When is random not random?

[IndieSinger]

I have 5� days of music on my PC and I always have it all on random. Sometimes I use Windows Media Player and sometimes I use iTunes.

Why do these programmes not understand the concept of "random"? Depending on how I arrange the music (alphabetically by title, by artist, by album etc.) it will play the same sequence of songs. Grr!

[OBonio]

There is no such thing as true randomness in computing. Computers work with pseudo random algorithms t produce what look like random numbers, but are simply a sequence based ona seed number. If the same seed number is used, the same sequence of 'randomness' comes out. The seed is usually based on the time (number of seconds since 1970 for instance) so a different sequence should appear each time.

[Gemm85]

I have this problem with Itunes as well, I have a certain song I like, so when I play that and it goes on to random afterwards, it will always play the same sequence, its just odd isnt it!!

[OBonio]

The other reason why they do this is if you have a large number of songs, it would be easier for the program to generate a sequence when you click 'random' instead of generating 'on the fly' after each song is played (which would introduce an unwanted delay between songs).

If you uncheck random, hit play, then hit random again I'd guess it would regenerate the 'random list'.