Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Newbie - don't quite understand tagging method

[David Allouche]

On Fri, Nov 28, 2003 at 11:04:55AM +0000, Eduardo Pérez Ureta wrote:
> On 2003-11-27 19:34:12 +0100, David Allouche wrote:
> > On Thu, Nov 27, 2003 at 11:46:33AM -0500, Robert Anderson wrote:
> > > A pretty good template is:
> > > 
> > > echo "# arch-tag: `uuidgen`" >> file.sh
> > 
> > It is probably okay, but for the paranoids, it is better to use
> > something you KNOW is going to be unique. It feels uncomfortable to rely
> > on random numbers to be unique...
> 
> You probably don't trust modern cryptography as it relies in random
> numbers being unique.
> 
> Do you use SSL or GPG?
> If you don't think these random numbers are unique you should
> probably stop using them.

I do trust modern cryptography, but that does not contradict my point.
In that case, there is just no better approach. When you have _no way_
to ensure uniqueness (i.e. ids are generated independently)
true randomness is the best solution.

Maybe I should have emphasized _paranoid_ more. Trusting a 64bit
random number to be a unique id is quite reasonable, but paranoid
people, by definition, are not reasonable.

Paranoia \Par`a*noi"a\, n. (Med.)
   A chronic form of insanity characterized by very gradual impairment
   of the intellect, systematized delusion, and usually by delusious of
   persecution or mandatory delusions producing homicidal tendency. In
   its mild form paranoia may consist in the well-marked crotchetiness
   exhibited in persons commonly called ``cranks.'' Paranoiacs usually
   show evidences of bodily and nervous degeneration, and many have
   hallucinations, esp. of sight and hearing.

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                                                            -- ddaa