From: wcs@anchor.ho.att.com (Bill_Stewart_HOY002_1305)
Date: Thu, 14 Oct 93 15:40:00 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Generating random numbers from english text
Message-ID: <9310142239.AA21234@anchor.ho.att.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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Bob Baldwin, describing Shannon's info theory stuff, said:
> 1. Ask a person to speak about any topic for a paragraph or two.
>    Instruct them to generate original sentences, not just repeats of
>    some passage of a written work.  Write down what they say.
> 2. The english language has an entropy of 1.0 to 1.5 bits per letter, so

Actually, if you've got an audio input on your computer, one way to generate 
"true" randomness for use in keys or whatever would be to turn on the microphone
and _speak_ about any topic for a few seconds, and take the MD-5 of the sound
file; the differences in voice, timing background noise, microphone quality, etc.,
ought to add a lot to the randomness.  (Or else, turn on the mike and type
N random characters and record them :-)