Random Number seeds, was RE: First computer with real-time clock?

[John Lawson]

  Computer-based ramndom number seed generation:

   I may at some point remember the machine/manufacturer, but I *do* recall 
tha one (perhaps Gummint-oriented?) device used a standard radio buried in 
it somewhere, tuned to a local station, the output of which was digitized 
and the seeds extracted from that...  as I write this, IISTR that it was 
some kind of crypto-thingy...

   One of my favorite Random/Chaos devices, is the glass decorative neon 
'candle' lamp - it has parallel adjacent metal plates shaped like a small 
candle flame, and the Neon pressure is adjusted so that the discharge 
plays over the surface of the plates, giving an orange flickering 'candle 
flame' effect.

   Without going into the physics/math involved, these flickers have a 
quite random period and map completely onto the Chaos domain. I have a 
couple that I have built to produce low-speed chaos events for triggering 
Music Apparatus...  but a simple timing slicer looking at the output of 
one of these would return quite random-length numbers for every 'trigger' 
event.


  Cheerz
John