random

[Bill Bell]

kamikaze at kuoi.asui.uidaho.edu (Mark 'Kamikaze' Hughes) wrote:
> Bas van Gils <bas.vangils at home.nl> spake: 
> One of the things that I'm concerned
> about is this random-ness. My > teacher (actually a nice guy :)
> explained to us that not all > random-number-generators are "good",
> and that this selection process > *must* *be* *random*. So, my
> question: how random is the > random-number-generator that python
> uses?
> 
> "Anyone who considers arithmetical methods of producing random
> numbers is, of course, in a state of sin." -John Von Neumann
> 
> Unless you have random-number-generating hardware, you don't really
> have truly random numbers.

"Gott werft nicht!" ("God does not throw dice!") -- Albert Einstein

Sorry, I could not resist this urge. (What is it about random numbers that 
provokes so much discourse?!)