1996-04-09 - Re: questions about bits and bytes

Header Data

From: jamesd@echeque.com
To: Jack Mott <cypherpunks@toad.com
Message Hash: 8c7769e8cfe8fa38e7f1fa0804a25fbcd679a2bb6b716c8868aec0a2c149bcff
Message ID: <199604090654.XAA16867@dns2.noc.best.net>
Reply To: N/A
UTC Datetime: 1996-04-09 11:39:18 UTC
Raw Date: Tue, 9 Apr 1996 19:39:18 +0800

Raw message

From: jamesd@echeque.com
Date: Tue, 9 Apr 1996 19:39:18 +0800
To: Jack Mott <cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: questions about bits and bytes
Message-ID: <199604090654.XAA16867@dns2.noc.best.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 09:33 PM 4/8/96 -0400, Jack Mott wrote:
> a bit is 1 or 0
> 8 bits make up a byte (0-255)
> If I have a 5 byte key, does that make it a 40 bit key? 

Yes.  

> The only
> reason this doesn't make sense to me is it seems useless to use 5 byte
> keys, yet that is what companies export since the government limits keys
> to 40 bits.

Yes, a 40 bit key is useless.  What is it that does not make sense to you?
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