Quote:
Originally posted by adrianxw
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The computer took input from some sort of ambient energy form within the computer
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I'd read a story, a while back, about an generator which read things like CPU temperature, fan speeds and other available values from the system and used these in the derivation process. It produced a pseudo-random sequence that was very significantly more random than the normal fast algorithm, but had not been judged to be totally random, (the shortcomings are obvious).
I've come across references to entropy pooling where the system uses (arguably) truly random input from the user, such as mouse movements or keypresses, in order to generate a 'system entropy pool'. This data can then be used as required to generate security/encryption keys or random numbers.