Neuroeconomics

A very interesting article which compares Humans ability to predict future events, based on past trends, with those of rats and pigeons; and Humans do not come up on top! The author then goes on to explain it based on the the way the brain functions.

Very fascinating!

This reminds me of something we used to joke about in our college days in India. Our hostel was right next to a wooded area and if you forgot to shut your window, monkeys would come in and rummage through your stuff and go off with your food, especially bananas. Now, there was a banana vendor right next to the gate of our hostel. Monkeys being held sacred by a large section of the population in India, a lot of people would buy some bananas and feed them to the monkeys. What was amazing was that, never once would a monkey attack the open cart laden with ripe bananas, but would patiently wait for someone to buy one to feed it to them. Now let the same monkey spot an open window in a forgetful student's room ---different story. Those being the days of "rational expectations" theory, we had our own rational expectations joke about the monkeys optimizing their steady flow of bananas, and not driving the the vendor out of business by attacking him!

Well we might have been correct! Looks like animals brain are better wired for rational actions.

Enjoy the article.

-- datamining_guy


The Durango Herald 02/16/2011 Rats can teach humans some investing savvy

Clever Algorithms

This is a very interesting book for data mining enthusiasts. The author Jason Brownlee was leading the Hearst Challenge, before he decided to quit and focus on his book. Just browsed through the online version and it looks very impressive. Looking forward to reading it in details.

Clever Algorithms

--datamining_guy

Perone wants business data analyzed - Norwalk News - The Hour - Norwalk's Newspaper

A state senator in Connecticut introduces legislation which will require government to setup a business analytics division to make better decisions --- very interesting development. I am optimistic that we will see a lot more of this as everybody grapples with the amount of data they are collecting/have available and try to make sense of it all.

Perone wants business data analyzed - Norwalk News - The Hour - Norwalk's Newspaper

-- datamining_guy

Data Mining to Prevent Infections

A very interesting article on using data mining for better infection prevention. from the article it appears that a lot of useful data is collected but the Infection Prevention professionals are not able to use it effectively. A common theme across several industries/applications. However, am very thrilled at the diverse areas where analytics is being considered an useful ally:

Electronic Surveillance Systems Data Mining Can Yield Rich Results for Infection Prevention

-- datamining_guy

Location Based Marketing on New Year's Eve

This  New Year's Eve, saw a lot of  location based marketing initiatives. It has always made sense, but technology  has made it a lot more  easier now. Here are a couple of examples:

American Eagle teamed up with SCVNGR at Times Square to raise money for Big Brothers and Big Sisters.

Bravo channel also tied up its inaugural  New Year's Eve special with FourSquare.

Then there was the tie up between Time Square Alliance and Facebook Places, using a billboard in Times Square to urge attendees to log on to Facebook.

What is exciting is that for the first time, there was a concerted effort by several marketers to link the online and offline worlds around a special event/location.

Looking forward to how this plays out during the Super Bowl!

-- Datamining_guy

Dating Sites Try Adaptive Matchmaking - Technology Review

Dating Sites Try Adaptive Matchmaking - Technology Review

Teradata to acquire Aprimo for $525 million :: BtoB Magazine#seenit#seenit#seenit#seenit

Teradata finally catches up with IBM's UNICA acquisiton

Teradata to acquire Aprimo for $525 million :: BtoB Magazine#seenit#seenit#seenit#seenit