Do you smell a contest?

awesome contest, i like it.

how will the winner be "randomly" selected if you don't mind me asking?(drawn from hat, eeny meeny miney moe, etc...)
 
I'll take everyone's name assign them a number and then random number generate in excel between 0 and Xf (final number of people who posted)
 
That's not the most random way to select people. Here's how you should do it:

Arrange the names alphabetically, then number them 01-XX. Then get your hands on a random numbers table. (If you're in college, anybody in a Statistics class will have one)

Then, choose a line off the top of your head and go through it, looking at the numbers in pairs. (If over 100 people sign up, do it in 3s, and label them 001-XXX.) Those whose numbers appear on the table will be chosen, and those who are not will not be.

This is the most widely accepted way of randomly choosing individuals from a group, and it is a Simple Random Sample, or an SRS.

In order to raise someone's odds, assign them two or more numbers.

This is superior to the random number generator in excel because computers can never be truly random— they are only pseudo-random. A completely randomized random numbers table will do the job more truthfully, or you can measure atmospheric noise or flip coins if you'd like.
 
he could also use a hardware random number generator which would be more random than a pseudorandom computer generator, but no matter what he uses, including something that is not completely random, will be random enough for this contest I feel.
 
A hardware random number generator would pretty much generate a new random digits table on-the-fly, so why bother when you can use an already generated table?

What I'd like to see is using a television tuned to a channel with no signal whatsoever, and count the white and black pixels of the static across lines to determine who is chosen. Assign each possible permutation of pixels to a person, such that each person has the same amount of possible permutations.

Example: wwbwwbwbbbwbbwbbwbwwwbbwbwwwwbbbbwbwwwbwbwwbbw would be one line of the static. That particular pattern would have been pre-assigned to one person involved, as with every other possible permutation.

This for the sake of overcomplicating the matter. :)
 
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invited all my friends!!
 


I'm just going to reply to this once more to remind you that this draw takes place on my birthday, and I invited all my Facebook friends! It probably wouldn't hurt to slip my name in there one more time... you know..
 
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