> From: Julia Thompson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

> The Fool wrote:
> > 
> > > From: jeffrey miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > 
> > > > -----Original Message-----
> > > >  On Behalf Of The Fool

> > > > But interactive television is a perfect example of the way
> > > > that new technology is challenging the whole concept of
> > > > personally identifiable information. For instance, given just
> > > > a birthday and a ZIP code, direct marketers claim they can
> > > > match members of the public to existing databases of consumer
> > > > information with 97% accuracy.
> > > > ---
> > >
> > > Now that is scary.
> > 
> > Perhaps but then again go into a room with 36 different people in it
and
> > you are 99% percent probable to have the same birthday as someone.
> 
> Is it that if individual A is put in a room with 35 other people, 1 is
> 99% likely to have the same birthday as A, or is it that, given 36
> people, it is 99% probable that 2 of them will share a birthday?
> 
> I thought it was the second.  My reading of your sentence suggests the
> first.

I forget.  It was a problem in my high school math class, a considerable
time ago.  Thinking about it you are probably correct.  See I admit to
mistakes.

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