the P.Pole

We’re going to do some math today, and crunch some numbers to explain my experience with the iPhone 4 so far. We’ll be doing some statistics—I wouldn’t say this is really my area of expertise relative to some of my colleagues, but I should know enough well enough to string together a coherent argument.

We first identify the study population (say, all iPhone 4′s in Canada) and parameters for attributes we are interested in (we will need θ to be the proportion of these iPhone 4′s which are faulty/defective pieces of lemonware—in other words, the chance that you will receive a catastrophic failure of an iPhone).

We start by assuming that the parameter θ has a certain reasonable value (like 0.001, which says, on average, we think 1 in 1000 iPhone 4′s are defective in the study population). You should note that any numbers here are just guesses I’m making for illustration’s sake. Nowhere am I claiming these values or figures are real or confirmed or even remotely representative of the actual failure rates. Don’t sue me, Apple. Your legal expenses will be greater than everything you’d get bankrupting me.

Anyway, say this is the case. Continue reading

5 things I did this week:

• watched Audrey Hepburn’s “Charade” with Amy
• got Ulrich the iPhone 4 set up with Fido through a nice Québecois lady, and ended my stay with Koodo
• went to IKEA looking for a bed frame, left with a can opener and a potato peeler
• checked out Buskerfest with Amy (Friday), and then with Adwin and Shawn (Saturday)
• Distillery District for coffees and gelato with Amy

5 “old” songs I rather enjoy:

• Matthew Good Band – Indestructible
• Death Cab For Cutie – Marching Bands of Manhattan
• Thousand Foot Krutch – Phenomenon
• Tomoyasu Hotei – Battle Without Honor or Humanity
• Pilate – Into Your Hideout

There’s something wonderful about listening to tracks of a former life that brings back all those memories subconsciously, binding perceptions and recollections the past with the very real and current present.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Died in a motor crash.
I came back for you,
The perfect version of myself.
Tomorrow we start again.
Tomorrow came and went.
Continue reading

So, my last exam of this spring/summer term is tomorrow.

Soon, soon my lovely little periwinkles, I will be free of this.

5 things I still want to do before summer ends:

• rock out with Adwin and Stephen (and Melissa too, I guess, but she’s a girl so she doesn’t count)
• head down to Burrito Boyz for lunch with the 1990 guys and back to Rafael’s place for gaming
• find a way to play “Wings of Liberty” Starcraft 2 campaign on Mac or PC
• go on a variety of dates
• see a yet-to-be determined concert

Oh yeah, Linear Optimization. Time to get back on that before day dreaming of dates and video games.

The P.Pole has a new-ish face! Freshly polished and adorned for your enjoyment! For future reference, here’s what I’m looking at:

My three final exams:

• Statistics on August 3rd
• Business Law on August 5th
• Linear Optimization on August 12th

All in all, this has been a breezy summer term for me. That’s not to say that the courses have all been easy,  I’ve just been going at them as if they were. I should probably be spending all of the coming week reviewing for Stats and Law, and then spending the week leading up to Linear Optimization on that… But, there is Disgaea 3 and my Hi-Capa to play with, so I don’t know how well this will work out.

Note: Managerial Accounting, my fourth course, has no final exam this term. In its place is a group case presentation, and a report due on the same case. Not only am I only responsible for four courses this term, but only three final exams! Win.

5 things that kept me distracted this week:

• Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice (PS3)
• Tokyo Marui Hi-Capa 5.1 (still needing a name for her)
• Ridge Racer 7 (PS3)
• Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (PS3)
• Syncing “Avatar: The Last Airbender” (cartoon) with Amy

Now back to the distractions!