Editing 343: 1337: Part 3

{{comic
| number    = 343
| date      = November 14, 2007
| title     = 1337: Part 3
| image     = 1337 part 3.png
| titletext = I once asked an NSA guy whether they'd broken RSA. And I know I can trust him, because I asked if he was lying to me and he said no.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Adrian Lamo}} is a hacker known for being a threat analyst and has penetrated many corporate networks. As far as we know, he has not penetrated any government networks, so helping Elaine physically break into the {{w|NSA}} would probably inspire second thoughts. The use of a rug to cross the barbed wire fence is likely a reference to a scene in {{w|Fight Club}}, where the same method is used to break into a {{w|liposuction}} clinic.

{{w|RSA (algorithm)|RSA}} is an encryption algorithm that allows decryption using {{w|Public-key cryptography|public keys}}. No efficient method to {{w|RSA problem|break RSA}} is known. But if the NSA knew any such method, it would be unlikely for them to admit that.
However, the NSA have paid RSA to put a [http://theverge.com/2013/12/20/5231006/nsa-paid-10-million-for-a-back-door-into-rsa-encryption-according-to backdoor] into one of their encryption schemes.

{{w|Lawrence Lessig}} is a political activist focusing on copyright law and intellectual property, as well as a founding board member of {{w|Creative Commons}}.

{{w|Steve Jobs}} was the two-time {{w|CEO}} of {{w|Apple Inc.}} In partnership with {{w|Steve Wozniak}} he founded Apple. He oversaw Apple's return from near bankruptcy, the introduction of the original Macintosh, the {{w|iPod}}, the {{w|iPhone}}, and the {{w|iPad}}. But in the 90s, most of this had not happened yet. The comic is implying that it was Elaine, in fact, who planted those ideas in Jobs' mind (while perching on his bedpost, a nearly-impossible physical task for even a relatively small and light human being - such a stance is often depicted for gargoyles or fictional vampires, the latter of which are associated with nocturnal bedroom-invasions like this).

The final panel is a pun on the Riot grrrls - from Wikipedia {{w|Riot grrrl}} is an underground feminist punk rock movement. This metamorphosis in the hands of Randall into Riot Prrl - who presumably prefer to code in {{w|Perl}}. The [https://www.facebook.com/Riot-Prrl-219590338058369/ real Riot Prrl] are from {{w|Northampton}} and are into {{w|Yarn bombing|guerilla knitting}}.

The title text may refer to the {{w|urban legend}} that leads petty criminals to ask each other [http://www.snopes.com/risque/hookers/cop.asp "Are you a cop?"] the bottom line being that liars can lie about whether they're lying.

All comics in "[[:Category:1337|1337]]" series:
*[[341: 1337: Part 1]]
*[[342: 1337: Part 2]]
*[[343: 1337: Part 3]]
*[[344: 1337: Part 4]]
*[[345: 1337: Part 5]]

This series was released on 5 consecutive days (Monday-Friday) and not over the usual Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule.

==Transcript==
:[The comic begins with a block of text outside any frame. It is narrated by the Cueball from the first panel in the previous comic. The text refers to the first panel to its right.]
:Cueball (narrating): It was the late 90's. Elaine crisscrossed the country with Adrian Lamo, the 'Homeless Hacker', learning to gain entry into systems both virtual and physical.

:[Standing outside a tall fence with barbed wire at the top Adrian Lamo (drawn as Cueball) is helping Elaine Roberts (adult, with long white hair) over a barbed wire fence letting her step on his intertwined hands. She has laid a rug over the barbs to be able to crawl over. There are large white buildings both outside (three) and inside (one taller) the fence. Also a large tower with a shining beacon is just inside on the other side of the fence.]
:Adrian Lamo: So you just throw a rug over the fence and ... Say, what ''is'' this place anyway?
:Elaine: Nowhere special.
:Adrian Lamo: ... Elaine, is this NSA Headquarters?
:Elaine: ... Look, I just want to see if they've broken RSA.

:[Lawrence Lessig, with round glasses and flat black hair is sitting in an office chair at a long table, Elaine is standing across the table swinging a folding knife down so hard that it opens up. The middle of the table is obscured with Lessig's comment. Most of the top of the panel, except the right part where Elaine is standing is not inside the frame. Cueball is narrating in this section:]
:Cueball (narrating): She learned, from Lawrence Lessig, about the monstrosity that is U.S. Copyright Law.
:Elaine: So, how do we fix the system? Stab bad guys?
:Lawrence  Lessig: I'm starting something called "Creative Commons"
:Knife: ''Shink''
:Elaine: I think we should stab bad guys...

:[Steve Jobs with thin hair and beard stubble, is lying under the sheets in his bed which have large round spheres at the top of the columns at the head of the bed, an smaller spheres at the columns at the foot of the bed. He is lifting himself up on his arms resting on his pillow in order to look at Elaine. She is balancing on one of the small spheres on the foot of the bed while crouching, and resting one arm on her knee, and her chin on that arm. The other arm points at Steve. The top left corner is outside the panels frame and used for Cueball's narration:]
:Cueball (narrating): She met with Steve Jobs to discuss the future of Apple.
:Elaine: Compression and bandwidth are changing everything.
:Steve Jobs: Who are you? It's 3:00 AM!
:Elaine: Apple should make a portable music player.
:Steve Jobs: I'm calling the police.
:Elaine: Hey, idea — integrate it with a cell phone!

:[The final panel has two parts separated of Cueball's narration in the middle. Elaine is shown in both parts. To the left she is "sitting" behind a full scale drum kit with bass drum, three smaller drums and two cymbals drumming vigorously (hair flying around her) with two drumsticks (and a foot). On the right side (after the narration) she stands holding a laptop by the touch-pad in the right hand and then she has an electric guitar on her shoulders the left hand on the frets. Her hair hangs disordered around her head and shoulders. Cueball has a final punch line of narration in the bottom right corner, on the other side of Elaine with guitar.]
:Cueball (narrating): She even, for a time, took up drumming, and helped start a movement among teen girls, a culture of self-taught female programmers and musicians, coding by day and rocking out by night—
:Cueball (narrating): Riot Prrl.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:1337|03]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Elaine Roberts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] <!--Both as the real Adrian Lamo and as the narrator from the previous comics. As they are not both shown in this comic it's not up for Multiple Cueballs-->
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Steve Jobs]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Cryptography]]
[[Category:Puns]]
[[Category:Music]]
[[Category:CC-BY-SA comics]]
@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 ==Explanation==
-This is the third part of five in the "[[:Category:1337|1337]]" series. The title 1337 is "L-eet," or "elite," using the {{w|Leet}} alphabet, a coding system used primarily on the internet (and on early text messaging systems), meant to provide a bit of {{w|obfuscation}} to plain text both to make it harder to read and to show off in a creative way using in-group jargon.
+{{w|Adrian Lamo}} is a hacker known for being a threat analyst and has penetrated many corporate networks. As far as we know, he has not penetrated any government networks, so helping Elaine physically break into the {{w|NSA}} would probably inspire second thoughts. The use of a rug to cross the barbed wire fence is likely a reference to a scene in {{w|Fight Club}}, where the same method is used to break into a {{w|liposuction}} clinic.
-This series was released on five consecutive days (Monday to Friday) and not over the usual schedule of three comics a week. These are all the comics in [[:Category:1337|1337 series]]:
+{{w|RSA (algorithm)|RSA}} is an encryption algorithm that allows decryption using {{w|Public-key cryptography|public keys}}. No efficient method to {{w|RSA problem|break RSA}} is known. But if the NSA knew any such method, it would be unlikely for them to admit that.
-* [[341: 1337: Part 1]]
+However, the NSA have paid RSA to put a [http://theverge.com/2013/12/20/5231006/nsa-paid-10-million-for-a-back-door-into-rsa-encryption-according-to backdoor] into one of their encryption schemes.
-* [[342: 1337: Part 2]]
-* [[343: 1337: Part 3]]
-* [[344: 1337: Part 4]]
-* [[345: 1337: Part 5]]
-The comic is narrated by [[Cueball]] as seen in the previous comic, but that Cueball is not shown here, where the man drawn as Cueball is a real person. {{w|Adrian Lamo}} is a hacker known for being a threat analyst and has penetrated many corporate networks. As far as we know, he has not penetrated any government networks, so helping [[Help I'm trapped in a driver's license factory Elaine Roberts|Elaine]] physically break into the {{w|NSA}} would probably inspire second thoughts. The use of a rug to cross the barbed wire fence is likely a reference to a scene in ''{{w|Fight Club}}'', where the same method is used to break into a {{w|liposuction}} clinic.
+{{w|Lawrence Lessig}} is a political activist focusing on copyright law and intellectual property, as well as a founding board member of {{w|Creative Commons}}.
-{{w|RSA (algorithm)|RSA (the algorithm)}} is an encryption algorithm that allows  encryption and decryption using {{w|Public-key cryptography|separate keys}}. No efficient method to {{w|RSA problem|break RSA}} is known.{{Citation needed}} But if the NSA knew any such method, it would be unlikely for them to admit that.
+{{w|Steve Jobs}} was the two-time {{w|CEO}} of {{w|Apple Inc.}} In partnership with {{w|Steve Wozniak}} he founded Apple. He oversaw Apple's return from near bankruptcy, the introduction of the original Macintosh, the {{w|iPod}}, the {{w|iPhone}}, and the {{w|iPad}}. But in the 90s, most of this had not happened yet. The comic is implying that it was Elaine, in fact, who planted those ideas in Jobs' mind (while perching on his bedpost, a nearly-impossible physical task for even a relatively small and light human being - such a stance is often depicted for gargoyles or fictional vampires, the latter of which are associated with nocturnal bedroom-invasions like this).
-However, the NSA have paid {{w|RSA Security|RSA (the company)}} to put a [http://theverge.com/2013/12/20/5231006/nsa-paid-10-million-for-a-back-door-into-rsa-encryption-according-to backdoor] into one of their encryption schemes. {{w|Lawrence Lessig}} is a political activist focusing on copyright law and intellectual property, as well as a founding board member of {{w|Creative Commons}}.
-[[Steve Jobs]] was the two-time {{w|CEO}} of {{w|Apple Inc.}} In partnership with {{w|Steve Wozniak}}, he founded Apple. He oversaw Apple's return from near bankruptcy, the introduction of the original Macintosh, the {{w|iPod}}, the {{w|iPhone}}, and the {{w|iPad}}. But in the '90s, most of this had not happened yet. The comic is implying that it was Elaine, in fact, who planted those ideas in Jobs' mind (while perching on his bedpost, a nearly-impossible physical task for even a relatively small and light human being - such a stance is often depicted for gargoyles or fictional vampires, the latter of which are associated with nocturnal bedroom-invasions like this). Furthermore, Steve's reactions indicate that he was abruptly woken up by Elaine after she broke into his home and started a one-sided conversation with him.
+The final panel is a pun on the Riot grrrls - from Wikipedia {{w|Riot grrrl}} is an underground feminist punk rock movement. This metamorphosis in the hands of Randall into Riot Prrl - who presumably prefer to code in {{w|Perl}}. The [https://www.facebook.com/Riot-Prrl-219590338058369/ real Riot Prrl] are from {{w|Northampton}} and are into {{w|Yarn bombing|guerilla knitting}}.
-The final panel is a pun on the Riot grrrls - {{w|Riot grrrl}} is an underground feminist punk rock movement. This metamorphosizes in the hands of Randall into Riot Prrl - who presumably prefer to code in {{w|Perl}}. The [https://www.facebook.com/Riot-Prrl-219590338058369/ real Riot Prrl] is from {{w|Northampton}} and is into {{w|Yarn bombing|guerilla knitting}}.
+The title text may refer to the {{w|urban legend}} that leads petty criminals to ask each other [http://www.snopes.com/risque/hookers/cop.asp "Are you a cop?"] the bottom line being that liars can lie about whether they're lying.
-The title text may refer to the {{w|urban legend}} that leads petty criminals to ask each other [http://www.snopes.com/risque/hookers/cop.asp "Are you a cop?"]. The bottom line is that anyone who is capable of lying about breaking the RSA encryption algorithm, possibly including the "NSA guy," would be equally capable of lying about whether or not he is lying.
+All comics in "[[:Category:1337|1337]]" series:
+*[[341: 1337: Part 1]]
+*[[342: 1337: Part 2]]
+*[[343: 1337: Part 3]]
+*[[344: 1337: Part 4]]
+*[[345: 1337: Part 5]]
+This series was released on 5 consecutive days (Monday-Friday) and not over the usual Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule.
 ==Transcript==
-:[Outside, Adrian Lamo is helping Elaine Roberts over a barbed wire fence.]
+:[The comic begins with a block of text outside any frame. It is narrated by the Cueball from the first panel in the previous comic. The text refers to the first panel to its right.]
-:It was the late 90's. Elaine crisscrossed the country with Adrian Lamo, the 'Homeless Hacker', learning to gain entry into systems both virtual and physical.
+:Cueball (narrating): It was the late 90's. Elaine crisscrossed the country with Adrian Lamo, the 'Homeless Hacker', learning to gain entry into systems both virtual and physical.
-:Adrian Lamo: So you just throw a rug over the fence and... say, what ''is'' this place anyway?
-:Roberts: Nowhere special.
-:Lamo: ...Elaine, is this NSA Headquarters?
-:Roberts: ...Look, I just want to see if they've broken RSA.
-:[Inside, Lawrence Lessig is sitting at a table, Roberts is standing across the table swinging a knife.]
+:[Standing outside a tall fence with barbed wire at the top Adrian Lamo (drawn as Cueball) is helping Elaine Roberts (adult, with long white hair) over a barbed wire fence letting her step on his intertwined hands. She has laid a rug over the barbs to be able to crawl over. There are large white buildings both outside (three) and inside (one taller) the fence. Also a large tower with a shining beacon is just inside on the other side of the fence.]
-:She learned, from Lawrence Lessig, about the monstrosity that is U.S. Copyright Law.
+:Adrian Lamo: So you just throw a rug over the fence and ... Say, what ''is'' this place anyway?
-:Roberts: So, how do we fix the system? Stab bad guys?
+:Elaine: Nowhere special.
-:Lessig: I'm starting something called "Creative Commons"
+:Adrian Lamo: ... Elaine, is this NSA Headquarters?
-:''Shink''
+:Elaine: ... Look, I just want to see if they've broken RSA.
-:Elaine Roberts: I think we should stab bad guys...
-:[Steve Jobs is lying up in his bed, Roberts is balancing while crouched on the foot of Jobs's bed.]
+:[Lawrence Lessig, with round glasses and flat black hair is sitting in an office chair at a long table, Elaine is standing across the table swinging a folding knife down so hard that it opens up. The middle of the table is obscured with Lessig's comment. Most of the top of the panel, except the right part where Elaine is standing is not inside the frame. Cueball is narrating in this section:]
-:She met with Steve Jobs to discuss the future of Apple.
+:Cueball (narrating): She learned, from Lawrence Lessig, about the monstrosity that is U.S. Copyright Law.
-:Roberts: Compression and bandwidth are changing everything.
+:Elaine: So, how do we fix the system? Stab bad guys?
-:Jobs: Who are you? It's 3:00AM!
+:Lawrence  Lessig: I'm starting something called "Creative Commons"
-:Roberts: Apple should make a portable music player.
+:Knife: ''Shink''
-:Jobs: I'm calling the police.
+:Elaine: I think we should stab bad guys...
-:Roberts: Hey, idea — integrate it with a cell phone!
-:[Scene has two of Elaine's activities. In one she is drumming, in the other she has an electric guitar on her shoulders, one hand on the frets. The other hand is holding a laptop by the touchpad.]
+:[Steve Jobs with thin hair and beard stubble, is lying under the sheets in his bed which have large round spheres at the top of the columns at the head of the bed, an smaller spheres at the columns at the foot of the bed. He is lifting himself up on his arms resting on his pillow in order to look at Elaine. She is balancing on one of the small spheres on the foot of the bed while crouching, and resting one arm on her knee, and her chin on that arm. The other arm points at Steve. The top left corner is outside the panels frame and used for Cueball's narration:]
-:She even, for a time, took up drumming, and helped start a movement among teen girls, a culture of self-taught female programmers and musicians, coding by day and rocking out by night—
+:Cueball (narrating): She met with Steve Jobs to discuss the future of Apple.
-:Roberts: Riot Prrl.
+:Elaine: Compression and bandwidth are changing everything.
+:Steve Jobs: Who are you? It's 3:00 AM!
+:Elaine: Apple should make a portable music player.
+:Steve Jobs: I'm calling the police.
+:Elaine: Hey, idea — integrate it with a cell phone!
-==Trivia==
+:[The final panel has two parts separated of Cueball's narration in the middle. Elaine is shown in both parts. To the left she is "sitting" behind a full scale drum kit with bass drum, three smaller drums and two cymbals drumming vigorously (hair flying around her) with two drumsticks (and a foot). On the right side (after the narration) she stands holding a laptop by the touch-pad in the right hand and then she has an electric guitar on her shoulders the left hand on the frets. Her hair hangs disordered around her head and shoulders. Cueball has a final punch line of narration in the bottom right corner, on the other side of Elaine with guitar.]
-This is the first xkcd comic featuring [[Steve Jobs]].
+:Cueball (narrating): She even, for a time, took up drumming, and helped start a movement among teen girls, a culture of self-taught female programmers and musicians, coding by day and rocking out by night—
+:Cueball (narrating): Riot Prrl.
 {{comic discussion}}
 [[Category:1337|03]]
-[[Category:Comics sharing name|1337]]
+[[Category:Comics featuring Elaine Roberts]]
-[[Category:Comics featuring Help I'm trapped in a driver's license factory Elaine Roberts]]
 [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] <!--Both as the real Adrian Lamo and as the narrator from the previous comics. As they are not both shown in this comic it's not up for Multiple Cueballs-->
 [[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
@@ Line 70: / Line 70: @@
 [[Category:Puns]]
 [[Category:Music]]
-[[Category:Fight Club]]
 [[Category:CC-BY-SA comics]]