CDR: Re: one time pad and random num gen

On Tue, 3 Oct 2000, Kevin Elliott wrote:

A cryptographically strong PRNG would then be a PRNG with a very large period and some way of reinjecting randomness to guarantee the device never begins to recycle. --

Isn't that a misnomer though? If randomness is reinjected to prevent the system from falling into a period, then it won't be possible to generate the same sequence of bits twice -- so you can't use such a system for a PSEUDO-random generator, in applications like a stream cipher or whatever. Programs rely on the same sequence coming out of the same initial state with a PRNG -- otherwise things like stream ciphers can't be decrypted. What you describe above, I'd have termed an RNG - not a PRNG. Bear