Entropy in ascii-armored output?

[Atom Smasher]

check out <http://diceware.com/>.

something like:
 	$ head -4 /dev/urandom | gpg --enarmor
will produce much better "random" output than encrypted output. encrypted 
output can be filled with  information that is not at all random, such as 
partial body length headers.

of course, base64 is limited to little more than half of the characters 
that you could be using on an english keyboard... let's say that there are 
100 printable characters available on an english keyboard. (according to 
my math) a 10 character password using only base64 characters can contain 
up to 60 bits of entropy, but allowing 100 possible characters it can 
contain almost 66.5 bits of entropy. using 20 characters, it's 120 bits 
for base64 and almost 133 bits otherwise.

personally, i find diceware ~type~ passphrases easier to remember than 
gibberish.


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