Date:        Mon, 23 Oct 2000 23:43:41 +0900
    From:        Kenjiro Cho <kjc@csl.sony.co.jp>
    Message-ID:  <20001023234341C.kjc@csl.sony.co.jp>

  | itojun@iijlab.net wrote:
  | > 	sys/arch/sparc/sparc/clock.c assumes that random(9) returns uniform
  | > 	random number (at least the comment says so).

Unless I am horribly confused, isn't "uniform" a necessary property
of anything that is truly a random number?   That is, if the number
selection is biased, it isn't truly random is it?   Is there something
about the kernel's random number generation (the good one) which makes
it not generate uniform numbers ?

  | Traditionally, uniformity is the most important property of a
  | pseudo-random generator in computer science.

Yes - that's because actually generating uniform pseudo-random numbers
(that are truly random, or at least, seem as if they are) is not easy.
Or at least, isn't if you don't just use one of the generators that
has already been discovered.

kre