Russ Nelson asks:
This has probably been discussed before, but has anyone built a little device that amplifies the white noise from a transistor junction, and converts it into serial data? You could easily build a self-powered dongle that sits on an RS-232 port and continuously spits out truly random bytes.
I could probably sell them for $25 if I could sell more than a hundred of them. Is there a market for true random number generators?
Yes, it's been debated many times on this list. The forthcoming FAQ has a section on random number generators, noise sources, Zener diodes, commercial implementations, etc. Several people have said they could sell them for $25. So far, I know of no such serial port dongles for $25. If you really think you can do it, go for it. (But, as politely as I can put it, don't make a lot of vague promises to the list, ask for ideas and feedback, and then let the whole thing drop. This has happened several times before.) I don't think generating random numbers is all that much of a priority. The Blum-Blum-Shub C code is available, and I defy anyone to break _that_ PRNG! (Issues of entropy are a bit different, but I expect the entropy with the BBS generator to be about as high as one can get, and as high as what would get in some instance with a "physically random" RNG.) --Tim May -- .......................................................................... Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@netcom.com | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero 408-688-5409 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power: 2^859433 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."