Microsoft Will Be Offering Fremont

In response to Google Base, Microsoft is in the process of developing Fremont, code name for its online classified listings. Fremont will be enhanced with Microsoft's localized maps and will be available on Live.com.

Canvascape - 3D Walker

Look familiar? No, that is not Counter Strike? This game is being developed by Benjamin Joffe. What you see is written in Javascript. Pretty interesting. You can move around using your arrow keys and jump with your Spacebar key. Good stuff. Thanks to my buddy Jackson for the link.

Live Traffic Cameras for Washington DC Metro Area Residents

If you are a resident in the Washington DC Metro Area like myself, then you would be glad to have these live traffic cameras. Thanks TrafficLand Company.

Firefox 1.5 Available for Download Today

The new version of Firefox will be available for download later today.

Download the latest version of Firefox at www.firefox.com and www.mozilla.com.

Read more on the latest features of Firefox at www.techworld.com

Do You Know MapQuest.com?

Here are some interesting facts about MapQuest Inc. that I read today at news.yahoo.com:

• MapQuest's roots date to 1967, when it was the cartographic division of the publisher R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co. before becoming an independent company. In pre-Internet days, the group made the road maps that were distributed free at gas stations as well as the computerized TripTik system for AAA.


• MapQuest.com went live Feb. 5, 1996, and started trading shares publicly three years later.


• Of all people going to mapping sites, 71 percent visited MapQuest.com in September, roughly even from a year ago, according to comScore Media Metrix. Yahoo Inc. drew 32 percent, also about the same as last year, while new arrival Google Inc. had a 25 percent share.


• The number going to mapping sites leaped 33 percent to 51.3 million in the last year.


• MapQuest.com was acquired by America Online Inc. in 2000.

MapQuest.com has been seeing stiff competition from Google Maps, Google Earth, MSN Virtual Earth, Yahoo Maps and Amazon A9. What MapQuest.com needs is innovation to stay ahead of the mapping competition, in which it's already a leader. MapQuest Inc. is heading toward its 10th year anniversary of its website. Go MapQuest.com!

Vietnamese Student Associations Photo Albums

Dear VSA members and alumni:
If you would like to have your existing VSA photo albums added to the following list or want to have an album created for your VSA, please send an email to thekhuc[AT]yahoo[DOT]com. I hope you enjoy the following albums.

Regards,
Webmaster

Maryland:

• Vietnamese Student Assocation at University of Maryland at College Park

Virginia:

• Vietnamese Student Assocation at George Mason University


• Vietnamese Student Assocation at University of Virginia


• Vietnamese Student Assocation at Virginia Tech

Happy Turkey Day

Have a great Thanksgiving, everybody!

Check out this cool Thanksgiving Flash movie clip. Thanks to msn.americangreetings.com. Hope you enjoy it.

aspnet_regiis -i

Use the following commands to either register for the first time or re-register your ASP.NET with IIS.

For ASP.NET version 1.1.4322:
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322>aspnet_regiis -i

For ASP.NET version 2.0.50727:
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727>aspnet_regiis -i

New Moniker for Small Towns

A short while ago, I read about this small town in Texas changing its name to Dish to promote EchoStart Communications Corp.'s Dish Network, and today, another town in Idaho is going to change its name to Secretsanta.com in exchange for cash and a documentary deal. Here are some towns that changed their names in exchange for fame and money:

• Santa, Idaho - Secretsanta.com (115 people) - Year 2005


• Halfway, Oregon - Half.com (brought in $75,000 and 20 computers for its schools) -Year 2000


• Hot Sprints, New Mexico - Truth or Consequences (a radio program that became a TV game show) - Year 1950

You can read more about this at msnbc.msn.com.

inetmgr and iisreset

Internet Information Services or IIS is Microsoft's web server application. It is based on Windows NT Server, and it supports the World Wide Web, FTP, and gopher, a menu-oriented tool used to locate online resources developed at the University of Minnesota.

Two tricks that I use most often with IIS are to open and reset IIS using the Run command line. Here's how:


Typing inetmgr at the Run command line would open up the Internet Information Services GUI.


Typing iisreset at the Run command line would restart the Internet Information Services.

Search Engines Are Second Only To Email

According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, search engines have become the second most used Net application after email. On an average day, there are about 41 percent of the Internet using population in the US turn to search engines, up from 31 percent in the middle of 2004. This is about 59 million people. Email remains the number one online service with 52 percent of US population checking mail on any given day.

Google is still the search engine leader with 43.7 percent for local searches, while Yahoo! is number one with 27.6 percent in terms of Internet Yellow Page sites.

Read more about this Project in a memo compiled by Pew Internet Project Director Lee Rainie and comScore Communications Analyst Jeremy Shermak on search engine use in November 2005.

Temple University School of Podiatric Medicine Is Where She Will Be

This is a follow up to my last post about my girlfriend Hoang-Anh going to TUSPM for an interview. She got a phone call from the TUSPM Dean yesterday telling her that SHE GOT ACCEPTED. CONGRATS! They even offered her a scholarship. I knew she could do it all along, and I'm really happy for her too, because I know she has been worried sick throughout this application process.

Now I just need to think of a good place to take her out to dinner. This is NOT an easy task.

Basic Oligopoly Models

Four types of oligopolies:

• Sweezy oligopoly: An industry in which there are few firms serving many customers; (2) firms produce differentiated products; (3) each firm believes rivals will respond to a price reduction but will not follow a price increase; and (4) barriers to entry exist. It may be optimal to continue to produce the same level of output even if marginal cost declines.


• Cournot oligopoly: An industry in which (1) there are few firms serving many consumers; (2) firms produce either differentiated or homogenous products; (3) each firm believes rivals will hold their output constant if it changes its output; and (4) barriers to entry exist. It is optimal to expand output if marginal cost declines.


• Stackelberg oligopoly: An industry in which (1) there are few firms serving many consumers; (2) firms produce either differentiated or homogeneous products; (3) a single firm (the leader) chooses an output before rivals select their outputs; (4) all other firms (the followers) take the leader's output as given and select outputs that maximize profits given the leader's output; and (5) barriers to entry exist.


• Bertrand oligopoly: An industry in which (1) there are few firms serving many consumers; (2) firms produce identical products at a constant marginal cost; (3) firms compete in price and react optimally to competitors' prices; (4) consumers have perfect competition and there are no transaction costs; and (5) barriers to entry exist.

You can read more about these four types of oligopolies in chapter 9 of Michael Baye’s Managerial Economics and Business Strategy.

Google Base is Live!

The beta version of Google Base was launched earlier today. It allows people to post all kind of information such as vehicles, recipes, job listings, and real estate listings, and this information will be freely available to everyone coming to Google Base located at base.google.com. This service is viewed as a potential threat to traditional classified businesses like newspapers and online sites like Ebay and Craigslist.

From Google Base website:

Help the world find your content.
Google Base is a place where you can add all types of information that we'll host and make searchable online.

You can describe any item you post with attributes, which will help people find it when they search Google Base. In fact, based on the relevance of your items, they may also be included in the main Google search index and other Google products like Froogle and Google Local.

Read more about Google Base at news.yahoo.com.

Xbox 360 Hits Stores 11/22

The battle for video-game supremacy starts in one week.

Tuesday, Nov. 22, is when Microsoft begins selling its newest -- and highly anticipated -- console, the Xbox 360.

Some information on the new Xbox:

When: Hits stores Nov. 22

Price: $299 for the core system (includes console, wired controller and AV cable). $399 for premium edition (includes console, 20 GB detachable hard drive, wireless controller, headset and HD AV cables)

Games: Sold separately ($59.99 each)

Specs: display of 720p/1080i, 2 USB ports, wi-fi-ready

Read more on the new Xbox 360 at www.suntimes.com.

Google Analytics is Free!

My blog now has Google Analytics installed. Thanks to Google and my fellow colleague, Hardik, for telling me about it. Formerly known as Urchin from Google, Google Analytics is designed to help businesses use performance data to improve their online marketing campaigns and Web sites.

Google Analytics accesses a Javascript function called urchinTracker( ) from this Javascript file http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js to gather data.

Read more about this at www.technewsworld.com.

Check out Google Analytics web site at www.google.com/analytics.

NY Taxis get computer upgrade with credit cards, movie lists, and GPS

I don't remember the last time I rode in a taxi, but it's pretty cool to learn that N.Y. taxis will get computer upgrade with credit cards, movie lists, sports scores, news headlines, and fligh information.

N.Y. taxis will aslo be equipped with GPS that monitors every pick-up and drop-off. As a result, customers will able to retrieve their lost property with less effort.

May be next time when I visit New York City, I will be able to check out these cool technologies.

Read more about N.Y. taxis at Bloomberg.com.

Temple University School of Podiatric Medicine, Here She Comes!

My girlfriend Hoang-Anh is in the process of applying to Podiatry schools, and she's having an interview with Temple University School of Podiatric Medicine today. She's smart and I know she can achieve whatever she puts her mind into. She has my best wishes!

New mapping and local search services from Google

It's only fair that I post an entry about Google, because I have been posting about Microsoft and Yahoo in the past few days.

Today Google introduced new and improved mapping and local search services for mobile phone users. The new services will take advantage of the Global Positioning System or GPS, which eliminates the need for users to enter their location. Google said it doesn't plan to display ads alongside its mobile maps. These new services require Java-enabled mobile phones, and won't work with Verizon Wireless phones, Blackberry devices or Palm devices. Most subscribers with wireless service from Cingular, T-Mobile and Sprint should be able to use these services.

Some facts about Google:

• Google's market value is over $100 billion in just 7 years


• Ads generated most of Google's revenues, which were about $4.2 billion, during the first 9 months of this year. Profits were about $1.1.


• Next targets for Google: telecommunications, television and publishing.

Some interesting facts about Yahoo!

Yahoo has always been a fascinating company to me. Here are some interesting facts about Yahoo that you probably did not know:

• There are over 400 million Yahoo email accounts worldwide.



• Yahoo is a company with a $53 billion market value and weekly revenue of more than $90 million.



• Yahoo sites account for 13 percent of all page views. Thus, Yahoo sites make up the largest single presence on the Internet.



• Just two years ago, Yahoo had no search engine of its own and licensed Google for its searches. It just recently began buildingt its own search engine after acquiring Inktomi, Alta Vista and Overture, and it has become a big rival against its once search provider Google.



• Yahoo Desktop Search is based on the desktop search system created by X1 Technologies company.



• Yahoo recently bought the following services to add to its services offerings: Flickr, a system for storing, sharing and commenting on photographs; Upcoming, a scheduling application; and Oddpost, a mail utility.



• Last but not least, Yahoo sites has more than 200 million active users in more than 20 countries.

Watch out Google! Yahoo still has what it takes to be number one.

Read more about Yahoo! in this article "A Journey to the Center of Yahoo" by James Fallows in the New York Times.

Different measures of market structures

There are different measures of market structures, such as the four-firm concentration ratio and the Herfindfahl-Hirschman index (HHI). The four-firm concentration ratio is the fraction of total industry sales produced by the four largest firms in the industry. If the ratio equals one, the industry is a monopoly or oligopoly; if it is zero, the industry is competitve. The HHI is the sum of the squared market shares of firms in a given industry multiplied by 10,000. It can range from 10,000 for a monopoly to zero for a perfectly competive industry.

Other summary statistics include the Lerner index, the Rothschild index, and the Dansby-Willig index. These indexes provide a manager information about industry cost and demand conditions. For instance, the greater the Lerner index in an industry, the greater the ability of a firm in an industry to charge a high markup on its product.

You can read more about this in chapter 7 of Michael Baye's Managerial Economics and Business Strategy, which is the textbook for my MBA 603 class.

It has been a productive night spent with my silly and half-awake Hoang-Anh.

Cool web applications: Writely, Num Sum, and Yahoo! Local Maps

Check out the following 3 cool web applications.

Writely is a free online word precessing tool. You can check it out at www.writely.com. Here are some ideas on how you can use Writely:

• Pick exactly who can access your documents.


• Upload from Word & save to your desktop.


• Edit your documents anytime, from anywhere.

Num Sum is a free online sharable sociable spreadsheet. You can check it out www.numsum.com. Here are some usage ideas for Num Sum:

• Home Budgeting


• Tracking Search Keywords


• Online Stock Portfolio


• Fantasy Sports

Yahoo! Local Maps Beta @ maps.yahoo.com/beta. I have been waiting for Yahoo! to catch up to Google and Microsoft maps for a while, and now it finally happens.

Windows Live

At the launch of Windows Live on Tuesday, Microsoft showed off eight or so services. Some of them are as follows:

Live.com beta
Windows Live Mail beta
Windows Live Safety Center beta
Windows Live Favorites beta
Windows Live Messenger beta
Windows OneCare Live beta
Windows Live Search beta-mobile

Read more about this at news.com and the official live.com site.

Microsoft to start offering Windows Live and Office Live

Microsoft previewed two new services, Windows Live and Office Live, yesterday. These services will complement and extend the capabilities of its core Windows and Office software. Some Windows Live services are in beta now, while Office Live will be available in early 2006.

It's going to be interesting to see how Google and Yahoo! react to these services offerings by Microsoft. Read more about it at Forbes.com.

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No Homework

I just found out that the homework is not due this Thursday. Yay! This is good news, indeed.

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