I have relatively little to add to this hilarious post from defective yeti about the stupidity of Deal or No Deal except to agree that the show is idiotic, relying on the mathematical ignorance of its contestants and audience. It really makes me crazy that people think “the banker” actually makes decisions about what to offer based on a personal assessment of the contestant, when it is clearly a selection of an amount from an error range around the mathematical expectation of what the contestant might win. Yeti’s proposed game show might be more entertaining – I’m trying to brainstorm who would be a good host. Anna Kournikova? Martha Stewart (who would never do it, but who would be hilarious to watch if she did)?
Glimpses of the websurfing habits of a computer science professor, obsessive crafter, occasional gamer, and all around geek