My New Batch of Random Woot Shirts

Notch's Lottery Question

Notch ( the creator of Minecraft ) posted  an interesting lottery problem.

Lottery Question

Lottery Answer

I quickly wrote this java to help people understand the results.

package com.jsa;

import java.util.Iterator;
import java.util.Random;
import java.util.Vector;

public class test {

    final static int LOTTOSIZE = 1000000;
    final static int WINSTOP = 3;
   
    public static void main( String args[] ){
       
        Vector<Vector> wins = new Vector<Vector<Integer>>(WINSTOP);
        Vector<Integer> oneWin = new Vector<Integer>(LOTTOSIZE);
        wins.add(oneWin);
       
        Random random = new Random( System.currentTimeMillis());
       
        boolean foundXWins = false;
        int draws = 0;
        while ( ! foundXWins ){
           
            Integer winner = random.nextInt(LOTTOSIZE);
            draws++;
           
            boolean notFound = true;
            for (Iterator iterator = wins.iterator(); iterator.hasNext() && notFound ;) {
                Vector<Integer> vector = (Vector<Integer>) iterator.next();
               
                if ( vector.contains(winner) ){
                    notFound = false;
                    vector.remove(winner);
                    if ( iterator.hasNext() ){
                        vector = (Vector<Integer>) iterator.next();
                    } else {
                        vector = new Vector<Integer>(LOTTOSIZE);
                        wins.add(vector);
                        System.out.println( "Someone has just won " + wins.size() + " times, after only " + draws +" draws. " );
                    }
                    vector.add(winner);
                }
            }
            if ( notFound ){
                oneWin.add(winner);
            }
           
           
            if ( wins.size() == WINSTOP ){
                foundXWins = true;
                int nonWinners = LOTTOSIZE;
                for (int i = 0; i &tl; wins.size() ; i++ ){
                    nonWinners -= wins.get(i).size();
                }
                System.out.println( "Win Limit Reached: " + wins.size() + " wins.");
                System.out.println( "There are " + nonWinners + " who have not yet won once." );

            }
           
            if( draws %10000 == 0 || foundXWins ){
                StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
                sb.append( draws );
                sb.append( "," );
                for (int i = 0; i &tl; wins.size() ; i++ ){
                    sb.append( wins.get(i).size() );
                    sb.append( "," );
                }
                System.out.println( sb );
            }
           
        }
       
        }
   
}

Output was:

Someone has just won 2 times, after only 177 draws. 
10000,9902,49,
Someone has just won 3 times, after only 18936 draws. 
Win Limit Reached: 3 wins.
There are 981230 who have not yet won once.
18936,18605,164,1,

So in this instance it only took 18,936 draws before one of the lottery members won 3 times, and the vast majority of lottery players 981,230 had not won at all!

After running the program several times it seems like a 3 time winner will show up somewhere between 10,000 and 25,000 draws. This is quite a small number compared to the 1 mil players, Showing that It is much more likely that somebody else will win 3 times before you win once.

Cabot Cheese = Good ; Coupons.com = Bad

Cabot Cheese is giving out samples at Wegmans this weekend!
http://www.cabotcheese.coop/roadshow/index.php
That's awesome,  they have good cheese. Trish and I have even visited the factory/creamery in VT.

I 'registered' on the promise of a coupon, and was redirected to coupons.com, Which stated that I had an Unsupported browser.

They really mean OS, as I was using Chrome on Linux. It seems they want to install some Coupon App/Program to do the printing.

My guess is they are trying to prevent duplication of the coupon, but come on, if it's printed at home, any home with a scanner, or anybody with access to a library with a photocopier, has the ability to make copies off the first print.

Coupon DRM ,  really,  come on..

Random Woot Shirt Haul

Gingers! -- http://shirt.woot.com/friends.aspx?k=17764
Doctors! --  http://shirt.woot.com/friends.aspx?k=17810
! ! --

Spent most of the day outside.

Usually, that might mean one enjoyed themselves, but for me, today was all about work.

Raked Leaves
Cut the grass
Power Washed the drive way.

Then 6 hours of driveway crack filling.  Yes, 6 hours.   I used 4, 24lb buckets of Trowel fill. It was like frosting a really big cake, only not so tasty, and you have to be on your hands and knees the whole time.

Now, to wait a least week before spending another day sealing it.  Ug.

A new friend in our parsley.

We have a very small garden, and this little guy 

has eaten about half our parsley.

The web says he is a Papilio polyxenes larva of a Black swallowtail

I saw this :  http://thedailywh.at/post/571559715/obligatory-context

So i had to create this:

Obvious