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infincia
Cardrand
C2012–2014
infincia / Cardrand

Cardrand

This is a simple demonstration of two things, pulling random entropy out of a hardware smart card, and feeding that data into the Linux kernel pool using an ioctl call. Makes it possible for any Linux system to have a real hardware random number generator

Systems & InfrastructureHardware & Embedded
Explore on GitHubRead Hacker News discussions
2Distinct people
2Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
7GitHub stars
REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

What to know before exploring

What it is

This is a simple demonstration of two things, pulling random entropy out of a hardware smart card, and feeding that data into the Linux kernel pool using an ioctl call. Makes it possible for any Linux system to have a real hardware random number generator

GitHub

Where it is used

No documented product use has been verified yet.

What people are saying

No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.

No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.

Also in these discussions

No other repository is repeatedly linked in the same discussions.

This week on Hacker News

Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 5:04:57 PM UTC.

No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.

Mentions over time

HN mentions by month2 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2012-02-12 19:27:54 UTC to 2014-07-21 06:34:38 UTC.

012012-02-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2012-03-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 1 submissions, 0 commentsFeb 20122012-03-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2012-04-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2012-04-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2012-05-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2012-05-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2012-06-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2012-06-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2012-07-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2012-07-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2012-08-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2012-08-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2012-09-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2012-09-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2012-10-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2012-10-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2012-11-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2012-11-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2012-12-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2012-12-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2013-02-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2013-02-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2013-03-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2013-03-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2013-04-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2013-04-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2013-05-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 commentsApr 20132013-05-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2013-06-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2013-06-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2013-07-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2013-07-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2013-08-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2013-08-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2013-09-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2013-09-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2013-10-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2013-10-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2013-11-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2013-11-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2013-12-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2013-12-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2014-02-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2014-02-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2014-03-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2014-03-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2014-04-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2014-04-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2014-05-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2014-05-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2014-06-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2014-06-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2014-07-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2014-07-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2014-08-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 commentsJul 2014

Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.

View mention counts and date ranges
UTC ranges include their start and exclude their end. Select a period to filter the source evidence.
PeriodStart (UTC)End (exclusive, UTC)MentionsSubmissionsComments
Feb 20122012-02-01 00:00:00 UTC2012-03-01 00:00:00 UTC110
Mar 20122012-03-01 00:00:00 UTC2012-04-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Apr 20122012-04-01 00:00:00 UTC2012-05-01 00:00:00 UTC000
May 20122012-05-01 00:00:00 UTC2012-06-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Jun 20122012-06-01 00:00:00 UTC2012-07-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Jul 20122012-07-01 00:00:00 UTC2012-08-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Aug 20122012-08-01 00:00:00 UTC2012-09-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Sep 20122012-09-01 00:00:00 UTC2012-10-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Oct 20122012-10-01 00:00:00 UTC2012-11-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Nov 20122012-11-01 00:00:00 UTC2012-12-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Dec 20122012-12-01 00:00:00 UTC2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Jan 20132013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2013-02-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Feb 20132013-02-01 00:00:00 UTC2013-03-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Mar 20132013-03-01 00:00:00 UTC2013-04-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Apr 20132013-04-01 00:00:00 UTC2013-05-01 00:00:00 UTC000
May 20132013-05-01 00:00:00 UTC2013-06-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Jun 20132013-06-01 00:00:00 UTC2013-07-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Jul 20132013-07-01 00:00:00 UTC2013-08-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Aug 20132013-08-01 00:00:00 UTC2013-09-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Sep 20132013-09-01 00:00:00 UTC2013-10-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Oct 20132013-10-01 00:00:00 UTC2013-11-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Nov 20132013-11-01 00:00:00 UTC2013-12-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Dec 20132013-12-01 00:00:00 UTC2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Jan 20142014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2014-02-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Feb 20142014-02-01 00:00:00 UTC2014-03-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Mar 20142014-03-01 00:00:00 UTC2014-04-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Apr 20142014-04-01 00:00:00 UTC2014-05-01 00:00:00 UTC000
May 20142014-05-01 00:00:00 UTC2014-06-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Jun 20142014-06-01 00:00:00 UTC2014-07-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Jul 20142014-07-01 00:00:00 UTC2014-08-01 00:00:00 UTC101

What Hacker News says

2 sources
mrsteveman1·Jul 21, 2014
I taught myself. Started in 2008 with PHP/HTML/CSS for a friends existing website, initially unpaid and for fun, but it rapidly became paid and brought substantial income (within a month or two) because I streamlined and automated things that were being done manually. Tempting to call that an exception but if you create real business value that fast, get paid for it or at the least get a glowing recommendation out of it. In 2009 I started learning Python, Objective-C, and C for fun, making things I needed myself. High level and low level stuff at the same time. A simple automated website "ping" checker for App Engine called AEServmon[1] I wrote for my own use was probably the first thing I ever open sourced. I also hacked together some C in Cardrand[2], again for personal use, to take advantage of the random number generator present in mo
Read the rest
st smart cards to feed the Linux kernel pool (/dev/random etc) with entropy. By 2010 I was fairly proficient in Objective-C and C, very familiar with UIKit and AppKit, started selling Mi-Fi Monitor[3][4], then later on Codepoints[5]. In 2011 I started doing consulting work on OS X and iOS projects. If I set aside the initial PHP success, I'd say roughly 1.5 years between "day 1" and selling products, and about 3 years before feeling confident in taking on fairly significant projects for clients. As an aside, Mi-Fi Monitor got me a phone call from an executive at Novatel (they made the original Mi-Fi hotspots), some discussions about rebranding it or working together, and several "good job" type emails from a few of the other execs there. They were paying attention, and actually using the app themselves. [1] https://github.com/infincia/AEServmon [2] https://github.com/infincia/Cardrand [3] http://infincia.com/apps/mi-fi-monitor-ios [4] http://infincia.com/apps/mi-fi-monitor-mac [5] http://infincia.com/apps/codepoints
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