gpg: failed to create temporary file '/var/lib/lurker/.#lk0x569ae100.hantslug.org.uk.9135': Permission denied
gpg: keyblock resource '/var/lib/lurker/pubring.gpg': Permission denied
gpg: Signature made Wed May 14 23:46:57 2008 BST
gpg: using DSA key 20ACB3BE515C238D
gpg: Can't check signature: No public key
On Wed, May 14, 2008 at 11:37:33PM +0100, Chris Oattes wrote:
> Nick Chalk said the following on 14/05/08 22:56:
> >Peter Alefounder <p_alefounder@???> wrote:
> >>Why are pseudo-random numbers used anyway? Is it
> >>beyond the wit of man to devise a bit of
> >>hardware that would produce genuine random
> >>numbers?
> >
> >What is a "genuine" random number?
> >
>
> As I understand it, a "genuine" random number is as follows:
>
> Assume you have a stream of numbers in base 10 (i.e. made up of a series
> of digits from 0-9).
>
> This stream of numbers would be considered random if, given the first x
> digits, it is impossible to determine the x+1 th digit with probability
> > 1/10. That is to say, each digit is equally likely to be any one of
> the possible values.
>
> I'm sure I will be corrected if I am wrong.
Not wrong, possibly, but not helpful in practice. If I gave you a
list of 100,000 numbers, could you use that definition to show that it
was a stream of random numbers?
Hugo.
--
=== Hugo Mills: hugo@... carfax.org.uk | darksatanic.net | lug.org.uk ===
PGP key: 515C238D from wwwkeys.eu.pgp.net or http://www.carfax.org.uk
--- Prisoner unknown: Return to Zenda. ---
