mathematical skills

[Perry E. Metzger]

I'm giving up on trying to teach people math. Those who believe that
its possible to find Jim's magic "is the key bigger or smaller"
algorithm without being able to factor are all entitled to their
opinion. Have fun. Ignorance is its own reward.

However, I've got to say that these discussions are occuring with
increasing frequency. Between jerks proposing newer and better linear
congruential generators as stream ciphers, fools asking why they can't
use books as sources for "one-time pads" (sic), and now fools asking
(indirectly) why it isn't possible to find a function that will let
them crack any RSA key they like in logarithmic time while not having
the result applicable to factoring, I feel rather sad. Its depressing
commentary on what cypherpunks has become.

Perry