On Tue, 23 Apr 2002, Alan Braggins wrote:
> > > Actually you left something out, the PRNG by definition must have a > > > modulus of repetition. At some point it starts the sequence over. > > > > > As usual, Jim is wrong. There are deterministic systems which never > > repeat. For example, there is an algorithm which will give you the > > nth digit of pi. > > http://www.mathsoft.com/asolve/plouffe/plouffe.html > > > > If I use this as my PRNG (one way I could seed it would > > be to use key to pick a starting point) > > Or just mix pi with a more conventional PRNG, which will avoid you having > to use huge seeds to stop your output stream matching anyone's pregenerated > lookup tables of lots of digits of pi. But that changes the game in the middle of play, the sequence of digits in pi is fixed, not random. You can't get a random number from a constant. Otherwise it wouldn't be a constant. You can't stop them from using their tables. Slow them down, not stop them. You can't use that huge a seed, hardware limitations. They can match you. -- ____________________________________________________________________ The law is applied philosophy and a philosphical system is only as valid as its first principles. James Patrick Kelly - "Wildlife" [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.ssz.com [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.open-forge.org --------------------------------------------------------------------
