19.1-19.2, due on November 20

• The book was totally right. I understand NOTHING about quantum mechanics. I do understand light and the example they gave was more understandable to me. I understood when they were talking about the lenses and the light going through the lenses. The part where I got lost is where they started talking about WHY the light can go through all three lenses, but not through just two. Not a physics person...
• It was cool to see how they can use this quantum mechanics to generate conversation between two parties. Not that I understand that all the way either, but it was interesting to read about anyway. The new notation was throwing me off a little bit, too.

14.1-14.2, due on November 18

• I read through the material for lecture today, but really didn't understand any of it. Maybe I read through it too fast or maybe its just a little tough to get. But, I'm not really understanding the whole "door" analogy. Peggy wants to fool Victor as to which way she's going to go and wants him to think she knows how to get into the door? Not sure if that's what I was supposed to get out of that scenario. I also didn't really understand the Feige-Fiat-Shamir Identification Scheme. I'm really looking forward to lecture.
• I'm always wondering if anyone has access to my information after I used my check card for a purchase, and type in my PIN. Its a scary thing to think about. You always see those commercials on TV where the person's identity was stolen without them even knowing it. Now their credit score is horrible and their life is ruined. I appreciate there being methods out there to help protect us from this kind of fraud.

12.1,12.2, due on November 16

• I really like the idea of being able to split a secret among a group of people. Its sad to say that, at least in these days, people in general aren't too trustworthy. Its nice to have a method of splitting the key to make people depend on each other. I also really like that we're using matrices again for some of the threshold schemes. I really love matrices!

Test Review, due on November 13

• The topics we've studied that I feel are the most important are the various factorization methods as well as the primality testing methods we learned. Actually, most of the things we went over seems important in different ways. I just feel that we've had the most practice with factorization and primality testing. Another thing that seems important, and that we've done A LOT, is RSA.
• I sort of expect to see a few things on the exam. When I say sort of, I mean I have really no idea. But I think we will have some factorization questions as well as some questions that will ask us to test for primality. I expect to see some Jacobi symbols on the exam as well as RSA. We'll probably also have some theoretical questions on the exam, similar to the theoretical questions that were on the last exam.
• I definitely need to work on understanding hash functions better before next week. I also need to work on a couple of the factorization algorithms. Aside from those, I just need a general review of the material.
• I came into this course kind of blind. I didn't really expect anything as far as topics are concerned. If the question asks if there's something that I would like to continue to study that we've studied already, I really like RSA. I think its because we've had so much practice with it, but I do like it.

8.3,9.5, due on November 11

• Holy cow! There are so many new symbols to know! We've been introduced to one or two of them before, but now there are so many things to remember about hash functions. They're still pretty fuzzy for me anyway. Some good study time should clear it up. And, I'll just have to read and reread my notes from lecture so that I can catch up on all of the symbols and what they mean.
• The Digital Signature Algorithm really does remind me a lot of the ElGamal method. The way the two are laid out in the book makes them out to be extremely similar. Having completed the homework for this week already, and computing some problems with ElGamal, I feel good about algorithms such as these.
  

8.4-8.5,8.7, due on November 6

• The hard part about this reading was still hash functions. I missed the first part of the reading about hash functions, so this is still a little bit cloudy for me. I understand the lectures in class that talk about hashes, but I'm still a little bit behind. So, when the book started discussing hashes as a means of encryption, I read it, but didn't really get it.
• The only part of the reading that I really understood was why the birthday attack works. I understand the logic behind it and I understand that the BSGS method would work better and be more precise. It was fun to read about and see how it works. The last time I heard of the birthday attack (although it was called by some other name) was a couple of years ago and at that time it was presented as only a theory. It was kind of mentioned in casual conversation. Its fun to know exactly why it works.

8.1-8.2, due on November 4

I didn't get a chance to read the material for today. I was in the middle of it, when I threw up. I don't have the flu, but I'm pregnant and trying to wein myself off of anti-nausea pills. Please send me an email if there's any way I can make this up. Thanks.