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So tptacek, you've currently got 37 comments on this story. Why? What are you trying to accomplish here today? If you have it in mind that you're educating peop

So tptacek, you've currently got 37 comments on this story. Why? What are you trying to accomplish here today? If you have it in mind that you're educating people or improving the community, maybe take a step back. Your tone is condescending and combative. It reads like you're just arguing on the internet, and it's bringing down the general level of discourse. "tptacek" is normally a name that I associate with thoughtful comments so I take it that you're having a bad day. Pretty much any software being built that touches the internet involves cryptography. So pretty much any software. It's an important subject for any software engineer, and there's a lot of good available to be done by helping educate engineers at every level of experience.

tptacek 14y ago
People write comments that say things like "pretty much ay software being built that touches the internet involves cryptography". In the context of the thread, that statement is not just wrong, but dangerously wrong. So I write a comment saying why. Most of the time, it is easier to dash off a short comment that says something wrong, like, "pretty much any software" is going to involve grappling with cryptosystems, than it is to write a comment that thoroughly refutes that wrongness. Also, the space of possible wrong things you could write, like, "there's a lot of good available to be done by helping educate engineers" about how to write bespoke custom cryptosystems, is much larger than the space of things you can write that are even strictly speaking correct. So I'm at a double disadvantage. Ultimately, while I am happy to hear that you find my other comments helpful, I just do not care that you find my condescending, combative, or overly prolific on this thread. Deciding what to say based on what might or might not make random anonymous HN users happy is simply no way to be.
- bluesnowmonkey 14y ago
  I don't know why you're talking if you don't care how it is received. I'm a professional software engineer. I work on a system that occasionally passes secrets through untrusted contexts, encrypted with AES-256-CBC. Is that a good idea? Could we improve it? Would it be worth the effort? I'm open to learning, but this article isn't teaching, it's browbeating. So are your comments.

tptacek 14y ago

People write comments that say things like "pretty much ay software being built that touches the internet involves cryptography". In the context of the thread, that statement is not just wrong, but dangerously wrong. So I write a comment saying why. Most of the time, it is easier to dash off a short comment that says something wrong, like, "pretty much any software" is going to involve grappling with cryptosystems, than it is to write a comment that thoroughly refutes that wrongness. Also, the space of possible wrong things you could write, like, "there's a lot of good available to be done by helping educate engineers" about how to write bespoke custom cryptosystems, is much larger than the space of things you can write that are even strictly speaking correct. So I'm at a double disadvantage. Ultimately, while I am happy to hear that you find my other comments helpful, I just do not care that you find my condescending, combative, or overly prolific on this thread. Deciding what to say based on what might or might not make random anonymous HN users happy is simply no way to be.

bluesnowmonkey 14y ago
I don't know why you're talking if you don't care how it is received. I'm a professional software engineer. I work on a system that occasionally passes secrets through untrusted contexts, encrypted with AES-256-CBC. Is that a good idea? Could we improve it? Would it be worth the effort? I'm open to learning, but this article isn't teaching, it's browbeating. So are your comments.