ANT KATZ

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The big prize on offer at Sunday’s Israel Expo at the Sandton Convention Centre was a car, given by the organisers, which was won by one Trevor Detnow.

The SA Jewish Report also offered a sizable prize of a half-page colour advert in a forthcoming edition of the weekly newspaper. To enter visitors at the Expo had to drop a business card into the publishers’ stall and drop a business card into a bowl.

 The entries were then placed in a pile and a computer generated random number was generated. The business card that corresponded to that number was then awarded the prize.

The winner of the very well supported competition was Ben Geldenhuys of engineering firm ITS (Pty Ltd).

NEW COMPETITION: Reader to win ten concert tickets worth R1,000!

How was the random number generated?

What’s the fuss about “true randomness”? One of the most genuine and reliable free random numbering services on the internet is RANDOM.org which is the system used by the Jewish Report SEE BELOW RIGHT.

There is a danger to look out for when using random number selection tools – they are often predictable! Machines like computers can generate randomness, but in reality, most random numbers used in computer programs are pseudo-random, which means they are generated in a predictable fashion using a mathematical formula.

This is fine for many purposes, but it may not be random in the way you expect if you’re used to dice rolls and lottery drawings.

RANDOM.org offers true random numbers for free to anyone. The randomness comes from atmospheric noise, which for many purposes is better than the pseudo-random number algorithms typically used in computer programs. People use RANDOM.ORG for holding drawings, lotteries and sweepstakes, to drive online games, for scientific applications and for art and music.

The service has been around since 1998 and was built by Dr Mads Haahr of the School of Computer Science and Statistics at Trinity College in Dublin

Today, RANDOM.ORG is operated by Randomness and Integrity Services Ltd.

As of today, the service has generated a massive 1.95 trillion random bits for the Internet community.