Once again, I have to say it, for me this thread is lucky. I posted on it and got a special size again. Only kitten of the day. None of the other threads seem to work this way -- scientists and statisticians roll their eyes, "It's random, Kayla! Don't you get it?" "Well, yeah,' I understand but, " I said pointing, "I got a toy!"
? New Born Kitten
Fur: Balinese - Cream Lynx
Eyes: Divine (Mysterious|Big)
Shade: Natural
Tail: Mysterious
Ears: Pointed Soft Fold
Whiskers: Black (Swanky)
Size: Toy
I can't help but be happy.
(and in the interest of science: it is mom's first special. Dad is 117 days old and it is his 2nd and last special so par for the course for both of them.)
I thought ... there was something called "weighted random" so I looked it up. Sure enough, such a thing does exist.
http://codetheory.in/weighted-biased-ran...obability/ -- Weighted/Biased Random number generator.
So anyway, there is more than one kind of random.
Also, in scripts, when you write a random number generator, there are many ways to do it. Some of them might possibly try to avoid having the same number come up a lot of times in a row? (Like the gender coin-toss where sometimes you get a cat that makes 10 males and only 2 females ) Some random number generators give a randomer random than others, too ... So that's why I said "more than one kind of random."
Your post made me smile, Kayla
Posting your info about the "special size family" "caused" a toy to appear! Hee hee.
Our ability to see patterns (whether they're there or not) is an endearing human trait. Somewhere I read that paranoia was caused by an abundance of pattern-finding ability, and therefore required lots of intelligence to blossom. But then, as they say, "even paranoids have enemies." Some of the patterns are real.
As I discussed else, there are three random number generators available on the PHP side of KittyCats, and one on the SL side. None of these are weighted. Some are stronger and some weaker, but all are sufficiently random that we'd need about 6,000 years of KittyCats production to 'break' the weakest.
Yes, there are cookbooks which show you how some random number generators work. That does not mean you should attempt to code one yourself, even following a cookbook. Random generators, like cryptography (the two being basically the same beasts) are not something one should EVER attempt to program themselves.
Size selection is a biased generator. It is strongly biased to producing "Normal". Even with that bias, though, it is still random. The results are independent; that is, there is no history.