Section 16.5 LAST BLOG EVER!

It is interesting that modular multiplication and modular exponentiation can be made to be analog and used with elliptic curves.

It was difficult to follow the explanation of the elliptic curve way of doing a diffie-hellman key exchange.

Section 16.4

It is interesting that elliptic curves must be changed slightly when working mod 2. This is because of singularities.

I didn't follow the explanation of why GF(4) is necessary for elliptic curves.

Section 16.3

It is interesting that a number with only small factors is smooth and if all are less than B it is B-smooth. This makes a lot of sense in the context of elliptic curves.

It was hard to follow the exact algorithm to factor a number using elliptic curves.

Section 16.2

I easily understood the explanation of elliptic curves mod p and how to solve them by following the example.

However the example given representing some plaintext was overly complicated and i couldn't not follow the result.

Section 16.1

The discussion on elliptic curves was very interesting. I was particularly intrigued by the use of elliptic curves to find a point on the curve using two other points.

I didn't really follow the examples on how to solve an elliptic curve mod p.

Section 2.12

Enigma is a very interesting system. It seems to be the first crypto system that actually uses a machine. It seems incredible that it could have been broken. Since not even the user knows the exact connection between the plain and cipher texts.

It was hard to follow the attack that broke Enigma. I didn't understand what the different letters represented and how the machine could be used to solve the problem.

Shor and 19.3

It was very interesting to read about the way that the period was describe without math. This helps to visualize the real meaning of the algorithm that we use.

It was difficult to follow the explanation of the actual algorithm in the book. Mostly because i did not understand all the notation.