from the wore-out-your-welcome-with-random-precision dept.
ANU launches quantum-powered random number generator on AWS Marketplace:
The Australian National University (ANU) has announced the ANU Quantum Numbers (AQN) online random number generator has been launched on Amazon Web Services (AWS) Marketplace to scale the service and make it available to more than 310,000 active AWS customers.
According to ANU, AQN uses quantum technology to generate true random numbers at high speed and in real-time by measuring the quantum fluctuations of the vacuum.
"Quantum physics practically provides an infinite source of truly random numbers. These quantum random numbers are guaranteed by the laws of physics to be unpredictable and unbiased," AQN team leader Professor Ping Koy Lam said.
[...] Under the free tier of the service, anyone online can create an API key to make up to 100 requests a month to the AQN API. However, by launching AQN on AWS Marketplace, AWS customers can make unlimited requests and be charged for each request they make.
"Random numbers are needed in IT, data science, and modelling. Without random numbers you can't have reliable models for forecasting and research simulation," said Dr Syed Assad, one of the researchers behind AQN.
"But they are also used by artists to help with removing human biases from their creative work. In computer gaming and smart contracts, true random numbers are also an indispensable resource. We've even had a request from a father to generate random numbers that he then used as inspiration for his daughter's name."
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 28 2022, @02:19AM (2 children)
do I get a blowjob now?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 28 2022, @03:45AM
sure, draw some lips on your thumb and forefinger, and pucker up.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 28 2022, @05:42AM
You forgot to roll a quantum number.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 28 2022, @04:04AM (2 children)
> The Australian National University (ANU) has announced the ANU Quantum Numbers (AQN) online random number generator
> These quantum random numbers are guaranteed by the laws of physics to be unpredictable and unbiased,"
I'm waiting for it to be discovered the results are all upside-down/bit-inverted.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by driverless on Thursday April 28 2022, @05:53AM (1 child)
Or that it was long ago compromised by DPRK/Russia/China/some random hacker and what everyone has been using to generate their valuable crypto keys is MD5(getuid()). A networked, shared, online secure RNG is an oxymoron.
It's a cool stunt, but not much more. And you've been able to buy this stuff off the shelf [idquantique.com] for years.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Thursday April 28 2022, @01:56PM
You've got a narrow focus. As you point out it's not a good source of secure random numbers, but this doesn't mean it's not a good source of random numbers for many applications. The examples listed in the summary don't have anything to do with security. (OTOH, most of those don't need real random numbers, either. So, yeah, it's largely PR.)
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 28 2022, @05:30PM (2 children)
What is the definition of a "truly random" sequence of numbers, and what's the metric that I would use to determine whether one sequence is more random than another? It's not the purported source of the randomness that should matter-- only the nature of the numbers themselves. Until you can show me a metric, I'm calling bullshit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 28 2022, @08:05PM
You determine the quality of a random number source by generating LOTS of numbers and analizing the results - ideally you get an equal number of each number in the range.
And since this is on AWS, you can pay for each one used in your sample!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 28 2022, @09:37PM
Truly random are those where the next number drawn is completely independent of any that came before them. It has nothing to do with the quality of the numbers but their source. https://www.random.org/randomness/ [random.org] is a good introduction to randomness theory and https://www.fourmilab.ch/rpkp/experiments/statistics.html [fourmilab.ch] is a good explanation of the underlying statistics.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday April 28 2022, @05:42PM
function int randomImteger() {
// this number was chosen at random by a throw of a fair six sided die.
return 4;
}
See?!? It's really not that difficult.
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...