3 ms·

I can't even escape US internal politics on a cryptography blog

by sage3 6y ago

JshWright 6y ago
Yeah, maybe it's just the fact that things are particularly tense here at the moment, but the choice of example definitely adds some extra baggage that wasn't necessary. For me personally it interferes a bit with my ability to simply read and enjoy the post.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- irontoby 6y ago
  Just read the original Ars Technica article he "borrowed" all the images from. It's a great article I've referred back to many times; it's better-written and still easy to understand for those not familiar w/ the concepts. The ECC-specific content begins on page 2. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/10/a-relatively-easy-to-understand-primer-on-elliptic-curve-cryptography/ https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/10/a-rel...
julianeon 6y ago
I don't know, I liked it for being relevant and showing a real use case. Politics is a good example because if it was like grocery stores or something, it would be easy to conclude, I guess if you're paranoid okay but that sounds like overkill for such a modest use case. Basically for 'enterprise' but not for me. In reading this I thought, yes I'm sure FaceBook wants a secure fast way to communicate with high-value users, that's a good example, and also something real-life people would want to corrupt. They could've used "Ambassador of Country A would like to send a message to Ambassador of Country B" but that would've made it seem like something only high level infosec types would care about; this made it seem topical to me. And as it happens, as a US resident, I can confirm the example wasn't sensationalized - that's something that would realistically be posted in that situation, without exaggeration or underhanded commentary.
dang 6y ago
When coming here to comment, it's best to react to the most interesting thing, not the most provocative thing. Otherwise we tend to get a chain-reaction of provocations, as one commenter gets provoked by another's provokedness, and frequently an entire thread ends up burning itself on what was not even a tertiary point. That doesn't mean it wasn't provocative, just that a community like this needs its members to work on core strength, so we can keep this place functioning for curious conversation. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

I can't even escape US internal politics on a cryptography blog

by sage3 6y ago

I can't even escape US internal politics on a cryptography blog

Yeah, maybe it's just the fact that things are particularly tense here at the moment, but the choice of example definitely adds some extra baggage that wasn't necessary. For me personally it interferes a bit with my ability to simply read and enjoy the post.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
irontoby 6y ago
Just read the original Ars Technica article he "borrowed" all the images from. It's a great article I've referred back to many times; it's better-written and still easy to understand for those not familiar w/ the concepts. The ECC-specific content begins on page 2. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/10/a-relatively-easy-to-understand-primer-on-elliptic-curve-cryptography/ https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/10/a-rel...

julianeon 6y ago

I don't know, I liked it for being relevant and showing a real use case. Politics is a good example because if it was like grocery stores or something, it would be easy to conclude, I guess if you're paranoid okay but that sounds like overkill for such a modest use case. Basically for 'enterprise' but not for me. In reading this I thought, yes I'm sure FaceBook wants a secure fast way to communicate with high-value users, that's a good example, and also something real-life people would want to corrupt. They could've used "Ambassador of Country A would like to send a message to Ambassador of Country B" but that would've made it seem like something only high level infosec types would care about; this made it seem topical to me. And as it happens, as a US resident, I can confirm the example wasn't sensationalized - that's something that would realistically be posted in that situation, without exaggeration or underhanded commentary.

dang 6y ago

When coming here to comment, it's best to react to the most interesting thing, not the most provocative thing. Otherwise we tend to get a chain-reaction of provocations, as one commenter gets provoked by another's provokedness, and frequently an entire thread ends up burning itself on what was not even a tertiary point. That doesn't mean it wasn't provocative, just that a community like this needs its members to work on core strength, so we can keep this place functioning for curious conversation. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html