5 ms·

Perhaps this is a new application for the pi? A dedicated entropy appliance could be useful

ChuckMcM 13y ago
Heh, there was a company that offered just such a beast, basically a network socket and an API to fetch a random number. I thought it was a really subtle joke (like that time I carried around a Diet Coke as my Halloween costume) but once people connected the dots between "Ok, you care so much about a cryptographically secure random number generator you buy an appliance that does nothing else, and then you talk to it over the network..." As I was building IR beacons for mobile robots at the time, it led me to suggest an IR LED that was connected to a thermal emission source, then you could pick up random numbers by sampling the IR spectrum for a some period of time in your area. At least that way you don't know when the randomness was sampled (well not exactly), and your sniffer has to capture all radiated IR in all directions to ensure it has a complete history if it wants to back correlate it. Harder but still not as simple as just putting it in your machine. (which if you care enough you will do)
- jfb 13y ago
  Similar in spirit to SGI's Lavarand [1] [1] http://web.archive.org/web/19971210213248/http://lavarand.sgi.com/ http://web.archive.org/web/19971210213248/http://lavarand.sg...
  - justin66 13y ago
    Awesome. Thank you for sharing that.
- toomuchtodo 13y ago
  You'd use radioactive decay: http://www.fourmilab.ch/hotbits/ http://www.fourmilab.ch/hotbits/ You could probably do it with the radioactive source in a smoke detector.
daurnimator 13y ago
Check out http://www.entropykey.co.uk/ http://www.entropykey.co.uk/
- sneak 13y ago
  I have one of these, they work well and are relatively inexpensive. I am particularly impressed by the design.
sswezey 13y ago
For random dice generation: http://gamesbyemail.com/News/DiceOMatic http://gamesbyemail.com/News/DiceOMatic
moocowduckquack 13y ago
It might even replace the use of atomic vector plotters suspended in a nice hot cup of tea.

Heh, there was a company that offered just such a beast, basically a network socket and an API to fetch a random number. I thought it was a really subtle joke (like that time I carried around a Diet Coke as my Halloween costume) but once people connected the dots between "Ok, you care so much about a cryptographically secure random number generator you buy an appliance that does nothing else, and then you talk to it over the network..." As I was building IR beacons for mobile robots at the time, it led me to suggest an IR LED that was connected to a thermal emission source, then you could pick up random numbers by sampling the IR spectrum for a some period of time in your area. At least that way you don't know when the randomness was sampled (well not exactly), and your sniffer has to capture all radiated IR in all directions to ensure it has a complete history if it wants to back correlate it. Harder but still not as simple as just putting it in your machine. (which if you care enough you will do)

jfb 13y ago
Similar in spirit to SGI's Lavarand [1] [1] http://web.archive.org/web/19971210213248/http://lavarand.sgi.com/ http://web.archive.org/web/19971210213248/http://lavarand.sg...
- justin66 13y ago
  Awesome. Thank you for sharing that.
toomuchtodo 13y ago
You'd use radioactive decay: http://www.fourmilab.ch/hotbits/ http://www.fourmilab.ch/hotbits/ You could probably do it with the radioactive source in a smoke detector.

daurnimator 13y ago

Check out http://www.entropykey.co.uk/ http://www.entropykey.co.uk/

sneak 13y ago
I have one of these, they work well and are relatively inexpensive. I am particularly impressed by the design.

sswezey 13y ago

For random dice generation: http://gamesbyemail.com/News/DiceOMatic http://gamesbyemail.com/News/DiceOMatic

moocowduckquack 13y ago

It might even replace the use of atomic vector plotters suspended in a nice hot cup of tea.