>and, btw, I stand by my assertion that statistical uniformity doesn't
>matter for /dev/random. The uses the kernel has for random numbers
>require unguessability, and /dev/random supplies this. If you need some
>other property in user-space, it is *your* responsibility to verify that
>/dev/random supplies this, not the kernel's. Repeatability, for example,
>is often considered a virtue for simulation uses. The kernel doesn't
>supply a *repeatable* random number stream, nor should it ever be required
>to.
> --s
I have to disagree strongly...
A stream of n bits from /dev/random should not be repeatable with any
frequency greater than 1 in 2^n, but it definately should be uniformly
distributed. Otherwise the numbers aren't really random, and therefore
they aren't useful for any purpose I can think of -- certainly not monte
carlo integration or anything else that uses "random" numbers, and not for
cryptographic applications.
Dave
David Whysong dwhysong@physics.ucsb.edu
Astrophysics graduate student University of California, Santa Barbara
My public PGP keys are on my web page - http://www.physics.ucsb.edu/~dwhysong
DSS PGP Key 0x903F5BD6 : FE78 91FE 4508 106F 7C88 1706 B792 6995 903F 5BD6
D-H PGP key 0x5DAB0F91 : BC33 0F36 FCCD E72C 441F 663A 72ED 7FB7 5DAB 0F91
-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/