[Q]:Generate Unique ID's

["Martin v. Löwis"]

Paul Rubin wrote:

> The trouble is that they're constructed somewhat deterministically and
> a lot of bits get re-used.  For example, let's say that of that 128
> bits, 48 bits are the MAC address from your network card and another
> 32 bits are a timestamp with one-second resolution.

I think this is correct only historically now: in current 
implementations, Microsoft uses a RNG to generate UUIDs, and has
stopped using the Mac address. From the UuidCreate documentation:

# In Windows XP/2000, the UuidCreate function generates a UUID that
# cannot be traced to the ethernet/token ring address of the computer on
# which it was generated.

Regards,
Martin