allaboutsymbian
December 22nd, 2009, 18:05
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2009/12/091222-hourglass-01.jpg (http://home.comcast.net/~hourglass/)
This is such a bizarre combination of the old and the new that at least a few of our geekiest readers are sure to get a kick out of it. The USB Hourglass is essentially an egg timer equipped with an optical beam for keeping an eye on sand levels and a rotating mechanism for flipping the thing when all the sand has landed at the bottom. But that ain't all! The observed light levels are sent to a host PC (via USB, which also supplies power) where any of your favorite open source tools can use it to generate random numbers. The rest of this -- "entropy," "random" versus "pseudorandom" number generators (http://www.engadget.com/tag/RandomNumberGenerator/), etc. -- is simply a little beyond us this morning, although we're sure that this will produce a lively and intelligent discussion in the comments (where many a lively and intelligent discussion has taken place over the years). Just make sure you peep the video after the break first -- it's a blast.
Continue reading USB Hourglass flips itself, generating random numbers in the process (http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/)
USB Hourglass flips itself, generating random numbers in the process (http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/) originally appeared on Engadget (http://www.engadget.com) on Tue, 22 Dec 2009 12:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds (http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/).
Permalink (http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/) http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.engadget.com/media/post_label_VIA.gifHack-A-Day (http://hackaday.com/2009/12/21/a-random-usb-hourglass/) | http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.engadget.com/media/post_label_source.gifUSB Hourglass (http://home.comcast.net/%7Ehourglass/) | Email this (http://www.engadget.com/forward/19290724/) | Comments (http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/#comments)
More... (http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/)
This is such a bizarre combination of the old and the new that at least a few of our geekiest readers are sure to get a kick out of it. The USB Hourglass is essentially an egg timer equipped with an optical beam for keeping an eye on sand levels and a rotating mechanism for flipping the thing when all the sand has landed at the bottom. But that ain't all! The observed light levels are sent to a host PC (via USB, which also supplies power) where any of your favorite open source tools can use it to generate random numbers. The rest of this -- "entropy," "random" versus "pseudorandom" number generators (http://www.engadget.com/tag/RandomNumberGenerator/), etc. -- is simply a little beyond us this morning, although we're sure that this will produce a lively and intelligent discussion in the comments (where many a lively and intelligent discussion has taken place over the years). Just make sure you peep the video after the break first -- it's a blast.
Continue reading USB Hourglass flips itself, generating random numbers in the process (http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/)
USB Hourglass flips itself, generating random numbers in the process (http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/) originally appeared on Engadget (http://www.engadget.com) on Tue, 22 Dec 2009 12:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds (http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/).
Permalink (http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/) http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.engadget.com/media/post_label_VIA.gifHack-A-Day (http://hackaday.com/2009/12/21/a-random-usb-hourglass/) | http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.engadget.com/media/post_label_source.gifUSB Hourglass (http://home.comcast.net/%7Ehourglass/) | Email this (http://www.engadget.com/forward/19290724/) | Comments (http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/#comments)
More... (http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/usb-hourglass-flips-itself-generating-random-numbers-in-the-pro/)