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What'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
by andr 18y ago
What'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