My Bubble Portfolio

Here's my Oct 22, 2013 Bubble Portfolio. It'll be interesting to check these stocks again in 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, and 5 years.

NAME	SYMBOL	PRICE	MKT CAP	EPS	P/E
Angie's List, Inc.	ANGI	15.49	904.37M	-0.66	-
Facebook, Inc.	FB	52.67	128.28B	0.22	238.35
Groupon, Inc.	GRPN	9.86	6.57B	-0.14	-
LinkedIn Corporation	LNKD	244.95	27.46B	0.26	931.37
NetSuite Inc.	N	109.19	8.10B	-0.70	-
Netflix, Inc.	NFLX	322.52	19.00B	0.80	401.65
Pandora Media, Inc.	P	27.47	4.85B	-0.28	-
Qihoo 360 Technology	QIHU	89.34	10.66B	0.50	179.76
SolarCity Corporation	SCTY	59.70	4.67B	-2.27	-
Trulia, Inc.	TRLA	44.43	1.45B	-0.32	-
Tesla Motors, Inc.	TSLA	171.54	20.83B	-1.95	-
Workday, Inc.	WDAY	79.69	13.87B	-0.99	-
Yelp, Inc.	YELP	69.41	4.53B	-0.21	-
Zillow, Inc.	Z	79.27	2.77B	-0.34	-
Zynga, Inc.	ZNGA	3.64	2.93B	-0.15	-

Shares prices are closing prices on Oct 22, 2013.

Bitten By A Dog

I was jogging in a local park minding my own business, when this dog just came up to me and bit me in the leg. The dog owner was very apologetic: "I'm so sorry, she usually doesn't do this, but she's in heat now." So I guess I was sexually assaulted by a bitch.

The wound was minor, but I was worried about rabies and went to see my doctor, who gave me a shot for tetanus, and assured me rabies is not a concern in domestic dogs today. No excuse for foaming at the mouth yet.

Heritage Health Prize Round 1 Results

The Heritage Health Prize round 1 milestone results were released. I came in 3rd on the final private rankings, even though I was only the 5th on public leaderboard. So I guess I didn't overfit too badly.

I wonder by how much I missed winning the lottery this time.

On Zombie Apocalypse Survival

Some people like to discuss zombie apocalypse survival scenarios. The suggested preparations usually involve stockpiling guns and ammo, building defensive structures, practicing marksmanship and survival skills, etc.

I used to not take zombie apocalypse survival seriously, but lately I gave it some serious thought.

Almost all zombie apocalypse survivalists are living in a fantasy. Because based on all credible evidence available (movies, duh), when the zombie apocalypse comes, most of them will become zombies themselves. Stockpiling guns and ammo ? Well chances are your stockpile will be used against your future zombie self by the few lucky remaining humans.

Seriously, zombie apocalypse survival is about surviving as zombies, not as humans.

If you're saying, "If I become a zombie, then I don't care about survival any more, and I'd rather be dead." Well, technically you're already dead, but hope springs eternal, even for zombies. Your job is to survive long enough until someone comes up with a cure that turns zombies back into humans.

What can you do today to increase your chance of survival as a zombie in the future ? Keep in mind that all credible evidence available (movies, duh) show that zombies are incapable of higher functioning, and survives by killing humans and eating flesh off the corpses.

The number 1 thing you can do to improve your chance of survival as a zombie is getting strong, sharp, flesh-tearing titanium teeth implants.

Even if zombie apocalypse does not come in your lifetime, titanium teeth implants still have advantages: you'll be a better chewer, and you don't need to worry about cavities any more.

Javascript 15-puzzle Sliding Tile Game

I have been using Javascript more recently, and decided to cleanup the 15-puzzle sliding tile game I wrote in Javascript some time ago. Instead of using boring numbered tiles, my version let you use images and it displays tiled images.

I had to put it on a separate page because columns in blog layout interferes with displaying bigger images.

The Netflix Prize Announcement

I went to the Netflix Prize announcement in New York on Sept 21. It was great to finally meet some of my team members, as well as our arch-nemesis BellKor's Pragmatic Chaos. I also did some sightseeing in NYC so it was a pretty good trip.

The prize announcement was pretty well-covered by the media. Reporters from New York Times, Forbes, AP, Business Week, Wall Street Journal, etc were there. Just do a search and you'll find plenty of press coverage of the event.

From talking to my team members, it's not surprising that we all work in IT-related fields, but I'm still impressed by the breadth of experience in the Ensemble team, from health care to entertainment industry to unmanned weapon systems. That's right, from saving your life to killing you and making a movie about it, we got you covered.

BellKor's Pragmatic Chaos revealed one surprising chance-of-luck happening that explained some of the behind-the-scene drama we saw in the last 48 hours of the contest.

PS: I accidentally got quoted in this Business Week article.

An Interview by Three Ensemblers

Three members of The Ensemble, Joe Sill, Jeff Howbert, and Chris Hefele have done a great interview at http://www.twit.tv/natn114. If you download the MP3 file, the actual interview starts at 25 minutes into the file.

The host really got into the drama factor of the last 30 days. Still, most of the behind-the-scene happenings have not been told yet, I hope that someday  the whole will be told and from BPC's perspective too. I guarantee you it will be 10 times more interesting.

And it was an incredible & awesome experience, filled with uncertainty, suspense, excitement, debates... and the last 48 hours was absolutely thrilling !