[Cryptography] Generate Random Data From Sound Card

[Kent Borg]

On 3/9/26 6:41 PM, John Gilmore wrote:
> Kent Borg and Jon Callas wrote:
>>>> [...] the Kent who has currency in his wallet with serial numbers of it, and though those serial numbers are in no way "truly random", it is exceedingly likely no one in the world knows what those serial numbers are...
>> Oh, yes. This is one of the points I was trying to make. All we need is something that is arbitrarily hard for an adversary to guess...
> Do you both really believe that that modern ATM machines aren't recording
> the serial numbers of the paper cash that they issue to you?

Oh, I know for sure they are doing what they can along those lines. I 
just said no one knows the serial numbers of the cash in /my/ wallet. I 
know something of how it got there, and mostly I know little about how 
it got there, because I deal with cash so little these days that it sits 
there so long. Enough uncertainty to make it real entropy for an RNG.

Certainly if you went from an empty wallet to to a fat one via an ATM 
visit, then you should not assume no one knows the serial numbers in 
your wallet.

It was a bad example on my part, it spoke too much very specific 
circumstances that no one else could know. I apologize for my bad choice.


> PS: And if you didn't think the US Post Office was photographing and
> OCR-ing the envelope of every letter sent through the postal mail, check
> out:

/Heck/ yes. I get an e-mail every day from the post office sending me 
copies of those scans. They have the data anyway, I at least want my copy!

Actually, I get two such e-mails every day, one for my post office box 
and one for my physical address. At least the days I get mail. Like 
cash, who uses snail mail anymore?

There is a third address for which I would like those e-mails, but they 
aren't available for that address. Hmmm, holes in the spy network, and 
as USPS is slowly crumbling, the holes might never get filled.


-kb, the Kent knows at least something about how they are spying on him.
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