EtLaUnMecTeDit__NIST

#! /usr/bin/env python3
# -*- coding: utf-8; mode: python -*-
""" Tiny Python 2/3 script to output a random number, like if your friend was telling it:

$ EtLaUnMecTeDit__NIST
Hmmm, 1DC97AAEA5B7D694C0376111702D34A15279066D15E45A8FDC3292835FEA4AA20D7E5EB097700380CE700EC625D60043E9F1D9319AB778EA4D464B68F7D7AD4E
$ EtLaUnMecTeDit__NIST
Hmmm, 14F1EB1615F65CD2AB0A7F0302250DE55D8F42F835A6A0B9A2B0F4292745826B27389A64771434CC94F769D73592AE08AAD09C382E0F10D931CE2A9D28DA2125

You can reduce the number of digits:

$ EtLaUnMecTeDit__NIST 10
Hmmm, 14F1EB1615
$ EtLaUnMecTeDit__NIST 12
Hmmm, 14F1EB1615F6

It uses the NIST beacon (https://beacon.nist.gov/home) to output "true" random generator.

- *Date:* 14/06/2017
- *Author:* Lilian Besson, © 2017.
- *Licence:* MIT Licence (http://lbesson.mit-license.org).
"""

from __future__ import print_function  # Python 2 compatibility if needed

from sys import argv
try:
    from urllib.request import urlretrieve
except ImportError:
    from urllib import urlretrieve

from tempfile import NamedTemporaryFile

import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET

URL = "https://beacon.nist.gov/rest/record/last"


def randint_from_beacon(maxlen=None, beacon_url=URL):
    """Read 'https://beacon.nist.gov/rest/record/last' and output a random number."""
    with NamedTemporaryFile() as this_temp_file:
        path_of_f = this_temp_file.name
        urlretrieve(beacon_url, path_of_f)
        tree = ET.parse(path_of_f)
        root = tree.getroot()
        tag = root.tag
        result = root.find(tag.replace('}record', '}outputValue')).text
    if maxlen is not None:
        result = result[:maxlen]
    return result


if __name__ == '__main__':
    maxlen = int(argv[1]) if len(argv) > 1 else None
    print("Hmmm,", randint_from_beacon(maxlen))