tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4594832939334410220.post8336502893811420323..comments2024-02-12T06:23:51.153-06:00Comments on Deeply Trivial: Statistics Sunday: Random versus Pseudo-RandomUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4594832939334410220.post-17784002348832497802017-11-06T21:42:10.235-06:002017-11-06T21:42:10.235-06:00I love using http://random.org which claims to gen...I love using http://random.org which claims to generate really random, rather than just pseudo-random, numbers (produced by a sort of Brownian motion machine, I think). The concept of randomness is fascinating philosophically, I find it very hard to get a grip on what it "means" at an ontological level: obviously random sequences are impossible to predict, but once you take away the observer, what makes things random or non-random? Is anything ever *completely* random? Gordon Ingramhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06466059168771018808noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4594832939334410220.post-72934092600953545022017-11-05T09:04:02.501-06:002017-11-05T09:04:02.501-06:00This is a big problem in software security. Modern...This is a big problem in software security. Modern encryption depends on large prime numbers, and they need to be as random as possible. So in software we talk about cryptographically strong RNGs. See, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptographically_secure_pseudorandom_number_generatorThe Daily Parkerhttp://www.thedailyparker.comnoreply@blogger.com