Marcel Popescu wrote:
>
> Would a public PRNG (Yarrow?) server be of any use?
> ...
> I'm asking this because I think that a big problem with PRNGs is that the
> application is the more difficult part - securing the seed file, making sure
> the entropy into the system is correct, and any other issues I can't think
> of right now. It would be easier to set them up *correctly* on one computer
> than on many, and at most the randomness-demanding applications on the
> client computers could "fall back" on the server.
Possibly I'm just exposing my ignorance here, but it seems it would be
more effective and probably less total work to write a really good
HOWTO and to put together some tarballs/packages/self-extracting ZIPs
for different systems. A discussion of just what makes it so difficult
to set up a good PRNG *correctly* would be apropos, too.
Jim Choate mentioned the random-number servers for on-line gamers.
Again, I might just be exposing my ignorance, but I'm guessing the
quality of the random number stream isn't that critical. Probably a
half-assed PRNG, such as any half-assed sysadmin could set up, would
do the trick. Or are $1000 games going on out there?
--
Steve Furlong, Computer Condottiere Have GNU, will travel
518-374-4720 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
