generating random numbers -- what seeds to use?

[Mike Miller]

I need to create large amounts of random data under a certain model.  I
wanted to produce 10,000 files, so I set 10 different processors to the
task of executing an octave scrit that would make 1,000 files.
Unfortunately, I forgot that some of the jobs were starting at nearly the
same moment, so they took the same seed from the clock and produced the
same 'random' files!

I'd still like to run 10 jobs at once, but I'll have to supply initial
seeds.  Is there any way that I can guarantee that I won't produce the
same file twice?  What is the best way to choose seeds?  What is the
period for Octave's random number generator?  Has anyone developed other
random number generators for Octave?

Mike



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