The Advanced Encryption Standard is one of those things that is
almost omnipresent on the Internet, but most people don’t know
it exists—much less how it works. Jeff Moser seeks to rectify
that in creating A Stick Figure Guide to the Advanced Encryption
Standard, which is exactly what it says it is: a comic using
stick figure art to explain AES as simply as possible. Of
course, “simply” is a relative term, which is why Moser has
separated his guide into four parts, so that a reader can bail
out whenever it gets too intense for them. I have to admit that
this was me: The math can get a bit thick at the end, which
might not be a problem for someone currently engaged in studying
mathematics or programming, but flies over the head of people
like me, who haven’t had cause to use algebra, calculus, or
anything more complicated than basic math past college. That’s
not a problem with the comic, as the primary audience is people
interested in programming or cryptography. For them it will
probably be just fine, present