Daily Stuff--9/20/2012

Languages--Chinese:

I watched episode 62 of Travel in Chinese. This episode was about buying plane tickets.

Philosophy:

I read about Aristotle's Law of Identity, which states that every entity has a specific nature. An entity is only one thing and nothing else and there are certain characteristics that define it. A telephone can't be a tree and a dog isn't a cat. Each of these has certain physical and other defining characteristics that give them their identity.

Internships:

I looked up Dragon Diction for iPhone, iPad, and and iPod Touch on nuance.com. The application translates your speech into text so you don't have to use the keyboard. I know that the main problem with this kind of application is mistakes in the translation process. If people don't speak clearly, the message gets transcribed differently.

To-Do (9/20/2012):

• Lectures 1.5A and 1.5B in Lean Launchpad class
• Lecture 1.5A was about how to use the Business Model Canvas for one's startup. This starts with the idea that startups are temporary. There is no such thing as an 8-year startup, and if one thinks they have one, they've actually failed. The goal is to turn a startup into a company, and the misconception is that these are the same thing. A startup is not a miniature business. One very important thing to remember is that it's not about the product or idea. One has to ask themselves what problem in society they can solve. If they can solve a problem, they have a market. Another important thing to note is that the customers aren't going to automatically buy a product one creates. One needs to let people know they exist and they need to do research on their target audience. This allows them to market their product better. 
• Unit 5 of Software Debugging
• Unit 5 of Differential Equations
• Registration page on web app
• Fix bug
• Write code for registration page
• Read 3 newspaper articles
• There was an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal about the growing popularity of the Periodic Table of Elements and chemistry in general. It used to be the type of thing only scientists knew about but now the Periodic Table is being used in ads, there are jokes about it, and it's popping up on products like shower curtains and coffee tables. People like nerdy stuff now and nerdy is the new cool. Viral videos like "The Elements Song" on youtube have contributed a fair amount to this new popularity as well as shows like The Big Bang Theory. 
• There was another interesting WSJ article about how algorithms are being used to determine how much employees get paid in certain companies. Algorithms can be used to find out who gets the most work done, how payment affects employees and their performance, and various other analyses. This allows companies to give pay raises to the most deserving employees and determine if giving a pay raise will lead to higher productivity. This is a good tool to use, I think, because it means that less people can get pay raises or promotions by simply knowing how to impress the boss. If they're getting pay raises because they rightfully deserve them, it means other employees are likely to follow in their footsteps, therefore leading to higher productivity and higher quality of work. 
• Find out best number to call in order to make appointment