From: Maik Schmidt <contact@...>
Date: 2003-11-17T11:40:14+09:00
Subject: [ANN] RealRand 1.0.0

Yo!

I've just released a new Ruby project called RealRand.

 From the README file:

A lot of algorithms in cryptography etc. depend on good random
numbers, i.e. random numbers that are "real" random and not just
generated by a so called pseudo-random generator.

You cannot create real random numbers using a computer and an
algorithm. Only nature creates real randomness (just take a look
around the next time you are surrounded by a group of people.).

Real randomness occurs e.g. in atmospheric noise, during radioactive
decay, or in a lava lamp. Fortunately, you do not have to listen to an
old radio the whole day or, even worse, deposit some uranium in your
living room and observe it with a Geiger-M�ller tube. Other people do
so (in a slightly modified manner, of course) and they kindly make
their results public.

There are at least the following web sites, that offer real random
numbers for free:

   * http://www.random.org - Real random numbers are generated from
     atmospheric noise on this site.

   * http://www.fourmilab.ch/hotbits - The HotBits generator creates
     real random numbers by timing successive pairs of radioactive
     decays detected by a Geiger-M�ller tube interfaced to a computer.

   * http://random.hd.org - "This system gathers its 'entropy' or
     truely random noise from a number of sources, including local
     processes, files and devices, Web page hits and remote Web sites."

All these real random numbers can be requested via different HTTP
interfaces that all look very similar. E.g. you can request a number
of random bytes from any of the web sites above.

This project encapsulates all these very similar but still different
HTTP interfaces and offers simple Ruby interfaces to get real random
numbers from all the web sites mentioned above.

USAGE

Once RealRand is installed and your internet connection is up,
generating real random numbers is a piece of cake:

   require 'random/online'

   generator1 = Random::RandomOrg.new
   puts generator1.randbyte(42).join(",")
   # Roll the dice a 100 times.
   puts generator1.randnum(100, 1, 6).join(",")

   generator2 = Random::FourmiLab.new
   puts generator2.randbyte(7).join(",")

   generator3 = Random::EntropyPool.new
   puts generator3.randbyte(5).join(",")

IMPORTANT NOTE

All the services used in this library are offered for free by their
maintainers. So, PLEASE, have a look at their web sites and obey to
their rules, if you use their service.

You can find RealRand on RAA:

http://raa.ruby-lang.org/list.rhtml?name=realrand

RealRand's web site is:

http://www.maik-schmidt.de/realrand.html

If you have any suggestions or want to report bugs, please contact me.

Cheers,

   <maik/>