GSB Mennonite

Classmates

You all know Classmates.com from all the internet ads over the last number of years.

VentureWire reported yesterday that they were bought by United Online for $100 million in cash, previously backed by $15 million in VC financing.

Pretty amazing transaction, most notably because the news focused on Classmates.com's "online community-based networking tool". There has been a lot of activity in this area over the last few months.

Barn Raising

It's now two months since I worked on the barn, and I have been very slow in getting the page up. So instead of delaying any longer I've decided to have a 'kick-off' post. I've added the Barn Raising link under the Misc Projects area, but please note that the page is definitely a work in progress. Like the barn, it'll take a couple days for me to decide on pictures, work out the page, etc.

And I'm always welcome to constructive feedback on my lack of site design, coding skills, or anything that might irritate readers. (I've heard the resolution is messed up in some instances but haven't yet heard how to fix it...)

Architecture

A few weeks ago we were in downtown Chicago for a nice evening dinner with some other students; quite a number of the spouses of students are living/working in other cities, so it's fun to get together with them when they're in town.

I always enjoy walking around downtown Chicago because of the architecture (headed up there soon for a conference). A number of people have told me to take the architecture boat tour, which I plan on doing one of these quarters.

Here is a low resolution shot I took of the river - note the intentional watercolor effect. ;)

Also, if you're ever on campus for a GSB visit, be sure to check out some of the other buildings nearby - especially the Chicago Theological Seminary (CTS). The inside of the building is amazing; built in 1926 you feel like you stepped into a 1526 cathedral.

Here is another low res shot of side of one of the academic buildings.

Rose-Hulman Blogs

Another friend of mine has been running a blog for a while, and he seems to find some very very interesting things...

Like these Braille t-shirts... (not for children or adults who don't enjoy non-intellectual humor)

Check out his site Donkeys to Water (but don't follow the link if you're easily insulted by posts that may cause you to think).

Social Insecurity

Some recent comments about Social Security give me concern about the future for working Americans in the near future. And despite the fact that recent articles focused on the (legal) changes in SS benefits, only in the final paragraph was this statement:

"The Social Security Administration also announced Tuesday that 9.9 million workers will face higher taxes next year because the maximum amount of Social Security earnings subject to the payroll tax will rise from $87,900 to $90,000. In all, an estimated 159 million workers will pay Social Security taxes next year."

So while people continue to complain about the low *increase* in benefits and promise not to raise the retirement age, the true effect is that millions more will pay 6% and their employers will pay 6% on an additional $250+ per year.

The reality is that people been paying into a system of transfers from workers to retired. It will only increase in the future without significant reform.

Pensions

I become more and more convinced that pensions are an inherently broken system. A recent article in the NYT continues to highlight the problems with such systems.

The bottom line is that pensions plans are not 'owned' by the employees and are essentially big IOUs. This leads to manipulation, poor estimations, over promises, and worse.

What needs to be understood is that most government payment schemes are designed in similar ways...so if you read about the evils of corporate pension plans be sure to apply the same logic to government 'savings' schemes.

Desktop Search

Google has finally released a desktop search tool called Google Desktop (beta). I think it's interesting that this release was touted in the New York Times today and that a similar move by Microsoft was not significantly advertised (yet).

Most interesting, the NYT article is factually incorrect - they state "the program gives Google an important head start on Microsoft Corp., which is working on a similar file-searching tool that it recently said would not be ready for the next version of its Windows operating system promised for 2006."

However, it's not true (which could signal Microsoft's ability to 'catch up' and pass competitors). Earlier this year Microsoft bought a start-up firm that had developed a search tool for Outlook email call Lookout. The tool vastly improves the search results, and I've been using it for the last few weeks and find it works very well. As an option, the tool can also index files on the hard drive, which was mentioned in an Microsoft press release earlier this year while announcing the acquisition.

In reality the tool had the ability to index files since it was developed and owned by Microsoft since July 2004. However, the Google tool is integrated with the online search format and appears as a webpage, whereas the Lookout tool is integrated with Outlook. It appears Microsoft will develop and deploy a local hard drive tool only when it is more closely integrated with the desktop OS.

Finally, two things I find interesting about these moves...

1. Hard drive indexing and search has been around for a long time; I saw a really neat search product back in 1999-2000 that was amazing. It's surprising that it's taken this long to actually see releases by the major search players.

2. MS's move to acquire and deploy Lookout as a part of MSN seems to imply that the search expertise they desire is to move into the online search community vs Google's move from the online search down to the desktop.

Two and a half weeks

It's now been two and a half weeks since classes started. I'm still in the adjusting stage of sorting out how much reading needs (not should) be done. Reading is definitely more important for case classes (i.e. it's tough to participate and learn anything if you haven't preped) but for other types of classes, particularly ones that are more familiar the reading becomes less important - at least in the near term as other deadlines, company presentations, and three or four billiard games seem much more pressing.

As for tonight, I need to prep Marketing Strategy - get caught up that is, and also skim Turbo notes prior to tomorrow's lecture.

I accomplished a lot this weekend, on most fronts including academics (i.e. classes), career (lots of personal reflection and resume improvement), relationships - hung out with people at the South Asian Business Group event, one on one dinner with a classmate in my cohort, and conversations with people throughout the day at Hyde Park Center (HPC) and on the bus over from Regents.

Thus far, I'm more convinced that relationships are about quality time - spending time with people to hear and share stories. I enjoy it best over dinner, a game, or some other neutral/bonding activities. Although, I think some of the best fun is in the groups - a small group of people teaming to accomplish the same objective...humor always makes it more fun! :)

Blue

I've decided I don't like the color blue as much as I used to. It didn't seem to be an overly popular color in DC, but after arriving on campus it appears that 90% of most of the guys' wardrobes are blue. Actually my wardrobe has a lot of blue in it too, but it's not as 'cool' when everyone else wears it. So I'm more heavily weighting the non-blue shirts in my portfolio. ;)

SP2

I installed SP2 the other day...

My bootup is now taking a few minutes. Anyone have any clue how to reduce my post-SP2 bootup time?

Weekends

Weekends are definitely the time to get caught up on things academic. Without weekends I think I'd be a horrible student. Days are filled with team meetings (for classes), club meetings, classes, company presentations, events, food, billiards, happy hours, etc. :) But seriously, weekends are an important time to get connected again with significant other or spouse and to dig through the academic material - especially when taking four courses the first quarter and one of them is call Turbo! The schedule actually reminds me a lot of undergrad, mostly because I was both a fairly diligent student and very active in a number of groups.

Identity

It's interesting to think about personal identity after spending a little over a month here. First-Years' identity seems to be very closely tied to internships (who you will work for, or what you want to do). It's tough not to get wrapped up in the buzz. Career issues are job search and by extension internships are talked about a lot. Of course it's a very important aspect of an MBA program and certainly one of the primary reasons of returning to school, but it also weigh on the 'fun' of the program. Uncertainty is something that most of us attempt to minimize, but I think during these times it's also important to think about what and who we are apart from what we 'do'.

I'd love to make a t-shirt with the following text...

Liquidity Preference Functions

Every Friday afternoon the GSB has a Liquidity Preference Function (LPF). It's a nice time to get some sustenance (sponsored by a company) and drink. The term is actually a relationship developed by John Maynard Keynes around 1936. You can read more about the real Liquidity Preference Function if you like.

Interestingly enough Keynes is really not in line with the Chicago school of economics. For the longest time, Chicago was the only school in America not swept by the Keynesian Revolution... It's well worth the read if you're at all interested in various economic theories.