SeedRandom and $SessionID
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg58603] SeedRandom and $SessionID
- From: Kerry Kim <kjkim at u.washington.edu>
- Date: Sat, 9 Jul 2005 04:08:03 -0400 (EDT)
- Organization: University of Washington
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
Hi Everyone, I'm doing some Monte-Carlo simulations on a cluster. Since by default the random number seed is based on the system time, I sometimes get the same seed being used in multiple Kernels if they're launched simultaneously from a shell script (something to avoid). Is there any danger in using $SessionID as the random number seed? Also, does anyone know the bounds on $SessionID (compared to the bounds on the random number seed) are and whether the processID is included in the calculation of $SessionID? Alternatively, has anyone worked out a good way to seed the random number generator in Mathematica? Thank you! -Kerry Kim