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Re: True Random Numbers
- From: C J Kenneth Tan -- OptimaNumerics <cjtan at OptimaNumerics dot com>
- To: Rodney Sparapani <rsparapa at post dot its dot mcw dot edu>
- Cc: hobbsk at ohiou dot edu, gsl-discuss at sources dot redhat dot com
- Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2004 08:31:09 +0000 (UTC)
- Subject: Re: True Random Numbers
- Organization: "OptimaNumerics"
- References: <200411052017.iA5KHGO07874@post.its.mcw.edu>
- Url: http://www.OptimaNumerics.com
On 2004-11-05 14:17 -0600 Rodney Sparapani (rsparapa@post.its.mcw.edu) wrote:
> I guess it is possible. I think the main problem with true random numbers is
> that you can't reproduce them as needed. That's why pseudo-random numbers are
> so popular. As long as you keep track of your seed, then you can replay the
> sequence when necessary.
>
> >Is it possible, or easy, to use the GSL random number distributions with
> >true random number devices? I'm thinking of a generator that really
> >just reads from /dev/random or a device driver for one of the really
> >fancy hardware random number devices.
Another problem is that you cannot verify the quality of random
numbers obtained from physical sources. It has also be shown by
George Marsaglia that physical sources which may be expected to be
"random" are actually not good sources of randomness. This was
covered also in Knuth's "Art of Computer Programming".
Kenneth Tan
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