At 11:42 PM 4/30/97 -0700, Jason Thorpe wrote:
>On Wed, 30 Apr 1997 23:11:10 -0700 
> "Michael L. VanLoon -- HeadCandy.com" <michaelv@MindBender.serv.net> wrote:
>
> > I just read an article where some SGI engineers are using Lava Lamps
> > and color digitizing cameras for near-perfectly-random generators.
> > Who wants to incorporate that into the kernel? :-)
>
>...At this juncture, doing so would probably be a bad idea, since SGI
>is attempting to patent the idea.

Wow, that's dumb.

I know: build a sheet of some material that conducts electricity when wet, but
only on the wet spot.

Attach a system to detect the wet spots on the sheet. Generate random number
seed from the location and timing of the wet spots.

Put sheet out in rain. 

Can I patent this as well? *hmmpffft* 
--
XCOMM Kevin P. Neal, Junior, Comp. Sci.     -   House of Retrocomputing
XCOMM  mailto:kpneal@pobox.com              -   http://www.pobox.com/~kpn/
XCOMM  kpneal@eos.ncsu.edu              Spoken by Keir Finlow-Bates:
XCOMM "Good grief, I've just noticed I've typed in a rant. Sorry chaps!"