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Okay, people, let's see what Webster's has to say. 1 a : lacking a definite plan, purpose, or pattern b : made, done, or chosen at random <read random passages from the book> 2 a : relating to, having, or being elements or events with definite probability of occurrence <random processes> b : being or relating to a set or to an element of a set each of whose elements has equal probability of occurrence <a random sample>; also : characterized by procedures designed to obtain such sets or elements <random sampling> Note the absence of any guarantee noone else can produce the same result. For security, I agree with you Leif. Noone should be able to generate the number simply by trying various combinations from a list. However, that one is able to do so is irrelevant as to whether the number is random. In the final analysis, the list of possible values is always known. There are only so many characters in the alphabet and so many numbers, right? Donald R. Fisher, III Project Manager Heilig-Meyers Furniture Company (804) 784-7500 ext. 2124 Don.Fisher@HeiligMeyers.com <clip> the lotto numbers (and your 1-digit number) are not random in the sense of being unknowable beforehand. It can generate a list of all these numbers any time I want to. That I don't know which one will win is not important as far as the randomness is concerned, but is, of course, of some interest as far as the lottery is concerned. Imagine that I need a random number to generate a secure session key. I can generate millions of them in seconds and try them all until I find the one that gives me access. Flipping a (fair) coin may seem to be a random process, but the binary sequence HTH (head, tail, head) hardly qualifies as a random number. Now flip the coin 100 times and you have a good (and long) random number. Nobody else can produce the same number. <clip> +--- | This is the Midrange System Mailing List! | To submit a new message, send your mail to MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com. | To subscribe to this list send email to MIDRANGE-L-SUB@midrange.com. | To unsubscribe from this list send email to MIDRANGE-L-UNSUB@midrange.com. | Questions should be directed to the list owner/operator: david@midrange.com +---
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