Mr. Haxa Does The Blogs

In Price War - Consumers Win! The 'Deadly' Battle between Malaysian Bookstores VS. Hypermarkets

DSC_0136, originally uploaded by haxa.

The last edition of Harry Potter proves to be "deadly" in the price war battle among the major bookshops vs. hypermarket in Malaysia. Apparently, on the first day sale of the book, MPH, Times, and Popular boycotted the sales and only deliver the books to those who pre-ordered.

On my shopping spree yesterday, the Harry Potter book was one on my list and when asked the sweet book-consultant-cum-cashier at Borders, The Curve; I was told that the adult edition (as you see in the photo) is out of stock as they are already pre-ordered. She quoted me the price of RM109.90! I was told that the children edition which is also in hardcover only with cartoon front cover is still available, but I was not interested.

So, when we were at TESCO during grocery shopping, there were few more books on the shelf. I quickly grabbed one as I noticed that I have to only pay RM69.90 for a copy!

I also chatted with some aunties who were asking me about the two different covers. I told them about the adult and kiddie version and they informed me about the whole price war that made it in the news.

It turned out that hypermarkets such as TESCO and Carrefour are joining the fray in grabbing Harry Potter last-book-global-mania and passing the cost savings to consumers by selling it only at RM69.90. MPH went further by canceling all events on the book sales.

This is a good lesson for all these greedy bookstores. For so many years, Malaysians have been deprived of good books at best price as  they are charging us at exorbitant price. This price war is an indication that perhaps TESCO and Carrefour might shelf more books in their stores, which only means that we as consumers can buy more books! Perhaps I should boycott some of these bookstores!

Technosexual

Definition:
Men who get excited with new technologies or new functionalities and have strong sense of aesthetics.

Source:
Death by PowerPoint: A Modern Office Survival Guide , Michael Flocker 

Nine Books For Reading

DSC_0523a, originally uploaded by haxa.

Nine books I've recently purchased that I've read half through or haven't started at all. Here are some notes and previews:

1. Veronika Decides to Die
Perhaps this is one of Paulo Coelho's most depressing novels.

2. The Truth About Markets: Why Some Nations are Rich, but Most Remain Poor
Another economic book I bought to understand market economy and the have vs. have-not. Author: John Kay.

3. Seeing What's Next: Using the Theories of Innovation to Predict Industry Change
Clayton Christiansen co-authors with Anthony and Roth after his groundbreaking innovation theory in disruptive innovation from his successful book, The Innovator's Dilemma.

Part I of this book focuses on how to use theory to do your predictive analysis. in Part II, the authors applies these theories to predict the next changes in education, aviation, semiconductors, health care, corporate and country strategies, and telecommunications.

4. The World Is Flat: The Globalized World in The Twenty-First Century
Thomas Friedman definitely has got a lot to say about the flatteners that are flattening the globalized world. A great book to read to understand the current and future trends in economics and technologies. Lots of discussion on the emergence of new economic forces, India and China.

5. Death by PowerPoint: A Modern Office Survival Guide
Go read this book and you'll definitely identify your colleagues to the different characteristics Michael Flocker describe in this hilarious yet useful guide.

There are some useful descriptions of corporate lingo (e.g. circle back, engineering synergy, bridging synergy, drill down, mandatory fun), politics (perception,reality), etiqutte (e-mails, presentation), and others.

6. Desperately Seeking Paradise: Journeys of a Skeptical Muslim
I'm still in the first couple of chapters in Ziauddin Sardar's memoir of journey in Islam in the late 20th century and the new millennium. I'm still at the part where Sardar left the Tabligh group with Sister Sofia and returned home.

I can't wait to continue finishing this exciting book as Sardar tells his stories and views from his extensive travels to Iran, Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, and Turkey to name a few.

7. A Perfect Spy
After watching The Constant Garderner, I thought I should read John Le Carre's books. I haven't started on this book although I bought it few months back.

8. Everything Bad Is Good For You: Why Popular Culture is Making Us Smarter
You know this is a good book social commentary book when Malcolm Gladwell calls it 'Wonderfully Entertaining'. Steven Johnson will convince you that popular culture is making us more intelligent.

I like the chapter where he explores the multi-billion gaming industry - e.g. what makes people spend lots of money buying cheat sheet and spend hours of times getting from one level to another in video/PC/online gaming.

9. Making Globalization Work
I read Joseph Stiglitz's Globalization and Its Discontents during my MBA days and I'm a big fan of his ideas. Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize-winning economist lays out the process of reforming globalization after his widely accepted analysis (promise and perils) of globalization in his earlier book.

Review: T. R. Reid's The United States Of Europe: From Euro to Eurovision - The Superpower Nobody Talks About (Paperback)

I was at the Queensbay Mall last Thursday browsing book shelves at Borders looking for new literatures to buy to take advantage of the Borders' Citibank's card holders 15% discount for 2 books. At first I wanted to get some books related to work, but they were just too expensive and frankly, they were quite dry.

There's nothing on non-fiction or self-help that interest me and I can't be bothered about getting-rich-making-wealth books So, I went to my favorite subject - economics! I found Charles Wheelan's Naked Economics: Undressing Dismal Science - another interesting book which I just started reading last evening after finishing the other book.

So back at Borders; after finished browsing the economics section, I browsed the political science section - and I found the book that I really caught my attention and by grabbing my attention, I mean I'd actually finished reading it during the weekend. I read it in bed, in between finishing my work projects, and at Starbucks too!

T. R. Reid's The United States Of Europe: From Euro to Eurovision - The Superpower Nobody Talks About (paperback) is a must read on getting perspectives on how the world is now dominated "softly" by the European Union. In contrast to American "hard" approach through war, Europe send more troops for peace keeping missions, actually donates for money to development funds worldwide, and control (more seats = more votes) most of the important world bodies (such as International Telecommunications Union, G7, Kyoto Protocol, etc).

There were movements in the post-war's WWI, WWII, and Cold War to unite the whole continent but there were too much pain from war that it was hard to make any progress on the political integration front. So, the brilliance of Jean Monnet (of Cognac - photo here from Wikipedia) who architect cooperation in the steel industry (European Coal and Steel Community) proving that trade and economics actually work especially when most nations are redeveloping themselves after ruins of war. The development plan to aid post-war development such as Marshall Plan as well as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) were also borne out of these decades of continent rebuilding.

Throughout the years, shift of world bipolar power to a unipolar world controlled by the America made it much more sense for the integration to take on political, economical, business, and cultural integration. Thus, borne the idea of European Union and in a major step towards trade/economic integration; the introduction of new currency Euro.

Reid being the Washington Post's correspondent in London highlighted first person experience of the new currency - Euro. How hard it was for the different nations to leave their long used currency, how logistic nightmare it was to made the transition to new money on midnight of January 1 2002 at all ATM machines and stores, how interesting it was to design the new currency look and feel, and importantly how to make people really aware that world's biggest currency conversion at continental scale is going to take place.

The conversion was highly successful and years after the introduction the Euro has significantly appreciated against the dollars.

" Since its introduction, the euro has been the second most widely-held international reserve currency after the US dollar. The euro inherited this status from the German Mark, and since its introduction, has increased its standing considerably, mostly at the expense of the dollar. " - Wikipedia entry on Euro

The placement of EU in Brussels in Belgium was very symbolic for through many centuries of war in Europe, Belgium has always been the important battleground in many of the conquest. Brussels is also the headquarters to North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).

BBC country profile on Belgium concludes this about Brussels "Thus, it is the polyglot home of an army of international diplomats and civil servants." (Photo: American.edu)

T.R. Reid also wittily explores the cultural differences between European and the American. American-bashing is a favorite pastime in Europe that London's West End production of Jerry Springer: The Opera was a sold out! There's a British show that portray an American family of fat-loud husband and wife who only agree on thing such as gun. The French also have polls and track the index of their perception towards the Yankees. You can bet that anti-Bushism and anti-Iraq war don't make America very popular in the Europe.

Reid also writes on the new Generation E, thirty-something post-war European who are now living borderless and tariff-free-zone continent. Travel and trade are now made borderless as you can pass from one country to another without stop at borders for immigration check due to uniformity in customs law and border sharing. Also to note is the massive line of fast speed trains, tunnels, bridges, highways that interconnect the whole Europe. This generation travel easily and could go study, live, and work in another countries giving them the true sense of European identity. An example quoted in the book is a Polish who went to a French university and now work and live in England.

This is also the generation that celebrates the Europe Day on May 9th and enjoy Eurovision, a singing competition that bring us Abba and Celine Dion.

For a different take on cultural perspective, enjoy the following excerpt from the book (as available on the Penguin's website)

Let's conjure up a typical American couple—we'll call them Bill and Betty Yankee, of Syracuse, New York—heading out on a summer weekend for a typical American vacation. It will be a short vacation, compared to European-style holidays (as we'll see in chapter 6), because the Yankees are typically hardworking Americans who rarely take more than a few days off at a time. The Yankees plan to leave Friday and make a road trip to visit their son Bob in Chicago. They'll spend one night at Bob's place, and then set out early Sunday for the long drive home. They want to be back home in time for work Monday morning.

Bill is a maintenance man at Niagara Mohawk Power Corp., the electric utility serving about 1.5 million customers across upstate New York. Betty is a sales clerk at Casual Corner in the Syracuse Mall. Frankly, the couple is a little stretched at the moment, but they both badly need a break, so Betty has gone to the Household Finance outlet in the mall for a $750 loan. The day before the trip, Bill takes the family Jeep into Jiffy Lube for an oil change and then fills the tank at the Amoco station down the street. Early Friday morning, they pop a Dave Matthews CD into the car stereo, stop at Dunkin’ Donuts for breakfast—Betty skips the doughnut and sips a can of Super Slim Fast instead—and then start driving west. Except for another fuel stop, this time at a Texaco station, they stay on the road most of the day, snacking on Baby Ruth, Power Bars, and various flavors of Snapple. To keep their dog Yank happy on the road, Bill has a few cans of Alpo in the back seat.

After a long drive, the couple stops for the night at a Holiday Inn. Bill has a Miller Lite and smokes a couple of Lucky Strikes to soothe his nerves. Betty, a fan of historic fiction, curls up with a bottle of 7Up and a great new novel by Helen Scully that she ordered from the Literary Guild. The next morning, they fill the tank at a Shell station and drive on to Chicago. Betty doesn't let Bill smoke in the car, so he chews a wad of Bazooka bubble gum instead. As they approach the city, Betty calls Bob on her cell phone—both mother and son use the Verizon network, so the call is free—to say that they'll soon arrive.

At their son's house, the Yankees present the gifts they've brought along—a new Brooks Brothers necktie for Bob and a pair of Ray-Bans for his wife, Barb. Barb, a copywriter at the Leo Burnett advertising agency, proudly shows a portfolio of the new ad series she has created for her chief client, Dial Soap. Barb had to work that Friday, so she didn't have time to make dinner; instead, she pops a few Lean Cuisines into the oven. It's not fancy, but she does offer three different flavors of Ben & Jerry's for dessert.

After a pleasant Sunday morning with their son and daughter-in-law—Bob is excited because his newspaper, the Chicago Sun-Times, has run his story on the front page—Bill and Betty set out for the trip home. They gas up at a Total station and drop in at a Stop &. Shop to buy a couple of big bottles of Dr Pepper for the long drive. Unfortunately, the traffic is heavy, and it becomes obvious the Yankees are not going to get home at any decent hour that Sunday. So they stop at a Travelodge and watch part of A Beautiful Mind on pay-per-view before they drift off to sleep. Well before dawn the next morning, they set off again and made it back to Syracuse in time to go to work.

It all sounds like a thoroughly American vacation, full of American places, products, and services. In fact, this long weekend was about as American as apple strudel. Despite the familiar American brand names, just about every product and service the Yankee family bought or used on this trip came from European-owned companies.

The scenario above is very revealing at how European conglomerates as new breed of entrepreneurs are owning lots of recognizable brands in the world; 7-Up, Red Bull, The New York Post, Leo Burnett, BMG, to name a few.

If you have been reading business news since late 1990's you'd notice Microsoft anti-trust battle with the EU Trade Commission, Jack Welch's failed attempt in GE takeover on Honeywell, as well as AMD-Intel anti-trust legal battle that's going on right now. These events are very important to note that American businesses now have to comply with the EU standards ranging from competitiveness, metric systems, Genetically Modified food, to environmental.

Microsoft had to rewrite Windows code to conform to EU guideline. Jack Welch learned the hard lesson that in order to leverage on lucrative European market, the American business community have to listen what the EU Trade Commission is saying. Apparently, there are lots of American lobbyists now opening offices in Brussels.

There is a chapter discussing capability gap, i.e. military. I won't go in detail about that here but it's very interesting to note the American and the European point of view on Europe's small defense budget in NATO:

    American: "We are the cook and the Europeans are the dish washer"
    European: "Americans are war-maker and we the peace-maker.

One important section that you might want focus on if you have plan migrating to the Europe is the social system comparison. European VAT ranges from 17% to 25% on every purchase you made. The tax rate is so high that Bjorn Bork transfer his assets to his residence in Monaco to escape high Swedish tax rate during his successful tennis career.

What's beautiful about this tax model is that the citizens enjoy free education, social benefits, free medical (and hospitalization), good transporation systems, parental benefits, as well as unemployment benefits. Reid makes a startling comparison to his daughter blood test in the US for her school - it cost her $95 when it'd have been free in the Europe. This European social system is an important identity to the Europeans and they are very proud of it.

I have to praise Raid for his work on this book makes me much informed about contemporary post-war Europe. You not only learn a lot about economics in this book but also political science, history, and culture. It's enriching, satisfying, and eye opening. We need a bipolar world  because American unipolar is bad for the world and bad for the American too.

There are other parts of the book that I don't want to review here and that's for you to find out. Do tell me what you think about this book. I also recommend that you read Wikipedia entry on European Union.

Paulo Coelho's The Zahir on The Difference Between Watching a Porn Movie and Making Love

I find this paragraph from Paulo Coelho's The Zahir (A Novel of Obsession) so amusing! This is the first time I'm reading Paulo's work and I can't wait to go to BORDERS again and get the paperback version of The Alchemist. Warner Brothers Studio is currently producing The Alchemist movie!

Here's the paragraph from The Zahir on whether you are the kind of person who enjoys spotlights or the entire experience:

"Look at them," I said, because I needed to talk about something, afraid that he might get bored and go home. "They only see what the spotlights show them. When they go home, they'll say they know Paris. Tomorrow, they'll go and see the Mona Lisa and claim they've visited the Louvre. But they don't know Paris and have never really been to the Louvre. All they did was go on a boat and look at a painting, one painting, instead of looking at a whole city and trying to find out what's happening in it, visiting the bars, going down streets that don't appear in any of the tourist guides, and getting lost in order to find themselves again. It's the difference between watching a porn movie and making love."

So, what kind of traveler are you?

Review: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

I am about done with Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (EHM) after reading it on a lovely Friday evening over Chicken Curry Noodle (with hot Chinese tea) and sipping my all time favorite, Caramel Macchiato at the new Queensbay Mall in Penang. There are two Starbucks within this mall - each at North and South Zone. I was in the Starbucks inside BORDERS. This Starbucks has few comfy sofas seated by the glass wall that overlook Pulau Jerejak and the nasty traffic on Penang Bridge on Friday evening.

I have been longing to read Thomas L. Friedman's The World Is Flat, and it seems like the perfect reading after John Perkin's Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. It'll transition you from Perkin's American corporatocracy imperialism 1963-present day to Friedman's award winning book talking about new form colonization of ideology, i.e. globalization.

In EHM, a tell-all first account experience; John brings us to his early childhood, youthful rebellious years to his interview with NSA, and later into Chas T. Main, Inc. (MAIN) - a consulting firm where spent many years of his life as economist, partner, and later Chief Economists.

Throughout his career, John had traveled to work in countries of strategic long term economic value to the United States. Yes, we are talking mostly about the black-gold-energy rush here. It was John job to forecast energy demand in developing countries such as Ecuador, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Panama to justify American loan and infrastructure-engineering construction. Equipped with complex tools such as econometrics model, economics data and statistics can be manipulated and skewed for inflating the forecast numbers.

His work is essential into inking agreements with these government that'd see major infrastructure development such as dam, electric dams, pipelines, etc. and forcing them to leverage on American banks loans and rewarding billion dollars contracts to engineering and construction firms.

" In essence, most of the money never leaves the United States; it is simply transferred from banking offices in Washington to engineering offices in New York, Houston, or San Francisco. "

Consequently, large amount of loans coupled with high interest rates only position these nations into servicing large amount of debts that accumulates over the years.

Unlike other MAIN economists, John is well mixed with the government leaders and locals. John came to symphatize the position of insurgence and hatred towards America form of imperialism that's coming to their nations; and interesting characters such as Rasy, Fidel, Paula, Yamin, came into play.

Perhaps my favorite part of this book is its historical important conflicts that are well told by John. It was almost like learning World Conflict 1963-Present Day 101. I learned a great deal about charatecters, ideologies, and conflicts that led to death, installment of puppets, wars, etc:

1. Sukarno-Suharto power transfer in Indonesia,
2. Panama's nationalist General Omar Torrijos that led to his plane crash death,
3. Saudi Arabia's House of Saud's Prince W.,
4. Iran's Shah of Shahs (King of Kings),
5. Ecuador's Jaime Roldos Aguilera
6. Iraq's Saddam Hussein
7. Venezuela's Hugo Chavez
8. America's transition from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan's Hollywood-CIA era, to George H. W. Bush, and to present day George W. Bush

Through meetings, acquaintances, friendships, and correspondence,; John came to realization his dilemma being in the middle position of his founding father's Tom Paine revolution ideology and the new corporatracy imperialism movement. Thus, making his decision to quit MAIN, focusing his energy to building new form of coal energy production, later working in another consulting firm, and finally decided to start writing book to tell his experience to the world.

John narrative spy-like style writing of these encounters make this an interesting reading. This book is a must-read non-fiction work. I can visualize this book becoming a film (the like of Lord of War) with the elements of economist James Bond and whiz-kid Forrest Gump.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand all the conflicts above and connecting the dots that matter.

Economic Hit Man = Ah Long ?

I spent the entire Sunday afternoon at my neighborhood Starbucks reading the paperback version of John Perkin's Confessions of an Economic Hit Man over the Toffee Nut Latte. 

What amuses me when reading this book is that when I read The Sunday Times, which featured some articles on Ah Long; I can't help but noticing the resemblance between the micro (Ah Long) and macro (Economic Hit Man, EHM) version of loan shark.

Here's a couple of paragraphs from the book's prologue describing what EHM does.

" That is what we EHMs do best: we build a global empire. We are an elite group of men and women who utilize international financial organizations to foment conditions that make other nations subservient to the corporatocracy that runs our biggest corporations, our government, and our banks. Like our counterparts in the Mafia, we provide favors.

These take the form of loans to develop infrastructure—electric generating plants, highways, ports, airports, or industrial parks. One condition of such loans is that engineering and construction companies from our own country must build all these projects. In essence, most of the money never leaves the United States; it is simply transferred from banking offices in Washington to engineering offices in New York, Houston, or San Francisco."

Can you imagine the extend of chaos if Ah Long dictates the entire business chain; for example dictating business borrowers' source of raw materials, etc!

Here's en excerpt from the book.

The New Starbucks On The Block --- How Federer US Open Victory Inspires My Table-Tennis Game! - And Hermione's Lee Biography of Virgina Woolf

Starbucks recently opened up a new outlet nearby my place. I have been to most Starbucks in Kuala Lumpur (KL) and nothing beats this one. It is at the very corner of e-Gate, the three-storey white building you'll see on the first left turn after you exit the Penang Bridge.

I got here right after I finished few good sets of table-tennis game with a colleague. I think watching Federer winning his 6th Grand Slam has given me some inspirations and tips on table-tennis, particularly in the semi-final game against Hewitt. Maybe I start digging the Net and study Jan-Ove Waldner's techniques and improve my game.  

Well, let's get to the review of the new Starbucks joint.

Most part of this cafe flooring is wooden. Some parts are carpeted. The furniture is rich. The ambiance offers you something better that you get the sea view. The best you get in KL is the KLCC Starbucks that offers you the view of the  park and the fountain.

I was told that this Starbucks is designed on entirely different concepts by the headquarter. And in the spirit of Chinese mid autumn festival, there are lanterns on the ceiling, which I think kind neat, but too pretentious. They should have put on lanterns with the famous Starbucks logo on it. Oh well!

The store is running trial opening hours is from 6am - 11pm on weekdays, and 8am - 12midnight in the weekends.

I had my hot caramel macchiato in venti and had the dessert, raspberry sugared donut, which I thought was too sweet!

And not to forget, the barristas here are friendly! On the downside, Wi-Fi is yet to be made available and for once, my caramel macchiato caramel syrup deco on the foam was totally screwed up! I hate it when that happens. Anyway, I enjoyed my first time there and was surprised by a familiar face who greeted me on her way out.

And it's always nice to have a good book at a nice place as this one. And Hermione Lee's biography of Virginia Woolf is a great read. I never did English literature and got to know of Woolf through Nicole Kidman's award winning role of her in The Hour. To me, it is by far one of Kidman's memorable performances, particularly the opening scene.

In all, I should make it a point to not frequent Starbucks too often! I was in KL fortnight ago and went to 4 different Starbucks for the drink and Wi-Fi. I should finish on my books and my mags!  I am also thinking of competing in a couple of table-tennis games soon!

To a friend who is warded in the hospital right now, I hope you will recover soon.

Reading List: Vanity Fair, GQ, Learning technology blogs, DaVinci Code, Friedman

At the top three level of Bloom taxonomy, we find analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. After reviewing some literatures on how decontexualizing learning objects contradicts the recent decade new models and theories of how important it is to add depth and context to content, the RLO concept, especially to achieve the above mentioned taxonomies; may require some fine tuning.

And there goes my new hunt for reading list and questions to pop out in some of the forums I attend or perhaps create asynchronous communication with some of the education technologist blogger out there.

And talking about reading, thanks to George for popping out the question of what’s on my reading list of late. I responded the May edition of Vanity Fair and the DaVinci Code which I should finish reading it before the movie comes out. And, oh there are other reading stuff too besides all the daily dose of news syndication, columns, articles, blogs, and aggregators.

And the article that I found most exciting lately is the GQ April 2005 article in the Intelligence section. It highlight some of the applications of learning theories on to how you could chunk some critical information, e.g. significant other’s phone number, birthday, etc.

I should get back to my reading now. And to George, do give me some overview on the Friedman’s Lexus and Olive Tree book soon, ya!

Review: Statistical Analysis Simplified

Statistical Analysis Simplified - The Easy-to-Understand Guide to Statistical Process Control (SPC) and Data Analysis

One of my favorite subject in college was Statistic & Probability. It gave me the break from electronic diagrams, drawings, and drills; and walking down the campus towards the other end in the early winter morning around those national preserved trees while observing others passing by with thier JanSport backpack, NorthFace sweater, hot black coffee, with bagel or the Del Monte banana they bought from the cafeteria; are memorable.

The class was huge; and Jennifer, my lab partner was there too. Wonder what is up with Jenn now. A pretty Californian girl, she's a great working partner. I could still remember working with her in the lab where everywhere I touched, I got static, especially during fall. It's like OUCH! when I open the door knob, and OUCH when I try to remove the chair. For one, it has got to do with dried bare hands together with the cold dry air, and this what I found, some of the PC casings in the lab were bare, thus expose some capacitance into the surroundings.

Back from Thanksgiving break, we both spent days and nights catching up on our VLSI project, where all we could care of was the tiny lines drawn from one end to another in our effort to build the best encryption chip on campus!

And in the very first Statistics class, the lecturer who was the author of the text book that we were using for the class, posted this very intriguing question, and I can still remember it until today

"What is the odd that the air you breath in now contain the last breath of Alexander The Great when he died?"

Whoa! It was the best start to any class I ever sat in my life. Sadly, I'd forgotten the details calculation, but he sure know all the odds of the exhaled breath staying in the air and lots of other numbers! And at the end it was like somewhere in the probability of 10E-30. After that, I wonder whose breath that I inhale!

Since then, I hardly read up statistics until my Operations Management module. Though, Dr. Lee didn't emphasize on calculation, the thoughts of revisiting bell curves, only this time with deeper understanding in understanding patterns, relationships, characterization, judgement, and sefulness in reducing or eliminating variabilities in processes and production; really turned me on. And what other book provide you simplistic statistical analysis than James Harrington's et. al (Harrington, Hoffherr, & Reid).

According to Harrington et. al, we can view all the the things we do from these three points of view:

a. Direction Setting b. Planning c. Doing

And subsequently, you can use this MAD rule, Measure, Analyze, Do! that was developed by creative mind of Robert Reid while working in a chemical plant. Reid says, "there should be no process without meaningful measurement and recording, no recording without analysis, and no analysis without corrective action". These rules build up the rest of the book content.

True to its title: Statistical Analysis Simplified, this books provide to an easy reference to:

a. differences and ways to measure variable and attribute
b. some important quotes of the likes of Deming
c. simple English explaination of statistical terms like the differences among spread, precision, accuracy
d. source of variation, its measures
e. looking patterns and understand what they mean, i.e.
i. Normal with Defects
ii. Ansolute Limits
iii. Bimodal with Defects
iv. Cut off at Limit
v. Centered within Limits
vi. Gaptoothed
vii. Centered with Defects
viii. Bimodal with Limits
ix. Off Center out of Limits
x. Dual Distribution
vi. Flinching
xii. Heart Cut
f. understanding the characterization of means, std. dev., variation, accuracy, precision
g. looking at trends, e.g. Run Chart 7-7-1 Rule
h. making judgment and decisionusing the Control Chart that is ubiqutiously used in manufacturing plants
i. making use of the data and analysis towards meeting customer needs
j. getting new insights through experimentation process through explanation on the methodologies
k. stratificating data by either combining them or seperating them
l. understanding relationships by identifying cause and effect through interpretation of scatter diagram
m. implementing analysis, particularly by using them in organization, such as for executive overview, mgt. awareness seminar, needs assessment meeting, assignment meeting, statistical process improvement program, pilot program, and associate training sessions, and
n. some fun games at the end of chapter that will test your understanding!

To me, this book has given me the insights into the use of statistical process and analysis for the use of organization. There much to be reaped and leveraged from these analysis. Successful firms put a heavy emphasis on it particularly for the goal of becoming a quality organization. Most importantly, this reading provides me with a solid background to understanding Six Sigma.

Kudos to Harrington who has taught me that getting MAD is OK ;-)