Summer of Facebook

"For nostalgic hippies in the SF bay area, this was the 40th anniversary of 1967’s famous Summer of Love. But for every Silicon Valley developer, entrepreneur, and VC who has a pulse it’s been the Summer of Facebook."

Lean, Green and Clean

Here are some newsletters and blogs related to efficiency ("lean"), the environment ("green") and alternative energy ("clean"):

• Renewable Energy Access - comprehensive weekly survey of renewable energy news. (Subscribe) (Podcast)
  
• Inside Greentech - covering the latest technology and business developments in greentech/cleantech. (Subscribe)
• GreenBiz.com - "Business. The Environment. The Bottom Line." (Subscribe)
  
• WorldChanging - Change your Thinking. (Subscribe)
• e-FFICIENCY News - from the Alliance to Save Energy.
  
• Cleantech Blog - commentary and news on energy and environment (Subscribe) (RSS)
• Alternative Energy News - an aggregation of many other blogs and news sources (Subscribe)
• Playgreen.org - a "green" wiki
  

All "subscribe" links are for the email newsletters. Note that any blog with an RSS feed can also be turned into an email newsletter using a free service such as RssFwd. Just enter the RSS feed URL and your email address, and the new blog entries will arrive as emails.

Technology Entertainment and Design (TED)

The brilliant expositions, profound vignettes, distillations of wisdom, and general ruminations from this annual conference are online and also available on iTunes -- definitely worth checking out!

My favorites so far:
David Deutsch - on being improbable
Jeff Han - multitouch (now seen in the iPhone and Microsoft Surface)
David Pogue - humorous musical takes (a la Tom Lehrer) on software
Tony Robbins - motivational speaker and life coach
Hans Rosling - making demographic statistics (and swordswallowing) come alive
Seth Godin - sliced bread and marketing by being risky
Jeff Bezos - the early days of the electric industry... and the internet
Rick Warren - a purpose-driven talk -- what is in your hand?
Barry Schwartz - choices make us less happy
Steven Levitt - the freakonomics of Chicago gangs
Jeff Hawkins - the brain as a prediction engine

Meebo Rooms

Meebo has introduced chatrooms, in which multiple people can use a web interface instant messaging (IM) client to communicate with each other. This is a combination of IRC and IM, along with a web interface. (Unfortunately, this is not fully integrated with MSN, Jabber or other existing IM systems, and the chat must take place within the meebo system).

In addition, the Meebo Rooms are video-enabled, such that sending a message that contains a URL of a video (e.g. YouTube) will result in that video appearing in a video window inside the Meebo chatroom. This makes it more convenient to share videos with a group and have a discussion about it in real-time.

Here is my meebo room, which is most likely empty.

The History of Oil

I have started reading The Prize by Daniel Yergin, which is an epic whirlwind tale of the history of oil.

Like others, I found it interesting to read about the early risk takers and power brokers who seized upon new opportunities in the exploration, production, refining, distribution and consumption of oil and gas, starting first in the U.S. (Pennsylvania, Texas, Oklahoma) and then spreading throughout the world. It was also eye-opening to see how much national politics and strategic influence have played a role since the beginning. A century ago, the predecessors of companies such as Exxon/Mobil (nee Standard Oil), Shell and British Petroleum (nee Anglo-Persian) competed for oil in the Iraq, Iran, Russia, Venezuela and Mexico. Understanding that Mosul and Kirkuk were (already) the object of intense Western attention a century ago puts today's news in some historical perspective...

Reading The Prize reminds me of a video by Robert Newman on the History of Oil, which presents a humorous but also deadly serious monologue on oil and its past context, and in particular mentions that World War I was not only about Europe but also involved a parallel struggle for the oil in the Middle East.

(Robert Newman also discusses how the current U.S. dollar is propped up by its use as the currency for purchasing oil (a.k.a. "petrodollar"), and gives an analogy in the form of an anecdote about Salvador Dali, who would draw sketches on the back of his personal checks to guarantee that they would not be cashed.)

Essays on software and startups

Recently, I have read through two excellent essay collections on software and startups: Joel on Software and Paul Graham.

These essays have been very insightful in terms of understanding the mindset of an entrepreneur, and also provide handy straightforward advice. What I find impressive is how they take ideas which might be present in nascent form in many people's minds, and analyze them in full length essays that go far beyond the usual depth of a blog entry. These essays cover topics such as the divergent incentives of VCs and employees, bad reasons to not start a startup, the sociology of nerddom, and why software talent matters.

Finite Simple Group of Order Two

Apologies in advance for the high nerdiness content of this post.

Someone forwarded me this video, which brought back memories of my years studying math...



Some people find something in adolescence that engages them, gives them order and saves them from the banality of the world (and from themselves). For me, it was mathematics. I attended math camp for a summer during high school, and became enamored with number theory, where powerful proofs followed from simple axioms. We were taught to think deeply about simple things, as we explored the world created by Euclid, Fermat, Gauss, Galois,...

I studied math in college and then continued to math "boot camp" (the first year graduate program) at the University of Chicago. It was a small but highly academic and cohesive program. One of the highlights of the U. of C. math program was a tradition in which second-year graduate students put on "beer skits", a collection of skits and musical parodies. One song I remember was a parody of "Simple Gifts" called "Simple Groups":

There are groups that are simple,
There are groups that are free,
There are groups that have order exactly thirty-three

For the non-math majors: In group theory, groups have ordinary-sounding mathematical properties such as being "simple" and "free" and having "order".

Bonus: Here are "New Math" and assorted math songs by Tom Lehrer.

Happy Year of the Pig!

Piled Higher and Deeper

My years at Stanford are captured in this insightful comic strip by Jorge Cham on graduate student life (housing, advisors, the thesis, etc)... "Piled Higher and Deeper"

FLOWmarket

When I was in Taipei, I went to the Museum of Tomorrow, which is a new exhibition space near 光華商場 (which has been dismantled and moved to a new building).

The main exhibit was FLOWmarket, which consists of plain white packaging of various shapes and sizes, similar to those found in an ordinary supermarket. Each item has a somewhat abstract phrase printed on it, such as "clean air", "collective consciousness", "a feeling of safety", "sustainable innovation", "balance"... By placing these concepts into a commercial package, the piece raises questions of our commercial society --- what can and cannot be bought.

What's interesting is that each of the items is actually for sale too at the exhibit!

Above the exhibit, there is a large banner with a quote from Marshall McLuhan: "There are no passengers on spaceship earth. We are all crew."

Shanghai Maglev Train

Photo album and video
Google video



I put together a short video of the Shanghai Maglev train.

The ride was a little bumpier than I would have thought, and it felt different than a normal track-bound train. Perhaps it was my imagination, but I could almost feel the train bouncing up and down as it whooshed along the magnetic tracks.

The contrast between the super high technology of the train and the misty farmland and crumbling structures (perhaps soon to be rebuilt as new apartment complexes) was striking.

Here is the official Shanghai Maglev promo video (in German):
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5648185659206490564

Some more videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weWmTldrOyo (detailed explanation)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0I1_5lZ2mU (good background music)

Taiwan High-Speed Rail

http://www.johnfan1.com/Public/2007-01-11_hsr.html

The Taiwan High-Speed Rail (a.k.a. Taiwan “shinkansen”) was finally completed, and I took the train after 1 week of operation. Surprisingly there were tickets available and the tickets (half price right now) were inexpensive -- only NT$500 (about USD $15).



It took me 1 hour and 30 minutes to go from Banchiao (near Taipei) to Chiayi, Despite the problems presented in the media, it was a smooth ride and a good experience. Inside, the car felt like a Japanese shinkansen. This will make the south of Taiwan much more accessible for tourists.

As another example of a “last mile” problem, it took almost as long to get to my destination (by bus and taxi) after I arrived at the Chiayi high-speed station, which is a distance away from the city center.