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Comment by gabrielblack | Hacker News Reader

My device, as other implementation, use the particle passing through the Geiger tube as a "virtual coin" , given a sampling frequency, if one or more particles are detected the firmware returns 1, if no particle is detected, zero. In other words, the random numbers are built a bit at time. My configuration with the background radiation returns too many zeros, so I needed something more ... lively. Anyway, what is the point to use the natural radiation if you have the serious stuff ? :-) When I say that the device is a nuclear RNG, peoples smile but when I turn it on and they listen the characteristic sound of a Geiger counter, the average reaction is "WHAAAAAATTTT ????". It's funny.

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John Von Neumann’s method of creating a uniform distribution of random numbers from a skewed source (too many zeros) was:

“(From a stream of) bits, (take) two at a time (first and second, then third and fourth, and so on). If the two bits matched, no output was generated. If the bits differed, the value of the first bit was output … (this) can be shown to produce a uniform output even if the distribution of input bits is not uniform so long as each bit has the same probability of being one and there is no correlation between successive bits.” (Edited from Wikipedia)

Thank you for your valuable suggestion. Because the interest shown here, I decided to build an improved version ( I think during the Christmas vacations).

I have serious concerns about purchasing one and being put on "a list".

But this city is lackadaisical at best when it comes to industry. And we've had incidents where radioactive materials have been found in construction near homes.

So IDK. I feel like I probably should have one.

Having a counter, I think it's easy to found some source around, for example in surplus stores, etc. For example, old naval compass and clock are treated with tritium. You could find also rocks near the rivers with some interesting material.

My goal is to ensure I _don't_ have an interesting material near my dwelling. Considering I know of at least one case where some was discovered near a home and was probably there for 40 years.

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