the problem is much more difficult. There is a famous estimate due to Shannon that the average entropy of written English is about 1.3 bits per letter. SeeSchneier's Applied Cryptography, 2nd Ed. p.234. However, applying this estimate to a passphrase is questionable. People are much more ...
Ranjiith asks: Why do we say something is as dead as a doornail? InA Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens wrote about the questionable phrase, “dead as a doornail,” saying: Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail. Mind! I don’t mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what th...
"in or into a position in contact with and supported by the top or upper part of something; in or into place; in place for use or action; into movement or action; in operation," Old Englishon, unstressed variant ofan"in, on, into," from Proto-Germanic*ana"on" (source also of Dutc...
What is the origin offast? The wordfastin Old English meant something more like “firmly, strongly, vigorously” than it meant “speedily.” (Think: tohold fast.) But if one event occurredfast onanother event (a metaphor), it was so quick it was almost attached to that event; sofastbe...
even if a foreigner uses thevery same cursethat a native speaker of the same gender, class, age, etc. would use in a given situation, the curse may carry too much or too little weightprecisely becauseit is spoken by an outsider, something the foreigner can’t escape being (see above on...