Lottery Numbers

[R. A. Hettinga]

<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/08/technology/circuits/08diar.html?pagewanted=print&position=>

The New York Times

April 8, 2004
ONLINE DIARY

Lottery Numbers and Books With a Voice
By PAMELA LiCALZI O'CONNELL

<snip...>
 Pick a Number

Lotto players, note: it's awfully hard to come up with a truly random
number or number sequence.

 Most online random-number generators actually offer "pseudo-random"
numbers because computers aren't good at doing anything by chance. To
generate numbers that are truly random requires a source of entropy, or
disorder, outside the computer itself.

 A new site, randomnumbers.info, locates such a source in quantum physics,
specifically, the reflection of a light particle on a semitransparent
mirror. The site exploits this optical process to generate up to 1,000
random numbers on demand.

 "You need a quantum process if you want real randomness," said Grégoire
Ribordy, chief executive of Id Quantique, a commercial spinoff of the
University of Geneva, the project's originator.

 Other sites also offer true random numbers, said Mads Haahr, lecturer in
computer science at Trinity College, Dublin. His site, random.org, uses
atmospheric noise from a radio as a source of disorder; the random numbers
at HotBits (www.fourmilab.ch/hotbits) are generated by radioactive decay;
and LavaRnd (www.lavarnd.org) taps the unpredictability of lava lamps.

 Aside from players looking for an edge in Pick Six, true random number are
needed in applications like cryptography. But people also have used
random.org's output in unexpected ways. One writer used random numbers to
help decide on the next plot twist in his novel. Others have tapped the
site to determine the order of words asked in a spelling bee and to help
decide which chores on a list to do first.

 For some, then, random numbers are the holy grail of decision-support
tools: a truly unbiased source.

<snip..>



-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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