Curious RNG stalemate [was: use of cpunks]

[Sandy Harris]

On Thu, Oct 17, 2013 at 12:56 PM, grarpamp <grarpamp at gmail.com> wrote:

> Problem is, apparently no one is solving it, so round and round
> it goes...

> Now if someone would just sell a completely open discrete logic
> serial port hw entropy source for under $50... that would end
> a lot of the talk. Even with a more costly radiation source rather
> than other phenomena you'd still likely make good profit ...

If you have an audio device free or can add one and are using
Linux, I'd say Turbid is the obvious solution:
http://www.av8n.com/turbid/paper/turbid.htm

Open source, available for over a decade, well thought out
and well documented. It even has a proof, using only some
quite mild assumptions, that it gives almost perfect entropy
in the output. What's not to like?

If you are on Linux, getting Turbid into your distro might
well be the most important RNG work you could do. For
Debian:
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=591472

If you are concerned with other systems, it might well
be worth considering whether Turbid could be ported.
It appears better than anything else I have seen
because it is the only one with a proof of randomness,
and as far as I can tell the proof is solid.