Re: Calculation issue with octave (data unexpectedly go to zero at some point)

[ghaverla]

On Thu, 27 Feb 2014 14:19:12 -0800 (PST)
rchretien <address@hidden> wrote:

> where N is a parameter denoting the number of realisations of the
> method (I suggest to put N=1, since the problem does not depend on N).

This is just a wild guess, much better to let the others continue with
their more structured approach.

From what I read, Octave is supposed to make use of a Mersenne-Twister
for its core 0-1 RNG.  And I am guessing you are drawing random numbers
from somewhere in your calculations.  If somehow you are getting random
numbers from /dev/random instead of the Mersenne-Twister, you could be
depleting your system of entropy, and hence every random you generate
ends up being 0.  /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail can help.  My
description assumes Linux, I don't know how this might translate to
other hardware/OS.

But I have seen entirely too many project descriptions, such as a
playing card game, where they are drawing random numbers
from /dev/random (directly or indirectly).

Gord