Good god, no. Here is much better advice, in much shorter form:<p><i>If you're storing a password</i>, use bcrypt or I'll bite your thumbs off.<p><i>If you're making sure something hasn't been modified by someone and you absolutely can't use a signed GPG message</i>, use HMAC-SHA256 and a constant-time comparison algorithm or I'll bite your thumbs off.<p>All the business about hash functions is like advice on how to build your own car brakes using a backyard smelter and a sand cast. You might get something of roughly the right shape and weight but someone's going to get hurt down the road.