xkcd

8842 readers

4 users here now

A community for a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

koraro

331

xkcd #221: Random Number (9 Nov 2007) (programming.dev)

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/xkcd

15 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/8677292

Transcript:

[A computer program.]

int getRandomNumber()
{
   return 4; // chosen by fair dice roll.
             // guaranteed to be random.
}

Hover Text:

RFC 1149.5 specifies 4 as the standard IEEE-vetted random number.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

That's already pretty cool! It surely does generate very random numbers. I still think you can take it a step – or a random number of steps, hah! – further by repeating the process a random number of times! Maybe this way we can reach maximum randomness. Probably need to reroll the number until it's big enough for that.

I would also check if the result is 4. If it's 4, it should be discarded. 4 is not an actual random number but a joke random number from a comic.