That's funny, but it reflects a poor understanding of probability. Figure as an upper bound that there are 10^90 particles in the universe. Now imagine that y

That's funny, but it reflects a poor understanding of probability. Figure as an upper bound that there are 10^90 particles in the universe. Now imagine that you could turn the entire universe into such an efficient computer that every particle stored a bit of information, and you used it to calculate pi. The probability of finding an arbitrary binary string of length N in that pi is (1/2^N)*10^90. Set to .5, solve for N, and you get . . . 388 bits. You have a 50/50 probability of finding an arbitrary 388 bit string somewhere in there. For reference, that's about 50 characters in ASCII. Maybe enough for a threat against the president. CD cracking software seems more dubious. When dealing with brute force probability, the numbers get big very, very fast. Don't assume that just because they seem big to you means they're big enough to solve the problem you're thinking about. Do the math.