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The Lava Lamps That Help Keep The Internet Secure

Name: The Lava Lamps That Help Keep The Internet Secure
Description: Tom Scott visits Cloudflare's San Francisco office to show the wall of lava lamps whose camera feed is used as a source of entropy for random number generation. It is a short explainer on how this helps secure internet encryption.

Tom Scott

60 videos recommended on HN

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1 HN user recommended this explainer1 month2017–2024 score 1

Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

The go-to short explanation whenever lava lamps, entropy sources, or Cloudflare randomness come up.

Tom Scott visits Cloudflare's San Francisco office to show the wall of lava lamps whose camera feed is used as a source of entropy for random number generation. It is a short explainer on how this helps secure internet encryption.

“There's a good Tom Scott video on this too.” (HN, 2017)

1 recommendations · 2 citations · Explainers

Cryptography Probability & game theory Explainers Systems, Networks & Security

3 Hacker News comments

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@ceph_ Dec 2017 Recommends

on HN thread A wall of lava lamps helps encrypt the internet

There's a good Tom Scott video on this too. Like most of his stuff, it's well worth the watch. [this video]

Tom Scott on Cloudflare's lava lamp entropy wall

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Citations, criticism and jokes

@Natfan May 2022 Cites it

on HN thread Riot Games: Artificial Latency for Remote Competitors

Alternatively, just do what Cloudflare does (did?), and have some cameras pointed at lava lamps[0]. [0]: [this video]

Cloudflare uses cameras on lava lamps for randomness

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@Karellen Mar 2024 Cites it

on HN thread The London office where swinging pendulums keep cyber threats at bay

ObTomScott: The Lava Lamps That Help Keep The Internet Secure [this video] (Mention of the London pendulums at 2:39)

Tom Scott on lava lamps for security, mentions London pendulums

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