Hot and cold running randomness

17 Dec 2003


      
...
From Keith Dawson's Tasty Bits from the Technology Front....
Cheers,
Bob Hettinga
...
..Hot and cold running randomness
Perhaps for the first time, anyone with an Internet connection can
    tap a source of true randomness. The creator of HotBits [16], John
    Walker , describes it as
> an Internet resource that brings genuine random numbers, gen-
      > erated by a process fundamentally governed by the inherent
      > uncertainty in the quantum mechanical laws of nature, directly
      > to your computer... HotBits are generated by timing successive
      > pairs of radioactive decays... You order up your serving of
      > HotBits by filling out a [Web] request form... the HotBits
      > server flashes the random bytes back to you over the Web.
Walker modified an off-the-shelf radiation detector to interface to
    a PC-compatible serial port, and ran a cable three floors down from
    his office to a converted 70,000-litre subterranean water cistern
    with metre-thick concrete walls, where the detector nestles with a
    60-microcurie Krypton-85 radiation source.
If you're in the mood for an anti-Microsoft rant of uncommon elo-
    quence, Walker can supply that too [17].
Thanks to Keith Bostic  for the word on this de-
    lightful service.
[16] URL:http://www.fourmilab.ch/hotbits/
    [17] URL:http://www.fourmilab.ch/hotbits/source/hotbits-c.html
    ____________________
-----------------
Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com), Philodox
e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"Never attribute to conspiracy what can be
explained by stupidity." -- Jerry Pournelle
The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/rah/