last 2 of 2008
Jan. 3rd, 2009 12:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
furyofvissarionThe Code Book: The Secret History of Codes and Code-Breaking - Simon Singh. I'll blatantly admit I read this because Scarlett Thomas mentions it in her booklist at the back of Popco. Fascinating look at cryptography—code-making--& cryptanalysis—code-breaking--from the ancient Greeks on forward (though really sometimes 'cipher' should be the term used instead, Singh says in the beginning that he uses them interchangeably sometimes for snappiness—no one says “cipherbreaker,” after all!).
Lots of interesting stuff—I didn't know that Mary Queen of Scots was hanged for want of a stronger cipher, or that circa 800 AD the Arabs invented cryptanalysis. I generally found the more modern stuff more exciting, maybe just because it felt more immediate: for example, the race to break the Germans' impregnable Enigma code in the run-up to WWII (& the heartbreaking story of the Polish cryptanalysis bureau, who managed to figure it out but ultimately ran out of resources to use their knowledge to save their country, & knowing they were going to be invaded, sent off all their research to the British & the French, hoping someone could use it to stop the Germans). The UK had a secret codebreaking bureau set up at Bletchley Park (where eventually Enigma was cracked—though without the help of the Polish guy whose work was the foundation used—even though he was a refugee in the UK & had been set up breaking minor ciphers for the UK...). Apparently until the war, they'd mostly had classicists & linguists only as their codebreakers—but at Bletchley Park they had not only the obvious addition of mathematicians, but an expert on porcelain, a curator from the Prague Museum, & experts on bridge. The Navajo code talkers used by the US are discussed, of course—I can't help but wonder if the reception they received by other US military personnel might've been described in a bit of a rose-tinted manner (though Singh does mention that they were mistaken for Japanese soldiers multiple times)... or maybe, hey, I'm overestimating racism in the military during that time. Yeah.
At this point Singh detours a bit to talk about archaeological cryptanalysis, like the decipherment of the Rosetta Stone. I thought I'd be bored here, but actually not.
The book ends talking about modern cryptography, like PGP & other methods needed now that major internet use & online commerce are here. Though there wasn't the (immediate!) presence of war to add urgency to the stories, Singh still made them kind of gripping!
The most boring part of the book was the v. end, where he talks about the possibility of quantum computers breaking even the tightest ciphers used today, & the possibility of quantum cryptography being absolutely unbreakable... neither of these possibilities are practical right now, & they depend on quantum physics, which, despite being totally bizarre & counterintuitive, were boring to read about. One thing that irked was that, in all these theoretical discussions, apparently the convention among cryptographers is to talk about 3 hypothetical people: Alice & Bob, who are trying to communicate, & someone nefarious trying to intercept their communications, a woman named... Eve. Too obvious & easy & annoying, really.
Anyway! Overall quite an intriguing book; Singh manages to talk about complex mathematics in a way that is generally—though not always—comprehensible. I was intrigued to see, printed at the end of the book, a series of 10 ciphers, for which Singh offered (in the first edition of the book) 10,000 pounds, should they be deciphered (which they were, a year & a month later). Who put up that money? His publishers? I have to go dig around online to find out.
Living with the Dead - Kelley Armstrong. Holy crap, I didn't know there was a new Armstrong in this series out, & I happened to see it at a crappily-stocked local branch library. Woohoo! Even better, it's a Hope/Karl story--I have a soft spot for them & also the issues Hope has w/whether or not she's being dependent or realistic or whatever; to me it's probably the sort of thing a lot of women can identify w/.
Anyway, aside from that, there were some disturbing things about this book, like the secret society of clairvoyants who do really fucked-up things to people (one of them is really really anti-disabled people, & even though she is clearly a villain & we're not supposed to agree w/her, the vitriol is still alarming to read). Also, though I love that Hope is mixed-race, I got really tired of everyone who didn't know her pegging her as the "Indo American girl." And... yay, another person of color in the book--but he's a black guy who got shot by a paranoid racist when he tried to help said racist replace her tire on the highway. Sigh. Armstrong introduces a necromantic cop who doesn't know there is a whole supernatural community out there, & it seems like he might become a new recurring character, which is kind of neat b/c I liked him.
I think an additional part of my moderated squee after reading the book is that there was hardly any smut in it. No big grand Hope & Karl sex scenes, what???
Lots of interesting stuff—I didn't know that Mary Queen of Scots was hanged for want of a stronger cipher, or that circa 800 AD the Arabs invented cryptanalysis. I generally found the more modern stuff more exciting, maybe just because it felt more immediate: for example, the race to break the Germans' impregnable Enigma code in the run-up to WWII (& the heartbreaking story of the Polish cryptanalysis bureau, who managed to figure it out but ultimately ran out of resources to use their knowledge to save their country, & knowing they were going to be invaded, sent off all their research to the British & the French, hoping someone could use it to stop the Germans). The UK had a secret codebreaking bureau set up at Bletchley Park (where eventually Enigma was cracked—though without the help of the Polish guy whose work was the foundation used—even though he was a refugee in the UK & had been set up breaking minor ciphers for the UK...). Apparently until the war, they'd mostly had classicists & linguists only as their codebreakers—but at Bletchley Park they had not only the obvious addition of mathematicians, but an expert on porcelain, a curator from the Prague Museum, & experts on bridge. The Navajo code talkers used by the US are discussed, of course—I can't help but wonder if the reception they received by other US military personnel might've been described in a bit of a rose-tinted manner (though Singh does mention that they were mistaken for Japanese soldiers multiple times)... or maybe, hey, I'm overestimating racism in the military during that time. Yeah.
At this point Singh detours a bit to talk about archaeological cryptanalysis, like the decipherment of the Rosetta Stone. I thought I'd be bored here, but actually not.
The book ends talking about modern cryptography, like PGP & other methods needed now that major internet use & online commerce are here. Though there wasn't the (immediate!) presence of war to add urgency to the stories, Singh still made them kind of gripping!
The most boring part of the book was the v. end, where he talks about the possibility of quantum computers breaking even the tightest ciphers used today, & the possibility of quantum cryptography being absolutely unbreakable... neither of these possibilities are practical right now, & they depend on quantum physics, which, despite being totally bizarre & counterintuitive, were boring to read about. One thing that irked was that, in all these theoretical discussions, apparently the convention among cryptographers is to talk about 3 hypothetical people: Alice & Bob, who are trying to communicate, & someone nefarious trying to intercept their communications, a woman named... Eve. Too obvious & easy & annoying, really.
Anyway! Overall quite an intriguing book; Singh manages to talk about complex mathematics in a way that is generally—though not always—comprehensible. I was intrigued to see, printed at the end of the book, a series of 10 ciphers, for which Singh offered (in the first edition of the book) 10,000 pounds, should they be deciphered (which they were, a year & a month later). Who put up that money? His publishers? I have to go dig around online to find out.
Living with the Dead - Kelley Armstrong. Holy crap, I didn't know there was a new Armstrong in this series out, & I happened to see it at a crappily-stocked local branch library. Woohoo! Even better, it's a Hope/Karl story--I have a soft spot for them & also the issues Hope has w/whether or not she's being dependent or realistic or whatever; to me it's probably the sort of thing a lot of women can identify w/.
Anyway, aside from that, there were some disturbing things about this book, like the secret society of clairvoyants who do really fucked-up things to people (one of them is really really anti-disabled people, & even though she is clearly a villain & we're not supposed to agree w/her, the vitriol is still alarming to read). Also, though I love that Hope is mixed-race, I got really tired of everyone who didn't know her pegging her as the "Indo American girl." And... yay, another person of color in the book--but he's a black guy who got shot by a paranoid racist when he tried to help said racist replace her tire on the highway. Sigh. Armstrong introduces a necromantic cop who doesn't know there is a whole supernatural community out there, & it seems like he might become a new recurring character, which is kind of neat b/c I liked him.
I think an additional part of my moderated squee after reading the book is that there was hardly any smut in it. No big grand Hope & Karl sex scenes, what???
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Date: 2009-01-04 03:05 pm (UTC)I completely forgot about the Alice & Bob convention until it was mentioned in class this year. The annoying thing is that Eve is the party intent upon eavesdropping but not much else, whereas the malicious party out to change messages or whatnot is usually called "Mallory." Grr.
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Date: 2009-01-04 06:31 pm (UTC)