How/Why Microsoft lost ground for Tablet PC?

A real email from my professor to address a midterm paper thing but has some interesting points of Microsoft:

.........................

We have here an extended enterprise lesson in real time.

The reason for all this is the Microsoft monopoly. By trying to force the world to upgrade to RAM hog Vista, the following 'ant farm' things have happened:

1. Big users are rebelling against the massive hidden investment in RAM and CPU's required for buggy Vista. How - by buying up all the 'old' XP PC's on the market.

2. Some large PC companies have told MS they will continue shipping old XP.

3. Some manufacterers have even started putting Linux on their PC's for free - to provide an alternative to the monopoly.

4. The market that needs Tablet PCs has discovered that Vista stinks for that application, not just because of the RAM hog issue, but because it breaks apart the linkages among Tablet I/O screen, XP for Tablet, MS Office in Tablet, and One Note. It tears apart the de facto standards that users needed - even though all of them were inside the Win-Tel monopoly fence.

5. This is why the XP Tablets are selling out on eBay - as I mentioned in class - and why they are also sold out (but on order) and at most of the resellers, and even at the manufacturers international sites. (Vista Tablets will not run things well, and also require buying about $300 of software, under most circumstances.)

6. Further, if anyone is using Office 2007, I have discovered through experiments this weekend, that they will not easily port over into the 'electronic ink' applications that power Tablet PCs and graphics pen-tablets (like Wacom)

7. And even when I managed to create work-arounds for some of these Vista-disabled applications, they will not PRINT with current print drivers.


Several EEM take aways:

- Notice how complex networked solutions really are.

- Notice how toxic to innovation are monopolies like those held by MS, traditional telephone companies, CATV, etc.

- Even if MS wanted to solve these problems (which it clearly does not - because it has made most of its money by forcing a huge change in social infrastructure with each 'upgrade') - it can't possibly forecast and anticipate all the possible bugs buried in the millions of lines of Windows code, as that code tries to work with literally trillions of user 'transactions' or 'service events'.

- That's what gives Google the entry point.

- That's why Linux and other OS's are still gaining ground in 'less developed' markets.

- That's why MS is not in the world's wirless phone systems.

And that's why you, a new earth-conscious generation of humans, must kill trees if you want me to comment inside your documents.

I tried.

I really was going to invest $1400 on your behalf.

But - my conscience will not let me invest that $1400 in a Windows machine, plus $300 for more MS software, and then all the hassle of integration - just to feed the monopoly.

Best,

XXX
.........

Technorati Tags     blog,microsoft,babson,EEM,marty,tablet

Meeting experience with VC

Had an one-hour meeting with a partner of a local VC for a mixed pitch/discussion meeting. Very helpful. Would like to share but it's already 0:36am here so will follow up tomorrow. G'night!

Technorati Tags     blog,vc

TripAdvisor acquisition story

First of all, recommend a great news website for the travel and lodging industry: Hotel Marketing

I just found a interesting post at Hotel marketing about TripAdvisor acquired 5 small travel community/content website in a roll this May.

I did a quick check of those 5 sites and following are their Alexa status (I know, I know, Alexa isn't trustworth but better than nothing)

IndependentTraveler.com,114,470
travel-library.com, 14,624
BookingBuddy.com, 13,581
SmarterTravel.com, 18,712

seatguru.com, 27,078
Travel Blogs:
travelpod.com, 21,957

All those websites operates in a biz model like this: some UGC + some Other's content + Ticket/hotel search (revenue source)

My quick conclusion:

1. Content is king for online travel and people trust UGC
2. It's very scattered. So TripAdvisor is trying to consolidate to be the No.1


Technorati Tags     travel,acquisition,tripadvisor

Skype experience

I had been an active user of Skype for a long time since moved to US. No such a cheap phone card like in Canada here at Boston. Most of my call is with J at Thailand as an one-to-one calling. Then start doing conference call when M getting introduced. Overall SKype deliveries what it promised and I am an active paid user of almost all skype's premium service such as SkypeIn number, voicemail, $25 for all North America call etc.

Then suddently started talking about SKype after home.

1. K brought the news that eBay just changed (*fired*) the CEO/co-founder of Skype to Chairman due to its poor finance performance. I always wonder why eBay bought Skype in the very beginning. Same doubt for eBay's acquisition of StumbleUpon. No synergy IMHO. Best acquisition target should be the one can adding more auctionable items to eBay such as my lunch time etc.

2. Then our EEM study group tried to do a Skype conference call with 6 people. Turned out to be quite a challenge. We end up with group chat via Skype rather than group talking. Or should we try the free conference call service at all. The service gives you a free 800 number to call in. (So disappointed with Scribd.com for the 1st time that I cannot upload/convert the syllabus file of Extended Enterprise Management so I am with www.box.net this time)


Tomo has no class. Then it means I will be busier...

Technorati Tags     blog,skype,babson,EEM

Blog - Dream and life

From one of my most favorite online newspaper, the Chinese version of Financial Times, I found a recent series of interview of people, ranging from entrepreneurs  in mainland Chinese. one common thing among those people is they are all from villages. Here is one of the interview who is a successfl entrepreneur now. The thing impressed me the most is this entrepreneur's last comment: “我觉着，先有思路，后有出路，没有‘梦想’，如何‘成真’？” In English it says "I think, people should have an idea first then can figure out a way to do it. If you don't have a dream, how can you implement it?" It's so right, if you don't have a dream, how can implement it? So many people just take everything for granted without bothering to change it. It's their choice but it's never my life. That's a major reason I don't believe in any religion because that's a very easy way to find an excuse for people to accept things in their life. "God arrangs it!" I appreciate the fact many people who believes in religion are nice people but I am also confident that being a nice people doesn't need necessarily to believe in any religion.

For fun, the wife of one of the richest couple in China belives in a rare religion：Baha'i . But after I check the religion in Wikipedia, it sounds like an amazing one. The philosophy is much simplier and much more meaningful.

Technorati Tags     religion,chinese,china,dream,FT

Creditcard lost

While I was buying a gift for J's birthday yesterday, I had lost my two creditcard from bank RBC and BoA at Bentley College without knowing that untile I got a phone call from bank R today. Surprisingly, R's security system detected a unusual pattern of my creditcard and called to verify. I learned Bentley kids who got my card just had a good lunch at Boston Legal Seafood. Anyway, the call took about 5 minutes. Then I called bank B. This call only last 15 seconds. I am so surprised that I can finish these 2 calls since my cell is running out of power.

What I had learned is:

R's customer service is the best of the best. And seems their IT system is also very great. while it's unfair to compare with B since Bentley kids haven't use the B creditcard to buy/pay anything yet. This reminds me a tv show "Numb3r" I had seen in this July and an IT system is drawing all the spending activities of any individual at FBI headquarter so detectives can clearly identify if there is any outliner spot in the screen. Say, you live in Boston but there is a bill spent in Ohio.

And also seems US is used to hear the news about creditcard lost...

Customer service is always important. This quick response from R certainly further improved my confidence and willingness to do more business with them afterwards. And the poor customer service of those online businesses is yet another big obstacle for them to conquor the world. Actually, recent research from Forrester named poor customer service no.1 thing failed traveler's online shopping experience. For example, if I bought a ticket of Northwest airline from Expedia and I want to change the schedule later. Whom should I call?

I think this type of offline business could be a big factor to determine the fate of startup's effort to leap from early adopter to mainstream. Sometimes early adopter is so supportive for online startups that they even ignore the poor customer service but for mainstream consumers, it's key.   WIll there be a customer service outsourcing opportunity to serve massive offline business activities for startups like call center etc? Or will there be an advanced software solution to automatically do voice-recorgnation and give consumre the answer automatically?





Technorati Tags     service,visa,rbc,bankofamerica,boa,creditcard,forrester

Babson Elective Classes

Alright, sadly I didn't keep up my goal to post daily. The only excuse I could find is that schooooooooooooooooool finally started! Had 1 or 2 classes of those courses already and just 10 minutes ago I finished updating my selections. Dropped one since my gut feeling just doesn't feel there is a good fit. And surprisingly found one of the best class that I didn't pick up in the very beginning because the title is sorta boring suddently has one seat available. SO I grabbed the chance quickly so I have to drop a great "negotiation" class due to schedule conflicts... Anyway, here is what I have for the fall semester and official class description:

Entrepreneurial Finance

Instructor: Leslie Charm,

EPS7510 Entrepreneurial Finance formerly titled Financing the Entrepreneurial Venture Focuses on raising seed and growth capital from venture capital, business angels, investment banking, and commercial banking sources; and financial problems unique to the small- and medium-sized firm undergoing rapid growth. Examines actual proposals made to venture capital firms, particularly in terms of their financial viability. Course also examines financial management for entrepreneurs over the life of a business project. Includes financing start-ups, financial planning for the nonpublic smaller enterprise, going public, selling out, bankruptcy, sources of capital, and other related topics. Prerequisite: NONE This course is typically offered in the following semesters: Fall and Spring

 

 

Management Consulting
Instructor: Michael May

The objective of this course is to communicate the basic skills and functions of the management consulting industry and to make students aware of the key issues and factors driving the future of consulting. This will be accomplished by inculcating the perspective of the client and helping students consider some of the career and lifestyle issues inherent in a consulting career as well as to allow students to experience some aspects of consulting itself in the course. The course will be conducted using outside experienced consulting leaders and guest experts.

 

M&A for Entrepreneur
Instructor: Kevin Mulvaney

This course focuses on the strategies and process entrepreneurs and business leaders employ in various types of acquisitions or divestitures (leveraged buyouts, management buyouts, ESOPs, etc.). The course is centered around $10-500 Million revenue companies and its content is applicable for students pursuing either entrepreneurial opportunities or corporate positions where they may be called upon to acquire or divest a division or product line. We take a strategic view throughout the course discussing and evaluating all phases of the acquisition process: Acquisition planning and targeting Valuation alternatives Leveraged Buyouts ESOPs/Partnerships Financing buyouts Tax, legal and accounting issues Letters of Intent Due Diligence Negotiating an agreement International markets Lessons to be learned from failed acquisitions Managing the leveraged company Course Prerequisites: A basic knowledge of accounting and finance will be helpful in understanding valuation, income statements and balance sheet issues.

 

Extended Enterprise Management
Instructor:  Marty Anderson

 

Extended Enterprise Management Examines the design and management of complex supply chains and market demand systems in a global, rapid-response business environment. Major focus is understanding industries as large systems of many organizations that now depend on complex networked alliances. Will focus on how traditional strategies and operations are changing rapidly. Subjects include market drivers of the supply chain, role of logistics and distribution in the networked economy, information technologies that links markets to supply and demand chains. Will analyze wide variety of industries. A major objective of the course is to understand how to manage the shift from PUSH strategies to PULL strategies across the entire supply chain. Targeted at general managers. Also core to the consulting and other career paths, and is a strategic companion to OPS7572. Prerequisite: NONE

 

Marketing for High-Tech Product
Instructor:  Anirudh Dhebar

 

Marketing High-Technology Products Building on the students' knowledge of the marketing fundamentals, the course focuses on the special challenges of marketing high-technology products in dynamic contexts fraught with significant technological and market uncertainty. The course is structured around three modules: bringing new high-technology products to market, managing product maturity, and transitioning from one product generation to the next. While the focus of the course is "high technology" in the general sense, the reading materials - cases, notes, and articles - are drawn from the computer hardware and software, consumer electronics, telecommunications, and life-sciences industries. Prerequisite: MKT7000 or MBA8520 or completion of one-year or two-year modules This course is typically offered in the following semesters: Fall and Spring

 

The class I wish I could have but can't due to schedule conflicts is:

 

Negotiation

Instructor: Elaine Landry

 

Negotiations Explores formal and informal ways that managers negotiate differences. Treats negotiation with peers, supervisors, subordinates, suppliers, customers, outside agencies, and others as a core managerial process. Examines research and concepts developed in a number of academic fields, and looks closely at personal skills and experiences. Requires intense involvement in negotiation simulation exercises, and thoughtful application of theory and research. Prerequisite: MOB7010 or MBA8500 or completion of one-year or two-year modules This course is typically offered in the following semesters: Fall, Spring, Summer I and Summer II

Technorati Tags     babson,mba,elective,landry,mulvaney,charm,anderson,dhebar

Shang YeXin

I am a big big of Lu,xun, a great Chinese author in 1920s and who is famous for his straightforward, cold humor and great passion to encourage youth to pursue the good thing etc. His style significantly formed my preferrence of straightforward communication etc that benefits me so much.

And seems I found another person shares many with Lu Xun. He is Sha,YeXin. Here is his  blog (in Chinese). In this post, you can find his words ...


沙叶新在自己的博客中这样写道：“使我不趋时，不趋势，政治不能淫，资本不能屈。”


In English, he said "... so that I won't simply follow the fashion, follow the trends. (the power of )Politices etc cannot change my mind and capital cannot alter my belief".



Technorati Tags     blog,luxun,shayexin

United Syndication

A nice but annoying problem. I am reading RSS feeds on my Dell Axim X51 Windows mobile 5 PDA via a freeware called Axim (Thanks,David!) and using Google Reader with my laptop. Then the thing is for every post I had read on my Dell PDA, I have to check it again in google reader so that the post is marked as read. Would be great to have prssreader automatically sync or simply there is a new extension to the RSS thing so that the feed knows which reader I am and what RSS reader program I am using so that it can automatically tell Google Reader that I had read this or that post already... But I understand this may damage the simplicity or anonymirity of RSS.

This is the good part of Microsoft Exchange. I use pop3 client in my Dell PDA to read emails and since it's web based so when I login later through a web interface to my babson email the email I had read will be displayed as read.


Technorati Tags     blog,email,dell,rss,pda,axim,prssreader

My love for Dell Axim X51

While Fred Wilson doesn't like iPhone, he is a big Blackberry fan. On my side, iPhone is too pricy nor do I like the fact to be locked to one carrier as well. My toy is a dell Axim X51 with embeded WiFi support. I use it for everything from email, RSS and Internet to notepad, todo list and music player. I even bought it a Belkin external keyboard. While sadly Dell discountinued this product line, I believe Windows Mobile will have a space in this mobile computing world (sorry G-fans or i-fans...)

D-LINK DI-524 802.11g WIRELESS ROUTER/4 SWITCH & 2 wireless USB card - $70

Yeah, I am sell some D-Link wireless things. Check it out

Widget/Blog vs. App/Facebook

I played with widget a few months ago then stopped after I assumed I know enough of it. And I found this little article I wrote before about my experience with it.

...


OK. I had played with widget since I believe it's a key distribution technology today and in near future. I tried Yahoo! widget and the Spring box Widget. I always intend to use service from start-ups than from established players since I am doing start-up myself. But theSpringbox disappointed me by not providing search function in their website. Yeah, maybe you only have a few widgets available at each category. But, hey, I want to search for widgets. OK?

So, Yahoo! widgets wins my desktop.

...


Accidentally, I checked those widgets things again and find out The Spring Box does support widget search now. That's cool.

And just a little more rumbling about widgets:

1. While everyone is crazy about Facebook applications, I see it's the very similiar craziness about widgets a few months ago. It's all about a platform + application play. widget is basically "application" built for blog platform, no matter you are Google Blogger, Wordpressor Drupal. While Facebook app is built for Facebook platform. Also I read the recent news that Apple had released a quizz plugin for its popular iTune software. I am wondering when there will be a high time for that ...(For developers, here is the API)

2. Widget is also a distribution platform. And for content wanna fit well into the widget platform, it has to be very simple. Rss is clearly a good fit here. It also promotes Fred Wilson's future media play.


3. There are three stages about Internet in my mind. 1st is to generate content when there is nothing. So we got web 1.0 and now we have a everyone-blogging phenomenon. 2nd is to help people find it when there are too many content so we have Google, yahoo and powerset etc. 3rd in my mind is content utilization, visualization/presentation that anything helps people to best leverage the existing content. For many people, whether a Google search can return 1M or 100K links are all the same. Information overwhelming...Yeah, this is the foundation for my upcoming startup! So this widget/distribution thing is a backbone underneath it? Then it should have a bigger impact than Facebook applications which only exists on Facebook platform.


Btw, for Facebook, per their recent bookswap application, wondering are they inevitably will fall into the same trap as Microsoft had done before: competing with other application developmen companies. A sad thing, is it.

Babson is Going to Asia

If you are considering Babson, Let me know.
-------------------------
Greetings from Graduate Admissions!!!

I will be traveling to Asia with The MBA Tour (http://www.thembatour.com/events/tokyo.shtml) from September 3rd - 17th to meet with potential MBA candidates. You may recall from your process of considering programs, interviewing, and applying that these types of fairs are a very effective tool in the recruiting process.

We need your assistance in recommending candidates for 2008/2009. If you have any friends or colleagues that are considering an MBA please have them contact me directly.

Along with participation in the fair, I will be setting up admissions interviews in each city. The above link has my entire schedule for Asia - Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai, and Taipei.

If you know of any potential candidates, they can email me at dlomanno1@babson.edu or call (781) 239-6160.

Please help spread the word through your networks.

Thank you and have a great day,
Domenic


_____________________________________

Domenic Lomanno, M'06

Babson College

F.W. Olin School of Business

Associate Director Graduate Admissions

p (781) 239-6160

f (781) 239-4194

e dlomanno1@babson.edu

Give me the choice

After installed the Chinese version(www.baofeng.com) of Media Player Classic (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_Player_Classic ), Not(?) surprisingly, I found a few more software had been installed without any notification before or during the installation process.

However, I am not very angry at this time because it had given me options to remove those additional software. Option. It's so important. It's like the fact supermarket offers 30-day refund policy without any condition.

Give me the choice. SO I would like to give your product or service a try as well. When you give people the right to walk away, people may just find the excuse to walk closer to you. Reminds me the scenes in the great great Matrix. "Free you mind, Neo. then you will be the one".


Give people an option.

The only alcohol I enjoy ...

The almost only moment I really enjoyed an alcohol drink is to have a heated Chinese traditional alcohol(HuangJiu or Yellow Alcohol) with brown sugars and gingers added with my father on my annual Chinese New Year vacation with my father. But now price is rising? I don't need those branded but the cheap one made in my hometown...

BTW,it's called Yellow Booze or Rice WIne.


中式黄酒为何变贵了？ 英国《金融时报》中文网特约撰稿人：张翼轸 2007年2月14日 星期三 [Photo] 昔 日鲁迅笔下穷酸书生孔乙己最爱的绍兴黄酒，正在悄悄转型，挤入高端酒品行列，甚至成为酒类产品的新奢侈品。
虽 然从来就被视为最具中国神韵的国酒，虽然富含的氨基酸远高于日本清酒、红酒等酒种，黄酒在中国酒类市场从来不是主流地位。05年总销量仅占酒类饮品总量的 5%，远落后于啤酒的83%和白酒的10%。事实上，黄酒欠缺的不仅是销量，更在于“档次”。虽然红酒销量还低于黄酒，但因为是舶来品，再加上众多法国奢 侈红酒宣传的推波助澜，发展前景无人敢小觑，而黄酒由于发源于江浙沪地区，在其它地区则一直被视作烹调用酒和低端饮用酒。
然而，伴 随着和酒金色年华、石库门上海老酒、古越龙山东方原酿等一众新兴黄酒的推出，消费者对于黄酒的刻板印象正在悄悄改变。相比高酒精度，口感带苦味的传统黄 酒，这些新黄酒除了降低酒精度外，还通过加入枸杞、蜂蜜等辅料来改善口感，其中石库门红标黄酒更是获得女性消费者的青睐。除此以外，新型黄酒更是抛弃传统 的棕色玻璃酒瓶或古典陶瓷瓶，在包装上向洋酒看齐，其中东方原酿不但在外观上与威士忌等洋酒极其类似，更起用法国干邑世家第五代传人西里尔·卡慕 （Cyril Camus）担任代言人，带出黄酒的时尚气息。
　在改变口感同时革新包装加大宣传的同时，黄酒的定价亦同步提高。传 统黄酒定价一般在10元以下，而新型黄酒则将定价提升至10-50元的水平，比如石库门黑标和红标售价便分别为32元和20元，而东方原酿则在28元至 48元。部分礼盒装的黄酒定价更是100元至200元不等，大大改变了消费者对于黄酒是低端廉价酒的偏见。
要说服消费者掏出几倍以 上的价格去购买新型黄酒，自然必须有附加的卖点。除了强调黄酒的营养价值和保健功能，“年份酒”亦成为黄酒营销的新杀手锏，比如石库门黑标以及和酒金色年 华都采用了八年陈的基酒。黄酒虽然不似红酒，不同年份的原料对于成品的口感大有影响，但是深入人心的黄酒“越久越陈”的观念，使得“年份黄酒”更易于推广 ——毕竟相比红酒必须知道哪个年份好，黄酒只需知道年份越大越好。
当然，黄酒要向白酒、红酒看齐，光有八年陈是远远不够的。古越龙 山推出的30年、40年、50年陈黄酒则真正让黄酒向奢侈品酒类发起了挑战。以最贵的古越龙山50年陈黄酒为例，超市里最低销售价是2850元，而在普通 酒店消费则定价在3800至5180元不等，一旦进入香港半岛酒店，价格就直上云霄可达1.2万港元。
价格大大提高之后的黄酒，如今已冲出中国国门，进军全球高档酒市场。目前在法国卡慕旗下众多的全球免税商店里，古越龙山的“金龙”黄酒和茅台白酒一起被陈列在中国国酒专区供全球消费者选购，前者的零售价为50美元，略低于后者的60美元。
伴随新型黄酒的兴起，市场对黄酒业亦极度追捧。中国股市A股市场中第一食品、古越龙山等黄酒概念股在最近几个月中涨幅超过100%，也从一个侧面证实了黄酒的潜力。

1st encounter with RSS embeded video

For the first time inside my Google Reader, I just watched the following new video blog from Morgan Webb, after reading two posts about it from my other daily-reading blogs, TC and Fred Wilson at Union Square Parnters.

1. Since all it news come from major technology websites like TechCrunch or VentureBeat or VC's blog, those websites have an incentive to cover this vblog since it's mutual benefitial.So this vblog can start having traffic immediately!

2. The flash player (Castfire) it used is so interactive! click the "more" button then you see really very relevant functions for the audience: download the video, subscribe the vblog feed etc. I am wondering how far is this flash play away to have a feature called "buY' so when it displays an promotion ad I can just click to receive the coupon code or directly input my creditcard info to complete the transaction.



This is very cool idea because:

1. Since all it news come from major technology websites like TechCrunch or VentureBeat or VC's blog, those websites have an incentive to cover this vblog since it's mutual benefitial.So this vblog can start having traffic immediately!

2. The flash player (Castfire) it used is so interactive! click the "more" button then you see really very relevant functions for the audience: download the video, subscribe the vblog feed etc. I am wondering how far is this flash play away to have a feature called "buY' so when it displays an promotion ad I can just click to receive the coupon code or directly input my creditcard info to complete the transaction.

MB doesn't think it's that great but I disagree. It would save lots of time for busy people by watching it over iPhone directly on their commuting to office or airport etc. Podcast can do the same but video is always more appealing, is it.

Technorati Tags video,vblog,webbalert,webb,castfire

Digg.com

Valley Boys

Digg.com's Kevin Rose leads a new brat pack of young entrepreneurs



The story about Digg.com is one of my most favorite. For those of you who wants to start an Internet company but don't know technology that much. Digg is a best example to tell you that what matters is the busienss model, you understanding of the internet community and your guts feeling, but NOT the technology.

Digg demonstrated a few key facts:
1. the power of the crowd. Online usrs are more and more prefer opinion from peers but not from the so-called expert.
2. open, transparent and fair busienss model. Everyone 's vote is equalent. No expert needed. it's a new way of demacracy
3. and it is widely adopted by online news/blogs website. every page almost has a digg-it button..

Internet & the Stranger

I love internet and I love strangers.

Without Internet I won't be able to launch my first start-up nor meeting my wife. I love stranger because the conversation always give me the unexpected surprise. I am reading PureVC.com, a blog talking venture capital. The author invites people who have interest about investment, entrepreneurship etc to contact him and I suddently had the strong feeling to write this blog.

I must say, a common mistake I had seen among people is that they come with various preassumption before meeting/talking with strangers, if they decided to meet at all. Yes, there are lots liars online but it is not hard to exclude them if you did some due diligence. And if you really meet a person who you never meet before, it's like a weird chemical reaction. Two world, two minds and two brains suddently connected. Sometimes it would generate nothing but sometime it may be the catalyst for a fantastic fire...

However, I can not stand the popular way Americans meet strangers, in a noisy bar! So many beautiful grass land in the States so I am wondering why you guys prefer to yell at pub/bar and back home with a sore throat.. For this purpose, Internet is way better, is it.

I think this is also the reason why I am so into the travel things. How exciting it is to visit a totally new land, meet new people and experience new surroundings around. Guess my brain only gets excited by new things...

Embrace the Internet, Embrace the world of strangers, and Embrace the open mind.

A fund for Free Travel

If my next start-up succeed, instead of giving $ for whatever other purpose, the first thing I will do is setup a travel fund to give free ticket for anyone never visited China. Of course accommodation cost will not be covered, even though food is cheap in China. But may generate enough eyeball to attract sponsors...

I believe the best way to undestand something is to be there by yourself, with an open mind.

Travel is one of the most wonderful activity in the world.

Experience with Scribd.com

I had used Scribd.com for a while when it first emerged but then lost interest. Today, after  my old thinkpad crashed, I realized Scribd is one of the best supplementary site for del.icio.us. Del.icio.us can save every URL but useless for a actual document like a PDF report. While I am using Box.net and Xdrive for private document but the free space is limited(1G and 5G). Now Scribd.com could be the perfect website for my collection of valuable articles that can be shared with others.


So when I login to scribd.com today to upload a new PDF report sent by webtrends and emarkter, I accidentally realized someone added me as friend in scribd (ok, one is scribd staff, boring. the other is not) and another added one of my uploaded article as favorite. It's cool.


Could this scribd thing(Youtube for document) be something, beside the $17M pre-money evaluation they had for series A funding? Something supplementary to Wikipedia? I see scribd a cool site to be acquired since they do have a smart way to have people sort through billions of documents in billions of computers everyday.

Sure people may upload useless files but they are risk their reputation at scribd. And this type of peer pressure is wonderful to solve the quality issue. Wikipedia is using the very same way.


It's indeed a cool way for document sharing. Or say, knowledge sharing.

Technorati Tags     share,delicious,scribd,boxnet,xdriver

Another meaning of DBA

DBA is supposed to be read as DataBase Administrator which is one of the best IT job in the world. I had worked in a partial DBA before and the job is challenging (if you know what data you are deal with) and interesting(so many things to learn)...

Today while I am doing research for my business plan, I had learned another meaning of DBA which may be written as d/b/a as well that is Doing Business As. Guess this is a lawyer invented term?

Parakey-WebOS

Richard@ReadWriteweb has a good post about Parakey is “a Web operating system that can do everything an OS can do.” Translation: it makes it really easy to store your stuff and share it with the world. Most or all of Parakey will be open source, under a license similar to Firefox’s."

It's fascinating. It's like when I boot my laptop, the 'desktop' is a Firefox window and there is no things called "drive" or "folder" but individual file only with a file name and tags. "my picture" tag may either point to all pictures in my local drive or my photo album at Flickr or Google Picasa. The two can be synced too. Wow. It's cool.

To me, this may eliminate the existence of computer virus since the only executeable application is the Firefox Browser. Office productivity will be done by Google Docs or Zoho like my previous post. To me, this is a more elegant idea than Adobe AIR platform that aiming at: building a web layer beyond whatever OS you are using today, be it WIndows, OS X or Linux. This also remind me the thing I feel so disappointed by Sun Micro: Why not acquire Netscape back to 1996? With Java applet embeded in Netscape browser, Sun can builid a webOS 10 years ago.

Technorati Tags     java,firefox,parakey,os,webos

Other's eBay account had been hacked

FYI: This is a real story I received from a friend of mine:

-------------------------------
My painful experience - account thief

This past Sunday night, I found out I got dozens email for "eBay
Listing Confirmed". The items listed are very good stuff with
very attractive price. Such as
NEW-JAMES BOND 007 COLLECTION - 20 DVD BOX ED SET ! Buy It Now
for $55
The X-Files Seasons 1-9 (DVD Boxed Sets) BRAND NEW! Buy It Now
for $70.00
....

Total listed price is over $1000.

I immediately realized my Ebay account got hacked, so I
1. changed my password to a very difficult one(my previous was
very simple and most Chinese people like)
2. Went Ebay website, reported my case online.
3. Sent Ebay email reporting my case
4. I tried to remove the listings, but I could not, so I changed
some of the Listing titles from
such as
"The X-Files Seasons 1-9 (DVD Boxed Sets) BRAND NEW!"
to
"Don't bid. Listed by hacker. Reported to Ebay already."
5. Went bed with a rabbit in my heart.
6. In the morning, to my surprise that I got 3 congratulations
emails from Ebay:"Congratulations, your item sold!"
and one buyer even already paid.
7. I was unhappy that Ebay did not do anything overnight, so I
emailed to all the buyers that "Don't pay".
8. A buyer emailed me back:
Item: Don't bid. Listed by hacker. Reported to Ebay already.
(300102191901)
"xxxxx" is the winner.
Since i had saved this item, i did not see the notice not to bid
until it was too late. Can you have this item removed without
negative feedback. Much appreciated.
9. The person who paid called me back, but he nor me can do
nothing.
10. I tried to call Ebay, but I could not find the phone #. I
found the a "live chat" on Ebay.com. I chatted with a person,
and she/he could not do anything, but instructed me to use
"secure live chat", that is, log in first. After about 40
minutes waiting a guy came on line. He asked my many questions
and even called me confirming my identity.
11. This secure chat person did a great job. He removed all the
listings, refund all my listing fee(about $100), and promised me
to help to get money back from the person who already paid.
12. The person who paid, gave me the name of the people who
received money. They are li zhou and dian zhi you jian.
13. The secure chat person will do more investigation about this
account thief.
14. So far, after spending many hours, everything seems fine
now.

What the account theft did and what he/she would do:
chose Sunday night listed items. Buy It Now only for three days.
Since they were priced good, and all may be sold in three days
by "Buy It Now". The thief chose XXX's paypal account to
receive buyers' money. Then the money go to XXX and
YYY's paypal account.

XXX and YYY may be a victim also, because my
account theft may be also an identity theft who stole XXX
and YYY's IDs.

The account theft may use an fake ID, or XXX/YYY's ID, opened an
bank account/Paypal account and used a public PC logged/created
email/paypal account, so the police may never get them.

If I did not check my email for a few days, the account thief
may get the check from Paypal or money goes to their bank
account. After they get money, they run and leave over $1000
mess for me and the buyers.

Lessons learned: Passwords to any accounts should be as
difficult as possible, monitor all your accounts as often as
possible, read email as much as possible, but don't get fooled
by fishing email.

Be careful!

DanWei.org

DanWei has a fabulous blog post to demonstrate the reasoning process of western people. I think traditionally Chinese are good on those debate but we are far lagging behind. ANd I agree that Chinese government should put more pressure on Sudan. For whatever reason, killing hundres of thousands of people will make the reason absurd. And for the same reason, even though I strongly believe Taiwan is part of China but if a war really occur because Taiwan declare the independence later, I doubt I will support the war.

iResearch - China Internet Highlight

我国网民低龄化趋势过于明显，其中18～24岁的年轻人所占比例最高，达到38.9%.
截至2006年12月31日，我国网民达到1.37亿，与上年同期相比增加了2600万人，增长率为23.4%，是历年来增长最多的一年。网民总数占总人口比例为10.5%，其中北京市网民普及率首次突破30%.


  网民年轻化趋势明显，25岁以下网民比例从1997年的41.9%升至51.89%.

       此外，到2007年初，宽带用户所占的份额已经达到了71.5%，为1997年的3倍以上。

美国上网的女性接近了9720万，而男性只有9090万


民接触互联网的日均时间也在迅速增长，从2002年的88.5分钟提高到2006年的137.8分钟，

在核心受众中，即25-45岁、大专以上学历、个人月收入2000元+的人群，互联网的日到达率却是一路飙升，由2001年的38.7％达到71.7%.成为仅次于电视与报纸的第三大媒体。


我国网民日均上网时间已逼近网民日均看电视的时间，后者约为140-145分钟。
2006年商务人士在工作日日均接触网络的时间远超平均数，达151.2分钟。

中国有超过3000万的网民会使用网络来购买物品，占整体网民的1/4


在中国，CNNIC的数据显示，中国目前大约有2500万人经常使用网上招聘，1500万人经常使用网络教育。在生活方面，网络电话和网上预订正在迅速兴起，目前分别有大约900万人和600万人在享受网络电话和网上预订带来的好处。

　　在娱乐方面，截止到2006年6月份，在线影视收看及下载（在线电视）的规模已经达到4500万，在线音乐收听及下载（在线广播）也超过了4000万。预计在未来一段时间内，网络视频、数字音乐会迎来更大的发展。


2006年，中国网民平均上网时间居世界第一。美国调研机构Ipsos Insight的最新调查结果则显示，中国网民平均每周在线时间为17.9小时

白领迷恋网络同居
中国女网民们在线调查：消费不吝惜金钱

2006年中国游戏产业报告》显示，中国网络游戏用户为3260万人，比上年增长23.8％；国内网络游戏全年市场销售总收入为65.4亿元，比上年增长 73.5％。与此同时，网络游戏产业的快速发展，为电信、IT、媒体和传统出版业等相关产业创造的产值分别达210.5亿元、83.3亿元和39.4亿元，分别比上年增长了21.4％、16.3％和6.2％。根据预测，2007年至2011年，中国网络游戏年复合增长率将达到30.2％。





而据非盈利组织Pew互联网和美国生活计划（Pew Internet and American Life Project）公布的调查结果显示，互联网在美国人日常生活中扮演的角色越来越重要。

　　在最近的一次调查中，有45%的被调查者承认，过去两年里，他们在做出重大决定或面临人生转折时曾到互联网上寻求帮助。在2002年的一次类似调查中，这一比例为40%.

　　按照45%的比例计算，约有6000万美国人在做出重大人生决定时会到网上寻求帮助。调查显示，约有2100万美国人在寻找培训机会时会到网上寻求帮助；约有1700万美国人依托互联网为家庭成员选择学校或医院；约有1600万美国人购买汽车或投资时使用互联网；约有1000万美国人通

Technorati Tags     internet,china,data,highlight,statistics

OReilly plus OSTG Inc plus Sun Microsystems

(I am merging my two blog together so here is a post from another old blog of mine. Bear with me.)

O'reilly is further towards the position to be the chief evangelist of leading Information Technologies in the world. They realized knowledge distribution is the best way to promote such a goal and their press business already one of the best. By setting up Safari U, organizing series gathering for top technical names such as Perl, Apache and Linux, O'reilly already gained enough credit. Quite like a professor in a Ivy league university, nothing but reputation and good life.

OSTG's slashdot and sourceforge are just like IBM and Intel in the computer industry. While their mother company, VA software, became very silent for a long time after their astonishing IPO back to 2000.


And comes Sun Microsystems. Once another evangelist and warrior of the Freedom of Technology, now paying more attention to survive instead of leading. Java is becoming a successful kid of the whole IT industry but contribute so few to Sun's P&L sheet. By acquiring those storage firms, Sun is struggling to find the right position for itself. Seems another long way to go.


The relationship and contribution of Slashdot and sourceforget for VA is very the same compare with Java and Sun. So what's a possible path for those two once-prominent players? IMHO, one not-that-bad approach is to merge those three companies together to form an enterprise that focus on providing anything to promote IT around the world. This new entity will have community, sufficient expertise, infrastructure, money, credit and experience. It could make sourceforge 10 times better to host, promote and help individuals and SMEs across the world to leverage their intelligence to explore every possibility, it would lower the cost, faster the R&D-to-market process and broader arena. It could create a online Wal-mart for Software and Service. It could make any start-up or individual save more time by avoiding painful CVS setup, server hosting whatsever. It would be the best place to name top 10, top 100 of technologies in the world, instead of so many other rankings. For anyone interested in IT, it's the one-stop place to visit.


If Sun doesn't want to be another DEC, do it.

Technorati Tags     java,opensource,sun,OReilly,sourceforge

Applicationless Windows

No matter what OS I am using, Windows or Linux, 99.99% of the time Firefox is the only application i am running. Sure I admit my laptop is slow so I am avoiding running too many to suck my laptop memory out but then it's more than that. It's convenient and it's fast too.

There is meebo that you can login to all (but skype) your IM services, ICQ/MSN Messenger/Yahoo! Messenger/Gtalk... And I am using Zoho and Google Docs for my need of Microsoft Office. And Zamzar is doing all the document conversion for you, pdf<=>doc, mpeg<=>flash..you name it. Sure I have web email service to replace Outlook. Is there any other cool online service I forget? Oh, I am using Box.net(they suck since doesn't allow me to upload >10M file with free account) and AOL Xdrive (u can choose to install an desktop client to map a local drive to upload/download your file w/out any size limitation). If you are using any, let me know. I am also considering upload all my photos to Flickr someday so no need to burn DVD to store them... Guess will do this wkd.

You know what, I am really wondering when I can simply stop using Norton Antivirus (very soon I think) since I don't care about Virus anymore. why? 1) I don't open Office document with MS office software anymore but Zoho or Google Docs so the most famous Macro Virus embeded inside Office files won't affect me anymore. 2) I am using Firefox plus No Script plugin     so that almost no online malware etc can hurt my computer in the way malwares can do with IE. 3) No more offline data and XP support nice system restore(though I never tried yet) so even my computer was affected by virus, just a restore will solve it.


Poor Microsoft fella. but they are rolling out the Live series of services like Live Hotmail, Live Search etc. Good for them.

Technorati Tags     zoho,firefox,meebo,data,zamzar,desktop

New Class, New Professor, New Venture

We are going to have a cool new elective class for 2nd year study at Babson.

 

 

VENTURE & GROWTH CAPITAL (EPS7573) 

Course No. Title Days Time(s) Instructor(s) Location Enroll/Cap Credits

EPS7573-A01 VENTURE & GROWTH CAPITAL R 3:30PM- 6:00PM

Adler, Robert  0 of 42 1.50
 

"I did my undergrad at Brown University and went on to get an MBA from Harvard Business School. These days I am also an adjunct professor in the Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship at Babson College, serve on the board of Samantha's Harvest, a non-profit focused on awareness and support for Down syndrome, and am a member of the Jimmy Fund Visiting Committee at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute."

 

 

 

 

FYI, this company he co-founded had received 12M VC funding already and for anyone participated in the VCIC event this year, the first bplan we got about a company called CCBN? He helped to launch that one as well..

 

Technorati Tags     mobile,babson,vc,adler

Webless Interenet

For many people, Internet = Web = IE/Firefox. Not really. There are many great Internet application without a web presence. Instant Messaging like ICQ/AIM, Email with client software like Outlook. And a popular trend seems now is weblize non-web application sucha s Meebo is doing for instant messaging market. Email had a web presence for a very long time back to Hotmail. So my point is, how about the other way around? Webless web application? Adobe AIR platform is a clear idea towards this trends. eBay just released the beta version of their Project San Dimas which is going to be a desktop application that users can do whatever they are doing with ebay.com now in a better way. How about flash? How about we flashlize existing web applications? For example, a flash based SNS website or a flash based search clients. Flash has many unique advantage against HTML/Ajax and it would be interesting to see how this will develop in the near future.

 

 

Technorati Tags     ebay,flash,air,flex,Dan,Dimas

Old Sh*t but New future

Aggregate Knowledge creates automated “behavior recommendations” for websites - things like “people who look at this also looked at” and “people who bought this also bought” features.
This and BizaarVoice.com are two wonderful examples shows how to be a successful start-up by leveraging technology/service that are really commodity today. Yep. Same technology but new application. Great.

Can we be a hosting service provider of online discussion board?forum?
Can we be a hosting service provider of online registration?
Can we be a honesting service provider of online email?

First widget

I had read articles about Widget for a long time and love the potentials. Now finally add my first widget to this blog and the whole process is just super easy and fanscinating. No wonder this start-up, lijit, just got US$3.3M series B funding. It's almost fully automated process though I am wondering I had disclosed so many personal info to lijit. but, am I the person telling JG that younger generation doesn't care much about privacy any more???

Entrepreneurship info in CHina

WHile doing a bunch of research for my next possible venture's China operation, did lots of research in recent time and here are some may be useful for others (Most of them are in Chinese. But you want to try Google translation service):

The successful story of PCPOP.com in China, leading IT/car review site. The founder is just 25 years old now and has an annual revenue around US$10M.

Shanghai government will waive the debt that had been guaranteed by the local government for  local entrepreneurs to try SME project.


Overview of policies to support Chinese studied oversea in Guangdong Province

And a bunch of other websites that have useful info in this topic:

西安，大连，深圳面向海归投资环境　
北京的8家留学人员创业园
《中国人才报告》透露未来几年可能走红的专业

国家发展门户网
中关村科技园区石景山园
中关村科技园区健翔科技园
中国留学人才网
中关村科技担保有限公司
助新网, 北京中关村高新技术企业协会和中关村科技园区海淀园技术合同登记处联合网站
北京理工留学人员创业园
中关村科技园区留学人员创业企业资助资金申报材料
-经资金管理小组对留学人员资质和企业情况审查后，对具有良好发展前景的留学人员创办的企业，给予小额创业资金支持，最高额度为10万元人民币。
-申请创业资金的留学人员企业，应为留学人员近期（一年之内）归国创办的，且企业成立时间不超过6个月，留学人员（团队）只能申请一次创业资助资金；。
-申请创业资金的留学人员企业，注册资金内应有不低于50万元人民币的现金资产；一名或多名留学人员出资人的出资额占企业注册资本的50%以上，现金部分出资不低于25万元人民币；

中关村科技园区留学人员创业企业小额担保贷款“绿色通道”实施细则
 北京中关村国际孵化器有限公司
北京中关村外商投资企业协会
-以高新技术成果出资设立公司和股份合作企业的，对其高新技术成果出资所占注册资本（金）和股权的比例不作限制，由出资人在企业章程中约定。――《中关村科技园区企业登记注册管理办法》（北京市人民政府令第70号）第13条
-●以高新技术成果向有限责任公司或非公司制企业出资入股，高新技术成果的作价金额可达到公司或企业注册资本的35%，另有约定的除外。――《北京市人民政府印发关于进一步促进高技术产业发展的若干规定的通知》（京政发［2001］38号）第8条
-留学人员来京创业、工作，从事技术转让、技术开发业务和与之相关的技术咨询、技术服务取得的收入，经有关部门认定，免征营业税。留学人员在中关村科技园区内创办高新技术企业的，可享受本市高新技术企业的各项优惠政策。――《关于印发北京市鼓励留学人员来京创业工作若干规定的通知》（京政发［2000］19号）第10条
-●高新技术企业当年发生的研制开发费用比上年实际增长10%（含10%）以上的，当年经主管税务机关批准，可再按技术开发费实际发生额的50%抵扣当年应纳税所得额。――《北京市支持高新技术成果转化项目等税收政策实施办法》（京地税企［2001］694号）第3条

Misc
- 北京市科委认证或在中关村科技园区内（包括：海淀、丰台、昌平、亦庄、电子城、德胜和健翔园）认证注册的高新技术企业以及符合北京市产业发展政策的中小企业

1st Year Option
1 、 留学归国人员创业企业贷款担保

     资格认定：取得中关村科技园区管委会留学人员创业服务总部认定的留学人员创业企业资格；

     额度和期限：主要为流动资金贷款，申请额度原则上不超过 100 万元，期限为一年或一年内；

     优惠政策：简化的评审程序，在全部受理资料备齐后的十个工作日内出具评审意见；年担保费率在基准费率的基础上下浮20 ％； 贷款银行执行基准贷款利率。 管委会对符合条件的企业给予利息 50% 和担保费 1% 补贴。

2st Year Option
5 、 海淀园中小企业贷款绿色行动

    基本条件：在中关村科技园区海淀园注册的中小型高科技企业；注册资金不低于 30 万元，资产负债率不高于 60% ；年销售收入不低于 50 万元，且保持盈利。


New tax law for high-tech start-ups:
Tax: 自获利年度起两年内免征企业所得税，免税期满后减按15%的税率征收企业所得税。

1. 申请办理“留学人员创业企业资格证明”所需材料

（（申请时需提交原件审核，复印件留存）

   1. 企业法人营业执照副本
   2. 验资报告
   3. 公司章程
   4. 新技术企业资格证书,http://www.gaoxinqiye.com/shenpi/gaoxin.htm
   5. 留学人员身份证明, http://www.bjlx.gov.cn/bjlx/brow.asp?id=1552
   6. 护照

7、《中关村园区企业标准征信报告》
http://www.ecpa.org.cn/news_newshow1.asp?classid=2&newsid=141
http://www.zgc.gov.cn/zcfg/zgckjyqxytxjsxgbf1/20599.htm
注：若再次申请，则需提交上次贷款的银行还款证明（贷款收回凭证）

投资北京政府网站
投资朝阳政府网站


Technorati Tags     entrepreneurship,china,policy,startup,beijing

A cool video intro about web 2.0

I seldom wathc youtube video mainly because already have enough other stuff to read/watch. Everthing needs attention. Then I found this  video from Ling Zhang's blog. IT's just amazing...

One of the angle that this video is talking about is the topic of my next post, the Data. Stay tuned...




Technorati Tags     video,web2,ibm,youtube,zhangling

Data, Data, Data

 The recent TC post of Foxmarks just confirmed my point of view: There are only two computer-based service which are data generation and data presentation. Foxmark is clearly a data-presenting service since everyone's bookmark is just there before Foxmark but Foxmark is obviously doing something cool with those data they collected through the Foxmark firefox plugin.

So who is doing data generation service? blogware like Typad and blog service providers like blogger.com. Because without them, I won't be here writing this post for you. But more are in the generation/presentation mixture. MS Excel is such one. It allows us to type data in a cell farm then generating new graph based on that.

The sub-point of data generation is digitalize data. For example, do you know the average driving speed at 9:10am in Mass Pike inbound? That data is there because the car is there but the data is just not digitalized into computer. So if you can place series of sensors along the Mass Pike then you are generating/digitalizing a huge amount of data. how to do with it?

I am very fascinating about this idea. What else I can discover?


The other thing I am thinking now is that how to improve my experience when there is no Internet connection? So now I am using my Dell Axim PDA to access a weak but non-secured wifi network called Apple Network to :
1) read email via pop3
2) use IE 4.0 to access Gmail, yahoo Mobile mail and Google Map
3) pRssReader to download RSS feeds such as TC and VB.

I tried to connect my PDA via USB to my laptop then write email in outlook then sync to PDA then send it but failed.hmmmmm...

Thank you, the owner of Apply Network.
And sorry this is off topic:)

Technorati Tags     data,foxmark,foxmarks

Chat w/ Yuan in Kendall

v

Technorati Tags     web,viral,youtube,rockyou

Trends bring new opportunity for entrepreneur

1. I see the world business environment will have some
significant change in the near future, let's say the
next 10-20 years. Now and before, corporate provids
almost all services we may need, left few for
individuals like prostitution/tutor/coach etc. Banks,
pharma etc covers all what we need. The reason I
believe is very simple: trust-worth or credibility,
from individual's perspective as well as from
goverment's (though I am not a history expert) .Along
the time, those corporations growing bigger and
bigger. Today, they are Mega companies so suddently it
doesn't make much sense for them to serve needs below
certain level. A new drug with $1M annual sales may
not be attractive for Pfizer to acquire. That's why we
need eBay, Craigslit and why they are so successful.
Then comes those Peer-to-Peer bank like Zembra.
Because of Internet, the cost for individuals to
offfer services for peers had been significantly
lowered. I see more and more service platform will
emerge to help individuals to offer services for
individuals... This is one trend.

2. the expanded definition of resource. Human is just
as iron/oil. Offshore Outsourcing is clear an example following this trend.
but what else can we done? Social tagging is one in this trend. I always believe
that human brain has advantages computer brain will never in par with. Americans are
obsessed with technology drive model since human resource is just too expensive there.
This theory should not be blindly adopted in developing countries like India,China, Brazil etc
with enough human brain to leverage.

3. An alternate P/E fund as the vehicle. Acquire Tier
2 or 3 websites with reasonable traffic or cash flow.
Consolidate hardware/network to save large cost. Cross
linking/promoting each other to benefit. To offer a
vest plan for the founders to exit that tied with the
performance of their website after acquired by the
fund. What does P/E  like blackstone do? find
undervalued asset then refine/adjust/polish to
increase value. Same thing here. Same philosophy but
for web industry. We do acquisition. We also do
investment/incubation directly. For example, Highland
invested in a start-up called Clubmom.com in US. why
not we do the same in China? or IndianMom.com for
indian immigration in US? With existing/acquired
website, the time to build early traffic/user base is
much short. The investment on server/bandwidth is much
less by sharing with others. The backoffice cost like
HR/Accounting is much less too. MINT sucks because
their shared HR/Accounting has very limited
investment, no hardware share between portfolios
whatsever.


Again, back to Bazaarvoice.com. Every commordity
should/could be monetized by a hosting service. For
web venture, everything except the idea is a commodity.

Boston Startup Meetup

Finally had a chance to join one of the most famous startup meeting in Boston, The boston Startup Meetup. It's started by a british working in Cambridge area, Simon Clay Michael. He has his own job related startup called http://www.isabont.com that provide value added service for job hunters.

This event is also very informal. It's always in a restaurant called Smile Thai at 16 Eliot Street, cambridge. Once a month meeting. people just come in and sit down along the side of a long table and start talking immediately with others sitting beside you. It's something similar to Open Coffee with an unintended focus on technology. I guess that's because it's in Cambridge and so many people are from school or in harvard/MIT right now.

But because of sitting along the long table, it's not easy to move around to chat with others far from you once you sit down in the middle. So better come in ealier or you have to find a seat at the end of the table.

Updated:
You can join their mailing list at http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/boston-startup-meetup/
and here is their recent annoucement
http://www.mypunchbowl.com/publicparty/a3e78fa9ebdd17d86afe

Technorati Tags startup,boston,isabont,cambridge

Entrepreneur/Start-up related event in Boston

I had attended two start-up related events recently. And here is a summary for your reference.

 

The first one is http://entrepreneur.meetup.com/674/ which is organized by a lawyer at Exemplar Law firm who had been CFO of a high-tech start-up before. It's very like our weekly gathering. People come from all different background with no particular focus. The agend is:

 

6pm-6:30pm -- Open Networking over wine and snacks
6:30-6:45pm -- Attendee introduction

6:45pm-8pm -- Will discuss up to three member proposed start-up related topics. The three we had yesterday are: account receivable issue, growth options for a boutique chocolate store in Coplay Square and pricing strategy.

8pm-9:pm -- Networking

 

It's a biweekly gathering and limited to 30 ppl each time. And you must RSVP to attend as the guard in the first floor will check your name. If you are not in the web/internet/software business, this is a good one to broad your connection with others from various industries.

 

 

The second one is http://www.opencoffeeclub.org/ which is a casual gathering without any host. Rather, it's a weekly meeting at every Thursday started at 9:30am usually at Andala Coffee shop in Cambridge. No RSVP, no agenda and you won't know who will be there in advance. I had been there this morning and met 6 ppl there. One of the high-profile attendee is Michael Feinstein. A retired investor/entrepreneur now enjoy being advisor for start-ups. He is an advisor for Geezmo, the personal financial service start-up Pakpoom posted before. The other guy is working on a new start-up doing Craigslist + LinkedIn.

FYI, I am quite familar with those events website as my Rilik biz plan is also quite event related. Websites you can check for related events:

 

www.going.com

www.meetup.com

http://eventful.com/

http://marksguide.com/

 

Technorati Tags     Blog,event,boston

Will current university system survive in 10 years?

I am always a big fan about thinking how to make everything works better and differently. And I am a firm believer that different things always mean good. For example,I fully support both Hilary and Obama even though I am not a democrat. Why? Because they will both make a historical moment in the American history, either the first female president or the first black president. Well, back to the topic, will current university system be able to survive in next 10 years?

I had experienced both university system in China and in US. And I see there are a few critical problems:

1. Customer vs. Student.

University is the only place where I won't be treated fully as a valuable customer like in any other business after I paid a hefty amount of money. Forget elementary school or high school or even undergraduate study since most of them it's your parent paying the cost. Graduate study would be the most appropriate segment to look at . As an MBA student, had you ever experienced the same customer service as with other business? Yes, professors are professors but also remind you it's my tuition fee paying part of their salary.

2. One-for-all vs. customization

We all experienced that kind of student life: sitting in a class with at least 10+ students, no matter case-based or lecture-based environment. Everyone prays for a good professor. If I am paying the same amount of money, why I can't get the same professor as the others in a different section? I have no interest to learn six sigma then why I still need to pay for the class? There aren't enough professors or professors have limited time. How about this? Everyone can select the professor he or she wants for certain course. The more student a professor have, the higher salary that professor would get without increasing the $ student pay for. If Professor A isn't as good as Professor B, why they should receive the same salary? Tenure may be great for academic research but sucks for any job. Babson MBAs, you know what I am talking about.

3. Niche, Niche, Niche, with Internet.

Everyone is different so is every professor, even for professors teaching the same course. Tom maybe great in teaching Macroeconomics of developed nations while John may be great in developing nations. Instead of compromise, why can't I either select the professor I prefer or just learn the best part of each? It's both good for the professors since generally people doing the best in the field they enjoy the most and for students since we can get the best of breed. With Internet, it's very possible. Both Tom and John could publish their podcast or video clips etc or skype-based class. It won't let many professors lost their job. Rather, it will give every professor an opportunity to develop a best niche to focus on. How about teaching marketing classs for Chinese MBA students who want to sell enterprise software in Canada? How about teaching finance for students who prefer professors previous had worked in public accounting firms? Just like Internet itself, variety is the beauty.



It may sound disruptive but I don't think there is anything in the world could avoid change. No way.


Just posted this idea to Ignite Boston! organized by O'Reilly Media. See how it goes.

http://events.oreilly.com/pub/e/736


Technorati Tags university,professor,reform

online publishing with zoho

I used to use notepad/gedit of my windows/linux desktop to write down random thoughts but after using Zoho, It's awesome to replace them since I will never lost my sparkles when laptop crash or running out of juice.

But it's so hard to switch. I mean, the switch cost is really high. But after lost a nice paragraph for my executive summary again, I will never back to desktop writing anymore...I swear.

Babson-Idea

I learned two very interesting perspectives recently:

1. About viral  marketing. Our BCAP advisor Bala Iyer pointed out a very interesting fact: why the general population is willing to help an unknown brand to be successful?Because this makes them feel more achievable. How can you say you make a big achievement by making Toyota more famous since it's already a well-know brand? What if you told us you helped Myspace to become popular?


2. Why not pay professors based on their popularity or student's feedback? I see this is a conflicts with the tenure system. Personally I feel school is the only place that I paid a lot of money but wou

Total Cost - Buy a used car

1997 Toyota Camry LE - 4 Cyl - Color Gray - $4000

---

Date: 2007-05-07, 4:28PM EDT

Automatic,

4 cylinders,

with Power Steering,

Anti Lock Brakes,

Power Door Locks,

Power Windows,

AM/FM Stereo Radio,

Cassette Player,

Trip Odometer,

Tachometer,

Air Conditioning,

Tilt Steering Wheel,

Cruise Control,

Tinted Glass,

Dual Air Bags,

ABS Brakes.

Cloth Upholstery,

Center Arm Rest Fold Down

rear Seat Child-Proof Locks

Cup Holder(s) ,

Power Mirrors.

 

Brand New Brakes (3 months)- Timing Belt done at 115k,

4 new tires less than 15 miles.

 

This vehicle only has 133k miles.

 

Total Cost (In order):

Full inspection at Clair Toyota service Center $98
Car $4,000
Insurance:$333 ($677 due)
sales tax: $0 (arranged as a gift)
RMV Registration: $111 (Plate, Gift $, registration fee)
MA inspectation: $29

Total:

Technorati Tags     car,fee,RMV

Steps-Buy Used Car

1. Open the front roof of engine
    - check the frame. Any accident sign?
    - check the transmission oil. Use a napkin to clean the oil at the bottom of the stick then put the stick back to oil again then take out to see the color of the oil
    - check the engine oil

2. Turn the front wheel right and left
    - go under the car to check any rust and oil leaking
    - for old car, pay attention to the CV Boot to see if it worn out

3. Check the power window and mirror if applicable

4. Drive around, check if there is any noise/sound when you hit brake/accelerator, turn right/left, reverse etc

5. Ask for:
    - when changed timing belt (it's expensive to replace one!)
    - when changed the tire
    - any work on Brake recently

6. Take to a full service center of the manufacture. Pay for a full inspection and ask the technician list top problems to fix. Either have the owner fixed at his cost or ask him deducting the price then you will fix it by yourself later.

Technorati Tags     car,used

CV-Joint and CV-Boot

This is an amazing learning opportunity when you decided to buy a used car and... it's your first car! Thought is not directly Babson related but it happens right now when I am still with Babson so I will post the story here anyway.

I got a 1997 Toyota Camry checked today with M's help. 133K. One-owner. No problem. But you know what, M found there is a CV boot leak at the front left wheel. So what the heck is CV boot and is it serious? Read one...


http://www.cartalk.com/content/advice/driveaxleboots.html
http://autos.yahoo.com/maintain/repairqa/tires_wheels/ques111_0.html
http://www.aa1car.com/library/2004/bf100434.htm
http://www.fwdaxles.com/fwd_qa.html
http://www.pointedthree.com/disc/forums/showthread.php?tid=7011&posts=8
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ai90.fh.cjriQODhaQUrZ6Psy6IX?qid=20060927203215AAtSfoi&show=7#profile-info-d9cc28bb37210ba1e0b933f70b27d970aa


Wow. I guess I may pretend to be a semi-expert to fool someone now...haha

And if you read this post from boston.craigslist.org, it reinforced the importance of cv joint/boot:


White, 5sp, 141,000 miles, aluminum wheels, no rust, good condition inside and out. Front wheel drive only; prior to sale, rear wheel drivetrain and a problematic transmission coupling will be disconnected (alternatively, buyer may elect to repair). Reliable 2.2L engine runs well; brakes, front CV joints, tires and alternator are all new within past year. Photos available upon request. Email or call 617 959 4667. $2500 OBO.




A side not: How to understand a VIN? http://www.vinguard.org/vin.htm

Technorati Tags     cv,toyota,joint,boot,camry

MBA-Software Ball Play

MBA Team Back on Track, Destroys Oponent
April 20, 2007
AstroTurf Field
Babson Park, MA

On a beautiful spring afternoon (Finally!!) our softball field took the field one more time.  With the cheers from the  largest crowd to  see an intramural game (and we are not being sarcastic) and enjoying the great weather our team homered, YES HOMERED its way to a 21-3 stumping of the the AEPi team.  Exclusive press coverage was provided by Alexey “The paparazzi” Amerikov, pictures of the game to follow.

The cheering crowd led by loyal groupies Colleen and Ilya, provided the psychological boost our team needed to bounce back from last week's defeat.

Here are some of the highlights,
Our Japanese imports finally straighten out their issues with their visas and finally ended their contract disputes.
The game started in a great note after a great move from the manager to start Lauren Ratner as pitcher.  The move provided incredible results as Lauren pitched a great game with one strikeout and allowed 3 unearned runs in 5 innings.  Saul “ I just gave up 5 runs in the first inning” Shum was demoted to the minor leagues after conflicts of interest with the team management (mutiny). However, he promised to show his commitment to the team by coordinating next week's events. Also, on the defensive side of the game, Adam Finley shined at shortstop appearing to catch fly balls all over the field.

On the offensive side, our team was led by the powerful left-handed bat of Josh Weinstock that ended the game with 2 home runs and 8 rbi.  Also shinning was Caitlin “ why do you keep batting me eighth?’ Geissler that had an inside the park home run in the first inning.  We cannot forget Dave Sanborn’s home run in front of his biggest admirer, his son.   Rafa continued to display his “piñata” swing but has able to reach base multiple times.  Our team offense clicked batting around in 3 of the 5 innings.  Special thanks goes out to honorary captain Chris “ I am the president” Burdick who played solid first base and provided refreshments to the team and the fans.  

We would also like to thank Katie Brown who trusted us enough to take the prospective women to watch our game.

We had a great time on Friday and hope that everyone that showed up did too.  We would like to invite you to our next game this Wednesday @ 5:00PM at the Rugby Field over at Olin College.  Saul will be sending an email on Monday to coordinate the players and refreshments.


------ End of Forwarded Message
Technorati Tags     babson,mba,softball

DL-Danwei.org

DanWei has a fabulous blog post to demonstrate the reasoning process of western people. I think traditionally Chinese are good on those debate but we are far lagging behind. ANd I agree that Chinese government should put more pressure on Sudan. For whatever reason, killing hundres of thousands of people will make the reason absurd. And for the same reason, even though I strongly believe Taiwan is part of China but if a war really occur because Taiwan declare the independence later, I doubt I will support the war.

Technorati Tags     china,danwei

20070322

I am sitting in my room at Montreal. This will be my last evening in this cozy place at Verdun. And I also feeel that I had lost interest somehow to continue this weekly journal at Babson. For almost one semester, I am writing my weekly experience and I realized somehow I have had enough. You know I am a very interest-driven person, so...


let's see.

BTW, it's great to write my blog via ZOHO then publish to blogspot.com directly via open API...You should try zoho.com for sure.

20070306-0312

It's a late blog but hey, I am in the final exam week for MOD III. Can't you believe it, it's over, the first half of 2007 is almost over while I am thinking about the to do list we had prepared for R last year...

I have a lot to write and here is a list of those topics:

My VCIC experience
My techtalk gathering
My undertanding of the shift of world
My digital living standard

and this will be my VCIC experience that started almost one month ago when J took the initiative to organize a team and M invited me to particiate. I was somehow reluctant as being busy with other things. I just wanted to have the least things I have to deal with. The less the better because anything will consume way more time than you originally think. That's why I hate small things like creditcard payment etc... Anyway, I tried to quite this VCIC team in the very beginning but after I learned that I can not quit otherwise the rest of the team, Maan, Marin, Max and Jin, will not qualify for the internal competition. So I wrote following email:


Team,

My tight schedule did make me considering quit this VCIC in the beginning. But since I will stay, let's try our best to win it!

.....

More info of VCIC, Venture Capital Investment Competition can be found at www.vcic.unc.edu. UNC really created lots of competition in MBA area. Is UNC one of the oldest bschool?

I am happy I did stay with the team and worked together to win the internal competition at Babson. I have to admit it's a good feeling being the finalist even though I am not a fan of any award. A brief about what we had in the internal competition at babson:

Friday 5pm, received 3 real business plan.
by 12pm, selected the one we will invest and prepared the question for due deligence on Saturday

Saturday, 8am, entrepreneur pitch then followed by due diligence with each team (totally 6 teams including us, Snowbasin ventures)
12am, finish term sheet preparation and presentation
1pm team start presentation.

Things are always the same for the regiional competition at NYC from Mar 8th to Mar 11th. We are competing with the 7 of top 10 bschool in US. We got 4 business plan. We had 20 judges, mostly associates from VC firms with office in NYC. It's a real practice. We had chosen the start-up developing digital media authoring software and thought it has a big expansion potential. However, we are the only team chosen this team. Most others choose either the www.collectorsquest.com or Zeroin Media.

What I had learned?
1. Explanation of termsheet used most frequently by VCs
The most useful blog from VCs I had read is from Feld
http://www.feld.com/blog/archives/2005/08/term_sheet_seri.html
who is the managing director of Mobius Venture Capitalbased in Boulder, Colorado

2. Rational about venture selection
Teams, business model, opportunity etc...why VC will inveset $ in this venture rather than that? Why we had seen so many start-ups with ideas we thought no-sense at all but won millions of $ investment? It's an execellent chance for entrepreneurs to review their business model. Not purely for the sake of VC $ but a more objective analysis from another side of the start-up value chain.

3. valuation
Ok, if decided to seek VC investment, the omst important would be valuation. How much d o you think your venture worht today? What you can do to increase the value, immediatley, in short-term and in the long run?

4. Hard working, hard working and hard working.
Hardworkign it self may not bring you the success but without hard working, your chance is trivial.

20070219-0225

Last week is a wonderful week in terms of outcome. The 5-member team I am in had won the internal competition at Babson so that we will present Babson to compete again HBS, MIT, LBS, Cornell, Yale etc in NYC next weekend. The top 2 team of this NorthEast region competition will go to UNC for the national VCIC competition organized by the Kernan-flagler bschool of UNC. It's cool but also means I have less time for Rilik. Because M is in this team, Snowbasin Venture, as well so it's a double time loss. There is a pressure to win the regional competion in NYC, not for the excitement to compete with all those top 10 bschools (only missed stanford/wharton in this northeast regional competition) but to compensate my time spent on it. For more info, check http://www.vcic.unc.edu/. Last year Babson team end up at No.4.


We also had the first Sat gathering as an extension to our Wed lunch session. Surprisingly, totally 17 people had showed up and made T's place kinda crowd. It lasted about 3 hours and the discussion is very good. The intention for this Sat gathering is to have more and longer discussion since Wed version is only 1-hour long. I am very excited to see the atmosphere we had built through Wed session had been continued and integrated more others into it. I do hope we could finally see one or two or more start-ups can emerge from this gathering.

The final exam for MOD III is coming in two weeks. We will have our first DMS/MVC exam next Friday that conflicted with the VCIC event in NYC. Prof.Bliss is tough as usual to negotiate but I quite like his style, give me your reason while asking for anything. Straightforward, is it.


And weather, weather. We had another big snow. It's beautiful, it's winter and it's a pity that my scheduled meeting with J at AV had been cancelled due to the terrible condition of road. And It has to be postoned to sometime in April. It's a long push...



R wise. I feel bad because of the further limited time because of the VCIC competition. Spring break is coming, 9 days, will get the business plan done.

20070129-0203

OMG, We are almost in the middle of MOD III. Can't you believe it! And I did start feeling pressure. Well, the MVC and SCS are really challening. Not in class wise but time wise. Those two do need I to devote certain time into it BEFORE the class like 2 hour per class. My strategy last semester that only reading the assignment and pay attention to the class doesn't work well this time. So now I spent about 3-4 hours per day on course preparation. If just this load, my life will still be totally fine...

My start-up plan makes my wife worse... Anyway, I skiped the DMS class on Friday for a nap at apartment and it's so good after I got up one hour later. And it made me felt SO BAD that I didn't skip the class to attend the MashUP camp two weeks ago in MIT. I will say this is one of the biggest mistake I had made here in Babson.


Interesting enough, the short conversation I had with the so-called Provost of Babson,Patricia G. Greene, at the BusinessDemo of the BacktoBabson event last year suddently pop up in my mind so here it is:

Provost: What is your business idea?
HONG: ^&^&%&^S%DF*(&S...
Provost: Had your professor taught you how to do a business pitch?
HONG: ...

Well, I understood my pitch wasn't compelling but hey, go to check curriculum first before asking. If you pay more attention to the pitch itself, you missed the whole picture.


Just an andecdote.


I had attended an event called WebInnovatorGroups @ http://webinnovatorsgroup.com/ and it's quite good. The details are in the website. I felt the passion, excitement, IT and bubble around the room. It's a cool feeling. Many may say, hey, it's bubble again. But you know what, view bubble as the catalyst. WIthout bubble, I won't be able to be here using fantastic product sucha s ZOHO office. Do you think Google is bubbled at $500 per share before?


I also decided to withdraw further research effort towrds R's idea. It's a good idea but I dont have enough time to pursue. Besides, may end the video talk with J as well as it's an expensive area with too many players. I am quite excited about the event one poped up in my mind a few days ago and I decided to puruse this one whatsever as it's really simple and effective.


Again, initiatives pay off. Trust, if you believe anything is possible and never say never without trying. you will see a totally different world..


Oh, at last, the most important part of this week is that I was invited to visit T&K's place. It's so closeby that it only takes them 5 minutes by driving to Olin hall, even faster than my walking from Woodland Hill. How badly the machiney had changed the world... ANyway, that's a very enjoyable discussion with T and I am very glad to meet mroe and more people who share similar mentality. No, don't get me wrong. I dont' mean we are the same and I dont want that. Just totally different people but similar mentality. Open, risk-taking, straight-forward... I just love it. Good period. Good week. and I will start catching up the MVC now...What's the cost of capital, Bliss?

20070122-0128

We are almost in the middle of Mod III now. A MOD with lots of detailed operation-oriented courses such as strategic cost managemen and manage venture cash, it's relative an easy mod for me. If I could live without any start-up plan/idea, I will have a mucch easy life and could spend more time to read some interesting books such as "The queen's Gambit" by Walter Tevis. However, I can't.


Well this week is much better than last week since no additional fellowship work had been assigned to me, NN's proposal to look at the international education market caught my eyeball. It fits our background so well and it's a growing market that will last at least for next 20 years. I like its potentil and the entry barrier that it has since you really need to be an international student to understand the opportunity first. Well I learned to be more rational while feeling excited. We agreed to have two weeks study to evaluate the feasiblity as a business. We met in Sat and realized there is some challenges to design a simple yet effective business model. And we will meet again next weekend to make the final decision.


R had another final meeting and I started appreciating the potential of the travel segmentation we will target at. It could be a nice marketplace for small service providers who may never be able to list in travelocity/expedia/orbitz. It also could be an ideal place to bring surprise for individuals. That's really the core spirit of the original model. Yet I am wondering when to start the R&D process. the UI design would be key and I should spend sometime next week to scratch...


Besides above things, this week is relatively a quiet week. Oh, not really. I am so glad to learned T in my group is also thinking of doing some startups on the way he driving me back to woodland hill. Again, the besti gift I would like to receive is to know one more entrepreneur or entrepreneur-wannabe. The talk with those type of people is full of fun and joyful. I like his political tree idea and would like to see the final launch.

I am also glad to have our seond Wed tech-talk lunch session. A recent undergraduate from Austraia also joined us. It's wonderul. Since next week, We wil start having one or two people providing an in-depth presentation of a certain topic so that could lead to more insighful discussion.I am lookng foward to that!

My wireless keyboard sucks again. stop now..