Think about this way: You give me $5 and I give you a pair of dice. You have two opportunities to roll a pair of sixes, upon which I will pay you $30. Is it a good bet? Now, you have two choices: either we can increase the payoff (how much?) or the number of attempts you are allowed (how many?) What does it take to make it a good bet?
--- Greg Woodhouse <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > A good mathematical model (at least for starters) might be to think > about expectation values for random variables. Have you ever gone to > the store and wondered what line to stand in? I remember recently > looking at two lines: one quite long, but full of people with > comparatively few items, and one much shorter, but with at least one > person having many items. Which is preferable? > > > --- Nancy Anthracite <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > You are so right. You might be able to stick a dollar amount on > > money saved > > on maintaining and finding paper records, but how can you put a > > dollar amount > > on having a machine double check your orders for drug interactions, > > always > > having that chart at your fingertips, etc. > > > > "Priceless" for an answer probably won't hack it. > > > > On Tuesday 20 September 2005 03:45 pm, Christoph Guenther wrote: > > Yes, I realize that there is a benefits as well as cost side of > this. > > So > > then the question becomes whether you can lower the costs > > sufficiently > > for the benefits to outweigh the costs. That in turn assumes that > > benefits and costs can be quantified in some way. Has anyone ever > > done this? > > > > My gut feeling is that it is easier to quantify the costs (or at > > least > > get an estimate on the lower bound of those costs) then to quantify > > the > > benefits. After all, I can say that depending on the environment, I > > will > > probably have to spend at least so and so much money on hardware, > > software licensing, installation, support, training, etc. > > Getting a dollar amount for the benefits seems to be much more > > difficult > > since in my mind those benefits are much less well-defined. > > > > Christoph > > > > Greg Woodhouse wrote: > > >How about lowering the barriers to entry? There is a cost as well > as > > a > > >benefit side, too > > > > > >--- Christoph Guenther <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > >>What's the way out of this conundrum? > > > > > >=== > > >Gregory Woodhouse <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > > > > > > > > > >"Without the requirement of mathematical aesthetics a great many > > discoveries > > > would not have been made." > > > > > >-- Albert Einstein > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >------------------------------------------------------- > > >SF.Net email is sponsored by: > > >Tame your development challenges with Apache's Geronimo App > Server. > > Download > > >it for free - -and be entered to win a 42" plasma tv or your very > > own > > >Sony(tm)PSP. Click here to play: > > http://sourceforge.net/geronimo.php > > >_______________________________________________ > > >Hardhats-members mailing list > > >Hardhats-members@lists.sourceforge.net > > >https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members > > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > > SF.Net email is sponsored by: > > Tame your development challenges with Apache's Geronimo App Server. > > Download > > it for free - -and be entered to win a 42" plasma tv or your very > own > > Sony(tm)PSP. Click here to play: > http://sourceforge.net/geronimo.php > > _______________________________________________ > > Hardhats-members mailing list > > Hardhats-members@lists.sourceforge.net > > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members > > > > -- > > Nancy Anthracite > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > > SF.Net email is sponsored by: > > Tame your development challenges with Apache's Geronimo App Server. > > Download > > it for free - -and be entered to win a 42" plasma tv or your very > own > > Sony(tm)PSP. Click here to play: > http://sourceforge.net/geronimo.php > > _______________________________________________ > > Hardhats-members mailing list > > Hardhats-members@lists.sourceforge.net > > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members > > > > > > === > Gregory Woodhouse <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > > "Without the requirement of mathematical aesthetics a great many > discoveries would not have been made." > > -- Albert Einstein > > > > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > SF.Net email is sponsored by: > Tame your development challenges with Apache's Geronimo App Server. > Download > it for free - -and be entered to win a 42" plasma tv or your very own > Sony(tm)PSP. Click here to play: http://sourceforge.net/geronimo.php > _______________________________________________ > Hardhats-members mailing list > Hardhats-members@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members > === Gregory Woodhouse <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> "Without the requirement of mathematical aesthetics a great many discoveries would not have been made." -- Albert Einstein ------------------------------------------------------- SF.Net email is sponsored by: Tame your development challenges with Apache's Geronimo App Server. Download it for free - -and be entered to win a 42" plasma tv or your very own Sony(tm)PSP. Click here to play: http://sourceforge.net/geronimo.php _______________________________________________ Hardhats-members mailing list Hardhats-members@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members
