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  • The Marsaglia Random Number CD-ROM needed

    From Chax Plore@21:1/5 to All on Sun Mar 3 19:15:27 2024
    Good day, everyone,

    I am searching for untouched version of George Marsaglia's Diehard
    CD-ROM. By "untouched" I mean bit-identical ISO copy of original CD-ROM
    disc.

    Of course I found many copies of CD-ROM contents in Internet, but I also
    found that some of them are different between each instance - starting
    from details like different EOL format in source code files, and up to
    errors like some files totally omitted or being binary different from
    each other. This is too much for my OCD. I don't trust Internet copies
    I found anymore.

    I think sci.crypt is a good place to ask for potential owners of this
    disc. If it will be found, I plan to upload it to archive.org to
    preserve for eternity this undisputably important piece of computer history.

    I planned to post my request on sci.crypt.random-numbers, but it has no activity.

    More info, including photo of original disc is available at https://github.com/jeffThompson/DiehardCDROM

    With kindest regards,

    Chax Plore

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  • From Rich@21:1/5 to Chax Plore on Sun Mar 3 20:03:47 2024
    Chax Plore <ftilojim@tznvy.pbz> wrote:
    Good day, everyone,

    I am searching for untouched version of George Marsaglia's Diehard
    CD-ROM. By "untouched" I mean bit-identical ISO copy of original CD-ROM
    disc.

    How do you plan to validate that what you /might/ eventually receive is
    in fact bit-identical to said original? Do you have hash values for
    the originals to use to verify "identical"?

    I.e., gaming this out, an 'interested' attacker could create and post
    you a cdrom that looks visually identical to the original in every way,
    but does not in fact contain bit-identical data to an actual original.

    I planned to post my request on sci.crypt.random-numbers, but it has no activity.

    Do note that "no postings" does not equate perfectly with "no readers".
    There could be people who would read and respond, but only in reply to
    a post.

    More info, including photo of original disc is available at https://github.com/jeffThompson/DiehardCDROM

    Unfortunately I do not have any copies to offer up.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Chax Plore@21:1/5 to Rich on Sun Mar 3 21:16:48 2024
    On 2024-03-03 21:03, Rich wrote:
    Chax Plore <ftilojim@tznvy.pbz> wrote:

    How do you plan to validate that what you /might/ eventually receive is
    in fact bit-identical to said original? Do you have hash values for
    the originals to use to verify "identical"?

    I.e., gaming this out, an 'interested' attacker could create and post
    you a cdrom that looks visually identical to the original in every way,
    but does not in fact contain bit-identical data to an actual original.

    Well, there are good folks here, active for years, who, I assume, can be trusted, unless they all are undercover NSA operatives ;)

    More seriously, I would check for all differences between CDROM files
    received and files from other copies. All differences I would analyse
    if they are innocent format-only, like different newline standards,
    or if they are much deeper differences, which I would treat with utmost suspicion.

    Do note that "no postings" does not equate perfectly with "no readers".
    There could be people who would read and respond, but only in reply to
    a post.

    Thank you for this suggestion, I will post my request also to other
    groups as well.

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    -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY FINGERPRINT-----
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    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)