... but I find interesting. I've been watching the AGU-CF-TRA love triangle and things are starting to heat up.

AGU, which is trying to take over CF, seems to be gaining success with their bid, with 62% of shares voting for the takeover. Meanwhile, yesterday, CF got three of its nominees to the TRA board (ousting the chairman) - a pretty good indication of what TRA shareholders want.

So TRA shareholders want to be bought out by CF (while the TRA board of directors does not), while CF shareholders want to be bought out by AGU (while the CF board of directors does not).

Interesting.

Here's some coverage on MindTouch Cloud:

• MindTouch Joins Google, Zoho in Collaboration Cloud
• MindTouch Cloud: The Open Source Alternative to Sharepoint and Salesforce.com?
• Sharepoint Watch Out - Mindtouch Goes SaaS 
• MindTouch launches its open source cloud

Good stuff. I can't believe it's Thanksgiving next weekend! Time flies...

MindTouch Cloud finally launched. It's the project that's responsible for my first all-nighter in eons. It's also why I worked off-site for close to a week. It's launched, but unfortunately that's only the beginning.

I can tell that I'm not as green anymore: the joy of launching this site lasted about 10 seconds before I started compiling the work items for the next version. This project is continuous. It's tough to think that all the work I put into this site will mostly be thrown away over the coming few weeks, but I'm used to it now. Evolve, baby, evolve! I've gotten the ball rolling, now let's hand it off to people so they can make it more excellent!

I was going to write a bit more, but now I'm tired. So this will have to be a placeholder entry.

If you're like me, you're getting tired of hearing about the run-up in gold prices (and the dollar taking a beating as well). Take comfort in the stability (and never-changing-ness) this graph (courtesy of pk):

The Price of Gold (denominated in gold):

NeoPages.net, one of my old projects, was a community/free hosting site (I was one of the earliest sites to promote the "participate in the forums to get free hosting" concept). I created it back during the Geocities/Xoom days before (a) private hosting was pricey and (b) the free hosting sites SUCKED. I was fortunate enough to be able to pay for hosting, but I knew others (who were just as talented as I was) couldn't afford it (or they were overseas and couldn't use a CC to buy hosting).

Anyways, I love personal home pages that take me back to those days - you don't see too many of them lately (they're all WordPress/Drupal sites).

I still host one of these sites, Skytopia.com, on the same server as Tabulas. A recent article posted on that site recently got picked up by Digg and Slashdot: Mandelbulb, the 3-D Mandelbrot. The math and details are a little over my head, but the thing has some pretty awesome 3-D models. Check it out.

So how does this relate back to me? This is your server's bandwidth usage when the site gets passed to Digg/Slashdot/etc:

I'm surprised my server survived the Slashdotting - I had to boost some Apache config values (Helloooo MaxClients), but it (mostly) stayed up without problems (it was a bit sluggish for a while, though).

I remember when I used to think I was hot shit cause my server would transfer more than 500GB a month. Now I'm at risk of breaking the 2 terabyte limit.

I wonder when I'll think 2TB is nothing.

Why is it that I can have so much confidence in one aspect of my life, but so little in the other? It's like I'm two completely different people. I don't understand it.

+ Monday, November 16, 2009 (PV's 22nd Bday)
I stayed home and did not head back to RI on Sunday. I did this because I have a fin. assoc. ny trip that will be meeting in NY on Tuesday. Also since I did not feel so well my mother advised me to extend my stay for a day. I'm missing out on a thank you dinner with co-workers and bosses at a Mexican (my fav food) restaurant tonight. This past weekend I missed out on three birthday (RP, PV, and JO's) celebrations :/ and a big school performance but oh well I had a dentist appointment on Sunday and it was nice to spend some time with my family. One more week and then thanksgiving break. So excited to be free from classes, hw, and exams for a bit~ On Wed, I have another interview for a sales job, and on Thursday I have a Entr. Fin exam (2nd one), then on Friday I'm going to watch Twilight -New Moon and on Saturday I'm going to be eating JW fresh cooked meal :D!

Today was a beast of a day. Here's what I completed: MKT part 2 assignment (turn in), fin case (make edits and send to group members and have them turn it in),  fin hw (send to professor),  bus case study (send to professor and turnitin.com). Other: ordered stuff for b/f, uncle, DS & KL (bosses that gave me recommendations), fixed clocks around the house, washed dishes, attempted to set up mail box.

I watched two movies: Australia (kind of enjoyed it), and Nights in Rodanthe (I didn't like this that much).

The leonid meteor shower 2009 is tonight starting at 1am I hope I see something. *edit* missed it :'( ML called to tell me he saw some funky stuff >_>;;

Tomorrow, I'm going on what feels like a undergrad field trip lol.

+ Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Dang. Missed out on RP's 21st bday dinner w/ my suitemates. *edit* I'm not all together sure if they did go to dinner...
Mother found me my swim bottoms for my red bebe swimsuit. Isn't it amazing how happy you are to find lost items. o_o;;

I tried to find how much I owed to EN but I couldn't find where I placed the receipts so I'm hoping to find them over thanksgiving break >_>;; I'm going to start to make a list in case I don't remember V_V;;

I also have to finish my mkt hw (*edit* completed most of it on the bus) and study for my fin exam.

This week is painfully difficult to deal with. I feel like I've been "on" since Sunday and haven't quite had much of a break yet. I hope it gets better soon but I'm glad I feel like I'm accomplishing a lot.

Went on the finance trip we went to the Museum of American Finance and the Federal Reserve of NY. I didn't realize that Hamilton created U.S. mint, Customs, Coastal Guard, tax system, and central bank? They have 7000 tons and $190B worth of gold down under the NY Fed. Then ate at Cabana in Seaport had a Strawberry Daiquiri and Salmon ($32). I also didn't know that Bank of Italy was renamed to Bank of America and that the 1933 Double Eagle coin is the most valuable coin it sold for like apx $7M.

ML said that he didn't want to go to @R that much anymore b/c it was becoming too costly. So he called me tonight to ask if I was going b/c he wanted to? I kind of want to go today b/c I want to see who wins Miss Hi-Neighbor but my guess would be LG b/c she's seems to have like natural beauty that would make her look good as a pin-up but that's just my opinion b/c her body type is not necessarily exactly pin-up material but I think she's a really pretty girl. If we (me, ML, and his friends) then i'll find out... *edit* Went to @R w/ ML, CR, JL, KG, PV, DR, and RP -turns out LG is not even in the contest and that my friend KG (JL's g/f) was a contestant but she unfortunately didn't win but at least she made it to the second round.
Need to: send thank you letters to interviewers,  and itemize list of owe.

+ Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Had an interview at 9-9:30pm it actually lasted for an hour then I went to class from 10-11am, worked from 11-12pm, then completed homework, went to class from 1-2pm, worked from 2-4:30pm, went to see professor about the exam tomorrow from 4:30-5:30pm, walked back to my roomto drop off stuff, went to event to see J(C)L perform (sing) and it lasted till like 10:30pm. She slept over so we talked till 12am, then I went over to ML's and slept from 1:30 to 2am, studied from 2-4:30am, slept, woke up at 7:40ish, studied some more later on and to take my exam...

+ Thursday, November 19, 2009
Did horrible -don't think I could've done any better with studying though -_-;; So glad that there's only some assignments. I really wanted to go out tonight but *sigh*. I'm going to try to get started on two homework assignments before they're do so that I can complete it prior to Thanksgiving break and don't have to even think about it... *edit* didn't do them. I didn't go to @R b/c ML wouldn't go. I think I've become somewhat accustomed to going out that it actually feels awkward not to. Especially since I really don't have that much to do considering all the times that I went out and actually had something due or to do the next day.

+ Friday, November 20, 2009
Today went to classes and worked -also worked from 4:30 till 6:30pm for ST Reunion (summer program). Then left to go watch Twilight-New Moon at 6:55pm for the 8pm showing, and ended up coming back around 10:30pm. I didn't like the movie that much at all :/ but oh well it was free. Maybe I wasn't into it b/c I didn't read the books or watch the first movie :P I'll consider watching the first movie. Turns out SK (CR's g/f) came yesterday. I hope I get to say hi to her today =3 I'm excited b/c this semester is almost over and I'll be graduating! It kind of sucks b/c I don't have a job although I might have a potential offer @_@;;

Things to do: COM - paper, read and start studying?, MKT - project pt 3 & 4 and presentation, hw assignments (last 2 but he might not assign them till after thanksgiving break), FIN - hw assignment, BUS - case, FIN - group case. Contact colleges, apply to more jobs, do laundry.

Things completed:

I've thoroughly enjoyed the last few days. At work, I'm driving forward a new initiative/project that should launch next week. It's a project of pretty big strategic importance, and one being led forward with some level of strategy and understanding of its purpose (quite unlike the launch of our other similar project - edited for clarification).

This project has largely been built outside of the engineering team and has really been the first one where we, as a company, stop trying to do everything ourselves. With the help of Pete, I'm working with two separate companies to help launch this project: the hosted company we partner very closely with is managing the technical infrastructure while a local development firm is helping me build out the shopping cart. 

To get this project in on time, I've been working on-site at the latter company (their offices are two blocks from my loft - right in the middle of the Gaslamp).

I have to say, I've loved working out of this office. It really brings me me back to the earlier days of MindTouch, when things seemed to get done faster (but with the downside of less quality) - I remember quite fondly working with Pete during the second launch of Wik.is - we had a huge whiteboard of tasks, and we just trucked through them for launch. I love that feeling. When I left their offices yesterday, I was in such a good mood - a feeling that's been missing lately. I felt SO good that I actually ended up going out last night ... quite a change from my normal Fridays, where I'm so burned out I usually just stay in and watch a DVD and sleep.

So I'm back here today, working with these guys on the launch (and I don't feel resentful of working on a Saturday, although these guys may disagree... hehe). It's a beautiful day outside - the window is open, and there's a faint smell of charred wood (smells wonderful!) - every once in a while, you'll hear a horde of Eagles fans start a rowdy cheer at one of the local open-air bars. The only thing that would make this more perfect would be if we were making faster progress so I could go sailing today...

What makes me additionally happy is the professional services team at MindTouch really seems to be hitting the ground running as a self-contained unit with relatively little oversight from me. They kicked off two large projects this past week while wrapping up a huge one (I'm still running two more on the side). With just a few phone calls from my side on Friday, things kept moving forward. The best feeling for me is building a self-contained team and watching it succeed.

After this project launches, I'll be heading up discussions on Phase 2 - if this launch takes off, it really gives the product team a more defined roadmap to focus on - right now we're just floating around in many different directions. My attempts at a roadmap a few weeks back simply defined the boundaries of the float - it didn't actually give us a great direction.

And of course, there's some soul searching afterwards. Why is it that I enjoyed working out of these offices so much the past few days? Is it me? What needs to change? I need to find out...