Re: strengthening /dev/urandom

From: Tom St Denis (tomstdenis_at_iahu.ca)
Date: 08/20/04 

Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2004 22:42:21 GMT

Guy Macon <http://www.guymacon.com> wrote:

>
> Jean-Luc Cooke <jlcooke@engsoc.org> says...
>
>>Prove us wrong. cite 1 example of a good entropy estimator. Academic
>>papers only. I downright double-dog dare you.
>
> I estimate that a series of fair coin flips is between 0.5 and 1.0
> bits of entropy per flip, and yes, I can find many, many academic
> papers that make estimates of the entropy of coin flips that have
> ranges that are entirely within my estimated range.
>
> The point being that it is easy to make a good entropy estimator if
> you understand the physics of your entropy source, and that you have

Our point is what if I swap your coin with a weighted one [this argument
works better with a die]?

Tom

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