At 1:26 AM 6/30/96, Jack Mott wrote:
I just recently built a hardware RNG, I just wanted to see what you guys think of it, here is how it works:
Got a geiger counter plugged into the game port
any thoughts? It seems to work well, no basic stat analysis reveals any pattern, and physicists have backed me up on radioactive decay being 'the great randomizer'.
First, have fun playing with it. Second, watch out for subtle statistical biases. While radioactive decay is unpredictable (so are a lot of things, by the way), there are all kinds of biases that reduce the apparent entropy. Detector "dead time" is a classic one (basically, the detector can't detect counts during a post-pulse recovery time...probably not a problem at low count rates, but an example of how subtle things can sneak in). --Tim May Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software! We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Licensed Ontologist | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."