Bill Sommerfeld writes:
the second 32bit seed is the "tick count", which I'm told is the number of milliseconds since windows started.
A 32-bit ms-resolution counter wraps roughly every 50 days. Very few Windoze PC's stay up that long :-).
Also (and note that it's been a while since I've messed around with PC's, but since the "architecture" remains chained to an early-80's design I suspect they're still the same) the PC clock frequency is generally pretty low. PC UNIX implementations usually run it at about 100 Hz, I think. There aren't a lot of available timers on the PC. One of them used to be used as the DRAM refresh timer; I don't know whether they still do that. On the other hand, getting at a Windows PC over the network is a whole 'nuther enchilada, though if I want to keep my day job I need to get that figured out real soon now. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | Nobody's going to listen to you if you just | Mike McNally (m5@tivoli.com) | | stand there and flap your arms like a fish. | Tivoli Systems, Austin TX | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~