On Sep 24, 2006, at 4:22 PM, M Graff wrote:

> To trained cryptographers, you need true random and/or true
> unpredictable state.
>

Pseudo-RN generators are the ones that repeat, and are predictable
to greater or lesser extent.  That's where "pseudo" comes in.
PRNs have lots of advantages in addition to their disadvantages:

You'll never get the same number twice in a row.
You WILL step through all the possible values.
You can repeat a program execution with the same values passing
through, which is handy for debugging.

The original poster asked for pseudo-random number generators.
I assumed he knew what he was asking for, and didn't need a
random number for cryptographic purposes...

BillW

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