Dell XPS 15

Last month I started working on a new laptop, the Dell XPS 15. This is Dell’s premium notebook, combining performance with design and competing with the MacBook Pro.

I’ve always liked the hardware of the MacBook Pro (lightweight, compact, good screen, fast hard drive) but, after multiple attempts, I never really warmed up to Mac OS. Fortunately new offerings like this Dell hit pretty close to the mark and still give me the Windows tools I seek (without having to deal with Apple at all).

The biggest win by far of this notebook is its screen, a stunning 15.6″ 3200 x 1800 touchscreen Gorilla Glass display. For movies it is absolutely stunning but even text in basic productivity apps seems much clearer and sharper. This notebook model is already more than a year old and still has a better display than the current MacBook Pro (2880 x 1800), so I’ll be excited to see what the next generation offers.

The next win is the 512 GB SSD hard drive. It is so screamingly fast that this is the first Windows notebook I have ever owned that actually provides “instant on” functionality. I don’t use too many data-intensive applications so I can’t speak to its speed at I/O but, for rapid startup, it is transformative.

The battery life is also very good. Despite the big display, I am easily getting 6-9 hours use between charges (depending, of course, on how hard I’m pushing it), which is more than adequate to sustain me during travel or meetings. I’m not sure I’ve even used my charger outside of the home or office yet.

My one reservation for this computer was that it only came with Windows 8.1. I liked Windows 7 just fine and I hadn’t heard great things about 8.1. So far, though, I have been pleased – not blown away – by 8.1. It isn’t radically different than 7, but it offers a more app-like launch experience, which is prevalent on all of my other devices. I’m still not using the touch screen as much as I could, but I’ll get there.

All in all I have been very pleased with the Dell XPS 15. It’s fast, light, not too power hungry, and has an amazing display. If there are others out there who want MacBook Pro-ish hardware with a Windows experience, this is it.

Rice Homecoming 2014

Katie and I were in Houston last weekend for Rice’s annual Homecoming & Reunion. It was a lot of fun to be together back in our old stomping ground, and we packed an awful lot into just a few days.

The weather really, really cooperated as it was sunny and 70s F (20s C) almost the entire time we were there. Weather like that makes it easy to romanticize our life in Houston, selectively forgetting the miserable summer weather! We took advantage with lots of outdoor runs and beach volleyball. One of our runs was along Buffalo Bayou, which has changed significantly even since just a few months ago. Through landscaping, the addition of many pedestrian and bike paths, and the construction of new venues (not to mention an epic dog park), the City of Houston is investing heavily in Buffalo Bayou. It is still a work in progress, but it is easy to see that it will soon be a tremendous asset to life inside the loop.

Buffalo Bayou is far from the only part of Houston under construction. As booming as Houston’s economy is, there is construction everywhere! The downside to this is that there is traffic everywhere. It used to be that you would deal with traffic if you lived out in the suburbs but you were relatively insulated from it inside the loop. No longer! There is no escape! As quickly as Houston is growing, I don’t expect the road construction to keep pace with the traffic and, unfortunately, public transportation efforts like light rail are being developed at a snail’s pace.

Fortunately we didn’t have to drive around too much as we spent most of our time on campus for Homecoming. The events were fantastic as always, including Katie’s reunion at the new continuing studies building. As this was the first Homecoming in three years that Katie and I weren’t chairing, we were really able to relax and enjoy it. We were able to see many friends in a short amount of time and Rice won the football game to boot, becoming bowl-eligible for the third year in a row – go Owls!

We also checked many Houston food destinations off of our bucket list while we were there: Goode Co. BBQ, Roost, Beaver’s, Torchy’s Tacos, some more authentic tex mex, and even the Lovett College servery. Say what you like about Houston; it is definitely a great food town!

It was just a quick trip, but it is always nice to be back together in the place we called home for more than 10 years – even if that place is changing at an incredible pace. It was a blast, Houston, and we’ll be back soon!

A Few Days en Suisse

After the grand weekend in Paris, I took a detour of just a few days in Lausanne, Switzerland, before returning to the States. The trip on the TGV was wonderful as always. There is just something so civilized about traveling by train: plenty of space, Wi-fi, more-than-decent meals, and the gorgeous French countryside streaming by at more than 300 kph (200 mph)! Oh how I miss this option when I am in the US.

Upon my arrival I was met at the station by my IMD classmate and host, Mathieu. We wasted very little time before heading up the mountain for something canonically Swiss: fondue! As I have blogged before, Le Chalet Suisse offers not only an authentic “chalet” experience and delicious fondue, but incomparable views of Lac Leman as well.

We arrived around sunset and were treated to gorgeous views, a crescent moon over the lake, and a magical twilight in the land of fairy tales before dinner. The magic only intensified as several other IMD classmates joined us for fondue. It has been nearly seven years since I met them all and nearly six since we finished the program, but meeting them again makes it seem like it was only yesterday!

As I have blogged before, I have eliminated grains and starches from my diet, which has had a positive effect on my body composition. One doesn’t exactly go into a fondue dinner for his health, but I at least intended to stick to my nutritional guns. My willpower wore down quickly, though, and it rapidly devolved into a cheat meal. This began with the bread I dipped into the fondue pot, continued with the potato I took along with Mathieu’s raclette, and then really hit a new high when I helped Allessandra finish her rösti. It’s too bad no one had any spätzle as I would have devoured it since I was already breaking my rules! It was a very Swiss and very perfect way to start my brief trip.

Monday morning I had breakfast with another classmate – one who is trying to launch a startup, incidentally. We had a nice breakfast in Ouchy right along the lake. Unfortunately most of the menu items had grains in them and I was trying to return to my strict diet, so guess what I had for breakfast: more cheese – because a huge fondue dinner the night before wasn’t enough! Well, there are worse places in the world in which to find yourself eating a metric ton of cheese!

I spent the day at IMD, which was a refreshing homecoming. In the morning I met with many of the MBA staff. I must have looked famished (Not!), because they took pity on me and invited me to lunch at the famous IMD restaurant. It was just as good as I remembered and offered plenty of excellent vegetables and fish so that I could dilute my cheese consumption a little.

After working from the IMD cafe all afternoon, I went back up the mountain and did some trail running. The previous several days of perfect weather were finally at an end and the mountain slopes were shrouded in a misty fog. This made for another fairy tale experience: picking my way first through the Parc de l’Hermitage and then the Bois de Sauvabelin – truly magical!

My hosts and I joined another IMD classmate for dinner at a local Italian restaurant. It turns out that on Monday nights they only have pizza available so it became another [delicious] cheat meal for me! Much as my breakfast classmate was launching a new venture, so was this other classmate at dinner. I’m beginning to notice a trend! I suppose alumni of the IMD MBA class of 2008 are nearing their seven year itch at their corporate jobs and starting to explore more entrepreneurial opportunities. It was quite rewarding to learn that my classmate had actually followed my online entrepreneurship lectures and found them very beneficial – glad to help!

Tuesday I began the day with a run along the lake. The fog over the lake and Chateau d’Ouchy recalled visions of the mists of Avalon. In order to make it back to my apartment, shower, and then return to Ouchy for meetings at IMD in time, I took the metro up and back. On the way up I received lots of stares as someone who was clearly out of place. Dressed in Under Armour and wearing Vibrams Fivefingers shoes, I was looking very un-Swiss!

However, on my way back down to IMD I received even more stares – this time because of my Google Glass, which is even less common in Europe than it is the US. Being so blatantly stared at was a really interesting sociological experience. Even as extroverted as I am, even as much as I enjoy the spotlight, I felt uncomfortable by the unapologetic gawking on the metro. I can only imagine how uncomfortable women feel when they are gawked at in public or, worse, catcalled and harassed.

Clearly this wasn’t as much of an epiphanous experience as, for example, Dustin Hoffman’s character experienced in Tootsie, but it still opened my eyes somewhat to how people in the minority feel when they are clearly out of place within the majority. As a white American male, I am more often in the majority in the US, so I will try to be more sensitive to those who are not.

Tuesday I got a little work done at IMD but spent most of my time catching up with former professors. I even went to dinner with one (Fondue again – the diet was on full pause by this point!), who was on the verge of taking on a new challenge as dean of another business school. He has been a professor, a mentor, and a friend to me, so it is thrilling to see him leave a very comfortable situation at IMD for a new adventure.

Wednesday I followed the path I still know all too well from my time in Lausanne: down to the train station, the train to Geneva Airport, and then the flight back to the US. Wednesday happened to be seven years to the day that I received my call from IMD’s fabulous alumni director notifying me of my admission – how poetic!

It was a very short trip, but it was wonderful to see so many friends and familiar places. It was a productive trip as well – in more ways than one! Shortly after my departure, my hosts gave birth to their first child (Congratulations!!!!). No need to thank me; I just seem to have that effect when I am a houseguest.

Now I’m back in the US and working hard to complete Smart OES’s funding round – big news to report about on that front soon!

Paris and Buffett v6.0 – Day 2

We woke up [very late] Saturday morning and seized the day. Katie met her friend for some touring about and I decided to go for a run. Once again the weather was absolutely perfect and I figured I could see more of Paris running than walking.

Instead of following a predetermined route, I decided just to take my phone with me and run everywhere nearby that Google Maps showed green space. This took me up to Les Invalides, over through the Jardin des Tuileries, along the Champs-Élysées, and back via a pedestrian area along the Seine.

I could have kept going for hours! Parks, parks, everywhere is something I really love about old European cities. They really appreciate green space, not only for its beauty but also for the social purpose it serves. I think citizens feel more invested in their community when they spend time out enjoying it with myriad neighbors, which is exactly what was happening on this gorgeous day! So many people were out walking, picnicking, napping, or just sitting and chatting as I ran by – it was inspiring!

Of course, there is a downside as well. Although I love parks, parks everywhere in European cities, I loathe smoke, smoke everywhere. It’s hard to walk anywhere without stumbling unwittingly into a cloud of smoke, and that happens even more frequently when running. That’s OK, though; it’s usually easy enough to hold my breath until the air is clear again.

With my run behind me, I showered up and made my way over to the theater to tailgate for Buffett’s second concert. The floor section for the Saturday night show would be standing instead of seated, so there was actually an advantage to arriving early and staking out a good place in line.

The tailgate was a lot of fun and I met many other international Parrotheads – from Canada, Italy, Holland, and – of course – the US. We chatted, played Jimmy Buffett music, and – of course – imbibed. My beverage of choice this time around was a very nice Sauternes. Considering that I had eaten exclusively chocolate all day, I was living a very literal “dolce vita” until I also opened up some cheese as well.

Eventually Katie and her friend came to join me in line. They hopped right into the tailgating and, before we knew it (Time usually flies at a Buffett tailgate!), we were being let into the venue. We were pretty close to the stage, maybe 20 feet away, which made for a great concert. Jimmy mixed up the set list a little bit from the previous night so that it kept even those of us who attended both concerts guessing.

After the concert the girls struck out to get some Champagne and watch the Eiffel Tower lights while I stuck around to see Jimmy leave the venue. He was very personable and gracious, signing many autographs on his way out. Afterward I walked back to our apartment, which took nearly an hour, but it was a great walk. In a pedestrian-friendly city, just walking along the streets is a fun experience regardless of the time of day.

Sunday morning we woke up in time to have a parting breakfast with Mom before I hopped on the train to Switzerland. Eggs, snails, salmon, sardines . . . the waiter actually brought over an additional table just for my order! What can I say, I didn’t know when I would next have true French cuisine, so I was trying to stock up!

It was just a brief trip to Paris but, as always, it was a grand time. Paris is not an inexpensive place by any stretch of the imagination, but you certainly get what you pay for. Au revoir, Paris, until next time!

Paris and Buffett v6.0 – Day 1

Last weekend Katie and I took a quick trip to Paris to keep up the annual tradition of seeing Jimmy Buffett there. This time our experience was enhanced by some family and friends! My mom was there already as part of a longer trip and two of our good friends managed to time their business trips such that we overlapped – the more, the merrier!

We arrived Friday late morning and immediately met up with a Parisian colleague of mine for lunch. Francois and I met a couple of years ago through the Cleantech Open and CleanWeb circles, both of which he was leading in France. It just goes to show you how global the network is of entrepreneurs trying to use innovative capitalism to create a better life for all! In addition to catching up with Francois on a personal level (Somehow that is just easier over a fine French meal than it is over Skype!), I was also pleased to learn that he recently launched his latest venture, techUforward.

Our late lunch didn’t leave much time before Buffett’s first concert, so we hustled over to Sacré-Cœur, where we met my mom and my favorite wingman. It was a glorious autumn day in Paris – clear skies and warm weather – so where better to “tailgate” than perched along the Sacré-Cœur hill? There were many other people out there as well, just soaking in what could be the last great weather of the year.

We opened some cheese and wine and played some Buffett on our phones to get ready for the show. Incidentally, we actually brought the wine (two left bank Bordeaux) from our cellar in the US. Bringing French wine to France is kind of like bringing sand to the beach, but we figured this way we could spend less time procuring fantastic wine and more time enjoying it! We weren’t 100% sure that we were allowed to pop open wine in public in Paris, and we even had a bit of a scare as a stern-looking woman made her way toward us. It turns out, however, that she wasn’t looking to tell us off about our wine – rather, she was hoping to borrow our wine opener (which we had also brought from the US just to leave nothing to chance)!

As we continued to enjoy our Buffett pre-party, another Parrothead who was walking by recognized us and joined in the fun. I had met him last year and it was fun to see a familiar face. I believe this was the sixth year I came to Paris for the show, and many other attendees were repeat comers as well – it’s a fun little community of Parrotheads Parisiens!

Buffett’s show was very nice. This first night it was all seated, including down on the floor where we were. Of course we were standing most of the night, but it was nice to have a seat on which to leave our stuff while we were dancing about. As always, it was basically one big sing-along. Afterward we met up with some others for a few drinks, but called it a [relatively] early night. After all, we would need our strength for his second concert on Saturday!

Running for a Reason

This weekend I had a phenomenal experience that has changed running for me forever. I ran my first race as a volunteer for Ainsley’s Angels. It is an organization that promotes inclusion for and awareness of the special needs community by pairing up runners (“angels”) with those who can’t run the races by themselves (“captains”). Using race chariots, the captains ride along with the angels and so are able to participate in endurance events

The first time I saw anything like this it was a viral video about Team Hoyt, a father-son duo. The son, wheelchair-bound and suffering from Cerebral Palsy, told his dad that he didn’t feel disabled when he was being pushed in a wheelchair in a race. In an inspiring show of love, the father found ways to pull his son along during the swimming, biking, and running portions of triathlons and together they have now completed more than 1,000 races. I recall being moved to tears during the video, but I didn’t know at the time that there was a way that I could be involved as well.

At a road race in May, however, I discovered the local chapter of Ainsley’s Angels, a similar organization founded by a family that discovered the therapeutic benefits of race inclusion for their daughter, Ainsley, who suffers from INAD. As I encountered the captain-angel teams during the race, I saw lots of smiles and knew that I had to volunteer.

This Saturday was my first race with the Angels, the Raleigh 8,000. I confess that I was somewhat nervous when I showed up. Were we actually providing a helpful service? Or were we forcing people to participate in races to soothe our own egos? I had never pushed a wheelchair, stroller, or anything similar before. What if I screwed up? What if I accidentally dumped my captain or ran down another runner? What if I said something that was inadvertently insensitive? What if I suddenly had an uncontrollable need to go to the bathroom in the middle of the race??

Fortunately the other angels were relaxed and reassuring. This was a very small race (just 300 total runners and only 3 angel teams), so there wasn’t much pressure. I met my captain, Theo, a five-year-old with a big mop of curly hair, and I knew it would be fine. His mom, whose hands were very full with two other children, told me that they drove in for these events whenever they could because Theo really enjoyed the stimulation of the race experience. She told me that he liked the breeze in his face, so I promised him I would run fast.

When the starting gun sounded, the angel teams began together. As I picked up steam and became comfortable with the race chariot, though, Theo and I pulled ahead and started passing people. This wasn’t as easy as it might normally be because A. the chariot was pretty large and not too agile, and B. most of the race took place on a relatively narrow greenway. Theo helped, though; as he cooed and squealed, people ahead took notice and made way.

Theo was great; his happy noises and frequent waving of hands and feet attracted a lot of attention from nearby runners. His race chariot was decorated with his name on it, so we elicited many “Go, Theodore”s as we passed people. I wish I had been doing this a long time ago when I was single because I met many attractive young ladies on the course as they told me how cute my “son” was! The net effect was that running with Theo made running a much more social experience than it usually is for me. As a hardcore extrovert, I loved it!

Although people in Raleigh would call the course flat, I’m sure, there were definitely some non-trivial hills. Pushing Theo up those hills (and I should point out that Theo was the smallest captain of the bunch – so I have to give serious props to the other two angels!) was tough – which was great, since the entire reason I run is for a workout! Whenever my body felt like slowing down, I thought about the physical challenges the fragile little boy in front of me was facing and it kind of put the hills in perspective. I talked to Theo as we approached each hill. I don’t know if he understood me, but I liked to think that the sounds he was making were cheering/encouraging me on, and together he and I conquered hill after hill after hill – it really was more like him pulling me along than me pushing him.

My usual 8k time is ~34-35 minutes. Theo and I finished this one in 42:54. Given the help I was able to lend Theo in participating in the race, given the glee in his voice and movements as we sped along the downhills, given the way he inspired me and those around us, given the social experience that running with him was, and given the extra workout I got out of it, I would say this was my best 8k ever! It made running the race so much more meaningful than it would have been otherwise, and I absolutely can’t wait to do it again.

Final Summer Track PRs

As I detailed in my previous post, I have been running track meets this summer and steadily improving in all these new (to me) events. Here are my final PRs in all events for the summer track season:

100m: 12.7s
200m: 27.69s
400m: 1:04
800m: 2:37
1,000m: 3:19
1,500m: 5:21
1 mile: 5:52
3,000m: 11:57
5,000m: 20:14

The track meets were a lot of fun and I can’t wait to do them again next summer. In the meantime, now it’s time to prepare for cross country season!

Loving Uber and Lyft

This week I used Uber for the first time and really loved it. It was very convenient (I could see how far away the nearest driver was and it only took him a few minutes to pick me up.), cost less than a comparable taxi ride ($40 vs $60-$70), and was a high-quality experience (nice car, professional driver).

I haven’t tried Lyft yet, but what I like most about both services is how they increase asset utilization. Instead of manufacturing more cars for dedicated taxi fleets, these services use existing cars that are already on the road and would otherwise be sitting idle. They also increase human asset utilization. Many (most?) of the drivers don’t drive full-time. Rather they pick up rides during their downtime to supplement their income, meet new people, and do something interesting – sure beats sitting on their butts watching TV!

Katie and I only have one car in NC, and we used to think that we would buy another once I started traveling around the area more. However, with services like Uber and Lyft available, that probably won’t be necessary. If one of us is already using the primary car, the other can take one of these services and even get work done while being chauffeured around. I’m a fan!

Rollin’ and Tumblin’

This morning I tripped on a root and took quite a spill while trail running. Usually I am quite attentive while running and very deliberate about picking my feet up for exactly that reason. This morning, however, I was listening to an audiobook while running and I suspect that that was the culprit – I was running on autopilot and not paying enough attention to roots and rocks on a particularly technical downhill segment.

I’m fine, though – just scraped up a bit. Lesson learned: audiobooks and trails don’t mix. Music and trails do mix. Nothing in my ears but the sound of nature mixes best of all!

Summer Track PRs

This summer I have been participating in a summer track series at UNC’s Belk Track. Every Wednesday the Godiva Track Club gets together and holds a track meet alternating between “long” nights and “short” nights, featuring events of slightly longer and shorter distances respectively.

Having never run track before, I have been using these events as opportunities to work on speed and also to meet other runners in the area. Running 5,000m around a track for time would be mind numbing, but doing so in the spirit of friendly competition with other runners is not only fun but also motivating.

The Belk Track is a very nice international-style track (slightly wider with gentler turns) with a very soft running surface. I have been taking advantage of this great facility to transition from running in Vibrams to running completely barefoot. At the start of the summer, I tried running one or two events barefoot, but now I am running the entire night barefoot, only wearing my Vibrams to/from the car. It feels great (The only consequence is that, by the end of the night, the bottoms of my feet are very Carolina blue – does that make me a true tarheel?) and perhaps now I can try some other, less forgiving surfaces barefoot as well.

Because I’ve never run these short and middle distance events before, I am setting new PRs each week, which is always encouraging. I’m sure that won’t last, but I’m enjoying it while I can! Tonight was the last “long” night of the summer track series and here are my PRs:

200m: 27.69s
800m: 2:37
1 ilme: 5:52
5,000m: 20:14

We still have a few shorter-distance meets left, so I’ll hope to set some more PRs on the flat track surface before returning to the very hilly road and trail races here in the Research Triangle.