MIT Pranks

Apart from academic quality, MIT is definitely the best school if you want to build your career in pranking. They already have a group called MIT Hack that will do fine job training you by involving you in prankster extra curriculum. This year, they have made Halo the sacred, historic, and world-renown statue of John Harvard.

Before:


After:

My favorite is this one -- they've moved a small-sized fire truck up to the Great Dome. Pretty darn cool...


Send your children here. You won't be disappointed.

Steve Jobs Hates People Like Me

Uncle Stevie's got an angry rant today about the job McKinsey did over there. Although I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about, terribly sorry, Steve. I picked this career track before I even know your secret diary exists.

And yes, my firm's end-user platforms are completely Microsoft now. We run Windows XP on ugly ThinkPads, all firm-approved mobile devices are required to run Windows Mobile, we don't know what we do today nor can send message without Outlook and Exchange, we don't call each other anymore but chat through Live Communicator. There are more but I think you get the idea... People just keep complaining about work/life balance in this industry. I guess you can turn things around by moving things to Apple. Free MacBook Pro, iPhone, and free iPod Classic will surely save a lot of our sanity and blood pressure level. And we will be the coolest kids on the plane!

I heard that there may be needs for our help at Apple. I would be more careful before coming in if you have this attitude then. I probably need to paint my ThinkPad silver, put on the Apple white sticker that you give us with an iPod, run WindowsBlinds with Mac OS skin, and shut up when we get BSOD. Peace out. Namaste.

BlogRush - Hoax or Real?

Just found this article about the new blog headline exchange service dubbed BlogRush via BlogNone site. Basically, a blogger has to register their blog and RSS feed with BlogRush, place the BlogRush widget, and then BlogRush service will automatically find the similar contents to your blog and place them in the widget. Your postings will also be placed in others' blogs in return.

The article argue that this BlogRush doesn't do any good except trying to boost their site popularity. I feel it's no harm trying it so I just placed it there. I've also got Google Analytics enabled in this blog -- will report back how much more traffic it improved.

Another Corporate Example from Dilbert

I'm sure you have or will have experienced this in a project at some point.

Deloitte Films Available to Public

Following my prior blog post about Deloitte Film Festival, now all the movies are posted on YouTube here... and here are the top three:

Winner: Food for Thoughts


Second: The Green Dot


Third: WTBCTB (man... this is actually my favorite)

Enjoy!

Thai Tom - Greasy Hole in the Wall

Thai Tom
4543 University Way NE
Seattle, WA 98127 (206) 548-9548




My girlfriend and I are in the quest of finding an authentic Thai restaurant from where we can order something simple like basil pork with fried egg or cashew chicken like what we could from the small restaurants around the school we went to in bangkok. A friend recommended me a place around UW and, based on reviews on Yelp, I thought it must have been Thai Tom. Com'mon, it's got 4.5 starts on Yelp. Over 100 people can't be wrong. The place is small (1st criteria), looks dirty (2nd criteria), close to college (3rd criteria), and cheap (all four criteria are met!)

We arrived at the peak time at 7 something during school year. Hungry UW students were queuing up for take-out and the place to sit. We spent about 20 minutes waiting. Not that bad, I think. The waiters there were highly efficient though so it wasn't that bad.

After we were seated, I could sense the college late diner. Everything there was greasy. Nope, I'm talking just about food. The tables, floor (kitchen and dining area), and the wall are greasy. Fine, we thought. We're used to this type of place back home. Oh... Gotta mention about the music. They were playing the songs you would find in a nice night club and the old Thai rock/alternative songs we liked during our teenage years. Very cool...

The menu is made of carved piece of wood which is pretty cool. We saw only some dishes which are not Thai. I wanted to eat Tom Yum but they ran out of it so we ordered Tom Kha instead. My girlfriend and I ordered Spicy Noodle and Cashew Chicken.

When the food arrives, we couldn't believe the size of it. Huge, compared to what we have to pay. However, we were absolutely disappointed. Listen folks, no matter what anyone says, this place is NOT authentic. The Tom Kha (Coconut Soup) misses several kinds of spices and herbs while the spicy noodle was almost inedible and (and I believe Pad Thai and Pad See-you also) came with rice. Being overly sweet, unnecessarily greasy, and housed in hole in the wall doesn't mean it has to be authentic.

Bottom Line:
The food deserves just one star but I gave another for the music and services. If you want a real, nice, reasonable, authentic Thai food, go to "Krua" Thai Kitchen (55th St & 25th Ave) But if you want the Thai version of General Tso kitchen, be my guest.

iPhone Hack is a Breach of National Security

I know you want to do it 'cause it makes more sense to hack it than to switch the provider or give up your contract. But don't do it folks... They've warned you and they're going to come after you.

Inspiring...

I just found this story about Randy Pausch, a CMU CS professor who got an incurable pancreatic cancer. Doctor said he's got only months to live, and yesterday he delivered the farewell lecture at McConomy auditorium. As a CMU alum, Impressive, I thought, but didn't care to find the video or anything.

Then, I found that the article's got over 3,000 diggs so I gave it a try and found his talk on YouTube. I initially intended to watch only one clip, but found myself couldn't stop watching ten high-quality clips that someone is kind enough to post. Although his talk was really humorous, I couldn't help crying. You can start with the intro part at the Post-Gazette video site here and continue the first part on YouTube below. Skip to part 6 if you just want to know what you can learn from his amazing life.


I kept telling people that the only disease that really scares me is cancer because the common ones that kill you like heart disease, diabetes, or strokes can be controlled if you take good care of yourself. Now, I realize that, instead of trying to avoid cancer, it's more important to avoid wasting your healthy time on nothing and losing opportunities doing good to the world and people we love.

Next, it's not wrong to have fun. All the Thai people are raised and taught in the way that we have to follow the rule and give elders respect. The classes we took are usually boring as the teachers tried to maintain their respectfulness. Instead, we should make the classes fun and students will gain trust in classes and pay attention. This is actually what my fiancee tries to tell me all the time, and my favorite professor did an amazing job teaching me.

Lastly, the best way to die is to see people crying for you, and you smile back to them and say "it's okay, everything's going to be all right". And when people just keep thanking you for what you've done and what you've left them. Of course not, I'm not talking about money here.

I hope his case can be similar to Steve Jobs's case. If so, hundreds and hundreds of people will be so lucky that their dreams can be fulfilled by this great man in the future. Professor Pausch, please don't give up. You told us not to.

Animal Rights Activist Features Naked Alicia Silverstone

The group called PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, is about to launch a campaign using one of the cutest blond girls of the '90, Alicia Silverstone. But I'm so fastinated the message they're sending out: Treat animals right by not eating them??? The induction I have here is: you'll become hot if you become vegetarian; you can treat animals right by not eating them = you're hot when you treat animals well.

Good choice on the model though - she regained her hotness by becoming vegetarian after became so chubby in the late '90s. Hmm... but why naked?



Another reason I want to blog this is that I found this video has been tagged for YouTube age verification which is blocked by my firm's network (oops...). PETA plans to broadcast in Houston and then national TV the video that YouTube requires age verification? Hmm... Looks like something is not right here:

a) YouTube users flag the videos as Adult contents too easily.
b) Since the Internet has a more sensitive mechanism for adult content detection, so to people that says the Internet is so unsafe for kids, please shut up. Even the contents broadcasts on daytime TV requires age verification on the internet.
c) Kid protection systems on both TVs and PCs never work whatsoever.
d) Watching woman half-naked and her half butt is fine for kids.

Anyway, I don't have any take on this except that it's glad to see her hot again. She's a beautiful girl. It was sad to see her letting herself that chubby several years ago.

On the last note, this matter concerns hot girl, nudity, and sex marketing. I bet Fake Steve Jobs is going to comment on this like he did here soon.

State of Independence

Saab History asked the reader to vote on their favorite Saab slogan. Vote your fav and see the results there. I like the State of Independence one. We're not driving a wholesale car yet it's not crappy made like most American and some European brands. I also like Gill Sans font. Became my favorite after my favorite professor, Michael D. Smith, used it in his decks and Saab has announced it as their official font.

Blog Anatomy

I've switched to BlogSpot for quite a while but just realized its features and potential recently. 10 points to Google to make BlogSpot/Blogger so easy to post, integrated with other Google services, and very Web2.0 friendly. Here are some cool stuff I'd like to feature here.

• Slick UI, nice fonts, cool theme - just came out of the box from BlogSpot site.
  
• World-class search engine - All a posting is searchable right after they it's published enabled by Google.com-class search engine.
• Ads are there, but surely not intrusive - Unlike Xanga that shows big ugly ads at the top of any free blog, ads on BlogSpot is customizable. So, I put small ones at the right pane and some at the bottom. When you click, the cut would go to the writer instead of Xanga.
  
• HTML-enabled comment box - You can include some simple formatting HTML tag in the comments. Also, when you post comment, you can choose to automatically leave your Google ID on there, override the credential by adding your name and web address, or post the comment as anonymous. It's really easy so keep on 'menting, folks!
  
• Integration with Google - Under "What I'm Reading..." section, I added Google Reader widget to share interesting postings from the RSS feeds I checked out several times a day. More widgets are on the way. Will keep you updated.
  
• Tags - I've tagged all the postings I wrote in there. See on the right pane under "My Tags" section. You can click "cars" to select only postings about cars I had in there, for instance.
  
• All active social-networking buttons - On the right pane, you'll see a bunch of buttons of the social networking sites I'm currently involved in. If you're part of any of those and want me to join your network, just click it.
  
• Amazon item preview and add-to-cart - For a lot of item pictures in the site, you can go ahead and hover your mouse over. The preview, star ratings, and current price from Amazon will appear right away. You can just click the Cart button to add the item into your Amazon cart. I'll get a cut out of the sales you give Amazon too. Feel free to let me know if you want me to split that somehow :P
  

Tawon Thai

Tawon Thai
3410 Fremont Ave N
Seattle, WA 98103 (206) 633-4545





I visited this place because of my mom -- she knows the owner of this place and he treated us a big meal the first time we were there. No offense to my american friends here, initially I thought this place is so americanized. Pad Thai and Tom Yum soup are too sweet for native Thai tongue of mine.

Then, I went back with my girlfriend several times when we're around the area. We discovered several dishes that make Tawon Thai the real best Thai food in the area -- and I'm not saying that because I know people there. They're really good. The best dishes we always go back to eat (sorted by order of likeness) are:

H1. Kow Soi (Curry Noodles) $8.50
Better than a lot of places even in Thailand. Spiciness and Taste of the curry noodles are just right. Salty, sweet, spicy enough to make it absolutely yummy but not overdone. Pickled cabbage and fish sauce they put in there are so high quality that you can feel it. Don't forget to ask for chilli paste to go with it.

44. Neau Yang E-San $9.95
Best thai-style grilled beef I've ever had. Sauce (jaew) is amazing. They use New York steak beef grilled it to well done (don't complain folks, that's what Thai people do for grilled beef dish) but it's not at all chewy. Highly recommended for beef lover.

H4. Gai Manow (Chicken lime) $9.95
Most people screw up this nice dish but this place doesn't. They grill the chicken instead of deep fry it so it has nice grill aroma. The sauce is made of real lime juice and low on mayo so you can have great smell of lime in there. Other places put almost pure mayo on the chicken with some fresh lemon slices with seeds and peels left on them. Ew.

A.4 Crispy Soft Tofu $6.25
The name is a little confusing itself. They use soft egg tofu and fry it to perfection. I'm sure it's not an easy dish to make since tofu can get mishaped very easily when you put it into the boiling oil. They made it so nice-not soaked with oil. I really like the flavor but my gf doesn't eat tofu so it can't make top of the list here.

The owner shipped most of the decoration, except the dining sets, from Thailand. The ceiling is really high that you'll feel it so spacious. You'll have a glimpse of the kitchen but the ventilation is great making it not stuffy. When the owner is there, he really enjoys talking to the customers over there if you want him to (I saw him sitting down with a lot of diners over there just to chat). Although they don't have full-serviced bar, they have several selection of wine, beer on tab (including Fat Tire Draught), and of course, Singha! The owner can give you bar experience if you go there alone :)

Bottom line:
4 stars out of 5.
It lost 1 star because parking is a little hard to find and the famous Thai dishes are quite americanized. However, the ambiance is nice and staff are really helpful and friendly. It's a great place for meeting with friends, dining with kids, having work lunch, and dating.

Car Safety Ratings

This Insurance Institute for Highway Safety site is pretty cool. Just select make and model of the car you own or plan to buy on the right pane. See sample for our Saab 9-5 over here. Too bad our model is 2000/01 so it just got average rating.

Deloitte Film Festival

My firm had an initiative a few months ago to get employees submit short films about work and life at Deloitte. I think it's a great idea for people to relax from project work by doing firm activities, expand their network, and show their creativity.

3rd Place - WTBCTB (Rap MV by the interns. Dude... I think the lyrics are even better than SNL's Narnia thingy)

2nd Place - The Green Dot (super hero action-packed short film)

Winner - Food for Thoughts (you know how much consultant people love food!)

Not sure if the links work with external network. Leave the comment if they don't then.



Update: Apologies folks. My ex-colleague just let me know that the links don't work if you don't have deloitte account. Ironically, he just left Deloitte last Friday. For those of you who's interested in viewing these great films, just visit our Jobs site and send me the job posts with your resume. I can refer you through our internal referral system. The access to the site will be available for you within your first week with the firm.

Update 2: The films have been made available on YouTube. See more details here.

JoT on Steve's Apology

This is not the apology for iPhone users so I'm good here :)

Expectant New Baby

As mentioned earlier, I've been working on finding the replacement for my Krups XP4000 espresso machine. After going through research from different sites including CoffeeGeek.com, I found this Gaggia Carezza standing out. 21 and 85 reviewed this products on CoffeeGeek and Amazon respectively and the average rating is roughly 8 out of 10, not bad for an espresso machine in $200 range.

Darnit Palm. What Happened to You?

• You used to be my favorite gadget maker before iPod came to existence.
• You made sleek, slim, and nice handheld PDA which I loved so much and used over the course of two years.
• You were always there for Mac users when they want a PDA that doesn't crap out on the Mac.
• Your Palm OS was probably the best PDA operating system even now compared to that run on the iPhone.
• Your Treo has been a close competitor of Blackberry even though you don't have backend solution like them.
• You made my current mobile device, although I hate Windows OS to the bone and it's kinda thick, I still like look and feel of your hardware, compared to those thick and old HTC models.

Now...

• You announced the partnership with Microsoft to have Windows Mobile, which your OS is far more superior, on your devices.
  
• You came up with "stuck-in-the-middle"-sized mobile concept Foleo, and then killed it even before it was born.
• Your PDA-only devices have features that are far more superior the iPod Touch for a long time but they no longer sell.
  
• Lastly, You came up with Palm 500v, which run Windows Mobile and does not have touchscreen. This is just your own version of Motorola Q which looks like an ugly T-mobile Dash. Only reasons people bought the Treo over Windows Mobile devices or Blackberries are your OS and the touchscreen.
  

Frankly, what are you thinking?

Saab Transformers

I've seen this commercial for ages, long before the Transformers hype, but totally forgot about it. Although GM is a big sponsor of Transformers the movie, they didn't really feature Saab in there. Saab 9-7x sucks but the ads looks really cool though.

No More Price Cut Analysis - Steve Jobs Got Pissed

All right folks. This is why I said my earlier blog post was the "last words". But you people didn't believe me, just kept going on about it. Now, he's pissed. Enough now guys; if you continue, he'll be screaming and won't cut any price again. We won't have any material to write next time.

The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs: Enough with the iPhone analysis stories already

Gift Idea

Since you are the reader with good taste, I would like to present you some gift idea for upcoming special occasions.

First, for gentlemen who are into watches, I recommend the luxury octagon 18K Audemars Piguet with brown genuine crocodile leather strap. This timepiece is equipped with Tourbillon to ensure accuracy.

Buy now from Amazon by clicking the image below and you will receive 29% discount equaling $48,000, which is enough for you to purchase another Chardonnay Pearl Lexus GS350 All Wheel Drive with Bird's-Eye Maple Accent Trim to match the watch.

Second, another watch for Him. Featuring perpetual calendar, sub-dials for day, month, year, and moonphase, this timepiece has power reserve of forty-four hours. Click link below for extensive reviews from sixteen distinguish individuals who own and are impressed with it.

Lastly, if you feel uncertain of crazy trafficker around you on freeway, I recommend JL421 Badonkadonk Land Cruiser/Tank. This would do the charm. Click the image below to see comments from one hundred and sixty customers. Order now folks, only two are left in stock at the time this post is written.

Like other Amazon product links you'll find more in this blog, once you buy anything through the clicks, I'll receive a cut of commission from the Associate program. And if you get anything in this post, I'll be your best friend, promise.