I pretty much dropped off the lotto prediction software game last year when I lost BOTH hard drives in my PC (one was just for backups) to a fried IDE controller card. 2k6 was a miserable year, lottery wise... stuck to playing one ticket with hardly any small hits.

I have since rebuilt my PB sheet and plan to go in some new directions.

My goal remains a one-line prediction... however the methods are getting way out there. 

brief rundown of the first one...

the periodic system...

synopsis: assign each drawn number to it's corresponding element on the periodic table and try to use some chemistry formulas to gain the next number.

So far: one excel sheet, 3 worksheets...

A: the full PB history back to 1997

B: the jackpot calculator (for motivational purposes only)

C: the conversion page

for instance, last night's draw

01-05-26-32-38 + 30  becomes

 H- B-Fe-Ge-Sr  + Zn

info kept includes the element's valence number and periodic family, also whether it is a nonmetal or transition metal... all done with Excel's LOOKUP() function. I'm hoping to possibly use lewis dot notation and valence info to unearth some hidden info... not convinced it has a chance, but nothing else has worked, so why not? at least I will be one who can say I have tried EVERYTHING ;-)

I have been sustaining the PB "habbit" with two QPs per draw, and will continue to do so until I have a single pick from some home brew system to replace one of the QPs. The nice part is that regardles off winnings, I know the maximum total cost of 2007 will be $416 (because I go for the PowerPlay, even less tho because I only play 2 QP's when the jackpot is over 40M). I've sworn off all other lottery games for good. I also spent much less in 2006.

It felt good to fire up excel once more, gotta shake off the rust! outside of flaky systems, I have goals in mind for excel this year, including finding matches regardless of position and more accurate backtesting statistics. I will set some kind of backtest goal before replacing one of the QPs, much higher than in the past. Also I will be working separately on JUST THE POWERBALL. Separate sheets, formulae, programs etc... My programmer's new years resolution is to work on that pesky red ball. They pick ONE from 42, why is it so hard just to pick that one? I hope to answer that question. the pb only progs have priority #1 for my limited time behind the keyboard.

so what are you planning this year?