[NCLUG] Python v.s. Ruby, and PRNGs

[Stephen Warren]

On Thu, April 10, 2008 10:58 am, Jim Hutchinson wrote:
> Would you be willing to share the code you used? I'd like to
> explore it and try and learn more myself.

Sure. You can download the current version from:

http://www.wwwdotorg.org/downloads/random/

It's not the most elegant code, global variables and all, but it works.

On Thu, April 10, 2008 11:14 am, Paul Hummer wrote:
> For instance, when overwriting a hard drive, is it really
> necessary to use /dev/random, or can /dev/urandom get close
> enough?

Chi^2 tests probably won't tell you enough to answer that question, unless
you aren't paranoid enough to ask it:-)

There are all kinds of bit-level things that need to be investigated, such
as bit-level frequencies of 0/1, run lengths, all kinds of correlation,
... Not that I actually know how to do any of that, but I imagine Google
might.