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

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

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

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

Comments [1]

Business

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

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

Comments [2]

Personal

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

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

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

Comments [6]

Politics

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

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

Comments [1]

Business

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

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

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

Comments [2]

School

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

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

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

Comments [6]

Personal

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

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

Comments [5]

Mac

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

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

Comments [2]

Food

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

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

Comments [3]

Social

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

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

Comments [1]

Mac

I heard this on the radio earlier today: always sprinkle grated cheese before adding sauce to the pasta. This tip makes perfect sense, the warmth from both the pasta and sauce melts the grated cheese, and consequently blends it into the sauce more effectively.

11/9/2005 6:11:17 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [4]

Food

I have been listening the following music albums, which I acquired last week:

1. American Idiot by Green Day
   I have never given a 5-star rating (like that in iTunes and iPod) to every song in an album until I listened to this album. Yes, it is that good and deservingly so - after all it did win the Grammy Award for the Best Rock Album in 2005. In this album, Green Day has demonstrated significant music refinement and maturity while still maintaining the raw style that we hear in Dookie. But what I really like about this album is Green Day's forays into rock operas in grand punk style with a thoughtful theme on today's social woes in America. Wikipedia has a great article on the interpretation of the album's story. This is a great rock album, I highly recommend it.
2. Demon Days by Gorillaz
   Ever since I heard that iPod commercial featuring the song Feel Good Inc. by Gorillaz, I have been wanting to get my hands on the actual music CD. I am not disappointed with this CD.
3. Franz Ferdinand by Franz Ferdinand
   The first time I heard of Franz Ferdinand was from the Sony PSP commercial that featured the band's signature rock anthem, Take me Out. I won't call the music album groundbreaking; but being a sucker for post-punk revival music, I consider this album a must-have in my iPod.
4. Live at Stubb's by Matisyahu
   This album features a rabbi look alike singing Reggae - an odd combination but Matisyahu is quite an accomplished Reggae artist. I find this album refreshing since I don't get to hear a lot new Reggae materials these days. The song "King without a Crown" is a masterpiece.
5. Bridging the Gap by the Black Eyed Peas
   I have only listen to this album once so far but I like what I am hearing.
6. X&Y by Coldplay
   My least favorite Coldplay album. It is not that is bad but the earlier Coldplay albums are a lot better.

11/8/2005 12:26:10 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [1]

Music

Wow... women really like men who dress well. Case in point... I went out with a group of friends, which included a significant number of women, last friday to the Burren at Davis Square for a few pints. That night, I was wearing a tan suede leather blazer/jacket with a green t-shirt - a polished look of tan leather paired with an apathetic green t-shirt. The women were raving about how nice I dressed that night. The comments from them were very positive and, I have to admit, ego-boosting as well. The truth is that I bought the leather blazer from the Garment District for $5 and probably after friday a great investment. But I will definitely keep this in mind: always dress to look your best.

11/7/2005 5:14:03 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [1]

Social

What happen when you get Western celebrities to appear in Japanese commercials? It is often hilarious because they are often acting foolish. Sometimes, they seem so out of place that the commercials look simply weird. I have just found this website that is dedicated to Western celebrities moonlighting in Japanese commercials. Perhaps it is of no surprise that one of the funniest commercial that I have seen is one by Arnold Schwarzenegger. You will get a got chuckle from these 2 video clips:

1. Schwarzenegger on energy drink, Booye 1
2. Schwarzenegger on energy drink, Booye 2 (even funnier)

Let me know if there's any other noteworthy clips that worth laughing at.

11/4/2005 11:48:51 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [4]

Humor

To prep up MIT students who are interested in participating the upcoming business plan competitions at MIT - the $1k competition in the fall and the $50k competition in the spring - the $50k organizing team arranged for a class on business executive summary writing earlier tonight. Our guest speaker was Ian Carver from Price Waterhouse Coopers who has significant experience in advising startups. Without going into too much details, Carver said that the following are the things that every VC is looking:

1. Addressable Target Market
2. Market Validation
3. Competition
4. Revenue Model
5. Management Team
6. Go to Market Strategy
7. Funding Requirements

11/3/2005 9:25:29 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [0]

Entrepreneurship

Yesterday, we had Prof. Don Lessard as guest speaker in our System Project Management (SPM) class. He spoke about managing risks in projects at all levels, from 1-person to large-scale enterprise-level. He mentioned the following story to illustrate a point in his lecture:

Two guys are out in the woods hiking. Suddenly, a bear started chasing them. The first guy took his pair of sneakers out of his backpack and started putting them on. The second guy asked: "What are you doing? You can't outrun a bear." The first guy, at this point, said, "I don't have to outrun the bear. I only have to outrun you."

Prof. Lessard said that the point he was trying to make with his story is this: In a competitive business context, you just have to "outrun" the other competitor. To do so, we have to create value, but value brings risk. Don't try to minimize risk because you won't get any value from it. Instead learn to manage risk. I like that advice.

11/2/2005 9:58:43 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [1]

Business