Re: Br¡n: Quantum Cryptography Outperformed By Thermodynamics

At 11:31 PM Thursday 6/14/2012, KZK wrote:
>http://www.technologyreview.com/view/428202/quantum-cryptography-outperformed-by-classical/
>
>The idea is straightforward. Alice wants to send Bob a message via 
>an ordinary wire. At each end of the wire, there are two different 
>resistors that correspond to a 0 or 1.
>
>Alice encodes her message by connecting these two resistors to the 
>wire in the required sequence.
>
>Bob, on the other hand, connects his resistors to the wire at random.
>
>The crucial part of this set up is that the actual current and 
>voltage through the wire is random, ideally Johnson noise. The 
>essential features of this noise are determined by the combination 
>of resistors at each end. This noise is public--anybody can see or measure it.
>
>Now here's the clever bit. Bob knows which resistor he connected to 
>the wire and so can work out which resistor Alice must have connected.



So while this is going on, what are Carol and Ted up to?