But I think the principal behind generating random numbers is
different from generating a random seed. If we could generate a
reliably random randomSeed then we would never need to do it. We
would be just as well to generate a reliably random sequence of random
numbers.
On 13 Nov 2008, at 02:18, Randall Reetz wrote:
There is a huge difference between random and unique. If you are
after unique then just use the counting numbers. If you need both
random and unique you will have to check each number generated
against a saved list of every previous number. There is nothing
wrong with a random number generator that spits out duplicate
numbers. Random is blind to history (and future). Random is not
nostalgic. A coin with two sides is just as good at random as a
pair of thousand sided dice.
Randall
-----Original Message-----
From: "Dave Cragg" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "How to use Revolution" <use-revolution@lists.runrev.com>
Sent: 11/12/2008 5:26 PM
Subject: Re: Random algorithm
It would seem that resetting the randomSeed each time you use the
random function would only have a 1-in-4,570,422 chance of getting
the same seed as the previous run, no?
Yes, but the chances of having the same seed as any of teh previous
runs becomes progressively larger. Is it not a bit like the shared
birthdays in a classroom. It only takes 23 people gathered in a room
to make the chance of two of them sharing a birthday more than 50%.
From my probably poor calculation, I think if you ran your randomSeed
algorithm about 2500 times, there would be a 50% chance that the same
randomSeed had been chosen at least twice. (At 4000, I think the
chance is over 80%) In many situations, I think a repeated sequence
would be worse than a biased sequence.
A long time since I did this kind of thing, so apologies if I have
this wrong.
Dave
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