About 30 years ago
I was learning to program my ZX81, and I wrote a random number generator because I had lost the dice to a board game. However, 9 times out of 10, it generated the number three.
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Wed 27 Apr 2011, 16:12, 13 replies)

What did it generate the other 9 times?

( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Wed 27 Apr 2011, 16:13, closed)

D BREAK - CONT repeats

( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Wed 27 Apr 2011, 19:53, closed)

it's things like this
that make me wish I had bothered learning how to code.
(Catomiagi is in with a chance, Wed 27 Apr 2011, 16:21, closed)

Dude!
Read the freaking question, that's clearly NOT random!
(stubbledchin, Wed 27 Apr 2011, 16:26, closed)

It was
You're just seeing a pattern in the randomness.
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Wed 27 Apr 2011, 16:27, closed)

Technically it wasn't random.
It was pseudorandom and, depending on your code, perhaps not even that -- it could have been periodic or very weighted towards one number or other depending on how you obtained your seed value.
(Me, I'm not... in any way intoxicated, Wed 27 Apr 2011, 17:44, closed)

I once wrote a Sheepdog Trials game on a ZX Spectrum
It was kind of Object Oriented, as all the sheep used the same code to manage their flocking / dog avoiding behaviour.

But whatever I did, one sheep would always break away from the pack and attack the dog.

Never did work out why.
(moon monkey is busy making memories worth repressing, Wed 27 Apr 2011, 16:59, closed)

Sentience!

( Sextant goes to him is emotionally erect, on this day, Thu 28 Apr 2011, 4:30, closed)

OOOoh. Mr Fancy Pants ZX81
Some of us only had ZX80s.

I remember the dice thing though. It was a cute bit of programming.

print "▓ ▓"
print " "
print " ▓"
print " "
print "▓ ▓"
(username failed moderation, Wed 27 Apr 2011, 17:21, closed)

and if you didnt have a wobbly RAM pack,
You only got as far as the 3rd line, then ran out of memory..
(danniekavanagh did nothing constructive on, Wed 27 Apr 2011, 17:49, closed)

We have a working ZX81
and it still loads from 30 year old tapes!
( Mrs Entity is in hiding., Wed 27 Apr 2011, 18:25, closed)

and it still loads from 30 year old tapes! as a door stop
( snee held his breath since, Thu 28 Apr 2011, 8:20, closed)

I had that problem on some form of portable Sinclair
I think I needed to see the PRNG. These days of course we have huge entropy pools on our machines. If you want to see PRNG abuse in action look at some Tool Assisted Speedruns of games.
( Cadmus has teh uplikn coeds at, Wed 27 Apr 2011, 20:58, closed)