[estreeter]

Not sure how many outside the IT/electrical engineering realm find random number generation an interesting topic, but watching this vid made me think how relatively easy it would be to use the noise generated by a cheap portable headamp for this purpose:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBm8FF7E_DM
 
Pseudo-random numbers are sufficient for the majority of what I've had to do over the years - the Unix timestamp and /dev/random are easy enough to implement - but I thought this was interesting if not entirely in line with the quest for 'high fidelity'. Electromagnetic noise is something we want to minimise, but I doubt that any two cheap EBay portable amps would generate an identical noise profile - happy to hear otherwise. 

 

[watchnerd]

  Not sure how many outside the IT/electrical engineering realm find random number generation an interesting topic, but watching this vid made me think how relatively easy it would be to use the noise generated by a cheap portable headamp for this purpose:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBm8FF7E_DM
 
Pseudo-random numbers are sufficient for the majority of what I've had to do over the years - the Unix timestamp and /dev/random are easy enough to implement - but I thought this was interesting if not entirely in line with the quest for 'high fidelity'. Electromagnetic noise is something we want to minimise, but I doubt that any two cheap EBay portable amps would generate an identical noise profile - happy to hear otherwise. 

 
Once I discovered that I could induce microphonics and hum in a tube amp putting my hand near one, and that tubes degrade over time, I once made a random generator using a basic triode and a pendulum with a small magnet on it that swung close to the triodes.

 

[NiHaoMike]

Taking advantage of noise in something that is specifically designed to minimize noise doesn't make much sense. It's not very hard to make a decent white noise generator.

 

[watchnerd]

  Taking advantage of noise in something that is specifically designed to minimize noise doesn't make much sense. It's not very hard to make a decent white noise generator.

 
It doesn't make much sense if you're trying to engineer something practical.
 
It makes complete sense if you're doing something crazy as an excuse to practice arc welding skills while making technological art.

 

[estreeter]

  Taking advantage of noise in something that is specifically designed to minimize noise doesn't make much sense. It's not very hard to make a decent white noise generator.

 
Normally, I would agree, but having recently thrown an EBay cheapie in the bin - I wanted to see just how bad it could be for the price - I approached this from the POV that allows some of us to make lemonade when life hands them lemons