Re: Happy New Year!

On Sunday, 1 January 2017 01:29:33 UTC, aweatherguy  wrote:
> Best wishes to all in 2017!
> 
> I'm new to the list and have a very narrow topic to inquire about. I've 
> been working on an inexpensive TRNG (True Random Number Generator) and 
> am interested in having Firefox/Thunderbird use this as a source for TLS 
> key generation, instead of the built-in PRNG (Pseudo-Random Number 
> Generator).
> 

My first reaction is that an inexpensive TRNG is a bit like building a cheap skyscrapper. Yes it can exist, but it will not be of great benefit due to the shortcoming required to make it "inexpensive". 

1) How will you know the numbers generated are truly random? 

2) There is a point of view that truly random numbers are impossible, as one a tiny subset of numbers are truly random and therefore they are more predictable than Pseudo-random. This is (if memory serves me) a basis of Chaos Theory (that chaos is predictable because it's not predictable).

> I seem to have custom builds of both Firefox and Thunderbird working
with the TRNG now. The changes were pretty small and easy

If changes were 'small and easy' have you considered if there's a reason why someone else has not already done this?