[Cryptography] A use for the 'Any' key?

Ray Dillinger bear at sonic.net
Fri Mar 27 02:36:34 EDT 2026


Apropos of nearly nothing, it is very well known that humans really suck 
at generating random keys or passwords, even if they try. Contrary to 
the experience of every parent, randomness just isn't built into us by 
default.

An 'any' key might actually be useful - a tiny little thing with one 
button on it, which plugs in via USB and tells the computer it's a 
keypad. And sends one randomly selected character every time it's pressed.

Of course, it's just a convenience, to save a little time over the 
appropriate command line invocation. But some folks might find it useful 
as a keyboard macro. It amuses me that an 'any' key might actually be 
useful.


  Bear

Just ruminatin', got nothing terribly important to say and thought y'all 
might be amused.



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