This was a great explanation and actually made me laugh (at cricket's chirping).
On Monday, August 17, 2015 at 11:47:21 AM UTC-4, Terry Brown wrote: > > On Sun, 16 Aug 2015 13:18:23 -0700 (PDT) > john lunzer <[email protected] <javascript:>> 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 <[email protected] > > > <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 [email protected] <javascript:>. > > > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > > > <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 [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/leo-editor. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
