GSB Mennonite

ThinkPad

I finalized my laptop decision today...I ordered a ThinkPad T42 from IBM. Thanks to the resourcefulness of my GSB classmates we were able to order laptops from two other schools' specials. :)

I look forward to many hours of coffee-maintained ThinkPad productivity over the next two years.

Community - Class of 2006

daily travails has posted about the Chicago GSB laptop discounts. I have been thinking about my class' community dynamics over the last couple weeks.

True to the historical reputation of the University of Chicago's free market's school of thought, the class has banded together and achieved significant group discounts for apartments; and this week laptop discounts were added to the list of community benefits.

I wonder if cellphone deals will be next?

It is interesting to see market forces played out. The power of a community that works together is amazing. I guess this would tend to work only when options for products exist.

For instance, the housing cartel numbered ~150 students. A couple students took the lead in negotiations with various apartment buildings. If the average monthly rent for a student is $600-800, the negotiator has ~$100,000 in monthly revenue in their pocket. Of course this assumes that the cartel sticks together and takes the offer, which in this case the group did.

Ruth's Chris

I'm looking forward to dinner tonight. Thanks to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse I will be enjoying a wonderful butter-drenched steak. Actually it's an anniversary dinner. You might ask, "Isn't it uncouth to have an anniversary dinner at a steakhouse?" But you don't know my wife's love of red meat...she picked the place and I was more than happy to oblige! :)

Sincere apologies to all vegetarian readers. And please don't click the above link.

Laptop Deconstruction...eventually Digital Picture Frame

I've been thinking about this project for more than year, really since the keyboard on an old laptop failed - Compaq Presario 1220. At that time very few sites were dedicated to constructing a digital picture frame. Now a search of Google for - digital picture frame - results in many interesting sites.

I had an idea of what I wanted the finished project should look like...and after the Google search found an actual product out there that looks very similar to what I had envisioned.

The nicest is Wallflower, but at $859 it is a little more than what I can afford for a project. Instead I'll use an old laptop with a slightly smaller screen and less impressive specs to achieve a similar function.

I don't plan on running video or audio with the frame, but that would be possible, and content could potentially be pushed to it if I would buy one of these cool toys from Linksys in order to provide FTP support.

See the updated Projects page for the first step in the transformation from laptop grave to digital frame.

Updates

I have made slight alterations to the site - including comment and archival reporting functionality - and added content over the past couple days, thanks mostly to three sites.

1. Elise's Learning MT page (a Stanford GSB grad by the way)

2. HTML Made Easy

3. And the associated HTML Testbed that enables me to test my pitiful efforts at HTML without breaking my blog

I've also added some new index pages - About (which is empty), Test (for testing layouts, etc), and Projects. The Projects area is a simplified layout for pictures and text about misc projects - ideas, construction, destruction, etc.

Hopefully the Project page will be updated tomorrow with some pictures of the beginnings of an end-table picture device (i.e. a stripped down laptop remounted to serve as a living room slide show device).

Chicago GSB Building

We heard a lot about the new GSB building during Admit Weekend. Here are some of the useful links of design and progress. Unfortunately the construction cam has been down all of 2004.

Official University of Chicago GSB Construction Site

The architects of the new building are Rafael Viñoly Architects, PC. Some very nice pictures one their website (look under Projects)...Flash site so I don't know how to link directly.

University of Chicago

Create your own University of Chicago postcard here.

I think a neo-Gothic home would be nice.

SE Asia

Some of the Chicago GSB students will be taking Random Walks to exotic places around the world. I opted to take an only slightly less-than random walk with my spouse and my parents to Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. We returned a week ago.

Here are a few pictures that I took - all with my old Canon S10 and unaltered (except for crop, rotate, and resize). Click for slightly larger versions.

Hyde Park

I'll be moving to Hyde Park at the end of next month. I'm looking forward to the change in scenery, although Washington, DC is beautiful (mostly in the spring) the Gothic architecture and buildings in Hyde Park will be a nice change. I hope the gardens and the chapel will be a nice respite from classes and studying.

the daily travails has a great link to Chicago Uncommon, and I've now linked the Hyde Park pictures. This door is one of my favorites.

Other Weblogs

I found a weblog of a future Chicago GSB classmate yesterday. And thanks to his source code, my links now open in new windows. I apologize to those of you who don't like that, but I like to use multiple windows (or tabs) while browsing.

Also, I've started to add links - including some weblogs of my fellow Rose-Hulman alumni. For a quasi-complete list of Rose-Hulman alumni weblogs check this site.

I have also added some links on Mennonites for the curious. See Who are the Mennonites? for an intro.

Bullfighter

For those of you who do a lot of writing, particularly business writing or consulting, you will probably get a kick out of the Bullfighter tool from Deloitte Consulting. It's a nice little toolbar for Word and PowerPoint to analyze the amount of consulting jargon (i.e. bull) in your writing.

For instance, I analyzed this entry in Word and Bullfighter determined that this entry is "certified bull free!"

And they now have a Bullfighter version for the Nonprofit Sector. Perhaps a special 'deluxe' edition will come out for the Public Sector!

Personality Cocktail

In honor of Jacob, who inspired my blog, I copied one of his entries from today. I would paste the code here...but it's bad code and messes up the MT layout.

Instead, just the results of the Personality Cocktail:

How to make a GSB Mennonite
Ingredients:
3 parts competetiveness
3 parts humour
1 part [I wonder what the null set result means?]
Method:
Add to a cocktail shaker and mix vigorously. Serve with a slice of emotion and a pinch of salt. Yum!

Chicago GSB

As the site heading suggests the major purpose of this blog will be to record misc experiences from my time at the University of Chicago's GSB. I begin their full-time MBA program this fall! :)

I hope this blog (at least the Chicago GSB category) will provide some usefulful inside information and I welcome any questions regarding the MBA application process and/or Chicago GSB.

Also as the sub-title suggests, I trust my Mennonite faith will provide a valuable perspective while at the GSB. I look forward to integrating my heritage with the next two years of experiences at the GSB!

First Day of Summer

Today, the first day of summer seems to be as good of day as any to get this blog started. Jacob has been bugging me for a while to get this set up. I finally took the time to figure out how to set up MT on my hosting service and was quite pleased with myself when it actually worked!

I'm still a novice with MT so any kind suggestions are appreciated. [For instance, my comments entry area is messed up and I need to fix the colors in that area.]

Thanks and hopefully you'll enjoy at least a little of what you see here.