4 ms·

> Aren't most PRNs made deterministically? All pseudorandom numbers are deterministic; that’s what the ‘pseudo-‘ prefix is meant to indicate. There are other

by kd5bjo 6y ago

> Aren't most PRNs made deterministically? All pseudorandom numbers are deterministic; that’s what the ‘pseudo-‘ prefix is meant to indicate. There are other kinds of random number generator that observe physical entropy sources instead. Perhaps the most iconic is CloudFlare’s wall of lava lamps[1]. [1] https://blog.cloudflare.com/lavarand-in-production-the-nitty-gritty-technical-details/ https://blog.cloudflare.com/lavarand-in-production-the-nitty...

_jal 6y ago
History trivia: Cloudflare stole this from SGI, who patented the idea. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavarand https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavarand
- kens 6y ago
  > Cloudflare stole this from SGI, who patented the idea. Why the accusation that Cloudflare stole this? The patent expired in 2016 and Cloudflare acknowledges SGI on their page.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- jgrahamc 6y ago
  Hardly stole it, literally acknowledged in blog post where we announced this: https://blog.cloudflare.com/lavarand-in-production-the-nitty-gritty-technical-details/ https://blog.cloudflare.com/lavarand-in-production-the-nitty... We're not the first ones to do this. Our LavaRand system was inspired by a similar system first proposed[1] and built by Silicon Graphics and patented[2] in 1996 (the patent has since expired). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavarand https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavarand [2] https://patents.google.com/patent/US5732138 https://patents.google.com/patent/US5732138
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - _jal 6y ago
    Calm down. I'm hardly accusing anyone of any wrong-doing. It is a turn-of-phrase that I'm sure most english-speakers have encountered.
    - geoelectric 6y ago
      It has a very different connotation when you say "I'm stealing..." than it does when you say "you're stealing..." It's only jargon in first-person. Compare saying "wow, I'm really stupid" when you make a mistake vs. saying "wow, you're really stupid" when they do. Self-deprecation applied to others is just deprecation.

by kd5bjo 6y ago

_jal 6y ago

History trivia: Cloudflare stole this from SGI, who patented the idea. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavarand https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavarand

kens 6y ago
> Cloudflare stole this from SGI, who patented the idea. Why the accusation that Cloudflare stole this? The patent expired in 2016 and Cloudflare acknowledges SGI on their page.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
jgrahamc 6y ago
Hardly stole it, literally acknowledged in blog post where we announced this: https://blog.cloudflare.com/lavarand-in-production-the-nitty-gritty-technical-details/ https://blog.cloudflare.com/lavarand-in-production-the-nitty... We're not the first ones to do this. Our LavaRand system was inspired by a similar system first proposed[1] and built by Silicon Graphics and patented[2] in 1996 (the patent has since expired). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavarand https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavarand [2] https://patents.google.com/patent/US5732138 https://patents.google.com/patent/US5732138
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- _jal 6y ago
  Calm down. I'm hardly accusing anyone of any wrong-doing. It is a turn-of-phrase that I'm sure most english-speakers have encountered.
  - geoelectric 6y ago
    It has a very different connotation when you say "I'm stealing..." than it does when you say "you're stealing..." It's only jargon in first-person. Compare saying "wow, I'm really stupid" when you make a mistake vs. saying "wow, you're really stupid" when they do. Self-deprecation applied to others is just deprecation.