BTW, I don't know how many people are using Excel to generate random numbers, but there is an issue with Excel versions earlier than 2003.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/828795
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/828795
Excel Random Number Issue
- Thread starter BillDowns
- Start date
My first computer was a RS COCO (Radio Shack Color Computer). In order for it to really generate random numbers, you had to "seed" it by interfacing with the timer. I programed a TW2000 character generator, set up a step to loop it until a character met certain standards. I then left it to run all night. Next morning it had stopped. I printed off the character, started it again and went to work. When I got home it had stopped on the same number of cycles with an identical character. That was when I learned about the seeding process. Then I rewrote the program to seed the random number generator each time it ran that process and got what seemed to be really random numbers.
Commander Truestar
SOC-13
way back when I was working with my share of a Sinclare X100...
[This message interrupted by a metior wiping out the dinosaurs...]
Sorry, I had to(and yes, I do still have a few boards from my S100 in a drawer somewhere
Marc
So tell me, how long have you had this delusion you were a marc? Isn't being a marc a bad thing? Do you get conned often, or do you have the belief that you're being conned because you're a marc? I guess there are worse things to be in life than a marc, imagine if you had the delusion that you were just a John?
Gray Lensman
SOC-13
Old Computers
Tandy TRS-80 for me (sounds of retching) yep the one that had a cassette tape for a drive.
YUCH.
Tandy TRS-80 for me (sounds of retching) yep the one that had a cassette tape for a drive.
YUCH.
So tell me, how long have you had this delusion you were a marc? Isn't being a marc a bad thing? Do you get conned often, or do you have the belief that you're being conned because you're a marc? I guess there are worse things to be in life than a marc, imagine if you had the delusion that you were just a John?
you'd have to know the prior history when he was mistaken as being Marc Miller and through no fault of his own other than having the same first name. Hence he is a Marc, not the Marc (there was some rancor involved at the time and this sig is funny if you followed that conversation)
and for being on topic: all random number generators, if using a seed, will produce identical results if starting with the same seed. Which is why most programmers (ok, a lot, perhaps not most) use the time to start the seed. Rumor has it one university had a button on campus marked 'do not push' and used that to generate a seed as people would be pushing it. Some computer science people DO have a sense of humor...
My cassette drive could load a 32k program a lot faster that the C64 floppy could load a 16k program. We played one game on the C64 (Africa Corps IIR) because it would allow 4 players, but we would play a game of spades while it loaded the game. (The OS required sending each instruction to the floppy, then verifying that it had received it then executing it, then start the process again. Or something like that. All at what? 2 Hz CPU operating speed.)
Yes! I do remember that from an old hand calculator game. (Some of them had games installed if you knew how to get to them.) You could really fake someone out with your ability to guess what numbers would come up next until they learned the same trick. Test the results on your seed # in advance.
Just out of curiosity, how many people would want a copy of an excel spreadsheet that accepts the following input:
Target number Missile: (enter in target number by hand)
Target number Beam: (Enter in target number by hand)
Missile batteries: (enter in number by hand)
Beam batteries: (enter in number by hand)
Thus, if you were firing 125 Missiles at a target in round 1 of a High Guard battle, and the target to hit number was 11+, you'd enter 11 for the Target number Missile, and 125 in the cell for Missile Batteries.
Hit F9 for when you want to "Roll" the results, and it tells you how many of the 125 missiles hit.
In reality? It could just as easily have been done where I have fields for "Target to hit number" and "How many batteries" instead of having two separate results for it. Thus, if you have 20 Meson Spinal mounts attempting to hit a target and the target number was 9+, you could just as easily enter in 9 for the target number, and 20 batteries.
It is for Excel 2003 if anyone is interested...
Target number Missile: (enter in target number by hand)
Target number Beam: (Enter in target number by hand)
Missile batteries: (enter in number by hand)
Beam batteries: (enter in number by hand)
Thus, if you were firing 125 Missiles at a target in round 1 of a High Guard battle, and the target to hit number was 11+, you'd enter 11 for the Target number Missile, and 125 in the cell for Missile Batteries.
Hit F9 for when you want to "Roll" the results, and it tells you how many of the 125 missiles hit.
In reality? It could just as easily have been done where I have fields for "Target to hit number" and "How many batteries" instead of having two separate results for it. Thus, if you have 20 Meson Spinal mounts attempting to hit a target and the target number was 9+, you could just as easily enter in 9 for the target number, and 20 batteries.
It is for Excel 2003 if anyone is interested...
