Thank you! It's almost supper time on the East coast, but I'd love to have it after supper.

 

Hello,

The LFSR (linear feedback shift register) can be used as a pseudo random (it cycles) generator.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LFSR

Bertus

 

For a digital circuit to act like a die (1-6 result), it can simply be a near Mhz speed counter that stops with a button press. You would get consecutive numbers, but that is expected in random numbers. If a requirement was that "the same digit shouldn't appear twice", then it isn't a random number.

Generating completely random numbers is a task of it's own, though the desire for RNGs has been increased lately with cryptography.

On *nix servers, /dev/random is a LFSR type pseudo random number generator, capable of a several kilobytes per second. For more precise needs, /dev/urandom is a "better" random number generator, but capable of only a few dozen byes per second output. There are PCI cards that run ASICs specifically for Very Fast Random Number Generation in web servers.

 

It's always interesting to watch the brightest minds debate the qualities of the most exquisite random number generators that have ever been conceived, for a kid who can't spell "please".

Hardware functions using "Black Magic" and software versions of "Monte Carlo" are always fun.

http://www.sigcon.com/publications.htm#books

 

Forgot This Link

It is a DIY TRNG (True Random Number Generator). It uses radioactive decay of Americium from a smoke alarm in front of a web-cam's CCD once the lenses are removed.

Under $100 total for pure randomness into a USB port. The PCI cards that use optics and quantum mechanics are upwards of $1,000 for 4Mbit/sec of TRNG Data.

 

Forgot This Link

It is a DIY TRNG (True Random Number Generator). It uses radioactive decay of Americium from a smoke alarm in front of a web-cam's CCD once the lenses are removed.

That's pretty slick.

Maybe even radioactive decay is not as stable (random?) as once thought.
http://www.physorg.com/news202456660.html
It's possible that something other than random quantum wave effects might affect particle emissions from unstable nuclei.

Will it change the outcome of any process derived from this source? Doubtful.

Oldie but goodie.
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1750.txt

 

and the OP says:

cricket cricket