3 ms·
Perfect randomness does not exist (in a book)
- apu 18y agoThis is classic, although this is by far one of the worst comments. See the rest: http://www.amazon.com/review/product/0833030477/ref=cm_rdp_hist_hdr_cm_cr_acr_txt?_encoding=UTF8&showViewpoints=1 http://www.amazon.com/review/product/0833030477/ref=cm_rdp_h... One of my favorites: Once you get about halfway in, the rest of the story is pretty predictable. Still worth reading though.
- markbao 18y agoWhile the printed version is good, I would have expected the publisher to have an audiobook version as well. A perfect companion for one's Ipod.
- kqr2 18y agoCheck out: http://www.kvrx.org/node/32430 http://www.kvrx.org/node/32430 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_station http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_station Most likely encrypted spy messages, but the numbers seem random enough. As a kid, I recall being able to pick up a few of these number station broadcasts.
- jamesjyu 18y agoI took a class in statistics in college. I used this book to help me select random phone numbers for a poll I was conducting for my class project. (The most popular household cleanser in the greater Siouxland area is Bon Ami, by the way.) One of those phone calls was answered by the woman who is now my wife. We've been happily married for ten years! Thank you, RAND.
- andr 18y agoWhat's the purpose of that book? It's published in 2002, so computers had been able to generate random numbers for decades. It's worthless as an OTP book, as it's probably the only such book.
- DLWormwood 18y agoBased on the backcover flap and the existence of a "foreword," RAND probably republished this as a historical curiosity, not for serious use. That said, having a book to flip through physically to a "random" page introduces a semi-non-deterministic element that most computer PRNGs lack, so it could have casual use in experimental endeavors in that regard. Also, since each line is indexed, it's a number sequence that reproducible for those kinds of simulations or projects that require the same (but at one time random+) sequence for each trial. (Probably for reproducing or comparing to experiments from the pre-digital era of 30-50 years ago.) + See http://xkcd.com/221/ http://xkcd.com/221/ for an example of this rationale
- time_management 18y agoLooks like someone is doing it wrong.