From: Jim Choate <ravage@einstein.ssz.com>
Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1998 11:06:09 +0800
To: cypherpunks@einstein.ssz.com (Cypherpunks Distributed Remailer)
Subject: Forwarded mail...
Message-ID: <199810290248.UAA16922@einstein.ssz.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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Forwarded message:

> Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1998 00:32:00 +0100
> From: Anonymous <nobody@replay.com>

> In the following snippet of pseudo-code, what should the value of
> SWAP_TIMES be to make the array A[] random, assuming
> that getrand() returned a truly random integer between
> 0 and 255
> 
> A[256];
> 
> for(i=0;i<SWAP_TIMES;i++){
> 	x=getrand();
> 	y=getrand();
> 	swap(A[x],A[y]);
> }

Each x and y is in and of itself random? If so it doesn't matter how often
you swap the elements.

While there are clearly different levels of pseudo-randomness, true
randomness is or isn't.


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