I'd just like to add an anecdote on pseudo-random number generation: several years ago, a group of Canadian comp. sci. students were arrested for fraud. A casino made the charges, claiming the students 'hacked' into their computer which dealt the numbers for one of their random-draw games.
Naturally, everyone suspected that the boys had done something nefarious, since they were in the black magic arts of computing. The boys came away with several thousand dollars in winnings. When they arrested the college kids, they sheepishly explained how they did it: the computer, which drew the random numbers, used the last few digits of the clock as the pseudo-random number. This is a standard method of picking random numbers, though it's awfully insecure. The computers were started, every day, automatically, at precisely the same moment. Due to the nature of the game, the draws were fixed in time, as well, for example, a draw would occur exactly every 15 minutes. The boys realized that the same numbers appeared at the same time of day, and simply bet on them. I can't seem to find a link to this story, though. Is it bogus? Cibby ---------------------------------------------------- 20/20 Filmsight http://moviecritic.com.au --- On Mon, 6/23/08, Rick Welykochy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > From: Rick Welykochy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: [SLUG] Is someone is snooping my wireless? > To: "Glen Turner" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Cc: "Jonathan Lange" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, [email protected] > Received: Monday, June 23, 2008, 7:57 AM > Glen Turner wrote: > > > They avoid number at the extremes > > and avoid repeated digits (a 60 byte string would have > > a run of 6 repeated digits about one time in five). > > The result is very non-random. > > Yes indeed. I've read about complaints from consumers > about seemingly non-random behaviour in the shuffle > function on iPods. Apple tries to explain that yes, > the iPod can easily play 3 songs in a row by the same > artist when in random mode. This is the nature of > randomness. Usually falls on deaf ears. > > cheers > rickw > > -- > ________________________________________________________________ > Rick Welykochy || Praxis Services || Internet Driving > Instructor > > A lie can travel halfway around the world > while the truth is putting on its shoes. > -- Mark Twain > -- > SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - > http://slug.org.au/ > Subscription info and FAQs: > http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html __________________________________________________________________ Be smarter than spam. See how smart SpamGuard is at giving junk email the boot with the All-new Yahoo! Mail. Click on Options in Mail and switch to New Mail today or register for free at http://mail.yahoo.ca -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
