From: "Henry W. Farkas" <hfarkas@carfax.ims.advantis.com>
Date: Wed, 8 Nov 1995 04:52:57 +0800
To: SINCLAIR DOUGLAS N <sinclai@ecf.toronto.edu>
Subject: Re: Video as a source of randomness
In-Reply-To: <95Nov5.095208edt.917@cannon.ecf.toronto.edu>
Message-ID: <Pine.A32.3.91.951107144655.17867B-100000@gandalf.ims.advantis.com>
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On Sun, 5 Nov 1995, SINCLAIR DOUGLAS N wrote:

> The cheapest strong source of video noise that I can think of would be
> a small fan with a ribbon tied to the grille.  As long as it's in a
> turbulent flow regime, you'll get very random numbers at a fast rate.

Oh, I don't know about cheapest.  Electricity costs money.  How does $.32 
per day sound to you?  I've come up with a successful algorithm that 
works like this: I generate a number based upon a random seed.  To get 
the seed, I mail a letter in exactly the same bin at exactly noon 
Monday - Saturday at the US Post Office on Orange Street in New Haven, 
CT.  The letter is always addressed to the exact same recipient.  I simply 
record the number of days it takes for the letter to arrive.  Guaranteed 
random.

===========================================================================
     Henry W. Farkas      |     Me?     Speak for IBM?     Fat chance.
 hfarkas@ims.advantis.com |------------------------------------------------  
   hfarkas@vnet.ibm.com   |     http://www.ims.advantis.com/~hfarkas
      henry@nhcc.com      |          http://www.nhcc.com/~henry 
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We'll just outlaw unlicensed cryptography.  After all, it works in France.
You don't see weekly terrorist attacks there any more do you?  - futplex -
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