[Q]:Generate Unique ID's
Lulu of the Lotus-Eaters
mertz at gnosis.cx
Sat May 24 03:52:49 EDT 2003
Paul Rubin <http://phr.cx@NOSPAM.invalid> wrote previously:
|No, absolutely not. If there's only 2^32 states in the RNG you can
|expect to see duplicate UUID's after 2^16 rn's or so. It's the same
|principle as the "birthday paradox"
This is almost surely wrong. Or at least if the discussion is still
about PSEUDO random number generators (maybe I lost the thread, and
Rubin moved to discussing a 32-bit hard random source). Since a PRNG is
a deterministic iteration of an algorithm, if some state N is the same
as state M, then state N+1 is also the same as M+1. Therefore, if N and
M are seperated by only 2^16, then the cycle of the PRNG is ipso facto
<= 2^16 (there's no room for 2^32 states then, reductio ad absurdum).
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