Regression Analysis

If you don't know what this means, you're missing out!

Regression analysis is a statistical method that allows you (among other things) to determine how well a set of variables can predict another set of variables. There are all sorts of caveats and conditions, but I've been spending a lot of time figuring out how it works.

If you only have one set of dependent variables and one set of independent variables, then the formula is:

beta[x]=(sum((xi-avg[X])*(yi-avg[Y]))/sum((xi-avg[x])^2)

and

intercept = avg[Y]-(beta[X]/avg[X])

Then any new x variable can be multiplied by beta[x] and then added to the intercept, and that gives you your predicted value of y.

Simple huh?

Final Exams

Final exams start for me today. This is the fourth of six 10-week trimesters in my 2-year MBA program.

Final exams are generally anti-climactic. I never feel really great coming out of them; but then again, they never really change my grades that much.

After finals are done I get a whole week off school. That means I actually get to see my daughters every single day for a whole week! It will be fun, and hopefully we'll get to do lots of cool stuff like going to the zoo, the planetarium, hiking, etc.

I was going to add canoeing to that list, but we do that almost every day anyway. That's our standard after-dinner/before bed activity.

Today whilst canoeing, we got about one foot away from a big turtle sitting on a little platform on the lake. He was alone this time, but I've seen as many as nine turtles all piled up on that same little platform. I'll add a picture sometime if I remember.

I like living in AZ

I'm sitting here in the back yard studying for final exams and I just can't believe how nice it is.

There are turtles and ducks swimming by, the palm trees are swaying in the gentle breeze, and the temperature is perfect.

Not bad for the end of October!

Who knew that Arizona had such a great climate?

Well, probably the other 4 million people who live in Phoenix. And everyone who comes here from Canada for the winter. I'm sure they knew.

Barack Obama

We here on the editorial board of JJ Olsen have decided to officially endorse Barack Obama as our pick in the 2008 presidential elections.

This decision wasn't reached easily. We had to weigh how many times we had seen each candidate in-person, and that wasn't an easy task.

Well, it was kind of easy.



As the photos clearly demonstrate, I had a very up close and personal encounter with Mr. Obama and a few others. And that is enough of a reason to make this endorsement. Also, the decision of John McCain to appoint an embarrassingly unqualified Sarah Palin as his running mate made it easier.


That's all. You can all go back to whatever it was you were doing.

AZ is Cold & Dark!

This morning at 5:15 when I left the house for work, it was as dark as it is in the middle of the night. It reminded me of when I worked as a landscaper in Edmonton in December 1997 when it was dark until 10:00 AM.
It felt almost as cold as Edmonton too!


This is my first blog entry via phone.
I just thought you should know that.

Quotes:

I'm retiring this from facebook and sticking it here. They both come up with hilarious lines every day, but I'm not quick enough to write them all down.

Laela: "Mommy, do you know what would be inconvenient?
If you shoot your mother with a cannon."

(Ivy gets in bed with us in the middle of the night)
Chrissy: "Is there a lizard crawling around in here?"
Me: "No, it's just Ivy"
Chrissy: "I mean besides Ivy"
Ivy: "There were 2 Swipers!"

IVY: Daddy, I have something very 'portant to tell you.
ME: Yes Ivy?
IVY: Cat poo poo! Ha ha ha!
(you can't make this stuff up)

LAELA: Mom, can I tell you something?
CHRISSY: Yes Laela.
LAELA: Did you know that I'm an ape and a candle?

Laela (while getting her fingernails clipped): "Mommy, do you think they're scared because we're killing them?"

LAELA (While deciding whether or not to email anybody a flash-based parade float that she made in a PBS-Kids online game):
"I don't want to send this one to anyone. It would break their brain. I don't want anyone's brain to be broken."

"Daddy, I miss the dwarf Tyler. He's a DWARF! A DWARF! Daddy, do you know what a dwarf is?"
-Laela Olsen

--also--

LAELA: "When I grow up I'm going to be a magician."
IVY: "I'm going to be a train station!"

--and finally--

Laela: "I know what it's like to be dead...but I'm not going to tell you...for lots of reasons. It would take all night."

JJ Olsen -Author

I recently finished writing my autobiography.

It is less than 1,200 characters long because that is all the space that the Blogger "about me" text field would accept.

Now that I'm an accomplished author I think that I will take some time off to do research for my next book...

Sun Microsystems

Tomorrow I'm going to listen to the Chairman of Sun Microsystems speak. I think it's pretty cool to hear from people like this, but that opinion is not shared strongly by my fellow MBA students. I've been trying to invite just 5 people. So far, of the 10 or so people I've spoken to, only 3 of them have confirmed they will come.
It's almost as if nobody is interested in UNIX or the Java programing language! I just don't understand it. We need more nerds to get MBAs.

Cockroaches


Today Chrissy found a large cockroach in Tim's fishbowl. Tim is Laela's Betta Fish. The cockroach was just floating there, and Tim wasn't paying any attention to it. I didn't know that cockroaches could climb into fishbowls.

Ah, the joys of living in Arizona!

BASIC.
I've been an 'amateur' computer programmer since I was a teenager. I wrote a program this morning on the bus with "Palm Basic" on my Palm Treo 755p. It pretty much just approximates the functionality of an Etch-a-Scetch.
I decided to post here.

print "Welcome to Etch-a-755p"
print "PLEASE SELECT BRUSH:"
print " 'a' for inverted"
input " 'b' for draw: "ll$
print""
input "Need Instructions? (y/n) "i$
cls:print""
if i$="y" then print "up/dn: up/dn buttons ", ,"left/right: mail/home buttons","exit: phone button"
print"":input "'Enter' to start... "vv
cls:m=80:n=80
do until keydown(4)=1
a=a+keydown(2)
b=b+keydown(3)
c=c+keydown(6)
d=d+keydown(7)
x=n+d-c
y=m+b-a
if x > 159 then x= x -159
if x < 1 then x = x + 159
if y > 159 then y = y -159
if y < 1 then y = y + 159
if ll$="a" then  invertline x,y,x+1,y+1 else drawline x,y,x+1,y+1
loop:cls
print""
print"  'menu' + 'R' to start again..."
print""
print"  'menu' + 'E' to edit code..."