[bpolania]

XRDS Crossroads is a magazine blog for students, the article presents an actual topic explained for those interested, I think it targets an important part of Hacker News demography and it makes an excellent job in encouraging students to go ahead and develop their own crytographic solution, so I don't know what are you so angry about the article

[Petrushka]

I'm a student myself. Funny enough, some of us are actually intelligent and can handle complexity. To me, this is the equivalent of teaching military science by telling someone how to shoot a gun. Instead of trying to introduce someone into the field by showing them what questions the field is actually trying solve, you're introducing them into the field by showing them the small subset which those who have no interest in it assume constitutes the entirety of it.

How many mathematicians do you thing have read an article on cryptography, gotten really interested in it, and then realized the most important open question in it revolves around the computer equivalent of spotting a fake ID?

[bpolania]

The article explains an implementation of a Vernam Cipher, it's not intended to solve the most important questions in cryptography.

I don't understand how "introduce someone into the field by showing them what questions the field is actually trying solve" could do any good, it's like saying that the first subject in Physics 101 should be the unified field theory instead of Newtonian physics.

[betterunix]

"the most important open question in it revolves around the computer equivalent of spotting a fake ID"

I am pretty sure the most important open question in cryptography is whether or not one-way functions exist...

[JVIDEL]

I agree partially and really this wouldn't be a bad article at all if it wasn't for the link-bait title they used.