From: Alan Olsen <alan@ctrl-alt-del.com>
Date: Tue, 19 Nov 1996 01:19:36 -0800 (PST)
To: ph@netcom.com (Peter Hendrickson)
Subject: Re: Playing Cards - Caution!
Message-ID: <3.0b36.32.19961119010045.00f72934@mail.teleport.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 08:01 PM 11/18/96 -0800, Peter Hendrickson wrote:
>Here's why I now prefer dice: Dice are simple.  Each die throw can be
>made to be quite independent of all other die throws.  Even loaded dice
>may be used by throwing them repeatedly and adding the results mod the
>number of sides to the die.  Dice which are suspect may be studied by
>repeated throwing.  Non-independence can be more easily studied as
>it can be assumed that a throw of the die is, at most, related only
>to the previous throw and none before.

I used dice to generate my ATM access code for my last bank account.
(10-sided dice left over from my role-gaming days...)  The looks I got from
the bank personnel was pretty hillarious.  They had little to know clue
about guessable passwords or related issues.  (You would be amazed as to
how many people use birthday information and the like for ATM codes.)  But
then again, they though that the "bank at home" software was pretty secure
too...

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