Thursday, April 16, 2009

fundamental

"The probability that decision maker n chooses alternative i from choice set Jn (labeled Pin) depends on the observed characteristics of alternative i compared with all other alternatives (i.e., on zin relative to all zjn for j in Jn, j != i) and on the observed characteristics of the decisionmaker (sn)."

Friday, April 3, 2009

great text by dreyfus and law...

"...to solve a problem by means of dynamic programming we choose the arguments of the optimal value function and define that function in such a way as to allow the use of the principle of optimality to write a recurrence relation. Starting with the boundary conditions, we then use the recurrent relation to determine concurrently the optimal value and policy functions. When the optimal value and decision are known for the value of the argument that represents the original whole problem, the solution is completed and the best path can be traced out using the optimal policy function alone."

they definitely don't make them like this anymore.