[117339] in Cypherpunks
Re: Its the GUI, stupid
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Anonymous)
Tue Aug 31 18:17:22 1999
Date: Tue, 31 Aug 1999 23:56:03 +0200 (CEST)
Message-Id: <199908312156.XAA02741@mail.replay.com>
From: Anonymous <nobody@replay.com>
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Reply-To: Anonymous <nobody@replay.com>
>>>>> David Honig <honig@sprynet.com> writes:
> The way to teach a tool is to show what it does; build up a useful
> mental model of the thing; leave the innards for the interested.
The problem is that the people you're trying to teach about the tool
have no understanding of the problem the tool is intended to solve or
the philosophies underlying the tool.
Teach them about the reasons for using encryption, what principles
make PKE particularly suitable for person-to-person communications,
and the basics of key management. *Then* teach them to use a tool
that can be used to accomplish that. If they aren't interested in
learning *why* they should do something a particular way, they're not
going to get much use out of a tool that does it, GUI or otherwise.
> Do you remember the proofs of various properties of Fourier
> transforms that you were subjected to? Or do you remember how to
> use them (inputs, outputs, what the outputs mean)?
Actually I remember the abstract theory first, and work from there
down to a memory of how to use the transforms. I have always viewed
everything (maths, music, friends, whatever) in terms of
interrelationships, not in terms of the things themselves.
> Explain to granny the difference between a secret key and PK
> method. Go through a typical usage scenario. Discuss trust and
> introducers in real life, and trust models in PGP. Discuss
> passphrase guessing, and tell her a few of *her* likely passphrase
> choices to illustrate how the game is played.
That's exactly what I did. Only *then* did I show her the various PGP
tools that were available for her OS, and she felt most comfortable
with 2.6.3ia.
