fuckin probability

for what it's worth, i was actually pretty good at discrete math, calculus, and the little bit of probability i took in college.
came across the monty hall problem this morning. this is one of those weird things in math that gets a lot of smart people arguing and calling each other idiots. the setup for this is simple, and based off the show 'let's make a deal': you pick one of three doors, one has a car behind it, the other two doors have goats. the host, monty, opens a door, which has a goat behind it, and offers to let you switch which door you've picked. does switching doors help your chances of winning the car?


the fuck you solution is that, yeah, it does. by a lot. but only under certain circumstances that almost everyone already assumes.
eg: if monty opens a door at random that still always has a goat behind it, it changes the percentage of how often you win if you choose to switch doors. the solution above only works when monty will always open a door with a goat behind it, after you've chosen your door, and knows which doors have goats behind them, and always offers you the opportunity to switch doors.

now that i've got a handle on this, i'm going to take a crack at the two envelopes problem.

nintendo.

so, this comic made me look to see if this game was really a thing.
it is!
i'm wondering how many suicides and divorces are going to crop up in the sony offices this year.

yes please

since blogger's layout is being a pain in the ass.

this clip is giving me a strange sensation. i . . . i think it might be joy.

also: lennart green, card ninja.

wherein i fail to register any measurable amount of surprise

i am well aware of the irony in using google's blog service to write the following.

so, facebook has a new batch of privacy controls in place now. raise your hand if you think this changes anything. facebook already got caught, more than once, violating their own privacy policy for information on their site. as in, they are selling your stuff to advertisers.
rest assured: they are going to continue to do this.
THE SITE IS FREE. BANDWIDTH IS NOT.
and really, nothing's going to change. people are going to keep putting stupid shit on the site, along with enough information for anyone anywhere to identify them, and facebook is going to keep using all of that to pay the bills. employers are still going to be able to weed out applicants based on people having a bong in their profile pics, psychotic and abusive exes are going to continue to stalk their former wives / husbands, and zuckerberg is going to buy a new bentley and keep on thinking you're all retarded.
the company with all your information is not going to stop using it for their own purposes just because a press release said so. anything that goes on the internet never really goes away.
just sayin'