From: "Ed Carp [khijol SysAdmin]" <khijol!erc@cygnus.com>
Date: Tue, 26 Sep 95 06:29:20 PDT
To: khijol!netcom.com!norm@cygnus.com (Norman Hardy)
Subject: Re: "random" number seeds vs. Netscape
In-Reply-To: <ac8ccae902021004990a@DialupEudora>
Message-ID: <199509260036.TAA21140@khijol>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text


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> Very interesting. I wouldn't be too sure that a transmitted signal at a
> single frequency is the only signal that an opponent could use to bias your
> random numbers. How do you "test for randomness". I think that signal to
> noise arguments, phrased in terms of entropy, can protect you against
> unknown and unwanted signal. (Ironically you want a very low signal to
> noise ratio!) Perhaps you merely take n/(S/N) bits from the HRNG when you
> need n bits and run them thru MD5. Here S is the signal strength of the
> maximum plausible unwanted signal, and N is the noise of the diode.

I tested for randomness by looking at the distribution of random numbers 
over the range I was drawing random numbers from.  If it didn't look 
random, it wasn't ;)
- --
Ed Carp, N7EKG    			Ed.Carp@linux.org, ecarp@netcom.com
					214/993-3935	voicemail/pager
Finger ecarp@netcom.com for PGP 2.5 public key		an88744@anon.penet.fi

Q.	What's the trouble with writing an MS-DOS program to emulate Clinton?
A.	Figuring out what to do with the other 639K of memory.

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