From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@yahoo.com)
Date: Mon Sep 16 2002 - 17:13:05 MDT
--- "Ross A. Finlayson" <extropy@apexinternetsoftware.com> wrote:
> The other day I was thinking about the discussion about the keyboard
> sampling to get "random" numbers. Those numbers or statistics aren't
>
> particularly random. In fact, they're almost completely signature,
> for
> a large enough sample of keyboard or mouse activity two different
> persons' entry would reveal which person it was.
No, it isn't. How fast you hit one key is a function of a) how fast
your mind decides to hit that key, b) the speed of nerve transmission
of chemical potentials, c) what position your fingers were in for the
previous keystroke, d) the relative level of fatigue of your hands from
typing, among other factors.
The result is a highly random output *below a certain level of
significant digits* as I explained earlier. Such can be experimentally
proven by timing the striking of the same key over and over again, the
same sequence of keys, etc. to show that at a certain level of
significant digits, the output is random, or at least random enough for
any human endeavor.
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