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I'm not a native speaker and thus not good at phrases. Can anybody explain the "snake oil" please?
by alpb 14y ago
I'm not a native speaker and thus not good at phrases. Can anybody explain the "snake oil" please?
- ars 14y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_oil http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_oil Basically a fake remedy that actually does nothing.
- WillyF 14y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_oil http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_oil
- lem72 14y agoSnake oil is an expression that originally referred to fraudulent health products or unproven medicine but has come to refer to any product with questionable or unverifiable quality or benefit. By extension, a snake oil salesman is someone who knowingly sells fraudulent goods or who is himself or herself a fraud, quack, charlatan, and the like.
- rdl 14y agoThe irony is that the original "snake oils" actually were effective, just mislabeled (contained no actual snakes). "Snake oil" as used today in tech is the opposite -- accurately labeled, but ineffective.
- SwellJoe 14y ago"were effective" for what purpose? And do you have a source for that?
- rdl 14y agohttp://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=snake-oil-salesmen-knew-something http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=snake-oil-s... real Chinese snake oil was essentially some kind of omega-3 rich thing for topical application. And, from the wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_oil http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_oil "snake oil" as sold in the US was essentially capsaicin, which is used today, both as a topical treatment and others, for a variety of muscle/bone/tissue ailments. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsaicin#Medical http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsaicin#Medical Whereas snake oil in cryptography tends to be worse. In practice even snake oil algorithms are probably enough protection for short-term, limited use (no one is going to devote real cryptanalysis resources to high school notes), but it can encourage people to have a false sense of security and do things they wouldn't otherwise, or it ends up getting used for purposes not originally intended.
- wahsd 14y agoWhich pretty much describes about 90% of the American economy.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- e40 14y agoI'm surprised you didn't think of google. The first hit explains it quite well.
- stevewilhelm 14y agohttp://lmgtfy.com/?q=snake+oil http://lmgtfy.com/?q=snake+oil
- alan_cx 14y agoYou have now the official definition of snake oil, but in my experience what it often means is a knee jerk reaction against something that fall out of common acceptance, and then too often becomes mere insult. Witness here how certain posters seem determined to trash the product. No matter what the defenders say, they simply must come back with something, and they will keep going until the defenders simply give up. Notice each attempt subtly shifting the goal posts each time the defending argument is put. Do I want to post examples? Absolutely no. All that will do is end up the same way. No matter what I say, there will be endless comebacks until people get annoyed with the whole thing ending up in a similar cycle. I'll leave it as one of those things a read can decide for themselves. So be careful, the use of the term snake oil can tell you as much about the person using the term as it can the target.