Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Code that helped end Apartheid

wired.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 240 posts

Re: Code that helped end Apartheid

#181

Post by geocar »

janzer wrote: post #44
rtkwe wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One time pads used properly are theoretically perfectly unbreakable. The problem is making sure no one ever uses the same 'pad'/keystream twice, that your pad generation is actually random, and that the pads never fall into the hands of your adversaries. (or if they do you've been diligent about completely destroying the used pads and the other end of your communications doesn't use the captured set of pads) They're…

> 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.…

> Could anyone that has actually understood it a bit more confirm or reject this?

In BASIC, the word "RANDOMIZE" sets the seed for the RND function, and you'll find it's initially dependant on time (including the typing speed of the user):

https://github.com/Vulacode/RANDOM/blob/main/RANDOM.BAS#L295

It then is reinitialised periodically by mixing in run time (which is highly variable due to microprocessor limitations) and checksums of previous parts of the stream:

https://github.com/Vulacode/RANDOM/blob/main/RANDOM.BAS#L319

The RAND[123] appears to be Bennett Fox's Algorithm 647, which was designed for simulation purposes (statistical randomness), and is based on Lewis-Goodman-Miller's construction from 1969, so it had a great deal of scrutiny.

I think this would have been state of the art in the late 1980s.

Re: Code that helped end Apartheid

#182

Post by sceptical »

ein0p wrote: post #166
mjfl wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is a hopelessly optimistic statement. Wait until the Israelis write the history, they will have your grandchildren worshipping at their feet for surviving the Hamas onslaught.

You’re presupposing they actually survive the current events and come out victorious in order to “write history”. I’m not sure of that at all if things kick off in earnest there.

Quite a bit of wishful thinking here. Who exactly would be able to defeat Israel? Iran? They are cowering in fear right now. Hamas? Hezbollah? Please.

Re: Code that helped end Apartheid

#183

Post by ein0p »

sceptical wrote: post #182
ein0p wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re presupposing they actually survive the current events and come out victorious in order to “write history”. I’m not sure of that at all if things kick off in earnest there.

Quite a bit of wishful thinking here. Who exactly would be able to defeat Israel? Iran? They are cowering in fear right now. Hamas? Hezbollah? Please.

Just Iran alone is capable of defeating Israel if it wishes. Israel is only 8M people. There are hundreds of millions of Muslims living in Middle East. They aren’t united right now, but Israel, ironically, could unite them.

Re: Code that helped end Apartheid

#184

Post by sceptical »

ein0p wrote: post #183
sceptical wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quite a bit of wishful thinking here. Who exactly would be able to defeat Israel? Iran? They are cowering in fear right now. Hamas? Hezbollah? Please.

Just Iran alone is capable of defeating Israel if it wishes. Israel is only 8M people. There are hundreds of millions of Muslims living in Middle East. They aren’t united right now, but Israel, ironically, could unite them.

But it wishes it already. Israel however has nukes and is backed by the US. Iran wouldn't last 10 minutes.

Re: Code that helped end Apartheid

#185

Post by ein0p »

sceptical wrote: post #184
ein0p wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just Iran alone is capable of defeating Israel if it wishes. Israel is only 8M people. There are hundreds of millions of Muslims living in Middle East. They aren’t united right now, but Israel, ironically, could unite them.

But it wishes it already. Israel however has nukes and is backed by the US. Iran wouldn't last 10 minutes.

Not only does Iran not wish to destroy Israel, it is also unwilling to allow Hezbollah to successfully do so either. If it wanted to destroy Israel, Israel wouldn’t have any AD after the last strike.

Re: Code that helped end Apartheid

#186

Post by psd1 »

anthk wrote: post #172
fldskfjdslkfj wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The jewish people have a 2000 year old history and presence in the region, if that's consider colonialism then might as well just declare earth a settler-colonialist project and get it over with.

So did the Italians, and I'm not sure if I would like Meloni ruling either Madrid or Barcelona... or the whole Mediterranean Europe and a chunk of Asia.

user fldsk means to say 6000 year history, of course. But I'm willing to come down on that, since Genesis is a bit of a chronological hand-wave.

I'm relying on whatever Synod counted the ages of people in the talks and arrived at a creation date of 4004 BC, of course

If we grant that Italy is Rome, which is a separate conversation, then we're still left with Roman conquest, which we don't consider legitimate today, and a long period of documented Jewish inhabitation.

I don't take a position on the legitimacy or otherwise of Israel, because there are already plenty of indignant westerners with insufficient information. But I will say: that written history is weighty evidence.

Re: Code that helped end Apartheid

#187

Post by tecleandor »

DrillShopper wrote: post #42
BuyMyBitcoins wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it unfashionable? I quite like it.

I remember reading in Bruce Schneier's Applied Cryptography that in some cultures "encrypt" refers to the process of entombing bodies for burial and that "encipher" did not have that baggage. Similar connotation to "decrypt" which would be exhumation.

For example in Spanish, there's been always a fight between using "cifrar" instead of "encriptar". I like "cifrar" a bit more, but it's true that we've always had the prefix "cripto-" for hidden or mysterious things. Anyway, the difference is "cifra" is the Latin root for "digit", and "kryptos" is the Greek root for "hidden".

Re: Code that helped end Apartheid

#188

Post by fldskfjdslkfj »

ein0p wrote: post #185
sceptical wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it wishes it already. Israel however has nukes and is backed by the US. Iran wouldn't last 10 minutes.

Not only does Iran not wish to destroy Israel, it is also unwilling to allow Hezbollah to successfully do so either. If it wanted to destroy Israel, Israel wouldn’t have any AD after the last strike.

You are delusional. Iran lost most of its deterrence, its proxies have been decimated and its ICBM capabilities, although not nothing haven't really managed to cause any significant damage and have shown that they lack sufficient accuracy.

Will the balance of power change a few decades from now? Maybe, who knows, but for now Iran is in a tough spot.

Re: Code that helped end Apartheid

#189

Post by andrepd »

fldskfjdslkfj wrote: post #170
cutler wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

The jewish people have a 2000 year old history and presence in the region, if that's consider colonialism then might as well just declare earth a settler-colonialist project and get it over with.

That's a rather odd argument, don't you think? Romans have been in my country even before that, Greeks have been in present-day Turkey, Egypt, etc. Normans have invaded and colonised England 1000 years ago. Should the corollary be that these peoples are somehow entitled to expel the current dwellers of those lands because of some sort of historical right?

Re: Code that helped end Apartheid

#190

Post by ein0p »

fldskfjdslkfj wrote: post #188
ein0p wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not only does Iran not wish to destroy Israel, it is also unwilling to allow Hezbollah to successfully do so either. If it wanted to destroy Israel, Israel wouldn’t have any AD after the last strike.

You are delusional. Iran lost most of its deterrence, its proxies have been decimated and its ICBM capabilities, although not nothing haven't really managed to cause any significant damage and have shown that they lack sufficient accuracy. Will the balance of power change a few decades from now? Maybe, who knows, but for now Iran is in a tough spot.

Uh-uh. The country which has just tested a nuke a couple of weeks ago and easily defeated the Iron Dome with its cheaper rocket stock is “totally decimated”. Sure buddy.
Post reply on HN