DIY Random Number Generator

Compu486 writes "The guys over at Inventgeek have come up with a project and how artical on building a random number generator that is less than 100.00 utilizing radioactive decay. Using some Linux based open source apps and with a little ingenuity and some parts you probably have laying around your house you can build your own."

Only terrorists use random numbers!

[Anonymous Coward]

If you have nothing to randomize, you have nothing to fear.

Re:Typos

[Funkcikle]

The "article" was clearly written by a Random English Generator, powered by tritium and chapstick.

More difficult Rnd() generator

[LiquidCoooled]

I once collected loads of old broken smoke detectors and ripped out the small cell of americium from each of them.
I placed them into a big ball wrapped in tinfoil (shiney side in), then used my fathers' geiger counter to supply random numbers.

Its been working well, I've been counting the number of years its been running on my fingers, so far I've got to 13.

*note, this is totally false, but there was some stupid kid who did something similar.

Re:I did this in highschool

[MustardMan]

Yeah, but I bet you were capable of writing a comprehensible summary of the whole setup when you were in high school

Old-school

[amliebsch]

Whatever happened to just mashing your fists on the keyboard?

Re:Editors?

[WilliamSChips]

"I know the English"--WRONG.
"I know that English"--RIGHT.
Hey, you asked for it!

Re:Typos

[also-rr]

And I have to wonder...that is less than 100.00 what?

Fear not comrade, it's all part of the move to make Slashdot less US centric - this way, rather than just having foreigners confused about how much things cost, everyone gets to be confused about how much things cost.

units

[Digitus1337]

Less than 100.00! I've waited at least the past 8 for something like this!

Re:Why not using a live webcam?

[Anonymous Coward]

That would be an interesting research topic, combining output from multiple webcams as a source of entropy. What are the chances of securing funding for myself and some hawt camgirls?

Re:Old-school

[Atzanteol]

I think that's what the submitter did while summarizing the article...

Re:Old-school

[antifoidulus]

What if you pound your head on the keyboard instead? Or, *shudder* your butt?

Radiation/Science/Geek combo

[ElephanTS]

There seems to some possiblity for the creation of a superhero here. Wonder what his ability would be?

Re:Typos

[GigsVT]

This $?

Wet Hot American Summer

[blake213]

No dungeon master worth his weight in geldings goes anywhere without his... twenty-sided die!

Re:I did this in highschool

[russ1337]

Even more simple would be hash some posts here on /.

There are some pretty fricken random posts.

Re:I did this in highschool

[CTalkobt]

>> Even more simple would be hash some posts here on /.
>>
>> There are some pretty fricken random posts

Uh, actually no - you're almost always guarentted the following:

1) First Post in the 2nd message. (The first post usually has nothing to do with the article as the person never read it).
2) The 1, 2, 3, 4) Profit?? posts.
3) Natalie Portman and Grits.
4) (Old School) GoatSe posts.
5) Spwelling und Grammmer Misteaks
6) In my day we did it with a 1 bit computer that had 1 value posts.

Nope - Slashdot is far from random. :-)

Re:Coincidence photons are from positron decay...

[MustardMan]

You're half right... the experiment in question was indeed positron decay... BUT it was completely a result of momentum conservation. There is no particle left behind so the momentum has to be carried away in a pair of photons, and not a single one.

You're also right that this doesn't apply to aplha decay, because momentum is conserved via the slight recoil in the nucleus - that was a brain fart on my part remembering which type of radiation we're dealing with here.

What you are COMPLETELY FUCKING WRONG about, though, is photons having no momentum. If you had ever studied special relativity, you would know that it's possible to have momentum without mass, and the momentum of a photon is defined as P=E/c, or h*v/c.

Perhaps before you sit here calling me a twit, you should spend half a second googling for the word "photon", fuckwad.

Silly...

[rthille]

I just use a female-mood-detector. That's _my_ source of high-grade randomness.

Re:A simple 1/ megabit/sec generator for cryptogra

[strikethree]

I generated a CD full of random data, which anyone is willing to have if they want it.

640 megabytes is a little much for my connection to handle right now. Could you compress it and send it to me please? :P

strike