Random Numbers in Perl

[foodog@uswest.net]

  I can't state that it's cryptographically sound*, but if I
wanted a "comfortably random" number I'd do something like:
read a pseudo-random number of bytes from /dev/random then
pass the results through md5sum.  I'd be comfortable using
rand() to determine how many bytes to get from /dev/random.

*I'm neither a mathematician nor a cryptographer; I didn't
sleep at a Comfort Inn last night either.  I've read Applied
Cryptography though.  There are also "true" random number
streams available on the net.  One of the more interesting
ones uses a Lava Lamp as it's entropy source, others use
radioactive decay, outer-space radio noise, etc.

Steve
> This is an excellent go, and I'll only make one kibbitz technically:
> 
> \_         $randigit = int( rand( $base) );
> 
> Do you trust rand() to be random?
> 
> It's probably mostly random as far as humans can tell, but computers?
> rand('maybe', 'maybe not').  :-)
> 
> David

-- 
Carpe cerevisiae