in Little Tokyo inside Porter Exchange for grilled mackerel teriyaki after swimming at the Z-center. It hit the spot alright. I am still craving for the dish just by writing about it. Yummy...

4/24/2005 1:33:42 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [7]

Food

I discovered eMusic.com while surfing the web today. Their music selection is very limited. But here's the good news, you get to download songs in high quality VBR (average out to about 256 bitrate) MP3 format. Even better, the songs come without the annoying Digital Rights Management (DRM).

Since a few of my Pixies' albums are in vinyl, I was thrilled to discover that they have the entire discography of the Pixies available for download. I can finally listen to the Pixies on my iPod. Discounting "The Best of the Pixies" album, there are 7 albums from the Pixies available for downloading - Come on Pilgrim, Surfer Rosa, Doolittle, Bossanova, Trompe le Monde, Pixies, and Complete B/Sides. Nevertheless, I spent only $15 to download all 7 albums. How did I do it? Here's how. When you sign up for eMusic, you get 50 downloads for free as part of the trial. You then pay $15 to start the subscription for an additional 65 songs per month. This adds up to a total of 115 songs that you can download in the first month, thereby allowing you to download all 94 songs from the 7 albums. You can cancel your subscription at any time if you don't like the service.

4/24/2005 1:26:04 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [17]

Music

I think there is a new food to be added to my list of favorite foods. It is called Grilled Mackerel Teriyaki Rice Bowl. The strong taste of mackerel makes it a great candidate for grilling. But the best taste of the mackerel comes not from the flesh but the skin and especially the fatty layer. The slight tinge of teriyaki (the real Japanese teriyaki sauce as opposed to the American version) and the fatty layer along with the skin of a mackerel always hit the spot.

I ordered this dish while I was having dinner with Kevin, Maja, Yoav, Allison, Rachael, Chris, and Ilana at Maluken Japanese Restaurant at Fenway earlier tonight. It was good but I still think that the best mackerel teriyaki that I have so far was from one of the Japanese eateries in Porter Square Exchange. In any case, I am starting to crave for mackerel teriyaki just by writing it. I know my discerning taste won't stop till I have found the best grilled mackerel teriyaki in town. Maybe when I get the time, I should make it myself. Hey, I am a self-proclaimed good cook anyway. So let me get some sake, rice wine, vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, rice, mackerel, salt, and white pepper for the recipe and make it myself. How hard can it be? Maybe my mackerel teriyaki may end up being the best in town. I think it is time to fire up the grill. Oh yes...

As far as rating for Maluken Japanese restaurant is concerned, it gets a 7/10.

4/23/2005 2:06:01 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [17]

Food

My swimming lessons have finally come to an end tonight. I am definitely swimming much better now than I did a month ago. My strokes and body movements are much more efficient. Knowing that this is my last class, I asked the instructor to coach me breaststroke. After a few drills in breaststroke, my instructor said that my breaststroke is fine but has a tip for me. She introduced me a new technique call gliding that I can use when swimming in breaststroke. Basically, the swimmer reduces the body hydrodynamics as the swimmer pushes the water to the side at the completion of the breaststroke arm movement. However, to compensate we can just extend both arms and legs straight after taking a gasp of air. This motion allows the body to glide after each stroke thereby improving the body hydrodynamics. I tried the new technique out in the pool and there was a noticeably difference in the speed. I finished the class with several lapse of a swimming medley of free-style and breaststroke. Indeed, the swimming lessons have been very rewarding.

4/22/2005 12:00:14 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [16]

Sports

I am becoming more critical on real-life businesses since I started taking the Technology Strategy class. For instance, I just realized that an ex-colleague of mine have just started a new company providing semiconductor yield management software tools and consulting. Being similar with this industry, I evaluated his business with the principles that I learned from the strategy class and I don't like what I see. I see 2 main problems with his business. First, there're no groundbreaking products or services that his company has to offer. Second, yield management is a saturated and established sector in the semiconductor industry. The barriers to entry for a new startup without a breakthrough products or services are very high to almost impossible. Furthermore, just like any competitive market, current companies are being squeezed out of the market because of competition. I am a huge supporter of entrepreneurship but I feel that pursuing a well-established market without groundbreaking products or services simply doesn't sound like a sound strategy to me.

On other business news, I have just learned that Adobe had just acquired Macromedia. With that move, Adobe practically has the entire computer graphics market cornered. However, will the merger of two different company cultures be seamless? But tactical questions aside, I suspect that Adobe is making the first move to acquire Macromedia out of fear that Microsoft may do it before Adobe does. Perhaps, this makes sense since Microsoft never really got a foothold in the computer graphics market and acquiring Macromedia seems like a good strategic move for the software giant. In terms of new products and the Internet, coupled with Adobe's own product offerings like Acrobat and Photoshop, Adobe will also receive a diverse portfolio of Internet enabling products such as Flash and Dreamweaver from this acquisition. Is Adobe also trying to corner the Internet market with this acquistion? Maybe this acquisition is starting to make sense to me now.

4/21/2005 11:21:38 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [16]

Business

You know you have fan, when someone asked "Hey, there's nothing on your blog." So Matti, just for you, I am going to start blogging now.

I have been running like a chicken with the head cut off 3 weeks in a row now. Things have been pretty crazy at MIT. This is what happens when all assignments or deadlines are due in one day of the week - Wednesday. Take today for instance, I have to complete 2 papers, study for 1 quiz, and complete the financial plan in my team's business plan for the MIT $50k competition. Once again, I have grossly underestimated the amount of work that is required for financial plan. I was practically consumed by financial plan over the past 4 days. After 2 nights of number crunching and coordinating with my team members, I got the financials done at 3 am last night. Unfortunately, this left me with less than 2 hours to study for the ERBA quiz, something that most of my classmates have been dreading. I woke up at 2 hours before the test and study for it. At this point, I was somewhat indifferent how I may do in the test. To my surprise, I knew what was doing in the ERBA quiz despite 1 hour of study and 3 hours of sleep. I think I am going to do well. I then stopped by at John's office and did a final review of the business plan with the rest of team before submitting it to the $50k competition website at 12 noon. I can finally start enjoying the beautiful spring weather that I missed over the last 4 days.

4/20/2005 5:51:14 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [13]

School

I spent the winter looking forward to spring. When it is finally here, I am indoors boudn and simply too busy to enjoy the splendor of spring. Ironic isn't it.

4/16/2005 2:43:24 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [15]

Thoughts

It was a great swimming session today. Unfortunately, my buddy Camille wasn't able to join me because he is home sick with Mono. Yikes! The instructor was late today but that's okay since we were twice late for her swimming lessons before. I spent the first 30 minutes of the class practicing my swimming while I wait for instructor Rachael to arrive. Already exhausted from the practice swimming, I was surprised that I still have the strength to continue swimming during class. More surprisingly, I was swimming without the pull buoy. As you can see, I tend to sink when I swim free-style and I use a pull buoy to compensate. With Rachael's advice, I stretched my hands out and forward. In addition, I decided to relax and get into a good rhythm during my swim by getting my body, hands, and legs are in sync. At the end, I was able to glide my body effortlessly through the water. Consequently, my legs were able to stay just slightly underwater and I wasn't sinking anymore. I think I finally got it. I just need to practice swimming more at the Z-center now. Yes!

Tonight, I am simply too exhausted from the swim. I still have the financials that I need to complete by tonight for the 50k competition. Sigh... There's still no rest in sight yet. Oh well, I will get my rest tomorrow night by watching a movie with Hanri. Just the mere thought of hanging out with her makes me happy.

4/14/2005 10:16:27 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [9]

Sports

My Product Design & Development team showed our prototype to the professors and teaching assistants today and they loved it. We took the prototype out to the field, where it is supposed to be used. Not only were the professors in impressed with our machine, the passers-by were in awe. Some of passers-by were even asking if they could play with our machine. The demonstration was no doubt a huge success. Nice job, team 12.

4/14/2005 9:32:40 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [10]

School

Lately, I have been wicked busy on the first 2 days of the week because all my class assignments are due on Wednesday. Imagine that. I finally got a chance to breathe tonight. What a relief...

I think the whiner me complained too much about the Strategy class that I am currently taking last week because I got a lousy grade for my first assignment of this class. But I am beginning to like this class as I worked on the case studies more the last couple of days. The thought framework that I learned from the class has not only influenced how I can analyze corporate strategy more critically but I can actually apply the stuff that I learn in my future endeavor.

4/13/2005 10:24:01 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [14]

School

I was shocked when I looked out of the window 5 minutes ago. It was friggin' snowing outside!!! On April 12th. Geez...

4/12/2005 5:48:59 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [11]

Rants

I was a gorgeous day today yet I was stuck indoors doing my tax return for 2004. Thankfully, I am now done with my tax return but the bad news is that I owe the government money. Argghh...

I did sneak out to MIT and played volleyball with a bunch of Sloanies. It was possibly the best volleyball game so far this semester. I have been hanging out the MBA students, whom I found them to be energetic and sociable, quite a lot this weekend. 

4/10/2005 11:14:32 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [13]

Personal

I have just received an email from our running team captain that MIT finished second overall as a team in the BC MBA 5k Race and won ourselves a case of beer. Nice!

4/10/2005 1:22:40 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [15]

Sports

I think I have discovered the best recipe for a good sleep. The running and the beer drinking at a Harpoon Brewey sponsored after-party coupled wtih days of stressful school work set the conditions up for the perfect sleep. I have never slept so well after return home from the running race on Saturday.

Feeling rejuvenated, I went to Hanri's apartment and hung out with her. We reviewed my 50k financials with her and found a couple of areas where I need to correct or correct. I always knew Hanri's auditing skills would come handy someday. Thanks Hanri.

4/10/2005 1:16:30 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [15]

Personal

Instead of sleeping in as I would every Saturday, I woke up at 7:15am to prepare myself for the BC MBA 5k Run. The race was fun as I get the chance to really hang out with the MBA students at Sloan.

The race started at about 10:30am. I didn't complete the race in the time that I had wanted. The uphill stretch at the end of the race had drastically slowed my pace. I finished the race in 23:10 minutes (finished 119th out of 419 runners). While MIT was not in the top 5 teams, team MIT Sloan managed to finish better than the mean. Well done Team MIT Sloan.

I overheard this while listening to a conversation between a Sloanie and a MBA student from another school. "You guys, did the Cranberry case study in your Operations class too? What do you think of the operations optimization exercise for this case?" asked an MIT Sloan student, the other MBA student responded by saying: "What system optimization, we don't do the numbers."

4/9/2005 4:31:43 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [16]

Sports

I never supported the "revolt of ERBA" and do not wish to start another whine-fest on Technology Strategy. I am also glad that the Strategy class has introduced some critical concepts in corporate strategy that every management students ought to know. While Porter's 5 forces of competition, Barney's VRIO, or Hamel's Business Concept are well-established methodologies in realm of corporate strategy analysis, they are by no means the only methodologies available. I think any write-up would need to consider other options of assessing the viability of a company's strategy. My main disappointment for this class is the fixation on just 3 methodologies. But with a condensed class-duration and the limitation of 1,000 words in each write-up, maybe there is a reason for restricting to just 3 methodologies. I know that I am waffling on this, but the point I am trying to make is, what is the best strategy to implement in order to do well for the write-up's? I believe I know my material, the problem is how to express or show to the professor and TA that I do. I'll think more about this later. It's getting late now and I need to go to bed soon as I have to wake up early tomorrow for a running race.

4/9/2005 1:11:07 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [20]

School

I had wanted to post my thoughts on Peter Senge's workshop on leadership which he delivered at a SDM event last week but I was simply too busy to do it. Fortunately, I have just found a very good summary of Senge's talk on Robbie's blog. Check it out.

4/8/2005 10:00:52 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [13]

Business

Analyzing Harvard Business School cases reminds me of my English literature course that I took during my undergraduate days. In both cases, one has to dissect the story the apart to extract pertinent information in order to grasp the theme. The difference between the two is the terminology used. Literal analysis looks at an author's use of ambiguity, connotation, symbolism, or conflicts to determine emotions or theme in a given passage. Similarly, in HBS case studies, one needs to pick up on the underlying theme of the case and then synthesize a conclusion for it. However, the framework for the analysis can be quite different. I have found that with strategy or decision-making related cases, they often need to be evaluated with established performance metrics, competitive advantage sustainability, strategy coherence, competition, and resource availability.

I am fully aware of the approach but I still didn't score well for my first case study assignment for my Technology Strategy class. While I have eloquently described on my paper the basis of my analysis upon the conclusion of the case was drawn, I have failed to capture the essence of the case using the framework that we are required to use. So it's a slap to the hand that failed to follow instructions. Next time, I think I will stick with the more conventional (or acceptable) framework for analyzing the cases. Because as far as I am concerned, Porter's, Barney's, and Hamel's principles trumps over unconventional views.

4/8/2005 9:30:44 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [17]

School

I was one of the fortunate ones in my SDM cohort to be pre-selected for an open-discussion session with a director from the National University of Singapore who is working on establishing a program similar to SDM in Singapore. As the meeting proceeded, the students and the director started exchanging business cards. When communicating with business people from Asia, it is respectful and polite to conduct the exchange of business cards in the proper manner. Unfortunately, I didn't handle the business card ceremony quite the right way.

To my credit, I did manage to hand my business card with two hands and to receive his card with two hands. Nonetheless, I still got it wrong at the end. Here's what I should have done:

1. The younger or more junior person should always present his/her business card to the other party with 2 HANDS.
2. The other person receive it with 2 hands. He/she then present his/her business card to you, in which you must now receive it with, again, 2 HANDS.
3. Now take a look at the business card to, at least, catch the person's name.
4. If it is a sit-down meeting, leave the all the cards that you have received on the table so that you can look at their names and titles. Do not put them away until the meeting is over.

Well, that's the Asian way of handing/receiving business card. Thanks to Kevin for reminding. Of course, there are times when you shouldn't present your business cards with 2 hands, especially in a more causal corporate environment like America. I am interested in hearing other people's thoughts on exchanging business cards in a different cultural environment.

4/7/2005 5:13:22 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [15]

Business

I have just started a new half-semester class called Technology Strategy recently. As I submitted my analyses of the first 2 cases that were due yesterday, I pondered the following. Faculty members and students at management school observe, analyze, and synthesize the processes and strategies of successful or failed enterprises. Grand models were formalized to explain how the processes were observed in the business world while ground-breaking techniques were devised for achieving corporate goals. But the real managers whom we are studying may not had attended business school at all. Take for instance Bill Gates of Microsoft, he seem to have a good grasp of business. His company, Microsoft, seems to be ran in ways that support the precepts of good strategy, as it is defined in our Strategy class. Yet Gates didn't even complete college, let alone attended business school. Was he a genius or are some of the class material just plain or some derivative of common sense? In either case, I strongly believe that while we can write grandiose analyses of our cases, ultimately it is practice and our actual implementation that will get the corporation to where it wants to go.

4/7/2005 11:04:20 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [12]

Thoughts

Why haven't I been blogging lately? Because I am so friggin' busy, that's why. I got school, work part-time, participate actively in school activities, engage in social events, and training for the triathlon (which BTW is not going well at all). I feel so burned out these days and getting 4 hours of sleep a night doesn't help to alleviate the situation. Worse, I still have my tax return that I need to do. If I am going to complete my tax return by this weekend, I really need to get a head start on next week's assignments. So I am going to try to finish one of the assignments that due next week by tomorrow night. I guess my first break from all this madness won't be till Friday night.

Enough of ranting... I was quite relieved, at the same time sad that ESD.762 - System Optimization has come to end yesterday. But seriously, I really like System Optimization. First of all, the material that I learned from the class actually has real-life applications in a broad range of disciplines ranging finance to system engineering. Second, professor Simchi-Levi is just a great lecturer. Every now and then, he would pause and engage the students to express their thoughts on the subject. This is perhaps deliberate as it actively stimulates students' interests and their abilities to derive their own conclusions to the subject. Ultimately, the experience truly enhances the learning, which is why so many students love his class. I definitely recommend this class or any class by professor Simchi-Levi to anyone.

4/6/2005 1:48:27 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [15]

School

I use UNIX quite a lot but my retention rate of UNIX commands is less than desirable so I have created a new category called "UNIX Shell" on my blog to help me remember some of the *NIX (UNIX, Linux, etc) scripts and commands that I have found useful.

First tip on this category is the xargs command that used in UNIX shell to break a data stream into small enough for commands to process. Let's suppose you want to search for MP3 files that you have added to your music library folder in the past week and copy them to another foler, you can issue this command:

find . -name '*.mp3' -mtime -7 -print | xargs -i -t cp {} /tmp

4/4/2005 4:36:38 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [22]

Computers

The past week was unbelievably hectic. I was practically buried (6 feet underground) with school work and activities. The bad news is that it looks like it is going to be like this for another week. :-( The good news is that I am finally done with the financial projections that I am responsible for in my 50k team. I never knew how time consuming forecasting financials for a start-up can be. Practically spent Friday night, and all day on Saturday and Sunday on the financials.

4/4/2005 10:44:00 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [17]

School