Simple hash function (1 byte output from string input)

Question

I'm looking for a simple hash algroithm that will give me one byte of output for a string input (the inputs will be RFC822 email addresses, if that helps).

I'd like it to be simple, fast, and to magnify input differences (so two similar addresses have differnt outputs). (Yes, I am asking for a lot in one byte of output.)

Idealy, I'd like an XSL answer, but I can take it in either Java or Javascript (and then pass the hash as an argument to the XSL processor).

Thanks.

Answer 1

Why not take the most/least significant byte of the standard String hashCode() function ?