Editing Talk:1323: Protocol

This is funny. I was really drawn into the conversation due to the names. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.117|108.162.246.117]] 07:05, 29 January 2014 (UTC)
:Me too!  And I'm even more drawn to the meta-conversation!!  :) [[User:Nealmcb|Nealmcb]] ([[User talk:Nealmcb|talk]]) 13:30, 29 January 2014 (UTC)
::But what about me?  Alice and Bob get way too much time already.... [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_and_Bob Carol (whisper) 13:30 29 January 2014 (UTC)]
Eve appears in [[177: Alice and Bob]] --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 08:14, 29 January 2014 (UTC)

Heh.  I was immediately reminded of the movie, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice.   http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064100/  I wonder if that movie influenced the encryption names, or  vice versa, or mere coincidence?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.72|108.162.216.72]] 12:31, 29 January 2014 (UTC)

I think the explanation looks complete to me. I vote to remove the tag. [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 14:04, 29 January 2014 (UTC)

Removed then. There was someone who asked for more [[Cryptography]] comic references. I found 14 and have thus made a new category (see link below). Feel free to add more if I have not found them all by searching on Cryptography and Encryption (I have only included those where there were some direct mention of these issues in the commic - or title text) and not just because there was mention of it in the explanation. However, the words does not have to appear in the commic before I included them. i.e. [[PGP]]. But also feel free to delete one from the list if I was too quick to include it [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 15:45, 29 January 2014 (UTC)

The description misses a key aspect of the comic.  The conversation follows the pattern of a message being sent from Cueball to the Computer Scientist, with the CS sending an acknowledgement back and Cueball continuing --- much in the matter of an internet communication protocol, as referenced in the title. [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 17:06, 29 January 2014 (UTC)

Really excellent explanation. Complete, concise and well written, with some helpful notes in the comments.  Keep up the good work!  [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.58|108.162.219.58]] 18:43, 29 January 2014 (UTC)

I agree this would explain the protocol title, but how does it compute with the message at the bottom: ''I've discovered a way to get computer scientists to listen to any boring story''? [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 18:55, 29 January 2014 (UTC)
:The point is that Cueball tells a completely mundane and booooring! story (might be last evening's soap opera, for example), but by replacing the protagonist names with Alice, Bob and Eve, names commonly used in explanation of public key cryptography, he tricked the Computer Scientist into believing he describes some cryptography protocol, thus making him interested. [[User:Edheldil|Edheldil]] ([[User talk:Edheldil|talk]]) 10:22, 31 January 2014 (UTC)
::By the way, what Cueball describes might very well be DNS cache poisoning -- or what NSA's supposed FOXACID servers do. [[User:Edheldil|Edheldil]] ([[User talk:Edheldil|talk]]) 10:31, 31 January 2014 (UTC)

I believe the essence of this story is in the encryption aspect, not the TCP. Many protocols feature a message-and-reply type of structure, it's not unique to TCP. The alternative to having CS reply to each phrase is to have him not reply to each phrase, which would be boring and not really indicate what's going on in CS's head. As some cryptography problems can be complex they are sometimes stated in "chunks" so people can follow along [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dining_cryptographers_problem  more easily] (See the Description section of the link). In trying to follow what might be a complex problem sometimes people will acknowledge that they understand each part in turn - weather for their own benefit or that of the problem stater. [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 21:04, 29 January 2014 (UTC)
:Found it: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Schneier Bruce Schneier], a notable modern Cryptographer has published a number of cryptography books in which he routinely references characters such as Alice, Bob, and Eve. [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]])
:Also: TCP/IP doesn't necessarily ack every packet, it can also ack multiple packets in one go. This allows for a much larger throughput as the latency per packet goes down to zero. [[User:Kaa-ching|Kaa-ching]] ([[User talk:Kaa-ching|talk]]) 09:33, 30 January 2014 (UTC)