[Cryptography] immortal quote about randomness

[Jerry Leichter]

> 	There's no such thing as a random number.
> 	If it's random, it's not a number.
> 	If it's a number, it's not random.
> 	You can have a random distribution over numbers,
> 	but then the randomness is in the distribution,
> 	not in any particular number that may have been
> 	drawn from such a distribution.
And of course parallel statements apply to entropy.  Entropy is a property of a source of bits (well, values drawn from some set, but in most cases bits is good enough).  If you have a bunch of bits ... you have a bunch of bits.  Any entropy is in the source you drew it from, not in the bits you have.

(A bit oversimplified, both for entropy and randomness, since the connection between a particular set of bits, a particular source, and what exactly you measure may be subtle - see Kolmogorov complexity - but the point remains.  English is not a precise way to express mathematical concepts.)

                                                        -- Jerry