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Code that helped end Apartheid

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Re: Code that helped end Apartheid

#51

Post by GordonS »

sschueller wrote: post #46
GordonS wrote: post #15

[flagged]

Nelson Mandela was on the US terrorist watch list until 2008. Also the fact that so many in the US claim they remember he died in prison should say something about the media landscape. From the European perspective I recall the concerts that were held to free him and then also the concert that was held after he was free. Simple Minds even made a famous song for it [1]. I don't know if those concets were a big show in…

Yes, and also the UK just denied Nelson Mandela's grandson access to the UK, because of his views on modern day apartheid.

Re: Code that helped end Apartheid

#52

Post by macobrien »

iamthepieman wrote: post #25
jgrahamc wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know why but here's when: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=encipher%2Cenc...

So basically encipher was never used in the context of the web. And the web is what made encrypt popular separate from encipher. It does look like maybe encipher was possibly going to take off but encrypt stepped on its head.

Interestingly, the basis of web encryption does use the term "encipherment" -- the `KeyUsage` field of X.509 certificates has `keyEncipherment` and `dataEncipherment` flags.

Re: Code that helped end Apartheid

#53

Post by janzer »

rtkwe wrote: post #49
janzer wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> that your pad generation is actually random The one thing that stood out to me with the original blog post and a quick glance at the code was that it appeared as if the pad was certainly not actually random. Could anyone that has actually understood it a bit more confirm or reject this? Edit: It seems that the random generation can be found starting here https://github.com/Vulacode/RANDOM/blob/d6a1a1d694b22e6a115b.…

At the time PRNG was probably good enough. I wouldn't want to go up against the NSA today using the same entropy source but against South Africa decades ago it was probably good enough. Even knowing what PRNG source the original noise came from it'd take a hell of a lot of guess and check with cribs to come close to guessing the seed for the PRNG. That would be my first crack at breaking a OTP I knew was generated wi…

If the PRNG is good enough then shipping floppies full of PRNG output is very much unnecessary. Simply send the seeds used to initialize the PRNG thereby fitting many (~180k of them on a 720kb floppy) seeds on one floppy and save your couriers a lot of risk.

Re: Code that helped end Apartheid

#54

Post by kylecazar »

seanw444 wrote: post #23
jgrahamc wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know why but here's when: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=encipher%2Cenc...

Wow. Apparently that's when AES and Triple DES were introduced, which can't be coincidental.

Yeah... Data Encryption Standard published in the late '70s, and given its adoption, I assume solidified the use of 'encryption' in this context.

Re: Code that helped end Apartheid

#55

Post by mmooss »

GordonS wrote: post #15

[flagged]

> Protests and petitions are completely ineffective

They have been effective for millenia, even before democracy. The only thing ineffective now is people saying so. With all the evidence in the world that protest works, people bizarrely disarm themselves.

The targets of the protests take great pains to convince you of it; that should tell you something. They'll bluff until they lose.

Re: Code that helped end Apartheid

#56

Post by mmooss »

chx wrote: post #50
GordonS wrote: post #15

[flagged]

You need to understand as long as Citizens United stand it's practically impossible to make a change like this in the United States. People don't care enough and political issues are bought.

IMHO, you need to understand that your messaging is the only problem. For example, people on the right have made revolutionary changes - unthinkable changes as of 10 years ago.

Re: Code that helped end Apartheid

#58

Post by GordonS »

mmooss wrote: post #55
GordonS wrote: post #15

[flagged]

> Protests and petitions are completely ineffective They have been effective for millenia, even before democracy. The only thing ineffective now is people saying so. With all the evidence in the world that protest works, people bizarrely disarm themselves. The targets of the protests take great pains to convince you of it; that should tell you something. They'll bluff until they lose.

Millions protested the Vietnam war. Many millions more protested the Iraq war. Millions upon millions have protested against Israel's genocide of the Palestinian people for an entire year. Now those same people also protest against Israel's invasion of Lebanon.

It has been ineffective. We've seen peaceful protestors smeared, and beaten and harassed by the police. We've seen counter terror laws abused to smear and arrest leaders. We've seen clampdowns on what protests are allowed to go ahead, and at least on the UK they are pushing and pushing for "tougher" laws to crush protests.

Re: Code that helped end Apartheid

#60

Post by GordonS »

oldandboring wrote: post #57
GordonS wrote: post #15

[flagged]

[flagged]

As I said, I don't want this to become a flame war, and to that end would have preferred not to name the apartheid state in question.

But since you insist, nobody is just 'making it so by saying it' - indeed, saying it's not happening, in spite of the abundance of evidence, does not mean it's not!

I've Norwegian friends who have seen it first hand and we're aghast, but of course that's just a personal anecdote that just happens to agree with the ICJ, Human Rights Watch, and even Israel's own B’Tselem[0].

And no - I absolutely will not try to see "both sides" of apartheid. That's a really heinous thing to say.

[0] https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/07/19/world-court-finds-israel...

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