Posts tagged as:

statistics

The Lord Knows the Score

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Every year around this time I get to enjoy one of my all-time favorite acronyms. (You know I’m an acronymphomaniac, right?) All of the important data utilized by the National Football League is stored in the “Game Statistics & Information System” — GSIS.

As far as the NFL is concerned, GSIS is awesome and GSIS knows all. This leads to some wonderful conversations …

Want to know who’s got the most rushing yards right now? Ask GSIS.
Who scored first in last week’s Steelers game? Check with GSIS.
Did Tom Brady get a rushing TD in week 7 last year? GSIS can tell you.
When do the Broncos play the Jets? GSIS knows.

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Fortune’s Formula

Monday, April 2, 2007

I am not even 100 pages into my latest William Poundstone book and I already know it’s going to be a favorite. Fortune’s Formula, The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street is the fourth Poundstone book I’ve read. The man is a genius of a writer. Labyrinths of Reason and Prisoner’s Dilemma have been in my personal top ten list for years and years and I urge people to read them every chance I get.

I have long been fascinated by the idea of “meaning” in communication. I’ve held the belief for as long as I can remember that the responsibility for communicating meaning is always placed on the person creating the message. If I am trying to tell you something, it is never your fault if you don’t understand. I just read a passage in Fortune’s Formula that really rocked me. It’s so good that I can’t help but quote it here:

[click to continue...]

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Alexa Is Skewed

Friday, March 9, 2007

I’ve often wondered how Alexa manages to get its data. Their stats never seem to synch with mine. It turns out there’s a fly in the ointment over there.

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