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From: piner@pur-phy.UUCP
Newsgroups: sci.math,sci.physics,sci.crypt,sci.math.stat
Subject: Re: Do you use RANDOM NUMBERS?
Message-ID: <2156@pur-phy.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 20-Mar-87 16:24:35 EST
Article-I.D.: pur-phy.2156
Posted: Fri Mar 20 16:24:35 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 22-Mar-87 20:12:13 EST
References: <5712@reed.UUCP> <419@esl.UUCP>
Reply-To: piner@pur-phy.UUCP (Richard Piner)
Organization: Purdue Univ. Physics Dept., IN
Lines: 13
Xref: utgpu sci.math:738 sci.physics:939 sci.crypt:253 sci.math.stat:78
Summary: How to get real ones.

Just a point of information. It is possible to get a real random
number from a computer. On Z-80 machines (like the TRS-80) it is
possible to read the memory refresh register. The register can
have any value between 0 and 64k. The "RANDOMIZE" function in
BASIC uses this register to start a psuedo-random number sequence.
Since the time you select to look at the register is random,
the number read is random. It is important to note that the randomness
here is dependent on when the human hits the key to start the
program. If you write a program to read the register in a loop,
you will get a periodic series. 

					Richard Piner
					piner@pur-phy.UUCP