Re: How to generate random numbers in C

"Bill Reid" <hormelfree@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
Richard Tobin <richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:ftrece$na0$2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In article <IA4Mj.177260$cQ1.25121@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Bill Reid <hormelfree@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

In a fair game, the player with the biggest house money volume wins.

Oh, a "fair game"...who the hell offers a "fair game"? In any event,
it's irrelevant, because the actual most important factor (to the extent
that we indulge in the pointless semantics of pronouncing a "most
important factor") is the "expectation" of the game.

Actually, you can reliably win against poor odds if you have unlimited
resources and your opponent is required to accept your bets. Decide
how much you want to win. Bet enough to make that if you win. If you
do, quit. If you don't, bet enough to win back your losses plus your
desired win. If you can continue making bets in this manner, you will
eventually win, no matter how poor the odds.

BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Yeah, I had to come to a "programming" group to have yet another
naive fool "learn me" about the "Martingale" strategy, the oldest and
silliest of all the idiotic gambling systems...

In practice, you can't do this, because your resources are limited
compared to the Casino's. If they weren't, they would eventually
refuse your bet.

EVENTUALLY God would refuse your bet, because you can't bet
more money than there are atoms in the universe! In the meanwhile,
you'll be down about $100000000000000000000000000000 trillion or
so; now THAT'S a winning "system"!!!

Here's the bottom line so you'll never make this embarrassing
mistake again: there is NO way to bet your money that can turn
a negative expectation game into a positive expecation game.
And no, not even with "unlimited resources", because "unlimited
resources" mean infinity bets and thus, INFINITY LOSSES,
and you can't win money by losing an INFINITE amount of
money, now can you?

He made no mistake, embarrassing or otherwise. He explained exactly
why the system can't work in practice, and he did so more clearly than
you did (the potential size of the bets is unbounded, but no one bet
or sequence of bets can ever be infinite).

--
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) <kst-u@xxxxxxx>
Nokia
"We must do something. This is something. Therefore, we must do this."
-- Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, "Yes Minister"
.

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