Flaw with lava lamp entropy source

[James A. Donald]

    --
On 17 Dec 2004 at 22:51, Major Variola (ret) wrote:
> I've been running a 1970s-era lava lamp for some time, and
> found that it can enter a stable attractor where you get a
> non-circulating blob o' wax at the bottom.  While Walker et
> al.'s (?) LL video entropy source is cute/clever, the general
> lesson we can take from this is to be careful that physical
> sources do not fail.

These days the video entropy source is not a lava lamp, but a
lens cap - in the dark, the ccds generate significant thermal
noise, which (unlike chaotic noise) cannot fail, unless someone
immerses the camera in liquid helium. 

    --digsig
         James A. Donald
     6YeGpsZR+nOTh/cGwvITnSR3TdzclVpR0+pr3YYQdkG
     YIh62RYRs2hLkj/bbMuhph73iWN9Kmjo6IJ27mBf
     4RyyRBC0ayoxtSug4pB9k+d7sjGlnt3gsa6yVYFy5