What's a good way to see a random number generator?

I'm not sure what to use.
Random.setseed(9); ?
Can I get the system clock and put it in there?

java.util.Random will set its seed by the system clock automatically, if you use the no-arg constructor.
Whether this is sufficient or not depends on your application. I've heard that in high-security cases you don't want to use the system time as a seed, because it can be guessed pretty easily by attackers, and thus, the random numbers thus produced can be guessed. (I don't know of any specific attacks which do this.)
On the other hand, if you just need random numbers to generate tiles in your Tetris applet, it's probably fine.

Similar Messages

What's a good way to do a thread dump into a separate file

What is a good way to do a thread dump automatically into a separate file.
Example. I run a script to do the thread dump, but unfortunetly, it goes into my stdout log file with the rest of my weblogic errors.
Any ideas? I want it in a separate file when I run my script?

Do a Google search on "Drobo S" "benchmark." I don't have a Drobo S, only the regular Drobo. But here's a guy who tested one on Windows:
http://mansurovs.com/drobo-s-review-usb-3-0-2nd-generation
This one has it a bit faster:
http://the-gadgeteer.com/2011/12/31/drobo-s-storage-array-review/
Do read up on a few reviews of it, and be absolutely clear that interface speed (i.e. eSATA versus Firewire versus Thunderbolt) is NOT the same as the performance of the system. The Drobo cannot keep up with any interfaces... at least the Drobo and the Drobo S cannot.
I am not using the FS model which is a NAS. I am using the plain old "Drobo" which is slower than the Drobo S, but that's not to say that the Drobo S is fast, because it is not.
The Drobo in theory is really attractive: Dead simple to manage, can mix and match drive sizes, offers you some data protection, etc. However do note that protected storage is not, in and of itself, a backup. You need other backups besides just the data on the Drobo. And, because it's so slow, it's really not a great fit for photo storage. See this review from a guy who used to think the Drobo was great for that and then appended his review:
http://www.stuckincustoms.com/drobo-review/
To be as clear as possible, IMO the BEST backup strategy with something like Aperture (so long as your managed Aperture library is of a manageable size, like < 800 GB), is to get a few small portable Firewire 800 drives and keep vaults on each one. They are great because they are easy to use, to have with you, are bus powered, and you WILL offsite them.

What are the good ways to send a big file( 20MB-100MB) file to my friend?

what are the good ways to send a big file( 20MB-100MB) file to my friend?
Thanks in advance

if this is with the internet, iChat is probly your best bet,
but if you just want a transfer,
plug a firewire into both of your computers, shutdown one of them, hold "T" and press the power button, the restarted computer should pop up as an external drive on the second computer.

What's a good way to manage custom schema for DS 5.1?

What's a good way to manage custom schema?
Custom Schema for Object Class and Attributes
The reason I ask this is because there might be a need in the future where I need to export those custome schema into different branded directory server. I just want to make this as painless as possible.
Right now, I thought of 2 options
1) Create my own LDIF file with my custom attributes and object classes, so if one day I need to export to another directory server, I can just copy that custom created LDIF file over. (Will this work?)
2) Create a JAVA application using JNDI. What this Java App. will do is read through a XML file and create those object classes and attributes on-the-fly. (of course, the XML structure will be predefined by me, so that my Java App. will be able to parse through it correctly. Will this work?)
Anymore suggestion? I would want to hear more advices and suggestions.
Also, I assume that will work even with replication. All I need to update is the master server, and the slaves will replicate automatically.
Thank you very much! :)

Demo: I'm using the nul character to represent the end of the word, so that the data structure can represent that "hell" and "hello" are both in the vocabulary:
import java.util.*;
class Node {
    private SortedMap<Character, Node> children = new TreeMap<Character, Node>();
    //0 <= index <= word.length()
    private void add(String word, int index) {
        if (index == word.length()) {
            children.put(Character.valueOf('\u0000'), null);
        } else {
            char ch = word.charAt(index);
            Node child = children.get(ch);
            if (child == null) {
                children.put(ch, child = new Node());
            child.add(word, index+1);
    public void add(String word) {
        if (word == null || word.length()==0)
            throw new IllegalArgumentException();
        add(word, 0);
    public String toString() {
        return children.toString();
public class Example {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        Node root = new Node();
        root.add("hello");
        root.add("how");
        root.add("who");
        root.add("hell");
        System.out.println(root.toString());
}

What is a good way to load 80 million documents in DocumentDB?

I am having problems loading a large set of data. We want to load 80 million documents. We are trying to do testing for an IOT solution that will end up having a lot of data in it. I followed the instructions to use a stored procedure to
do a bulk load provided by Ryan CrawCour on the Microsoft Site:
https://code.msdn.microsoft.com/windowsazure/Azure-DocumentDB-NET-Code-6b3da8af
But it throws exceptions when we load 2,000 - 5,000 documents. Our documents are only about 80 characters.
Error: One or more errors occurred., Message: Exception: Microsoft.Azure.Documen
ts.RequestRateTooLargeException, message: {"Errors":["Request rate is large"]},
What is a good way to load large datasets? ( Load backups, migrate data, ... ) Or is DocumentDB just a wrong choice when you have millions of rows to load?
Thanks

Hi,
I had been working on this from around one month and I am happy to say that my code works. Was able to upload around 0.5 million documents in 20 min.
The configuration was Document DB with S3 , I scaled out for 16 collection for sharding, I think you need to shard out more. This will depend on how much each document takes.
So the Calculation goes like if each document is lets say on an average 2Kb of Size and you have 80 million documents that will come out to be 160GB
That means you will need more than 16 collections to store as at Max 1 collection can have 10GB of Data. So to be on the safer side I would say lets go for 3 times the storage so 48 collections . If all of them are at S3 than you have 2500 RUs spread across
48 collections and I am sure if you do insertion now you will not get Request Rate too large exception.
I have come up with this code hopefully it will help you as well.
https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/azure/en-US/d036afe2-78ec-45ee-8b0d-297f0f5320fe/azure-documentdb-bulk-insert-using-stored-procedure.
For Sharding you can have look at
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn589797.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396.

What is the good way to charge the battery

I don't know if this topic been answered before.
I want to know what is the good way to charge the battery on Macbook pro? Should I start charging battery when it's 50% or 20% or 10% left? and Is it good to leave the charge plug in after it fully charged?
thanks guys

Everything you need to know about your battery is explained here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1764220

What's a good way to dynamically allow shortened commands?

I have a BufferedReader set up that attaches to System.in.
so, when I check the BufferedReader, it will retreive any commands put in by a user.
I will have a hash table for commands set up like so:
"north", "dn"
"west", "dw"
"south", "ds"
"east", "de"
"follow", "follow"
"flee", "flee"
"flip", "flip"
So, what I want is to be able to check all the commands and shorten them to the lowest amount of chars before they're the same.
Therefore, for the example hash list, if I typed in "fle", the code would select "flee". Or, if I typed "fo", the code would select "follow". But, if I typed in "f", then the code would respond with a "command not found" error, because "f" could be follow, flip or flee. I want to make it so that I can type "follow", "follo", "foll", "fol", "fo", and "fo" to select the same "follow" command.
Has anyone found a good way of going about this? If my description is confusing, I'll try to re-explain in greater detail.

Demo: I'm using the nul character to represent the end of the word, so that the data structure can represent that "hell" and "hello" are both in the vocabulary:
import java.util.*;
class Node {
    private SortedMap<Character, Node> children = new TreeMap<Character, Node>();
    //0 <= index <= word.length()
    private void add(String word, int index) {
        if (index == word.length()) {
            children.put(Character.valueOf('\u0000'), null);
        } else {
            char ch = word.charAt(index);
            Node child = children.get(ch);
            if (child == null) {
                children.put(ch, child = new Node());
            child.add(word, index+1);
    public void add(String word) {
        if (word == null || word.length()==0)
            throw new IllegalArgumentException();
        add(word, 0);
    public String toString() {
        return children.toString();
public class Example {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        Node root = new Node();
        root.add("hello");
        root.add("how");
        root.add("who");
        root.add("hell");
        System.out.println(root.toString());
}

What is a good way for a heavy iMovie HD user to learn iMovie'09 ?

Hi Guys,
I have been using iMovie HD to edit my videos since mid 2005. I understand that Apple will, sooner or later, stop supporting iMovie HD with updates etc (it may have done so already).
I'm doing event and safety videos for the company I'm working for. I tried to edit a video in iMovie'08 and found it too different from iMovie HD and it was difficult for me to "unlearn" iMovie HD.
What would be a good way to learn iMovie '09 ?
I would appreciate any tips & pointers. Thanks in advance.
Sincerely,
Azman

I think the best way is to jump in and make a movie. If you get frustrated about something you know you should be able to do, there is probably a way to do it and you can ask here.
Also, there are some [very good video tutorials here|http://www.apple.com/findouthow/movies>
I recommend you start with the iMovie 08 videos because they cover some of the basics, and Apple has not gotten around to doing some of these topics for iMovie 09. Especially watch the videos for handling audio and keywords. Then watch the iMovie 9 videos.
The biggest thing is getting used to a different metaphor. iMovie 6 uses the timeline, scotch tape and scissors metaphor, while iMovie 09 uses a storyboard, copy and paste metaphor more like a word processing program. Both metaphors work. Both do the same thing. But it can be frustrating making the switch. Good luck.

What is a good way to check if sql select basd cursor return anything

Hello everyone,
I am trying to find a good way to identify that a SQL select based cursor return nothing.
I know that or we use exception when no data found, or count(*) to check how many rows are returned.
I have a cursor based on quite a long select statement.
Like
CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE aaa (v_input IN NUMBER, v_output OUT VARCHAR2)
     CURSOR long_cursor IS
          --long select statement(with input variable) ;
BEGIN
     Select count(*)
     Into v_count
From
-- a long select statment with input again ;
IF v_count > 0 then
    For record in long_cursor loop
     --Get information from cursor
        --other processing for output
    End loop;
END IF;
END;Is there any other way than the above ?
I would love to reduce the amount of typing. I know that repetition in code is not good.
Thanks in advance,
Ann
Edited by: Ann586341 on Feb 28, 2013 2:29 PM

>
Not sure I understand your point. I am still a new bie here.
>
A flag is just a piece of data. By itself it doesn't prevent anyone from changing the data. And in a multiuser system anything you try to check is based on the COMMITTED data in the system. Two users can be changing two different rows at the same time but neither user will see the other change.
So if you try to count how many rows meet a particular condition you may get a count of 8 but after the other user commits the count might be 7 or 9. So if you use 8 it may not be valid for very long.
>
But the app we use is Oracle Application Express 4.0.
I assume when the data is read, there will be some kind of lock on these rows so other users cannot change it, right ?
Or should I use SELECT for update even I do not update anything here.
>
I can't help you with that one. That would be a question for the application express forum.
Oracle Application Express (APEX)
You don't need to use FOR UPDATE if you don't plan to change the data. But, as explained above, you can't rely on any data you query being the same because another user could be changing it while you are looking at it.

What is the best way to see what toshiba software can/should be installed?

I'm thinking about formating my A100-454's hard disc, starting from zero and installing Windows Vista Ultimate.
I would like to know what (last version, and preferently, in portuguese language) software/drivers should i install. Is there any webpage that gives that information?, without being "dumped" by a search that gives "any software any drivers any version" downloads (yes, i'm forgetting the filters...:) )?
I ask because, as you all know, the laptop cames with many software/utilities installed, and, at least i, don't really know "what does what " and i would like to see a page that objectivelly, would say "for A100-454 ... install these software and drivers, this software does this, this software does that..."
Regards, from Portugal

http://eu.computers.toshiba-europe.com/cgi-bin/ToshibaCSG/download_drivers_bios.jsp
Select your model and download the drivers for your operating system.

What is the best way to show/hide n number of columns ?

Hi,
I have a dynamic report that I have show/hide columns working using the below code. But when there are 500 or more rows it takes about a minute or more just waiting to see the columns toggle.
What is the best way to do this?
// Existing Javascript
[script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript"]
var maxcnt= mymonths.length;
function hideMaxEarn(){
for(var j=0;j[maxcnt;j++){
hideColumn('MON'+mymonths[j],'MAXCOL'+mymonths[j]);
hideColumn('MON'+mymonths[j],'EARNCOL'+mymonths[j]);
hideColumn('MON13','MAXCOL13');
hideColumn('MON13','EARNCOL13');
function showMaxEarn(){
for(var j=0;j[maxcnt;j++){
showColumn('MON'+mymonths[j],'MAXCOL'+mymonths[j]);
showColumn('MON'+mymonths[j],'EARNCOL'+mymonths[j]);
showColumn('MON13','MAXCOL13');
showColumn('MON13','EARNCOL13');
function getCellIndex(pRow,pCell){
for(var i=0, n=pRow.cells.length;i[n;i++){
    if(pRow.cells[i] == pCell) return i;
function hideColumn(pMon,pCol){
var l_Cell = $x(pCol);
var l_Table = html_CascadeUpTill(l_Cell,'TABLE');
var l_Rows = l_Table.rows;
l_CellI = getCellIndex(l_Cell.parentNode,l_Cell);
for (var i=0, n=l_Rows.length;i[n;i++){
    if(i != 0) {
       html_HideElement(l_Rows[i].cells[l_CellI]);
} else {
$x(pMon).colSpan = $x(pMon).colSpan - 1;
function showColumn(pMon,pCol){
var l_Cell = $x(pCol);
var l_Table = html_CascadeUpTill(l_Cell,'TABLE');
var l_Rows = l_Table.rows;
l_CellI = getCellIndex(l_Cell.parentNode,l_Cell);
for (var i=0, n=l_Rows.length;i[n;i++){
    if(i != 0) {
       html_ShowElement(l_Rows[i].cells[l_CellI]);
} else {
$x(pMon).colSpan = 3;
return;
[script]

Hi Andy,
Yes, I replaced the code calling the same things in a loop to one loop getting the Table reference once and I build an array of column numbers at the time the report is built so I don't have to get the column number each time....
it is a couple of seconds faster in about a 30 second response time. It will have to do it for now, no more time unless you see something in this new code...
Thank you! Bill
// dynamically built code
col_nbr_array = new Array();
col_nbr_array[0] = "1";
col_nbr_array[1] = "2";
col_nbr_array[2] = "4";
col_nbr_array[3] = "5";
col_nbr_array[4] = "7";
col_nbr_array[5] = "8";
col_nbr_array[6] = "10";
col_nbr_array[7] = "11";
col_nbr_array[8] = "13";
col_nbr_array[9] = "14";
col_nbr_array[10] = "16";
col_nbr_array[11] = "17";
col_nbr_array[12] = "19";
col_nbr_array[13] = "20";
col_nbr_array[14] = "22";
col_nbr_array[15] = "23";
col_nbr_array[16] = "25";
col_nbr_array[17] = "26";
col_nbr_array[18] = "28";
col_nbr_array[19] = "29";
col_nbr_array[20] = "31";
col_nbr_array[21] = "32";
col_nbr_array[22] = "34";
col_nbr_array[23] = "35";
col_nbr_array[24] = "37";
col_nbr_array[25] = "38";
col_nbr_array[26] = "40";
col_nbr_array[27] = "41";
// Static code
function show_hide_column(do_show) {
// Set Style, Show/Hide
var stl;
var csp;
if (do_show){
stl = 'block'
csp = 3;
}else{
stl = 'none';
csp = 1;
// get rows object
var l_Rows = document.getElementById('DT_RANGE').rows;
var totCellNbr1=parseFloat(col_nbr_array[maxcnt-1])+2;
var totCellNbr2=totCellNbr1 +1;
var n=l_Rows.length;
for (var i=0; i[n;i++){
    if(i != 0) { // if not the main header which spans 3 cols when expanded
      // Go through and show/hide each cell
      for(var j=0;j[maxcnt;j++){
          l_Rows[i].cells[col_nbr_array[j]].style.display = stl;
// Totals
l_Rows.cells[totCellNbr1].style.display=stl;
l_Rows[i].cells[totCellNbr2].style.display=stl;
} else { // row 1 that has Month spelled out - colspan of 3, others has max,earned and score columns for each month.
var maxhdr = maxcnt/2;
for(var k=1;k[=maxhdr;k=k+1){
//alert('Header['+k+']');
l_Rows[i].cells[k].colSpan=csp;
// Total column
//alert('TotHeader['+(maxhdr+1)+']');
l_Rows[i].cells[maxhdr+1].colSpan=csp;
[script]

What is the best way to repeatedly load random commercials?

Hi Everyone,
Any help with the above question would be useful. Here's my end goal: I want to display commercials on a screen at my wife's bakery. The script should load one commercial, play it, then unload it, randomly load another, and so on.
I am completely new to as3 and have unsuccessfully been following several online tutorials. My first attempt had code in each commercial file (swf), that randomly called up another commercial, which in turn called up another file, and so on--but this became a memory hog and crashed the program after a few minutes.
Since then I have created one main swf file that loads an xml file, which holds all the information for the commercials. However, when the swf commercials are loaded according to the xml file, they don't play properly: when the first commercial finishes playing, the next one is already partially done. Obviously it started playing earlier. The swfs should unload and load the next according to a timer, with the length of the timer being different for each swf according to the xml data. Even with this, the first swf didn't always stop when it should. My code is getting complicated and the display looks sloppy.
I think something like this should be a simple way to display media such as these commercials, but I still haven't found a working solution. Now I'm wondering if I'm even approaching this wisely.
Would it be better to convert the swf to flv and create an flv player that has 'continuous play' and 'shuffle' features? Would it be better to convert each swf into movieclips and put them all into one swf? (I like the manageability of using an external xml file; I will be adding and removing commercials frequently and want to keep this as simple as possible.)
Please let me know what you think is the wisest approach and refer me to any relevant tutorials.
Peace,
Trevor

Thanks again kglad,
I followed your advice, but it is still not working properly. Here's my problem:
The external swfs continue playing in the background. Consequently, the event "playcomplete" was dispatched not only at the end of the swf that is being shown, but also at the end of the looping, previously loaded swfs that are not visible; this made the next swf play before the one being shown finished. That seemed easy enough to fix by adding stop(); to each external swf on the last frame. I thought everything was fixed -- but those swfs must still be there and are hogging memory before they can be collected for garbage. I've developed a loop that continues to load swfs, taking more and more memory, eventually causing a crash. So:
After a swf is loaded, how do I completely remove it to free up memory? I'll attach the code I'm using, but I've made some adjustments to your previous examples (using a string with a random number instead of an array, using different variable names, etc). Would I still have this memory problem if I used an array? I have tried to remove eventListeners, to use weak eventListeners, and to remove the loaded Child as best as I know how, but I need some guidance on memory management before I can use this.
Peace,
Trevor
var swfLoader:Loader = new Loader();
var klaesiSwfs:XMLList;
var totalSwfs:Number;
//var swfArray:Array = ["swfs/movie1.swf", "swfs/movie2.swf", "swfs/movie3.swf", "swfs/movie4.swf", "swfs/movie5.swf"];
//loads xml//
var klaesiXmlLoader:URLLoader = new URLLoader ();
klaesiXmlLoader.load(new URLRequest("xml/swf_depot.xml"));
klaesiXmlLoader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, processXML, false, 0, true);
//finds how many swfs are on xml//
function processXML (e:Event):void{
     var klaesiXml:XML = new XML(e.target.data);
     klaesiSwfs=klaesiXml.ID;
     totalSwfs=klaesiSwfs.length();
     //trace ("Total is " + totalSwfs);
     loadRandomSwf();
     klaesiXmlLoader.removeEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, processXML)
     klaesiXmlLoader = null;
//loads swfs//
function loadRandomSwf():void {
     var num:Number = (Math.floor(Math.random() * totalSwfs) + 1);
     var swfName:String = "swfs/movie"+ num +".swf";
     var requestSwf:URLRequest = new URLRequest (swfName);
     swfLoader.load(requestSwf);
     addChild(swfLoader);
     swfLoader.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, playComplete, false, 0, true);
//listens for the end of each swf//
function playComplete(e:Event){
     MovieClip(swfLoader.content).addEventListener("playNextCommercial", nextSwf, false, 0, true);
     swfLoader.contentLoaderInfo.removeEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, playComplete)
//removes old swf, starts new swf//
function nextSwf(e:Event){
     MovieClip(swfLoader.content).removeEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, nextSwf);
     removeChild(swfLoader);
     loadRandomSwf();

My macbook pro was stolen. How can I make sure that the one that is linked to find my mac is this one and not an older computer. Is there a way of seeing the serial number for the computer that is linked to find my mac?

Is there a way to see serial number of computer that is linked to find my mac?

No.
Barry

What algorithm does Excel 2010 use for Pseudo Random Number Generation (MT19937?)

Does Excel 2010+ use the Mersenne Twister (MT19937) algorithm for Pseudo Random Number Generation (PRNG), implemented by the RAND() function?
This has been a nagging question for some time now, with "hints" that it indeed does. However, a relatively thorough search turns up no definitive documentation. The most direct indication is perhaps given by Guy Melard [Ref 9] where
he tests Excel 2010's RAND() function using the Crush battery of tests in TestU01 by L'Ecuyer & Simard. Melard references a "semi-official" indication that Microsoft did indeed implement MT19937 for the RAND() function in
Excel 2010, but this reference no longer seems to be available. http://office.microsoft.com/enus/excel-help/about-solver-HP005198368.aspx?pid=CH010004571033.
The other references below [Ref 1-10] document the history of the statistical suitability of the PRNG and probability distributions in various versions of Excel. This includes the Wichmann-Hill PRNG implementations supposedly (arguably) used in
Excel 2003 & 2007 for random number generation. But still, we have no answer as to which PRNG algorithm is used in
Excel 2010 (and 2013 for that matter).
Microsoft indicates that RAND() has been improved in Excel 2010; Microsoft states, "...and the RAND function now uses a new random number algorithm." (see https://support.office.com/en-ca/article/Whats-New-Changes-made-to-Excel-functions-355d08c8-8358-4ecb-b6eb-e2e443e98aac).
But no details are given on the actual algorithm. This is critical for Monte Carlo methods and many other applications.
Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.
[Ref 1] B. McCullough, B. Wilson. On the Accuracy of Statistical Procedures in Microsoft Excel 97.
Computational Statistics & Data Analysis. Vol. 31 No. 1, pp 27-37. July 1999.
http://users.df.uba.ar/cobelli/LaboratoriosBasicos/excel97.pdf
[Ref 2]L. Knüsel. On the accuracy of the statistical distributions in Microsoft Excel 97. Computational Statistics & Data Analysis. Vol. 26 No. 3, pp 375-377. January 1998.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167947397817562
[Ref 3]B. McCullough, B. Wilson. On the Accuracy of Statistical Procedures in Microsoft Excel 2000 and Excel XP.
Computational Statistics & Data Analysis. Vol.40 No. 4, pp 713-721. October 2002.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/222672996_On_the_accuracy_of_statistical_procedures_in_Microsoft_Excel_2000_and_Excel_XP/links/00b4951c314aac4702000000.pdf
[Ref 4] B. McCullough, B. Wilson. On the Accuracy of Statistical Procedures in Microsoft Excel 2003.
Computational Statistics & Data Analysis. Vol.49. No. 4, pp 1244-1252. June 2005.
http://www.pucrs.br/famat/viali/tic_literatura/artigos/planilhas/msexcel.pdf
[Ref 5] L. Knüsel. On the accuracy of statistical distributions in Microsoft Excel 2003. Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Vol. 48, No. 3, pp 445-449. March 2005.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167947304000337
[Ref 6]B. McCullough, D.Heiser. On the Accuracy of Statistical Procedures in Microsoft Excel 2007.
Computational Statistics & Data Analysis. Vol.52. No. 10, pp 4570-4578. June 2008.
http://users.df.uba.ar/mricci/F1ByG2013/excel2007.pdf
[Ref 7] A. Yalta. The Accuracy of Statistical Distributions in Microsoft<sup>®</sup> Excel 2007. Computational Statistics & Data Anlaysis. Vol. 52 No. 10, pp 4579 – 4586. June 2008.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167947308001618
[Ref 8] B. McCullough. Microsoft Excel’s ‘Not The Wichmann-Hill’ Random Number Generators. Computational Statistics and Data Analysis. Vol.52. No. 10, pp 4587-4593. June 2008.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016794730800162X
[Ref 9] G. Melard. On the Accuracy of Statistical Procedures in Microsoft Excel 2010. Computational Statistics. Vol.29 No. 5, pp 1095-1128. October 2014.
http://homepages.ulb.ac.be/~gmelard/rech/gmelard_csda23.pdf
[Ref 10] L. Knüsel. On the Accuracy of Statistical Distributions in Microsoft Excel 2010. Department of Statistics - University of Munich, Germany.
http://www.csdassn.org/software_reports/excel2011.pdf

I found the same KB article:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/828795
This was introduced (according to the article) in Excel 2003. Perhaps the references in notes 2 and 3 might help.
The article describes combining the results of 3 generators, each similar to a Multiply With Carry (MWC) generator, but with zero carry. MWC generators do very well on the Diehard battery of randomness tests (mentioned in your references), and have
very long periods. But using zero carry makes no sense to me.
Combining the three generators only helps if the periods of the 3 are relatively prime (despite what the article implies). Then the period of the result will be the product of the 3 periods. But without knowing the theory behind these generators, I have
no idea what the periods would be. The formulas for MWC generators fail here.
Richard Mueller - MVP Directory Services

SsRandom or another way to get a random number

In iDocScript, I need to get a random number between 0 and 4, or it could be between 1 and 5. I found ssRandom, but am unsure how to use that number to get the range I want. Any other ways or advice?

I found the answer, below is some iDocScript for generating random numbers.
[!--$randomIndex = ssRandom()--]
[!--$if randomIndex lt 0--]
[!--$randomIndex = randomIndex * (-1)--]
[!--$endif--]
[!--$randomIndex = randomIndex % 5--];

What's a good way to see a random number generator?

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