Tag: Pool

The 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 TO 1 Gamble

That’s important for pool entrants like me who know nothing about college basketball, but still want to have a chance after the first round.

I had a story on our 4:00 PM newscast today (and again at 10:00 PM) about NCAA tournament bracket pools. Is there a school or business where bracketology isn’t eating into productivity today? It seems so simple considering the odds against a perfect pool ticket are 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 TO 1.

Basic math says you could give everyone on Earth a billion pool cards and still have some uncovered possibilities!

My story was about statistics and how the past has some insight into what will happen this year. That’s important for pool entrants like me who know nothing about college basketball, but still want to have a chance after the first round.

It’s three for me this year with a total of five tickets.

One entry is with the Meriden Record-Journal. They invited me last year and were nice enough to lower the criteria for celebrity so I could enter as one. I’m back at their invitation!

I think I outscored their sports department in 2011. Even if I didn’t I’ll claim I did.

I’ve got two tickets in a pool being run by folks here at the Courant and FoxCT. Too many knowledgeable people in this pool. In spite of cashing in our NFL fantasy league I have no chance in this one.

I also bought two chances in a pool being run by a friend back at the old place. I’ve been in this one since it was done on paper!

One of the cool things about computerized pool picks is you choose a username. No one uses their real names, but maybe some former coworkers will recognize me. I’m “Fox On Fox” and “The Distraction.”

Am I ever!

One Last Look At Vegas Before We Go

. It is the ultimate contradiction that these beautiful hotels in the desert are defined by their relationship with water.

A few quick shots of the pool at Mirage before we go. It is the ultimate contradiction that these beautiful hotels in the desert are defined by their relationship with water. It’s sunny, hot and dry and the pool is jammed!

By the way, the first photo is a Photosynth 360&#176 panorama. Use your mouse to pan around.



A Geeky Look At NCAA Bracket Pools

I’m way down in his NCAA bracket pool and I haven’t paid yet. I’m good for it Swami, honest! The check’s (nearly) in the mail.

Swami’s gonna be coming after me. I’m way down in his NCAA bracket pool and I haven’t paid yet. I’m good for it Swami, honest! The check’s (nearly) in the mail.

NCAA brackets are so much fun because they look so easy. For the final 64 (I didn’t pick the play-in games) you make 63 choices. It’s pretty simple in the first and second rounds where the rules mainly match strength against weakness. Beyond that the difficulty rises quickly especially since an early round upset could eliminate a team you’ve chosen to win more games!

Like I said brackets look easy. ESPN has proof they’re not.

Thanks to a Final Four with no No. 1 or 2 seeds, plus an 8-seed in Butler and an 11-seed in VCU, just two out of 5.9 million-plus brackets in Tournament Challenge correctly predicted the entire Final Four.

A dweeb writing on the community forums at discovery.com noted there are 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 possible ways to fill out your bracket! That’s a lot of room to make mistakes.

Even the two of nearly six million ESPN participants who have the four remaining schools picked a few incorrectly along the way. Not bad after starting with 9 quintillion possible choices!

Everybody In The (NCAA) Pool

I like baseball and pro football. That pretty much sums up my sports knowledge. So why do I enter an NCAA pool every year? Good question. I’ve yet to get back a dime!

One of my co-workers, Swami, has run this pool for years. We used to check off our results on Xeroxed sheets. Those days are long gone. We’re all digital now. Are all pools? Is anyone still using paper?

Our pool is hosted by tournamentpools.com. It’s a pretty good example of finding every way possible to slice and dice a database. There are enough stats even for a stats junkie like me.

With no knowledge I revert to my math background. This year I also read a few articles on finding ‘unappreciated teams’ to help me along. With the first afternoon played I’m still in! Trust me that’s more than the pre-research Geoff would have accomplished.

Will I cash this year? Doubtful.

Continue reading “Everybody In The (NCAA) Pool”

Internet Users Under Pressure

I subscribe to a few email lists. One of them, a low traffic affair, is Sky and Telescope Magazine’s comet bulletins. When a new comet is discovered, they’re right there with information… often more than I want or can comprehend for comets too dim to be seen by anything I’ll ever get my hands on.

However, just seeing this stuff interests me, and from time-to-time gives me something extra to talk about on TV. Martha would say, “It’s a good thing.”

Somehow today, this list opened up and began spewing virus and mail bounce information. That was it. Before long dozens of people were sending messages which said, “unsubscribe” to the list, and those messages were getting forwarded to everyone.

There are instructions on how to unsubscribe, but that seemed too challenging. Within a few hours, out came the do-gooders, telling people that every message they sent was another that everyone got.

More unsubscribes based on that.

Then came the loudmouths who berated the unsubscribers.

More unsunscribe notes followed that.

Now, it’s a mix… but a larger quantity of email than I’ve gotten since the list began! In fact, I’ve now gotten over 200 emails from this mess-up. Here’s as typical message at this stage:

1. Thanks for ADDING to the mayhem aj. Smart.

—–Original Message—–

From: Kayla Folkins [mailto:kayla@investmentbuildersllc.com]

Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2004 11:48 AM

To: Aristotle Jones; Karban, James W.

Cc: comet-list@eridanus.skyandtelescope.com

Subject: Re: today’s foolishness

Actually, I’m finding the whole thing rather amusing…

—– Original Message —–

From: Aristotle Jones

To: Karban, James W.

Cc: comet-list@eridanus.skyandtelescope.com

Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2004 9:18 AM

Subject: Re: today’s foolishness

All Right, Everybody out of the Gene-Pool!

1. It is NEVER possible to unsubscribe by posting on the mailing list you

are subscribed to.

2. Complaining about the volume of messages during this incident only ADDS

to the volume.

3. This is a perfect example of the fundamental difference between a

democracy and a constitutional republic.

4. Maybe there should be an intellectual means test when subscribing.

5. The sad part is that most of you people are supposed to be educated.

<*>aj

—– Original Message —–

From: “Karban, James W.”

To:

Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2004 8:35 AM

> Unsubscribe

>

I’ve yet to see anyone from Sky and Telescope chime in, or shut it all off. It’s funny to watch, but a royal pain in the butt to deal with.

Blogger’s note: On May 3 I received an email explaining the whole affair. Read on for what actually happened.

Continue reading “Internet Users Under Pressure”