This is not terribly on-topic, but, if you're interested in cryptography, Dan Boneh (Craig Gentry's advisor) is currently giving a Coursera course on it:
I'd highly recommend it, it's amazingly interesting, and Boneh is very good at explaining things. I used to think that cryptography was hopelessly impenetrable, but it turns out most algorithms (well, mostly symmetric cryptography) are simple to understand. We're currently at asymmetric crypto and the math's starting.
Hmm, each week of lessons took me roughly 3 hours a week for the whole course. Doing them at your own pace is also very good, though, as you're pretty much getting the same benefit, but not as much motivation.
Yes you are right, i should clarify that this is my personal experience, with zero previous knowledge on cryptography, and pausing the video continuously to investigate the topics and do some calculations.
Mail me directly! We got a flood of people doing them, far more than we expected, and there have definitely been people falling through the cracks. Please feel free to bug us directly if that happens to you. We're trying our best and are happy to find ways to do better.
https://class.coursera.org/crypto-006/class
I'd highly recommend it, it's amazingly interesting, and Boneh is very good at explaining things. I used to think that cryptography was hopelessly impenetrable, but it turns out most algorithms (well, mostly symmetric cryptography) are simple to understand. We're currently at asymmetric crypto and the math's starting.