Re: random doesn't feel very random

[Leo]

On 2012-08-24 13:47 +0800, Ivan Kanis wrote:
> I am using random for generating music play list. I have found that it
> is not random enough. It keeps playing the same tracks.
>
> I have even wrote a cache of recently played tracks so that it tries
> harder. Obviously it's a band aid.
>
> Yes I am just talking about "feeling" here. I don't know how to prove
> that random does not work. Is it even possible?
>
> On a side note are we using /dev/random?

That is probably because we have only one global random state and many
packages reset it from time to time (see message-unique-id). No we are
not using /dev/random and should not be.

Ideally we should call (random t) only once or allow multiple random
states.

Leo