Austin United States
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March 24, 2012
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Just 1 hour or so after the numbers are drawn, MM already knows if the jackpot was hit. If they know so quickly, they must have all the millions of ticket combinations people chose stored in a central computer. Given this, it makes me wonder if the number combinations are funneled intot the jackput drawing machine prior to drawing and lottery officials can guarantee whether someone wins on any given draw. From what I read jackpot is supposed to be completely random and it is not allowed to take any information into account. I know the whole process is audited, but just makes me wonder.
Columbia,SC United States
Member #124,497
March 14, 2012
23 Posts
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I doubt they can guarentee a win on any jackpot simply because the drawing is held live and unless the balls are rigged... they would have no control of the outcome...... like you said.. all number and combinations are in the computer.. hence the machines in all of the stores that are run through their network... so yes they would know fairly quickly because they have access to the info...
Nothing easy is ever worth it and nothing worth it is ever easy..
mid-Ohio United States
Member #9
March 24, 2001
20,272 Posts
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Quote: Originally posted by winitbig on Mar 26, 2012
Just 1 hour or so after the numbers are drawn, MM already knows if the jackpot was hit. If they know so quickly, they must have all the millions of ticket combinations people chose stored in a central computer. Given this, it makes me wonder if the number combinations are funneled intot the jackput drawing machine prior to drawing and lottery officials can guarantee whether someone wins on any given draw. From what I read jackpot is supposed to be completely random and it is not allowed to take any information into account. I know the whole process is audited, but just makes me wonder.
With in the blink of an eye after entering the winning numbers in my home computer I know if that combination has ever come up in any PB or MM drawings and if it ever won any prizes in either going back into the 90's and I'm using Windows XP to run an old program written in GWBasic back in the days of MSDOS. Don't you think MM have a bigger and faster computer to do the same with millions of combinations sold for each drawing?
* you don't need to buy every combination, just the winning ones *
United States
Member #124,610
March 16, 2012
3,733 Posts
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Quote: Originally posted by RJOh on Mar 27, 2012
With in the blink of an eye after entering the winning numbers in my home computer I know if that combination has ever come up in any PB or MM drawings and if it ever won any prizes in either going back into the 90's and I'm using Windows XP to run an old program written in GWBasic back in the days of MSDOS. Don't you think MM have a bigger and faster computer to do the same with millions of combinations sold for each drawing?
It's not the computer as much as it's the user. It sounds like you could make a chalk board jump through a flaming hoop, while I could have a Cray super computer and still lose at Solitare. So your analogy isn't quite fair. You sound way beyond the normal 'Lottery-Person-Who-Is-Hired-At-Budgetary-Restraining-Salary'. Could **I** get the numbers that fast? Yes, if I had a staff of VERY talented people who are data base and programing savy. On my own? I could not come close to what you do, much less fathom being able to work with the live raw data in the millions of sets, from so many different states.
mid-Ohio United States
Member #9
March 24, 2001
20,272 Posts
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Quote: Originally posted by maximumfun on Mar 27, 2012
It's not the computer as much as it's the user. It sounds like you could make a chalk board jump through a flaming hoop, while I could have a Cray super computer and still lose at Solitare. So your analogy isn't quite fair. You sound way beyond the normal 'Lottery-Person-Who-Is-Hired-At-Budgetary-Restraining-Salary'. Could **I** get the numbers that fast? Yes, if I had a staff of VERY talented people who are data base and programing savy. On my own? I could not come close to what you do, much less fathom being able to work with the live raw data in the millions of sets, from so many different states.
Hence my response: magic.
In this case it's probably the computer more than the user because when I originally wrote the program in the 90's for a Tandy 1000, it would have taken a second or two to do the samething and the data file wasn't nearly the size it is today. Over the years I made some changes in the program and compiled it using a Quick Basic compiler and as I upgraded computers and operating systems the computers got faster and so did it. Unfortunately, Windows XP was the last upgrade that would run old DOS programs so unless I learn a new computer language and rewrite it to work in Windows 7, it's running as fast as it ever will on my old HP machine which after 10 years is still running as good as it ever did.
* you don't need to buy every combination, just the winning ones *
Kentucky United States
Member #32,651
February 14, 2006
10,302 Posts
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Quote: Originally posted by maximumfun on Mar 27, 2012
It's not the computer as much as it's the user. It sounds like you could make a chalk board jump through a flaming hoop, while I could have a Cray super computer and still lose at Solitare. So your analogy isn't quite fair. You sound way beyond the normal 'Lottery-Person-Who-Is-Hired-At-Budgetary-Restraining-Salary'. Could **I** get the numbers that fast? Yes, if I had a staff of VERY talented people who are data base and programing savy. On my own? I could not come close to what you do, much less fathom being able to work with the live raw data in the millions of sets, from so many different states.
Hence my response: magic.
Each state has a data base showing every combination sold; similar to LP's data base showing past results. We can access the LP data base by using "search results" just like the state's sold combo data base can be accessed by using another command prompt. All the winning combos are sorted into individual prize categories and the reports are sent to MM headquarters. The one hour before publishing the results is what MM determined and not the actual time it takes to access the data bases, sort the results, and send in the report.
Not many people understand the technology behind turning on the lights, starting a car, or using a washing machine, but very few of them call it "magic".
United States
Member #13,130
March 30, 2005
2,171 Posts
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Quote: Originally posted by maximumfun on Mar 27, 2012
It's not the computer as much as it's the user. It sounds like you could make a chalk board jump through a flaming hoop, while I could have a Cray super computer and still lose at Solitare. So your analogy isn't quite fair. You sound way beyond the normal 'Lottery-Person-Who-Is-Hired-At-Budgetary-Restraining-Salary'. Could **I** get the numbers that fast? Yes, if I had a staff of VERY talented people who are data base and programing savy. On my own? I could not come close to what you do, much less fathom being able to work with the live raw data in the millions of sets, from so many different states.
Hence my response: magic.
That's 'cause Solitare is rigged.
In neo-conned Amerika, bank robs you. Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms should be the name of a convenience store, not a govnoment agency.
Florida - West Coast United States
Member #92,605
June 10, 2010
6,582 Posts
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Quote: Originally posted by RJOh on Mar 27, 2012
With in the blink of an eye after entering the winning numbers in my home computer I know if that combination has ever come up in any PB or MM drawings and if it ever won any prizes in either going back into the 90's and I'm using Windows XP to run an old program written in GWBasic back in the days of MSDOS. Don't you think MM have a bigger and faster computer to do the same with millions of combinations sold for each drawing?
While I do appreciate your respose to the orginal post RJOh, I think you'd agree with me when I say you arent the "average bear" lottery player! My own personal belief is the majority of players are just like me: "blue collar" hard working people that have zero programming skills.
I'd also agree, MM probably does use high end servers with sophisticated database software running on them. Although I've never written a single line of code, I dont think it would take much of a program to search a database of all combinations sold, and come up with a match. The data of when and where the ticket was sold probably comes along inside the record of the matching combo(s).
mid-Ohio United States
Member #9
March 24, 2001
20,272 Posts
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Quote: Originally posted by GiveFive on Mar 27, 2012
While I do appreciate your respose to the orginal post RJOh, I think you'd agree with me when I say you arent the "average bear" lottery player! My own personal belief is the majority of players are just like me: "blue collar" hard working people that have zero programming skills.
I'd also agree, MM probably does use high end servers with sophisticated database software running on them. Although I've never written a single line of code, I dont think it would take much of a program to search a database of all combinations sold, and come up with a match. The data of when and where the ticket was sold probably comes along inside the record of the matching combo(s).
I too was a blue collar factory worker when I bought a TI99 and read the manual on how to program it using TI Basic. Later I moved on to a Vic20, a Commode64, and then a Tandy 1000 all which used some form of BASIC. Those were machines that lots of blue collar workers learned to program in 80's. Back then if you wanted your computer to do something, you had to program it yourself, you couldn't just buy an app. It seemed easier to teach yourself in those days, but then I was younger.
Now the languages and machines aren't designed for the computer hobbyist, I would probably need some formal schooling in programming and now that I'm retired I lack the energy to learn a new language that will work on the newer 64 bit machines. I'm still using GWBasic on my old XP machine.
* you don't need to buy every combination, just the winning ones *
Florida - West Coast United States
Member #92,605
June 10, 2010
6,582 Posts
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Quote: Originally posted by RJOh on Mar 27, 2012
I too was a blue collar factory worker when I bought a TI99 and read the manual on how to program it using TI Basic. Later I moved on to a Vic20, a Commode64, and then a Tandy 1000 all which used some form of BASIC. Those were machines that lots of blue collar workers learned to program in 80's. Back then if you wanted your computer to do something, you had to program it yourself, you couldn't just buy an app. It seemed easier to teach yourself in those days, but then I was younger.
Now the languages and machines aren't designed for the computer hobbyist, I would probably need some formal schooling in programming and now that I'm retired I lack the energy to learn a new language that will work on the newer 64 bit machines. I'm still using GWBasic on my old XP machine.
Yeah, back in the '80's is when you had to fend for yourself, simply because there werent many app's in existance that could be purchased. I wasnt into programming, and "Pong" games werent my thing. At the time, I really couldnt figure out why anyone thought they'd need a PC. I'd never heard the term "The Internet" until maybe 1994 or 1995. Even then, when people talked about the Internet, they werent really talking about what's now known as "The Web". Mostly what I read about the internet back then had more to do with online bulletin boards. Web browser was a term I had heard, but I had never seen one.
I didnt even own a PC until the mid-1990's. I had used one at work, but I used it more as a "smart terminal" than a stand alone PC. I bought a desktop Windows 3.1 PC for the house because I wanted my kids to become computer literate, and to experience "going online". I signed up for AOL when it had less than 3 million subscribers, and PC's had a household penetration rate of 50%. One of my kids elementary school teachers admitted to me that my son knew more about the PC they had sitting in the back of the classroom than she did.
One of the biggest laughs I had in the early 1990's came at the expense of my older brother who at the time worked for IBM. He told me he bought a PS2 through IBM's employee purchase plan. I asked him if it ran DOS or OS2. His response was: "What the hell is DOS or OS2?" So I went to his house to see it, and it turned out it was a DOS machine. He hadnt bought a high end PS2 (with a 386 chip, his machine had a 286 chip) so it couldnt run OS2. I didnt have the heart to ask him why he bought it. I knew he didnt know because he told me he was aware some people had a mouse with their machine, and did I think he should buy one. Those were the days.
