xor: how come so slow?

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Fri, 17 Oct 2008 13:59:27 +0100, Sion Arrowsmith wrote:

> [I think these attributions are right] Steven D'Aprano 
> <steve at REMOVE-THIS-cybersource.com.au> wrote:
>>On Fri, 17 Oct 2008 22:45:19 +1300, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
>>> In message <010845d8$0$20638$c3e8da3 at news.astraweb.com>, Steven
>>> D'Aprano wrote:
>>>> ... why do you say that xoring random data with other random data
>>>> produces less randomness than you started with?
>>> blocksize <= number_of_blocks * blocksize
>>I must be thick, because that looks like a non sequitor to me. I don't
>>see the relevance.
> 
> Lawrence originally said something along the lines of this just being a
> way of taking some random data and producing "less random data". You're
> reading it as "(less random) data". The intent (I assume) is for it to
> be read as "less (random data)".


Ah. That was how I read it.


> Maybe it should be "fewer random data". After all, each byte in the
> block is discrete.


Or "a smaller amount of random data".



-- 
Steven