Post whacky or neat math stuff

[Kuciwalker]

And cryptographically, things like disk seek times and CPU temperatures are bad sources of entropy, as a malicious attackers can manipulate those. Depending on the design of the system, mouse/keyboard input can be bad too.

[Harovan]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
Eh, why the distinction? Any software running on a quantum computer can generate random numbers.

In which case the source of randomness would still be the hardware.

[Meticulous Man]

[Harovan]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
And cryptographically, things like disk seek times and CPU temperatures are bad sources of entropy, as a malicious attackers can manipulate those. Depending on the design of the system, mouse/keyboard input can be bad too.

Mouse and keyboard input may not be ideal, but for the time being the only entropy sources which are both widely available and sufficiently "random". Including true RNGs in crypto-chips might become a better solution in the future.

[b etor]

awww it looks like a cute alien!

[Petek]

This site claims to generate truly random numbers.

[Kuciwalker]

Yes, by using external measurements.

[Ari Rahikkala]

Any one who considers arithmetical methods of producing random digits is, of course, in a state of sin. -- John von Neumann.

[Kuciwalker]

"The generation of random numbers is too important to be left to chance." - Robert Coveyou

[Ecthy]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
From the wiki article:



Woo.

Why does it remind me of Mandelbrot sets?

[Kuciwalker]

Because it's nearly the same idea?

[Ecthy]

Elaborate?

[Kuciwalker]

The Mandelbrot set is a set of complex numbers that share a common property. The property is that under a certain iteration the number never goes off to infinity. Specifically, if you take a complex number c(0) and say c(1) = f(c(0)), and in general c(i) = f(c(i-1)), no c(i) ever leaves a radius 2 circle from the center. (This is for a specific function f.) The black areas of the Mandelbrot fractal are the numbers in the set, and the rest of it is colored according to how many iterations it takes to leave the circle.

The Collatz conjecture relates to another iterated function, which Lul Thyme posted. As he said, the (unproven) conjecture is that any number will eventually reach 1. There's an equivalent function and conjecture for the complex numbers, and the fractal from wiki is generated similarly to the Mandelbrot fractal.