Well, the random-letter generator at Kiwibank can turn up some funny examples of a 1000 monkeys typing.
Here’s one I have actually seen before! So much for random…
Personally? I’ve not found their service all that bad.
24 July, 2008
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24 July, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Oddly, this very day that very generator gave me
bd5m
Talk about laugh, Trev.
24 July, 2008 at 7:08 pm
Just cause something’s random doesn’t mean there won’t be repetitions. In fact, if there wasn’t the odd repetition, that would be highly suspicious and suggest that something was keeping track of what had already been generated.
24 July, 2008 at 8:37 pm
“…and suggest that something was keeping track of what had already been generated.”
i have no idea how kiwibank goes about generating random events but since “arce” occuring 1000 in a row is equally “random” as any other permutation does someone check that this doesn’t occur?
25 July, 2008 at 7:57 am
Neil: I am currently involved in something that involves drawing people by lot (ie randomly) but it turns out that drawing people more than once is bad (and so are a few other things) so in fact we do have to keep some sort of history; strictly speaking, it’s not a random draw any more.
Which I guess is what happens when you use an ordinary English word like “random” with a bunch of obsessive people with maths backgrounds (programmers). I shouldn’t have snarked earlier; “random” is one of those annoying English words with a normal and a technical meaning. I’m just totally used to the technical one now.