Wow ! The PET and the VIC-20 -- brings back old memories. You know, for their time, those were darn good machines !

Agree the programs back then were buggy. But one back then didn't release the program chock full of bugs. The programmers used to ask selected users to Beta Test it to discover the bugs. Actually, I had a lot of fun beta-testing. Back then programmers used to often say something like Don't be afraid to hit any combination of keys you want to see if the program crashes. The programmers then realized that the program code wasn't completely smooth on first try. But they also had enough self-respect and also respect for the potential users not to rush it out for use.

And these were utility prgrams, WP programs, etc; not vital programs like an OS ! Seems like every week I'm being informed I have a new security patch to install for WIN XP here. That's really shoddy ! If you have an OS, and basically a monopoly on it, and a browser that is basically a monopoly (since I've run into sites where the pages won't fully recognize any other browser but IE whether I want to use it or not) then gol darn it, don't release it so full of holes ! MS has more than enough financial resources to do it right ; not as if their employees or Bill is/are going to not be able to buy groceries this week if they don't rush it right out there.  Perhaps Bill has the wrong people programming.....it seems from the overt evidence that the hackers are better at using his code than his programmers are ! It is just a real sore spot with me.

As to the same shoddy workmanship in the CA lottery...No, if they had discovered this on their own, I certainly don't think they would have mentioned it to the public. Computers for lottery drawings are a terrible idea !  You can already see from thestates using them that there is often nothing "random" about RNG. Right now in fact, I think it is ruining the games...there are some really lousy and weird things happening in the games now ; and they fly against statistics. The proof is in the recent draw histories of the individual games. If I had a Magic Wand I'd make the RNGs disappear.

i agree i'd make COMPUTERIZED DRAWINGS poof gone...

I would agree that this is a classic example of why computer rng's are not always the best. I always thought it was fine for keno (which I don't play) but for large jackpot games it's a disaster waiting to happen. While people will probably ignore small news like this on a minor game eventually the same news will happen on a major state game like the California superlotto and that will be the real test when people find out the game was rigged to make losing tickets.

dvdiva: great points!  Furthermore, who is to say it hasn't already happened?

Maybe it has.

A computer can make a missile turn on a dime and then hit a penny in the middle of a forest so how do we absolutely know a state lottery computer isn't programmed to pick a selection of numbers not picked by any player?  We don't know!!!! 

Delaware is a case in point.  Despite protests to legislators its games are still being "picked" by computers.  And its jackpots are SO low. 

Conclusion: there is nothing random in computer selected numbers.  Computers are just another way for a state like Delaware to rip off a player who actually thinks h/she has a "chance" to win.  Some chance when the computer eliminates that very chance!

i play with balls and balls only!

mike:

That's "s/he".