CMU Professor Randy Pausch’s ‘Last Lecture’

Randy Pausch, a 46-year-old computer-science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, a pioneer in virtual reality, a Disney Imagineer, an innovative teacher, and the co-founder of the best video game school in the world, , delivers one last lecture entitled “How to Live Your Childhood Dreams” on his life’s journey and lessons, as he expects to live for just a few more months from pancreatic cancer.

Watch the full lecture on Google Video(medium quality)

Streaming by Windows Media Player (high quality, fast internet connection preferred)

Direct download (High quality, 253 MB)

Here’s the speech transcript.

Some of favorite lessons I love:

- “And as you get older, you may find that “enabling the dreams of others” thing is even more fun.”

- “…so one of the expressions I learned at Electronic Arts, which I love, which pertains to this, is
experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted“.

- [flashing up rejection letters] “…the brick walls are here for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the
people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.”

The lecture has many more meaningful lessons, and I sure have more reactions. However, I don’t want to spoil your experience, so please check it out and share your thoughts.

 

Thuy Linh tape saga – what are lessons for crisis management?

My short answer? Hire an SEO expert as soon as possible!

Assuming you are asked to handle the current Vang Anh Thuy Linh crisis from the beginning, what would you do?

(Giả sử bạn được giao nhiệm vụ giải quyết vụ khủng hoảng Vàng Anh Thùy Linh ngay từ đầu, bạn sẽ làm gì?)

 

Yahoo! 360 users, don’t sweat!

Below is an official announcement on the future fate of Yahoo! 360.

*************

Source: Yahoo! 360 team

The Evolution of Yahoo! 360

On Yahoo!’s Q3 Earnings call today, it was announced that we intend to transition Yahoo! 360 to a more integrated Yahoo! experience in early 2008. I want to provide additional information on this news and assure you that we will minimize any disruption to you and our valued Yahoo! 360 community. I also want to assure you that you can still use all the features of Yahoo! 360 until this transition takes place in early 2008.

We will be sharing specifics of this transition over the next several months, but I can tell you today that Yahoo! 360 will transition to a new universal Yahoo! profile that will be closely tied to other relevant services across Yahoo!, and will include improved blogging capabilities. With the announcement of this transition, we assure you:

• We will preserve your Yahoo! 360 blog content, profile photo, nickname, and friends lists during and after the transition
• We will provide the right tools to move your blog content;
• We will give you ample notice before this transition begins in early 2008.

The vibrant community that has flourished on Yahoo! 360 is important to many people, and it is important to Yahoo!. Providing a smooth transition is a top priority for us, and we want to emphasize that we are committed to preserving your blog content and friends lists throughout the transition.

Many of you have asked if Mash, Yahoo!’s experimental profile service, will replace Yahoo! 360. We know this is an important question for many of you, and even more so given this news. We don’t have all the answers today, but we are testing solutions, including Mash, in order to provide a more integrated universal Yahoo! profile throughout the Yahoo! network.

We hear your concerns. We are listening to your feedback, and we are committed to providing a more useful, engaging, and valuable service in the future.

Best, Matt Warburton

Yahoo! Community Manager

 

Vàng Anh sex scandal, and how internet can be evil

If you haven’t heard about the scandal yet, check out the articles on Thanh Niên and Dân Trí. You can also easily search for non-mainstream information in forums and blogosphere in Google.

You will be disappointed if you are expecting to hear some comments or rumors. While I do have an opinion, I am definitely much more interested in how this scandal is spreading. I’ve come with seven trends that might explain this sex tape scandal’s viral effect.

1/ Teenagers are Vietnam’s core internet users. As we all learn from media, a number of Vietnamese sex tapes have been popping up in the last few years. What makes this Vàng Anh tape stand out – and helps explode the scandal virally like never before – is the high relevancy: the tape’s ‘actress’ is alleged to be the main character, Thùy Linh, in “Nhật Ký Vàng Anh” show, which is wildly popular among the biggest, most loyal group of internet users in Vietnam: teenagers.

2/ The increased popularity of online news in Vietnam (albeit no less criticisms against them). News entries are created with live pictures and hot comments and updated every minute. These new capabilities are perfect to report on-going scandals! Plus, it’s 100 times easier to share a news link than a newspaper with friends.

3/ Video clips are easily recorded (production), uploaded (packaging) and broadcast (publishing) online. Anyone with an internet connection and some basic skills can accomplish the whole broadcasting process in no time.

4/ Internet broadband expansion also makes downloading and sharing videos like piece of cake.

5/ Blogs and forums are more popular – and powerful – than ever before. If online news ignite the fire, Yahoo 360 and community forums are among the very, very powerful distribution channels that spread the fire. You can try to solve the crisis with ten blogs or five forums, but it’s impossible to do so with thousands. It’s time to deal with social media!

6/ Internet users in Vietnam become more comfortable with search. Or everyone knows Google, and Google can find everything, anything.

7/ Once something gets on internet, it becomes immortal. If Google isn’t quick enough to cache it, someone among million users will copy it. Online news and video clips constantly get posted, multiplied and redistributed. In this scandal reporting, some online news services decided to pull off the articles after breaking news, fearing unintended consequences. However, everything has already been copied and pasted everywhere. Same thing for the clip and the ‘hot’ information.

Do I miss anything?

Related Post: How to handle the crisis?

 

“Buy me, buy me!” “No way, lease only!”

My friends forwarded me the most hilarious (ridiculous?) craigslist ad ever! And it’s 100% true…enjoy

************************************************************************************************************
THE QUESTION

What am I doing wrong?

Okay, I’m tired of beating around the bush. I’m a beautiful spectacularly beautiful) 25 year old girl. I’m articulate and classy. I’m not from New York . I’m looking to get married to a guy ho makes at least half a million a year. I know how that sounds, but keep in mind that a million a year is middle class in New York City, so don’t think I’m overreaching at all.

Are there any guys who make 500K or more on this board? Any wives? Could you send me some tips? I dated a business man who makes average around 200 – 250. But that’s where I seem to hit a roadblock. 250,000 won’t get me to central park west. I know a woman in my yoga class who was married to an investment banker and lives in Tribeca, and she’s not as pretty as I am, nor is she a great genius. So what is she doing right? How do I get to her level?

Here are my questions specifically:

- Where do you single rich men hang out? Give me specifics- bars, restaurants, gyms

- What are you looking for in a mate? Be honest guys, you won’t hurt my feelings

- Is there an age range I should be targeting (I’m 25)?

- Why are some of the women living lavish lifestyles on the upper east side so plain? I’ve seen really ‘plain jane’ boring types who have nothing to offer marri ed to incredibly wealthy guys. I’ve seen drop dead gorgeous girls in singles bars in the east village. What’s the story there?

- Jobs I should look out for? Everyone knows – lawyer, investment banker, doctor. How much do those guys really make? And where do they
hang out? Where do the hedge fund guys hang out?

- How you decide marriage vs. just a girlfriend? I am looking for MARRIAGE ONLY

Please hold your insults – I’m putting myself out there in an honest way. Most beautiful women are superficial; at least I’m being up front
about it. I wouldn’t be searching for these kind of guys if I wasn’t able to match them – in looks, culture, sophistication, and keeping a
nice home and hearth.

* it’s NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

PostingID: 432279810

THE ANSWER

Dear Pers-431649184:

I read your posting with great interest and have thought meaningfully about your dilemma. I offer the following analysis of your predicament.

Firstly, I’m not wasting your time, I qualify as a guy who fits your bill; that is I make more than $500K per year. That
said here’s how I see it.

Your offer, from the prospective of a guy like me, is plain and simple a cr@ppy business deal. Here’s why. Cutting through all the B.S., what you suggest is a simple trade: you bring your looks to the party and I bring my money. Fine, simple. But here’s the rub, your looks will fade and my money will likely continue into perpetuity…in fact, it is very likely that my income increases but it is an absolute certainty that you won’t be getting any more beautiful!

So, in economic terms you are a depreciating asset and I am an earning asset. Not only are you a depreciating asset, your depreciation
accelerates! Let me explain, you’re 25 now and will likely stay pretty hot for the next 5 years, but less so each year. The n the fade begins in
earnest. By 35 stick a fork in you!

So in Wall Street terms, we would call you a trading position, not a buy and hold…hence the rub…marriage. It doesn’t make good business sense to “buy you” (which is what you’re asking) so I’d rather lease. In case you think I’m being cruel, I would say the following. If my money were to go away, so would you, so when your beauty fades I need an out. It’s as simple as that. So a deal that makes sense is dating, not marriage.

Separately, I was taught early in my career about efficient markets. So, I wonder why a girl as “articulate, classy and spectacularly beautiful”
as you has been unable to find your sugar daddy. I find it hard to believe that if you are as gorgeous as you say you are that the $500K
hasn’t found you, if not only for a tryout.

By the way, you could always find a way to make your own money and then we wouldn’t need to have this difficult conversation.
With all that said, I must say you’re going about it the right way. Classic “pump and dump.”

I hope this is helpful, and if you want to enter into some sort of lease, let me know.

 

Vietnam fights spams

From my experience, Gmail is doing a great job filtering Vietnamese spams, compared with Yahoo and other services. However, spams are simply unbearable. I hope Vietnam will take some harsh action to reduce the spam disease.

Full text of the brand-new anti-spam decree

A high-ranking official shares his thoughts on spam issue

 

Yahoo Mash came to Vietnam

If you haven’t used it, here are some comprehensive reviews from two Vietnamese bloggers: Y! Mash – Người anh em của Y! 360 (Andre’s blog) & Y!MASH & Y!360 (Kitta®’s blog).

In case you want to feel a complete Y!Mash profile, check out the profile of Will Aldrich, the head of Y!Mash team.

Some personal observations about the product:

- the most interesting feature is perhaps the ability for other people to edit your profile. You can give this permission to everyone, your friends or nobody.

- simply TOO many things from the start. MySpace and FaceBook carefully moved from a pretty clean, simple interface to the open platform, and their users still got confused.

- very hip language. I mean, how many of us are actually comfortable with these English slangs: “This is fugly”, “mashy” or “last snorgled by”.

More far-reaching questions:

- what is the fate of Yahoo 360? Integrate Y!360 and Y!Mash features? Transport Y!360 users to Y!Mash and then shut down Y!360 (like Y!Photos and Flickr)? This will largely depend on how Y!Mash rolls out, but two things are for sure. First, Yahoo has largely ignored Y!360 for a very long time. Second, most importantly, the most ambitious goal of Yahoo, which has the largest collection of internet properties in terms of traffic and pageviews, is to integrate all their services into one.

- how can Vietnamese social networks adapt to and capitalize on this “Y!transition” time? I haven’t seen much improvements in terms of features and strategies from YoBanBe, VietSpace or TheHeTre. And yet, there are also rumors that some young, foreign-trained Vietnamese entrepreneurs are quietly working on a new social networking project.

 

A response from Baamboo blog

This is an official response from Baamboo blog to the recent assault on its search services.

 

The (quiet) storm at Tuổi Trẻ

The Opening:

BBC Vietnamese: Thay đổi ban lãnh đạo Báo Tuổi Trẻ & Tuổi Trẻ đấu tranh để không thành ‘báo Đoàn’

Dien Dan: Uốn nắn báo Tuổi Trẻ? (if that link doesn’t work, try this one)

The Reaction:

Kim Hạnh, Tuổi Trẻ’s former Editor : Bản sắc và định mệnh của Tuổi Trẻ

Huỳnh Sơn Phước, Tuổi Trẻ’s departing Deputy Editor: Dám sống, vượt qua rào cản chính mình

Đoàn Khắc Xuyên, Tuổi Trẻ’s former Managing Editor: Nhạy, mới, mở, góp phần vào đổi mới

Tiến Dũng on BBC Vietnamese: Báo Tuổi Trẻ, giá trị của tinh thần phản biện

The End:

PV Huy Đức: Tuổi Trẻ Circle (or “what goes around comes around”)

 

Ban Dia: new local review site from Baamboo

Baamboo is testing its new local review site Ban Dia, which covers an unusually extensive inventory including restaurants, hotels, shops, and even educational and sport centers. You might also want to check out Jason’s overview of other local review sites.