Degrees of Seperation
Haven't been updating much. I'ld say there is not much that I can go through to write about, and not much that I can write about what I go through. Tough eh.
Anyway, I've decided to slow down the pace by elaborating more on division of polynomials. It is difficult for learners because of the constant confusion during long division. Just recall long division with numbers and it'll be much simpler. More practice and attention is all needed.
Saturdays are either 'Stay-Home-And-Rot' days, or 'Cafe-Chim-Talk' days. Today (19-01-08) was one of the CCT days. The four of us met in our usual meeting place, XYZ cafe, after dinner. The main discussion today was about the network theories in a book one of my friends read. This was the research that brought about the famous 'Six Degree Of Seperation' theory, in which everyone is linked to everyone else in the world by a maximum of 6 'jumps'.
Illustration: Me - Person1 - Person 2 - Person 3 - Person 4 - Person 5 - You
Of course we all have heard of this, but research on it? I thought it was a for fun thing, like friendster or something. But I was wrong.
It seems that there are lots of uses for it. Finding the general links between items of a large group, like people, can determine how information / diseases / other stuff is spread. Who is the Linking Hub? Who's the Ulu one? By locating the crucial points in this network, one can efficiently know the precise points to minimise the damages. Moreoever it can be used for many other forms of networks.
The other of us could not accept such an arbituarily derived method, of course, and a 3-hr long debate came to discuss the usefulness and practicality. It was difficult to be convinced that such a thing is a root to the majority of our statistical problems. Till now, there has been no clear stand established. I presume this may be carried forward to next week.
Looking forward.
Anyway, I've decided to slow down the pace by elaborating more on division of polynomials. It is difficult for learners because of the constant confusion during long division. Just recall long division with numbers and it'll be much simpler. More practice and attention is all needed.
Saturdays are either 'Stay-Home-And-Rot' days, or 'Cafe-Chim-Talk' days. Today (19-01-08) was one of the CCT days. The four of us met in our usual meeting place, XYZ cafe, after dinner. The main discussion today was about the network theories in a book one of my friends read. This was the research that brought about the famous 'Six Degree Of Seperation' theory, in which everyone is linked to everyone else in the world by a maximum of 6 'jumps'.
Illustration: Me - Person1 - Person 2 - Person 3 - Person 4 - Person 5 - You
Of course we all have heard of this, but research on it? I thought it was a for fun thing, like friendster or something. But I was wrong.
It seems that there are lots of uses for it. Finding the general links between items of a large group, like people, can determine how information / diseases / other stuff is spread. Who is the Linking Hub? Who's the Ulu one? By locating the crucial points in this network, one can efficiently know the precise points to minimise the damages. Moreoever it can be used for many other forms of networks.
The other of us could not accept such an arbituarily derived method, of course, and a 3-hr long debate came to discuss the usefulness and practicality. It was difficult to be convinced that such a thing is a root to the majority of our statistical problems. Till now, there has been no clear stand established. I presume this may be carried forward to next week.
Looking forward.