Between Silk And Cyanide (by Leo Marks)
This is one of the most entertaining and interesting books I've read in the past year; one that I'd certainly recommend, especially to anyone else interested in mathematics or computing science. Leo Marks was a British cryptographer during the second World War, and this book tells the story of his amusing struggles within the Special Operations Executive (SOE).
Bottom of his class, Marks wasn't deemed suitable for Bletchley Park, Britian's main codebreaking site during the war. Instead, he ended up at the SOE, dealing with the messages sent to and from secret agents spread throughout Europe. Unsatisfied that the lives of these agents were at risk from the poor encryption being used, Marks introduced (with entertaining difficulty, largely thanks to bureaucracy) increasingly better forms of security for messages transmitted by radio.
Largely my interest in this book was that it was vaguely computing science related, albeit from a much earlier age. It was fascinating to gain some insight into the secrets of communication during the war, and Marks is such a fantastic storyteller. You almost get the impression that he was rebelling against the bureaucracy for the fun of it, as well as helping to gain support for his ideas.
xkcd volume 0
Not much to say about this; who doesn't love xkcd?! More books should have their pages numbered in the base 3 number system. It's the only webcomic I read but I've missed so much over the past few months of university. After exams I'm definitely going to set a morning aside for catching up on everything.
Kindle
To make my long commute to work less boring this summer, I think I'll get myself a Kindle. Travelling for almost 2 hours each day, I'd be bound to get a lot more reading done. It'll be refreshing to read something that isn't academic for a change.
I still have books on my desk which are half-finished or not even started. One I plan to start reading tomorrow is The Man Who Loved Only Numbers, a biography of the wonderfully aloof Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős. I started reading it in January, only to have to set it aside due to studying. Erdős has published more academic papers than any other mathematician, yet spent his life travelling the world, living out of a suitcase and giving most money he made to charity. When my uncle gave me the book he said that even I'm not as eccentric as Erdős... challenge accepted!
This is one of the most entertaining and interesting books I've read in the past year; one that I'd certainly recommend, especially to anyone else interested in mathematics or computing science. Leo Marks was a British cryptographer during the second World War, and this book tells the story of his amusing struggles within the Special Operations Executive (SOE).
Bottom of his class, Marks wasn't deemed suitable for Bletchley Park, Britian's main codebreaking site during the war. Instead, he ended up at the SOE, dealing with the messages sent to and from secret agents spread throughout Europe. Unsatisfied that the lives of these agents were at risk from the poor encryption being used, Marks introduced (with entertaining difficulty, largely thanks to bureaucracy) increasingly better forms of security for messages transmitted by radio.Largely my interest in this book was that it was vaguely computing science related, albeit from a much earlier age. It was fascinating to gain some insight into the secrets of communication during the war, and Marks is such a fantastic storyteller. You almost get the impression that he was rebelling against the bureaucracy for the fun of it, as well as helping to gain support for his ideas.
xkcd volume 0
Not much to say about this; who doesn't love xkcd?! More books should have their pages numbered in the base 3 number system. It's the only webcomic I read but I've missed so much over the past few months of university. After exams I'm definitely going to set a morning aside for catching up on everything.
Kindle
To make my long commute to work less boring this summer, I think I'll get myself a Kindle. Travelling for almost 2 hours each day, I'd be bound to get a lot more reading done. It'll be refreshing to read something that isn't academic for a change.
I still have books on my desk which are half-finished or not even started. One I plan to start reading tomorrow is The Man Who Loved Only Numbers, a biography of the wonderfully aloof Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős. I started reading it in January, only to have to set it aside due to studying. Erdős has published more academic papers than any other mathematician, yet spent his life travelling the world, living out of a suitcase and giving most money he made to charity. When my uncle gave me the book he said that even I'm not as eccentric as Erdős... challenge accepted!
Sounds like I may have convinced or reminded more than one person to get a Kindle! :P Yay for non-academic books...
ReplyDeleteI think I keep putting it off because I've still got "real" books to finish first. That's my goal for the 2 weeks of holiday I'll get after exams - finish everything I'm reading, then I'll allow myself to get a Kindle :)
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