The Wall Street Journal's annual survey of corporate MBA recruiters has ranked Stanford #19 nationally. Other "top tier" schools such as Harvard and Wharton also rank low, at #14 and #11, respectively. Reasons for the low ranking, according to the article are "students' inflated egos and excessive expectations." The article continues to note, however, that "their [Harvard and Stanford's] graduates still end up landing some of the highest paying jobs."
While I don't find the ranking itself to be that alarming--it doesn't appear to reflect recruiter's willingness to interview/hire Harvard and Stanford MBAs--I do think there is some insight to be gained here. While getting into a top business school is definitely an accomplishment, it does not guarantee success at any level (nor a job after b-school). The people we work with do not care where we got our MBA, and some will actually be hostile towards us because we have an MBA from a top school. As the recruiting season for MBA2s begins in about a month, hopefully we will all take this article as a reminder that we are not entitled to anything.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
My last week in South Africa
Its pretty unbelievable to think that I only have a few more days left in South Africa before I return home to start my second year at Stanford! I have definitely had a great time here, and there is still much left for me to see--perhaps another trip in 2010??
Here are some more photos of my adventures here:
This is me at Blythe Canyon, which is the third largest canyon in the world. We visited this on the return from Kruger Park. As an aside, I heard on the radio yesterday that 4 lions broke out of Kruger Park Sunday night--one of them was hit by a train and died but the other three are still on the loose. And just in case anyone reading this blog ever runs into a lion :), the experts suggest that you DO NOT back down or run away--try to look as big as possible to scare them away. Lions love to play cat and mouse games, and will pounce on you if you try to run.
This is the entrance to the Sterkfontein caves. This is where the oldest human fossils have been found, as well as the oldest man-made tools, and the first recorded use of controlled fire. It was discovered by miners in the late 1800s--unfortunately for them (but fortunate for paleo-anthropologists), no gold was discovered, and scientists were allowed to investigate the caves.
Behind these gates is where Little Foot was found--the first complete Australopithecus skeleton. It has taken over 14 years to to excavate the fossil; the calcium that encases it is actually harder than the bones. Out tour guide believes that it will be placed on exhibit sometime next year.
Everyone I have spoken too has recommended that I go to the Apartheid museum--after visiting here I now know why. I don't think its possible to describe the emotions you feel as you walk through the different exhibits--it was unbelievable to think that a regime like this still existed in the early part of the 90s. All South Africans were classified according to their race (White, Black, Coloured or mixed race, and Indian were the most common racial groups). The groups were then separated from each other into different regions of the country. This forced many families to abandon their homes, or worse, to be split apart during the classification, as parents could be deemed a different race than children.
This occurred to protect the white South Africans who were worried that they were losing control in the major cities. Only Whites were allowed to vote, and they received superior public services. The education system for blacks was designed to keep them in the lower working class--one of the Prime Ministers during Apartheid justified this system by asking: why would you teach a black man arithmetic when he'll never need to use it? Utterly sickening.
Thankfully, international pressure and country-wide rioting made it almost impossible to maintain the Apartheid system. However, I was disappointed to read that the U.S. was actually one of the last countries to apply sanctions against South Africa; government officials viewed South Africa as an important stronghold against communism. Only when it was clear that the cold war was ending did Congress override President Reagan's veto to pass the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act.
Unfortunately, the effects of Apartheid are still apparent in South Africa, especially in Johannesburg. Everyday on my way to work I see white South Africans comfortably driving in their Porsche's and BMW's, while 15-20 black South Africans are packed into 8 passenger "taxis". All street peddlers are black, all menial jobs are held by blacks, and according to a 2004 U.N. report, the life expectancy of blacks is only 51, compared to 69 for whites.
South Africa has a long way to go before it can claim a better life for all.
Here are some more photos of my adventures here:
This is me at Blythe Canyon, which is the third largest canyon in the world. We visited this on the return from Kruger Park. As an aside, I heard on the radio yesterday that 4 lions broke out of Kruger Park Sunday night--one of them was hit by a train and died but the other three are still on the loose. And just in case anyone reading this blog ever runs into a lion :), the experts suggest that you DO NOT back down or run away--try to look as big as possible to scare them away. Lions love to play cat and mouse games, and will pounce on you if you try to run.
This is the entrance to the Sterkfontein caves. This is where the oldest human fossils have been found, as well as the oldest man-made tools, and the first recorded use of controlled fire. It was discovered by miners in the late 1800s--unfortunately for them (but fortunate for paleo-anthropologists), no gold was discovered, and scientists were allowed to investigate the caves.
Behind these gates is where Little Foot was found--the first complete Australopithecus skeleton. It has taken over 14 years to to excavate the fossil; the calcium that encases it is actually harder than the bones. Out tour guide believes that it will be placed on exhibit sometime next year.
Everyone I have spoken too has recommended that I go to the Apartheid museum--after visiting here I now know why. I don't think its possible to describe the emotions you feel as you walk through the different exhibits--it was unbelievable to think that a regime like this still existed in the early part of the 90s. All South Africans were classified according to their race (White, Black, Coloured or mixed race, and Indian were the most common racial groups). The groups were then separated from each other into different regions of the country. This forced many families to abandon their homes, or worse, to be split apart during the classification, as parents could be deemed a different race than children.
This occurred to protect the white South Africans who were worried that they were losing control in the major cities. Only Whites were allowed to vote, and they received superior public services. The education system for blacks was designed to keep them in the lower working class--one of the Prime Ministers during Apartheid justified this system by asking: why would you teach a black man arithmetic when he'll never need to use it? Utterly sickening.
Thankfully, international pressure and country-wide rioting made it almost impossible to maintain the Apartheid system. However, I was disappointed to read that the U.S. was actually one of the last countries to apply sanctions against South Africa; government officials viewed South Africa as an important stronghold against communism. Only when it was clear that the cold war was ending did Congress override President Reagan's veto to pass the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act.
Unfortunately, the effects of Apartheid are still apparent in South Africa, especially in Johannesburg. Everyday on my way to work I see white South Africans comfortably driving in their Porsche's and BMW's, while 15-20 black South Africans are packed into 8 passenger "taxis". All street peddlers are black, all menial jobs are held by blacks, and according to a 2004 U.N. report, the life expectancy of blacks is only 51, compared to 69 for whites.
South Africa has a long way to go before it can claim a better life for all.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
The Rest of the Big 5
By Saturday morning we had seen 40% of the Big 5: leopards and elephants. We were guaranteed by our guide to see buffaloes (good), but told that there are only 3 rhinos that live in the North side of the park (bad). So that left us with one... the lions. Nobody in our camp the previous night had seen any lions that day, and everyone we ran into that morning confirmed this depressing fact. But we continued, and I refused to give up hope even though I knew that our chances were dwindling as the morning cool turned into the afternoon heat. At around 11:30, we happened upon some giraffes, so we stopped to take some pictures. After watching them for a few minutes, we realized that something was not normal... the giraffes were frantically looking around, and were very easily startled. Our guide agreed that something was not right, so we spent some time looking through the grass. Not finding anything, we drove away disappointed; something had to be scaring those giraffes. Just as I was thinking this, I saw some movement in the distance underneath a bush. I couldn't believe it; I had been waiting all day for this! I screamed out: LIONS, LIONS! Sure enough, underneath a bush lay a lioness and three cubs. I was very excited :)
After taking about a hundred pictures of the lion in the same position (they don't move much during the day), we drove off to our next camp for lunch.
That evening we went on a sunset safari with one of the park rangers; I was expecting some cool sightings since most of the predators are nocturnal and this would be our only opportunity to be outside of camp after sunset. Unfortunately, our new guide drove insanely fast, which made it almost impossible to see anything (even with the spotlights). A couple times I saw some eyes reflect of in the distance, but by the time I could yell to the driver to stop we would have already traveled a few 100 meters. So in the end we didn't see anything cool that night, but I wasn't too disappointed given the amazing viewing we had earlier in the trip.
We woke up early the next day to ensure we were the first out in the park; our guide knew where a few hyena dens were and we wanted to get there before they got back from their hunt. Sure enough, they were arriving just as we got there. Unfortunately they never came close enough to get a proper picture, but it was interesting to learn about them from our guide: female spotted hyenas are actually larger than males and dominate them. They also have the strongest jaws of all mammals and eat their prey in entirety (bones and all).
Next we drove by the area where we saw the lions the previous day. Willem told us that they tend not to move much during the night, so we might be able to find them again. We drove up to a pack of cars and there they were--two lioness and three cubs. But they were even farther away, so none of the pictures turned out. Oh well, at least we had found them.
Now we were on the lookout for some buffalo. Yesterday we had been told about a breeding herd of about 100 crossing the Letaba river; unfortunately we had been there too early and missed the sighting. But today we were much luckier, as we ran into two breeding herds not more than a kilometer away from each other. The animals basically behave like cattle, but with an unpredictable aggression that makes them the deadliest of the Big 5; they will charge without warning. So I'm hoping they don't get too angry at us as we drive in the middle of their herd :)
At this point I am pretty pleased with our safari; we saw four of the Big 5, including both of the large predators. It would have been cool to see a male lion and a rhino, but you can't get everything. At least so I thought :)
About an hour after our buffalo excursion, we see a car stopped by the side of the road and an old man pointing towards something in the bush. We drive up, but all we can see is the grass moving. Our guide thinks that maybe we've ran across some hyenas; I'm thinking maybe I'll get some pictures this time. Then we see the animal get up--that's no hyena, that's another lion!!! And much closer this time, maybe only 2o feet away.
So we are happily taking pictures, and Adriana is filming the lioness walk around, when all of a sudden another lion pops up from the grass:
I can't believe our luck! Three lion sightings, plus the king. What a beautiful animal too. Below is some footage of the lioness and the lion (notice how easily the lioness blends into the grass when she lays down at the end of the video).
So now I think our safari is complete; sure, we didn't see a rhino, but at least we saw lions up close. As we are about to leave the park though, our guide hits the brakes and points out to the distance: "I can't believe it, I got you your rhino!"
It was definitely far away, but we did manage to see a rhino (he's drinking at a watering hole next to a buffalo). I think our guide might have been more excited than we were. What a weekend--all of the Big 5, plus hyenas, zebras, giraffes, impalas, ostriches, baboons, hippos... the list goes on and on. It goes without saying that I highly recommend our tour guide, so if you're looking to book a safari in the near future, contact Willem Pieterse at +27 11 894 5406 or check out their website at www.outlook-lodge.com/safaris.
After taking about a hundred pictures of the lion in the same position (they don't move much during the day), we drove off to our next camp for lunch.
That evening we went on a sunset safari with one of the park rangers; I was expecting some cool sightings since most of the predators are nocturnal and this would be our only opportunity to be outside of camp after sunset. Unfortunately, our new guide drove insanely fast, which made it almost impossible to see anything (even with the spotlights). A couple times I saw some eyes reflect of in the distance, but by the time I could yell to the driver to stop we would have already traveled a few 100 meters. So in the end we didn't see anything cool that night, but I wasn't too disappointed given the amazing viewing we had earlier in the trip.
We woke up early the next day to ensure we were the first out in the park; our guide knew where a few hyena dens were and we wanted to get there before they got back from their hunt. Sure enough, they were arriving just as we got there. Unfortunately they never came close enough to get a proper picture, but it was interesting to learn about them from our guide: female spotted hyenas are actually larger than males and dominate them. They also have the strongest jaws of all mammals and eat their prey in entirety (bones and all).
Next we drove by the area where we saw the lions the previous day. Willem told us that they tend not to move much during the night, so we might be able to find them again. We drove up to a pack of cars and there they were--two lioness and three cubs. But they were even farther away, so none of the pictures turned out. Oh well, at least we had found them.
Now we were on the lookout for some buffalo. Yesterday we had been told about a breeding herd of about 100 crossing the Letaba river; unfortunately we had been there too early and missed the sighting. But today we were much luckier, as we ran into two breeding herds not more than a kilometer away from each other. The animals basically behave like cattle, but with an unpredictable aggression that makes them the deadliest of the Big 5; they will charge without warning. So I'm hoping they don't get too angry at us as we drive in the middle of their herd :)
At this point I am pretty pleased with our safari; we saw four of the Big 5, including both of the large predators. It would have been cool to see a male lion and a rhino, but you can't get everything. At least so I thought :)
About an hour after our buffalo excursion, we see a car stopped by the side of the road and an old man pointing towards something in the bush. We drive up, but all we can see is the grass moving. Our guide thinks that maybe we've ran across some hyenas; I'm thinking maybe I'll get some pictures this time. Then we see the animal get up--that's no hyena, that's another lion!!! And much closer this time, maybe only 2o feet away.
So we are happily taking pictures, and Adriana is filming the lioness walk around, when all of a sudden another lion pops up from the grass:
I can't believe our luck! Three lion sightings, plus the king. What a beautiful animal too. Below is some footage of the lioness and the lion (notice how easily the lioness blends into the grass when she lays down at the end of the video).
So now I think our safari is complete; sure, we didn't see a rhino, but at least we saw lions up close. As we are about to leave the park though, our guide hits the brakes and points out to the distance: "I can't believe it, I got you your rhino!"
It was definitely far away, but we did manage to see a rhino (he's drinking at a watering hole next to a buffalo). I think our guide might have been more excited than we were. What a weekend--all of the Big 5, plus hyenas, zebras, giraffes, impalas, ostriches, baboons, hippos... the list goes on and on. It goes without saying that I highly recommend our tour guide, so if you're looking to book a safari in the near future, contact Willem Pieterse at +27 11 894 5406 or check out their website at www.outlook-lodge.com/safaris.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Kruger Park Day 2: Elephants
Day 2 started off early in the morning (5 AM), so we could get to the entrance of the park when the gates open. Early morning and late evening are the best time to see the predators (most are nocturnal), so I am really hoping to see some lions this morning. Unfortunately, we don't see anything (literally no animals) for about two and half hours. You definitely have to be patient during a safari.
However, around 9AM we run into a breeding herd of elephants on the side of the road, one of which is a little baby elephant.
As we continue to drive down the road we run into a couple of juvenile male elephants. This was really cool because our guide knew how to interact with them. We drove up to the elephant, which did not please the bull. However, Willem knew that the bull would not actually charge us because his ears were spread out--he was trying to make himself look as big as possible before his mock charge. So we stood our ground and sure enough he made a fake charge at us (see video below). Pretty sweet.
A little later in the day we ran into two of the biggest elephants we would see. Both of these guys were full grown male bulls, weighing between 5 and 6 tons. The picture below of the first one really shows how big these animals are. He walked right next to our car, which was kind of scary, but Willem assured us that he wouldn't charge. At this point in time I was glad we had a guide :)
Our interaction with the next bull was pretty sweet. Willem drove up to him, and when he approached us on the road, we started backing up. When the elephant saw that we were retreating, he got really excited and started charging toward the car faster. But then Willem stopped, and the elephant was not pleased (he was really enjoying demonstrating his dominance). So then he walked past us and let us know he wasn't too happy (see video).
In the end we saw so many elephants that we wouldn't even stop the car to take pictures. But for me, they weren't even the coolest sighting of the day. That would be the lions...
However, around 9AM we run into a breeding herd of elephants on the side of the road, one of which is a little baby elephant.
As we continue to drive down the road we run into a couple of juvenile male elephants. This was really cool because our guide knew how to interact with them. We drove up to the elephant, which did not please the bull. However, Willem knew that the bull would not actually charge us because his ears were spread out--he was trying to make himself look as big as possible before his mock charge. So we stood our ground and sure enough he made a fake charge at us (see video below). Pretty sweet.
A little later in the day we ran into two of the biggest elephants we would see. Both of these guys were full grown male bulls, weighing between 5 and 6 tons. The picture below of the first one really shows how big these animals are. He walked right next to our car, which was kind of scary, but Willem assured us that he wouldn't charge. At this point in time I was glad we had a guide :)
Our interaction with the next bull was pretty sweet. Willem drove up to him, and when he approached us on the road, we started backing up. When the elephant saw that we were retreating, he got really excited and started charging toward the car faster. But then Willem stopped, and the elephant was not pleased (he was really enjoying demonstrating his dominance). So then he walked past us and let us know he wasn't too happy (see video).
In the end we saw so many elephants that we wouldn't even stop the car to take pictures. But for me, they weren't even the coolest sighting of the day. That would be the lions...
Monday, September 10, 2007
Safari in Kruger National Park: Day 1
This past weekend was easily one of the best experiences of my life. I can't believe how many animals I saw in such a short period of time! Here's a recap of day one of the weekend:
It started Friday morning at 7am with our guide Willem picking Adriana and I up at my apartment. The guide was really nice, and has lived quite an interesting life. He has been a safari guide since 1994, and before that he was a police officer. When the apartheid government was overturned, many of the public sector jobs were reallocated from whites to non-whites, and his job was one of the positions identified. So he took a job in an anti-poaching team, and eventually began guiding safaris.
After 5 hours of driving we arrived at Kruger in one of the north entrances. In fact, Willem had asked us when we booked (Tuesday of that week), because normally safaris begin in the south where there is much more diverse wildlife--this is where you are most likely to find the big predators (lions, leopards, hyenas). North is elephant and buffalo country. Unfortunately, there were no accommodations available in the south, so we had to stay at Letaba and Shingwedzi. Needless to say, I wasn't exactly happy to hear that we were going to have a difficult time finding the big cats.
We drive into the park and one of the first animals we encounter are impalas. Whats funny is that we probably spent 5 minutes watching these guys; throughout the weekend we ended up seeing them hundreds of times more.
But the next animals we saw were much cooler: zebras. They are absolutely magnificent; it was quite the experience to see them up close. An interesting note we learned from our guide: they can be domesticated, but that their backs are too weak to ride or carry cargo. Definitely one of the coolest animals we saw this weekend.
After driving around for about an hour and not seeing anything, we discovered another of Africa's most interesting animals: the giraffe. These guys blend in surprisingly well given that they are the tallest animals on the planet. They also were very helpful the next morning, when they alerted us about an incoming predator (more on that later).
After about 3 hours in the park we had seen zebras, giraffes, a few elephants from very far away, and a lot of deer like animals (impala, bushbuck, steenbok). However, I still wanted to see what eats these animals. At one point in time we saw a vulture flying overhead, which I was hoping was there because lions were about to leave a fresh meal, but our guide told us that there needs to be more than one vulture before anything good is happening below.However, at about 5:00 PM that evening (an hour before the park closes), we hit the jackpot. A car was waiting by the side of the road looking at something in the distance, so we decided to check it out ourselves and sure enough, there was a leopard sitting about 20 meters away from the road. But by the time I could turn on my camera, she got up and walked behind a bush, which blocked our view. We kept driving back and forth trying to find a good view point, but nothing was great enough for a photo. So we waited. And waited some more. And after 30 minutes and all the others cars that had stopped to see the leopard had left, the female leopard got up and started rolling around, which is how female leopards signal to male leopards they are ready to mate. And sure enough, we saw the male leopard start approaching from the distance. Unfortunately no mating occurred, and the female leopard stood up and starting walking towards our car! I was freaking out it was so close. And then out of nowhere a juvenile who was hidden the whole time got up and started following her! Willem told us that he had never seen this many leopards in one viewing: they are solitary animals and very difficult to spot.
What a great way to end our first day in Kruger!
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Week 2 in SA
It's been a couple days since my last post, so I thought I would give a quick update on my travels. Not a lot has happened this week, though tomorrow morning I am leaving for Kruger Park (check out my itinerary) to go on a "true African adventure." I have probably heard the words "true African adventure" or "true African experience" 100 times while I have been here--just about every promotion on the radio is described this way. But hopefully my safari this weekend will actually be an African experience (I'm crossing my fingers that its not worse than last weekend). I have heard mixed opinions on safaris during the winter; some people have said its good because their isn't a lot of cover to hide the animals (winter is the dry season); others have said sometimes its difficult to see the bigger predators because they travel north of South Africa towards Mozambique during the winter in search of prey. It would be nice to see all of the Big 5 (lions, elephants, rhinos, leopards, buffalo), and the camp that we are staying at the second night is close to Mozambique so hopefully we will.
As for Johannesburg, I am definitely more used to the hectic driving out here. South Africa's department of transportation has a lot of work ahead of them for the World Cup in 2010. Every day there is a new traffic light that is out of order, street signs are barely visible (especially at night), and taxis literally stop in the middle of the street to drop passengers off (with no warning). Another thing I found annoying driving back from the airport on Sunday is that the interstate is not labeled by direction (N, S, E, W) but instead by the city it goes to... this wasn't really helpful when I was trying to get onto N3 westward and my options were places I had never heard of like Soweto and Benoni. Might consider fixing that when an estimated 3 million visitors show up in a couple years.
As for Johannesburg, I am definitely more used to the hectic driving out here. South Africa's department of transportation has a lot of work ahead of them for the World Cup in 2010. Every day there is a new traffic light that is out of order, street signs are barely visible (especially at night), and taxis literally stop in the middle of the street to drop passengers off (with no warning). Another thing I found annoying driving back from the airport on Sunday is that the interstate is not labeled by direction (N, S, E, W) but instead by the city it goes to... this wasn't really helpful when I was trying to get onto N3 westward and my options were places I had never heard of like Soweto and Benoni. Might consider fixing that when an estimated 3 million visitors show up in a couple years.
Monday, September 3, 2007
Cape Town: Swing and a Miss
After hearing from many people that Cape Town is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, I was very excited for this weekend. Unfortunately, the gods of fate had other plans.
The trip started off harmless enough--my friend and I arrived late Friday night, and took a cab to Long Street to meet a few of our fellow classmates. The place was pretty chill, had a few drinks and actually met an undergrad from Stanford (I believe her name is Ariana) that knew about half of the b-school second year class. Pretty small world.
On Saturday we planned to visit Robben Island, the prison where Nelson Mandela was held for almost 30 years. Unfortunately, the tour was canceled due to the weather. So we wandered around the Waterfront (remarkably similar to San Francisco), saw some seals, and then met our friends for lunch in the Bo-Kaap district. That afternoon we were planning on taking the cable car up to the top of Table Mountain, but the weather hadn't improved and the mountain was completely covered in fog :-( So we drove around a bit, and decided that for dinner we would go to Bloemendal, the "traditional African experience" according to our friend's boss. This would turn out to be a HUGE mistake, because 1.) it wasn't much of an African experience (more British in my opionion), and 2.) two of us got horrible food poisoning from the food there (I don't recommend the Greek Salad).
So Sunday was spent with frequent trips to the bathroom, and falling in and out of consciousness while watching the movies Pocahantas and JFK from the TV in my room. Not exactly what I was envisioning for my visit to Cape Town; I think next time I'll plan on going during the summer and being a little more careful of what I eat!
Here are a few of the pictures from my trip:
This was my room in the B&B we stayed at. I spent a little more time in here than anticipated :)
Here's one of the seals we saw at the waterfront.
Not the best weather in Cape Town on Saturday.
Here's me, Gabe and Lemar outside of the market. I got a pretty good deal for a Djembe ($60)
This is the view of Table Mountain from my B&B--this was the first time I saw the mountain (literally an hour before we left for the airport)
The trip started off harmless enough--my friend and I arrived late Friday night, and took a cab to Long Street to meet a few of our fellow classmates. The place was pretty chill, had a few drinks and actually met an undergrad from Stanford (I believe her name is Ariana) that knew about half of the b-school second year class. Pretty small world.
On Saturday we planned to visit Robben Island, the prison where Nelson Mandela was held for almost 30 years. Unfortunately, the tour was canceled due to the weather. So we wandered around the Waterfront (remarkably similar to San Francisco), saw some seals, and then met our friends for lunch in the Bo-Kaap district. That afternoon we were planning on taking the cable car up to the top of Table Mountain, but the weather hadn't improved and the mountain was completely covered in fog :-( So we drove around a bit, and decided that for dinner we would go to Bloemendal, the "traditional African experience" according to our friend's boss. This would turn out to be a HUGE mistake, because 1.) it wasn't much of an African experience (more British in my opionion), and 2.) two of us got horrible food poisoning from the food there (I don't recommend the Greek Salad).
So Sunday was spent with frequent trips to the bathroom, and falling in and out of consciousness while watching the movies Pocahantas and JFK from the TV in my room. Not exactly what I was envisioning for my visit to Cape Town; I think next time I'll plan on going during the summer and being a little more careful of what I eat!
Here are a few of the pictures from my trip:
This was my room in the B&B we stayed at. I spent a little more time in here than anticipated :)
Here's one of the seals we saw at the waterfront.
Not the best weather in Cape Town on Saturday.
Here's me, Gabe and Lemar outside of the market. I got a pretty good deal for a Djembe ($60)
This is the view of Table Mountain from my B&B--this was the first time I saw the mountain (literally an hour before we left for the airport)
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Some pictures from South Africa
Here are a couple pictures of where I am living and working--more interesting stuff to come for sure after this weekend, when I fly to Cape Town. I haven't had much of a chance to do any site seeing so far, but now that I have gotten myself situated I will be venturing out more. Not much happened yesterday, I joined a gym (which is really nice: indoor pool, indoor track, 3 floors of workout equipment, timed circuit system, and a cool personal training device where you stick your keycard in the machine and it tells you what you lifted previously, and how much you should lift today).
This is my car. It has the worst acceleration in the world, but it gets me by! I think I have finally gotten used to entering on the right side, though I always grab to my left for the seat belt (its funny how automatic things become after you've done them thousands of times).
This is a picture of outside my office--nice building for a startup.
Here is the outside of my apartment. All of the housing complexes around here have gates in the front, though I have been told that security guards are not that reliable (in fact, I believe the quote was: "they're either gone half the time or stoned").
Here's my bedroom. Queen sized bed, my own bathroom; I definitely can't complain.
This is the living room. We get ESPN, so I still get my dose of SportsCenter in the morning (late AM in the U.S.).
This is the upstairs loft, though there isn't anything up there except for two long tables.
Here's the kitchen. I've cooked most of my meals so far--South African's are very much carnivores. I couldn't even find chicken at the local Woolworth's (all beef and lamb).
This is my car. It has the worst acceleration in the world, but it gets me by! I think I have finally gotten used to entering on the right side, though I always grab to my left for the seat belt (its funny how automatic things become after you've done them thousands of times).
This is a picture of outside my office--nice building for a startup.
Here is the outside of my apartment. All of the housing complexes around here have gates in the front, though I have been told that security guards are not that reliable (in fact, I believe the quote was: "they're either gone half the time or stoned").
Here's my bedroom. Queen sized bed, my own bathroom; I definitely can't complain.
This is the living room. We get ESPN, so I still get my dose of SportsCenter in the morning (late AM in the U.S.).
This is the upstairs loft, though there isn't anything up there except for two long tables.
Here's the kitchen. I've cooked most of my meals so far--South African's are very much carnivores. I couldn't even find chicken at the local Woolworth's (all beef and lamb).
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Cyest
I can't believe that today is only Tuesday! It seems like I've been here a week. Yesterday was my first day at Cyest, the startup that I am working for. I had a couple meetings with Andreas Cambitsis, who is one of the co-founders. We discussed the mission of Cyest (perfect creation of technology to build business), what current products are in existence (they are involved in many different businesses, though mining makes up ~60% of their revenue), and what projects they think I might be able to tackle. We have decided to first focus on the pricing of a mining product that they have created--it is a cross between Excel and SQL, but more powerful than Excel and more user friendly than SQL. They had created the product for one of their clients, and now believe that it solves a problem that exists in every mining company. The question is what should the licensing fee be? Currently there exists some competition at $6000 per seat, but most companies are still using Excel for their scheduling/financial modeling.
The company has 75 employees, though not all are on site. It is next to Sandton City, which is a huge shopping mall in Jo'burg. The office building is very nice, though yesterday there was a power outage (not sure if this is a regular occurrence or not). I'll post some pictures of the office, as well as my apartment, sometime this week.
The company has 75 employees, though not all are on site. It is next to Sandton City, which is a huge shopping mall in Jo'burg. The office building is very nice, though yesterday there was a power outage (not sure if this is a regular occurrence or not). I'll post some pictures of the office, as well as my apartment, sometime this week.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Monday Morning
Talk about an interesting morning! So as some of you might have guessed, people in
Cyest (the startup I am working for) is located a couple miles away from where I am staying, and is literally only 3 turns from my apartment, so of course I somehow manage to get lost. Which normally wouldn’t be a problem, because I would just: a) stop the car, and b) use google maps to figure out how to get to where I’m going. I don’t have google maps here in South
And I haven’t even started work yet :-)
Sunday, August 26, 2007
First day in South Africa
Well, after 24 hours of traveling from San Francisco to DC to Johannesburg, I have finally arrived in South Africa! The flight over here was actually pretty uneventful; I read Freakonomics on the flight to DC (I had already heard a lot of the stories from the book but figured i should read the whole thing). Upon arriving in DC i discovered that i was assigned a center seat even though i reserved an aisle--this didn't make me too happy but luckily the flight was not full so i found an aisle seat with nobody next to me. I'm not great at sleeping on planes, but i managed to get a couple hours of sleep in between watching Shrek 3, 300, Blades of Glory (which had its moments, but wasn't great--I had a very similar response to Ricky Bobby as well).
Upon arriving in South Africa, the cabbie that picked me up had no idea where we were going, so I got a free one hour unplanned tour of Johannesburg while he kept asking me where it was (I don't he understood that i had no idea, just an email with the address). But eventually we got here--its a pretty nice complex, though the guy with a rifle outside of one of the entrances wasn't exactly reassuring. Tomorrow I'm off to my first day, and I'm sure I'll have more to write about then.
Upon arriving in South Africa, the cabbie that picked me up had no idea where we were going, so I got a free one hour unplanned tour of Johannesburg while he kept asking me where it was (I don't he understood that i had no idea, just an email with the address). But eventually we got here--its a pretty nice complex, though the guy with a rifle outside of one of the entrances wasn't exactly reassuring. Tomorrow I'm off to my first day, and I'm sure I'll have more to write about then.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Advertising: The Future of Yahoo!
I met with Chris Jaffe today, who runs the Advertising User Experience Division here at Yahoo!. We talked about where he thinks the best opportunities are at Y!, and where the future of Y! lies. Not surprisingly, he believes that advertising is the place to be, and admits that in the past Y! placed it's B level engineers in advertising (with A level in product development). Now he is seeing this trend reverse as Yahoo! enters its "teenage years." In his meetings with Sue Decker, they have both agreed that the future of Y! is moving away from its owned content (yahoo.com) and into advertising partnerships with content owners (Ford, P&G, NBC).
One area that he believes Google is much farther behind than Y! is in TV advertising--currently advertisers on TV barely know what demographic is watching their ad, and in the near future Yahoo! will be providing data that is just as detailed as what is available for online ads.
Chris also discussed the area where he believes Google is still killing Yahoo!: scalability. All of the advertising tools at Google are automated--they just need to feed the "Adwords fire" and the auctions will take care of themselves. Y! still has a large salesforce, and in his opinion 3/4 of these people are un-needed (saving only the people who deal with Fortune 50 companies). Hopefully I will be able to discuss this in more detail with Robi Ganguly, who is also on my team and working in the division focused on improving scalability.
I believe that Chris truly agrees with the vision of Sue and Jerry here (he said that he has turned down multiple offers in the last 8 months), but he is concerned that they may not be able to deliver in time. In his opinion, if APEX hasn't launched in 18 months and blown away the competition, then Yahoo! is toast. And looking at Panama, this is a legitimate concern.
As for me, he believes that right now is the time to start a company or move into technology--the internet space is established but still moving very quickly, and there are very smart people who have figured out how to be successful (he mentioned Meebo as a great example). He also believes that you can move into consulting at any point in time, and that the experience you get working in the Valley will make you a more intriguing candidate for any job.
One area that he believes Google is much farther behind than Y! is in TV advertising--currently advertisers on TV barely know what demographic is watching their ad, and in the near future Yahoo! will be providing data that is just as detailed as what is available for online ads.
Chris also discussed the area where he believes Google is still killing Yahoo!: scalability. All of the advertising tools at Google are automated--they just need to feed the "Adwords fire" and the auctions will take care of themselves. Y! still has a large salesforce, and in his opinion 3/4 of these people are un-needed (saving only the people who deal with Fortune 50 companies). Hopefully I will be able to discuss this in more detail with Robi Ganguly, who is also on my team and working in the division focused on improving scalability.
I believe that Chris truly agrees with the vision of Sue and Jerry here (he said that he has turned down multiple offers in the last 8 months), but he is concerned that they may not be able to deliver in time. In his opinion, if APEX hasn't launched in 18 months and blown away the competition, then Yahoo! is toast. And looking at Panama, this is a legitimate concern.
As for me, he believes that right now is the time to start a company or move into technology--the internet space is established but still moving very quickly, and there are very smart people who have figured out how to be successful (he mentioned Meebo as a great example). He also believes that you can move into consulting at any point in time, and that the experience you get working in the Valley will make you a more intriguing candidate for any job.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Yahoo! Q2 Results
Today we had an all-hands meeting at Yahoo! to discuss the Q2 results and what is in Yahoo's future. Jerry Yang focused on how to change Y! three years down the road. His vision of Y! is a deep, active marketplace of consumers, advertisers, and publishers/developers. The opportunity exists in turning data into insights, which can then be turned into revenue generation. The problem is that Y! has become too separate from the Web. One change that he would like to make is rid Y! of its "closed garden" mentality--allow users to access content that is not on the Y! network. Additionally, he would like to change the company's focus away from deals with advertisers and content providers, to becoming partnerships. He has given himself 100 days to buy alignment with leadership, and evolve the organizational structure.
So, what do I think is wrong with Yahoo!?
-Decisions take too long to move through the organization--Y! needs a flatter hierarchy
-Culture is "9-6 job"; people are not enthusiastic about working here--changing this needs to start at the top
-People are protective of their turf within Y!, but do not necessarily make decisions that are in the best interest of the entire company
This last point is best illustrated through an example I heard yesterday. Someone within the division I work in (SDS) found out that a group of 100+ engineers were being laid off due to downsizing at their company. SDS moved in to interview as many candidates as possible, and was interested in many of them to hire. Realizing that other divisions at Yahoo! might also be interested, SDS told them about the opportunity as well. Now these divisions are angry at SDS because they were not informed earlier, and SDS has gotten the "pick of the litter." My guess is that in the future, if another opportunity like this ever occurs, there will be no communication between divisions for fear of being ostracized. Not a great thing when Yahoo! is trying to focus on "hiring the brightest people and placing them in areas where they will add the most value," as Jerry Yang mentioned in the all-hands meeting this morning.
So, what do I think is wrong with Yahoo!?
-Decisions take too long to move through the organization--Y! needs a flatter hierarchy
-Culture is "9-6 job"; people are not enthusiastic about working here--changing this needs to start at the top
-People are protective of their turf within Y!, but do not necessarily make decisions that are in the best interest of the entire company
This last point is best illustrated through an example I heard yesterday. Someone within the division I work in (SDS) found out that a group of 100+ engineers were being laid off due to downsizing at their company. SDS moved in to interview as many candidates as possible, and was interested in many of them to hire. Realizing that other divisions at Yahoo! might also be interested, SDS told them about the opportunity as well. Now these divisions are angry at SDS because they were not informed earlier, and SDS has gotten the "pick of the litter." My guess is that in the future, if another opportunity like this ever occurs, there will be no communication between divisions for fear of being ostracized. Not a great thing when Yahoo! is trying to focus on "hiring the brightest people and placing them in areas where they will add the most value," as Jerry Yang mentioned in the all-hands meeting this morning.
Monday, July 9, 2007
Meeting with Bradley Horowitz
On Friday, I had a meeting with Bradley Horowitz, Head of Advanced Development Division at Yahoo!. Bradley had given a talk for the Executive Speaker Series the first week of my internship, and I was very interested in his role as 'innovation leader' at Yahoo!. We discussed the difficulties of maintaining an entrepreneurial culture at a company the size of Y!, which are exacerbated by how quickly Y! has grown. One major problem that I have seen is that Y! has no platform--there are very little best practices across the network, and products/business units are still verticalized with little communication. Bradley mentioned that fixing this problem is one of Jerry Yang's priorities, and that very soon he will implementing a major change to address this problem.
I also asked Bradley how a company like Y! can keep its best employees; what stops them from leaving for startups or starting their own companies. Bradley runs Brickhouse, which addresses this problem, but he agreed that there is nothing Y! can do (or should do) if an employee has a great idea and wishes to pursue it outside of Y!. However, if the employee chooses to pursue his/her idea within Y!, than instead of a 1:1000 chance of success, it will be more like 1:100 or 1:50. So basically it comes down to people's risk tolerances--starting your company at Y! will never make you a billionaire, but it can make you a millionaire.
I also asked Bradley how a company like Y! can keep its best employees; what stops them from leaving for startups or starting their own companies. Bradley runs Brickhouse, which addresses this problem, but he agreed that there is nothing Y! can do (or should do) if an employee has a great idea and wishes to pursue it outside of Y!. However, if the employee chooses to pursue his/her idea within Y!, than instead of a 1:1000 chance of success, it will be more like 1:100 or 1:50. So basically it comes down to people's risk tolerances--starting your company at Y! will never make you a billionaire, but it can make you a millionaire.
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Human Tetris
Check out this new Japanese game show where humans act like tetris pieces. Perhaps a new Wii game?
Monday, June 18, 2007
Jerry Yang new CEO at Yahoo!
Quite the first day at work for me at Yahoo! It was just announced that Terry Semel has stepped down at Yahoo! to take a non-executive role. Jerry Yang, one of Yahoo's original founders, has taken his place as CEO. Sue Decker, who was believed to be in position to take the CEO role, has been named President. All three will be discussing at a company wide meeting today at 5:00. Couldn't have imagined a more exciting first day for me!
Friday, June 1, 2007
Why is online poker illegal in the U.S.?
Last fall a bill passed through Congress that caused poker sites such as Partypoker.com to turn around all of its U.S. customers--why?? And more importantly, will it be illegal forever?
Short History of Online Poker
Free online poker was first played over the IRC chat network in the late 1990s. Planet Poker was the first online cardroom to offer real money games in early 2000. ParadisePoker.com grew to become the internet’s largest online cardroom, and was acquired by Sportingbet PLC in October of 2004 for $340 million. Today, "Online Poker" is the single most searched term on the Internet.
On October 13, 2006, the Safe Port Act was signed into law. Attached to the Act was a provision that deemed any online bet or wager illegal if the bet was unlawful under any law in the State at which it was initiated or received. This outlawed financial transactions between online casinos and American banks and credit card companies. Accordingly, many poker rooms stopped taking deposits from
HR 2046 -- Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act of 2007
This bill was introduced into Congress on April 26, 2007 by Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA). It argues that internet gambling is a $13 billion industry worldwide, and licensing and regulating gambling in the
Will this bill pass?
Poker Players Alliance (PPA), an interest group for poker players, has formed to help support this bill. The group has 500,000+ members, and recently announced that former Republican Senator Alfonse D'Amato is the new chairman of the board. Through the website group members have the ability to send a letter to their representative congressman to support HR 2046. Last year, PPA spent $560,000 in direct lobbying efforts, a 100 percent over what was spent in 2005.
There has also been an increase in international pressure, as UIGEA is viewed as anticompetitive. In March of 2007, the World Trade Organization “ruled that
Finally, Academia has also begun to investigate whether poker should be classified as gambling at all. The Wall Street Journal recently published an article on May 5 entitled “Harvard Ponders Just What It Takes To Excel At Poker.” Harvard University Law School Professor Charles Nesson invited a group of poker professionals, game theorists, law students and gambling lobbyists to, as Nesson put it, “legitimate poker.” One of the attendees, Jay Kadane, has pitched to sponsors a project to show statistically that poker is a game of skill.
Legalizing poker could bring well needed tax revenues to U.S. states. Most likely, states that already allow poker (such as California) will be the first to allow poker. For poker to be legal, it will have to be permitted under the laws of the customer's place of residence and the operator's. It will be very interesting to see how tax revenues are shared between the operator's state and the customer's state.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Prediction Markets at Google
Bo Cowgill (Stanford Public Policy '03) presented in my E-business and Data Mining class on Monday about how Google use of prediction markets. Here is a summary of his presentation.
Prediction Markets at Google
Origins, Objectives and Implementation
Objective:
Prediction Markets at Google
Origins, Objectives and Implementation
Objective:
- Empowering average employee
- Improve awareness
- Quantify unquantifiable
- Improve morale
25 markets per quarter for 2 years.
Markets about:
- Product launches (number of Gmail users)
- Office/position openings (will this important position be filled on time)
- Employee quality of life (when will gym re-open)
- Competitors’ actions
- Fun markets (who will win the NBA championship)
Implementation
- Continuous double auction with limit orders
- Alternative would be with market makers.
- People can not see each other’s position.
Growth and Usage
Market stats
- Number of shares and number of trades has grown over time (due to added liquidity and more participants)
- Approximately 68,000 trades had occurred by the end of 2006, through a total of 2000 trade accounts
- Long tail distribution:
- One participant has made 3100 trades in 1 year 8 months (~5 per day)
- Approximately 400 participants have made 2 or less trades
- A little more than 50% of trades are made by engineers (but this reflects the overall structure of the company).
- People that are higher up (closer to CEO) and have a long tenure at Google are more likely to participate.
Individual performance
- Geography was a better predictor than job function of success
- Finance and software engineers have done better (best explained by bots?)
- "Batting Average" increases slightly with market participation (evidence of learning or do individuals who are not good quit?)
- Success for certain individuals has been consistent from quarter to quarter
Market set up:
- Typically 5 “options”
- E.g., when does a certain project launch: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May or later
Analysis of Predictiveness
- Average winning price 0 weeks before closing was $55; average losing price was $15
- Some predicted better (close to $100 the week of closing), whereas others like the Bush v Gore election was still 50/50 on election day
Rewards
- Money earned through trading is used to buy raffle tickets
- Prizes are then awarded through a random drawing
- Financial rewards seem not as strong as ‘Reputation’
Further Research
- Robin Hanson, professor of Economics at George Mason University (see webpage)
- Paper on presidential outcome prediction by Paul Rhode and Koleman Strumpf
- Research on the 2004 presidential race by Justin Wolfers and Eric Zitzewitz
Monday, April 23, 2007
Del.icio.us Founder
Josh Schachler, founder of del.icio.us, visited my E-Business and Data Mining class this week. He discussed the evolution of his company, how he decided to develop certain features versus others, and how del.icio.us has grown and why he believes it will continue to grow.
A couple factoids that he shared with the class:
The intended users of del.icio.us are definitely people who swim in lots of information; they are unable to keep track of URLs strictly through their homepage and bookmarks on their web browser. The site works so well because the cost of saving items is very low (this helps grow the network effect). Del.icio.us eventually has developed into a very light weight blog in this sense.
Josh has definitely made strategic changes to curb the social networking portion of the site. For example, there currently is no mechanism for messaging between users; his reasoning for this is to avoid negative interactions such as edit wars at wikipedia. He also was against the "hotlist" and other types of high score lists as they encourage strong negative second order effects on the system (ie. gaming).
We also discussed how similar del.icio.us is to other bookmarking sites like digg. Those sites tend to be more discovery oriented, whereas del.icio.us is intended to be more of a human-driven search engine. One statistic that demonstrates this type of usage is that only 8-10% of tags are on the most popular URLs; the tail of this distribution is very, very long. Josh also mentioned that Kevin Rose, the founder of digg, also uses del.icio.us.
In addition, Josh mentioned how he grew del.icio.us, and his reasoning for the Yahoo! acquisition. He said that they placed RSS on every page, created an application that easily migrated the bookmark of the day to a user's blog, and offered API for individuals to build functionality on top of the system. Del.icio.us can also import and export bookmarks very easily. Yahoo! provided the scaling technology that has allowed del.icio.us to grow at such a tremendous pace (from 300 thousand users in December of '05 to 1 million users in September of '06, and another 1 million users in the past 5 months).
One interesting aside is how Josh got the idea to create a bookmarking site. He was a trader for Morgan Stanley before starting del.icio.us, and built the site to create an interesting dataset to analyze. His says that his first focus was on the individual user, and the social aspect of the site was only a secondary concern. Del.icio.us itself is one of many sites that Josh purchased when the .us domain became avaiable in 2001. He wrote a program to determine what are the most common suffixes that end in 'us', and 'icious' was the winner.
A couple factoids that he shared with the class:
- 2 million users as of February 2007
- The median user creates 30-40 bookmarks/week (with 2 tags/bookmark)
- 90% of bookmarks are unique, with 1/2 million URLs added per day (compared to a couple thousand for Digg)
- The most popular sites are google, slashdot, yahoo! and amazon
The intended users of del.icio.us are definitely people who swim in lots of information; they are unable to keep track of URLs strictly through their homepage and bookmarks on their web browser. The site works so well because the cost of saving items is very low (this helps grow the network effect). Del.icio.us eventually has developed into a very light weight blog in this sense.
Josh has definitely made strategic changes to curb the social networking portion of the site. For example, there currently is no mechanism for messaging between users; his reasoning for this is to avoid negative interactions such as edit wars at wikipedia. He also was against the "hotlist" and other types of high score lists as they encourage strong negative second order effects on the system (ie. gaming).
We also discussed how similar del.icio.us is to other bookmarking sites like digg. Those sites tend to be more discovery oriented, whereas del.icio.us is intended to be more of a human-driven search engine. One statistic that demonstrates this type of usage is that only 8-10% of tags are on the most popular URLs; the tail of this distribution is very, very long. Josh also mentioned that Kevin Rose, the founder of digg, also uses del.icio.us.
In addition, Josh mentioned how he grew del.icio.us, and his reasoning for the Yahoo! acquisition. He said that they placed RSS on every page, created an application that easily migrated the bookmark of the day to a user's blog, and offered API for individuals to build functionality on top of the system. Del.icio.us can also import and export bookmarks very easily. Yahoo! provided the scaling technology that has allowed del.icio.us to grow at such a tremendous pace (from 300 thousand users in December of '05 to 1 million users in September of '06, and another 1 million users in the past 5 months).
One interesting aside is how Josh got the idea to create a bookmarking site. He was a trader for Morgan Stanley before starting del.icio.us, and built the site to create an interesting dataset to analyze. His says that his first focus was on the individual user, and the social aspect of the site was only a secondary concern. Del.icio.us itself is one of many sites that Josh purchased when the .us domain became avaiable in 2001. He wrote a program to determine what are the most common suffixes that end in 'us', and 'icious' was the winner.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
E-Business and Data Mining Class
I am currently taking a class on E-Business and Data Mining from the former Chief Technologist at Amazon (Andreas Weigend). The class has been extremely interesting--so far we have analyzed search, including web crawlers, PageRank, and the economics behind Adwords. For my homework assignment, I am keeping track of how many people click on the following link using Google Analytics:
http://www.weigend.com/Teaching/Stanford/
http://www.weigend.com/Teaching/Stanford/
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Nano City
Today I attended a talk by Sabeer Bhatia, who is taking on the impressive task of founding an entire city in India. He is a serial entrepreneur here in the Bay Area, with his most notable accomplishment being the founding of Hotmail (which he sold to Microsoft for $400 million in 1998). This pales in comparison to the estimated cost to build Nano City--approximately $5 billion in its currently planned stage.
Bhatia envisions Nano City as the new Silicon Valley--the future breeding ground for scientific dicsovery. He is trying to address many of the problems that currently exist in India that are precluding this type of innovation. They include:
-Lack of proper infrastructure (a seven minute drive in Bangalore at night takes 3 hours during rush hour!)
-Non-reliable sources of energy
-Fragmented and unsustainable growth in urban areas
-Lack of reasonably priced, modest homes for young professionals
Even with these barriers, India has had impressive growth since it became a democracy in the late 80's. Here are a few statistics:
-3rd largest pool of scientists and engineers (trails only U.S. and China)
-2nd fastest growing economy (and will most likely overtake China in the near future)
-Extremely young--50% of the population is under 25
-2nd largest consumer market
-It is a democracy
Bhatia's goals for the city center around an education system that he describes as being "the finest education in the world: kindergarten through PhD. He is working with Berkeley and Stanford to make this possible. He also envisions Nano City as a model to the world in sustainable development (both economic and environmental). His goal is to start by attracting youth (25-40), in hopes that companies will then establish themselves there. He sees this process as something similar to the evolution that has occurred in Austin, TX over the past 25 years--it has grown from a college town to arguably one of the top three producers of IP (intellectual property) in the U.S.
The city itself will be about half the size of San Francisco, with construction beginning at the end of this year. The best guess of when people will first inhabit Nano City is at the end of 2010. Bhatia believes the population of the city eventually will be in the 250.000 - 500,000 range.
For more information on Nano City and Sabeer Bhatia, I suggest reading the following article from forbes: http://www.forbes.com/business/forbes/2006/1030/156.html. A couple of questions I have about the city are: How much development can actually be planned? How do you coordinated development? What political risks exist that may delay and/or stop the construction of the city? How many services should be privatized vs. provided by the Indian government?
Bhatia envisions Nano City as the new Silicon Valley--the future breeding ground for scientific dicsovery. He is trying to address many of the problems that currently exist in India that are precluding this type of innovation. They include:
-Lack of proper infrastructure (a seven minute drive in Bangalore at night takes 3 hours during rush hour!)
-Non-reliable sources of energy
-Fragmented and unsustainable growth in urban areas
-Lack of reasonably priced, modest homes for young professionals
Even with these barriers, India has had impressive growth since it became a democracy in the late 80's. Here are a few statistics:
-3rd largest pool of scientists and engineers (trails only U.S. and China)
-2nd fastest growing economy (and will most likely overtake China in the near future)
-Extremely young--50% of the population is under 25
-2nd largest consumer market
-It is a democracy
Bhatia's goals for the city center around an education system that he describes as being "the finest education in the world: kindergarten through PhD. He is working with Berkeley and Stanford to make this possible. He also envisions Nano City as a model to the world in sustainable development (both economic and environmental). His goal is to start by attracting youth (25-40), in hopes that companies will then establish themselves there. He sees this process as something similar to the evolution that has occurred in Austin, TX over the past 25 years--it has grown from a college town to arguably one of the top three producers of IP (intellectual property) in the U.S.
The city itself will be about half the size of San Francisco, with construction beginning at the end of this year. The best guess of when people will first inhabit Nano City is at the end of 2010. Bhatia believes the population of the city eventually will be in the 250.000 - 500,000 range.
For more information on Nano City and Sabeer Bhatia, I suggest reading the following article from forbes: http://www.forbes.com/business/forbes/2006/1030/156.html. A couple of questions I have about the city are: How much development can actually be planned? How do you coordinated development? What political risks exist that may delay and/or stop the construction of the city? How many services should be privatized vs. provided by the Indian government?
Tuesday, January 9, 2007
Apple iPhone
The news is in from Macworld 2007--Apple, Inc. (no longer Apple Computer) is releasing a new cellphone in June of 2007. The iPhone is a combination of an iPod, phone and internet mobile communicator, according to Steve Jobs. See the link below for more information:
http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/09/live-from-macworld-2007-steve-jobs-keynote/
A few of the highlights:
-uses "multi-touch" instead of a stylus
-runs on OS X
-syncs with iTunes
-has a 3.5" screen with 160 ppi
-only has one button
-is a ridiculous 11.6mm thick, which is thinner than the Q and Blackjack
-has a 2 megapixel camera
-contains visual voicemail (so you can select which vmail to listen to)
-has WiFi and Bluetooth 2.0
-free push IMAP email (Yahoo!)
-5hrs of talk battery life, 16hrs of audio playback
-will be released by Cingular, $499 for 4GB and $599 for 8GB
This looks like a ridiculous phone, though it will be interesting to see how easy it is to use a qwerty keyboard that appears on the screen. Call quality may be another concern, but this appears to be superior to the Treo. Not very good news for Palm.
By the way, Apple's stock is up 8.5% as of 1pm today :)
http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/09/live-from-macworld-2007-steve-jobs-keynote/
A few of the highlights:
-uses "multi-touch" instead of a stylus
-runs on OS X
-syncs with iTunes
-has a 3.5" screen with 160 ppi
-only has one button
-is a ridiculous 11.6mm thick, which is thinner than the Q and Blackjack
-has a 2 megapixel camera
-contains visual voicemail (so you can select which vmail to listen to)
-has WiFi and Bluetooth 2.0
-free push IMAP email (Yahoo!)
-5hrs of talk battery life, 16hrs of audio playback
-will be released by Cingular, $499 for 4GB and $599 for 8GB
This looks like a ridiculous phone, though it will be interesting to see how easy it is to use a qwerty keyboard that appears on the screen. Call quality may be another concern, but this appears to be superior to the Treo. Not very good news for Palm.
By the way, Apple's stock is up 8.5% as of 1pm today :)
Pictures from China
This is a picture of Ash and Ash (yes, there were two Ash's on the trip) at the Mongolian Hot Pot restaurant were we had dinner on the first day of the trip in Beijing.The following are a couple pictures from the Great Wall:
One difference between China and the U.S. are the toilets. Needless to say, some people didn't feel quite as comfortable using these facilities.
These are soldiers marching outside of the Forbidden City.
Here is an interesting advertisement for KFC in Zhu Jia Jiao (a water town an hour dirve from Shanghai)--chicken is very popular in China! Over half of the menu at McDonalds is chicken sandwiches as well.
This is a picture of the TV tower in Shanghai. The next picture is from the Urban Planning Museum--they have planned out all the construction through 2010.
The following is a picture from the silk "factory" that we visited. This was the only machine in the room, and I'm pretty sure they stopped after we left the room. This was by far the most expensive place we visited!
Here is an example from the Yu Garden of some of the translation issues you run into all the time.
On our trip from Shanghai to Hong Kong we rode on the fastest commercial train in the world. It cost $1.2 billion dollars to build an 18mile track. The train travels a top speed of 268 mph and the ride is about seven minutes long. Interestingly, a train from L.A. to Las Vegas using maglev technology has been recently proposed.
Because gambling is illegal in China, Macau has become a huge tourist spot and many people believe it will be the world's next Vegas within 10 years. The Wynn opened up just three months ago, and the whole city is under construction (The Venetian and the MGM, among others, are expected to be finished this year). The gambling revenues in Macau have already surpassed Las Vegas, but one important thing that hasn't is the ambiance. There is nothing resembling The Strip in Macau, which makes it almost impossible to travel from casino to casino.
The last few days of our trip we spent in Hong Kong. This city is absolutely amazing--it is a combination of New York, San Francisco and Miami and I would definitely consider living there.
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
Homestay in Shanghai
For the last night we spent in Shanghai, we had homestays with local families. I stayed with Cynthia Shen, a fellow classmate at Stanford. Her mother and father cooked dinner for us--it was a ridiculous amount of food for 5 people. We had spicy dried duck (like beef jerky but REALLY spicy), chicken (with the head, though nobody ate it), boiled spinach, soy glazed baked fish (the whole fish, head to tail), prawns (to eat them you rip the head off first), fried bamboo, soy and cilantro soup (same consistency as egg drop soup), BBQ pork, and chicken stir fry. Cynthia told me it took her parents 4 hours to cook dinner, and that spending that much time is pretty normal for dinner! To drink, we had tea, water, wine, and a traditional yellow rice wine that was 103 proof! And for dessert we had rice, and kiwi slices. I couldn't believe how much food we had.
After dinner we walked around the Bundt, which had ridiculous views of Shanghai--this city has an amazing amount of skyscrapers, and they are all lit up with neon colors. Finally I met with Cynthia's friend from AT Kearney, and slept at her place so I could experience a traditional home in Shanghai. It was very modest, but not too different than a house in any other major city.
A couple of my observations from the trip:
-We haven't eaten nearly as much rice as I thought we would--I've only had it for 3 or 4 meals.
-I have been served way more food than I thought I would--it seems like the dishes never stop coming out. Even the lunch boxes served at the Chinese film studio had a lot of food, and that was a normal lunch for them.
-I met a foreign investor relations manager who had a Master's in Economics from Brown, and informed me that only investment vehicle other than saving is houses. People will buy two or more houses as investments.
Next on the trip is Hong Kong--we are taking the Maglev train to the airport. The train can go as fast as 270 mph!! After a couple days in HK, we are flying back to Beijing and then to SF on the 6th. There is a lot of stuff I hope to post in the near future--internet has been available only sparingly but I have a ton of cool pictures to post.
After dinner we walked around the Bundt, which had ridiculous views of Shanghai--this city has an amazing amount of skyscrapers, and they are all lit up with neon colors. Finally I met with Cynthia's friend from AT Kearney, and slept at her place so I could experience a traditional home in Shanghai. It was very modest, but not too different than a house in any other major city.
A couple of my observations from the trip:
-We haven't eaten nearly as much rice as I thought we would--I've only had it for 3 or 4 meals.
-I have been served way more food than I thought I would--it seems like the dishes never stop coming out. Even the lunch boxes served at the Chinese film studio had a lot of food, and that was a normal lunch for them.
-I met a foreign investor relations manager who had a Master's in Economics from Brown, and informed me that only investment vehicle other than saving is houses. People will buy two or more houses as investments.
Next on the trip is Hong Kong--we are taking the Maglev train to the airport. The train can go as fast as 270 mph!! After a couple days in HK, we are flying back to Beijing and then to SF on the 6th. There is a lot of stuff I hope to post in the near future--internet has been available only sparingly but I have a ton of cool pictures to post.
Monday, January 1, 2007
New Year's
The internet finally works now so hopefully I will be able to post more often. We traveled to
After dinner we left for Attica, one of the hottest clubs in
The next morning Eric and I woke up at 9 am (I don't know how), just in time to make it to the bus for today’s visit of
Tonight looks to be pretty chill as most of us are extremely tired from partying the past couple of days. Tomorrow we are going to a GM factory in the morning, and in the afternoon we are meeting with our homestay families—I am really looking forward to learning more about
Beijing Day 3
Today was definitely the best day of the trip so far. We went to the Great Wall this morning, which was really beautiful because it was snowing. On the bus ride up we played 15 person liar’s poker with wilds, so bids got as high as 38, with 36 7’s winning one hand! After visiting the Wall, we went to a noodle place for lunch which was ridiculous—we had so much food and the Pi Jiu (beer) was only 3 RMB (approximately 50 cents). My favorite was the sweet and sour chicken, which tasted more like caramel corn than the American version.
After lunch we went to the
Our final stop of the day was a massage parlor—the whole group got foot and head massages for about 200 RMB. They were very relaxing, and after taking a quick dip in the pool in the hotel we went to Suzy’s Club, which is one of the newer clubs in Beijing where a bunch of ex pats go to party.
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