my school

here is a video (in German) of my school in Berlin - Carl von Ossietzky Gymnasium, where in 1988 a student got expelled by the Socialist government and had to go into exile in London

http://mediathek.ard.de/ard/servlet/content/1860624;jsessionid=076CAC937D33CD004EDCC8B4045BA345

Kraftwerk - word cloud

German wiki

Digital Strangelove (or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Internet)

Digital Strangelove (or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Internet)

View more documents from David Gillespie.

AI and 2nd life

I am not using Second Life, but I came across the notion that it is artificial intelligence. Now I don't think it is because it's based on actual humans behind avatars creating characters, while the world seems to be fixed, is it? Would 2nd Life pass the Turing test?

Mando Diao - great song - not available in the UK

Cameron at Marr

Andrew Marr should relax. His attacking of Cameron on his show is
pathetic. Cameron is not in power and so he is not responsible. Marr
is very biased.

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new job

I have a new job now at targetbaseclaydonheeley.com - a digital agency.

Gran Torino

I have just watched Gran Torino and I think it's an under-rated movie. It is extremely contemporary for many reasons

• unemployment in post manufacturing US (I assume it was written before GM's collapse)
• old age
• racial inequality and brutality

The story is admittingly simple and the movie is carried by Eastwood who has tremendous economy in his acting. Walt's grumpiness and sarcasm is even funny. I also like how the movie plays with the Dirty Harry theme which is then chucked away at the end.

It deserved more awards than it received.

When should you check in your bags at the airport

I have analysed this problem using 4 scenarios or quadrants. Let's assume it's a big flight and there is two cars which carry the bags from the terminal to the plane.

If you check in the 4th quadrant, then your bag goes to top of 2nd car B and you luggage is loaded as the third, it is unloaded as the second and goes on top of car A which brings the bag to baggage reclaim and the conveyor belt where it will be unloaded first. Reversely if you check in first you'll leave the destination last. This is all based on the first in last out principle and implies 'Take your time'.

Greenspan

Greenspan's prediction that there will be more financial crises in the future is hardly noteworthy. For one his lax monetary policy caused some of the present crisis, and it is obvious that the capitalist system cannot escape the business cycle (boom and bust). His over-cautiousness now is part of the same animal spirits which caused the crisis in the first place - everyone's a bear now.

Polish power - German quality

This is a slogan I saw at a building site in London.

It seems that the stereotype about Germans that they are thorough and
love detail and has helped me because people think this would apply to
me. Now in fact I am not so much into detail and live the big picture
more - I have a can do attitude which can be at odds with pedantry.

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8 steps for a successful segmentation

 

1. Get an overview of what data is available and at what level (how recent is the data)
2. Define the purpose of the segmentation (targeting, insight). Does it need to be updated?
3. Based on (2) define a success criterion (ie it separates pre-defined group A from group B)
4. Collect the data and normalise it, create an estimation sample
5. Correlate the data, can you eliminate certain variables (try variable clustering, factor analysis etc)
6. Start segmenting/clustering (note if you have very few variables maybe you prefer more rigid manual segmentation/classification)
• Can you re-group certain segments?
• Repeat until (3) is satisfied
7. Parameterise segmentation and roll out to rest of population; create a generic process to roll out as population changes
8. Review usage of segmentation after several months

Spotted

British Iranian comedians prefer SW14. Saw Shappi Khorsandi and Omid
Djalili in our borough - separately that is.

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MPs ignore public anger and give themselves 9,000 expenses deal by stealth - Telegraph mobile

Just as bankers return to the good old times, the MPs are at it as
well. They have quietly increased the expense allowance they don't
need to account for with receipts. In this country nothing changes.
Thanks Labour.

http://m.telegraph.co.uk/;s=5coSD7o2tsLCF4v6zerAug02/article/5920660/

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why is scientology advertising on youtube?

next to Obama

what's in a doodle?

http://foundmagazine.com/

Starbucks bingo

Beim Italiaener

2 and half year wasted

The ONS has published new GDP figures today which show a large decline in GDP. People might think that four quarters of negative growth will be overcome once the economy starts growing again. In fact real GDP in Q1 2009 was as high as in Q3 2006. This means that the UK is a rich as war 2 and half years ago in real terms. And this neglects any population growth in that time.

BBC NEWS | Education | Child poverty 'get out' claim

The new poverty legislation is a distraction from the fact that Labour
will miss its own PSA target to halve child poverty by 2010. In fact
in recent years no progress has been made.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8105030.stm

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BBC getting very informal

Journal of Targeting, Measurement and Analysis for Marketing

See a free issue of the Journal of Targeting, Measurement and Analysis for Marketing

http://www.palgrave-journals.com/jt/journal/v16/n1/index.html

twitter

Me on twitter http://twitter.com/dirknbr

Clive Granger dies

The Nobel prize winning econometrician has died. He introduced the
ideas of cointregration and causality. Great loss.

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Stats blog

This is a great blog and site around understanding of risk: http://understandinguncertainty.org/davidsblog