RANDI_ORG: True random integer numbers

Queries www.random.org to collect true random integer numbers.

Description

The RANDI_ORG function has a similar usage as the RANDI function. However, instead of returning pseudo-random numbers, it queries the site http://www.random.org to collect true random numbers. Refer to the web site for a discussion on the difference between pseudo and true randomness.

Note that http://www.random.org allows limited traffic per day, check the site for more details.

• Acknowledgements: This submission has inspired the following:; WWW.RANDOM.ORG random integers/sequences/strings
• MATLAB release: MATLAB 7.10 (2010a)

[Simon Cross]

This looks like a very useful functions for a lot of my projects which rely on'random' numbers and I would prefer them to be really random, so many thanks for posting it. Unfortunately when I run it I get the following error message:

??? Undefined function or variable 'a'

Error in ==> randi_org at 61
if any(a<+0)

I am running it in Mac OSX Leopard

Thanks for your help

Simon Cross

[Jan Simon]

Did you try URLREAD to get the values?
It is necessary to mention the guidelines of the web service, which involve a quota of 2e5 bits per day, which accumulates to upto 1e6 bits, per TCP/IP. If the quota is exceeded, stop requesting new values. Get values in as large chunks as possible, because requesting single numbers produces large traffic on the server.
Thanks, Jan

[Oleg Komarov]

API: http://www.random.org/clients/http/

An example: http://www.random.org/sequences/?min=1&max=52&col=1&format=plain&rnd=new

I think this method will be feasible through platforms.

Oleg

[Giampiero Salvi]

Thanks for the feedback! Now the function uses urlread and there's a warning about limited traffic from www.random.org.