Well...the Wiener Of The Day - for the fourth time - is Keeper, a non-poster who hasn't even visited Wienerville in two and a half *months*. Shouldn't folks who - y'know - actually visit the site and contribute be recognized, rather that people who couldn't care less if all of Wienerville was consumed by rabid dingoes?
Steph
I'm going twenty-four hours a day...I can't seem to stop - "Turn Up The Radio", Autograph
That's five repeats (seven actually, since Keeper has the fourpeat) out of eighty-four days. So we're getting a repeat-winner approximately every twelve days. Currently the pool has 623 eligible id's to choose from. It just doesn't strike me as stastically significant that we have one aberration, that "468" happened to have gotten drawn four times.
Still, I'm redoing the process to bring it in line with the database and I'll see if there's some other way I can salt the random number generator.
This is usually the point where I remind the world that this is JUST A THROWAWAY FEATURE although it *is* one of the best damn ideas I've ever had. ;-)
Technically, it is neigh impossible to make something completely random using a computer. True randomness if *very* hard to come by. He'd be better off using dice to find the Wiener on the day (doubt he could find a dice with enough sides, though).
Well thats what makes it random. Keeper has the smae chance EVERY DAY of being the Wiener of the Day - 1 in 623. By definition, random means having no pattern. If there were no repeats, then the pattern would be that each Wiener would have his or her day before there were any repeats and that, in and of itself, would be a pattern.
As another random point, I am always telling my mom that for the lottery, the winning ticket coulod be 1-2-3-4-5-6 and she says it will never happen. But, it has the same chance of coming up as any other six numbers.
Eh.
He's Rolie Polie Olie - and in his world of curves and curls, he's the swellest kid around.
Actually, computer random number generators have a tendency to repeat themselves when reset to the beginning, unless pretty extreme measure are used to protect against it.
You're right, that in true randomness a number, even though it was just picked, will have the same chance of being picked as any other number. But, the computer doesn't have true randomness.
The point being: computers really don't make random numbers. What you are calling random, isn't really.
I'm assuming it comes from the registering order of all the wieners on the board...I guess if you REALLY want to know you could go to the wienerlist, sort the list by date registered, and start counting til you get to your name.
edit: ...and it's SOOO obvious the randomization process is more than a little bit biased, cause the top 100 ID #'s are gettin' NO love (as compared to the 100's, 200's, etc.) :-)
(edited by chuckc14 on 22.5.02 1649)
"I'm more confused than Scott Hall in a parking lot" - Joshua Grutman
Originally posted by Guru ZimMouse over your name in the post to the left. Look at the bottom of the screen where it shows you the url. ?id= followed by your number.
I'm #36! I'm #36!
And the Guru is #1. Well, he *did* design this board.
Steph
P.S. Come to notice it, everyone in this thread so far is in the top 70. Are we the wise elders of this board?
I'm going twenty-four hours a day...I can't seem to stop - "Turn Up The Radio", Autograph
As another random point, I am always telling my mom that for the lottery, the winning ticket coulod be 1-2-3-4-5-6 and she says it will never happen. But, it has the same chance of coming up as any other six numbers.
You are of course absolutely right, EXCEPT that because most lotteries are done with those spinning machines with the balls, they are not truly random either. Because it is impossible to guarantee that all of the balls used are identical, some balls will tend to be picked more often because they are heavier, lighter, shinier, smell more like Dove, more in contact with their inner Jesus, newer, older, have more paint on them, have heavier or lighter paint on them, have certain numbers on them, are closer to the moon's gravitational pull, have CAA as an agent instead of ICM or whathaveyou...
None of which is to say that the lottery companies don't try their damnedest to make the system as random as possible, but at best it simulates randomness rather than actually being random.
Heh, like anyone is gonna re-register to try to improve their Wiener of the Day chances
I don't know if it's entirely random or whether it's filtered for removed ID numbers. 2.5 months idle is a pretty short time...on muds some people idle for a year and expect their account to still be there.
And I was thinking all this time that I had never been chosen! But I have a feeling that very good feeling that soon I will be a two-time, two-time, two-time Wiener of the Day!