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by shagie·8y ago·view on hn ↗
Even if you did either of those... the bits (at least the hotbits algorithm) works off of the detection of multiple events. Bringing in some Iodine 128 into a place (half-life of 25 minutes) into the area, that would change the rate of bit generation, but not actually influence the bits themselves.

Lets say you've got some cesium that's creating 800 bits per section. That one (now that I go back and read it closely) is based on four events: E1 <-(T1)-> E2, E3 <-(T2) -> E4. If the time between E1 and E2 is less than the time between T3 and T4 - its a 0. If its greater, its 1.

Bringing in some other source wouldn't change that algorithm unless one could control the "when" to some degree so that the gigercounter detects your events with greater frequency than the other source... and at that point, you might as well unplug the gigercounter from the com port and feed in your own data.

This could be done with background radiation too - but that's many fewer events and so a lower rate of germination. The time between two events is random and will remain random even with more radioactivity in the area.