Algorithm Glitch Voids Outcome of US Green Card Lottery 131
jayminer writes "Results for the United States Diversity Visa Lottery for 2012 were declared void due to a programming glitch in the random selection algorithm. At first, the results were published as promised on May, 1st. Then, on May, 6th, the results were withdrawn with the web site claiming to experience 'technical difficulties.' Today (May, 13th), it is declared that the results are invalid due to an algorithm glitch; the computer program has been fixed and the lottery will be re-run. The final results are expected to be published July 15th."
Re:Well technically... (Score:5, Insightful)
Unexpected results are not neccessarily random. You may just have missed some bug that generates very predictable results which were just unexpected because you didn't knew about that bug.
Still, true randomness is hard. While I don't think this applies here, randomness also includes random clusters. People accept these if the process that generates the randomness is very obvious random, but do the same with a computer or by sieving through large amounts of data and they see patterns and don't accept these as random anymore.
Example: There have been discussions about clusters of cases of certain kinds of cancer around nuclear reactors. Can't be random, you think. Well, if you look at many different kinds of cancer and check the distribution of those you'll find random clusters for one or more of them. One of those clusters may be found around a reactor. May still be random, but nobody will ever believe you. In fact, if you sieve the data fine enough and have enough reactors and NONE of these clusters coincide with a reactor, the conclusion would be that nuclear reactors PROTECT against cancer. But explain that to people.
Other example: Apple introduced random playlists on iPods years ago. Now people noticed that some songs got played more than once before all others were played. Can't be random! There's a bug! Well, no. Still, Apple had to modify their software to make the choice actually LESS random (by have no song being played twice) to make it appear "really" random to the users.
Randomness is hard and can be spooky.
Re:Well technically... (Score:5, Insightful)
Technically, the results were indeed random.
No, technically your conflating two different things, the random glitch, and the non-random output caused by the glitch.
Obligatory Knuth (Score:5, Insightful)
I Hate To be That Guy... (Score:2, Insightful)
But how about we just cancel the whole darn thing?
I'm going to assume that most of you here are Americans. And as such, you probably feel like America kicks butt and that we rock and everyone wants to come here (and you'd be correct). You've probably heard how it's REALLY HARD to come to America legally and probably have some view on illegal immigration. What you probably aren't aware of, because you've probably never tried, is just how difficult it is to immigrate to other countries.
These same countries that are condemning our immigration system offer an even more rigid, more unforgiving system. And these are really crappy countries. Countries that, objectively, are the equivalent of a tiny state in the US. 'Hey crappy EU country; you are the size of Iowa and have 1/2 GDP, who exactly are you trying to keep out?'
These countries don't have lotteries. They have standards (high standards). Upper middle class, educated, high paying job? If so, you've got a tiny shot....only if you happen to work in one of these 3 professions and only if you can line up a job while on the other side of an ocean. Anything less? No. Marry a citizen. That's it.
It's harder to immigrate into Mexico than it is the US. Stop and think about that for a second. Screw em. You don't want us? Well, we sure as heck don't want you. /Bitter //Really amazed at how difficult it is ///Will almost certainly be an 'illegal alien' in the next six months