h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi.

I'm editing your entry "Modern Cryptography -- Methods and Uses" at A1315919 and just wanted to check with you if there are any last minute changes you have.

I've retooled the structure in the original piece... Otherwise, it's all as I intended. I hope I caught all the typos.

Sorry, you've lost me. Re-tooled?

Do you prefer the version you've got or the version I've got?

Appologies, I just want to be clear before I start modifying anything.

Also, is it worth mentioning that asymetric takes longer than symetric when suing prime numbers?

That's why SSL uses asymetric to start and symetric for the bulk of the transmission, I think.

It's one of the few things that I remember from university.

Content-wise, both version are identical, but I think my version is easier to read -- I've taken out the myriad s and replaced them with various ways of indicating sub-sub-subheaders.

I'm not sure that the bit about asymmetric keys taking long is entirely necessary... this isn't meant to be a technical paper on the topic; just a primer for someone who doesn't know much about crypto. I seem to recall reading something in Steven Levy's Crypto about how the split keys are correlated, that in theory you can derive one from the other but the fact that they're typically 100-digit primes isn't something super-important. Perhaps in the future I'll create a more technical version of this entry, as a supplement.

This is kind of the reason why I wish the University hadn't been shut down; I could've created a huge project on crypto for it, full of all sorts of information for various levels of understanding.

I'm not so sure, I think the version I have is easier to read.

It's formatted the same way as a thesis paper, and looks quite professional.

I've tidied up the GuideML and it's now easier to edit.

I am still waiting to hear if this formatting is OK, but I don;t see why not.

-chuckles- The reason it feels like a thesis paper is because it /is/ a thesis paper. I think I wrote that for Grade 13 English class. I had a number of complaints about the formatting, though; at lower resolutions (800x600, for example) the descriptions of the public and private keys is annoying to read because there are only a few words to a line.

It really doesn't matter to me one way or the other, as I originally formatted it with all the BLOCKQUOTEs, but I think the new formatting might be a little easier on readers.

I can see how it's easier to read.

The problem is, it uses underlining, which isn't allowed in the EG.

I'll have a fiddle and see what I can come up with.