[694] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: Random numbers from the '60's...
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Phil Karn)
Mon May 5 23:26:32 1997
Date: Mon, 5 May 1997 19:11:05 -0700 (PDT)
From: Phil Karn <karn@qualcomm.com>
To: perry@piermont.com
CC: brettc@tritro.com.au, stewarts@ix.netcom.com, cryptography@c2.net
In-reply-to: <199705052337.TAA24418@jekyll.piermont.com> (perry@piermont.com)
>I'm not sure that I trust this, if only because much of the "noise"
>might not be thermal noise but instead things like the board picking
>up stuff from the rest of the machine, most of which is decidedly
>non-random...
So don't take my word for it, try it yourself. The ear is actually a
pretty good test instrument. Listen to the speaker output of a
soundblaster card. (You might want to use earphones to avoid
feedback). It's easy to hear the difference between thermal noise (a
steady hiss or roar like a waterfall) and stray pickup from digital
signals in the computer (intermittent clicks, buzzes and beeps that
vary with processing activity).
Phil
