From: olbon@dynetics.com (Clay Olbon II)
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 03:05:46 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com (Cypherpunks Mailing List)
Subject: Re: Internet Privacy Guaranteed ad (POTP Jr.)
Message-ID: <v01540b05ad510ebfe1d0@[193.239.225.200]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 11:10 AM 2/21/96, lmccarth@cs.umass.edu wrote:
>Clay writes:
>>         Given that N is the length of the message in bits. The number of
>> possible combinations of bits is 2^N.  For any message length N > 1,
>> 2^N < N^256.
>
>Uh, nope. 2^N grows asymptotically faster than N^256. Actually, for any
>constants A and B, A^N grows asymptotically faster than N^B. For A=2, B=256,
>the crossover happens somewhere before N=4096.
>2^4096 = 2^(16*256) > 2^(12*256) = (2^12)^256 = (4096)^256
>
>If the IPG people are using N=5600 (weird choice) then certainly
>2^5600 > 5600^256, for what little that's worth.
>
>(Ah, my computer science B.S. pays off ;)
>
>-Lewis  "You're always disappointed, nothing seems to keep you high -- drive
>        your bargains, push your papers, win your medals, fuck your strangers;
>        don't it leave you on the empty side ?"  (Joni Mitchell, 1972)

Oops.  Thanks for pointing this out.  I should probably just shut up about
this, but snake-oil salesmen really get under my skin.  Of course, being
wrong hasn't kept me from opening my mouth in the past so ...

        Clay

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Clay Olbon II            | olbon@dynetics.com
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