reply to post by DigitalGrl
I hope this doesn't confuse you more, but here is how I understand this.
Its just a version of an old magic trick.
Produce an envelope with a dated postmark on it to prove you "knew in advance" which card the volunter would choose. In this case the "card" is a
president instead of a spade, and the hash is equal to the postmark, proving the date it was "mailed".
The audience isn't told that the magician has all 12 cards in envelopes marked with the same date, so that he can present whichever card/president
was choosen.
In this case, the audience is told the magician has all 12 cards because the article isnt really about who the next president will be, or Nostradamus,
or magic tricks. Its about raising awareness (by naming the technique Nostradamus to get your attention) that there is an exploitable flaw in one of
the systems used for computer program and document security/verification using a random number generator. Its about showing how they came to their
conclusion by publishing reproducable test results, so that the problem will eventually be addressed/fixed.
And it worked.
The flaw in the random number generator has been all over the web lately. I think there were even some ATS posts about the rumor that it was an
intentional flaw designed or helped along and
used by the NSA.
I have a sneaky suspicion that its something more mundane. Like maybe
some company came up with a newer
version of the number generator, so they made waves in the media about the flaw to sell their system as the new global "default" number generator?
Just guessing though.
[edit on 12/5/07 by makeitso]
