Exactly! Jan 12th is right around the corner so the voting will be closed before you know it. There might be some late pushes but I think what you see currently will probably hold up at the end. Chris
This cookie thing sounds suspicious to me. Being from computer science background, I think NBA.com can devise a simple mechanism to count vote from a specific computer only once(i.e. check the IP, and you cant change IP, which is included in the http request header). The cookie probably only does the client checking, and there could be server side checking. So I would suggest you quit wasting your time.
It wouldn't practical to do it on the server side because it would require alot of horsepower on the server side and it would eliminate people from doing it at work because of proxy servers(same ip address).
You can delete just that cookie by going into tools:internet options:settings:view files and deleting the nba cookie. Then you have to restart your browser.
I am making my case that NBA.com doesnt want count duplicat votes. I dont think it would require much horse power to do the checking on the server side. The server can first store the ballots with IP as its primiary ID. During the counting phase, it simplely discard all those votes with same IP, and count it only once. In terms of people voting on the public machine, yes those votes would be discarded. I dont know how much NBA.com weighs duplication of votes vs convienience of voting in their decision making.
Then you would have to have a database with millions of records in it and it would require you to check that database everytime someone voted. Where now all they have to do is have list of all the players and the total amount of votes they collected. I'm not saying it can't be done but it more complex than it is worth. Why pay the million dollars for the oracle license that would be required to do it. Also, why do it when they obviously don't care how many people fill out the paper ballots.
Only the top 2 guards are guarranteed a spot on the team. Kobe is a lock. So if Mobley gets voted I don't think Don Nelson will sellect Stevie for the reserves as long as he has nash.
No, it doesnt event need a database. Flat files might just do it. It is just a simple relational database, which can be achieved by a simple howm-grown program(no need for oracle, SQL those high performance, reliable scaleable database) Storage is cheap. Store all the duplicate votes first. During the counting phase, only count them once. Simple math, one ballot occupies 100 bytes. 10 mil votes only occupy 1 gig storage space. This mechanism does cost any extra money.
Have to agree with Feishen on this one. If the NBA did allow stuffing the ballot box with duplicate votes, don't you think someone would have already voted in Marc Madsen with about a billion votes? My guess one IP address once per day.
It was a necessity at the time. Cassell is one of my all time favorites. I liked him better than Smith. But we had to trade him at the time. It was just one of those things.
Here is what is really cool: Cuttino Mobley (Hou) 112,745 Andre Miller (LAC) 110,926 John Stockton (Uta) 107,870 Jerry Stackhouse (Was) 105,308 Reggie Miller (Ind) 105,252 Baron Davis (NO) 101,538 Ricky Davis (Cle) 89,884.
Yao laps Shaq in All-Star race By JONATHAN FEIGEN Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle We kind of knew Yao Ming was big in China. And he has seemed quite the sensation in the United States. But this -- Thursday's sudden development -- was as unexpected as it was unprecedented. Yao passed Shaquille O'Neal to become the leader among Western Conference centers in the fan voting for the starters in the NBA All-Star Game, to be played Feb. 9 in Atlanta. But that was not the surprise, because when the previous balloting was announced, Yao was second. It did not require a 7-5 giant step to take first. The real stunner was not in gaining the support of much of China's 1.3 billion countrymen or in collecting 814,393 All-Star votes. More unexpected was in convincing one particularly stubborn critic. Yao's play has been so impressive, he apparently has turned Shaquille O'Neal from threatening and even offensive to the Big Gracious. "It happens to the best of us," O'Neal said. "When I came in, I beat out Patrick Ewing. "He's making history for his people. His people are proud of him. They should be. One billion people -- that's tough to beat." There is, however, one other bit of a surprise waiting for O'Neal. Yao no doubt received Internet support from China. But NBA spokesman Tim Frank said on Thursday that Yao was also leading in the "paper balloting" available in arenas and retail outlets in the United States. Only four rookie centers -- Ray Felix, Wilt Chamberlain, Walt Bellamy and O'Neal -- have started an All-Star Game. Though 15 rookies have started All-Star Games, none have broken through that quickly since Grant Hill in 1995. Still, the Rockets were not terribly surprised Yao had joined Steve Francis in a position to start the All-Star Game. "I'll never be surprised with the fans voting," Rockets forward Maurice Taylor said. "The fans vote for who they see more, who has the more highlights." But the other guy is O'Neal, who would seem to be seen more often and have more highlights in candy bar commercials alone than any other player. "But he missed a whole month," Taylor said. "Not to take anything away from Yao, but sometimes fan voting is a little cloudy. Sometimes guys off the bench should be starting. The guys everybody talks about the most get the most votes. It's like when Grant Hill came in. He led everybody. (Yao has the fourth-most votes overall.) "I doubt if Shaq really cares. He's Shaq. Why should he care about Yao? His talk (about Yao) is just in fun. He doesn't really care. When he opens his mouth, he's having fun. I don't think he's worried. He's secure in himself. I don't think he has animosity toward Yao. He has fun with it. He's won MVP, All-Star Games, (championship) rings. He should be happy for a young guy to be doing something like this." Balloting will end Jan. 12, five days before O'Neal and Yao are schedule to meet for the first time at Compaq Center, with All-Star starters to be announced Jan. 23. All-Star ballots are available for the first time in English, Mandarin and Spanish on NBA.com. But Yao's lead could be secure. Only Ben Wallace's lead over the injured Dikembe Mutombo to start as the Eastern Conference center and Francis' lead over Steve Nash to start at guard with Kobe Bryant are larger than Yao's 158,649-vote lead on O'Neal. "I'm happy, and I'm very honored," Yao said. "If I do play in the All-Star Game, I hope it won't be like my first NBA game was." The Rockets said Yao's popularity in the voting is another indication of how rapidly he has improved and how easy it is to appreciate his talents. "The guy is playing good," Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich said. "As a fan, he's enjoyable to watch. He does things the fundamental way on his passing and some of the things he does and he's good for basketball, not only basketball here in the United States, but basketball all over the world. "He's not a sideshow, just a real big guy. He can play. He can play in a noticeable way. The way he plays, you can't miss what he does. You just hear the buzz on the road or at home." Still, O'Neal would seem to be easy to notice, himself. While Yao is averaging 13.2 points, 7.6 rebounds, and two blocked shots. O'Neal is averaging 26.4 points, 11.1 rebounds and two blocked shots. But O'Neal missed the Lakers' first 12 games while rehabilitating from toe surgery Sept. 11. O'Neal had promised to greet Yao with an elbow to the nose. Lakers coach Phil Jackson said that if they played Nov. 17, when O'Neal was still coming back, O'Neal would have broken Yao in two. But Yao's Rockets teammates said O'Neal would not be driven to punish Yao for taking the All-Star starting position from the nine-time All-Star. "Shaq has made the All-Star team," Kelvin Cato said. "I don't know if that's going to be a bother to him whether he started or not. Yao is getting a lot of votes because he is the new kid on the block. Shaq has been around. "I don't think Shaq is mad. I don't think Shaq is worried about Yao Ming. I think Shaq is worried about his teammates and helping them win ballgames. I don't think Yao Ming is on Shaq's mind. I think the media wants to talk with him about Yao Ming. I think he wants to win ballgames, make the playoffs and fight for a fourth championship. "Yao is capable of being an All-Star center. He definitely deserves to be an All-Star, not by stats alone, but by talent." For all Yao has faced, however, All-Star Weekend would be a new level of intense scrutiny. Francis had a taste of that last season and was noticeably nervous by the start of the game. If Francis and Yao keep their sizable leads, it would be just the eighth time that the Rockets sent more than one representative to the All Star game and just the fourth time the Rockets had two starters, most recently Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler in 1996. "I went through it last year," Francis said. "He's definitely one of the most highly publicized foreign players to come in the league. I'm pretty sure there will be major media attention. He'll be surprised at how much all the superstars that are all stars how down to earth they are just like he is. That will be a good experience for him." The attention will be intense. Yao said he has been surprised by his rapid success and by how quickly he has been appreciated. But he has not seemed overwhelmed by anything yet. "It's what we've been saying all along: he's special," Tomjanovich said. "He has special vision, special poise, special skills."
true, i think the only way to circumvent nba.com's trap is by disconnecting and reconnecting (for all of us without cable modems) because i heard they do track the ip address...
Yeah, and the reason I'm also suspicious is because there's more at stake than just the votes. The votes are one thing, but if it was that easy to vote multiple times in 24 hours, it would be very possible for people to get unfair advantages in the All-Star Weekend sweepstakes by registering a bunch, which is almost as big of a deal. Also, there's probably a lot of people that think that they're easily outsmarting nba.com and voting like 20 to... god knows how many times a day. Let's say 500 is a reasonable estimate of the number of these people? And I'm not sure how many days voting has been going on, but I'm gonna make another estimate that I think is reasonable (and easy to do calculations in my head with): 50... That would mean that thru the most recent vote total (assuming it was as of a week ago?), these people would have contributed 500 THOUSAND VOTES! Maybe that's an exaggeration, maybe it's too low, I don't know, but if it's even close, that's over 50% of any player's vote total through now. I highly doubt nba.com would make it that easy for 500 people to have 50-60% of the voting voice... Deleting the cookie just stops nba.com from stopping you from wasting your time. Hehe, I probably just wasted my time cuz that mighta been crap, plus most of you probably don't even care or won't even read this, but it was fun!
I totally agree w/ you. It wouldn't require any significant horse power at all to discard duplicate votes. In fact u don't even need to store the duplicate votes and then discard them in counting. Just ignore the votes that come from the same IP in a certain period of time. It'll actually needs less horse power because of the time saved in the database updating (I/O) which obviously consumes the most horse power in server side.
Do we really need using Windows 101 over here? Just buy the Using Windows and Removing Cookies for Dummies lol
Of course, you could reverse-engineer the algorithm that ties the name of the image to the letters contained on it. Add a rotating list of anonymous proxy servers, a function to randomly generate other entries on the ballot other than the guy whose rating you want to boost, stick it in a perl script, and voila! Instant vote-rigging!
