openssh unix dev - Jun 2001 - ssh-keygen(1) misinfo: English prose entropy 0.6 - 1.3 b/char!

Quoth manpage:

 otherwise easily guessable (English prose has only 1-2 bits of entropy
 per word, and provides very bad passphrases).  The passphrase can be

Whoever wrote that manpage is either possessed of some
amazing human insight to which I am not privvy, chose a very
non-representative sample of English prose, or is just plain
wrong.  I know none of you would ever make such a glaring
error, and should anyone remotely associated with you have
done so, it must have been due to acute sleep deprivation or
near-toxic levels of caffeine, the latter being more conducive to
errors of commision, so please fix it before it spreads via the
"reference" effect or simply tarnishes your image.  Should I be
in greivous hallucinatory error, the aforementioned
common-sense defying measurement necessitates a
gold-plated reference beyond reproach with which to rain smack
down upon the non-believers and other intellectual trilobites.

For verification:
1) do a quick web search
2) read Shannon's experiment
3) Cover an unseen word in an ordinary book and see if you
can guess it correctly every second to fourth time.  Consider
a lucrative career in cryptanalysis if you are consistently
successful...

	I, Zone Lee
Free, encrypted, secure Web-based email at www.hushmail.com

On Sat, 2 Jun 2001 auto92089 at hushmail.com wrote:
> For verification:
> 1) do a quick web search
> 2) read Shannon's experiment
> 3) Cover an unseen word in an ordinary book and see if you
> can guess it correctly every second to fourth time.  Consider
> a lucrative career in cryptanalysis if you are consistently
> successful...
Trolling is such fun, isn't it?

Entropy rate does not mean that; if you are shown an English word,
character by character, how long does it take to guess the whole word?

Try a couple of them:

moro_
idio_
trol_

Not so hard is it?  I'm sure Snake Oil Security Co. is looking for new
cryptanalysts; consider applying.

-- 
Pekka Savola                 "Tell me of difficulties surmounted,
Netcore Oy                   not those you stumble over and fall"
Systems. Networks. Security.  -- Robert Jordan: A Crown of Swords