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Micro-LEDs boost random number generation

news.ycombinator.com About The Author 2025-09-23 08:48:06

Miniature LEDs called micro-LEDs have been shown to generate random numbers at gigabit-per-second speeds by a team of researchers from Saudi Arabia and the United States[1]. The generation of random numbers is vital for many tasks, including data security — where it is used to create encryption keys and passwords — and computer simulations of complex systems such as the weather and financial markets. There is, therefore, a strong demand to develop cost-effective random number generators that a

Topics: generation leds lin micro random

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A Random Walk in 10 Dimensions (2021)

news.ycombinator.com Unknown 2025-10-14 16:20:34

Physics in high dimensions is becoming the norm in modern dynamics. It is not only that string theory operates in ten dimensions (plus one for time), but virtually every complex dynamical system is described and analyzed within state spaces of high dimensionality. Population dynamics, for instance, may describe hundreds or thousands of different species, each of whose time-varying populations define a separate axis in a high-dimensional space. Coupled mechanical systems likewise may have hundred

Topics: dimensions high random walk walker

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Probability of typing a wrong Bitcoin address

news.ycombinator.com Unknown 2025-10-22 08:28:50

I heard someone say that Bitcoin is dangerous because you could easily make a typo when entering an address, sending money to the wrong person, and have no recourse. There are dangers associated with Bitcoin, such as losing a private key, but address typos are not a major concern. Checksums There are several kinds of Bitcoin addresses. Each is at least 20 bytes (160 bits) long, with at least 4 bytes (32 bits) of checksum. The chances of a typo resulting in a valid checksum are about 1 in 232.

Topics: address addresses bitcoin random typos

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Rolling the dice with CSS random()

news.ycombinator.com Unknown 2025-10-28 23:43:51

Random functions in programming languages are amazing. You can use them to generate variations, to make things feel spontaneous and fresh. Until now there was no way to create a random number in CSS. Now, the random() function is on its way. You’ll be able to create a random animation delay, layout content at a random place on the screen, create a random color, or anything you want — all without any JavaScript. The Basics This new function has three arguments in this pattern: random(min, max,

Topics: 100 random shared size star

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The power of two random choices (2012)

news.ycombinator.com Marc Brooker 2025-10-30 09:49:43

My name is Marc Brooker. I've been writing code, reading code, and living vicariously through computers for as long as I can remember. I like to build things that work. I also dabble in machining, welding, cooking and skiing.I'm currently an engineer at Amazon Web Services (AWS) in Seattle, where I work on databases, serverless, and serverless databases. Before that, I worked on EC2 and EBS.All opinions are my own. The power of two random choices In many large-scale web services, multiple laye

Topics: approach balancing best load random

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The power of two random choices

news.ycombinator.com Marc Brooker 2025-10-30 14:49:43

My name is Marc Brooker. I've been writing code, reading code, and living vicariously through computers for as long as I can remember. I like to build things that work. I also dabble in machining, welding, cooking and skiing.I'm currently an engineer at Amazon Web Services (AWS) in Seattle, where I work on databases, serverless, and serverless databases. Before that, I worked on EC2 and EBS.All opinions are my own. The power of two random choices In many large-scale web services, multiple laye

Topics: approach balancing best load random

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Ordered Insertion Optimization in OrioleDB

news.ycombinator.com Unknown 2025-11-05 08:54:47

When many sessions try to insert into the same B-tree leaf page, classic exclusive page locking serializes progress and wastes time on sleep/wake cycles. We’re introducing a batch page insertion path that lets the session holding the page lock insert for itself and its neighbors. The result: dramatically reduced lock waits, and big gains at high client counts (2X throughput boost starting from 64 clients in our benchmark). In OrioleDB beta12, inserts into a B-tree leaf are performed under an ex

Topics: 10 current_timestamp lock page random

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How randomness improves algorithms (2023)

news.ycombinator.com Ben Brubaker 2025-11-10 10:43:53

Since the very first days of computer science — a field known for its methodical approach to problem-solving — randomness has played an important role. The first program to run on the world’s first general-purpose electronic computer used randomness to simulate nuclear processes. Similar approaches have since been used in astrophysics, climate science and economics. In all these cases, plugging in random numbers at certain steps in the algorithm helps researchers account for uncertainty about th

Topics: algorithm computer number problem randomness

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Caches: LRU vs. Random

news.ycombinator.com Unknown 2025-12-07 11:45:02

Once upon a time, my computer architecture professor mentioned that using a random eviction policy for caches really isn't so bad. That random eviction isn't bad can be surprising — if your cache fills up and you have to get rid of something, choosing the least recently used (LRU) is an obvious choice, since you're more likely to use something if you've used it recently. If you have a tight loop, LRU is going to be perfect as long as the loop fits in cache, but it's going to cause a miss every t

Topics: cache caches lru miss random

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1KB JavaScript Numbers Station

news.ycombinator.com Terence Eden 2026-01-03 08:47:54

Code Golf is the art/science of creating wonderful little demos in an artificially constrained environment. This year the js1024 competition was looking for entries with the theme of "Creepy". I am not a serious bit-twiddler. I can't create JS shaders which produce intricate 3D worlds in a scrap of code. But I can use slightly obscure JavaScript APIs! There's something deliciously creepy about Numbers Stations - the weird radio frequencies which broadcast seemingly random numbers and words. Ar

Topics: creepy javascript math random words

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Random selection is necessary to create stable meritocratic institutions

news.ycombinator.com Paul Melman 2026-01-16 00:28:36

Campbell's Law (a variant of Goodhart's Law) states that the more a metric is used for social decision-making, the more it will be subject to corruption which distorts and corrupts not only the metric itself, but the very social processes it was meant to measure. Selection criteria for a position of authority are one example of such a metric. When selection criteria are opaque, it is difficult for them to become a target, preserving their utility as measures. For governance positions however, it

Topics: ability authority good randomness selection

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Why random selection is necessary to create stable meritocratic institutions

news.ycombinator.com Paul Melman 2026-01-19 06:28:36

Campbell's Law (a variant of Goodhart's Law) states that the more a metric is used for social decision-making, the more it will be subject to corruption which distorts and corrupts not only the metric itself, but the very social processes it was meant to measure. Selection criteria for a position of authority are one example of such a metric. When selection criteria are opaque, it is difficult for them to become a target, preserving their utility as measures. For governance positions however, it

Topics: ability authority good randomness selection

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Faking a JPEG

news.ycombinator.com Unknown 2026-01-20 06:57:25

25th March 2025: Faking a JPEG Click to expand I've been wittering on about Spigot for a while. It's small web application which generates a fake hierarchy of web pages, on the fly, using a Markov Chain to make gibberish content for aggressive web crawlers to ingest. Spigot has been sitting there, doing its thing, for a few months now, serving over a million pages per day. I've not really been keeping track of what it's up to, but every now and then I look at its logs to see what crawlers are

Topics: data jpeg random spigot web

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Quantum upgrade makes random number generation fully traceable

techspot.com Alfonso Maruccia 2026-03-13 15:11:00

Trust, but verify: Random number generation is a serious matter in modern computing. Most systems rely on a purely hardware-based approach to RNG, but the process is essentially impossible to verify or trace. Now, a new quantum-based method developed by US researchers could offer a potential solution to this RNG puzzle. Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado, have upgraded their previously developed quantum-based method for true random number gener

Topics: nist process quantum random rng

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Quantum mechanics provide truly random numbers on demand

news.ycombinator.com National Institute Of Standards 2026-03-11 16:26:38

This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Instrumentation for the quantum random number generator in the NIST Boulder laboratories. Credit: NIST Randomness is incredibly useful. People often draw straws, throw dice or flip coins to make fair choices. Random numbers can enable auditors to make completely unbiased selections. Randomness is also key in securit

Topics: nist numbers quantum random randomness

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When random people give money to random other people (2017)

news.ycombinator.com Unknown 2026-03-15 15:49:46

A post on Decision Science about a problem of Uri Wilensky‘s has been making the rounds: Imagine a room full of 100 people with 100 dollars each. With every tick of the clock, every person with money gives a dollar to one randomly chosen other person. After some time progresses, how will the money be distributed? People often expect the distribution to be close to uniform. But this isn’t right; the simulations in the post show clearly that inequality of wealth rapidly appears and then persists

Topics: distribution graph money person random

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Latest Tech News

Micro-LEDs boost random number generation

A Random Walk in 10 Dimensions (2021)

Probability of typing a wrong Bitcoin address

Rolling the dice with CSS random()

The power of two random choices (2012)

The power of two random choices

Ordered Insertion Optimization in OrioleDB

How randomness improves algorithms (2023)

Caches: LRU vs. Random

1KB JavaScript Numbers Station

Random selection is necessary to create stable meritocratic institutions

Why random selection is necessary to create stable meritocratic institutions

Faking a JPEG

Quantum upgrade makes random number generation fully traceable

Quantum mechanics provide truly random numbers on demand

When random people give money to random other people (2017)

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