Sun redefines random

Tim Tyler wrote a java applet to demonstrate the patterns revealed by the use of the Random utility in the Java language. Check out the results and his take on it here.

My java is a little rusty so I didn't bother checking his code to make sure it was not written in a way that would unfairly cause the patterns he describes. I would submit that there are patterns in any chaotic situation. For those unfamiliar with chaos theory, here is a nice primer. This does not directly apply here, but I think it is a good example of how even very complex things can show patterns if we look at them as a whole. A great application of this principle is the idea of fractals. These have been around for a long time and exist both naturally and artificially. Of course you can check out some information on fractals here. On a related note, this is a nice shareware fractal generation application that has many features worth checking out.

He has reported this bug to Sun so we shall see what comes of this. Any other thoughts on this?