Jan celebration

OK, Jan session is officially over (well, a few homework still left to be done). We went to John Harvard brew house near Harvard square. It turned to be pretty good. Almost everybody showed up and a few SDM07 folks. It's sad that the distance learning folks are leaving town though. Well, they will be famous though (since they'll be on TV:)).

The SDM Dinner 2 weeks ago

Not sure if I wrote this down or not. About 2 weeks ago, we finally had a SDM dinner with a whole bunch alumni and 07 guys. I should write this down since this is sort of first SDM dinner with alums and 07 people. I didn't write this down because I didn't have this blog yet;). We had huge number of people showed up (+30) and Beacon Street Tarven was totally understaffed (for us at least). It's hard to collect the names now. Quite a few 08 and 07 people. Yoav was there. I finally got a chance to meet him. I read his blog intensively when I was deciding whether to take this program.

Yes, January is almost over

Ok, the suffer is almost over. Tomorrow is last day on the calendar for Jan session (with some leadership soft class;)).

Something good happened to me. Well, not that I met an angel or something;). It's the System Arch class today. After today's System Arch's class, the SDM program started to make some sense to me. Pref. Crawley explained in some quite detail about how SDM was designed, or in his word, architected. Quite interesting. Thanks, Mr. Crawley!

btw: I still don't quite agree with some core courses (supply chain, for example).

Looking back, DC1 and DC2 are totally ... and they didn't ...(hehe, really don't steal the spoil for any future SDMer;)). With that being said, I still have to say there is no way to prepare anyone ready for the boot-camp. Well, most of them are peer pressure and competition nature of DC1 and DC2. Anyhow, I think it's time well ..... spent. Please don't let it happen again;).


Since yesterday, I have been scambling to find what books are needed for spring. I will post after I have the whole list.

DC2 is...

Finally, DC2 is done. The importance of DC2 is waiting to be seen though(only weighs 3.75% in the total system arch score). Oh, well, we had fun though. Honestly, I wasn't a believer at first. We only got TWO weeks to come up the solution for global warming or nutrition problem. After today's presentations, I actually felt some solutions (especially team 1's;)) might actually work if implemented. How long it will take is totally another question though:).

In other news, we had a kiss-good-bye beer event at the Characters. It turned to be nice. I finally got a chance to talk quite a few people, Paul, Kandarp, SY, Ken and Dennman, about their plans after January and after SDM. Well, maybe I talked these topic with them before, but one can have short memory, especially if he only sleeps 3 hours.

It's kind of sad though, since almost half of SDM08 cohort will have to leave and do their remote thing. Oh well, at least we can laugh at them picking their nose while video conferencing;).

Three more homeworks need to be finished this weekend. What kind of life we got!

DC2, tech research and the beer event...

I went to sleep at around 4am this morning. The reason was that, as part of System Architecture class's tech research topic, I did a lot of reading on the Semantic Web group from MIT's CSAIL SIG group. I am really interested in their stuff because I did a lot of web stuff in the past. I sent a few emails to a research scientist and a past graduate student Harvey Jones there. It was very kind of Harvey to respond so quickly. I then shamelessly asked a few questions:). I think those can be very useful for the tech research paper.

In other news, DC2 is near (just one more day left) and we haven't 100% agreed on the skinny problem yet. Oh, well, tomorrow will be a very productive day (I mean, hopefully).

For no particular reason (again;-o), SDM organized a pizza dinner event at the Thirsty Ear. It turned out to be nice though. I had a few beers and chatted to Chad about his plan to become an Admiral. With the peace time and the brand name of MIT, I certainly think these navy folks have a lot of potential. I ended up having a long talk with Amy's husband, Brian, an LFM07 student. We talked about the rise of China's manufacturing sector and how we should take advantage of it. Apparently, LFM07 is doing a tour to China. Beijing, Xi'an, Shanghai and ShengZheng. It would be very interesting to see how it will turn out.

Business Plan and tech research development

I did quite a bit of work with the business plan development in Dewey. The Business Plans Handbook is really handy. I am in charge of the financial section for the GROFP program of our PFF org. I believe I am almost done with that.

Another interesting development today is the tech research paper. I know my interests is in the software areas (or anything that can make $$ quick;)). I discovered MediaLab site (medialab.mit.edu) and Rob sent me the link for casil (http://www.csail.mit.edu/research/activities/activities.php). After some brief reading, I am quite interested in the Software Design group from casil and the software agent thing from MediaLab. I will have to spend quite a bit more time with them. Also, Jeremy mentioned that he may want to join the tech research group me and Rob formed. It would be interesting to see some OS level and version control aspect to our group.

oh, I also like the fact that the homeless guy is wondering around in Hayden. I really don't mind this guy (he's quiet) except the smell.

drinks last night

A bunch of us headed to the Muddy last night for no particular reason;). Oh, let's just say a little celebration that stats class was FINALLY over. Good times. I had quite bit of talks with the navy folks, Matt, Doug and Chad. I had some major dispute with Amy over the so-called beer-pong. Such a lame college sport. I wouldn't mind playing it though;). As usual, Jorge and Antonio were there.

I headed home a little after midnight, crashed straight into bed after got home and woke up at 4am due to major stomach pain (aka hungry). Then I realized that we only had beer for dinner. What a night.

we are getting a hang with DC2...

I think we are making some good progress with DC2. We got the business plan going and we split up the tasks.

From the talks I got, people are starting to loosing up a bit. We are looking at this way: Jan portion of system arch only counts 25% of total grades. DC1 only counts 5% of the 25%=1.25%. DC2=15%*25%=3.75%. We almost killed ourselves during the last night of DC1. Is it really worth killing ourselves for the 3.75%? Hehe, Not sure if this is good though;).

I am also thinking of doing the TPP program Arun suggested. Well, it would be really interesting to me if I can get a a discount for doing SDM and TPP at the same time;).


I also did some brief reading on the 15.665. Really interesting course with a little game theory. I found a little course notes from Jia Lou (Thanks a bunch;)): http://web.mit.edu/jlou/Public/15.665/. Some skills I need to develop.

Let's start blogging...

Finally, I did it. I created this blog to document my journey here at the MIT SDM program. Oh, half of the January bootcamp session is over. Oh, darn, still 10+ sleepless nights to go. So many things needs to be done: Tech research paper, System arch homework, paper for human side, DC2, stats, resume... What can I say? January session is ABSOLUTELY CRAZY!

btw:
A few useful items I created here:
MIT school calendar on google:
My spring term courses on google:

later,
Ben