The End of the World

the winds of change, my friends, they're a blowin'.

MSFT didn't hire me, so what's the diff?

**UPDATE, UPDATE** it looks as if the Apple of my eye has arrived in Ann Arbor and is loaded on truck for delievery.
*UPDATE* it was a momentous decision (i had to call my dad up just so i'd have someone on the phone) as i clicked the "place purchase" button. expected ship is on or before 4/22.

yeah well, the business world may thumb its nose at me for betraying @risk, crystallball, solvertable, decisiontree, and whatever other contraptions they can think to throw at us... but i'm considering it anyway; and Tiger's (OS 10.4) making it all the more tempting. check out these mad features:
Dashboard
-admittedly, the ripple effect is gratuitous and may have to be turned off. sex sells.
Spotlight
iLife '05
comes with the machine and looks pretty slick as well.

Pearl Kikkoman 万歳！

as i sit here, pondering the many failings of my life, my soul is assuaged by this amazing product.

此花が咲いて

The Grand Vision of Profs. Ahn and Sinha

How will your decision-making ability be affected in the face of uncertainty? How will you know what your course of action should be? These are the primary concerns that Professors Ahn and Sinha aim to address through their shared vision of better living through statistics. The dynamic duo believes that one does not have to be a mathematician to successfully employ logic and statistical rigor in decision-making.

The previous assistant professor at UC Berkeley’s Department of Industiral Engineering and Operations Research, Professor Hyun-soo Ahn, relates that his first bout teaching Business Statistics and Operations Management (OMS 301) left him feeling unfulfilled. The semester was spent teaching someone else’s material and students were not receptive.

Eager to dispel the widely held belief among business students that statistics is a dry and boring subject, Professor Ahn joined forces with Professor Amitabh Sinha, arriving at Michigan spring 2004. Together they began to draft their plan of attack for the coming winter 2005 term. Armed with a newly won grant from the National Science Foundation, a Tablet PC, and a dream to improve the teaching of decision-making sciences, the professors were determined to implement a course that students could relate to, independent of their career choice.

Channeling his exuberance for popular culture, movies, music, sports and an assortment of beverages, Professor Ahn collaborates with Professor Sinha to fulfill what they view as an obligation to provide extra value to Michigan students. The lecture notes are designed to be self contained and are kept as up to date as possible; these often feature the likes of Howard Stern “the King of Media,” the cast of Dawson’s Creek, Avril Lavigne, and other pop figures. Special “in-class” boxes denote sections students are to review before coming to class. One BBA, who refused to be named, fondly refers to these as “yellow boxes of dread.” However, the notes are designed with pedagogical concerns in mind and utilize the tablet PC as a means to interact with students as they fill in the notes by hand.

The use of case studies also finds new life under the direction of Professors Ahn and Sinha. Instead of simply letting students “have at it,” guides are constructed to accompany each case. The cases themselves function more as a background for the application of theory. The guides help students to recognize methodologies for analyzing cases and facilitate in-class discussion.

Drawing inspiration from Michael Lewis’ Moneyball, Professor Ahn and Sinha designed a case they call “Chasing Moneyball” to not only address the dearth of hypothesis testing cases, but also to create a real scale problem to which students can relate. Professor Ahn describes how Lewis’ work enlightened him to the fact that people have not been using statistics decision theory correctly: the New York Yankees’ $190 million player budget is largely run by vision and the gut instinct of the ball club’s executives. The objective of the case centers around teaching students how to set the correct hypothesis test and identify what it is that needs to be proved. This is how the “game of statistics” is accurately treated as such.

As an active concert goer, Professor Ahn realizes that even the best show can wear you out if there isn’t an intermission, a place to ground yourself. Adopting a consumer perspective, he makes a conscious effort to structure his lectures into three mini-parts, each interrupted by a story, an anecdote or joke. These breaks serve not only as intermissions to the statistic rock-opera that is OMS 301, but also function as anchor points to aid in students’ absorption of the material.

As a self professed diamond expert, Professor Ahn’s lectures encompass more than mere business situations. Upon relating the four characteristics of a good diamond (carat, cut, clarity, color), Professor Ahn professes that “the love is much more important than diamonds.” Professor Ahn then went on to perform a two-tail t-test to determine whether or not a particular jeweler’s diamonds were close to ideal. After which he pontificated on the genius of hiring a wedding planner, albeit one not as attractive as J. Lo, to do his own wedding.

Take it. Live it. Learn it.

Robots, Kiccoro, Morizo, OH MY!

On March 24th the 2005 World Exposition kicked off in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, to a fanfare led by robot trumpeters, the EXPO Super World Orchestra, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, and members of the Imperial family. Not dissimilar to the first exposition held in London, 1851, the 21st century’s first World Exposition showcases progressive technologies and products.

The overarching theme of Aichi Expo 2005, “Nature’s Wisdom,” however, is unlike previous world expositions. Hosting 120 different countries and 4 international organizations (International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, International Tropical Timber Organization, and the United Nations), Aichi Expo 2005 aims at providing perspective. The dream is for the expo to serve as the impetus for uniting the international community and setting a new sustainable direction for humanity.

Running until September 25th, the expo will only have 185 days in which to accomplish its objective. Its theme stresses environmental harmony and civic action and is evident not only in the fair’s aim, but also in its construction.

Typically expositions have been development-oriented and have involved clearing large tracks of land to exhibit advancements in technology. Aichi Expo will be different. In line with its theme, Aichi Expo 2005 has constructed its site in the natural Nagakute Area, formerly Youth Park, and has limited changes to the topographical and ecological area. For example, the so-called “Global Loop” is a 69 foot wide and 1.6 mile long walkway that forms a figure 8 and stands 46 feet above the ground. In addition to foot traffic, the loop also plays host to the first commercially run magnetically levitated linear motor cars, which serve as an alternative transportation means. It is said that via the Global Loop, visitors will be able to tour the world.

And what a world it is. Environmental exhibits cover a wide array of global concerns. A new energy exhibit exists which demonstrates uses of methane fermentation, gasification, and sunlight. The Bio-lung puts into action new greening technologies for urban environments and aims to express means of curbing global warming, heat island phenomenon, and the environmental impact of urbanization. Others environmental exhibits will include permeable pavement to reduce runoff, fuel cell hybrid buses to reduce green-house gas emissions, reused organic building material, and new uses for recyclable material for construction.

Two other major stalwarts of the Expo are the Robot Project and the Mammoth Excavation and Exhibition Project. The former illustrates the numerous roles robots will come to play in our lives and the latter hosts the one guest who has surely gone to the greatest length to arrive at the Expo: the 18,000 year old remains of the Yukagir Mammoth excavated from the Siberian permafrost of the Russian Federation. In contrast to their prehistoric cousin, the robots take center stage at Robot Station.

The affinity Japanese people have for robots is undeniable and far-reaching. In an era when Japan’s consumer electronic empire has come under direct competitive threat from lower cost producers, there is heavy expectation that the years of research and development in robotics will grow into a strategic industry for the nation. The Government of Japan has supported five groups of robots that will be working at the Expo: guide robots with the ability to communicate in four languages, child-care robots, wheelchair robots for transport, and security robots.

Other robot prototypes will be promoted at the Robot Exhibition: network robots for utilizing intelligent information infrastructures, experiential robots which make use of sensory inputs such as an artificial tongue or multifingered haptic interface, outdoor skilled-work robots for labor, special-environment robots for exploring hazardous environments, medical and welfare robots used to care for people, partner robots for companionship, performance robots for advanced movement, and humanoid robots for simulating humans. Other robots such as Sony's QRIO (a humanoid robot), Toyota's Partner Robot, and Honda's ASIMO (a bipedal robot) will be featured at the corporate pavilion.

Each of the participating countries will each have their own pavilions to display their respective nation’s heritage and culture. Countries are grouped into “Global Commons,” which are based on geographic location. For example, Global Common 6 houses 20 countries from Oceania and Southeast Asia.

In my thinking, Japan is uniquely qualified to host a world exposition which aims to integrate technology and human innovation with life and nature. In the course of Japan’s rapid economic development, the natural resource deficient nation learned quickly the importance of separating economic imperatives and social constraints from human values and co-existence with nature. Let us all learn from nature’s wisdom.