We used it in the cable company to pick winners of those customers that entered a contest to win a TV, free service, free movies, etc.
----- Original Message -----
From: Jeff Crosby
To: 'Midrange Systems Technical Discussion'
Sent: Friday, February 01, 2008 11:35 AM
Subject: RE: Random number access on the i5
I have a question regarding random numbers.
I have been doing business programming for 30+ years. I have never needed a
random number and simply don't have any idea why one would need such a
thing.
Somebody enlighten me. :)
--
Jeff Crosby
UniPro FoodService/Dilgard
P.O. Box 13369
Ft. Wayne, IN 46868-3369
260-422-7531
The opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily the opinion of my
company. Unless I say so.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Buck
> Sent: Friday, February 01, 2008 11:30 AM
> To: midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: Random number access on the i5
>
> Mark Villa wrote:
>
> > Is there such a thing as a "certified random number"? I
> would like to
> > get this behind me and I have not found a methodology I can
> sign off
> > on yet. Ideally, any correct algorithm could be multiple
> platform. I
> > am under the impression that it should be CPU dependant and
> a CPU must
> > support it directly with an instruction.
>
> I am partial to Park & Miller rather than the C library
> routines, see
http://www.firstpr.com.au/dsp/rand31/ A decent
> explanation of pseudorandom numbers is in the Wikipedia
>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudo-random_number_generator
> Knuth in volume 2 of The Art of Computer Programming has a
> long and useful section on randomness.
>
> What do you need the random number to do?
> --buck
midrange.com
