Integrated Marketing Communications: Amazon.com
The goal of this essay, for the Fundamentals of Marketing class at Umass-Amherst, was to “Explain what it means to have “integrated marketing communications”. Include issues such as how to measure results. Pick a company and describe how you view their use of Integrated Marketing Communications…”. I’ve yet to receive a grade for this paper, […]
One Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)
The requirements for the fourth written response for my Statistics II course at UMass Amherst was: “Explain in your own terms the test for analysis of variance. What does an ANOVA test? Why is it useful? On what type of data would you apply it? What is the logic behind the test? Why does it […]
Upgrades & Cleanup
There’ll be some changes to this blog in the coming days, mostly in the WordPress theme and general layout of the site. I’ll be re-arranging and consolidating the categories you see in the side-bar to the right, as well as fixing a few things behind the scenes. If anyone has any suggestions, complaints or ideas, […]
Central Limit Theorem
The description for this assignment is as follows: “Given a non-normally distributed population such as the bimodal population which is pictured in figure 6-8, discuss and explain how such a population can have a frequency distribution of sample x-bars as shown in figure 6-9. How does Figure 6-8 relate to Figure 6-9 and then how […]
Logan Airport’s Rainbow Cove Green Parking Garage
Well, I’m just throwing that one post a day standard out the window, eh? [Imaginary Editor’s Note: Adam is not a Canadian although he uses “eh?” quite liberally] Well, breaking news of the sort you’re about to hear makes all standards completely invalid. I’m proud to announce that Boston has set a new world record […]
Similarities and Differences between the Standard Normal (z) and Student’s t Distributions
The requirements for this assignment were to compare and contrast the “…standard normal and the student t, or simply the t distribution. If we use the standard normal when σ [sigma, standard deviation] for the population is known and use the t distribution when σ is not known, explain any differences in the two distributions […]
Freakonomics versus Economics
I usually won’t post twice in a day (or so I say), but a post entitled, What is it about Polish people and lines?, by Steven D. Levitt, co-author of the uber-popular, Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, really got me ticked off tonight! Steven recently went on a trip to […]
Finite Population Correction Factor
The assignment for this response was to discuss “…under what circumstances the Finite Population Correction Factor (FPCF) is necessary and why is it necessary? How does the adjusted z-value vary quantitatively (bigger, smaller, much larger, no change) from the normal value?” This was the first written response for my Statistics II class (actually called “Quantitative […]
Oh Crap: I Deleted the Wrong del.icio.us Account!
As you may have deduced from the title, I had two del.icio.us accounts where I stored my bookmarks online for handy reference and storage. Yesterday, I decided to delete one of the accounts as it was mostly a collection of links I had imported into a new account; well, even though I was very careful […]
eBay: Pro Scalping?
I just logged into my eBay account (you’ll see why soon enough) and found this e-mail from eBay’s Government Relations department, sent on April 17, 2007: “Today in your state capital, proposals for legislation are being drafted that claim to support an open market for buying and selling concert or sporting event tickets. But these […]
Facebook Network Stats
I stumbled upon a pretty cool feature on facebook’s redesign a few days ago, stats for categories such as music and movies for networks. If you’re a facebook user and wanna check out what I’m seeing click on Networks, scroll down and you should see a “Network Statistics” section on the right side. If you’re […]
Why I Spent $1800 on a Macbook Pro
The assignment for this essay was to write about the consumer decision making process. Choose a product that you bought recently. It must be complex buying behavior. It should not be something that is an ordinary purchase or that you purchase on a regular basis. Describe your purchase as it pertains to each stage of […]
A 350+ College Tribute to the Virginia Tech Hokies
Check it out: A Tribute to the Virginia Tech Hokies The power of facebook let us receive and compile more than 350 college logos into this collage.
Live Away from Your Favorite Baseball Team’s Market? You Almost Lost Access to their Games…
Back when I was attending the University of Southern California & North Carolina at Chapel Hill, my biggest annoyance was not receiving Boston Red Sox games in my dorm. Of course, I could have sprung for the Extra Innings package, but I was in college…I didn’t have that kind of money to spend on TV! […]
Virginia Tech Campus Tragedy
As a partial alum of UNC-Chapel Hill, and thus a member of the ACC, I wanted to reach out to the community at Virginia Tech and offer my condolences to the students, faculty, family members and friends affected by today’s terrible tragedy. BREAKING — Shooter On Virginia Tech’s Campus (At Least 22 Dead) A tragedy […]
Tax Credits for College Tuition, Senior Tax Administrator Style
I just finished and submitted my taxes! I’ll be getting a refund on both my state and local taxes (albeit only $3 from Taxachusetts) Although both my refunds are relatively low, I’m still very pleased. In the middle of last year, I used the handy dandy IRS Withholding Calculator to figure out that I had […]
Their Product, My Money: In the End, Who Should Have What?
The assignment for this essay was to “…think about the elements of product return policies. Make a list of at least 6 elements or attributes of the return policy (e.g., no questions asked, money back guarantee, etc) that make the product more appealing. List these attributes in the order of their importance and describe the […]
Competition: Driver of a Productive Market
The assignment for this essay was to “…briefly explain in your own words, each of the various external environments that affect marketing. In your opinion, which of the external environments has had the greatest impact on consumer’s abilities to shop and consume products? For this part, do not quote the book. I want you to […]
I’m a Browsing Maniac
Ever sit down at your computer to do something wicked productive, say write a blog post, e-mail, or essay, and instead up with a browser window that looks like this? The joke is, Flock [a “social web browser” based on Firefox, with cool stuff like integrated del.icio.us, flickr, and my new favorite, snippets – see […]
Down with Textbooks! What Schools, Publishers and You can do to Reduce Textbook Costs
Ah, college textbooks, the fine print on your college bill. It literally sickens me thinking about the literally thousands of dollars I’ve spent on college textbooks during my college, ahem, journey. Everywhere I’ve gone, students always complain about the high costs of textbooks and the low (if any) re-sale value. It seems colleges are listening […]
AIG and General Re Fraud
In late 2000, American International Group (AIG), one of the largest insurance companies in the world, struck an intentionally fraudulent deal with General Re Corporation, a Berkshire Hathaway company, so that AIG could add $500 million in reserves to its balance sheet for the last quarter of 2000 and first of 2001. In a plot […]
U.S. GAAP vs. International GAAP vs. Unified GAAP
For many years, the standards that dictated the accounting industry on an international setting were as diverse as the world’s population. Each country used to have their own accounting standards applicable in their country. As many corporations have become international, these individual standards caused a large amount of rework and comparison issues for accountants and […]
Prestigious Education: What is it?
An article on Boston.com, The Triumph of Victor Valley Alums: Or why you shouldn’t sweat it if you don’t get accepted to an Ivy League school, goes into a detailed discussion on why high school seniors shouldn’t worry if they didn’t get into the absolute top tier of schools. Tom Keane, tells high school seniors […]
The Social Benefits of Dynamic Pricing versus the Equity of Price Neutrality
The assignment for this essay was to give my take on dynamic pricing, which is the practice of constantly updating a price to take into account the external and internal enivornment and situation of the buyer and seller (for instance “a soda vending machine that raises the prices as the temperature goes up”), from the […]
Internet, Say Thank You to the Telegraph
So far, the only class I can say I’ve completely uploaded is the Communications class I completed at UNC-Chapel Hill during the Spring 2006 semester. The class analyzed the role technology had on improving modern communications and vice versa. The class starts by discussing the telegraph and how it kick-started the modern communications era by […]
Turbo Tax Rap
I discovered this gem while perusing facebook today: Apparently, Intuit, the makers of Turbo Tax, are hosting a contest on YouTube for the best rap video about Turbo Tax. If you think that video is as funny as I do, please go here and vote for them. I’ve looked through some of the other entries, […]
Fracking Battlestar Galactica Withdrawal!
Aaargh…I am seriously suffering from Battlestar Galactica [BSG] withdrawal. For those of you who don’t know, BSG is a show on the SciFi Channel based on a show of the same name from 1978. BSG is, in my humble opinion, the best show on TV today. The basic storyline is that humans, living on 12 […]