What number is a different random number every day?

So here’s the algorithm I’m using now:

1. Take the number of days since a certain day (e.g. 1 January 1970), so at September 11 2013 it is 15960).
2. Divide that number by the amount of possible numbers (which is 9, so 15960/9=1773.33333…).
3. The remainder is the number I use, so in this case 3.

The problem, however, is that tomorrow this algorithm will produce a 4, the day after that a 5, etc. until 9 where it will start at 1 again. I want the numbers to not be that easily predictable.

Sounds like you want a random number generator based on your computer’s clock. Why involve dates?

I don’t want the generator to be completely random, merely chaotic using the present day as a seed.

So oops, bad wording. The reason I use date is because those are involved in the specific use case for this algorithm.

One is the loneliest number

What you want is a pseudo-random number generator seeded using the day’s date. As long as you are not planning on using this for anything super-important (like cryptography or statistics), then the PRNG can be very simple.

1) Take today’s date, written as a number. For example, today can be written as 91113, or even 9112013.

2) Square the number. 91113^2 = 8301578769

3) Remove the last (least) digit. Then remove the first digit. Repeat until there is only one digit.
8301 5 78769

4) The random number is a 5.

@PhiNotPi ‘s method will probably be sufficient. Most programming languages include pseudorandom number generators. You could, for example, download Python for free and fairly easily write code to generate pseudorandom numbers using the number of the day as a seed.

I agree with the above advice. It would really help to know what you have in mind because, if this is being used as a shared secret for sending secure messages, or some other form, then it will be easily defeated.

@PhiNotPi That’s great and makes a lot of sense, thanks!

And don’t worry, this has nothing to do with cryptography or anything, it’s just a method of showing a different recipe on my website every day.

Btw, on addition I had to do: the algorithm you mentioned above does not work with a variable amount of numbers, so I modified it to only remove the first and the last digit (so the number would be higher than the amount of numbers), and then take the remainder of dividing the resulting number with the amount of numbers. Works great now!

@Vincentt I thought that you only wanted a single digit. Anyways, the modification should be sufficiently random.