The word commencement is interesting. While you think you have finished the program, and this is a reward ceremony to recognize your achievement, the word itself implies something opposite to “ending”, the word “Commence” means to start. So commencement means it is a fresh start to a new life. To me, it is especially true. My friend asked me yesterday if I would be missing the past years at MIT, I said I would be, but not at the moment. At this moment, I want to get out of here as soon as possible.

When I entered the program, I did not really know the meaning of getting a PhD, it felt like going through another 5 years of college, only with a more focused subject topic. I had a great job that allowed me to travel the world twice a month, meeting all kinds of interesting business people and working together on exciting issues on marketing and pricing. But I decided to come to MIT in the end because it was a “once in a life time” opportunity to get admitted to MIT. I did not realize how hard it was to go through these years, and how large the magnitude of the opportunity cost. I don’t regret it, on the contrary, I loved the experience since if I had not decided to come, I would never have experienced so much. I do realize the cost of sunking so many years in school (I owe so much to my wife, daughters, and my parents), I’m so eager to go back to work and start my normal life (not just math, research, but also many of my hobbies).

Here I post the ticket to commencement to commemorate this moment. Hello, world, I’m back.

zz from http://www.travelsuperlink.com/blog/

Travel Start-Ups

Mike Fridgen�s Blog, Travel Start-Ups, ???????????????. ???????????, ?????????????, ?????????????, ???????????????, ???????????????????, ???????????????????????????. ???????????, ????????????travel agent?????, ??????????????????????????????, ??????travelsuperlink.com??, ????????????????, ???????????????. ??????????????, ?????????????????????.

????????????????????????, ????????????, ???????????????????, ????????????, ????????????????. ??????????????????.

??Mike?blog, ????????Web 2.0 Awards by SEOmoz, ??????????????:

Jumpclaimer
?????????????????????????????google ???, ?????????fans??????.

Kayak
?????aggregate??????, ??????????, ?????????????. ??????????????????????, ?????????sidestep.com

Travbuddy
????????????, ???TravelBuddy.com??. ??????????????travel blog travel photos travel review ??, ????????. ????????????, ?????????????????????.

TripMojo
????????????????, ???????google map?, ???????????????????, ??????????????, ?????web2.0????.

Wayfaring
??????blog??????, ??????????????google map?, ???????????blog ?, ????????.

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I recently used the service at rentacoder.com, an online market place for programmers.� I posted my need and my maximum bid of $30. After 30 minutes, I got the first response requesting more information, I modified my post and clarified the requirement.� Within 24 hours, I got 3 bids and 10 more responses.� One programmer even put up his prototype code for download.� It was a very pleasant experience to me.

I write programs myself, but I can’t possibly figure out all the issues I may have in my projects, in addition, the project I posted may cost me 2-3 days to complete.� The market place offers a cheap way to get my job done easily.� I wrote a post long time ago on Amazon’s Mechanical Turks it is similar in that it offers people a way to contribute some work and be paid.� These tasks are usually very hard to tackle by the posters, but can be a piece of cake for people who know how to do it.

I always dreamed of an ideal market that people who happen to have some information can help clueless people on some projects.� Think about it, there are many possible ways you may need some information, and someone out there know the answer.� For example, if you want to know how it feels like to go through the PhD process at Sloan, I can be the best person to ask.� Another example is that if I plan to drive from Boston to Chicago, I may need information where to make my stops on the way and check out beautiful places to see, if someone happens to spend two days to do the research and have some experience driving this route, I’m willing to pay him/her for the informatoin.� Yet another example: TIME magazine need a photograph of Tsinghua University, I happen to have a lot of good quality photos on my hard disk, there just lacks a way to get us connected.� All these can be done by the concept of “crowdsourcing”.

Wired magazine has a new article discussing this problem: The Rise of Crowd, I feel very excited to read about this article as it shows some exciting examples of companies moving toward the “economy of the crowd”, and the enabler is, you guessed it, Information Technology.

I just bought a new camera to reward myself, more details to follow on that.

I found the following gallery, the pictures are fantastic.� The camera and lenses are very good, but what I really like is the unique perspective the photographer takes.� I’ve seen so many photos these days, and some people win on the lens (e.g. $2000 Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 IS USM), some people win on the location (snow mountain, africa, etc.), this one wins by giving life to ordinary things.

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????????????????????Beethoven???Bee..� Bee… Beatles.

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