In article <9311291648.AA25233@jobe.shell.portal.com> hfinney@shell.portal.com "Hal Finney" writes:

I once proposed a DOS TSR (a "background" program) which would monitor your keystrokes all day long and condense the timing data into a file full of random bits. Then you'd use up the bits when you needed to do cryptography. I haven't learned enough about DOS to write such a thing, though.

I'm doing this for unix this weekend. One very important point to note: only take *one* bit of random data per keystroke, and take it by ex-oring every single bit in the clock() value - that way you make sure the randomly fluctuating one is in there - because on some systems the bottom bit might always be 0, if the resolution of the clock is low. Also, think about the problems if you have a function that returns milliseconds but the hardware clock is one tick, say, every 1/17 sec... G -- Personal mail to gtoal@gtoal.com (I read it in the evenings) Business mail to gtoal@an-teallach.com (Be careful with the spelling!) Faxes to An Teallach Limited: +44 31 662 4678 Voice: +44 31 668 1550 x212