On Sun, 16 Aug 2015 13:18:23 -0700 (PDT) john lunzer <lun...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I understand their general purpose but not why that xkcd strip is > funny. What are people using them for, why post your public key? I've > encountered public/private key use for encryption a couple times, and > it wasn't funny. Hi John, You post your public key so that anyone can use it to send you encrypted messages that no one but you can read, without even having to make other contact first. To me the strip is mildly amusing because no one ever does that, you're basically saying to the world "here, send me a secret message", and the answer is, unsurprisingly, crickets chirping. If you post your private key instead, you're changing the message to the world to "here, steal my identity", and I guess it's cynically amusing to suggest that that message would generate much more attention. But I didn't think it was once of xkcd's most amusing. https://xkcd.com/353/ and https://xkcd.com/1205/ are a couple of my favorites, although they're not really funny, exactly, either. Cheers -Terry > On Sunday, August 16, 2015 at 11:16:58 AM UTC-4, Jacob Peck wrote: > > > > On 8/16/2015 11:11 AM, Edward K. Ream wrote: > > > > On Sat, Aug 15, 2015 at 7:52 PM, john lunzer <lun...@gmail.com > > <javascript:>> wrote: > > > >> I don't get it (even after doing research), I'm definitely not > >> cool enough for the internet, but xkcd often makes me feel like an > >> inferior life form. > >> > > > > ​Private keys must remain private. Otherwise, anyone could read > > what you have encrypted. > > > > Or, worse, anyone could encrypt or sign something and have it > > appear to all the world that you did it (thus the hover text). > > Private key = identity in many cases. > > -->Jake > > > > EKR > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > > Groups "leo-editor" group. > > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, > > send an email to leo-editor+...@googlegroups.com <javascript:>. > > To post to this group, send email to leo-e...@googlegroups.com > > <javascript:>. > > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/leo-editor. > > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > > > > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "leo-editor" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to leo-editor+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to leo-editor@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/leo-editor. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
