Hashes - Random? #7
Description
I realize I'm being a bit picky here, but hashes are not random; they are absolutely deterministic. On page 17 (and other places), the author states that a hash provides a "unique, random value." "Unique" is mostly true (except in the very unlikely event of a collision), but "random" is not. It may look random, but it isn't; as the author states in the very same paragraph, "the output is always predictable for the same input." That is the very opposite of random.
In future editions, I would suggest dropping "random" and simply staying with "unique." It gets your point across without adding any "confusion factors."