Re: XOR without repeated key

From: Kevin Buhr (buhr_at_telus.net)
Date: 08/31/04 

Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2004 16:10:14 GMT

Joe Peschel <jpeschel@no.spam.org> writes:
>
> So, you're just upset by my one-word reply, because you didn't
> realize that Tim's post was obviously wrong? I thought you were an
> expert on the one- time pad.

No, I think what Guy was trying to say was that one-word reponses are
(with few exceptions) unhelpful. They are, by nature, dismissive, and
so they further the (false) perception that this group is unhelpful
and elitist.

This wouldn't be so bad if it was offset but some actual information
content, but as Guy points out: if Tim's post was obviously wrong to
Alice, the single bit of information you "added" to the discussion was
already known to her. If the post was wrong, but not obviously so, to
Bob, that single bit of information comes with no explanation or
justification or even any indication of its correctness.

In short, a one-word message generally imparts a single, noisy bit of
information that may already be known to most of the audience and so
is probably not worth posting.

Of course, this must be measured within the context of the compelling
hypothesis of Usenet neo-nihilists that nothing posted on Usenet is
worth posting. 

-- 
Kevin <buhr@telus.net>