From: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
Date: Mon, 10 Mar 1997 06:22:32 -0800 (PST)
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Hot and cold running randomness
Message-ID: <v0302091baf49befd4bc7@[139.167.130.246]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



>From Keith Dawson's Tasty Bits from the Technology Front....

Cheers,
Bob Hettinga


> ..Hot and cold running randomness
>
>     Perhaps for the first time, anyone with an Internet connection can
>     tap a source of true randomness. The creator of HotBits [16], John
>     Walker <kelvin@fourmilab.ch>, describes it as
>
>       > an Internet resource that brings genuine random numbers, gen-
>       > erated by a process fundamentally governed by the inherent
>       > uncertainty in the quantum mechanical laws of nature, directly
>       > to your computer... HotBits are generated by timing successive
>       > pairs of radioactive decays... You order up your serving of
>       > HotBits by filling out a [Web] request form... the HotBits
>       > server flashes the random bytes back to you over the Web.
>
>     Walker modified an off-the-shelf radiation detector to interface to
>     a PC-compatible serial port, and ran a cable three floors down from
>     his office to a converted 70,000-litre subterranean water cistern
>     with metre-thick concrete walls, where the detector nestles with a
>     60-microcurie Krypton-85 radiation source.
>
>     If you're in the mood for an anti-Microsoft rant of uncommon elo-
>     quence, Walker can supply that too [17].
>
>     Thanks to Keith Bostic <bostic@bostic.com> for the word on this de-
>     lightful service.
>
>     [16] <URL:http://www.fourmilab.ch/hotbits/>
>     [17] <URL:http://www.fourmilab.ch/hotbits/source/hotbits-c.html>
>     ____________________


-----------------
Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com), Philodox
e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"Never attribute to conspiracy what can be
explained by stupidity." -- Jerry Pournelle
The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/rah/