Tim, I recall you or some other Cypherpunk mentioning that, by some means, strong random numbers can be had by observing some property of Zener diodes. Could you explain this? ...If feasible, I imagine exploiting this phenomenon to make a "random number dongle," an inline device for a PC's serial or parallel port, which could be polled by savvy software. If possible, and if someone hasn't done it already, I'd like to work up a simple recipe (schematic, list of ingredients, and sample code) for this--and get it put into our "crypto-anarchists' cookbook"--i.e., on soda.berkeley.edu. Perhaps a future version of PGP could take advantage of such a random noise dongle, selectable by command-line switch. This is pure speculation at this point. Am I completely off-base? In any case, I'd love to hear more about it. Liam --- PGP public key available by arrangement -- The cat is out of the bag. Too much of a dreamer not to be practical -- Go have your own "valiant defeat." Liam David Gray <lg2g+@andrew.cmu.edu>