no no, it's happening to me too! I had to download a different browser to respond and now the textbox just randomly disappears so I'm typing in a word processor then I'll copy paste. don't know what's happening but yea you're not alone, the forum is freaking out

anyway, yea that exact stackoverflow post is what lead me to ask the question here. specifically the last answer[1] which actually attempts to answer my question, i.e. what if I could guarantee a unique seed every single time

calling srand(epoch) multiple times is less about making the output of rand any more "random" - I implemented a rejection sampling for my rand to improve bias[2]

my goal with calling srand(epoch) every x intervals would be to bolster or safeguard an edge case when the clockface calls rand() outside of onUpdate i.e. after a crash (global initialization of a variable) or when onHide is freeing up resources.

I don't necessarily care that the interval is static or cryptographically unsafe, rand() is manipulated later to fall within a range of 0 -> arr.size()-1. Now I could attempt to tackle your point of making sure the interval between successive srand calls is unpredictable by doing something like this:

- convert Gregorian.info(Time.now()) into total seconds

- say we want to reseed every 3.25 hours or 11700 secs

- if (Gregorian.info(Time.now()) into total secs % 11700) [this is our anchor to ensure the reseed attempt only happens once every 3.25hrs]

- then rand() a number between let's say 1100-2000

- if that rand() number == 11700, reseed srand(epoch) [arbitrary condition, subject to change]

- if not, don't reseed

so every 3.25hrs generate a range guarded number, if that number falls within a parameter, reseed with a new epoch that is guaranteed to have grown by at least 11,700 seconds. if not, don't, voila!

theoretically that should take care of the unpredictably of reseeding with epoch no?

[1]https://stackoverflow.com/a/63597147

[2]https://stackoverflow.com/a/11758872