title: Can I make uuid's more random?
body: <p>I have a program that dispatches messages to separate processes. I need to balance the load, but not in very precise way, almost the same number is ok. Since every message has an uuid field, I want to do it by uuid value. After I tested the uuid randomness I found it to not be as random as I expexted. I have the last one and the first one about 80% difference. This is unacceptable, so I want to know if there is an algorithm that can make it more random.</p>
  
  <p>Here is my test code.</p>
  
  <pre><code>import uuid
  from collections import Counter
  
  COUNT = 3000
  
  def b(length):
      holder = []
      for i in xrange(COUNT):
          holder.append(str(uuid.uuid4())[:length])
      return Counter(holder)
  
  def num(part_count):
      sep = 0xffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff / part_count
      parts = []
      for i in xrange(COUNT):
  #        str_hex = str(uuid.uuid4())[:4]
          num = int(uuid.uuid4().hex,16)
          divide = num/sep
          if divide == part_count:
              divide = part_count - 1
          parts.append(divide)
      return Counter(parts)
  
  if __name__ == "__main__":
      print num(200) 
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>and I get the output like this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Counter({127L: 29, 198L: 26, 55L: 25, 178L: 24, 184L: 24, 56L: 23, 132L: 23, 143L: 23, 148L: 23, 195L: 23, 16L: 21, 30L: 21, 44L: 21, 53L: 21, 97L: 21, 158L: 21, 185L: 21, 13L: 20, 146L: 20, 149L: 20, 196L: 20, 2L: 19, 11L: 19, 15L: 19, 19L: 19, 46L: 19, 58L: 19, 64L: 19, 68L: 19, 70L: 19, 89L: 19, 112L: 19, 118L: 19, 128L: 19, 144L: 19, 156L: 19, 192L: 19, 27L: 18, 41L: 18, 42L: 18, 51L: 18, 54L: 18, 85L: 18, 87L: 18, 88L: 18, 93L: 18, 94L: 18, 104L: 18, 106L: 18, 115L: 18, 4L: 17, 22L: 17, 45L: 17, 59L: 17, 79L: 17, 81L: 17, 105L: 17, 125L: 17, 138L: 17, 150L: 17, 159L: 17, 167L: 17, 194L: 17, 3L: 16, 18L: 16, 28L: 16, 31L: 16, 33L: 16, 62L: 16, 65L: 16, 83L: 16, 111L: 16, 123L: 16, 126L: 16, 133L: 16, 145L: 16, 147L: 16, 163L: 16, 166L: 16, 183L: 16, 188L: 16, 190L: 16, 5L: 15, 6L: 15, 9L: 15, 23L: 15, 26L: 15, 34L: 15, 35L: 15, 38L: 15, 69L: 15, 73L: 15, 74L: 15, 77L: 15, 82L: 15, 86L: 15, 107L: 15, 108L: 15, 109L: 15, 110L: 15, 114L: 15, 136L: 15, 141L: 15, 142L: 15, 153L: 15, 160L: 15, 169L: 15, 176L: 15, 180L: 15, 186L: 15, 0L: 14, 1L: 14, 36L: 14, 39L: 14, 43L: 14, 60L: 14, 71L: 14, 72L: 14, 76L: 14, 92L: 14, 113L: 14, 131L: 14, 135L: 14, 157L: 14, 171L: 14, 172L: 14, 181L: 14, 189L: 14, 7L: 13, 17L: 13, 20L: 13, 24L: 13, 25L: 13, 32L: 13, 47L: 13, 49L: 13, 101L: 13, 102L: 13, 117L: 13, 121L: 13, 122L: 13, 124L: 13, 130L: 13, 151L: 13, 152L: 13, 165L: 13, 179L: 13, 14L: 12, 21L: 12, 29L: 12, 50L: 12, 63L: 12, 67L: 12, 80L: 12, 84L: 12, 90L: 12, 91L: 12, 96L: 12, 120L: 12, 129L: 12, 139L: 12, 140L: 12, 182L: 12, 193L: 12, 197L: 12, 52L: 11, 75L: 11, 78L: 11, 103L: 11, 116L: 11, 119L: 11, 134L: 11, 137L: 11, 161L: 11, 173L: 11, 12L: 10, 37L: 10, 66L: 10, 98L: 10, 100L: 10, 162L: 10, 170L: 10, 175L: 10, 177L: 10, 187L: 10, 191L: 10, 199L: 10, 48L: 9, 155L: 9, 164L: 9, 174L: 9, 10L: 8, 95L: 8, 99L: 8, 168L: 8, 8L: 7, 40L: 7, 57L: 7, 61L: 7, 154L: 6})
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>the last one is 6 the first one is 29, nearly 5 times difference</p>