24 lines
3.6 KiB
HTML
24 lines
3.6 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>randomness</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../R.html" title="R"/><link rel="previous" href="random-numbers.html" title="random numbers"/><link rel="next" href="rape.html" title="rape"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">randomness</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="random-numbers.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">R</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="rape.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="randomness"/><dt xmlns="" id="randomness"><b>randomness</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> 1. An inexplicable misfeature; gratuitous inelegance. </p></dd><dd><p> 2. A <a href="../H/hack.html"><i class="glossterm">hack</i></a> or <a href="../C/crock.html"><i class="glossterm">crock</i></a>
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that depends on a complex combination of coincidences (or, possibly, the
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combination upon which the crock depends for its accidental failure to
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malfunction). “<span class="quote">This hack can output characters 40--57 by putting the
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character in the four-bit accumulator field of an XCT and then extracting
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six bits — the low 2 bits of the XCT opcode are the right
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thing.</span>” “<span class="quote">What randomness!</span>” </p></dd><dd><p> 3. Of people, synonymous with <span class="firstterm">flakiness</span>. The connotation is that the person
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so described is behaving weirdly, incompetently, or inappropriately for
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reasons which are (a) too tiresome to bother inquiring into, (b) are
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probably as inscrutable as quantum phenomena anyway, and (c) are likely to
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pass with time. “<span class="quote">Maybe he has a real complaint, or maybe it's just
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randomness. See if he calls back.</span>”</p></dd><dd><p>Despite the negative connotations of most jargon uses of this term
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have, it is worth noting that randomness can actually be a valuable
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resource, very useful for applications in cryptography and elsewhere.
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Computers are so thoroughly deterministic that they have a hard time
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generating high-quality randomness, so hackers have sometimes felt the need
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to built special-purpose contraptions for this purpose alone. One
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well-known website offers random bits <a href="http://www.fourmilab.ch/hotbits/" target="_top"> generated by radioactive
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decay</a>. Another derives random bits from <a href="http://lavarnd.org/" target="_top">chaotic systems</a> in analog electronics.
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Originally, the latter site got its random bits by doing photometry on lava
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lamps. Hackers invariably found this hilarious. If you have to ask why,
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you'll never get it.)</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="random-numbers.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../R.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="rape.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">random numbers </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> rape</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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