- 4 groups completed trial car rental runs by 5pm Wednesday Nov 30. These trial runs were deleted on thursday noon, Dec 1. You can now play one last time for the actual profit. In this profit maximization contest, the highest profit making group will receive extra course credit. If the profits of several are close enough, multiple groups can receive extra credit of 1% of the overall grade.

- New course on "Managing Energy: Risk, Investment and Technology" (MERIT) in Spring 2012. I shall offer this interesting, time- (heard of gas revolution, smart grid, deep-drilling, photovoltaic cells?) and location- (Texas is the center of US energy sector) appropriate course. To learn more check syllabus from http://www.utdallas.edu/~metin/teaching.html.

- Group projects became due to December 2. Presentations will be on Dec 5 and 12. I hope classroom is available on Dec 12, it is being checked as of now. Six groups wanted to present on Dec 5. Their topics are Taxi fees; Apartment rent; Ocean freight fees; United postal service; North Texas Transporattion Authority and fees; Content delivery fees over Internet.

- network.pdf has been updated, see new page 17 on Nov 22. Now it provides up-to-date info on airlines that use virtual nesting and bid prices for reservation control. This new information is based on Richard Ratliff's Nov 21 guest lecture and my follow up discussion today.

- Michaels has a pricing manager position, jobid 13240; details are here

- Sep 21: To register with Universal Car Rental Game, go to http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/access/10805654 or click here. Put in the necessary information and you will be asked to pay $12.50 per registration. You can play the game in groups of 6 students. In that case, one registration per group suffices. 20% of your class participation grade (=1% of overall) will be based on this game. After registration, logon and examine the game. You can only see the "prepare" tab now and the "intro video" underneath it. You can access analyze and decide tabs later, when we move into the simulation phase.

- Welcome to DemReMan. Please read these announcements first whenever you have a question. If your question is not answered, e-mail me.

- Midterm course evaluations/suggestions: Please fill out an evaluation form and put into my office. These evaluations are just for me to improve the course before it ends.

- Course materials can be updated during the course so do not print all of them. I reserve the right to modify course notes before I discuss them. Any modification after the discussion will be announced here.

- Facebook group UTDOM is created to allow its memebers to discuss operations management (supply chain, revenue management, etc.) issues. UTDOM stands for UTD Operations Management.

- When solving a case, think of yourself as a consultant who faces the problem definition. You are to show to the company employing you that you understand the problem. Impress them with some quick computations. Then make some suggestions. If you just repeat to the company people what they already know they would not hire you anymore.

- You may want to join APICS, a US wide organization of operation management professionalls. I am told that student membership is $20/year and student members receive discounts from APICS certification tests. For more info e-mail: apicsutd@yahoo.com .

- Need counseling on effective Test Taking and Time Management, see Dr. Jennifer Hartman of UTD Student counseling center. For more info call 972.883.2575 or e-mail jhartman@utdallas.edu. General information about Counseling Center services is available at www.utdallas.edu/counseling/.

- Late hw submissions delay the process of grading and posting. Please do not submit late unless you get permission to do so. Unauthorized late submissions will be subject to grade adjustments.

- Since I have many students, I cannot possibly send personal e-mails to tell grades.

- What is the difference between notations A:=B and A=:B? You may see these rarely in the notes. A:=B means A is defined to be equal to B. A=:B means B is defined to be equal to A. In both cases, A=B. But := and =: tell us whether B existed first or A existed first. This is a kind of a chicken and egg issue. However the notation can be helpful in exposition.