How hard is it to create a not-so-random number generator?
- by Duracell
Backstory:
So I was driving to band practice this evening. My car has a USB port where you can plug in a USB stick with MP3 files on it and the stereo will play them. I have about 100 MP3s on my stick so I pushed the 'Random' button. So from here to band practice, it played:
Track 22
Track 45
Track 4
Track 11
Track 87
Track 66
Track 98
Then on the way home, it played
Track 16
Track 27
Track 33
And then I stopped at the petrol station. I filled up, got back in the car and the stereo fired up again. It played
Track 22
Track 45
Track 4
Track 11
Track 87
I thought, WTF? What's with this 'random' generator? What are they using as a seed, if not time? Is a car stereo so memory-tight that it can't even use the C stdlib? Does anyone know how this kind of thing happens?