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Quinn Norton wrote an article for Wired describing cryptocat and headlined "This Cute Chat Site Could Save Your Life and Help Overthrow Your Government" http://

by jerrya 14y ago

Quinn Norton wrote an article for Wired describing cryptocat and headlined "This Cute Chat Site Could Save Your Life and Help Overthrow Your Government" http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/07/crypto-cat-encryption-for-all/all/ http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/07/crypto-cat-encrypti.... Chris Soghoian criticized that article and articles like it here that overly hype their subjects. He compared it to the unwarranted hype for Haystack. http://paranoia.dubfire.net/2012/07/tech-journalists-stop-hyping-unproven.html http://paranoia.dubfire.net/2012/07/tech-journalists-stop-hy.... Ryan Singel, editor of Wired's Threat Level, called Soghoian's article a sexist attack on Norton here: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/08/security-researchers/all/ http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/08/security-researcher... Soghoian replied here: http://paranoia.dubfire.net/2012/08/responding-to-wireds-ad-hominem-hatchet.html http://paranoia.dubfire.net/2012/08/responding-to-wireds-ad-... This is the news.ycombinator thread that discussed Soghoian and Wired's responses: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4354959 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4354959 This is Quinn Norton's, the original reporter's, response. I disagree with Norton (and Singel) and believe if Soghoian' original response had been sexist, Norton would have been able to quote from it. As it is, she can only make a tone argument.

slantyyz 14y ago
She lost me on this particular quote: >> I can explain that a hosted Javascript application is vulnerable to a deep structural attack better than any of them — I explain things for a living. Doing something for a living doesn't necessarily imply that you're good at it. Conversely, not doing something for a living (i.e., "explaining things") doesn't mean you're not good at it either.
- billswift 14y ago
  "Explaining" things that they don't understand is a hallmark of journalists, especially the so-called professional ones. Their knowledge of firearms, to take a really long-running example, was apparently acquired by watching made for TV movies.
  - slantyyz 14y ago
    One of my biggest takeaways from biz school (sadly, that should destroy all of my credibility here) was something a professor told my class. "You'll find that anyone who calls themselves an expert at anything probably read a couple of really good articles".

by jerrya 14y ago

slantyyz 14y ago

She lost me on this particular quote: >> I can explain that a hosted Javascript application is vulnerable to a deep structural attack better than any of them — I explain things for a living. Doing something for a living doesn't necessarily imply that you're good at it. Conversely, not doing something for a living (i.e., "explaining things") doesn't mean you're not good at it either.

billswift 14y ago
"Explaining" things that they don't understand is a hallmark of journalists, especially the so-called professional ones. Their knowledge of firearms, to take a really long-running example, was apparently acquired by watching made for TV movies.
- slantyyz 14y ago
  One of my biggest takeaways from biz school (sadly, that should destroy all of my credibility here) was something a professor told my class. "You'll find that anyone who calls themselves an expert at anything probably read a couple of really good articles".