[Cryptography] Photon beam splitters for "true" random number generation ?

[Richard Outerbridge]

> On 2015-12-23 (357), at 16:49:59, Bill Frantz <frantz at pwpconsult.com> wrote:
> 
> On 12/22/15 at 4:45 PM, ron at flownet.com (Ron Garret) wrote:
> 
>> On Dec 22, 2015, at 1:45 PM, Bill Frantz <frantz at pwpconsult.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> On 12/21/15 at 7:26 PM, mitch at niftyegg.com (Tom Mitchell) wrote:
> …
[….]

> I will point out that the Super Bowl, and all professional US football games start with a coin flip. The procedures they use are designed to minimize issues of poor flips: (1) The other team calls the flip while the coin is in the air. (2) The reverse of the outcome is used at start of the 2nd half. But there are still some small advantages to winning the flip.

Once upon a time I asked the Royal Canadian Mint whether our National $1.00 coin, the Loonie,
flipped at the start of all professional CFL football games, was certified to be unbiased.

They sniffed at me that was not one of the qualities they tested their coins for.

U$ Mint the same, anyone?
__outer ;)

-- 
"Picking random numbers is far too important to be left to chance."