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Hot and cold running randomness
>From Keith Dawson's Tasty Bits from the Technology Front....
Cheers,
Bob Hettinga
> ..Hot and cold running randomness
>
> Perhaps for the first time, anyone with an Internet connection can
> tap a source of true randomness. The creator of HotBits [16], John
> Walker <[email protected]>, describes it as
>
> > an Internet resource that brings genuine random numbers, gen-
> > erated by a process fundamentally governed by the inherent
> > uncertainty in the quantum mechanical laws of nature, directly
> > to your computer... HotBits are generated by timing successive
> > pairs of radioactive decays... You order up your serving of
> > HotBits by filling out a [Web] request form... the HotBits
> > server flashes the random bytes back to you over the Web.
>
> Walker modified an off-the-shelf radiation detector to interface to
> a PC-compatible serial port, and ran a cable three floors down from
> his office to a converted 70,000-litre subterranean water cistern
> with metre-thick concrete walls, where the detector nestles with a
> 60-microcurie Krypton-85 radiation source.
>
> If you're in the mood for an anti-Microsoft rant of uncommon elo-
> quence, Walker can supply that too [17].
>
> Thanks to Keith Bostic <[email protected]> for the word on this de-
> lightful service.
>
> [16] <URL:http://www.fourmilab.ch/hotbits/>
> [17] <URL:http://www.fourmilab.ch/hotbits/source/hotbits-c.html>
> ____________________
-----------------
Robert Hettinga ([email protected]), Philodox
e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"Never attribute to conspiracy what can be
explained by stupidity." -- Jerry Pournelle
The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/rah/