From: Bruce Murphy <packrat@ratbox.rattus.uwa.edu.au>
Date: Sun, 18 Feb 1996 22:32:36 +0800
To: maruishi@netcom.com
Subject: Re: True random numbers
In-Reply-To: <199602172002.MAA09152@netcom20.netcom.com>
Message-ID: <199602181409.WAA01614@ratbox.rattus.uwa.edu.au>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


In message <199602172002.MAA09152@netcom20.netcom.com>, 
  maruishi@netcom.com wrote:
> 
> I was trying to think of a way to come up with true random numbers...
> And knowing a bit of UNIX socket TCP/IP programming I made a small little
> program that generates random numbers by measuring the mili-second timing ies
>  a TCP packet to bounce back, from another network. 
>   My program simply send some data to port 7 (echo port) of a network on an i
> nternal list. Then timing it, randomly picks a different network to send to. 

Interesting idea. Trends may be externally visible, You would probably
want to normalize it, and you would find that there was quite a few
deterministic elements of network load -> delay.

Oh, did I mention clock granularity?

In short you really aren't going to get 'random numbers' from such a
scheme, but that's not to say you couldn't have fun playing with it,
you might even find some use for the ways of calculating immediate
network load around a node. Especially with regard to interception of
packets and allowing for time discrepancies whilst doing so.

Altogether off topic, but could maybe be developed into an idea with,
maybe a 30% change of being Perrygrammed. Keep working.

<invisible to perry>
Bounce me the code, could be interesting
</invisible to perry>

--
Packrat (BSc/BE;COSO;Wombat Admin)
Nihil illegitemi carborvndvm.