On Wed, Jan 15, 2003 at 08:51:35AM +0000, P. U. Kruppa wrote: > On Tue, 14 Jan 2003, Kevin Stevens wrote: > > > > > On Tuesday, Jan 14, 2003, at 22:46 US/Pacific, Wilkinson,Alex wrote: > > > > > Can someone recommend to me where I can read up on > > > entropy. > > > > > > ie what it is ? Why we have it ? etc etc > > > > > > - aW > > > > Entropy is a tendency towards disorder in the universe, exemplified by > > things LIKE SOME FREAKIN' CLUELESS GIT POSTING A TOTALLY OFF-TOPIC > > SCIENCE MESSAGE TO A COMPUTER OS LIST!!!
No need to be rude. > Entropy also evaluates information and is measured in so called > bits . Indeed. See random(4) for information on what FreeBSD uses entropy for. (Short version: Generating random numbers.) (So, no, this is not totally off-topic.) > The original work about this was written (I think in the > sixties) by two authors: Shannon/Weaver > Sorry, I don't know the title: it was something with information > theory. You are thing of a reprint of the original article which was "A mathematical theory of communication" by Claude Shannon, 1948. It is fairly easy to find a copy of this paper on the 'Net. The paper is actually quite readable, and strongly recommended for anybody interested in information theory or cryptology. > > Regards, > > Uli. > > > > > > Did you actually have to MOVE your browser from in front of the mail > > program to AVOID searching for this on the web?!? You DO know that it is quite possible to be able to send and receive e-mail while not being directly connected to the Internet and therefore not being able to check the WWW? (Granted, this is quite unusual today, but still a possibility.) > > > > KeS > > > > > > OB-FreeBSD: > > /usr/ports/math/entropy > > "Entropy is a program that will calculate the entropy of a given set > > of data. This program is mainly used to benchmark the efficiency > > of existing or developing compression algorithms." > > -- <Insert your favourite quote here.> Erik Trulsson [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Unsubscribe: send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
