20 ms·

If you are interested in that sort of thing, I highly recommend the novel Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson - it is partly about the activities of a joint Britis

by fazzone 13y ago

If you are interested in that sort of thing, I highly recommend the novel Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson - it is partly about the activities of a joint British/American counterintelligence unit whose mission is to make sure the Axis does not figure out that the Allies have broken their codes. It's also a great read in general.

dredmorbius 13y ago
Hah! I just composed my reply above and included this as well. Stephenson's acknowledgements also serve as something of an indirect bibliography to some of his sources -- his books in general are fantastically well researched, and often better as learning tools than nominally nonfiction texts (though you do have to keep in mind that they are works of fiction). They're generally much more engaging, for starters (after the first 100-300 pages or so...).
- beloch 13y ago
  He may have done too much research on Captain Crunch breakfast cereal for that one...
  - dredmorbius 13y ago
    But you've got to admit that he has his technical execution down to a T there.
munin 13y ago
Cryptonomicon is a pretty shallow treatment of intelligence during ww2, and Stephenson makes stuff up (as fiction, he doesn't claim it is fact) when the truth is even more outlandish. I would recommend the following books: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0743217349 http://www.amazon.com/dp/0743217349 http://www.amazon.com/dp/006097771X/ http://www.amazon.com/dp/006097771X/ http://www.amazon.com/dp/0679762892 http://www.amazon.com/dp/0679762892 http://www.amazon.com/dp/068486780X/ http://www.amazon.com/dp/068486780X/ http://www.amazon.com/dp/0452287472 http://www.amazon.com/dp/0452287472 http://www.amazon.com/dp/1452206120/ http://www.amazon.com/dp/1452206120/
- e12e 13y ago
  I trust Singh's "the Code Book" is hiding behind one of those amazon links?
  - mjolk 13y ago
    Don't be so lazy. If you're just interested, click and find out. If you feel it should be, suggest why it's an interesting read.
    - e12e 13y ago
      I thought it was clear that I think it belongs on a list of books that give a better treatment of codes, codebreaking and intelligence history than "Cryptonomicon" (as parent's list claim to be). As for being lazy, I'm not about to click through ten [edit six] links on my cell phone just to see what title hides behind the links; I appreciate that parent made a list of (presumably) relevant books -- I would have appreciated it more if he or she listed the actual book titles/authors as well. As it was; I felt it made sense to recommend Singh's book as it is very good and relevant -- and that it wouldn't contribute much to the discussion to overtly critize parent for being inconveniently (for me) lazy. But since you bring it up; personally I think it is good netiquette to prefix links with a meaningful title when not contained in the url, when posting in a mostly-plain-text medium. The title and author (optionally year) is relevant information -- an amazon link is trivially discoverable from that (as is a hit in your local library db) -- but the amazon link by itself isn't useful without leaving the context of the discussion. And opening ten tabs on a desktop browser on a reasonable fast connection is certainly not an insourmountable effort -- but is rather inconvenient on a cell phone (For all I know that might be why parent choose to list just the links -- mobile cut'n'paste between tabs is a pretty miserable).
    - dredmorbius 13y ago
      Naked links offer varying level of affordance on different platforms. I've frequently been on systems (or networks) in which following through on individual links is a pain. What's particularly annoying in this case is that Amazon's full links do include item descriptions (for books: the title) in them, though you'd have to click through to the links here, search the fucking title and then click on that link before you get what you're looking for: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0743217349 http://www.amazon.com/dp/0743217349 fully expanded is: http://www.amazon.com/Battle-Wits-Complete-Story-Codebreaking/dp/0743217349/ http://www.amazon.com/Battle-Wits-Complete-Story-Codebreakin... e12e's comment was helpful: it supported the original post and included additional information of use to others. And as it happens, Singh's The Code Book was not included in the original list. You can find it here: http://www.amazon.com/Code-Book-Science-Secrecy-Cryptography/dp/0385495323 http://www.amazon.com/Code-Book-Science-Secrecy-Cryptography... munin would have performed a superior service (remember: writing is for the benefit of the reader) if he'd at least included descriptive URLs, if not the titles of the works in question. And your attitude could use considerable improvement.

by fazzone 13y ago

dredmorbius 13y ago

Hah! I just composed my reply above and included this as well. Stephenson's acknowledgements also serve as something of an indirect bibliography to some of his sources -- his books in general are fantastically well researched, and often better as learning tools than nominally nonfiction texts (though you do have to keep in mind that they are works of fiction). They're generally much more engaging, for starters (after the first 100-300 pages or so...).

beloch 13y ago
He may have done too much research on Captain Crunch breakfast cereal for that one...
- dredmorbius 13y ago
  But you've got to admit that he has his technical execution down to a T there.

munin 13y ago

Cryptonomicon is a pretty shallow treatment of intelligence during ww2, and Stephenson makes stuff up (as fiction, he doesn't claim it is fact) when the truth is even more outlandish. I would recommend the following books: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0743217349 http://www.amazon.com/dp/0743217349 http://www.amazon.com/dp/006097771X/ http://www.amazon.com/dp/006097771X/ http://www.amazon.com/dp/0679762892 http://www.amazon.com/dp/0679762892 http://www.amazon.com/dp/068486780X/ http://www.amazon.com/dp/068486780X/ http://www.amazon.com/dp/0452287472 http://www.amazon.com/dp/0452287472 http://www.amazon.com/dp/1452206120/ http://www.amazon.com/dp/1452206120/

e12e 13y ago
I trust Singh's "the Code Book" is hiding behind one of those amazon links?
- mjolk 13y ago
  Don't be so lazy. If you're just interested, click and find out. If you feel it should be, suggest why it's an interesting read.
  - e12e 13y ago
    I thought it was clear that I think it belongs on a list of books that give a better treatment of codes, codebreaking and intelligence history than "Cryptonomicon" (as parent's list claim to be). As for being lazy, I'm not about to click through ten [edit six] links on my cell phone just to see what title hides behind the links; I appreciate that parent made a list of (presumably) relevant books -- I would have appreciated it more if he or she listed the actual book titles/authors as well. As it was; I felt it made sense to recommend Singh's book as it is very good and relevant -- and that it wouldn't contribute much to the discussion to overtly critize parent for being inconveniently (for me) lazy. But since you bring it up; personally I think it is good netiquette to prefix links with a meaningful title when not contained in the url, when posting in a mostly-plain-text medium. The title and author (optionally year) is relevant information -- an amazon link is trivially discoverable from that (as is a hit in your local library db) -- but the amazon link by itself isn't useful without leaving the context of the discussion. And opening ten tabs on a desktop browser on a reasonable fast connection is certainly not an insourmountable effort -- but is rather inconvenient on a cell phone (For all I know that might be why parent choose to list just the links -- mobile cut'n'paste between tabs is a pretty miserable).
  - dredmorbius 13y ago
    Naked links offer varying level of affordance on different platforms. I've frequently been on systems (or networks) in which following through on individual links is a pain. What's particularly annoying in this case is that Amazon's full links do include item descriptions (for books: the title) in them, though you'd have to click through to the links here, search the fucking title and then click on that link before you get what you're looking for: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0743217349 http://www.amazon.com/dp/0743217349 fully expanded is: http://www.amazon.com/Battle-Wits-Complete-Story-Codebreaking/dp/0743217349/ http://www.amazon.com/Battle-Wits-Complete-Story-Codebreakin... e12e's comment was helpful: it supported the original post and included additional information of use to others. And as it happens, Singh's The Code Book was not included in the original list. You can find it here: http://www.amazon.com/Code-Book-Science-Secrecy-Cryptography/dp/0385495323 http://www.amazon.com/Code-Book-Science-Secrecy-Cryptography... munin would have performed a superior service (remember: writing is for the benefit of the reader) if he'd at least included descriptive URLs, if not the titles of the works in question. And your attitude could use considerable improvement.