Reading old research on systems science for the social sciences..

I started to study systems science on the web looking at the associations and journals out there. So really my journey began at the McOrdum library web site and library on-line interface. From this initial research I know the names of the original systems scientists or rather pioneers. I have not really been reading Churchman the past week. I have started a book on systems theory in the social sciences and read the introduction to that book early yesterday morning. Here is a McGill legal studies style cite for what I read done as definition list in html.

Systems sciences within the social sciences

Müller Norbert. Systems - Theoretic Approaches in the Social Sciences in Bossel, Hartmut. Klaczko, Salomon & Müller, Norbert. eds., Systems Theory in the Social Sciences (Basel, Germany: Birkhauser Verlag, 1976).

Assignment #1 solutions.

The assignment #1 solutions have been posted and I compared these to my answers. I have everything correct except the last problem where I seem to have some small errors. My grades have not yet been posted. I did hand in the second assignment and attended yesterday's lecture. We covered the basics of expectation and also the properties of the probability mass function.

Proof reading the 2nd assignment now.

The 2nd assignment for introduction to probability is now completed. I am just printing a final proof reading copy now. I will proof read it once in the next 15 minutes and then again at may be 8:00 AM. I should then be able to hand it in this morning at class. Again I will hand an assignment in two days early.

Been reading and solving simple probability problems.

I have been reading in systems sciences and solving simple probability problems this weekend. I have been reading about controlling IT costs this evening. Yesterday I read a little about Bruce Lee's body building. This evening I read a little more Churchman. I read a little more of The Dilbert Principle By Scott Adams on Friday and Saturday.

A quote for guiding my thesis by Anatol Rapoport.

If one author has written that we need to find the right hypothesis. (Churchman, C. West. The Systems Approach and Its Enemies (New York, Basic Books, 1979) at 11)). Anatol Rapoport has written about finding the right system. Here is the quote

"The question now is, how far can this recognition be stretched? What else besides biological organisms can we get to recogize as "systems"? And how do we go about recognizing "theoretically fruitful" analogies in the structure, behavior, and history of portions of the world--material or ideational -- that deserve to be called "systems"?
Rapoport, Anatol. The Search for Simplicity in Laszlo, Ervin. Ed. The Relevance of General Systems Theory: Papers Presented to Ludwig von Bertalanffy on His Seventieth Birthday (New York, George Braziller, 1972) at 25 .

I solved a third problem this morning in my 2nd assignment.

I solved a third problem in my assigment. I type set it. I also read some more about general systems theory.

I did solve and type set the first two problems in the 2nd assignment.

I am hoping to solve as many of the present nine problems as possible this morning. I have just type set and solved two problems. I have read all nine problems and can solve them all. The third and fourth problems may give me some difficulty, but the remaining problems are fairly simple substitution problems like the first problem I just type set. The topic of this assignment is conditional probabilities and Bayes theorem.

The first assignment has been handed in and the second assignment has been started.

I was able to hand in the first assignment two days early. If I want to hand in the second assignment two days early it needs to be completed by Monday. This means I need to complete about four problems a day from now until Monday.

I borrowed about 8 books on general systems theory from the university of Ottawa library. I also borrowed a book called The Dilbert Principle.

I just solved the second last problem on the first school work assignment.

I just printed my solution to the second last problem for the school work due this week. I will proof read it in the next hour. I now have one problem to solve which I will do later today. Then I have invited friends over and we will watch TV or play a cyberpunk role playing game. After proof reading I will update blogs a bit and do some other reading before attempting the last problem in assignment #1.

I finished chapter 2 now in Churchman, C. West. The Systems Approach and Its Enemies

I was thinking about probability theory after class today but more even after work. I read some journal book reviews after work and searched out the books reviewed. This was from the International Journal of General Systems Volume 31 Issue #1. I completed C West Churchman's chapter on the tradition of the systems approach this morning.

I made it through class this morning,

I made it on time to my class this morning. We covered permutations and combinations today but the professor said that we would not be tested extensively on this. So other than the three remaining problems on the first assignment there will be one question on the mid-term and one question on the final from this subject area known as combinatorics.

I attended all classes this week.

I have attended two French classes this week. I have also attended my Tuesday probability lecture and will attend my Thursday lecture today. I have not worked on the assignment since Monday morning.

I got a receipt for my Canadian Mathematics Society dues and also received 4 copies of the student problems journal for this year. This journal is called Crux Mathematica and is a student problems journal.

Problems with pronounciation.

I attended my first French class this morning. I have problems with pronounciation of French and this is what this course will help with. Today we learned about the mouth and the lips. We also reviewed the international pronounciation alphabet for English. I had never seen this alphabet before.

I have completed more than half of the first assignment now.

I solved some interval problems for uniform random variables. I was going crazy trying to draw on the computer a semi circle in the cartesian plane. Instead I described the problem with words. I now have 5 Q's done and 3 Q's to still complete. I may try to do two more this morning. Right now I am going to shave for work today.

Learning more French

I am starting a French course this week coming up. It is a government sponsored course. It will be 7.5 hours one week and 5 hours the next week for about nine weeks.

Homework progress.

The first two Q' are done now. I will now try to complete the other 6 Q's this morning.

Other government work applied for.

I have been working now for more than a month in the government. I have applied since then to work with federal parolees in a downtown Ottawa office.

Graduate school orientation four days later.

I did attend the graduate school orientation. It was in an ultra modern computer science building. I met the director Tet Yeap and the other students. Many students are from China. There are two other mathematics students in our program. Which reminds me I paid my dues to the Canadian Mathematics Society again this year 2006. Wow, only 9 months late.

The new school library.

I had a tour of the new library and used the Sun Computer, Sun Ray machines to search the libray catalogue for books by Churchman whom my mother reminded me was a systems theorist. I borrowed two of his books. The only other time I have used this library was to borrow a book on our reading list for my drug law course in fall 2004. That was two years ago. I read one of his books about the enemies of systems theory while walking around my neighbourhood like a true scholar, walk and read at the same time.

I completed another problem in my first assignment just now in LaTeX.

I just typeset another problem from my first assignment in MAT2371 in LaTeX. This involved complements and intersections and unions of two sets and the associated formula for probability of union and intersection. I have taught this formula before to engineers. The assignment is due on September 21st. But I want to submit it next week. I have six problems left to complete. I know I can solve each one.

I have completed one problem of 8 for my first assignment.

Earlier this morning I completed a problem using LaTeX to typeset my answer. The problem is the first in my basic probability course. It was very simple. I have to have this problem set done by September 21st at 8:30 AM.

The next three days.

I will be attending graduate school orientation this morning. I was just reviewing the schedule of events. I was comparing it with the schedule for a conference I am going to attend parts of these next three days. The conference is the International Association for Official Statistics (IAOS) Conference – Ottawa 2006. The Chief statistican of Canada will speak there. With my present schedule I may be able to hear him close the conference on Friday but will not hear him speak this morning.

I will try to attend two afternoon sessions later today at the conference. But more important today is attending the full orientation session at the U of O. I will attend an address by the director of the school, a library tour, and some introduction session to the computing facilities at the University of Ottawa SITE location. I may stay for lunch too and then simply attend the conference later in the day after the orientation. Tomorrow I have my first class and then I can attend a session at the conference after class and then go to work. I can then try to wake up for 6 or 7 am Friday and attend the whole last day of the conference and then work in the evening Friday.

I have my first class this Thursday.

I have my first class this Thursday. I need to buy a binder which I plan to buy later today. I have paper for the binder. I wonder if I will bring a computer to the class and keep notes on a computer? I could prepare some LaTeX files from a lecture notes template. I could do this for every class in graduate school. Or could I? May be this morning I will design a basic lecture note template. I will look odd but the embarassment of being the only student with a laptop will not affect me much. So far laptops in class have not improved my marks but instead made my marks in those classes where I used a computer or brought a laptop every day to be lower marks.

I am still waiting for my textbook to be delivered. I don't have any other school books on order right now. I have though been buying entertainment items which I contend are different from school books. I don't consider school books to be entertainment items in a budget.

I have ordered a used copy of the textbook for MAT2371.

I used Amazon.ca to order a used copy of the textbook for MAT2371. It has been shipped now from my own province so should be here in days. I plan to start reading it soon. I did not work through the first two chapters of problems in the two probability books I have. I did read the first chapter of each book though. I still need to read the second chapters and also do all the exercises in these first two chapters in these two books. I had hoped to be done the exercises in the first three chapters in both books by next weekend.

Gail Ivanoff professor of mathematics university of Ottawa

The professor for my fall course is Gail Ivanoff who teaches mathematics at the university of Ottawa. She emailed all the students in the class and I replied this morning. After doing this I set up my email signature for my university of Ottawa email address.