• The Marsaglia Random Number CD-ROM needed

    From Chax Plore@21:1/5 to All on Sun Mar 3 21:18:18 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 David Malone@21:1/5 to Chax Plore on Thu Mar 14 19:42:50 2024
    Chax Plore <ftilojim@tznvy.pbz> writes:

    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.

    Have you checked to see if you can get a copy from an academic
    library? According to worldcat, the Institute of Technology in
    Haifa has a copy, but a nearer library might also have one.

    David.

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  • From William Unruh@21:1/5 to David Malone on Fri Mar 15 05:40:21 2024
    On 2024-03-14, David Malone <dwmalone@walton.maths.tcd.ie> wrote:
    Chax Plore <ftilojim@tznvy.pbz> writes:

    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.

    Why do you want it. You realise that none of its random numbers ae
    random. They are all well known. You just describe them in about 200
    bytes.
    So, why do you want them?

    Have you checked to see if you can get a copy from an academic
    library? According to worldcat, the Institute of Technology in
    Haifa has a copy, but a nearer library might also have one.

    David.

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  • From Chax Plore@21:1/5 to David Malone on Mon Mar 18 19:19:01 2024
    On 2024-03-14 20:42, David Malone wrote:
    Chax Plore <ftilojim@tznvy.pbz> writes:

    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.

    Have you checked to see if you can get a copy from an academic
    library? According to worldcat, the Institute of Technology in
    Haifa has a copy, but a nearer library might also have one.

    David.


    I don''t suppose that any non-academic outsider can request digital data
    from academic libraries.


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  • From Chax Plore@21:1/5 to William Unruh on Mon Mar 18 19:23:22 2024
    On 2024-03-15 06:40, William Unruh wrote:
    On 2024-03-14, David Malone <dwmalone@walton.maths.tcd.ie> wrote:
    Chax Plore <ftilojim@tznvy.pbz> writes:

    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.

    Why do you want it. You realise that none of its random numbers ae
    random. They are all well known. You just describe them in about 200
    bytes.
    So, why do you want them?

    Because published disc contents cannot be trusted and I want to put
    unmodified disc ISO image on archive.org


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  • From Chax Plore@21:1/5 to Byrl Raze Buckbriar on Thu Jul 24 19:52:14 2025
    XPost: sci.crypt

    Found and published online, at last:

    https://www.philipsharman.com/marsaglia/

    On 2024-09-09 06:12, Byrl Raze Buckbriar wrote:
    On Sun, 3 Mar 2024 19:15:27 +0100
    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.

    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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    * bump *

    Did you find your seek?

    The project was tied to the National Science Foundation under grants DMS-8807976 and DMS-9206972.

    If you pull the public grant info and contact the named authors and administrators, you might be able to get the whole food chain of everyone that contributed, then begin going down the list to contact them one-by-one.

    See NSF grant award info:

    https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=8807976&HistoricalAwards=false

    The NSF should have archived copies of the original CD-ROMs and research data. A FOIA request might help.

    Also you might check with Florida State University's research and IT departments and track down the contacts named in the grant award.

    Then there is the archived web site for the project:

    https://web.archive.org/web/20160125103112/http:/stat.fsu.edu/pub/diehard/



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