high school python classes

Jerry Feldman gaf at blu.org
Tue Jan 21 07:18:50 EST 2014


On 01/20/2014 09:19 AM, Kevin D. Clark wrote:
> Lloyd Kvam writes:
>
>>       * Public Key Encryption
> I took a class at UNH when I was a high-school senior (wooly mammoths
> were still wandering around campus back then...).  It was a class with a
> topic of number theory.  I liked all of the math proofs in the class
> -- very cool stuff.  I really wasn't prepared for the class but I did
> the best that I could.
>
> As I sat in these classes on Saturday mornings, it did occur to me
> that a lot of this stuff was pretty dry.  I couldn't see the point of
> the mathematical excercises that we were going through ("why on Earth
> do I care if two numbers are 'relatively prime'?", I mused).  I
> couldn't fathom how any of this stuff could be used in the Real World.
>
> Everything that I thought about these Saturday morning classes changed
> during the last class.  We had a guest lecturer that day -- a
> professor named David Burton.  He came into the classroom with a
> twinkle in his eye and told us that he was going to teach us some
> interesting things that morning.  In the next two hours he taught us
> the basics of symmetric key cryptography, and then he moved onto DH
> key-exchange and public-key crypto.  He built on all of the concepts
> that we had learned in previous classes.  I took notes like crazy that
> morning -- this really was some interesting stuff that this Professor
> Burton was teaching us.  Wow....
>
>
> Anyways, I look back upon that morning (eons ago) pretty fondly.  One
> of the things that I do as a software engineer is to design and
> implement secure systems and protocols.  I still use the knowledge
> that I gained on that Saturday morning as a high-school senior pretty
> frequently.
>
> Regards,
>
> --kevin
When I was in High School I learned how to program a slide rule.

-- 
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix
PGP key id:3BC1EB90 
PGP Key fingerprint: 49E2 C52A FC5A A31F 8D66  C0AF 7CEA 30FC 3BC1 EB90

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