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> colorful wall of lava lamps [...] might be what’s generating the random code > which converts the randomness into a virtually unhackable code > Why use lava
by nayuki 4y ago
> colorful wall of lava lamps [...] might be what’s generating the random code
> which converts the randomness into a virtually unhackable code
> Why use lava lamps for encryption instead of computer-generated code?
Pet peeve: Non-technical people using the term "code" overly broadly. Binary numbers are a code. Morse code is a code. Encryption is a code. Machine instructions are a code. Passwords are codes. One-time nonces delivered over SMS are authentication codes. And so on and so forth.
This article would be clearer to me if the author wrote that the lava lamps help to generate random number sequences which are used as symmetric encryption keys to create virtually unbreakable ciphertexts. Not random codes for encryption codes to create unbreakable codes.
- diceduckmonk 4y ago> number sequences which are used as symmetric encryption keys to create virtually unbreakable ciphertexts Why should the average reader be expected to know the distinction between keys, ciphertexts, and number sequences. They're just codes. This is AtlasObscura intended for travelers, not an academic journal. It's like learning about functional programming and the gatekeepers explain a monad as being "a monoid in the category of endofunctors".