Table Tennis or Foosball - Chess or Checkers

Greetings:

October Rules Fest is pretty much an "All Rules All The Time" kind of place. But, some folks need a bit of respite from constantly being bombarded with this or that technical feature of which rulebased system and its importance and just need something to relax. Something that is not getting drunk at one of the many local bars or hanging out at in the restaurant trying to stay awake because the geek on the other side of the table just runs on and on and on and...

So! We added two polls on the left side of this page. One is whether you would like to have Foosball or Table Tennis at ORF 2009. The other asks if you would like Chess or Checkers at ORF 2009. If (and only if) you plan on attending October Rules Fest 2009, and you actually care about either one of these activities, please vote on which one. If you think that things like Table Tennis (sometimes called Ping Pong) and Foosball are totally unprofessional at a conference such as ORF, then vote for neither. On the other hand, if you believe that that these are compatible with any conference, then please for one or the other or both. If we get enough interested, then maybe we could arrange some kind of tournament in the evenings.

Most of all, I would appreciate your comments on this subject. Yes (and why) or no (and why). Personally, I like both TT and Chess so I voted for those two.

SDG

jco

ORF 2009 Super Early Bird Discount Extension

Greetings:

October Rules Fest 2009 has extended the Super Early Bird discount of 20% off of normal registration fees to midnight, June 6th, 2009. Regular registration is $500 so that represents $100 savings. If you have any questions, check out http://www.OctoberRulesFest.org for more info on speakers, agenda, etc. The hotel should be determined not later than Friday of this week, June 5th. Anyway, be SURE to register THIS WEEK to get the best savings. :-)

With parking at ANY hotel in downtown Dallas being astronomical (cheaper than New York, San Francisco, London or Paris though) it might be more economical to park-and-ride. There will be directions on the ORF web page at a later date about how to do that.

SDG
jco

October Rules Fest 2009

Greetings:

Well, ORF 2009 is ready to rock and roll in downtown Dallas again, only this year the conference will be in the center of the downtown Dallas restaurant district rather than on the outskirts like last year. Just point your Google Earth to 1400 Commerce Street in downtown Dallas and you'll see what I mean. Everything from MacDonald's to The French Room to the "ultra cool" Fuse restaurant. After we check them out, the ORF web site have an ever-expanding list of top (not necessarily expensive) restaurants within a two- or three-block walking radius.

We won't have the same space as last year so, counting the 30+ speakers that we will have, there will be room for only about 170 attendees - first come first served. So, register early and you will still get your 20% discount. There is still no extra charge for tutorials if you are attending the conference and this year's tutorial have a great line up. As a matter of fact, the entire agenda is great. As you can see from the speaker bios those who are returning and the new speakers for this year are strictly "top drawer" - the best of the best.

If your company is interested in becoming a sponsor, contact info@OctoberRulesFest.org and let them know. Again, remember that there is room this year for only 170 attendees. Maybe 180, but that's about it. More on the hotel as it develops but it is down to a choice of only two really great hotels for the same price as last year - but more goodies.

So, register early and ensure that you have a great spot at the Second Annual October Rules Fest. Most of all, like last year, we're going to have FUN and we're going to enjoy ourselves.

SDG

jco

Data for Manners 2009

Greetings:

OK, here it is.  As you can see, we have to possibility of adding some complexity regarding the teachers and socialites.  BUT, we'll do that only if the times are extremely low.

==============================

Num,Profession,SubProf,Gender,Hobby1,Hobby2,Hobby3

-------------------------------------------

1,Politician,Democrat,F,4,1,2

2,Politician,Democrat,F,1,2,4

3,Politician,Democrat,F,5,1,3

4,Politician,Democrat,F,3,4,2

5,Politician,Democrat,F,2,5,3

6,Politician,Democrat,F,4,3,5

7,Politician,Democrat,M,4,1,2

8,Politician,Democrat,M,4,1,3

9,Politician,Democrat,M,2,3,4

10,Politician,Democrat,M,1,2,4

11,Politician,Democrat,M,5,3,1

12,Politician,Democrat,M,4,3,5

13,Politician,Republican,F,3,4,2

14,Politician,Republican,F,3,5,4

15,Politician,Republican,F,3,1,4

16,Politician,Republican,F,1,3,4

17,Politician,Republican,F,2,4,3

18,Politician,Republican,F,4,1,5

19,Politician,Republican,M,1,3,2

20,Politician,Republican,M,5,3,4

21,Politician,Republican,M,5,4,2

22,Politician,Republican,M,2,3,1

23,Politician,Republican,M,2,4,1

24,Politician,Republican,M,4,5,1

25,Doctor,Pediatrician,F,3,4,1

26,Doctor,Pediatrician,F,2,5,3

27,Doctor,Pediatrician,F,2,5,3

28,Doctor,Pediatrician,F,1,3,5

29,Doctor,Pediatrician,F,1,2,3

30,Doctor,Pediatrician,F,1,1,5

31,Doctor,Pediatrician,M,4,5,3

32,Doctor,Pediatrician,M,3,1,5

33,Doctor,Surgeon,F,2,3,1

34,Doctor,Surgeon,F,3,5,1

35,Doctor,Surgeon,F,5,4,1

36,Doctor,Surgeon,F,5,3,4

37,Doctor,Surgeon,M,2,4,1

38,Doctor,Surgeon,M,2,5,3

39,Doctor,Surgeon,M,4,3,2

40,Doctor,Surgeon,M,1,3,5

41,Doctor,Osteopath,F,4,3,2

42,Doctor,Osteopath,F,4,1,3

43,Doctor,Osteopath,M,5,4,1

44,Doctor,Osteopath,M,2,1,3

45,Doctor,Osteopath,M,2,5,3

46,Doctor,Osteopath,M,3,2,5

47,Doctor,Osteopath,M,5,4,3

48,Doctor,Osteopath,M,5,4,1

49,Sports,Basketball,F,1,3,5

50,Sports,Basketball,F,3,5,1

51,Sports,Basketball,F,5,1,3

52,Sports,Basketball,F,4,2,1

53,Sports,Basketball,M,2,1,4

54,Sports,Basketball,M,5,1,4

55,Sports,Basketball,M,4,5,1

56,Sports,Basketball,M,3,5,2

57,Sports,Football,M,4,3,2

58,Sports,Football,M,3,2,4

59,Sports,Football,M,5,3,2

60,Sports,Football,M,2,3,4

61,Sports,Football,M,4,1,2

62,Sports,Football,M,1,5,2

63,Sports,Football,M,3,5,1

64,Sports,Football,M,2,3,1

65,Sports,Football,M,3,4,5

66,Sports,Football,M,5,3,4

67,Sports,Football,M,2,1,3

68,Sports,Football,M,2,4,3

69,Sports,Baseball,M,2,5,4

70,Sports,Baseball,M,2,3,1

71,Sports,Baseball,M,4,2,3

72,Sports,Baseball,M,3,1,4

73,Teacher,Math,F,4,5,2

74,Teacher,Math,F,3,4,2

75,Teacher,Math,M,4,4,3

76,Teacher,Math,M,2,1,3

77,Teacher,Math,M,3,5,2

78,Teacher,Math,M,5,2,3

79,Teacher,Math,M,4,2,3

80,Teacher,Math,M,1,4,3

81,Teacher,English,F,3,5,4

82,Teacher,English,F,4,3,1

83,Teacher,English,M,4,3,5

84,Teacher,English,M,1,2,3

85,Teacher,Science,F,4,2,1

86,Teacher,Science,F,3,2,1

87,Teacher,Science,M,1,3,5

88,Teacher,Science,M,1,5,3

89,Teacher,Sports,F,5,3,2

90,Teacher,Sports,F,2,5,3

91,Teacher,Sports,M,1,4,2

92,Teacher,Sports,M,1,4,5

93,Teacher,History,F,1,5,3

94,Teacher,History,F,1,3,5

95,Teacher,History,M,4,1,2

96,Teacher,History,M,4,3,2

97,Programmer,MacIntosh,F,2,4,3

98,Programmer,MacIntosh,F,4,5,1

99,Programmer,MacIntosh,F,5,3,1

100,Programmer,MacIntosh,M,2,5,3

101,Programmer,MacIntosh,M,4,1,3

102,Programmer,MacIntosh,M,5,4,3

103,Programmer,MacIntosh,M,4,3,1

104,Programmer,MacIntosh,M,1,5,4

105,Programmer,Windows,F,5,4,3

106,Programmer,Windows,F,2,4,3

107,Programmer,Windows,F,1,5,4

108,Programmer,Windows,F,2,4,5

109,Programmer,Windows,F,4,2,3

110,Programmer,Windows,F,1,3,2

111,Programmer,Windows,M,4,3,2

112,Programmer,Windows,M,3,4,1

113,Programmer,COBOL,F,4,1,3

114,Programmer,COBOL,F,5,2,1

115,Programmer,COBOL,M,2,3,4

116,Programmer,COBOL,M,2,3,5

117,Programmer,COBOL,M,4,5,1

118,Programmer,COBOL,M,3,2,5

119,Programmer,COBOL,M,2,4,5

120,Programmer,COBOL,M,4,2,1

121,Socialite,Republican,F,4,5,3

122,Socialite,Republican,F,1,3,5

123,Socialite,Republican,F,2,2,3

124,Socialite,Republican,F,1,3,5

125,Socialite,Republican,F,3,2,4

126,Socialite,Republican,F,3,2,1

127,Socialite,Democrat,F,5,2,3

128,Socialite,Democrat,F,5,4,3

129,Socialite,Democrat,F,1,5,2

130,Socialite,Democrat,F,1,4,5

131,Socialite,Democrat,F,5,4,1

132,Socialite,Democrat,F,4,1,2

133,Socialite,Democrat,F,1,3,5

134,Socialite,Democrat,F,1,4,5

135,Socialite,Democrat,F,2,5,1

136,Socialite,Democrat,F,1,4,5

137,Socialite,Democrat,F,3,4,1

138,Socialite,Democrat,F,2,5,3

139,Socialite,Republican,M,3,1,5

140,Socialite,Republican,M,1,2,3

141,Socialite,Republican,M,1,5,3

142,Socialite,Republican,M,4,2,3

143,Socialite,Democrat,M,4,1,2

144,Socialite,Democrat,M,1,5,3

----------------------------------

Benchmarking at ORF 2009

Greetings:

There have been many suggestions as to the problems for the vendors at October Rules Fest this year.  I have submitted one already (Einstein's Puzzle) and the "beginning" of another (Miss Manners 2009) but I have not done the data on the last one.  I really was hoping that an enterprise-size vendor (FICO, ILOG, Haley, Pega, ???) would find someone on staff that is not too busy and task them with this simple but time consuming job.  Didn't happen.

Geoffrey De Smet suggested that we use the benchmark problem from the ITC competition, http://www.cs.qub.ac.uk/itc2007/index.htm that had to do with Exam Registration.  On the benchmarks page they said that it was running between 300 to 500 seconds on a "modern PC using Windows XP."  I would think that 5 - 10 minutes would be a bit long for my tastes but you never can tell.  Personally I prefer old-fashioned Unix (or UNIX if you're that old) rather than Windoze or even Linux.  

I have looked at this particular problem / benchmark and it appears to be more of an Operational Research (OR) problem in optimization than a rulebase problem.  We "could" require that the solution be done in a rulebase but those who have OR engines would scream bloody murder if we did.  

However, I leave it with you in the interim to determine what should be a good rulebase problem and what does not lend itself to simple "data smashing" of a typical "business" problem.  The problem should be fairly complex and require a bit of work on the part of the engine itself rather than depending on the operating system and database to do the work.  Please either comment (or if you have authorship privileges then blog) some kind of response to this.  Whatever is decided should be a problem that is long on complexity and short on blandness.  

SDG

jco

ORF 2009 Abstracts Due in One Week

Greetings:

Short blog:  There is only one more week until the Abstracts are due for October Rules Fest 2009.  We have received about 11 or 12 right now and we have enough to do the conference with some really long session times.  :-)

BUT, we need more quality presentations.  We have five more persons that have promised abstracts by the 30th of April but we need to get those in so that the committee can review them without being too rushed.  It should not take more than five minutes or so to write up the abstract once the thought process of considering what to do and how to do it are completed.

What happens is that we should get about 30 abstracts in, cull out five or so that aren't actually applicable to the conference - although what we have so far is looking great - and then five or so will pull out before the actual white paper is due on July 1st.  After that, if the white paper has been submitted, they speakers usually complete the overheads without much of a problem.  Even if we get 30 or 40 that are good, we will have the time to present them.

So, get busy and get the abstracts submitted ASAP.  Thanks,

SDG

jco

ORF 2009 Now Accepting Registrations

Greetings:

Great News!!  You can now register and get the Early Bird Discount at http://www.OctoberRulesFest.org and click on Registration.  If you are interested in sponsoring, PLEASE fill out the for for Sponsor interest.  

Also note that we are filling up the speaker slots so if you have a talk PLEASE send that in to jco@kbsc.com ASAP.  thanks,

SDG

jco