4th Estate The Code Book: The Secret History of Codes And Code-breaking

Very good book

Tema muy interesante y de vanguardia

Insane book. one of the bests I've ever seen

Used book, but very few signs. Punctual shipping. Excellent for the price.Very interesting and easy reading book, if you are interested in the subject, or just curious about codes!

My first encounter with Simon Singh was several years ago when I read, and thoroughly enjoyed, his extremely clear  Fermat's Last Theorem  and, after 358 years, how Andrew Wiles solved the problem in a mere eight years. But, if I'm completely honest, I remember becoming somewhat glassy eyed when the intricacies of the Taniyama-Shimura-Weil conjecture first surfaced.'The Code Book' is equally well written and equally enjoyable and covers the history of code making and code breaking from ancient Egypt up until the budding development of quantum cryptography.Simon Singh handles the material in an extremely readable way whilst the introduction of Alice, Bob and Eve (Eve is determined to read the secret messages being exchanged between Alice and Bob) adds a delightful touch to the story. He also deals in some length with the ground-breaking wartime work at Bletchley and with the subsequent development of the first genuine electronic computer (well before the Americans).As I read the book I was also reading, in bed and on my Kindle, Sinclair McKay's intriguing and insightful book  The Secret Life of Bletchley Park: The History of the Wartime Codebreaking Centre . The two books complement each other beautifully and I found Simon McKay's insight into the life at Bletchley was of enormous value in fleshing out Simon Singh's story. The earlier book by Ronald Lewin  Ultra Goes to War  is a useful but much earlier reference work.The final section in 'The Code Book' deals with the possibility of developing a quantum-based computer. This has recently taken a step forward and a Google search will quickly take you to a Canadian company's website who are apparently in a position to supply you with a development system. The only possible problem (forgetting the undisclosed cost) is that the superconducting 128 qubit processor chip is housed inside a cryogenic system within a 10 m² shielded room...Read and enjoy 'The Code Book'. It's a fascinating story.--------------------------------------------------------------------------Update, December 7th 2012I've just received a copy of Simon Singh's 'The Cracking Codebook' but, unfortunately, it's nothing more than a virtually identical (less the chapter on quantum computing) copy of 'The Code Book'.Don't be taken in - even though second hand copies of 'The Cracking Codebook' will cost you the princely sum of £0.01 plus postage... Fermat's Last TheoremThe Secret Life of Bletchley Park: The History of the Wartime Codebreaking CentreUltra Goes to War