sacha chua :: living an awesome life

I hadn't heard anything from my KMD2004 groupmates all weekend, so I was rather worried about the integrative summary that we were supposed to pass on Monday. I couldn't find any drafts on the wiki or the shared workspace. If I had to write everything from scratch by myself just to make sure that we'd get it in before the deadline, I was going to do so. They could always make it up to me for the next assignment. ;)

I wasn't looking forward to working on a Sunday night, but I hadn't had the time to work on it during the previous week. Besides, I could consider Saturday as my downtime day for the week.

I sent my groupmates e-mail telling them I was going to write the summary, and I gave them my MSN and Yahoo! instant messaging details just in case they were online on a Sunday night. I started a document on Google Docs (formerly known as Writely) and sketched the outline just like I'd blogged my way past a writer's block for my background article.

I was pleasantly surprised by the quick response of my groupmates. MJ sent me an instant message on MSN. I asked him to reformat the appendices to have consistent citation styles while I worked on the summary. Dave came online after a short while. After some trouble with the invitations, we managed to get everyone on the same page.

I set up a group chat using Bitlbee, the IM to IRC gateway that I use to chat within Emacs. We coordinated our actions using instant messaging while I fleshed out the summary. Dave couldn't work on the document right then, but he could look over my work to see where the article was going. I added some notes about the structure of the document so that we had a coherent, logical flow.

My computer crashed twice because I ran out of memory. (OpenOffice + Firefox + Emacs = not good!) Good thing I was drafting the document in Google Docs, which auto-saved the document every few seconds and allowed people to keep reading it while I rebooted.

I sketched the document and condensed my paper before fatigue set in. I left the paper in their capable hands, and I'm sure it will get done by tomorrow.

I couldn't imagine doing this without real-time collaboration tools like instant messaging and Google Docs. Imagine what it would have been like, having to e-mail documents around? It would have been such a hassle for me to keep people up to date.

Hooray for Net collaboration and awesome groupmates!

On Technorati: school, collaboration

Random Emacs symbol: menu-bar-mode - Command: Toggle display of a menu bar on each frame. - Variable: Non-nil if Menu-Bar mode is enabled.

Tags: collaboration, school by Sacha Chua
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I have a new favorite statistics textbook. Not that I had one before. Who knew that a statistics textbook could have a sense of humor? Discovering Statistics Using SPSS is infinitely cool. It's funny, it's solid, it's detailed, it's good. Get it if you ever need to do anything with statistics. Heck, get it even if you just want to get over a fear of statistics.

Props to Mark Chignell, my research supervisor and the professor teaching the statistics course I'm taking this term. He's hilarious, too. This is going to be such a great term...

On Technorati: book, statistics, school, mie1402

Tags: book, mie1402, school, statistics by Sacha Chua
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I've missed the deadline for the Fall MBA courses, but I might be able to squeeze my way into 2012HF: Entrepreneurship, 2915HF: Entrepreneurship with a Social Mission, or 2916HF: Cultivating Presence. Or I could just sit in, if I can get away with that. 2915HF looks like a terrific course. =)

I'm definitely planning to go for Spring 2007 MBA electives. There's:

I'm particularly excited about the social capital and outsourcing courses. =)

The application deadline for the Spring Term is November 15. I can so make that. I'll see if I can take Strategic Management this term so that I can take the 299* level courses next term. I think I'll spend Tuesday downtown so that I can sort this out, instead of waiting until Thursday.

On Technorati: rotman, business, school, utoronto, entrepreneurship

Tags: business, entrepreneurship, rotman, school, utoronto by Sacha Chua
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I like these one-on-one meetings. I find myself in the zone, asking questions and figuring things out. I had another good meeting with Mark Chignell, my research supervisor. This time, we worked on my research plan. I'm happy with the result, and I think IBM will be happy as well. We'll do a historical pseudo-experiment looking at factors that may have affected the adoption of social computing across subgroups within IBM. I'll see how I can visualize the data.

Some considerations:

Mark will be in Japan from January to mid-March, and again from April to June. Options for masteral exam:

March

I'll be able to make it to June convocation, and I might have a few months of vacation before real work.

I'll be under stress because of the tight schedule, and I probably couldn't take spring classes.

August

Less stress from schedule, can take additional courses in spring, more time around tech scene here.

Need to renew my visa, which is not a bad thing. I'll miss the June convocation, and will need to make it to November convocation instead. If I find myself working in Canada, then I can still probably graduate with pomp and circumstance. ;) My parents won't like winter, though, but hey... If I'm not working in Canada, then no pictures or ceremony. Oh well, s'okay. Must check fellowship.

Here's the March schedule:

Here's the August schedule:

Whichever schedule we choose, my next action is to hunt for as many data sources as I can and figure out how to mash them up. I need to decide which schedule to follow before I go on my Christmas vacation, because I'll probably renew my US visa then. (That is, unless I can renew my visa from Canada.)

On Technorati: research, school

Tags: research, school by Sacha Chua
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I met with Mark Chignell about the courses I should register for this term. He suggested signing up for all of them, attending the first few lectures, and choosing the one I like the most. I'll have to rely on my intuition for this because the course descriptions all sound good. If I get along with the professors, I might even be able to explain my personal background and goals and get their help in figuring out which course would be best.

We'll meet again tomorrow to flesh out my research plan.

Next action: Brainstorm a few things I can prototype. Also, take care of some paperwork.

On Technorati: school

Tags: school by Sacha Chua
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