RE: [PHP] Generating Random Numbers with Normal Distribution

if you really want to.. you can hook various devices up to your serial/parallel port and take specific readings, and from there compute some really great random numbers.. i think white noise from frequency generators/scopes have been used by research functions... google is your friend in this regard!! however, for what you're trying to accomplish, php (or any other language) is probably more than quite suitable!! have fun.... -----Original Message----- From: Nathan Nobbe [mailto:quickshiftin@gmail.com] Sent: Monday, December 10, 2007 11:41 AM To: Stephen Johnson Cc: AmirBehzad Eslami; PHP General list Subject: Re: [PHP] Generating Random Numbers with Normal Distribution On Dec 10, 2007 2:37 PM, Stephen Johnson <maillists@thelonecoder.com> wrote: > True randomization is only really possible in nature, so I am not sure you > ever be completely happy with programming random numbers... But it may > help > you get better results if you include srand() in your randomization code. the seeding methods have been deprecated; this from the manual: *Note*: As of PHP 4.2.0, there is no need to seed the random number generator with srand() <http://us3.php.net/manual/en/function.srand.php> or mt_srand() <http://us3.php.net/manual/en/function.mt-srand.php> as this is now done automatically. -nathan