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Subject: Re: forgot to put this in my previous message
From: Lewis McCarthy (pseudonymacm.org)
Date: Mon Sep 25 2000 - 22:55:27 CDT

John Kedzie wrote:
> Also, http://www.onetimepad.net/en/main.html
> says that they have a true random number generator (which i think they said
> is a program) I laughed when I saw it, but figured I better ask you guys if
> that is the real deal,

Their website is rather terse on the nature of the generator, but
http://www.onetimepad.net/en/otp_rand.html acknowledges that
        "Since software random number generators on standard computers
         do not really produce random numbers, we had to look for new
         ways of generating genuine random numbers."
and http://www.onetimepad.net/en/PS-Rand.html claims
        "As pseudo random numbers are absolutely useless in encryption
         protocols, this product generates true randomness which
         otherwise is only achievable by using expensive hardware
         extensions."

My guess is they're gathering entropy from physical events that are
measurable on ordinary PCs. Potential sources of this sort include
turbulence in disk drives (studied by Davies et al.) and myriad
other system phenomena influenced by user activity. Platform-specific
virtual RNG devices like Linux's /dev/random feed on data like this.

> or if they're just tryin to make a quick $

The former doesn't preclude the latter. :-)

-Lewis
NP: "Good Times, Bad Times" / Led Zeppelin / "Remasters" 

-- 
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