User talk:Matt Crypto/archive6

Animation

Hi Matt, I noticed that someone else had noticed a slight error in the animation image you posted on the article "Linear Feedback Shift Register", and he had actually included his comment as part of the content of the article. I have created a discussion so further comments/suggestions/feedbacks/error reportings can be discussed separately and not be included as part of the article. Anyway, hope you would update the animated image and republish. The animation is pretty cool though. -daniel.kho

Race and ethnicity

You are cordially invited to participate in a discussion of race and ethnicity at Wikipedia. Please jump in as soon as possible. -JCarriker 05:32, 22 December 2005 (UTC)

Please remember that you have a standing invitation to thean ongoing conversation at User talk:JCarriker/Wikipedia: Race and Ethnicity. The participants in the discussion were selected to produce a balanced view if you do not care to participate, please let me know so I can find someone else. If you decide to participate please add it to your watchlist and/or check for new posts regularly. Thanks. -JCarriker 19:18, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

Healing Wikipedia

I wonder if there is a way to heal the issues and differences that DCV's arbitration has brought to the foreground? In some ways, this entire affair has been bad for racial relations here at Wikipedia. Those who don't like how DCV acts have said that their actions are solely in response to DCV not being "nice" (so to speak). Those who don't like what has happened to DCV (like me) see the affair as being driven by racism and bigotry. The funny thing is that there is overlap between the two sides. A number of those pushing to sanction DCV admit that some of actions against her have been wrong and haven't helped racial issues here (and that some of the users pushing the issue against her are doing so for possibly racist reasons). Almost all of us opposed to the actions against DCV admit that she is abrasive and has violated Wikipedia guidelines and should be more civil in her discussions here. What we see, though, is a double-standard at work, with users appearing to gang up against non-minority editors like DCV for being less than civil but not doing the same to white editors. I would encourage you to post your thoughts here on a special talk page I created. --Alabamaboy 21:35, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

Creationism

Your suggested addition of creationism to featured article Dinosaur has been repeatedly and unanimously countered on the discussion page, yet you went ahead and made the changes. I think this borders on vandalism. Please stop, make a convincing argument we can all agree on, and then edit.Dinoguy2 14:35, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

There was no convincing argument given against adding the paragraph. Please use words carefully. "Vandalism" is things like blanking pages, or adding "bob sucks!!". — Matt Crypto 14:38, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

There does not need to be a convincing argument since it is obvious you will never be convinced. We have consensus, which rules according to Wikipedia guidelines.Dinoguy2 15:08, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

A handful of editors with strong feelings about a certain POV does not make consensus; moreover, this is an obvious application of a core Wikipedia policy. You cannot exclude a view on a subject just because it's bad science. — Matt Crypto 15:10, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

This made me think of a possible solution. Articles like Solar system do discuss views which are now considered bad science but have been disproven (in the section "Discovery of the Solar System"). I would not bject to including a paragraph on Creationism under the pretext that it is an old view which has been disproven.Dinoguy2 15:17, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

The problem is, it's not just an old view (i.e. it's still very popular, particularly in the US), and it would be a violation of NPOV to simply state that it had been disproven. But I think you get the same effect, in an NPOV way, at present. That is, the paragraph goes out of its way to emphasise that it is not accepted science in three ways: A) as just mentioned, it's in the "in popular culture" section, alongside works of fiction; B) it starts off by emphasising that these views "differ from those of mainstream science"; and C) it ends by saying that, "Virtually no life scientists, geologists, or paleontologists support these views on dinosaurs". We give the reader all the information they need to make up their own mind about the scientific credibility of young Earth creationism, without having to say explicitly that it's been disproven (which would be a non-neutral assertion). — Matt Crypto 15:32, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

Greetings

Thanks Matt, hope to see you around. I'm not really a cryptography expert, but I've applied to MIT's CS department for cryptography, so hopefully I'll be improving articles around here while I learn more.

Meekohi 16:09, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

Blog

The link to your blog doesn't seem to work. PDD 14:09, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

I've just tried it and it works for me; maybe Blogger was having troubles? http://cipher-text.blogspot.com/ — Matt Crypto 18:47, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

Yep, works now... the message was a system message, something like "blog doesn't exist", not a timeout... sorry for the confusion :-) -- — ^PDD 01:04, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

(but hey, while I'm in the bugfinding mood: your public key is expired!)) — ^PDD 01:37, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

latest

Hey Matt,

I realize DC's quote from Susan Anton may look as if it is merely uncited, but a quick test verifies it exists nowhere else on the internet (via google). It may exist in a magazine somewhere, but if that were the case, DC could easily enough tell us the name of the magazine. The standard for determing that something is a flat-out falsehood can't be that we require a google diff -- as that is impossible if a quote is just made up. I was reading the Siegelauer scandal and someone stood up for the editor, saying the statement that Siegelhauer was "once thought to have been involved" could never be disproven in a court of law...it is true, but the wiki standard needs to be a little lower. If we do ultimately find the quote is legit, it is also a ludicrous state of affairs that I have to go through a wild goosechase to see if wiki material is correct. DC's work describing the french work as both assigning flesh color and not assigning flesh color to tut is another example of the havor she causes with uncited statements.

-Justforasecond 19:21, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

I agree that citing sources is important, but refusing to provide a source is not, of itself, vandalism — vandalism is simply the wrong word for it. I'm not familiar with the case you mention, but unsourced statements are easy to deal with. If a statement in an article is unsourced, and you've requested a source, and none is provided after a reasonable period of time, and you can't verify it yourself on the Web, then it's perfectly acceptable to remove the statement from the article pending a citation. See Wikipedia:Verifiability. (But please only challenge statements you genuinely think need to be sourced). — Matt Crypto 20:03, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

Boomerang attack

Go right ahead; I haven't worked on that article in ages. I've been pretty inactive lately. Everything's going well, but I'm pretty busy at the moment. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Decrypt3 (talk • contribs) 00:18, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

deeceevoice's departure

If you're interested in speculating about deeceevoice's departure. -- Jim Apple 05:55, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

February 13

It occurred to me, it might be nice to feature "Marian Rejewski" on February 13, the 26th anniversary of his death. logologist|Talk 11:22, 15 January 2006 (UTC)

Good idea. You might wish to ask User:Raul654 nicely if/when the article is promoted (Raul selects the main page featured article). — Matt Crypto 21:14, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

3 revert rule

you placed a temporary ban a while ago on me for disobeying the 3 revert rule, well there are others still doing it on the Wola page, namely Lysy. also there is a vandal (62.134.229.116) that I would suggest putting a temporary ban on as well. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Jadger (talk • contribs) 22:04, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

I count three reverts by Lysy (3RR says that only users reverting more than three times can be blocked); not that edit warring is a good thing. I've protected the page temporarily. — Matt Crypto 21:11, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

Hey, an infraction of 3RR has happened on the page Operation_Medak_pocket by Ceha. If you will read the discussion page myself and others have been trying for a lengthy time to establish a middle ground, but he does not understand the concept of NPOV or the 3RR.

--Jadger 05:04, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

Italian translation

I noticed you didn't get many answers. Try asking http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/utente:OrbiliusMagister on his talk page on the Italian Wikipedia. He speaks English and could probably point you to qualified people if he doesn't know the technical terms. - Taxman ^Talk 00:33, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

Hi Matt, glad to know the translation was useful. Feel free to ask again if you ned help on similar issues. On the Italian Wikipedia, we also have an embassy desk for foreign language requests and the local Village Pump is usually monitored by English-speaking people, so if I'm not around feel free to ask there, too. Amazed by your work, --BrokenArrow 21:25, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

Trolling

Please do not accuse people of trolling when it is blatantly clear that they are not —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Yixian (talk • contribs) 10:33, 17 January 2006 (UTC) (UTC)

Please sign your posts. This is trolling; don't do it. — Matt Crypto 10:33, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

Oh right, you were referring to a joke in an article discussion. Haha. Read anally retentive. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Yixian (talk • contribs) 17:52, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

Read Wikipedia:Civility, and stop trolling. — Matt Crypto 16:58, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

OMI

Someone was a bit over-eager with archiving the reference desk. There's a little bit about that company now in the archives. Lupo 08:49, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

Many thanks; I've started a stub for Ottico Meccanica Italiana based on your info. — Matt Crypto 08:58, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

Your entry on my talk

I have updated the issue on my talk. This is the last contact I wish to receive from you on this matter. Continued contacts may be construed as harrassment. Thank you. -- SusanLarson ^{(User Talk, New talk, Contribs)} 17:38, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

In case anyone's interested in this matter, here is a summary: SusanLarson first barges into a dispute and announces that she has sole authority to settle the dispute, suggests that any deviation from her binding "decision" will be taken as vandalism, accuses several editors in good standing of POV-pushing, completely fails to assume good faith, "archives" an increasingly embarrassing — yet still active — discussion that's not going her way, and then rudely and abruptly insists on ending any contact, which will be, er, "construed as harrassment". This is her idea of "ending the matter gracefully", I suppose. Oh well, move along. — Matt Crypto 22:58, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

Yes, i suppose it is suspicious...especially her whole "you claim you're not pov pushers. the two of you have repeatedly denied it. im telling you you're wrong. i have no basis for this accusation other than my own personal opinion. thats the end. dont talk to me again. i'm right." but, as you so eloquently put it, oh well, move on. just thought i'd let you know that i'm very much quite impressed with your ability to not be a total jackass (because, i'll be honest, i was pretty much ready to become one) in this situation and keep a cool head. --jfg284 ^{you were saying?} 23:19, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

Template:Needs-verification

Far better, thank you! I'm wondering if I should lose the Wikipede. The normal clean-up boxes are so ugly and unfriendly that I wanted this to be a little different, but maybe it's over the top. - Haukur 17:04, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

Personally, I like it; probably some will hate it. I think it works in the context of a non-threatening newbie template. — Matt Crypto 17:24, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

AES standard

I appologise for not discussing the changes I made to the Rijndael article (Rijndael); I'm new to Wikipedia and didn't realise this was what I should/could do (plus I didnt see your comments that I should discuss this). Anyway, I suppose your right that it sounds better as "AES standard", but its still redundant. The term "GPL license" was changed on the same article (to "GPL-licensed") due to it being redundant, so I dont see why this shouldn't be. Agiain, please accept my appologies for the changes that I made. Thanks. —the preceding unsigned comment is by 82.22.60.243 (talk • contribs) 20:58, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for dropping me a note! Almost always if there's disagreement about the content, the best thing to do is to enter into discussion, usually on the talk page (Talk:Advanced Encryption Standard) — I'll copy this here so that other editors will see it too. At least to me, the phrase the AES standard sounds better, and it's used even by NIST (the standards body that specified AES): [1]. — Matt Crypto 20:15, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

Be careful

Hey, I've been keeping an eye on User talk:Deeceevoice and while I think you're in the right on removing personal attacks, I'd probably just leave it alone at this point if I were you. Anyway, there's two cents, worth what you paid for it. :-) Friday (talk) 17:00, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks Friday. As it stands, I'm happy that Deecee has refactored her comment herself. — Matt Crypto 17:01, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

The KY-68

Now rewritten under the KY-68/Temp directory. Image copyright cleared up.

Regards, Roidhun 14:37, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

SSLeay

Are you not supposed give a reason or argument behind the merge request in the target's discussion page? SSLeay has been a requested article for a while, so I put in a stub, but the information on it is quite scarce because of how long ago that was, so I could put little more up without some deep internet scimming. Janizary 16:04, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

User:24.220.30.48

This anonymous IP has called me a douche bag twice. The first time I didn't care but I'm getting tired of reverting them. Is it appropriate to request a block for this? Heres their contributions[2]. Both edits to my page were personal attacks. Thanks!--Urthogie 19:17, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Deeceevoice

I have unprotected her user talk page. She needs to discuss matters such as personal attacks and communication with other users. Fred Bauder 23:09, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

I remain hopeful she will come around Fred Bauder 01:32, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Hash functions based on block ciphers

Hi Matt. I left a long answer to you at the bottom of my talk page. Don't know if you put others talk pages on watch when you write on them so I thought I'd better drop a note here. Cheers! --David Göthberg 12:01, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

NSA

Its the general policy of Wikipedia to discuss an article on the discussion pages. The discussion pages allow us to ask and answer questions, to provide information which may stimulate thought about how to make the article better, and to engage one another. If you are sure that you know more about the NSA than I do, feel free to correct any misinformation. If you don't think steaganography or L0pht or @astake should be mentioned in connection with NSA feel free to say why. If you don't think NSA infrastructure or personnel or contracts are germane discuss your reasons.Sea level 14:53, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

There is a big difference between "discussion about the NSA" and "discussion about the article about the NSA". The former is off-topic, the latter is on-topic. Please try making specific assertions about the article, rather than posting long opinions about the NSA. For example, you could say, "I feel we should say more about steganography in this article". — Matt Crypto 14:56, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

I feel we should say more about steganography in this article. Let's say that you were to put a picture of yourself on your home page. You could conceal a message in it and someone who wanted to read it could simply by browzing to that page and downloading the image. The key can be as simple as the "talking in anagarams" phenomenology devised by the Friends of the Library readers spining off the Sopranos inserts.69.164.66.203 13:47, 4 February 2006 (UTC)

Diceware

Could you take a look at the diceware page? There has been a neutrality challenge, to which I responded by toning down one comment. There is also a section added a while back that I think is incorrect. I marked as disputed, with an explanation on the talk page. I am reluctant to edit it however as I clearly have a personal interest in the matter. I think it would be best if someone else maintained this page. --agr 13:54, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

As you've no doubt seen by now, I've edited it some. I respect your integrity in avoiding editing the article yourself, but by all means add to the talk page liberally! — Matt Crypto 16:02, 4 February 2006 (UTC)

Smoke without fire

Just back from SASC 2006. There was some interesting discussion there about the problem of "smoke without fire" - that is, cryptanalytic attacks which have no validity, but which make the general public afraid of using the cipher because they're not able to assess that the attacks are not valid. I know that those who sell licenses to patented algorithms feel particularly strongly about this danger, but it's a difficulty for the whole community. The example everyone gave was Li An-Ping's attacks on Salsa20, but it's a general problem. Do you have any thoughts on how Wikipedia can respond positively to give an accurate impression to the public without violating the usual rules of NPOV, verifiability, and so forth? Thanks! — ciphergoth 11:12, 4 February 2006 (UTC)

(I hope you don't mind; I've duplicated this post this to Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Cryptography). If a result has been published in a reputable, peer-reviewed place, then I would think we can safely assert the result without hesitation (unless it's been challenged elsewhere, of course). If it's not been peer-reviewed, we should probably hedge it along the lines of "In 2006, Smith claimed to have found an attack on SmegoCrypt...", and then add the response to it by the algorithm's designers as soon as it's available, or any other (reasonable) skeptical claims. We could even add a clause along the lines of "the result has not yet been published" if the author of the attack hasn't got a particularly convincing reputation. One of the benefits of Wikipedia is that it can be cutting edge, but, as you point out, the flip side is that we don't want to encourage the spread of rumours. — Matt Crypto 15:28, 4 February 2006 (UTC)

Image

Hi, regarding elonka.jpg, I put that tag on it because I'm not certain of the international ramifications. When I spoke to the photographer about it a couple years ago, I asked him if I could use the image on my webpage and for my bios, and his reply was, "Sure, use it anywhere you want." But I'm not sure if that translates to, "International public domain", or "Elonka can use it for her projects, but that doesn't mean it's open to everyone to use." So I put a US tag on it for now until I can clarify its status with him later. If you know of a tag that would be more appropriate for it in the meantime, feel free change it. :) Elonka 15:17, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

Protection of EL _C userpage

True...they may think twice. But this pointless edit war, by admins of all people, need not require protection. This is a wiki, and unless EL_C wants his page protected, then lets not do it unless needed to stop a revert war. Since admins were reverting anyway, and should no better, it is not worth it. Now no one else really needs to edit it, and something else may come up, so tell me if that happens, so I can re-protect (so it won't look like a wheel war). Thanks. Voice of All^T|@|ESP 22:20, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

Nihilist cipher scratch page

I don't mind at all; go right ahead. (Though I think it needs a bit of work yet.) -- Securiger 02:33, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

In particular, I was thinking:

• We have a moderate amount of history on the variants, but almost none on the basic version;
• The example is weak because it doesn't demonstrate either of the special problems mentioned under cryptanalysis. However I quite like both the plaintext and key, so to improve it I would preferably fiddle with the Polybius square;
• The glib "assuming a 5 × 5 square" probably needs to be qualified by the fact that the Russians, using Cyrillic, normally did not use a 5 × 5 but rather a 6 × 6;
• Why the heck don't we have a non-carrying addition page? OK it's just digitwise mod 10, but mod 10 with a particular historical significance;
• Need to ID the other fellow to use VIC;
• Some of the links need to be d'abed or redirected;
• Lots of interesting words and phrases could also be linked; and
• Probably plenty of copy-editing required. It includes two exclamation points, far too many for an encyclopaedia article!

Cheers, -- Securiger 02:52, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

I just re-read what I wrote there and it seems rather, umm, unreasonably demanding. Consider the rough draught to be under the GFDL and CC-BySA, and use it as you see fit. The above are merely my suggestions. Sorry if my list sounded rude. -- Securiger 07:17, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

Not at all, or, at least, I certainly didn't read it that way! Sorry I haven't got round to this yet; I'm very easily distracted... — Matt Crypto 17:50, 21 February 2006 (UTC)

I've gone and put the draft live (Nihilist cipher), but I've only done a little copyediting so far. I've added your suggestions to the Talk page. — Matt Crypto 17:57, 21 February 2006 (UTC)

user making personal attacks

In addition to multiple page blanks, this user has made several intimidating offensive personal attacks on my talk page: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk%3AUrthogie&diff=40426568&oldid=40426169 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk%3AUrthogie&diff=40427210&oldid=40426568 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk%3AUrthogie&diff=40427814&oldid=40427210 I feel that if they are blocked for just 24 hours on this screename, they will follow through to their word and move on to another one of those computers they say they have access to. Thanks for helping.--Urthogie 14:40, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

I've blocked this username indefinitely, but I'm afraid there's nothing we can do to stop him/her editing anonymously from various IP addresses. — Matt Crypto 15:18, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

Hardware Random Number Generator

No problem Matt! It was small error anyway. --DavidGrayson 20:52, 21 February 2006 (UTC)

Message from Joachim Strombergson

Aloha!

I'm not really sure how the talk function works on Wikipedia (how to respond to a message etc) - and there is probably a good FAQ for that somewhere...

Thanks for moving the Snow page to a more proper one and do some cleanup. Looks much better. I use the Wikipedia extensively for cipher stuff as well as for boatloads of other things, so I guess it's time to start giving back (fixing my Wikipedia ratio ;-).

Like you I'm operating a cipher blog, though mine is in Swedish: Kryptoblog

I work as VP R&D for a hardware company developing security modules, ASICs and IP-cores.

BTW: What are your thought on adding pages for the ESTREAM candidates? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Joachim Strombergson (talk • contribs) 08:40, 22 February 2006 (UTC)

Hi, for a quick overview on Talk pages, see Wikipedia:Tutorial (Talk pages). There's an easy way to sign messages: if you type ~~~~, the software will replace it with your username and a datestamp. Glad to have you help out: I think it's a good idea to add pages for eSTREAM candidates. We've got a few already, but most are still "red links". — Matt Crypto 10:33, 22 February 2006 (UTC)

Aloha!

Matt, did you see my comments/discussion in the MUGI discussions about copyrights, patents, licenses etc and their possible relevance to the Wikipedia crypto pages? I see Daniel J Bernsteins efforts at discerning the different legal aspects of eSTREAM candidates as a good model/idea for Wikipedia (entries) to follow.

BTW: Looked at your pictures/illustrations page and realised that you are the author to many of the fantastic illustrations I've seen on Wikipedia. Amazing and impressive, great contributions to Wikipedia. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 213.64.27.201 (talk • contribs) 11:49, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for your kind comments! I've replied at Talk:MUGI. — Matt Crypto 13:27, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

DCV

would it be within the realm of the arbcom decision to change DCV's userpage which claims she no longer contributes...she still is contributing, and the message discourages users from contacting her on the new contributions she makes.--Urthogie 11:53, 22 February 2006 (UTC)

I don't think it would be covered by the ArbCom decision, which was "Deeceevoice is prohibited from using her user page to publish offensive rants", and I don't think it would even be desireable. Moreover, DCV says, "I am no longer contributing new material to Wikipedia", which seems to be the case mostly; that is, she maintains and comments on pages, rather than writing a lot of new stuff. It's a shame, I think, as what she did write was pretty good. — Matt Crypto 14:52, 22 February 2006 (UTC)

The reason I say this is because what frustrated me so much about her otherwise good editing was that she simultaneously claimed she was done with wikipedia as a basis not to discuss and reach consensus, while editing the page constantly. And it seems like she's still contributing.--Urthogie 15:04, 22 February 2006 (UTC)

Sure, but her user page is not really doing a great deal of actual harm, unlike incivility and personal attacks, or maintaining a full-on offensive user page complete with genital piercing photos. If she still refuses to engage with other editors in discussion and compromise now, then that's more of a problem. — Matt Crypto 15:09, 22 February 2006 (UTC)

That makes sense. Thanks for discussing, --Urthogie 15:20, 22 February 2006 (UTC)

User seems to be at wikipedia to make personal attacks and vandalize

Personal attacks[3] and [4].

Vandalism[5][6][7]

They have only made 11 edits, and have only been here in the last two days. All of their edits have been vandalism or personal attacks.--Urthogie 15:28, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

He's been warned. If he does anything else, I'll block him without further ceremony. — Matt Crypto 13:29, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Thanks

Thanks for dealing with the Farfartwo situation. I have no clue what could have caused such extreme reactions. Thanks again. (Arundhati Bakshi (talk • contribs)) 15:46, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

Well, I tried to have as much patience as possible and explain things in a non-confrontational manner, but it just wasn't working! I really do appreciate your intervention. I do try t make newcomers feel welcome, and fortunately most do respond to it. (Arundhati Bakshi (talk • contribs)) 18:01, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

Cross-post

Sorry about the cross-posting on the Kryptos article. I was intending to change the page and put my reasoning on the discussion page at the same time, but then I wanted to check "just one more reference" before hitting save on the Talk page. Sorry if that caused any confusion. My explanation is at Talk:Kryptos now. :) --Elonka 17:32, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

Brute Force

I noticed you removed my entry on the Brute force attack article, I did not understand your explaination, and posted a question for you on the discussion page. HighInBC 02:58, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

need help

This is extremely frustrating. DCV tries to scare me away from communication, but then makes moves with no consensus whatsoever that can't be reversed except through admin action. Could you please move back Cool (aesthetic) to Cool pending further discussion. a very stressed Urthogie 13:39, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Currently my access to the Internet is through a very slow text terminal (my monitor's on the blink), so it's difficult to review the situation. I suggest you try and discuss it with her, and if she refuses to discuss it, post to the WP:AN for assistance. — Matt Crypto 15:32, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

K I'll make every effort to try and get her consensus(although its hard to be optimistic).--Urthogie 15:59, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Image:SZ42-6-wheels.jpg

Hey Matt -- could you update the copyright tag on this image as appropriate? Thanks. Mangojuice 19:02, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Sure, I've updated it to {{PD-user|Matt Crypto}}. Feel free to update the tags on any other images of mine you find. — Matt Crypto 20:00, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia:WikiProject Dinosaurs

Hi, I got the article Dinosaur to the main page & as a result, monitor editors on there closely. So, we could use someone of your ideals (creationist or at least i think you know abou t it) on Wikipedia:WikiProject Dinosaurs. Please join if you want to, as members are few nowadays & specialists even fewer. Place your name on the participants list & slap one of those userbox thingys on your user page... Thanks, Spawn Man 07:58, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, but I'm not much of an expert on either dinosaurs or creationism. I thought that dinosaur, being a featured article, needed to devote a sentence or two to religious viewpoints on dinosaurs, but it's not normally my sort of thing. Too hot a subject, I'm afraid. The hostility and assumptions of bad faith aren't my idea of fun! — Matt Crypto 08:48, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

TfD nomination of Template:Logo

Template:Logo has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for Deletion page. Thank you. --Esprit15d 19:52, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

Seat on Walmgate Stray

Jambo, Bwana

Google reveals that there are c98,200 uses of "attractive" in Wikipedia, though, to be fair, most of those seem to be factual. Would "unusual" pass muster? I'll be going back with a pen and paper to make a note of the name of the deceased and might take a photo - the seat is a single sheet of metal with various words cut out of it here and there. Quite touching, actually. Perhaps I should snap the cows as well.

Kwa heri. --GuillaumeTell 22:49, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

Sijambo! I'm sure "unusual" would work. It would be good to get some photos of the Strays in, too. — Matt Crypto 18:49, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

Crypto stubs

Matt,

I noticed your user page had a list of crypto stubs. I added correlation immunity and completeness (cryptography). Feel free to glance your eye over them. They're not much but I'm just dipping my toes into the contribution side of Wikipedia. …Ner102 00:07, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

Looking for articles to work on?

Hello, Matt Crypto. I'm SuggestBot, a Wikipedia bot that helps new members contribute to Wikipedia. You might like to edit these articles I picked for you based on things you've edited in the past. Check it out -- I hope you find it useful. -- SuggestBot 14:39, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

Looking for articles to work on?

Hello, Matt Crypto. I'm SuggestBot, a Wikipedia bot that helps new members contribute to Wikipedia. You might like to edit these articles I picked for you based on things you've edited in the past. Check it out -- I hope you find it useful. Also, please tell me how to make suggestions better and whether you'd be okay with suggestions put directly on your talk page. Leave SuggestBot feedback here. Thanks. -- SuggestBot 14:45, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

Why do you edit my user page?

please do not edit my user page, it does not contain a personal attack, as not a single person is as such as I am describing, for all that you know, or anyone else for that matter, my user page is a work of fiction. note that not a single person is mentioned in the part of my user page that is a work of fiction, and so how can it be a personal attack? (unless of course one identifies themself as such, then they don't belong on the wiki). please can you protect my user page so that Halibutt and Molobo can no longer vandalize it.

I would like to solve this, so please discuss it with me, rather then just removing my information. Show me which sentences are a personal attack, and I will remove them myself, or change them so they are no longer a personal attack.

--Jadger 19:12, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

I would suggest you avoid mentioning conflicts with other contributors at all on your user page. It is quite obvious from the version that I edited, and from prior versions, that you were maintaining an attack against the contributors named. This is not helpful. — Matt Crypto 20:26, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

"Jump-started"

Enigma Hello Matt. You may be a philosophy student but you are sure no student of language. What sort of english is " jump started " ?. Led to, facilitated, made possible, and many other forms of words would have conveyed your intended meaning without ambiguity. 82.38.97.206 20:26, 10 March 2006 (UTC)mikeL

"Jump started" is quite idiomatic. Phrases like "led to" or "made possible", on the other hand, are overstating the case. As I mentioned in the edit summary, the British would likely have solved Enigma eventually on their own a few years down the line. — Matt Crypto 20:33, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

Yes so idiomatic that your meaning is not clear. To me a jump start is an emergency method of starting an internal combustion engine. That takes a lot of stretching to get to what seems to be your intended meaning. You should aim for clarity and simplicity to communicate clearly. Remember that some of the readers are not native english speakers. ...mikeL —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 82.38.97.206 (talk • contribs) 12:24, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

AWB - please could u enable me?

As you've seen, I'm trying to pipe all links to Suetonius referring to Lives of the Twelve Caesars (eg in the form Suetonius, Caesar I.2) into the latter, in case it's split off later, but it's taking me all day, there being 250 or so to do! I've downloaded AWB, but haven't been enabled as yet. Thanks. Neddyseagoon 16:05, 12 March 2006 (UTC)neddyseagoon

Cryptome

Hi Matt, just a quick note to let you know, if you have not noticed, that I left a note on User talk:Tomyumgoong about his edits on Cryptome, asking why he readds his comments without taking part in the discussion he started himself on Talk:Cryptome. Best, Schutz 12:58, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

Oopsie

Hi Matt Crypto, you might want to take a look at Wikipedia:Deletion review#Third culture. Of course I know and appreciate how hard you admin guys work and you have to work fast, it'd be impossible to never make mistakes, but be careful with that delete button, there! Herostratus 19:07, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

Wasn't me, governor! See User_talk:Harro5#Third_culture. — Matt Crypto 19:53, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

Oops my bad! Sorry, you were the good guy. I didn't realize that the actual deletion doesn't show up in the edit history. Carry on as if I had neer existed! Herostratus 00:16, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

Cryptovirology page

Hi Matt, I see your point in restoring the site link. For what it's worth, note that an anon IP has been spamming numerous articles with links to that site or internal references to the Cryptovirology page. I don't like to see Wikipedia used as a promotional vehicle like that. [8]. OhNoitsJamie^Talk 21:09, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

Nor me: I've gone and undone a few of the cryptovirology promotions where it seemed particularly inappropriate. I think cryptovirology is the only place we can really justify having a link to the website. — Matt Crypto 21:19, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

Ultra

Sure I'll get concensus. Since you asked so nicely : ) . I would assume the milliatary intelligence meaning is the most looked up, I guess. But there are a large number of other meanings. Maybe you're right that its better as a primary, I just moved it because I felt like a full disambig would be better, and the only other people that replied also thought so. Otherwise I don't know why i'm worrying about it. I'll move it back. Fresheneesz 22:55, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

Thanks! It might be worth having a discussion about it on Talk:Ultra; a lot of the disambiguation meanings seem to be things like albums and comic books, or things that aren't actually "Ultra", but just contain "Ultra" in their titles. Of course, I might be looking at this with a warped crypto-centric viewpoint! — Matt Crypto 23:12, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

Rookie unblock

You said:

No need to get all huffy! It is not at all clear to a number of us at this point whether this user has been blocked legitimately. This block needs further review. — Matt Crypto 18:59, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

Apologies if it comes over that way, that wasn't the intent. The point really is that I removed it because (a) I believe the block should stand for the while since (b) because there is already a discussion on the block elsewhere, if people believe that the block is unjust in someway it would appear better to continue the discussion in that one place. If you disagree please readd the tag, and I won't remove it again. --pgk^(talk) 19:13, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

• Guess it's not just Wikipedia, I've just been asked why I'm so cranky today. --pgk^(talk) 19:19, 14 March 2006 (UTC)
  • Don't worry about it (it's notoriously difficult to correctly gauge someone's tone from text-only messages, so that's probably why I took you the wrong way). I hope Neutrality will explain his block a little on WP:AN. — Matt Crypto 20:00, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

Thank you, Matt. --Rookiee Revolyob 08:50, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

MD5

Why did you say that hashing schemes like

hash = MD5(password + MD5(password))

or

salt = "some random string" 	 
hash = MD5(password + salt)

are no more secure against precomputed databases than plain MD5? Reverse lookup databases use plain MD5, so they are useless in case of a custom hashing method like one of the above. Someone would have to compute a new database from scratch, which is no more effective than brute-forcing the passwords. And to discourage dictionary attacks one could use several hashing functions at once (for example hash = MD5(password+MD5(password)+SHA1(password)+...)) which would increase the time needed to compute a single hash. Pako 20:51, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

Quite, but if someone can create precomputed hashes for plain MD5, they can also do it for your modified versions. So if everyone reads Wikipedia and implements your suggestion, someone will create a lookup database for that as well, and they're no better off than before. There do exist methods for this sort of thing; see Key strengthening and Salt (cryptography). Thing is, they apply to cryptographic hash functions in general, not just MD5, and it's better to put general things in more general articles. — Matt Crypto 21:57, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

OK, I added links to appropriate articles in the Applications section. Pako 07:30, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

I received your message, Sorry for my messages

Sorry for my messages. I did not know what to do. I wanted to bring it to the notice of some one high up because this insult was by an administrator. I got your advice. I will do as you sayDoctor Bruno 12:03, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

Yet another date links proposal

Sorry to disturb you but in case you haven't seen it, there is another date link proposal. This time at: Wikipedia_talk:Manual_of_Style_(dates_and_numbers)#linking_of_dates. Please feel free to support or oppose it. Thanks. bobblewik 19:49, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

TLAdismabig template

Thanks for your advice, I didn't know that I can do that. By the way a freind of mine is PHd student working on crypto stuff mainly AES. I sent him the link to your blog but I could not find any contact details! Mahanchian 22:35, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

Ron Dellums edits

Just a quick note -- I had just been doing some editing and have to get to work so I overwrote your last changes -- sorry about that -- I just don't have time at this moment to go back and readd mine into what you and Deeceevoice have done, and I think my edits may have covered some of what you were working on....

Thanks, BCorr|Брайен 12:41, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

Tawkerbot

This one had many many positive votes on the IRC (yes, I'm expecting the "IRC is not Wikipedia consensus, I've been bad for it on occasion) - I'll revert until we figure out what we want to do, though I'm not sure if constantly changing the text is the greatest idea -- Tawker 09:52, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

Undone (I think, that was 422 edits manually undone), argh, I really shouldn't program my bot when I'm not fully awake, time to put a harder password on the bot account. -- Tawker 10:17, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

Many thanks. Templates are very handy for saying the same thing over a number of pages. Unless there really is a demonstrable impact on server load (I'm skeptical, but I don't know the details), it's much better practice keep it un-subst'd, IMO. — Matt Crypto 17:17, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

SMS4

Just wanted to let you know that I've been able to spend a few minutes contributing to Wikipedia again. I added a very short page on the SMS4 cipher. I haven't added the page to the Crypto portal yet though. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Joachim Strombergson (talk • contribs) 21:38, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

NSA vs HP7

It's no joke, I meant it serious. She is silly enough to write HP7 on a Windoze laptop, often sitting in a Starbucks or whatever cafeteria the british have. The electomagnetic emission of computer screens is easy to record and decode with consumer gear from dozens of meters away, NSA can do it from sat. For secret buildings all piping is made of plastic and cermaics to prevent EM leaks. If I were Mrs. Rowling I would use pencil, paper and camels only instead of Winword and e-mail (like Osama does) because that is the only way of them not seeing it. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 195.70.32.136 (talk • contribs) 22:05, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

You think the NSA can't read what you're writing RIGHT NOW@!?? Don't contact me on an unencrypted forum on this matter; use the secret channel. — Matt Crypto 21:39, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

That wasn't very nice.

Wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning? The whole point of Wikipedians for writing an encyclopedia is to exist and do what they ordinaly otherwise would have done: edit Wikipedia. For Heaven's sake, one of your members even suggested that you do something, and he was outvoted. Your moralizing about this Project being "worthy" enough for 30 people to sign up for is just silly. --Hyphen5 14:30, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

I don't think I was rude, although you clearly are quite angry about something. How about you just ignore it and go do something constructive instead? — Matt Crypto 15:14, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

STU-II photo

I notice that you obtained the permissions for the STU-II photo. Do we have full rights to the original from FLIKR? There is more stuff I'd like to crop from it (like the STU-II electronics cabinet). Best. --agr 13:31, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

Yep, Austin Mills kindly agreed to dual license the entire of the Flickr NSA gallery under GFDL and CC-BY-SA 2.5. (Also, I'm not sure, but it might be the case that if you cropped to an NSA-produced photo within Austin's photo, it would simply be a {{PD-USGov-NSA}}). — Matt Crypto 14:23, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

eSTREAM update!

Aloha!

I don't know if you noticed that eSTREAM finished Phase 1 and have now moved into Phase 2. Anyway I did some half-large updates to the eSTREAM page about this, but would appreciate if you (or someone else, but you are the Wikipedia Cipher guy ;-) could check it out, proofread and do your magic.

Note that I moved a few sections around. The motivation fo this was to get some sort of timeline along the page with candidates followed by the phases in order. Also I changed the numbering of the phases from letters to numerals. The reason for this is that eSTREAM writes "Phase 1", not "Phase one" (und so weiter).

/Joachim

I will have a look this weekend (I'm avoiding editing weekdays at the moment...sometimes Wikipedia is too addictive!). I'm not the only Wikipedia Cipher guy, of course ;-) User:Ciphergoth is much more the man for this, having, for example, won a prize for "most interesting Salsa20 cryptanalysis". — Matt Crypto 07:11, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

WP:PP

Hey! Please try not to overlook adding a page you protect to the list of currently protected pages at WP:PP. Thanks a bunch. · Katefan0^(scribble)/poll 21:29, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

Jacksum

Jonelo (talk · contribs) has restored all the links to Jacksum in every hash function that I've removed. I don't like to revert a revert, so if you care to review these changes and do as you see fit I'd be grateful - thanks! — ciphergoth 08:13, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

I'm officially not editing on weekdays, but I thought I'd add a quick comment: it's inappropriate for Jonelo to force the inclusion of his links; I've removed some before only to have him readd them. The policy on external links says to avoid adding: "3. Links that are added to promote a site" and "9. A website that you own or maintain (unless it is the official site of the subject of the article). If it is relevant and informative, mention it as a possible link on the talk page and wait for someone else to include it, or include the information directly in the article." It goes on to say that, "NOTE relating to items #3 and #9: Because of neutrality & point-of-view concerns, a primary policy of wikipedia is that no one from a particular site/organization should post links to that organization/site etc. Because neutrality is such an important -- and difficult -- objective at wikipedia, this takes precedence over other policies defining what should be linked. The accepted procedure is to post the proposed links in the Talk section of the article, and let other - neutral - wikipedia editors decide whether or not it should be included." While I don't think it's always inappropriate to add them, it is not good for an editor to be reverting back links to their own pages. — Matt Crypto 08:35, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

I've opened the discussion up: see Talk:Cryptographic hash function — ciphergoth 19:50, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

Unterseeboot 33

I have announced your article in the stub section of Portal:Germany/New article announcements. If you write more about German submarines (or the history of the Enigma machine), please add your articles there. Thank you, Kusma (討論) 18:08, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

Sure, I'll try and remember to. — Matt Crypto 18:12, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

Matt – Blocking AOL IP Adresses

I know that you mean well and are trying to keep Wikipedia useful, but blocking AOL IP addresses usually just results in keeping good folks like me who have AOL from contributing, since we get whatever IP address AOL is giving us that day. I'm trying to write a good article about a current person in the news when I find out I'm blocked. Of course, it's up to you and I share your frustration with vandals, I just don't know if you aren't losing more than you're gaining here.

Rlquall 13:08, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

Hi Rlquall. I don't believe it was me who blocked your IP address, having scoured my block log: [9]. Generally, I never block IP addresses for longer than 24 hours. I see from your userpage that you're an admin; this means that you have the technical means to unblock yourself, which I believe is acceptable if you're blocked as "collateral damage". — Matt Crypto 13:17, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

Soggy biscuit

Hallo- I noticed that you posted a 'Delete' vote on Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Soggy biscuit (2). I have recently posted some new material that I feel satisfies the requirement for WP:N and WP:V- hopefully you may feel the same. In any event, best wishes and apologies for the intrusion. Badgerpatrol 20:39, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

I don't know if you noticed the changed vote I had in the discussion in which I added several references I found, including one book that mentions the AKA "Limp biscuit" or if you thought they weren't reliable enough? Esquizombi 13:54, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

ESTREAM

Could you have a look at my proposal in Talk:ESTREAM and see if it makes sense to you? Thanks! — ciphergoth 08:36, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

harrassment by guettarda

Hey Matt,

I feel I am being harrassed by a particular user (personal attacks, incivility, wikistalking, blind reverts, etc). Could you advise as to the best course of action? The last RfC/RfAr was not a very rewarding process.

Thanks, Justforasecond 21:21, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

Comment from rude person

I answered your unasked-for comment on "Redirect:Edit comment" --62.255.236.170 23:48, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

I also noticed you vandalised my user page with an obscene comment. Perhaps you should get out more? — Matt Crypto 08:20, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Ron Dellums reverts

Hi Matt -- could you check out Ron Dellums its talk page and see if you feel action is necessary regarding repeated reversions and "untruthful edit summaries" as some have called them?

Thanks, BCorr|Брайен 18:38, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Thank you for your honesty

In the event that it was true and not another wisecrack, I'm glad you decided to admit that the Redirect was your idea. Honesty is an admirable trait. I just wish you hadn't decide to sweep our exchange under the carpet. There's no call for using phrases like "trolling", my desire to find out who came up with that thankfully short-lived idea was totally genuine. --62.255.232.133 14:55, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for Matt's image

Thanks for the Matt Redman photo, somethings is clearly better then nothing. Personally I wasn't there then, Only got to go this decade. :: Kevinalewis : ^{(Talk Page)}/_(Desk) 08:31, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

No problem — I'd forgotten all about it, to be honest. I did email Matt Redman's website last October to try and get a permission for a better photo, but they referred me to the Soul Survivor record label, and record labels aren't exactly liberal with their copyright. The last Soul Survivor I went to was the Manchester mission in 2000. — Matt Crypto 08:44, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Hello from across the other side of York

Woah, loads of discussion you've been involved in, methinks. Anyway, I'm going to be writing more frequently once back from hols. I'm probably going to work on some York-related pages, Maclure-related pages and Chad-related pages. Is Kijabe really the biggest mission compound in the world? user: Maclure

Boroson

In re Fact Magazine, Boroson's confused edit got fixed, returned to Goldwater, and the article was initiated into the <ref> system. The footnoted quote is from a Supreme Court of the United States appeal. I feel that the reason that no one who talked about this at wikien-l could be bothered to make the correction is that there are more rewarding things to do than to functionally respond to criticism. IManonO this is a Bad Thing. 209.6.189.247 18:22, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/CreationWiki

As a contributor to the page CreationWiki, I feel it fair to warn you that it has been nominated for deletion. Please make your opinion known. PrometheusX303 21:07, 17 April 2006 (UTC)

WP:HIRE

I've created a bounty board where individual users are paid instead of Wikimedia Foundation called Wikipedia:Now Hiring. I'm letting you know because you've commented on this topic before and I thought you might be interested in getting into the discussion on the article's talk page.  : ) cookiecaper (talk / contribs) 06:48, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

Ah... the irony. Today, my girlfriend said to me, "You spend too much time on Wikipedia. If they paid you to be on there, you'd be pretty well off." Tijuana Brass 19:20, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

LOL. Yeah, I dunno. Personally, I know I spend lots of money on obscure cryptography books and publications which I purchase primarily because of Wikipedia. I don't expect renumeration, of course, and I like to have a large library on crypto for many reasons, but there are some sources which I cannot access, or can access only temporarily, simply I don't have the money for it (or cannot justify the expenditure to the wife!) (see User:Matt Crypto/reading bookmarks!). If I could say to her, for example, I received a £20 bounty from Wikipedia tasks; I intend to spend it on purchasing such-and-such a crypto book, it'd be much easier. I sure most keen Wikipedians expend more money on the project than they could ever get back from bounties, and many of the poorer Wikipedians could benefit from such a scheme, and even for fairly selfless reasons. — Matt Crypto 19:34, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

I love an obscure hobby. I get your point, and can sympathize, but I worry that it leaves the door wide open for less noble monetary reasons. Still, sponsorship of an editor strictly for research purposes (as in providing legit resources, like in your example) is an interesting thing to consider.

See, we should've just kept adding this to the vote page; we could've indented that baby all the way across the page just to be obnoxious. Tijuana Brass 22:02, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

On a side note, would the need for that £20 be why the space at the top is for rent? Tijuana Brass 22:02, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

No offense taken

Don't worry about it. -Colin Kimbrell 21:11, 19 April 2006 (UTC)

DCV block

I don't see how she made a personal attack. Could you explain on the Arbitration talk page? Thanks, --Urthogie 09:39, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

Second that. - FrancisTyers 10:32, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

I think it's 'cause I criticized him. For him, that's all it takes. See what I mean by administrative abuse? Pretty much par for the course. Deeceevoice

As documented, that block was for a personal attack on Zoe. I wasn't involved in the discussion. — Matt Crypto 21:16, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

It's quite clear it was not a personal attack -- any more than my so-called "racial attack," for which you blocked me for a week was a personal attack. Your judgment seems impaired. My comments -- as another admin has observed -- were merely an observation of her seriatim abuses of her admin authority, seemingly with an axe to grind. And, clearly, I'm not the only one who thinks she's acted contrary to Wiki guidelines. Just check the votes in the DR cases. It does not appear that the DR will go her way in "Cool (African philosophy)" -- and the vote in the matter of "African aesthetic" is almost unanimous (except for her vote and one other). You're wrong. Again. deeceevoice 09:58, 23 April 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for your input. Next. — Matt Crypto 12:15, 23 April 2006 (UTC)

What about the mini block today for "personal attacks" when I tried to edit? What the heck was that? Deeceevoice 21:53, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

Deecee, I'm happy to discuss and explain my admin actions with pretty much anyone but you; as indeed I already have today. Experience has shown that you'll just continue to believe that you've been wronged. — Matt Crypto 23:57, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

My. How convenient. The fact is you did block me, albeit briefly -- and have offered absolutely no reason for it. And it's not listed, either. Ah, well. With no explanation on your part, I can only surmise you changed your mind, realizing it was (another) bad decision on your part. deeceevoice 03:15, 23 April 2006 (UTC)

LOL, Deecee, whatever. If the above idea appeals to you, then go on and believe it. (But it's not actually true, of course.) — Matt Crypto 07:38, 23 April 2006 (UTC)

Refactor business model

I don't know if I agree with WP:HIRE but I do think money is not evil. It looks to me as if you might have the willingness to discuss a radical refactoring of Wikipedia's (non-existent) business model. Talk me. John Reid 22:54, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

Well, I don't think Wikipedia is in desperate need of a business model to write the encyclopedia; we seem to be doing a good job with volunteers. And we seem to get enough money from donations to run the servers. I do think a bounty board could be quite beneficial in certain situations, but I believe it's quite unlikely to become a prominent mode of operation on a site like this. — Matt Crypto 00:05, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

Renting Top Space

So what do I have to do to rent that space at the top of your user page? :-) --LV ^{(Dark Mark)} 01:46, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

I'm quite keen on helping eliminate weak spots in Wikipedia's coverage, so, if you wanted to, if you could work on any third-world topic of your choice for an hour, then you can have it say whatever you like (within reason!) for, ooh, I dunno, three weeks? ;-) — Matt Crypto 19:09, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

Tit for tat: African countries and cities

I'll do one hour on one of the place starting with N in this category - Category:Cities_in_Ghana, if you do an hour on one of the places starting with W on the list. For me to finish by 4th May and you to finish by 10th May. Deal? - Xed 12:19, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

Sure, it's a deal. I just finished an hour or so in Winneba. It's not a great deal larger than before, but I tend to spend a lot of time trying to find some vaguely-reliable sources off the Web. — Matt Crypto 14:15, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

I've put in some more info over at Winneba, just because I find this tit-for-tat idea delightful. — mark ✎ 19:06, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

Thanks! Was that part of the hour for hour deal? — Matt Crypto 06:52, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

Well, let's say this time it wasn't - just accept that hour as a way of thanking you for the idea. But I'll be doing some for real soon. — mark ✎ 07:23, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

OK, sure, do let me know, though; I need the motivation! — Matt Crypto 18:27, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

OK, a bit late but done. Navrongo - Xed 23:16, 5 May 2006 (UTC)

St. Petersburg paradox revert situation

I wonder if you could help out with a problem I am having at St. Petersburg paradox with User:TaisukeMaekawa. Maekawa claims to have a proof that the expected value of the St. Petersburg game is 2. This situation first arose in January. Several editors working on the page at the time tried to point out politely that the proof was erroneous. (see "Subsection on expected number of tosses" on the talk page.) Maekawa eventually went way but returned April 24 and keeps insisting on including the proof in the article. I removed it a couple of times and edited it once and Maekawa each time restored it. Rather than get into a protracted revert war, I added a disputed-section tag to the section in question. Maekawa has twice removed the tag. I also pointed out the no original research policy and requested that a source be cited and most recently got a somewhat abusive response (see end of the talk page).

Maekawa has a limited command of English and has only contributed edits to the St. Petersburg paradox article, and they all consist of inserting this supposed proof. I think at this point at least a warning is in order. Any help you can give would be appreciated. --agr 03:32, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for your assistance. I wish there was something less drastic that would work, but this person seems out of control.--agr 14:27, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

Sure, no problem. It always surpises me how strangely some people will behave online. I wonder if they're like that in RL? — Matt Crypto 18:25, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

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Porting Vectorsite Articles

I had a page titled "Porting Vectorsite Articles" that was set up a few years ago to handle ports of articles from my own site, IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN, to Wikipedia. The matter was a fizzle and the page is now out of date.

I requested that it be deleted, but the decision was that there was history of some of the articles ported that should be retained, but all references to my previous attempt to promote ports to Wikipedia should be deleted.

I had no problems with this, but the original comments that I wanted struck have still been retained, and a note was placed on the site that they wouldn't be changed.

I have comments of my own on that page that I want to get rid of. I do not understand why any sensible person would not think this a reasonable request or find it troublesome to deal with.

This is an action item on my TO-DO list. Until it's resolved, it's going to stay on that list, and if my current level of efforts aren't enough to resolve it, other avenues will be pursued.

Please have the courtesy to do as I ask. Thanks in advance for any help. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 4.225.211.120 (talk • contribs) 14:48, 5 May 2006 (UTC)

OK, but which comments do you want to get rid of? It's not clear to me what original comments you wanted struck have been retained. We've stripped the page to only note which articles and versions were imported, marked it as historical, and noted that vectorsite has no other connection with Wikipedia. We are trying to help you out here. — Matt Crypto 16:40, 5 May 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedian Bots.

Hi Matt_Crypto, I'm Daniel5127 as new Wikipedian. Let's me introduce about me. I have been using the Wikipedia since March 3, 2006, and I know everything about Wikipedia such as Vandalism, How to Write good Article. However, I have been so curious about Wikipedian Bots. That means I have seen Bots many times. such Wikipedian Bots I saw Suggestbot, Yurikbot, Tawkerbot. When I went to Wikipedia for Chinese(I'm Chinese), YurikBot always cleans the article. Therefor, I think that WikipedianBots know every language such as French, Italian, Spanish, Obviously English, and Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean.. So, Could you explain to me What is WikipedianBots? and How Can I make Bots for my ID? Many questions, So, I hope you can reply my question on my talk page. That means you must send me message. Please. Daniel5127, 03:23, 6 May 2006(UTC).

Please.

Do not ignore my message. Please, Please, Please, Send me message back on my question about Wikipedia Bots. Daniel5127, 00:06, 7 May 2006(UTC)

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Source for image

Howdy! Whilst editing, I came across Image:David-pepper.jpg, which you uploaded under Crown Copyright. Unfortunately, the terms of this license require attribution, which you didn't provide. As such, I've replaced the license with a fair use rationale. However, if you can remember where you found the image (and provided it's an acceptable source for "free-license" CC images), can you please specify it on the image description page? Happy editing! GeeJo ^(t)⁄_(c) • 08:55, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

Return of User:Irate

Hi. Today we have had a number of incidents on UK articles, most likely caused by socks of User:Irate - I've left a notice at AN/I, and as you have previous contact with this user you may wish to leave a comment there. Thanks for your time, Aquilina 14:14, 11 May 2006 (UTC)

Help me!

Hello! I'm a Persian Wikipedian and I wanna build a robot, but I like to build a one in English Wikipedia. So Can you help to make a bot step by step??? Thanks a lot! --MehranVB 16:58, 12 May 2006 (UTC)

Hellman en->commons

can I move Martin-Hellman.jpg</nowiki> on commons and use it on it.wiki? --WISo 12:15, 14 May 2006 (UTC)

Yes, please do — we have permission to use it under the GFDL. I recommend this useful webpage tool to help you move it. — Matt Crypto 12:22, 14 May 2006 (UTC)

Done, thanks. Two question:1) now there are 2 images, one on en.wiki and the other on commons. Someone have to delete the image on en.wiki? 2)What about , it is under creative commons. --WISo 16:11, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

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Bruce Schneier

Thanks for tidying up the article, Matt. I saw the dVC mention in CRYPTOGRAM and thought that it was so delicious that the article should have a mention. I was meaning to come back and do some more tidy up but real life intervened. I'm nerd enough that I think Applied Cryptography is a masterpiece and the first edition has a plum spot on my bookshelf. --Jumbo 21:24, 19 May 2006 (UTC)

Thank-you

The count is in, and now I join the crew who wield the mops and pails. Thanks for your support! I pledge to serve both you and Jimbo Wales. If you have anything you need, then please don't think to hesitate. For I am the very model of a grateful admin designate! ♫Bucketsofg✐♪

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Another African city tit4tat

No one seems to want to bite my "African culture" tit-for-tat on the Reward Board, so how about another African city? If I do one starting with M in Category:Cities in Cameroon, and you do one starting with B? To finish by April Fools day. - Xed 22:25, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

Er, I meant 1st June. But that's passed too. For next week? - Xed 09:38, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

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The Englishman who went up a mountain but came down a molehill

(moved to Talk:Iringa)

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Changes to the xtea example code

Aloha!

I just wanted you to know that I've been messing with the example code on the XTEA cipher page. The problem I stumbled upon was that the old code didn't clearly explained how to properly initialize the sum counter for deciphering. I changed the code to be number of rounds-agnostic thereby also making the initialization of the sum counter more obvious (I hope).

Whaddayathink, ok?

--- Joachim

Another hour

Hey, I spent approximately one hour working on Dodoma [10], I'm sorry I didn't do a better job, this is a Capital city! Most of my time was spent trying to find information to include, I've just taken a look and it seems most of the African capital city articles are in a similar state, so I won't ask you to work on this one. Perhaps you could look at Monrovia? Thanks :) And if you have any sources to hand on Dodoma, post them on the talk page ;) - FrancisTyers · 18:24, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Looks like a decent hour's work to me! I'll see what I can get up too; I'd like to do a bit of work on Dodoma if I could find any sources (my wife used to live there). — Matt Crypto 18:37, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, I'd be much obliged :) - FrancisTyers · 19:06, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

And another one [11]. Compare with Monrovia, California. :/ - FrancisTyers · 21:28, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

And another Nouakchott [12]. Don't feel obliged to do them all at once btw ;) And feel free to spend less than an hour, because essentially I've just been doing cleanup work really, not added much information. - FrancisTyers · 11:59, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Un autre (and my namesake) :) — Francistown [13] might like to check out Gaborone, has quite a bit of information, but could do with a cleanup. - FrancisTyers · 20:55, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

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Humour/humor

Please see [14]. The spelling started out as humor, that's what it should be. That is policy. You're an admin. I assume you would agree policy should be followed. Please don't revert without taking it to talk, and explaining why an exception to policy should be made in this case. Thanks. --Cultural Freedom talk 21:33, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

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Message delivered by Ralbot 23:33, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

Sockpuppet

May I ask why you revert the sockpuppet information? -- Chris 73 | Talk 22:52, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks -- Chris 73 | Talk 22:55, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

No problems, happens to the best of us sometimes. Thanks for self-reverting -- Chris 73 | Talk 06:34, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

cat flappage

did you see the google links? at least on the web, it is not often used very much at all. most people, it seems, use another term. no, "cat flap" does not obviously work much better. it is easier to just use pet door or something like that and get on with our lives. i don't see why people want to keep it at cat flap, when the people who use that term are clearly a minority. Joeyramoney 10:33, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

Best to keep this discussion in one place, rather than forking it. It is used more often than you think (your Google searching technique is flawed, for a start). It seems to be a largely US vs UK thing. Think about the reasons and spirit behind the US vs UK spelling policy. People want it to keep it at "cat flap" for the same reasons you are prompted to try and have it moved.— Matt Crypto 10:46, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

Rewards board

Hey man, I'm just wondering is this still going? I've done a couple more but received no response. I know that there isn't a binding obligation, but it would be nice to have some feedback. And feel free to tell me to "bog off" if you're too busy! Thanks :) - FrancisTyers · 13:13, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

Many apologies; I've started a new office job and have been doing overtime, so I've got less Wikipedia time than usual. I will match your African hours eventually, but I'm off to Kenya until August, so it might be a few weeks. — Matt Crypto 09:38, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

No problem, thanks for the response :) - FrancisTyers · 10:48, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

kanga, kikoy na kitenge

Habari bwana, mzee Ezeu hapa. I am thinking of renaming the article Kanga (African garment) to Kanga and Kitente. I reckon because they are similar garments they should be in the same article (as it is now), and that it is resonable to have both in the title. What do you figure? --Ezeu 22:35, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

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Proposed Georgia Move

As a past participant in the discussion on how to handle the Georgia pages, I thought you might be interested to know that there's a new attempt to reach consensus on the matter being addressed at Talk:Georgia (country)#Requested_Move_-_July_2006. Please come by and share your thoughts to help form a consensus. --Vengeful Cynic 03:50, 8 July 2006 (UTC)

African countries and cities

I've had a go at improving N'Djamena. (Mostly material translated from French Wikipedia)
Kahuzi 14:14, 10 July 2006 (UTC)
PS Is there a template for African cities?

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LFSR image

It was noted in the content of LFSR that there is an error in your Image:Lfsr.gif. Could you update it and reload? — RevRagnarok ^{Talk Contrib Reverts} 14:02, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

Sorry for the delay: I will try to, but I don't have access to them right now. Maybe within a week or two. — Matt Crypto 13:24, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

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IHBT!

Oh no! Thanks for sorting this out Matt :-) - Ta bu shi da yu 11:04, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

Eritrea FAC

Since you offered a bounty, now expired, for FAs on African countries, I thought you might like to know that Eritrea is a current WP:FAC. --Oldak Quill 12:06, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

FOX (cipher) article etc

Hi Matt! I just stumbled on the FOX (cipher) article and noticed it needs moving to the name that cipher now goes under: IDEA NXT. But since I am not an admin I was blocked from moving it. Could you do it for us? I'll fix the rest of the surrounding stuff such as removing double redirects etc.

By the way, I archived most of the sections on the Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Cryptography page since it was becoming too big. I afterwards realised I kind of done it the wrong way since I copied and pasted and thus lost the edit history for those sections. But I don't think it matters much since our crypto editors are nice and have mostly signed their edits properly and have not messed with each other's edits.

--David Göthberg 15:57, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

Thanks Matt for doing the move of the article. --David Göthberg 05:46, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

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Potter's House Christian Fellowship

I think you might want to examine the evidence at Potter's House Christian Fellowship a little more closely; you made no attempt to address the policy point that Tilman (talk · contribs) pointed out, where reverting edits that are potentially libellous does not fall under the 3RR. Have you looked at the URL that Potters house (talk · contribs) keeps trying to insert? It's a link to an anonymous smear site alleging someone to be homosexual based upon the way that they could have (but did not) complete a sentence starting "I have previously ..." Does that sound like something Wikipedia should be using as a reference? If not, then you might want to reconsider your decision to block Tilman for removing it, even if Nick (Potters house) forced him to do it more than three times. -- Antaeus Feldspar 23:38, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

Ok, I'm back... according to the block log, we were both unblocked 1 1/2 later. What is weird is that I had to get a new IP first. --Tilman 06:08, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

To Matt: Since I haven't heard from you, I'll have to assume that the exceptions in the 3RR rules are really too risky, even in such apparently "clear" cases as here (linking to anonymous smear site). --Tilman 06:15, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

Hi Tilman, I emailed you last night. Nick seems to be saying that he's also removing equally libellous material, but I didn't have time to look into it in enough detail, so I thought I'd unblock. Personally, I think he 3RR exception is for about actual "inline" libel, not linking to an external site as a source, parts of which may be considered libel; I'd steer clear of the exception in those circumstances. I agree that the site doesn't look like a tremendously reliable source... — Matt Crypto 07:26, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

I see it landed in the spam folder :-( I'll e-mail you the reasons. And I'll be more careful with 3RR. --Tilman 07:32, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

Sorry for the 70000.04 emails. It is that I took a day off to spesifically work on wiki and was banned! Potters house 07:49, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

See mediation in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Potters_house section for my argument!Potters house 07:49, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

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U-571 (film)

I reverted this edit because it appears to have chopped off the end of the article. --Chris (talk) 20:52, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Thanks; it's the Firefox Google Toolbar bug. — Matt Crypto 20:55, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Current FA

I really don’t understand it. I have lurked on wikipedia for a while now and I once had an account "578" where I did some edits on the civil war and what not. But getting back to the point I thought the point of FA's were to show off what great things Wikipedia is doing and how encyclopedic it is. I doubt I will find an article on some handball player if I look it up in my encyclopedia, so its counter productive imo. I can recall the times years ago when I would read the FA every day because it was a great sauce of knowledge for Quiz bowl comps but now its just junk more often then not. Just my two cents.

Also I have a problem with deletionist especially the ones that keep track of the articles they get deleted. Sometimes new users take a while to make an article and by shooting them down so quickly its a)turning of a new user (and a non vandal) b)it might make them turn to vandalism and c)it might be getting rid of a legit article for wikipedia. The place is crawling with them and sadly more and more admins are becoming (or were) deletionist so the problem is only getting worse. Like I said on the FA talk page. Wikipeida needs to make up its mind on what it wants to be otherwise there will always be two groups fighting one another for control of wikipeida and in the end that hurts the project more then it helps it. EdYlC 00:05, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

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Reward Board

What exactly do you want an editor to do for the Quarterly Review?Dev920 02:41, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

Quarterly Review of Film and Video stub made

I noticed your note on the Reward Board, and decided to do it. Voila, a nice clean stub: Quarterly Review of Film and Video. I wasn't sure how to go about finding secondary sources for it; if you have any ideas... I'd love it if you could send me your copy, just for the heck of it (and, considering my penchant for sources, I'm sure I could find a use for it somewhere on the 'pedia). Keep up the good work! JesseW, the juggling janitor 09:16, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

Image of Alan Turing

Hello Matt Crypto, concerning your suspicion concerning the photography of Alan Turing, which I used in the German article about the ENIGMA cipher machine, I would like to inform you, that you are wrong. I found that image at http://www.nsa.gov/cch/cch00014.cfm. NSA states "Unless expressly stated otherwise to comply with license requirements or copyrights owned by others, information presented on NSA.gov is considered public information and may be distributed or copied." Therefore, if possible, I would welcome it, if you could please delete the copyright violation template. Best regards --OS 04:56, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

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Blocking

While I don't mind seeing people blocked for personal attacks in obvious cases, doing so when they're a) fairly mild, and b) from a very good contributor, is patently not helpful. In these circumstances, I'd much rather unblock them on the spot than leave them blocked until you get around to reevaluating a block. Rebecca 23:36, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

I think that it's better to have lots of small blocks than wait until it culmulates into a big block. Andjam 12:31, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

Elonka Dunin categorization

Thank goodness someone who actually seems to know something about cryptography showed up. I was about to go out of my depth if that argument continued any further! AnonEMouse ^(squeak) 18:38, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

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Polls:

Hi. I'm just sending out a message for a new study I will be undertaking soon. It will involve surveys & polls to gather information & trends of editors on Wikipedia & other subjects. The data gathering will involve yourself recieving a questionaire on your talk page for you to fill out. I will then collect your questionaire & combine it with data from other editors. If you would like to be a part of this experiment, or know of someone who does, place a "Yes" or "No" below this message. Remember, it's only for fun & you can choose not to fill out all or parts of your questionaire once they arrive. Have a nice day... -- Spawn Man 06:16, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Argos Article

Thanks - that's what I wanted to do, but wasn't quite bold enough!

Btw, your user talk page says away till august... 84.9.83.105 21:29, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

Cheers, I forgot: I've updated it. — Matt Crypto 21:33, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

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Caesar cipher / OTP confusion

I think it's confusing to make too much of the connection between the Caesar cipher and the notion of substitution as used in vigenere/OTP, but I'm reluctant to just blow away the last para of the "History and usage" section. OTOH, it's a featured article, so it should be held to a high standard. What do you think? Lunkwill 06:27, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, perhaps we should tone it down. I think it would be good to mention what other ciphers make use of a Caesar-cipher-like shift (Vigenere; anything else?), but we don't need to go into detail about OTP. — Matt Crypto 07:23, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Unspecified source for Image:Blair-powder-hit.jpg

Thanks for uploading Image:Blair-powder-hit.jpg. I notice the file's description page currently doesn't specify who created the content, so the copyright status is unclear. If you have not created this file yourself, then there needs to be a justification explaining why we have the right to use it on Wikipedia (see copyright tagging below). If you did not create the file yourself, then you need to specify where it was found, i.e., in most cases link to the website where it was taken from, and the terms of use for content from that page.

If the file also doesn't have a copyright tag, then one should be added. If you created/took the picture, audio, or video then the {{GFDL-self}} tag can be used to release it under the GFDL. If you believe the media meets the criteria at Wikipedia:Fair use, use a tag such as {{Non-free fair use in|article name}} or one of the other tags listed at Wikipedia:Image copyright tags#Fair_use. See Wikipedia:Image copyright tags for the full list of copyright tags that you can use.

If you have uploaded other files, consider checking that you have specified their source and tagged them, too. You can find a list of files you have uploaded by following this link. Unsourced and untagged images may be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you. Nv8200p talk 19:06, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

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Maraba Coffee

Hello! As you're a Wikipedian interested in African topics, I'm writing to notify you that the Maraba Coffee article is now a 'Featured Article Candidate'. Please feel free to evaluate the article and write your support or opposition at Wikipedia:Featured article candidates. Thanks — SteveRwanda 15:10, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Kanga

Hujambo! I've moved the content of Kanga (African garment) over to East African garments. I'm not particularly happy with that title; I think we should have separate articles for all of these. But anyway, as I was planning to extend what we have on the Kanga (see this, for starters), I had to get this out of the way.

Kind regards, — mark ✎ 07:40, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

Oh, and do you know where to find some relevant pictures? I'll ask Ezeu too. — mark ✎ 07:41, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

Sijambo! My wife has a few kangas; I could take a photo of them. — Matt Crypto 11:12, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

Sounds good. Additionally, Ezeu says that he has sent out some emails asking permission to use pictures he found via Google. I've placed some notes on Talk:Kanga (African garment); if you'd like to weigh in, feel free! Best, — mark ✎ 16:13, 24 September 2006 (UTC)

BTW, this is section number 144... it's probably time to archive your talk page.

Bums

I note that you submitted the screencap of the Bumfights video (two years ago). Do you still own the video in question? What I'm specifically interested in is whether the image in question is Rufus Hannah. DS 18:17, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

I'm afraid not, sorry, I must have taken it off the web somewhere. — Matt Crypto 18:20, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

Turing

To the best of my knowledge, his family was Scottish and he was born in Scotland but educated in England, and spent the remainder of his life in England. There is something of a Turing cult in Scotland, and there was for many years a Turing Centre in Glasgow. It is common to find all kinds of Scots-born people listed routinely as English, especially if the author or editor is American, and intends the meaning "British".

That said, I'm prefectly willing to accept that my information might be defective in that regard. If this is so, please accept my heartfelt apologies and feel free to revert the page to its former condition. I assure you I edited absolutely in good faith and meant no destructive intent whatever.

Nuttyskin 01:12, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for getting back to me, and interesting to hear about a "Turing cult" in Scotland. I've been looking through Hodges' biography. According to that (see here) Alan Turing was born in Paddington. Turing's mother was descended from a Yorkshireman. The Turing family name can be traced back to Scotland, but it seems the nearest Scottish ancestor would be a Sir John Turing, who left Scotland for England in 1638. — Matt Crypto 08:56, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

WikiProject Cryptography navigational templates

Hi Matt. I have left a question for you and the other crypto editors at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Cryptography#Navigational template usage. It's about how we should use our navigational templates and especially the new "cryptography portal" box since the crypto portal is your "baby". --David Göthberg 13:11, 25 September 2006 (UTC)

Another African capital

This time Brazzaville. Before and after. Not much added and some moved around, if you like I can send you the PDF of the reference I have, but it mostly concentrates on Urban planning. - FrancisTyers · 23:15, 25 September 2006 (UTC)

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Image:Alan Turing.jpg

Please remove the copyrighted image Image:Alan Turing.jpg from User:Matt Crypto/CryptoStats/ArticleHits. Unfortunately , it is copyright infringement and against Wikipedia policy (See #9) to use copyrighted images on User pages. -Thanks Nv8200p talk 19:29, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

Feel free. It's from an autogenerated summary page. — Matt Crypto 22:21, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

Welcome to the hive

Your socially-irresponsible comments on Seth's talk page have caused you to be identified as a potential threat to others. Consequently, your real name and mugshot have been placed on wikipedia-watch.org/hive2.html 68.92.156.68 17:08, 30 September 2006 (UTC)

And I care because...? — Matt Crypto 17:25, 30 September 2006 (UTC)

Bondage hood images

Pure balderdash and flapdoodle! You don't seem to understand the Free Use Policy or how it applies here, Matt! Don't insult my intelligence, please! I challenge you or anyone to make free images of their own for this article, if you think it is so easy to do. It's never gonna happen! There are not, and never will be, any free images available to illustrate the text of this particular article, so the fair-use images are perfectly legitimate to use here!

The source URL for the images has been credited on the upload page. The images are meant to promote a product and have been given appropriate licensing tags and a valid fair-use rationale. If anything, the copyright holder would probably regard the use of the images in this article as free advertising for his/her site. If promotional images are not allowed, then why are there licensing tags for it??? Other sites like youtube.com feature copyrighted material that has been uploaded by users, so I don't know what your problem is here! This is totally unreasonable!

Oh, and harassing and threatening users who make positive contributions simply to throw your weight around and impose your will doesn't seem very civil to me! Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! Sanctimonious hypocrite!

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List of trolling sites added to Internet troll

Hi Matt--I restored somebody's list of troll sites because I think that's info some ppl would want to find in such an article--probably information not easily found elsewhere. I checked out the four sites on the list and, though I'm sure I could find some ugly stuff if I signed up as a member of one of the forums (fora?), their front pages aren't obscene or pornographic. Anyway, if you'd either leave the list there, or explain your reason for snipping it on the article's talk page, I'd be happy. BTW I am not a troll, at least I don't think I am a troll--just somebody who ended up with the article on my watchlist because I'd added to it in the past. betsythedevine 15:35, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Image:DSC00521.JPG listed for deletion

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Image:Label-enigma.jpg listed for deletion

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Image:SIGABA-labelled-2.jpg listed for deletion

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sw.wikipedia.org

See sw:User_talk:Matt_Crypto#Flagging_two_bots, please.

Hey.

Can I ask you something? Why did you make fucking redirect to the town in Austria? The majority of people would have probably redirected it to fuck. I really want to know your intentions. oTHErONE _(Contribs) 07:23, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

I'll get her home by 12... ;-) We have a specific article on "fucking", and I'd argue that if there's an article in that form, I argue we should use that, rather than redirect to a different word's disambiguation page. No big deal, though. — Matt Crypto 07:35, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

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Debate on Compare-By-Hash safety

Hi Matt,

If you have the chance to check out Val_Henson, you might want to. The page is up for deletion, but there is a concurrent NPOV debate about a paper she wrote, which asserted dangers in using cryptographic hashes as checksums that simply don't match the reality of how cryptographic hashes work. I've tried to correct this, by referencing John Black's rebuttal of her paper (which he published at USENIX this year), but some of the other contributors claim that stating that there are provable factual errors in the original paper is a NPOV violation. As I don't have much of a reputation on Wikipedia, I don't think my comments carry much weight. Perhaps you could have a look at the two papers and the debate in progress, and give your opinion, as you're clearly knowledgeable on the topic, and well-respected in this community. Rabbi 00:11, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Double image

Thanks, although let's not forget it is a hack, one really ought to implement it as a MediaWiki extension... ed g2s • talk 22:31, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

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re:BLP

Okay, that revert was certainly an rc-patrol blunder of mine, and I've learned something from it. Had she used the edit summary that accompanied her second edit on the first edit, I certainly wouldn't have reverted it. However, an anon removing something, that many people do a good amount of research to add to articles, without an explanation, just didn't seem right. I do understand BLP, and have removed text from biographies several times per it, and I definitely won't revert the removal of birthdates from articles with popups again.

On an unrelated note, do you recall us editing the same East Africa-related article? Your username sounds familiar, and I think that's where I know it from. Anyways, happy editing. Picaroon9288 19:47, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

Sorry if I was terse before, I really don't blame you for reverting anon removals; most times, it's vandalism -- keep up the good work, which I'm sure you do much of. I've certainly edited a few East Africa articles, and would love to edit more if I could get the time. Can't recall which one I bumped into you over, though... — Matt Crypto 19:51, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

Incivility?

Er, what's this for? -- Hoary 13:17, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, incivility. — Matt Crypto 15:39, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

A diff or two, please. Hoary 22:41, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

[15]. — Matt Crypto 08:49, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Uh huh. So, she's angry. Maybe she expresses this too forcefully. I'm not happy with some aspects of what she says. If you take that contribution by itself, yes, she's being incivil. But take a look at a different section in the same page, "I like the gallery". See what she's saying, how she's saying it, and what reactions she's getting. And then see the dates there. She's just been attempting to explain to people who then don't bother to read the explanations and instead dismiss what she wants to explain as "politically correct propoganda" (sic). That's frustrating indeed. I think she's been extraordinarily civil up to a certain point. Beyond that point, she was no longer civil, it's true; but it's not as if this were some person who'd landed on the talk page out of the blue. (Her two-day average for civility on that talk page isn't so low.) Further, Block tells us that Blocks are used to prevent damage or disruption to Wikipedia. They should not be used as a punitive measure. The first person to respond, Halaqah, did so coolly enough; I see no sign of imminent damage or disruption when you blocked her. -- Hoary 10:56, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Deeceevoice is on personal attack parole for this sort of thing. See [[16]]. In this case, it seems like Deeceevoice just lost her temper. IMO, it's better she cooled off for a while than carried on in that style of posting, which would have disruptive to the page. — Matt Crypto 11:04, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Ah, I didn't know about the "personal attack parole". So, she has a day's vacation. Still, do take a good look at "I like the gallery" and similar exchanges that precede her occasional eruptions. There are mitigating circumstances here. -- Hoary 11:17, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Given her recent response to me on her talk page, the incentive to look kindly on Deeceevoice's actions has diminished substantially. — Matt Crypto 17:15, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Could this have become slightly personal? Take another look at the link you posted above. Deecee has been blocked from editing seven times. Six of those blocks were made by you. Given that there are so many active admins and so many adminny jobs to be done by them/us, doesn't it strike you as odd that so much of the attention paid to her infractions has been paid by you? Incidentally, I'm interested by one quotation that you highlighted: You can't tell me something sick isn't going on with regard to racial animosity. This is truly pathetic. People seem to have lost (or to lack completely) the capacity for rational discourse. Perhaps Jimbo should require people to take a course in basic logic before being allowed to edit here. Wikipedia is starting to really disgust me again. When I look at the talk page of a race-related article (something I normally try to avoid, as it's so depressing), this is exactly my reaction. Yes, I'd happily second this remark of Deecee's. Now, while Deecee posted it on her own talk page, I've posted it on yours; very likely a less civil thing to do. You may therefore wish to block me from editing for 24 hours or so. It's not something that I invite you to do; frankly, I'd be irritated if you did it. No, what I invite you to do is rather to think coolly and carefully about your stance toward Deecee, and to give serious consideration to this suggestion: that you ignore her edits for six months. If she misbehaves egregiously during this period, there are plenty of other admins who can deal with it. -- Hoary 04:36, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

"... a course in basic logic"? I agree wholeheartedly (obviously). Did you see what Crypto counted as a "racist attack" -- for which he blocked me for a week? LOL. Just astoundingly hilarious. deeceevoice 06:32, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

Hoary, why do you refer to editors as "cracker morons"[17]? SecurID 06:11, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

Um, lemme guess. Because they were behaving like cracker morons? :p deeceevoice 08:06, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

I think the recent outburst was precisely the sort of incivility that ArbCom had in mind when they put Deeceevoice on parole. You can take it up with them, if you want. However, Hoary, I do suggest that you don't give her any reason to think that her incivility is justified. And I strongly suggest that neither you or DCV refer to other editors as "cracker morons" again. — Matt Crypto 08:51, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

You may well be right that it was precisely the sort of incivility that ArbCom had in mind; if it was, some other admin could have and probably would have dealt with it. As there are hundreds of candidates, I have trouble understanding why any one of them should risk giving the impression of stalking her. (I also wonder: If it was potentially so disruptive, why didn't you delete it?) I think her particular incivility was unfortunate and hope she's not uncivil again; I also think it was very understandable and that she was dealing with people who were uncivil in their unthinking dismissal of her civil and patient attempts at discussion. ¶ When you turn your attention to me, you have a point: in future, when I see people behaving like cracker morons, I'll try to remember to avoid referring to them as "cracker morons". (Mm, how would you describe an edit such as this one?) -- Hoary 11:27, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

I've thought about it, as you asked. This is the first contact I've had with Deeceevoice in something like 6 months, as far as I recall. In my opinion, therefore, it doesn't run the risk of looking like wikistalking. I think this instance was clearly within the parole outlined by ArbCom, and I see no problem with me being the one to have done something about it. — Matt Crypto 12:18, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

A question about Merkle-Damgård hash function

Hi Matt,

I suppose you know what's the history/rationale behind this: why isn't the article named "Merkle-Damgård construction"? From the discussion page it seems that everybody agreed on the latter name but... Also, the article incipit, "In cryptography, the Merkle-Damgård hash function is a generic construction of a cryptographic hash function" is blatantly confusing (if it is a hash function it isn't a construction for hash functions).

I thought to ask before being bold and do the move myself. —Gennaro Prota^•Talk 16:51, 28 October 2006 (UTC)