Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Game Changer

1. The "Moneyball" approach was a science that took statistics and numbers from a players career and plugged them into algorithms. Mainly, they were concerned with on base percentage. During its time is was overlooked, however it proved to be one of the most important factors of the game.

2. OPB = (Hits + Walks + Hit by Pitch) / (At Bats + Walks + Hit by Pitch + Sacrifice Flies)

3. Design is a deliberate blend between art and science formulated to reach a desired intention.

4. Design Process
i. Begining scout scene when they are talking about finding new players and Billy Bean keeps bringing them back to the central point of what the original problem was.
ii. The fact that Billy first started out with acquiring three new players to make up for their lost players OBP, however then switched to completely his original idea to devising a complete makeover of the team.
iii. Through watching film, they skouted potential players for qualities that many times were overlooked. They also used it to adjust playing strategies. 
5. Leadership
- a plan or drawing produced to show the function/workings of something before it is built/made.
i. Vision & Direction
ii. Alignment/Management
iii. Commitment

6. Leadership in Moneyball
i. Billy Bean stepping up as the GM and having more interactions with his players, helping them develop.
ii. Billy Bean ignoring what skouts and critics say during meetings and firmly sticking to his proposed plan.
iii.Bean hiring Peter Brand automatically on his own gut for the best of the A's organization

7. A's Winning Record: 76 - 51

8. Winning Ratio: 1.5 to 1

9 Winning Streak: 20 wins

10. Odds of winning 20 games in a row: .0000356

11. This definitely shows that there was a science involved, because with those odds, there was no way the A's could pull off a 20 game winning streak with luck alone.

12. Billy did sometimes take advantage of the art side of management. It's seen clearly when he trades Giambi due to his outlandish behavior. Stats are very important, but if you have a wild, uncontrollable player, it could potentially hurt the team more than the benefit of his stats.

13. Moneyball was written by Michael Lewis, author of The Big Short, The New New Thing, and The Blind Side. His books all follow the theme of the evolution of a game, process, or something that is used in everyday activity or economics.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Basic Programming - ROBO Pro

Here's my ROBO Pro program that turn waits for an input, in the form of a switch in this case. Once the statement is True, the motor turns on for 3 seconds, off for 1 second, on for 4 seconds, and finally turns off as the program ends.