I attended the first day of the TPP orientation earlier today where I was introduced with students, staff, and faculty members. There is a total of 40 students for the TPP class entering 2005. The age of incoming students are between the ages of 20 to 35 while professional experience ranges from 0 to 12 years, with a few who came straight from undergraduate programs. 40% of the students are female, a far cry from SDM (my other degree program) where female represents only 6.25% of the students. Compared to other degree programs in ESD which are oriented more for professionals, TPP is a research-based degree program. One point that was reiterated in the orientation is that the TPP master thesis is research intensive and almost all TPP students get some form of Research Assistantship (RA) during their stay at MIT. The official amount of time required for an RA varies between 20-30 hours per week. Financially, an RA is really not a bad deal considering how expensive tuition at MIT is these days. Tuition is always covered and stipends can vary depending on the research program or department. According to one source, it averages out to about $1,500 per month after taxes. Not a bad deal at all.

8/31/2005 11:38:14 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [0]

School

Now that I am concurrently pursuing two degrees within ESD, I have to come out with a thesis topic with content that integrates the system engineering and/or management aspect of the SDM program with the policy aspect of the TPP program. Furthermore, I am beginning to feel that I should exploit my thesis as a key determinant of getting a job in think tanks and consulting firms. During the 2-hour drive to the Ikea store in New Haven last Saturday, I contemplated deeply on the thesis topic with the new focus and purpose. A possible thesis topic that I have in mind is one that is based on economic competitiveness, specifically how the business environment is affected by government policy and a nation's infrastructure like education, transportation, and finance. I like the direction where my thesis proposal is going. In the next few weeks, I need to narrow down my topic further.

8/30/2005 12:46:19 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [4]

School

I am a huge fan of Ikea furniture and I have always longed for an Ikea store that within reasonable driving distance of Boston. The good news is that my wish is finally answered with a new Ikea store slated to be opened in Stoughton, a 20 minute drive from Boston. The bad news: it won't be opened till the end of November. Having a need for furniture for my new new apartment, I drove 2 hours to the Ikea store in New Haven last Saturday. I got a lot of stuff that I had wanted to get and even picked up gifts for 2 weddings that I will be attending next month. Notwithstanding the long hours of driving, it was a productive day for me. Unfortunately, I pulled a muscle while lifting a package at the Ikea parking lot. The back still hurts today despite spending the past 2 days nursing it. I have to remind myself that my back isn't as strong as it was 5 years ago. Alas, the consequence of growing old.

8/29/2005 11:20:18 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [0]

Personal

Yesterday, I went to Amazon.com to shop for books to read now that I have more free time. All the talk about Economics on my blog lately prompted me to get Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. I am curious to see how the principles of Economics are used to explain and connect things and events that happen in our everyday life. The next book in the shopping cart is Truth against Logic by Jamie Whyte. And my reason for purchasing this book: I am so sick of today's political discourse and want to gain some frameworks to dissect the arguments of politicians (both left and right), pundits, and religious leaders. Last but not least, the book The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Thomas Friedman was strongly recommended by my classmate, Kevin, for its anecdotal account of world history and for better or for worse, how it shaped today's globalized environment.

8/26/2005 10:26:14 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [1]

Personal

Last week, I volunteered as an event coordinator for Labor Day Sports, one of the events in the MIT 2005 Graduate Student Orientation. My responsibilities for the event include setting up logistics and leading sport games. During a Graduate Student Council meeting yesterday, I was informed that I now have the entire Barry Astroturf to my disposal. This is cool, there will more games to lead and play. The games "on tap" for that day include Ultimate Frisbee, soccer, and possible softball. The bad news: With the expansion to the Astroturf, I now need more volunteers for this event. I better send out a chain email to solicit help soon.

There are plenty of fun and quality events worth checking out in the graduate student orientation. I am looking forward to it.

8/25/2005 12:37:38 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [0]

School

Having nothing to do tonight, I decided to read the blog entries that I wrote in the last few weeks. I came to 2 conclusions: (1) I am still not an eloquent writer and (2) I have to proof read my blog for typos. Arggghhh... Seriously, in the future I have proof read my blogs more carefully after writing them. In any case, I edited a few entries for grammatical correctness. They should be more reader friendly now.

8/25/2005 12:34:39 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [0]

Blog

This is an excellent article on the BBC about the rising concern in the U.S. over the decline of science and technology in the country.

8/24/2005 12:23:42 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [1]

News

Computer science specialist is now a thing of the past, says this NYTimes article. The trend now is to combine computer science with other disciplines such as biotech, business, and sociology. According to the article, people who are technically savvy and can apply technology in other industrial context have brighter job career prospects.

8/24/2005 12:15:45 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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News

After listening to Carlos's thoughts on the varying degree of difficulty between the different Microeconomic classes available at MIT and Harvard, I’ve decide to examine the course content of various courses at the MIT OpenCourseWare website. There, I compared the assignments for courses 15.010 and 14.122, an Economic class for MBA students and a Microeconomic class for Economics graduate students respectively. To make the comparison more meaningful, I compare the assignments on Game Theory from both classes. Well... see for yourself. This is an assignment from 14.122 and here's an assignment from 15.010. Further comparison indeed affrims that 14.122 to be the more challenging class. I am still debating if I should take 15.010 or 14.121/14.122 in the fall. If my thesis (which I am still formulating right now) includes significant economic content then I should take 14.121/14.122. My only reservation is that I will be overloaded with courses this fall and taking 14.121/14.122 will surely introduce more stress to my life. Yikes... In any case, I'll still have 2 more weeks before class registration to make the decision.

8/23/2005 11:20:40 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [0]

School

I was in Building E51 (Tang Center) to attend the first class of the week long Economics Review series that was organized exclusively for incoming TPP students who have little or no background in Microeconomics. As I entered the building, I was greeted by a congregation of incoming MBA students who were socializing and having lunch at the building's main lobby. The MBA class of 2007 had started their first day of student orientation earlier today. A far cry from last week, the whole East Campus is looking busy once again with new and returning students.

This year's TPP Economics Review sessions are being taught by Carlos Osorio, a current ESD PhD student. We went through the very basics of Economics like supply/demand and elasticity - nothing groundbreaking but refreshing nonetheless. The most fascinating piece of information is Carlos's insights to the availability of Microeconomics courses at MIT and Harvard (via Cross Registration) that TPP students can choose to take. Here's an outline of the Microeconomic courses listed in ascending difficulty:

Course No.	Course Name	School	Level	Note
API-101	Markets and Market Failure	Harvard KSG	Master (Public Policy)	More qualitative
15.010/011	Economic Analysis for Business Decisions	MIT Sloan	Master and MBA	More qualitative
API-102	Economic Analysis of Public Policy	Harvard KSG	Master (Public Policy)
API-111/112	Advanced Microeconomic Analysis I and II	Harvard KSG	Master (International Development)
14.121, 14.122, 14.123, 14.124	Microeconomic Theory I thru' IV	MIT Economics Dept.	PhD (Economics and Management)	Very few numbers, mostly symbolic equations
EC2010a/b	Microeconomic Theory	Harvard	PhD (Economics)	Very few numbers, mostly symbolic equations

8/22/2005 6:30:56 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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School

I have discovered a new and novel energy drink called Trek Energy over the weekend. I found them in the "Wild Harvest" section of the Shaw's Supermarket situated halfway between MIT and Central Square. I paid $2.15 for a 620ml bottle to try it out. But I got more than just a drink, the bottle is designed like a mini Nalgene bottle. Yes, you can actually reuse the bottle as your own outdoor water bottle. The bottle is lightweight but tough. The cap twists off easily but seals the bottle well when it is tightened. Even better, it comes with a carabina which I can clip the bottle onto my backpack. As for the drink itself, I have only tasted the lemon-lime flavor, which I found it to taste exactly like Smirnoff Ice only without the vodka. In any case, the drink is definitely worth paying $2.15 for the free accessories.

8/21/2005 11:36:48 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [2]

Sports

Yesterday, I called a few people for a night out in Central Square on a whim. Only Milt and Fanny responded to my calling. We started the night with dinner at Rangzen Tibetan restaurant. I was thrilled to finally dine at Rangzen as I have heard many good things about this restaurant. Indeed, I was impressed by its Tibetan food. I also learned from last night that Rangzen serves inexpensive buffet for lunch and being halfway between my apartment and MIT, I know that I will be coming back to Rangzen for more Tibetan delights very soon.

We got a call from Blanche and Ketan after dinner who suggested that we watch "Wedding Crashers" at Loews Boston Commons. The movie was aptly suitable for Milt and I as we will be attending 2 weddings in September. Aside from the superfluous sex theme, the movie deploys the same type of humor like those of "Old School", "Anchorman", and "Meet the Parents." Overall, it was an entertaining movie to watch on a Friday night. After the movie, we went back to Central Square for a few pints at my home bar, the People's Republik. It was a good Friday night to be doing something on impulse.

8/20/2005 11:38:07 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [0]

Social

Errata... As it turns out, the Economic review class that I mentioned on my last blog is for TPP students only. It is not the same as the one that is offered for the MBA students.

There were reports of theft in my apartment building's mailboxes recently. Coincidentally I have not received my last 2 issues of the Economist. So, I am delighted to finally receive this week's issue of the Economist in my mail.

Speaking of Economics, I heard this on Marketplace (the radio program) while driving yesterday. It seems that the U.S. dollar is losing its appeal to overseas. Reports shows that confidence in greenbacks is falling, which is reflected in the low dollar value against the Yen and Euro. In today's economy, we import much more than we export. With the ever increasing trade deficit, we are becoming more dependent on foreign investment to stabilize the dollar. On the political front, deliberate resistance to halt foreign acquisition of U.S. assets may send yet another bad image that investments in U.S. is more of hassle than it is worth. But the bigger question is why should foreign investors be buying dollars now, only to invest in our public debt? Perhaps, the looming budget deficit may be the biggest factor in turning investors away from investing in the U.S. economy. If all this is true, this means that the dollar will continue to decline and inflation will eventually rise. Interesting piece...

8/20/2005 1:57:24 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [2]

Radio

Yesterday, I met with Pat Hale, the SDM Program Director, and Yoko Urano, the TPP Program Administrator, to sort out a few administrative and logistical concerns of my dual degree status. It was a productive day. I am really looking forward to meeting my new classmates in the TPP program. According to Yoko, the incoming TPP class is 40 students strong, representing diverse cultural and academic backgrounds. I have also learned from yesterday's meeting with Yoko that there's an optional week-long Economic Review that new TPP students should take especially if they have little or no background in Microeconomics. I believe that this is the same Economic review class, along with 2 other review classes in Math/Statistics and Accounting, that MIT Sloan offers to its incoming MBA students. Since my undergrad Microeconomics course was so badly delivered, my knowledge on economics is rusty. So it would be pertinent for me to attend this week-long review class. Besides, I heard that there'll be unofficial happy hours at Sloan next week.

8/19/2005 9:26:28 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [3]

School

Since Dinesh, a recent SDM graduate, was throwing out a bunch of stuff as he prepared to move out of Sidney-Pacific dormitory, I eased his burden by collecting a handful of his swags. I am planning to, once again, sell my excess personal inventory at the MIT Swapfest this coming Sunday. I shouldn't have any problem selling Dinesh's items along with my stuff as I suspect that there will be plenty of incoming and returning students at the swapfest.

On other news, Pat Hale, our program director, was pleased that a handful of students showed up at Wednesday's SDM info session to meet with prospective students. He said that prospective students appreciate a different perspective to the program from current students. Conversely, I also learn something from prospective students about their profession, motivation, and career objectives. It was insightful.

8/19/2005 3:20:20 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [1]

Personal

I have just written a paper titled "Analyzing Link-Level Acknowledgements Using Extensible Information" with 4 other distinguished experts in the field of Network Communication. You can download the full paper here.

...

If you think I wrote that paper, think again. Some MIT students from CSAIL wrote a web application called SCIgen that randomly generates Computer Science/Engineering technical papers. And in the grand tradition of MIT hacks, the writers of SCIgen tested out their program last spring by generating a random paper and submitted it to WWSCI 2005 conference.

"Three Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate students attracted a flurry of media attention in April after a questionable academic conference accepted their randomly-generated, nonsensical paper. Now the students are stars of a lighthearted video they made when they went to the conference even though their invitations had been withdrawn."

Check out their home-brewed video here.

8/18/2005 11:39:22 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [2]

Humor

My powerbook has been crashing the past few weeks. We are talking about hard (kernel-level) system hang-ups here. For weeks, I tolerated the inconveniences associated with system crash and rebooted my machine every time without complaints. But when my mac crashed over 20 times over the course of last weekend, that's when I told myself "enough is enough."

I really like the way Apple set up their Apple Stores. A typically Apple Store personifies the Apple culture right on the mark. Its uber coolness and hipness appeal to both the young and the old (like me). The staff are friendly, passionate, and knowledgeable on their products that they sell. I have grilled the store staff with several hard computer-related questions before and they have responded well to my questions. But far from being satisfied because of my powerbook problem, I brought my mac to the Apple Store in CambridgeSide Galleria last night for a technician (or what Apple call an Mac Genius) to look at it. As I described my problem to Mr. Mac Genius at the store, it suddenly dawned on me that I had added a new variable call extra RAM into system a few weeks ago. Innocently enough, the 512MB DIMM module fits right into the powerbook and it is even recognized by the system; however, but I was starting to suspect that the DIMM is the cause of my problem as the problem started surfacing after I had installed the RAM module. For this reason, I told Mr. Mac Genius that I am going to revert my machine back to the original factory memory configuration to test my hypothesis, thereby possibly avoiding my powerbook from being sent back to Apple for service. So far, my powerbook has not crashed since the reversion.

Unfortunately, we found another problem during my visit to the Apple Store. Apparently, the base of my powerbook is slight warped and not laying flat onto the table surface, consequently causing the powerbook to wobble when I type. Mr. Mac Genius told me that I should send the powerbook back to Apple for service. There is actual a good chance that I may actually end up with a brand new powerbook as replacement for this flaw. Hmmm... That's quite an appealing suggestion.

8/17/2005 11:04:56 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [0]

Mac

Yesterday was great day for me. First, I declared summer semester officially over after turning in my final paper for Fabrication Technology. What a relief. I can finally start to enjoy my summer. But the day got even better. Other than the great news from TPP, I got a few of surprises in my mail as well. I was happy to receive a rebate from Apple for their Student Union promotion within 2 weeks of mailing my rebate application to them. The big surprise, however, was my receipt of a refund from Comcast. They said that I double paid for my July bill and they are refunding me the surplus. Sweet!

8/17/2005 12:11:43 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Personal

Other than the heavy school load and apartment moving, another high stress that I experienced this past summer was my admission application for Technology and Policy Program (or TPP). Since TPP doesn't accept GMAT but GRE scores as part of their admission application, I had to take the GRE 1 1/2 months ago. The stress and efforts spent in the TPP admission process finally paid off today. It is now official, I was notified earlier today that I have been accepted to the TPP program. In other words, I will be pursuing 2 degrees simultaneously at MIT.

So what made me decide to suddenly take a policy track in my academic pursuit? I think it was my self-affirming experience in last year's tsunami disaster that made me contemplate on how responsible and pragmatic engineering can help to solve issues and problems confronting the human society. I grew up asking big questions, so naturally I want to broaden my academic interests to include economics and policy. Specifically, I am interested in assessing opportunities, hazards, and benefits of nanotechnology in society and politics. With this in mind, I need to start searching for research opportunities and a thesis advisor in this area. Also, with this new development, I won't be graduating in June 2006 as originally planned, but by January 2007. For once, I would just like to take my time to finish up my classes and be more engaged with the student and research community at MIT. I am glad; my academic plan at MIT is finally taking hold.

8/16/2005 11:36:45 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [2]

School

I was supposed to run the Witch City Triathlon 2 weeks ago. But due to the excessive school load I couldn't find time to train and eventually gave up on running the triathlon. Today, I received a surprise refund check from Fiske Independent Race Management or F.I.R.M, the organizer of the event. Kudos to the organizer for the cash.

On a different note, the evening run today was great. With my chest pain gone, my strides were strong and my posture confident and relaxed. The temperature was nice too. Overall, it was a good run. I just have one more thing I need to do today: to complete my final paper for Fabrication Technology. So let's get it over with...

8/15/2005 8:32:32 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [2]

Sports

For people who have read the excellent book The Whale and the Reactor, are immediately familiar to Langdon Winner's thesis on how technology are often design, built, and then deployed in society with little concern for sustainability, humane regard, and conservation. Being a fan of the book, I was especially excited when I found Langdon Winner's blog on the Internet earlier today.

8/15/2005 5:30:25 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [2]

Blog

For dinner last night, Brian R. and I went to Sushi Express, which is known for its inexpensive sushi offerings. The sushi was so-so. It was not fresh enough to satisfy the picky taste of mine. But knowing that bad sushi is after all compelling food, the dinner was still better than the regular food that I eat. While checking Citysearch for their review on the Sushi Express, I saw that the restaurant scored a 9.0 on the review. I am curious what other factors beside taste were used to judge a restaurant in their resturant review? I just don't see Sushi Express scoring an almost perfect score on any restaurant review. Not that I have anything against Sushi Express but it is hard to believe that Sushi Express is in same league as Fugakyu and Ginza, 2 fantastic Japanese resturants in Brookline but scored only a 9.1 on Citysearch. Another problem I seem to have with the rating system with Citysearch restaurant reviews is that the scores tend to be inflated. When I rate restaurants, I do consider other factors such as atmosphere and price, but with a strong skewing towards food taste - the pertinent criterion. If I am doing the judging, Sushi Express scores a 6.0 from me. But to be fair, sushi, more than any other food, is highly dependent on the quality of its ingredients. It may be hard to serve good sushi with the kind of pricing that Sushi Express is offering. So I would still recommend that place for sushi but only if you are on a shoestring budget.

8/14/2005 12:49:25 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [2]

Food

Last night was an interesting night. I met up with Dinesh, a SDM 04 student, at Tavern in the Square to talk about MIT, SDM, TPP, and life after MIT. After dinner, I went home to catch up on the research required for my Fabrication Technology paper while watching my favorite Sci-Fi TV program, Stargate SG-1 (yep, it was productive night). I took a quick break at 11pm to meet up with Dave, Christian, Matt, Brittany, and Dave's friends who are visiting Boston at Grafton Street.

Earlier this morning, I stopped by at the SDM office to pick up the graded final paper for our Supply Chain/Operations class from my mail folder. Yahoo! our team got a perfect 100 for the paper. Next, I spent the entire afternoon unpacking (I finally found time to unpack the remaining stuff at my new apartment). Later in the afternoon, I played tennis with Fanny. It was good to hit the ball after 2 months of inactibity. Believe it not, I was actually hitting much better today than I did 2 months ago. Too bad Fanny will be returning to Amsterdam in 6 weeks. I will sure miss playing tennis with her. It was a scorcher out there. I was drained not from working out but the heat and humidity after an hour of tennis.

8/13/2005 11:23:19 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [0]

Personal

I believe that I am the one person left in my SDM cohort who is not done with school just yet. I had decided to take 3.371 - Fabrication Technology, a class that's not normally taken by SDM students, at the beginning of the semester. Yeah, Fabrication Technology is one of my classes that I have elected to take as part of my grand career plan of picking up an additional speciality while studying at MIT. I only have a final paper on a topic of my choice due next Tuesday. I did a partial research on the topic yesterday and it seems like I have enough material to write about a 10-page paper on polyimide and electronic packaging. Unfortunately, with most of my other classes complete, my motivation has really waned the past few days. I better get this paper done soon before I have zero motivation.

8/13/2005 8:15:27 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [0]

School

My classmate, Yoav, had written two insightful articles about his experience in consulting. The articles can be found here and here. I was struck by his comment on whether to specialize in a specific field or to seek for inter-disciplinary competence. Interestingly enough, I have heard arguments on specializing versus generalizing from my numerous conversations with classmates and friends. Overall, many people have advocated a specialist approach but with experience working different industrial context. In other words, if you are an IT person, understand about a few area - manufacturing, aerospace, public sector, etc - where your IT skills can be applied. I am in a juncture in my life where I am contemplating about changing career and even industry. I have a general direction on where I am going but I don't have the specifics yet. But that's the beauty of being in graduate school; I get to ponder and experiment what exactly I want to do by actively engaging in electives, career opportunities, activities, and the school student community.

8/12/2005 8:59:03 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [2]

Personal

Prof. Thomas Eagar said the following during one of his lectures in Fabrication Technology: "Always keep things simple, that's why complex system doesn't work." Aha... He was alluding to the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) concept. People familiar with software programming are immediately familiar with the KISS expression. Programmers are constantly reminded that implementing less code is more. In terms of generic designing, the simplicity philosophy brings consistency and durability to a design. Some of the most elegant designs are simple, take Apple's iPod as an example. But the mention of simplicity sparked my curiosity in how KISS is discussed in my System Engineering class. With all our big discussions on system/product designs and methodologies in my System Engineering class, why hasn't KISS been explicitly mentioned in class? But a closer examination reveals that the KISS concept is indeed well entrenched albeit implicit in the tools and frameworks that we learned from System Engineering. For example, Quality Function Deployment (QFD) advocates the design of a set of specifications that meets customer expectations by actively listening to the voice of the customer. So not implementing a product with extra features that customers don't want adheres to the philosophy of less is more or KISS. In Lean Thinking, the advocacy of simplicity is more obvious, although Lean practitioners would call it value driven and waste reduction. In the terms of applying a sound design framework, a designer simply can't go wrong with a simple design guideline like KISS.

8/11/2005 11:57:37 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [4]

School

My blog has fallen victim to blog spam or link spam the past week. Luckily the spam affected mostly earlier blog postings. Since I am responsible for the maintenance of the blog application on my website, I needed to install a spam filter software on my website to prevent further spam. Thankfully, all I have to do is to turn the anti-spamming feature on and update the software with the latest spam filter list from MT-blacklist.

8/11/2005 9:37:53 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [2]

Blog

Yesterday, I had the most stressful day of the year. There weren't anything yesterday that were causing the stress but the cumulative excessive amount of work (school, work, and personal) has finally taken its toll on me. Plus, having future uncertainties, like the sale of my condo, career, finances, only exacerbate the stress. Usually, my high energy level would help in negating the effects of stress and sustain me for a while. But lately, with my energy level dipping to a 3-year low, I am simply burnt out psychologically, mentally, and physically. I am also losing my intellectual and mental sharpness because of stress.

I would usually feel great for the rest of the day after a run in the morning. Not yesterday. Yesterday's morning run with Brian was the worst ever. I hardly stop to walk during a run; but, I started walking halfway through the run after feeling a severe pain in my chest. After the run, I felt exhausted and lethargic for the rest of the day. I am overwhelmed with so may things to do that I have been having 5 hours of sleep (including weekends) on average and jumping rushing from one activity to another, often without rest in between. I start to question the value of doing too much in too little time. I am slowly realizing that "biting more than I can chew" is not a good strategy for my well being. I must, therefore, learn to relax a little and not to get burned out again.

8/10/2005 6:28:15 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [2]

Personal

Living in Boston, I always perceive the Big Dig as the epitome of government waste. But the upcoming Gravina Bridge project, with its $315 million government budget, is staled to overtake the Big Dig in terms of wasteful spending of taxpayers' money. Check it out from various sources:

1. Taxpayer.net
2. Yahoo! News
3. South Alaska Conservation Council
4. Alaska Wilderness League

8/10/2005 1:48:48 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [2]

Politics

It has now become a tradition within my network of friends that Penang is the indispensable choice for group dinner whenever Brian is visiting Boston. So the choice of having last night's dinner at Penang was obvious as Brian is in town for the canoe trip. The turnout was decent: Eimear, Milt, Jonathan, Brian, and my sister Alisa showed up. After dinner, we went for some drinks at the People's Republik, one of my favorite bars in Cambridge for its laid-back, friendly, and unpretentious atmosphere. I am glad that I was finally able visit the People's and to have a few pints of Magic Hat, which is always on tap and served fresh, for the first time since moving to an apartment across from the bar. So Ilana may have her Warren Tavern, I got my People's.

8/9/2005 4:22:14 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [1]

Social

Accounting is finally over. For our accounting final, the professor had us download Johnson & Johnson's 10k statements the day prior to the exam and use it as a source of reference for all our financial analyses in the test. Yesterday's accounting final wasn't as hard as I had expected as I nailed several questions right on. However, my lack of good time management and familiarity with the Johnson & Johnson's 10k financial statements cost me dearly as I was unable to answer at least 2 questions on the final. In hindsight, I should have just skipped the morning Supply Chain/Operations class to examine the 10k papers meticulously to better prepare for the final, especially coming out from a weekend of heavy partying.

8/9/2005 4:18:30 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [1]

School

As some of you may have known, I am a huge fan of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. But the show isn't the same now that they have the new desk with boring desk chairs on the set. In fact, the quality of the show has deteriorated slightly ever since the couch was taken off from the set. The old couch really needs more representation from its fans. So join me in a campaign to bring the couch back to the Daily Show.

8/8/2005 11:43:08 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [2]

Personal

What an eventful weekend it has been. I finally started my summer this weekend by going on a canoeing trip with my buddies to Saco River, Maine. Our presence at Saco River this weekend coincides with the first weekend of August - the busiest weekend for canoeing and a time known for excessive partying on and along Saco River. Nonetheless, we all had an awesome time canoeing, camping, and drinking. It was especially fun tying the canoes together and drifting them down the river while we drank and engaged in water shoots with other canoeists in the area. Of course, nothing beats sitting around the campfire in a cool summer night till the wee hours looking at the fire and enjoying one another's company. Overall, a great trip. Eimear, thank you for organizing this (again). Unfortunately, I have to keep this blog entry short as I need to get my bearing together to start studying for my accounting final tomorrow.

8/7/2005 10:38:00 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [0]

Social

I went to yet another LFM/SDM social event at the Cambridge candle pin bowling alley where I met more cool LFM students like Brian and Jackie. I played a round of candle pin bowling with Dinesh, Shiv, Evans, and Evan's significant other. The turnout was decent but nonetheless fun. Big thanks to Uday for organizing it.

After bowling, Ilana expressed interest in going to the post party that I have been advertising on the SDM email circulation. The party is 1 of the 2 parties that Paul throws every year, one in the summer and the other during the week before X'mas. His party is always cool and fun. However, it is Paul's summer party that is definitely the party to attend. There's plenty of company and it features a series live music performances at the backyard by his musician housemates and friends. They even provided a few kegs of beet for all their guests. I drove Ilana from the bowling alley to Paul's party and started drinking at 8:30pm, just when the band was starting to play. Only Dave and Matti from the SDM cohort showed up later at the party. The usual suspects from my non-SDM friends like Denise, Angela, Eimear, Camille, Blanche, Ketan, Jesse, Squibby, Milt, Joe, etc showed up at the party. It was great catching up with them as I have not had the chance to socialize with them because of my busy summer schedule. Also, since I have not hung out with sister since childhood, it was a little weird to see my sister getting hit on by guys at the party. I seriously have no idea how to react to that. Nonetheless, the company was great and I had a really good time. Thanks Paul.

I am actually quite drunk right now and need to wake up by 7:30am tomorrow to go canoeing with some of the people at the party. I don't even know if I have even written a coherent blog entry. Neverminid, I need to get some shut-eyes now. So good night...

8/6/2005 1:49:09 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Social

I have just learned from Ilana's blog that one of my favorite bars in Boston, the Littlest Bar, is wrapping up its business by December to make way for condominium development. I have many fond memories at the Littlest. After all, this is the bar where I met Liam, Siobhan, and most of my Irish friends, many who still remain as my good friends. Liam once said that the Littlest is one of the most authentic Irish bar in Boston while Siobhan celebrated her 21st birthday - a day of legalized drinking in America - at the Littlest. Aptly named, the Littlest is indeed Boston's littlest bar. Imagine putting about 35 people into an area of a 150 sq ft. In spite of the confined space, they still manage to get a band of Irish folk musicians to play at a corner, a bartender to serve a pint of good guinness, and a bouncer to stay guard at the door. Their space management is impeccable. But all this doesn't matter anymore, the bar will be gone by December. It's really sad to see this landmark go. Damn you condo developer...

8/5/2005 2:58:05 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Rants

This guy is unbelievable. Ultra-marathoner Jim Dreyer com endured the chilly currents of Lake Superior to complete a 54 mile swim across Lake Superior yesterday. You should check out his website. He is perhaps the first to swim across all five of the Great Lakes. From his website, you find that his greatest accomplishment is swimming 350 miles across the length of Lake Michigan in 30 days. Wow...

8/5/2005 1:26:15 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Sports

Robbie Allen, a fellow classmate of mine, had posted links to 2 wonderful essays written by Paul Graham's on entrepreneurship a few weeks. Graham has once again intrigued us with a new thought-provoking essay about Open Source. The essay covers not about Open Source products like Firefox or Linux but highlights why the underlying processes and the people in Open Source are often more successful and less costly than those in some professional environments. This essay isn't about IT or computer programming, it actually has a lot of relevance in building successful creative, innovative enterprises by applying some of the observations and best practices in the Open Source environment. I find the following paragraph in the essay most very relevant to my career path that I currently taking:

Hackers tend to think business is for MBAs. But business administration is not what you're doing in a startup. What you're doing is business creation. And the first phase of that is mostly product creation-- that is, hacking. That's the hard part. It's a lot harder to create something people love than to take something people love and figure out how to make money from it.

8/4/2005 11:13:13 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Business

As a followup to my previous post on Apple's Might Mouse, here's an in-depth review by Ars Technica. My argument still stands, multiple-button mouse stays and to hell with the old argument about appealing the 1-button mouse to new users. Who hasn't use a 2-button mouse before? More choices is better than no choice. So Apple, if you reading this blog, ship the Mighty Mouse with all new macs.

8/3/2005 1:46:21 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Mac

For years, I have complained that Mac is way behind in a world of multi-button mouse usage. I have never seen a multi-button mouse product from Apple or a double-button trackpad in Apple's line of powerbooks/ibooks. On MacOSX, the right mouse button click has traditionally been emulated with a button click on the mouse while holding the CTRL key on the keyboard. On the trackpad, this translates to an awkward twisting and bending of fingers in trying to hold 3 buttons/keys with one hand; what a friggin' pain that is. Computers have become so ubiquitous in today's world that grandma can now survive with a double button mouse. So give us a double button mouse/trackpad!!!

Well, I finally got my wish with Apple's release of their first 2-button mouse called the Mighty Mouse today. That's music to my ears. I hope that the next line of powerbooks will spot a familar technology for the trackpad.

8/3/2005 1:13:37 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Mac

Today, we have Josiah Collens from MITRE as guest lecturer in our System Engineering class. He spoke about TBMCS one of the 2 case studies we need to do for our final project for this class. I said in a blog entry last week that I was going to work on the other case study, the Jet Engine optimization case analysis. But after listening to today's talk, I am now inclined to work on the TBMCS case as it relates closer to my professional background. Yeah, I know my wishy-washy self is surfacing again, but I'll take whatever that appeals to me.

8/2/2005 1:03:02 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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School

I am planning to not only give my website a new look but to migrate the website to a Linux platform in the next few weeks. Now that I am primarily a mac user, it doesn't make sense for me to continue using .NET on my website. I am particularly looking for a web host that offers MySQL, PHP, and MovableType in their hosting plan. Any advice from anyone from cyberspace?

8/2/2005 1:38:56 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Blog

Today's FAMA class was unusually boring. Worse, I was feeling sleepy from last night's burning of the midnight oil on the Supply Chain/Operations case study. As a remedy to my drowsy problem, I usually distract myself from the class by surfing the web. But today, I didn't end up bidding on Ebay or playing on-line poker. Instead, I had quite a productive time finishing up our final System Engineering reading quiz during lecture. Indeed, time well spent listening to lecture and finishing homework.

8/1/2005 7:16:40 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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School

I went back to my old place to clear the weeds that have been growing at the front of my condo so that the front will look nice for the coming open house. Before long, my old neighbor came by to where I was weeding and started instructing where I should weed. She then made a remark that her perennial plant that was growing at that spot in the garden is now gone and that someone must have stolen it. She then alluded that other neightbors may have come and stole the plant. I always avoid communicating with my old neighbor as much as possible but I felt compelled to come back with a strong and logical rebuttal to her statement. And I said: "Why would someone come and steal your plant that is firmly planted on the ground?" She tried to refute my response, but each time I gave that logical, unwavering, and stern sounding rebuttal: "Why would someone come and steal your plant that is firmly planted on the ground?" She finally gave up and went back to her house. At last, some peace and quiet. In the back of my mind, somehow I am not surprised if I was once an unsuspected victim of such pejorative remark.

8/1/2005 7:06:04 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Rants