I have 1 problem from assignment #4 solved and typeset and another solved in my head.

It took some reading of the textbook but I solved one problem and type set it now. I used our lectures on transient states and recurrent states and then the theorem about this in the book and solved the first problem. I also used the text book to solve another problem but have not actually calculated the solution yet or typeset this problem yet. For both problems the answers are in the back of the book but I still need to show in my answers how to get to the answers in the back of the book.

I did read a little more economics but need to get to work on assignment #4 now.

I need to start some code for my assignment #4 now

I have 12 working programs now and will rest this work for the day.

I have the two 1 dimensional random walk programs coded now and they were really coded last week but I generalized my code a little and started to write the standard comments for these programs. I then posed the problem below and sent an e-mail to our professor asking him to read my weighted 3 dimensional walk problem. I only now need to write two more programs of the 14. So I have 12 programs now. For the final two I only need to create a 4 dimensional square walk program and then split it into an interactive version and a non-interactive version. Then later today or tomorrow when this coding is done I will only need to proof read the comments in these programs and e-mail the files for the programs to the professor.

Code testing completed.

I needed to adjust the iterations down to 500 for the interactive plots for the 4 dimensional random walk but now all ten programs have tested as working at least once. I now realize I do not need four 1 dimensional random walks and in 1 dimension there is no diagonal v square walking. So for 1 dimension I just need an interactive and non interactive walk meaning I need only 14 programs.

I am tempted to make a 3 dimensional random walk that walks to all points in an origin centered cube. In other words the next step can be any combination of for any of the three axis. Thus giving 6 choices with walking towards a face, 8 choices of walking to a corner, and 12 choices of walking to an edge. This could be or in my alternative version we would weight the probability based on the vector length of the walk. The probability would be inversely related to the vector length of the step. Thus setting the probability of walking to a face as unity with probability and then set the others to the inversion of their vector lengths. Thus walking along a diagonal would be walking to an edge and would have a probability of and walking to a corner would have probability .

Then a basic law of probability would be used to create this equation which would solve for

.

The 3 dimensional walks have all worked now

I needed to leave the laptop alone and not multi-task while the R code ran for the non-interactive 100000 step random walk and then the code worked. I have some ideas for more work but I am ready to test the 4 dimensional code I have and must get working now on the regular assignment #4. I also have three household tasks to complete today.

3 dimensional walks not working.

The first of the 3 dimensional 100000 iteration non-interactive walks crashed R. This means so far 5 out of 6 programs have worked alright. I will continue testing now.

Testing yesterday's R code for the Bonus assignment.

I just tested all four 2 dimensional walks and they run fine. I will post these for download on my Crystal Computing web site and perhaps also my cyborgcitizen web site. But I won't do this until May 1st when the course is over. I am now testing the four three dimensional random walks.

I have almost completed reading Bowles' third chapter now.

I have read more of Bowles today. I read about his account of the ultimatum game. Beinhocker also described the results from experimenting with this game. The basic thesis that results is that people like fair games over their preference to self interest. This is apparently universal throughout the globe and in different levels of civilizations.

Random walk programming continues for the past two or three days.

I did more programming in R this past few days. I did get square axis walking done yesterday and also got three dimensions and four dimensions done. I slept on this work and am examining it today as I test my ten programs.

I now have successful random walks in 1, 2, 3, and 4 dimensions and have interactive plots for 1, 2, and 3 dimensions stable for runs of 1000 steps. I can not get a stable interactive plot in 4 dimensions. I also tried diagonal and axis walking random walks. This should be 4 walks with both diagonal and axis walking for 8 walks but for each walk I have an interactive and non-interactive walk for total of 16 R programs. I have 11 done now and must do three more 1 dimensional walks and 2 more 4 dimensional walks. The interactive walks plot the steps at each step and the non interactive draw a plot at the end of the walk showing the path of the walk after all steps are taken.

I attended all lectures this week.

I attended two probability lectures where we learned branching processes. We needed to use generating functions for this. We also are now covering the fundamental markov theorem. We are also looking at limiting distributions for markov chains.

In my other course we looked at a model in Bowles for three person games describing the rise of agriculture and sharing and punishing in an extension of the solution of the hawk dove game and looked at the so called bourgeois strategy solution to this new game. I think anything that dictates a strategy is not a bourgeois strategy but certainly owning property which dictates the bourgeois strategy can be interpreted as a position of wealth that dictates a strategy. Thus our modeling of labour negotiations which is dependent on worker efforts might be called the hard workers/shirking worker strategy and has polar opposite effects on workers and management but then in Bowles model effort would not be monitorable so would lead to disagreements at the bargaining table as too whether workers were working too hard for too little for the workers to bargain in good faith or too little for the costs the employer endures or too hard for the money the employer pays.

I completed a successful programming session again.

I now have the R code done for a 2 dimensional random walk. It took about 2 hours to get the coding from a 1 dimensional simulation to a 2 dimensional simulation. The problem now is that R crashes when running the for loop 100,000 times. If I take the plot statement outside the loop the code executes alright and we get a return to the origin in one run of n=7 times.

I am reading more Bowles this weekend.

I am reading more Bowles this weekend. I will continue to study mostly Bowles until the exam and the paper are done.

Programming school work very successful

I am just taking a break to post here after two successful programming sessions. The first was programming in Stella and the second was programming in R.

For Stella I had written down my ideas right in front of the professor after thinking up the program in the Tuesday lecture. It took about an hour or two but I implemented them alright in Stella. I can go further now with the basic modeling done. I modeled a labour negotiations game based on the social cooperation game in Bowles chapter 12 which was the game we studied last week. I only implemented the basic game and not the evolution of strategies or populations or conventions. I tied labour negotiation strategies into the wage and effort variables for worker negotiation strategies and for employer choice of strategies I tied in monitoring and effort. I merely accumulated payoffs from the game. I now need to tie the game back into the main model as a collective agreement or perhaps as a strike or lock out.

In R I used the professor's quick blackboard R code from our probability course and did it from memory but did the work of looking up all the help files for each command. I modeled a one dimensional random walk but need to make a very nice plot still. I did the code in a

editor for a printed copy and copied and pasted from the editor to the R command line. This R programming is for a bonus problem for our applied probability course. The problem in this assignment is to present random walks graphically and account for recurrence and transience in one, two, and three dimensional random walks. Our presentation must be appropriate for an audience who know nothing about markov chains, probability or random walks.

I handed in the third assignment yesterday.

I did complete the third assignment yesterday. I attended the lecture and we covered one, two and three dimensional random walks and proving these were recurrent or transient which involved showing a sum was either equal to or . It was an interesting lecture where I understood the equal probabilities of taking steps in multiple dimensional spaces up to 6 dimensional spaces where each step has probability .

The last question has a general answer.

The final question I answered has a general answer and I can not find the series I need to answer it. I may leave the answer incomplete. I just proof read the assignment due today at 5 pm this afternoon. Right now I am getting ready for work and will review this week's reading for economic systems design. I believe we are too read chapters 3 and 11 of Bowles this week.

I have all but one question completed now.

I have only one question left to solve. It will involve some linear equations. The second last problem was a recursive system of linear equations which solved neatly as though it were an applied problem which it is because this is an applied probability course. So all problems are solved except this last one involving a zero seeking device, and one problem needs double checking of the calculations.

I did my proof reading. But am distracted now with my partner waking up and my own household work.

I spent some time sweeping just now. I am going to stay out my partner's hair because she is slow and waking up and I am speedy and tired. I did the proof reading and found one error so far. I also corrected and improved my English on the assignment. This allowed a more covered and comprehensive view of the course material.

I read some of an article by Rosenberg and X on home care and volunteerism in Canada that uses Statistics Canada data from 1997. I also read more about managing volunteers and hiring a manager of volunteers or leader of volunteers. Political correctness is so correct these days. This article helped inspire some of my cleaning of our house.

I also read the preface to a book on markov cycle processes and at least know this is a leading area of research. My professor has suggested only reading our textbook. I should follow up on his suggestion and did not read more of the book on markov cycling.

Still meeting this morning plans in the probability assignment.

I was distracted by my health and other issues of living but I noticed this and got back to the assignment just on time. So now as of 8 am I have all problems started. I have six problems solved but need to proof read these and one of the six needs to be double checked and perhaps more needs to be written there. For the remaining two problems I can see the solutions and for both I am merely required now to solve some linear systems equations but all the transition probability matrices are now typeset. Now I will begin proof reading as a next step towards completion.

I have worked about 6 or 7 hours this morning. This was the rate of 7 hours per weekend day that I had planned for two weekends ago and it was finally achieved today. But last weekend and the weekend before I fell short. Also during weekdays I have not yet made the number of hours to complete 149 hours final exam study. I have though done ten hours on assignment #3 so far. This exam study must be done or I will fail the course.

If I have some time left over today before sleeping I intent to model Bowles' labour game from the problem set. I would also like to begin to review lecture notes today.

Assignment #3 progressing nicely as planned.

I spent about an hour since the last post working out the first of the remaining four problems and then set up and quickly solved the second of the remaining four problems. I now face two more problems and will have one of these started before 7 am and the final problem started by 8 am. I don't know if this second problem I just solved is a famous gambling problem but it did involve analysing flips of a coin by a markov chain. It was very easy given that I understand the basics of markov chains now having studied these for almost two months now.

Assignment #3.

I have three problems solved now. I may need to clarify one answer as another student had a different answer. I started one problem of the remaining four. I need to solve all four of these problems today. I will solve the problem I am working on before 5 this morning. I will also start another problem by 5 am. I will then solve that problem by 6 and start another problem by 7. Then by 8 at the latest I hope to have all the four remaining problems started and two of these done. Then I need to get the other two done by about 2 this afternoon when I can sleep. This gives me about 10 hours to work today. I have already spent 1 hour and am near the end of the first of these four problems.

We have formed a study group for complex economic systems study.

The same team of students we have formed who are working on our term paper have decided that we will also study together for the final exam. We started by reviewing case studies and yesterday I read an air safety case. Our next step is to answer the problems and exercises in Bowles that are at the end of his book. We found a game model too in this section of the book and we also intend to model that. I won't work too much on this today unless I complete my probability assignment due tomorrow.

We added more variables to our model.

We are modeling the labour discipline model presented by Bowles in chapter 8. It turns out that Bowles is a sixties Marxist from Harvard. Our professor also studied at Harvard.

I have been to Harvard in the early 1970's to visit an architect's office before and a performance theatre building. This was with my father and the architect was a family friend. I have also been to MIT in the past again with my father before I was a university student.

Probability homework progressing.

I have three problems solved now and fully typeset. I still need to proof read these three. I have four problems left to solve still then I am done.

I attended class tonight

I attended class tonight and we covered an application of generating functions to find convolutions.

I did not get the probability homework done by today.

I got busy with volunteering and our labour market term paper so got no further with the probability homework this past weekend. I need to document a part of our modeling of the employer-employee relationship. I have been assigned to document the effort-wage-monitoring equations. We did our modeling in Stella and seem to have a reasonable model now. We spent about three hours on Sunday at the library with my Macbook doing the modeling.

I completed another problem in the third assignment.

I typeset the first problem's solution and used the textbook for the correct notation. I have two problems solved now and a third one started. For the third one we have a markov maze problem and I used the textbook to solve it. But I am stuck thinking about the final step of the problem. But I can still progress up to the final step. Right now I am solving an augmented matrix.

I just printed the work I have done on assignment three and will proof read it this morning. I would be nice to have this assignment done by Monday, one week early.

I read parts of chapter 8 and chapter 12 of Bowles on the bus yesterday.

I was busing around going to a rally against war and doing some shopping. I read Bowles on the bus. I have to read his chapters 11-13 before the course ends. Something about this economics course there is may be only one women scholar referenced in the course readings. I think I will post this to the course message board, this gender observation,

I typeset the beginnning of two problems now and solved and finished one of these problems.

I solved the second problem in our applied probability homework. I have the solution typeset. I will just save the file now and increment the file name one point version up. Thus v 0.0.1 becomes v 0.1.0 meaning one problem is now solved. I use the second points for when I work out a few steps in a problem.

I completed reading chapter 13 now.

I completed reading chapter 13 now in Beinhocker and also am half way through chapter 6. That is the last of this book. May be I can read the whole thing again before the exam but really what I need to know is in the professor's lecture notes. I have all notes printed to date. I attended the lecture last night and took proper notes on the power point slides.

I have the next probability assignment questions now and they seem easier than the last assignment problems. I am fairly sure I can solve them all with only the textbook. I typeset the beginning of the first problem which is a simple markov chain problem for N= 0,1,2,3, and 4.

All the probability problems for the second assignment are started now.

I have typeset the beginning for all the problems now in this second assignment. I have three of the seven problems solved. I have started two problems today that I can see might be solvable by me. I have the other two problems started. Only really one of these last two has gotten no real work yet. This problem was also started in our lecture so I should be able to get somewhere with it today.

I attended a wobbly regional gathering.

I did not do much work on the organising of our radical union's regional gathering but did attend yesterday as it opened. I also loaned the gathering my portable printer and first aid kit. I met other wobblies from Canada and heard what other branches are up to. I might also write something about this gathering for rabble.ca if the rabble.ca folks let me.

My study plan was distorted.

I did not spend four or five hours on probability this morning only 2 hours. Instead I studied economic systems design for 8 hours or so. I started modeling the labour market with Bowles' variables from chapter 8 and have four different Stella 9 files now. I sent these to the other students in our group to work on. I must get back to solving probability problems and I will now do some reading and maybe typeset the beginnings to the remaining problems that have not gotten work yet.

Only three required chapters left to read in Beinhocker.

I completed reading chapter 12 an hour or two ago. I have spent the last five hours updating my school blog and studying economic systems design. I completed reading the week's required readings in the Beinhocker book. These chapter 11 and 12 concerned evolution of physical and social technologies. Physical technology design space is explored more through deductive reasoning according to Beinhocker. Social technology design space is explored best through art rather than science. Those are just two points from these chapters.

I also started reading the references and footnotes in Beinhocker and will be searching out some journal articles this morning. I am taking a short break from studies to attend a union gathering and then come home and sleep. So I have about 2 more hours at home to study and prepare to travel for the day.

I started the Bowles' readings for the week. I will also search the library now for this week's suggested readings.

I read Ian Hacking's account of Pascal's wager

I read Ian Hacking on the historical view of Pascal's solution to the wager that God exists. It was according to Hacking the first time games of chance theory and thus probability was used in decision theory. Also the solutions to the decision were straight out of our game theory solutions. Thus games as we are studying them may be seen as decision tools.

I read chapter 11 now in Beinhocker.

Just now I completed chapter 11 and got half way through chapter 12 in Beinhocker's book. I want to complete reading chapter 12 this weekend and start chapter 13 or also complete that this weekend. I also want to complete the Bowles reading for the whole course soon so I can get working more on using Bowles's chapter 8 for our project.

I purchased a license to use Stella and the first model I made at home on my laptop was a markov chain representing two gravity wells or basins of attraction. I could not get Stella to do this right.

I am still working on this probability assignment.

The deadline for our assignment was extended until Monday. I did not do anymore work on the assignment until this morning. I did spend some time re-learning differential equations including reading about complex roots and quarter roots. I also looked at Laplace transforms. I have one hour now spent on the first problem plus about one hour on Monday. So I still need to find about 6 more hours of time. I need to review and make notes on basic probability for the exam coming up in about 1 month's time. I figure I still need to complete the exam study in 149 hours now. Thus I need about 5 hours a day study time. I will try to do 7 per weekend day and 4 per day weekday. Thus I need another 13 hours this weekend. Plus 6 hours on the assignment.

I have two questions done in our second assignment and I started a third problem.

I should take a break from the economic systems design reading and get some more of my probability course assignment #2 completed. I have completed I believe two problems on markov chains and I have those typeset. I believe there is one more problem to solve concerning markov chains on this assignment.

I am also doing some computing tasks including backing up one computer, installing the latest release of Debian 3.1 r 5 on an old Pentium 1 laptop, researching control and machines in their social context of surveillance, and of course I am reading other subjects like an academic book on volunteering. I also am following Second Life and have now purchased a copy of the Matrix On-Line. I won't play this Matrix game until I have my assignment completed. So the game will wait until Thursday evening.

Our group met to discuss our project and term paper.

Our group of systems sciences students met to discuss our term paper proposal. We also discussed our failing grades and we are all going to stay with the course. I borrowed more books and read some required readings for this week's lecture. I read these with another student.

I am reading a book on economic-environmental modeling

I am reading this book for my economic systems design course:

Bratt, L. C. & van Lierop, W. F. J. eds. Economic-Ecological Modeling (North-Holland: Elsevier Science,-IIASA, 1987).

I did not do too well on my mid-term in applied probability.

I was too confident as a way of coping with stress this week. I did not study enough or really focus well. I am happy to report though that my first assignment passed with a decent grade. I have another assignment due next week and have started it so this should also go well. The professor said he would ignore the mid-term mark if we do better on the final exam. I also feel better about the social situation of the course now. In fact, tonight I will review some more and start my final exam study schedule planning.

At three hours class time per week and 13 or 14 weeks we have a total of 39 to 42 hours base number. Multiply this by five an we get approximately 200 hours for a study time out of class. I have spent about 10 hours on the first assignment and may be 3 hours so far on the second assignment. So I need to put in another 7 hours on the second assignment. Then I need to budget another 20 hours for later assignments then I could count about 10 hours done in studying for the mid-term. This leaves about 150 hours to budget for the final. I will try to do two hours study tonight plus 1 hour on the second assignment. I may be able to sleep at about midnight tonight if I can focus only on this course for the next three hours.

For my other course I have a proposal due on Tuesday but it is almost ready and I need a draft done for Sunday when our group meets to approve the draft. I should try to spend about three hours on this before Sunday. This three hours won't all be on the proposal but instead on the actual paper.

I wrote my economic systems design course mid-term last night.

I wrote my mid-term last night. I failed to identify games but did manage an analysis of the games on the test. I also created a network diagram for a problem. I am writing a straight forward probability exam later this afternoon.

That's it for applied probability for today.

I will stop studying applied probability for today. I lost momentum when the city woke up. I am now going to focus on economic systems design studies and prepare to write the test this evening.

Lecture #4 reviewed.

Lecture #4 is very difficult. We covered the bose-einstein problem. I am not sure I really know this stuff but I did read my notes. There are some very complex use of moments and multiples of .

Lecture #3 reviewed.

Lecture #3 concerned the normal distribution and the gamma distribution. A proof with le Hopital's rule was given for distributions becoming normal and I remember following this calculus well in class. But there is integration by parts in the Gamma distribution discussion that I did not follow well. So I need to review integration by parts.

I reviewed lecture #2 just now.

Lecture #2 introduced the indicator function. Then some basic probability formulas were proved with indicator functions. Then we reviewed the discrete distributions. The lecture ended on Laplace transforms, generating functions and characteristic functions. We also covered expansions of e in this lecture. I will review my table of integrals handbook for expansions of e and other formula involving e.

So I have two lectures reviewed and 11 to go.

Applied probability mid-term review.

The professor told me the mid-term will cover his lectures which should cover the textbook. I will organise my studies based on the 13 lectures we have had. I have so far today reviewed lecture #1. I intend to focus on studying for the applied probability course today and tomorrow.

I will only spend one hour of my own study time on the economic systems design study and then study this course with another student this evening before the test. I have spent a fair amount of time already studying for this economic systems design course. In my own studies I have also read most of the readings and today will make some summary notes in my one hour.

We visited our professors yesterday.

I asked both professors about the mid-terms. I was wondering about the coverage of the two tests. I am writing the economic systems design test later today. I will write the applied probability test tomorrow.

The last pages had the usual generalisations and hope and hype of end of chapter writing.

I did finally finish chapter 16 this morning. I will now review the chapters we have covered in Beinhocker but I suspect the questions on the mid-term will come from Bar-Yam Y and also Bowles and Mitchell.

I worked a little on the solutions of the Markov chain assignment.

Using our previous solution of the transition probability matrix I type set the answer in on my laptop and just need to explain the answer and then also write up the solution to one more Markov problem. This will all be done by the end of today.

We are visiting the professors today in their office hours to discuss the mid-terms.

I continued to read Beinhocker's chapter 16 this morning

I continued to read chapter 16 and am fairly excited by this discussion of corporations and business plans. I am on page 372 now so am almost done this reading of chapter 16 now which ends in 7 more pages.

Reading progress.

I need to read chapter 16 in Beinhocker titled Organization: A Society of Minds. This chapter runs from page 349 to page 379. I read up to page 359 so far.

I also need to review chapters 10, 4, 9, 5, 7 and 8. I have read all of these chapters before the five lectures we covered these chapters in. Now I am reviewing them for a closed book mid-term. I also read Part I: A Paradigm Shift before the course started. This part contains chapters 1, 2, and 3. Chapter 3 will be covered in lecture number 7, next week after our mid-term.

In other studies for this course I have reviewed 22 pages of the notes for lectures 1, 2 and 3. This is 22 pages of the three powerpoint slides per page lecture notes that are 55 pages in length.

I have also read this evening chapter 1 of Y., Bar-Yam's book Dynamics of Complex Systems 1997. I read pages 16 to 24 this evening.

I am studying in the library this afternoon and evening with another student.

I am getting together with another student and we are studying in the library this afternoon and will study for a few hours. I am just printing out lecture notes to study from.

I did not acheive my goals.

I did not complete two problems in assignment # 2. I did complete one problem. I also did not complete reading chapter 8 in Bowles. I did read a third of the chapter though.

I am calling it a night.

I am too tired now to continue so am going to sleep now. Tomorrow can be all study and no work.

I type set one problem now.

I solved one problem or rather resolved it without the textbook formulas until I remembered the formulas. This was good exam practice. I had to offer alternative solutions based on different assumptions. I need to typeset one more problem before I can watch TV but I am switching over to mid-term review of my systems science course and also proof reading our term paper.

Applied probability problems in assigment #2.

Good news the problems we solved last week in our extra markov chain studies are included in the homework assignment. This means I have at least two if not three problems solved already. I will type set these solutions now. After this I will watch an episode of Stargate SG-1 as completion of one goal is in easy sight now so the TV show reward is almost payable.

Chapter 8 progress

Chapter 8 starts on page 267 and ends on page 298 and is therefore 31 pages long. Pages 267 to 276 introduce the labour discipline model. Pages 276 and 277 mention technology, such as Ford's assembly line as a technological effect on ease of monitoring. Then this is dropped in the discussion. This is where I am now in my reading and we have two basic models so far presented in this chapter. To explore Fordism we could use the technology variable.

Study goals today, indirect mid-term study

I am setting the goal of reading all the chapter 8 of Bowles this morning and have the excel spread sheet of the variables done by the afternoon Sunday. The reading will come first. My other goal is to read the problems in our second assignment in applied probability and solve one or two problems this morning. If I acheive one of these goals I will watch an episode of stargate SG-1 from season two and if both goals are done I will watch two episodes. So the deadline is about 12 noon for both and for any one is really as soon as one goal is done. Niether of these goals is for mid-term study directly but both will help me to get engaged with the material.

I did a little more blogging and now have got down to studies

I did some poetry and music blogging and networking. I then wrote some section beginnings to the introduction to our term paper. I just sent this work to the other group members.

I read again an article about academic blogs

I read an article on line about culture and because it is about modern or current culture it was about cyber culture. The article is Saper, Craig Blogademia Reconstruction 6.4 2006, <online, http://reconstruction.eserver.org/064/saper.shtml, cited February 24th, 2007>.

The weekend newspaper starts my studies this evening.

I read about how technology and staying on-line for long hours is creating impatience in all of us. I relaxed reading this article or series of articles in the Ottawa Citizen and got to thinking that my grad school studies needed more broad reading and time. I then read the book Heartbreak: The Political Memoir of a Feminist Militant by Andrea Dworkin. I was impressed as usual by her American cultural references because I have shared some of these cultural experiences but when I got to her chapter about pedophilia in her schooling I was able to put the book down and hit the laptop for my studies. I put down her book disgusted and more aware about boycotts of batterers and other feminisms I practice.

I have now updated some blogs and listened to some of my old band. I am reminded of my own romantic life and sexuality by my own rock and roll music lyrics. You can listen to some of my music on www.myspace/com/flynch1998

I am also realizing that my typing errors are because of impatience and need to relax even more. I am now going to read an article about cyber culture then plan to read some probability studies and start our second assignment in applied probability.

I did simulate a Markov process or probability transition matrix with Stella 9.

I was able to simulate a given small Markov process by simulating steps based on the processes' probability transition matrix. This turned out to be a random walk with upper absorbing barrier and the simulation was taken to the upper boundary quickly. I did this Saturday evening.

Studying with others is working better in graduate school.

We have formalized our group now with three students myself included. We will critique the 8th chapter of Bowles concerning the labour market. We will try to simulate the equations Bowles presents in his book in chapter 8 and then report our findings and also critique his chapter, assumptions and models.

With another student, who is a former professor of mathematics from China I have been studying Markov Chains and we completed solving all exercise and problems from chapter III section 1 of our Introduction to Stochastic Modeling textbook for our applied probability course. This is the Markov Chains chapter. We also study together about economic systems where over two study sessions in the past week we have reviewed lectures and readings systematically from the beginning of our course in economic systems design to prepare for our mid-term exam next week. Tonight to end our study session I searched out Markov Process books in the University of Ottawa library. We then scanned the table of contents of these books at the end of our two hour session. I also borrowed one book titled Markov Processes for Physical Scientists.

I also borrowed a cyber culture reader book edited by David Bell and Barbara M. Kennedy.

The third book I borrowed this evening is a book on error correcting codes and other topics in mathematical coding and information theory, which the professor in applied probability had touched on during one lecture as a side topic. Another student engaged me in a brief discussion of error correcting codes as we left class that day and I have not seen her since. She was also a student in the introduction to probability course with me last term. The reason I mention her is that in both courses we both spoke/speak up frequently in class in answer to the professor's questions.

Computer programming home work.

We may be assigned the problem of simulating a Markov chain in a computer program. This is the first topic proper in our applied probability course, the topic of Markov chains. I have read a little about these before coming into this course.

To do the programming I continued to install KDE on my Macintosh computer so that I can use use something like Bluefish to write the code. But I should just use MatLab or Codewarrior on a school computer.

In my other course we used the school of management computers to learn Stella 5 and 9. I could now use Stella to simulate the Markov chain. I could can now spend some time this weekend on the project and I will meet two other students this evening to discuss the project some more.

Three of the easy problems are completed now.

We have six problems total. I solved two last week or the week before. Today I solved another three problems. Except that one of these three has a second part. I also did not use interals but instead argued my points to get to the answers. I did though use some intergrals today. I also used my table of integrals book to help me with the binomial expansion. But I don't think I need it. So really at this point I am proof reading solutions and preparing to typeset some work on the third part of the last problem. I also need do the fourth part and then I have a second part of another problem to solve and I am done. I am up all night and another student might call me to talk about the home work overnight.

I am just completing my first assignment in applied probability this weekend.

I studied with another student at the library last night. Today I am solving three problems in applied probability. A fourth problem also needs to be done but I have spent a fair amount of time on it and need to typeset my work so far.

Reading books.

I borrowed a book on machine learning but really I am not finding time to read all the books I am borrowing. I should spend most of my weekend studying.

I did some work overnight on my probability assignment.

I solved some parts of the more difficult problem for our assignment #1 in applied probability and did some neat math. But I am tired and not really reading clearly. I will have to give this problems solving up for now. I am going to work in about one and a half hours now.

In my economic systems design course we have had all the lectures now to be covered on the mid-term. Also I found out the term paper length should be about 20 pages and that we can do a computer simulation from the ground up. This would be good because this would help future studies. I am happy to say that the mid-term will be simply done by reading the material and it won't be a math exam. I have agreed to study with another student for both classes mid-terms. We are starting studies together this Saturday evening.

I have solved two problems now in my applied probability course first assignment.

These two problems I have solved were fairly easy. The actual first problem in the assignment is more difficult and I have not really started writing my solution for that problem. My goal for this assignment today is to solve two problems. I have solved one problem now so am half way done for today. I have also set aside next Sunday to complete the assignment if it is not done by then. Ideally I have it done early on Monday or Wednesday.

Term paper on labour started.

I started my term paper for my sys5140 course in economic systems design. I simply discussed labour as organized and on the other pole unorgainzed labour. I then started to work on variables for our simulation. I will now send this to the other member of the group.

I attended two lectures this week and have a third to attend today.

I have attended all lectures so far this week and for the month of January it looks like I will only have missed one class and that was last Wednesday's applied probability class where we studied conditional expectations. I know much of this material in applied probability but can not remember it all clearly.

We have our first assignment now due on February 12th. This morning I solve one problem but would like to add a little more theory to it as practice for lecturing problems. I type set it in LaTeX and it is ready to go.

I am now getting ready to start our term paper and will start with some writing and have borrowed some books for labour market studies, game theory and game theory in economics.

I am also connnecting my independent biology studies with the economic systems design course through Kaufman and the able guidance of our professor. I am thinking of posting an up to date reading list here for my ecology studies but right now am getting ready for work today, managing some household budget items and also doing some of my part time web publishing work. I am preparing for a web publishing meeting tomorrow after work. I feel very good and and rested one hour but today will be a 36 hour day in the end.

I am getting ready to do some overnight reading after writing some web pages and blogs and exploring Second Life.

I am reading a book about intelligence and security informatics. I am also reading a theory book about ecology and earth systems. These are two new books I am reading. I am also progressing with email to other graduate students. I worked this past week and a job opening has come up at work. I am applying for it because the job title is statistician.

I read a little of At Home in the Universe by Stuart Kaufman

I started to read another complex systems book for my economic design course. I am reading chapter 1 in Stuart Kaufman's At Home in the Universe.

I am tutoring a student today in statistical modeling and sharing class notes from lecture #4 of the applied probability course with him.

I am tutoring today at 20$ per hour in statistical modeling. I will try to be one hour early for tutoring. I am also doing some shopping before tutoring. I will get ready to go to my old school library today where I will tutor. I am also buying a solar panel for charging personal electronics. I will now need 12 volt barrel adapters for my cell phone, and other portable electronics.

Reading more Beinhocker.

I have now read chapters 1-6 and am half way through chapter 7 now. I have also read chapters 9 and 10 of Beinhocker. I have also started to read a pdf book that is extra reading for this week. I still have not read all of chapter 2 of Bowles and will read more of that today.

I attended all classes last week.

I attended classes last week. I also worked an almost full week only taking off 3.5 hours of work because of late night lectures.

In probability we saw the Bose-Einstein problem on Wednesday and on Monday we covered a proof of the central limit theorem using le hopital's rule. I could follow both of these blackboard problems but should review basic high school maths and some calculus. In particular, I need to review derivatives, and integrals of logs and more review of sequences and series and convergence and divergence.

In my economic design course I just used the bulletin board for the course on web CT and started a discussion of data sources which I had extracted from the AOIR discussions list. I may use some International Union of Telecommunications data to do a phone centric web space and may start some work on this tonight. The web address is www.youphone.ca inspired by the iPhone by Apple but not about that in fact.

Testing Blogger LaTeX with a little more care. "Work with me now"

Problem 1.2-6 (c)

Find

Again using basic properties and theorems of probability

and

Now we need to use this formula

in this problem.

But and its complement is simply

again by basic probability theorems

What is the set actually? It is the area out side of both A and B. which is the same as an intersection of the complements of A and B or set

Therefore

Therefore substituting in our formula.

And the set is really the complement of which = 0.3 because outside of the intersection is outside of either A or B so all this space outside the intersection is in . Thus we can check our work by checking that = 1- = 1- 0.3 = 0.7

Second $$\LaTeX$$ test: a lot more code.

This should now show a graphic containing written homework for one problem from last term's introduction to probability.

Testing Wolverine's LaTeX for blogger.

This is a test using FireFox, Grease monkey and a for Blogger java script for Greasemonkey. This is only a test.

I started to read about Statistics Canada's labour market survey.

I was doing some reading of our school's web site and decided to read about the regional data centre which turns out to be a Statistics Canada program. I thereby commenced some research for some data to do my term paper for the economics systems design simulation. I think I would like to try to simulate the labor market and compare the model to the Canadian labour market.

LaTeX has come to blogger.

A fellow has commented on my blog about a technique for using LaTeX on blogger. I may spend some time implementing this solution this morning.

Here is a link to his original post LaTeX on blogger http://servalx02.blogspot.com/2007/01/latex-on-blogger.htmland the same post I think in French LaTeX dans blogger at http://wolverine-mathematic.blogspot.com/2007/01/latex-dans-blogger.html.

I accidentally flagged his blog as objectable content because I forgot what flagging meant on the blog pages at blogger. I meant to add it to a blogger bookmarks system which of course does not exist. I hereby appologize to this blogger user.

Developing products for Second Life

I have thought of having a blackboard for second life that could be used to write LaTeX. I would then sell this Blackboard and market it in Second Life. I posted this goal on the second life blog under the open source announcement on that blog. Because most of the software involved would be open source I would also need to give the Blackboard away for free at the same time.

Chapter 10 now read of Beinhocker. Progressing a lot with my economic systems design course.

Chapter ten explores the prisoner's dilemma and was this past week's reading assignment for our first lecture. I read most of this chapter the previous weekend and week and read the final few pages last night. Now assigned for lecture number two is Beinhocker's chapter 4 and 9. I have read chapter 4 so should just review this chapter. So really I need to read chapter 9.

For Bowles this past week chapter 1 was assigned and I read this before the next year so again I had that read on time for this week's past lecture. For this coming week from Bowles we are assigned chapter 2. I have started chapter 2 but need to finish it before Tuesday.

Also for this past week I need to read about half of the remaining lecture notes the professor did not cover in the actual lecture this past Tuesday.

In the extra suggested readings I have read chapter 1 now of Axelrod's The Complexity of Cooperation. Axelrod is the researcher who figured out strategies for the prisoner dilemma first by having experts and others submit best strategies which he then tested in a series of games on the computer. He then made an experiment of using a genetic alogithum and simulated evolution in the prisoners dilemma game to find the best strategy. He did not find one best strategy but found some generalisations. Beinhocker covers this experiment in his book.

Reading about blogging today right after work.

I have kept up with computing since the 1960's so it is not a youth culture area for me. I am writing about seven blogs these days including this one. Only one blog is anonymous. The scholarly article is here on the web---> http://reconstruction.eserver.org/064/saper.shtml which is the journal Reconstruction's web site. I learned about this issue of Reconstruction which is about blogging from the AOIR email list. The cite for the article is here.

Saper, Craig Blogademia Reconstruction 6.4 (2006)

I did not follow a single link in the on-line article which was written for on-line reading and linked to a number of academic blogs in the thread of the article. Basically I took away a warning about gossiping on blogs.

First week of classes has gone by now.

With one week, the first week now done I am at it again: studying. Work has been a bit of pressure with my time but I did plan ahead and in the end attended all my classes this week. I borrowed about four books of suggested reading for the first half of SYS5140 up till the mid-term. I also dove in and started to read these books yesterday just after borrowing them from Carleton's library.

I have to learn a simulations software called Stella. Last night I installed it on my office computer and played around a bit with it without knowing what I was doing. I need to read a book about this software and get it up and running for a term paper. I am also working with some economics students in a three person group on this term paper. We have started to form the group and the group is myself a male systems sciences student and two female economics students. I have taken the role of computer programmer as the first step in our work on the term paper.

In my applied probability course we have had two review lectures that are at a higher level of mathematical abstraction but things are going better by the end of the week with this material and I should read some more of the text book this weekend and a little tonight.

Notebooks ready for the school term. My classes start today.

I have my IAOS notebook case ready for the SYS5120 notes and have another larger binder ready for SYS5140 notes. My first class in SYS5120 is today at five thirty. Then I have the first lecture of SYS5140 tomorrow evening. I have almost completed all the reading for this week's lecture for SYS5140. The professor has posted course material on the school's course material distribution web pages but I have not been able to access it yet. This reminds me I should check the SYS5120 course web page for any updates.

Continuing to write for the web everyday.

I write blogs everyday. With my new statistics job I have had less time at home on my computers but I still manage to use computers a fair amount on the weekends. I have enough computers that I was even able to help a neighbour by selling a computer to her and also giving away my older computer that I did a large part of my BA on. Mostly I worked on my BA on a Thinkpad T30 running Windows XP and Open Office. I also used an early model eMac and use the last model of eMac these days. For a laptop these days I use a first generation Macbook which was a graduation present from my professor father.

My father is an experimental physicist. My mother by the way was also a graduate student at the university of Ottawa and she studied Town Planning. In her career she planned Silicon Valley north. They are both retired now but still active and my father is still a professor.

I am starting classes again this coming week.

I have two applied probability classes to attend this week and one economics class. The economics professor has been in touch by email and I have been told the reading for the first class is chapter 1 of Bowles and chapter 10 of Beinhocker. I have read the Bowles already and only need to read the Bienhocker over night.

I am well into chapter 2 of Bowles now.

I started to read Bowles's chapter 2 now. I would hope to have this chapter read by the end of today.

The reading of Beinhocker is ahead of schedule.

I have now made this week's reading goal by reaching page 99 of the Beinhocker book and have read the first four chapters. I have one day to spare so this book will be put aside for a day. Here is the general cite and brief comment.

Beinhocker, Eric D. The Origin of Wealth: Evolution, Complexity, and the Radical Remaking of Economics (Boston, Mass: Harvard Business School, 2006).

The first three chapters are part I and I have read this completely now. I have read the first chapter in part II which is chapter four. This fourth chapter reviews an experiment in economics called Sugarscape. The experiment was performed by Joshua Epstein and Robert Axtell in 1995. This experiment simulates a number of microeconomic variables and the results are used by Eric Beinhocker to disprove some traditional economic theories. He also uses this chapter as his introduction and summary of complexity economics which is what the remainder of the book will cover.

Continuing to read economics.

I worked this week so could not do much study. I did just complete reading the first chapter of

Bowles, Samuel Microeconomics: Behavior, Institutions and Evolution (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2004).

This chapter is a good sophisticated introduction to game theory. It was slow reading.

Reading continues

I got to page 45 of Bowles, Samuel Microeconomics: Behavior, Institutions and Evolution today on the third day of study. I got to page 60 of Beinhocker, Eric D. The Origin of Wealth: Evolution, Complexity, and the Radical Remaking of Economics today. This second book is less technical and easier to read.

The economics course textbooks arrived and I started to read them.

I got the textbooks for the economics course on Christmas eve. That's Canada post for you. I have met one of their most radical leaders from the past and chatted with him briefly. I also volunteered with a postee at the green party convention this year. I also have better contacts for mobilizing postal workers now for labour actions.

The books for this course are:

Beinhocker, Eric D. The Origin of Wealth: Evolution, Complexity, and the Radical Remaking of Economics (Boston, Mass: Harvard Business School, 2006).

This book is 600 pages long thus if I want to have it read in the first two months of school term, or first six weeks would be better, I need to read 100 pages a week and that's about 15 pages a day. On Christmas Eve I started to read it. I read the preface and part 1 chapter one that day. On Christmas Day I read part 1 chapter two, thus reading 43 pages in two days. So with this above rate of 15 pages a day I am ahead now by almost one day.

Bowles, Samuel Microeconomics: Behavior, Institutions and Evolution (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2004).

This book is also about 600 pages long. Thus the same rate of reading will be applied to it. It arrived at the same time as the other course textbook. It is a textbook developed for a doctoral level course in economics from the University of Massachusettes. On Christmas Eve I read the 19 pages of the prologue and on Christmas got through to page 31 in part 1 chapter 1. So I am just on schedule with this book.

Reading began right away.

Some people know when I do things and get behind activities I get them done and often very rapidly. Often I do this with a computer so the effort is less than the result. But often I also do things like getting around on buses and bikes and do a great job of this. Sometimes I have to bum a ride and often these days people offer me rides.

But enough about results. I also systematically plan everything. I also document my reading with this blog which today helped me write for wikipedia. Another way I document required reading is to use check marks and little penciled in dates beside chapters and chapter sections. Today I managed to read chapter 1 sections 1 and 2 in my applied probability textbook. I now have a whole bunch of problems to do in section 2 chapter 1. So I stopped for today.

My other textbooks for winter are in the mail so I am fairly sure my textbooks will all be here before term begins. My schedule is being worked out and it will be tight full time work and part time school. I am increasing the course load this term but this also speeds up the degree progress. I have done a fair amount of real work today so I am now going to read more interesting and broadly related studies. I may read on the bus today or at home. I may buy some new book shelves today for my study office.

My first textbook arrived today.

The textbook I received today is for an introduction to stochastic processes such as markov chains, martingales, poisson processes and queueing. Here is the cite:

Taylor, Howard M. & Karlin, Samuel. An Introduction to Stochastic Modeling 3rd ed. (New York: Academic, 1998).

I read the table of contents and preface on the bus tonight. I will report more later.

One winter term textbook is in the mail now.

As of this morning at 1 am my applied probability course textbook is in the mail from Amazon.ca. This textbook should arrive before the term begins maybe today or tomorrow, if I am lucky. Also the professor from the economics course I will study this winter has sent me the titles of the textbooks for that course. He also said they are available at the bookstore now. I am not sure if I will have time tomorrow to go to school and buy the textbooks but I may try to do this. Right now I will check the pricing for on-line book stores.

I read the beginning of three papers from ISSS 2006.

I read the beginning on a paper on carbon dioxide emissions and lean business. I also looked at paper proposing systems sciences be reformed into systems studies. I also looked at a paper about torture. Then I read some Manual Castells in his The Power of Identity about patriarchalism.

I am going to check out some systems science papers this morning and also file away my probability course notes

I have some time to do some school research this morning and will check the papers out from this year's systems science association. I will also file my course notes and get my binder ready for the winter term courses. Speaking of winter term courses I did investigate the economics professor who is a retired professor and I sent him and intro email. I still don't know who is teaching the advanced probability course. I do have a past textbook for the applied probability course and have gotten through the first chapter of this book but should get through the second and third chapters before January.

Course ends with A+ grade.

I know I am bragging but I scored A+ in my course. This is my first A+ ever so I am quite pleased. This gives me confidence with Latex and math. I can again call myself a mathematician. This reminds me I need to pay my dues for the Canadian Math Society again this year. I should also get the application to the Statistical Society of Canada completed.

Tutoring again.

I did some tutoring for professor Ranjeeta Mallick. Two of her students needed help wth their study of the business statistics course at Carleton. I did 6 hours total tutoring on the weekend.