http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/ Engadget Comments for USB Hourglass flips itself, generating random numbers in the process http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/Dec 22nd 2009 1:01PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/Dec 22nd 2009 1:33PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/
Yes. this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rI-pct3zy18]]>Dec 22nd 2009 1:34PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/
Which is where Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle comes in to play...]]>Dec 22nd 2009 1:38PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/No, put for humans we don'f fully understand the universe, and in such we can generate numbers of disparate meanings (to us humans), what we call Random.
]]>Dec 22nd 2009 2:00PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/Dec 22nd 2009 2:04PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/
"Is anything truly random?"

Only if things are ever truly 'ordered'...]]>Dec 22nd 2009 2:06PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/Dec 22nd 2009 1:08PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/Dec 22nd 2009 1:09PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/Dec 22nd 2009 1:12PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/http://xkcd.com/221/]]>Dec 22nd 2009 1:13PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/Dec 22nd 2009 3:47PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/Dec 22nd 2009 1:34PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/
For the pure Rube Goldberg fun of it.]]>Dec 22nd 2009 1:41PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/You are nicer than I am.
@RedWingsFan
You really should consider the number of derogatory combinations there are of "hockey fan" and unkind words for "unimaginative and statistically likely to have incurred repeated head trauma" before attempting to detract from your betters.]]>Dec 22nd 2009 3:03PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/Dec 22nd 2009 1:35PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/Yeah, but this is just quirky and cool :p]]>Dec 22nd 2009 7:14PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/Dec 22nd 2009 1:43PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/Dec 22nd 2009 1:50PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/Dec 22nd 2009 1:54PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/Dec 22nd 2009 2:09PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/Dec 22nd 2009 2:18PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/http://gamesbyemail.com/News/DiceOMatic]]>Dec 22nd 2009 2:54PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/Dec 22nd 2009 5:54PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/The problem is that it would never be truly random. Although very very very hard to find out, it is still generating the number based on some algorithm (albeit very complicated). ]]>Dec 22nd 2009 6:36PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/That is simply not "random". It is entirely dependent on the factors you mention in your own post. A number based directly on other variable factors such as these can never be random.]]>Dec 22nd 2009 7:15PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/
and i agree.
the only thing i will call random is neuron firing in a baby.]]>Dec 22nd 2009 9:52PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/Maybe a human can pick a random number?
Then.... maybe we are god??
I'm not sure... which seems to indicate that at least I am not a god.]]>Dec 23rd 2009 12:34AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/
Well, if you think about it, if God just came to be (or simply "always is and always has been," which basically means: just came to be), as most who argue the point would argue, then technically HE is random. His very existence is random, so everything he does is based in randomness, so everything is random, if you trace it back to its origin. Or so my rather tired brain would have me believe.]]>Dec 23rd 2009 1:40AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/
The problem I see with this is that it would only give you a random number within a certain range. Unless you were doing it based on the one column in the number (so in 13 it would be 3. I know there's a word for that, and it's not one column, but I can't think of it at the moment) of seconds that had passed, and you only needed to generate numbers 0-9. Otherwise you'd be getting 33, 34, 35, 33, 37, 32, or something to that extent.

And of course there's the fact that there isn't really anything that's random. Randomness is similar to the God of the Gaps. In the same way that primitive societies claim God to be behind natural forces that they don't understand, we claim randomness to be behind numbers that we don't know how they were generated (or other "random" phenomena).]]>Dec 23rd 2009 1:36AM