Re: random seed generation without user interaction?

[David Honig]

At 11:39 AM 6/6/00 -0400, Steven M. Bellovin wrote:
>>There is an article (somewhere) on the net of digital cameras focused
>>on lava lamps. Photos are taken of the lava lamps and mixed into a

>I had thought it was patented, but a quick search of uspto.gov didn't 
>turn it up.

The basic principle is measure something analog -even a camera pointed
at an unchanging wall includes electronic noise.  What is measured
ranges from human motion to network activity to the decay of unstable
nuclei.  No
source gives pure entropy, you have to measure in practice, and
account for structural regularity as well as drift in your equiptment.  
Be extremely conservative and hash the hell out of it.

A desktop water fountain has more bandwidth than a lava lamp, BTW.