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The Cracking Code Book

by Simon Singh

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1893145,724 (3.96)None
How to make it, break it, hack it, crack it. The secret history of codes and code breaking. Simon Singh's best-selling title The Code Book now re-issued for the young-adult market. The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography. Simon Singh brings life to an amazing story of puzzles, codes, languages and riddles -- revealing the continual pursuit to disguise and uncover, and to work out the secret languages of others. Codes have influenced events throughout history, both in the stories of those who make them and those who break them. The betrayal of Mary Queen of Scots and the cracking of the enigma code that helped the Allies in World War II are major episodes in a continuing history of cryptography. In addition to stories of intrigue and warfare, Simon Singh also investigates other codes, the unravelling of genes and the rediscovery of ancient languages and most tantalisingly, the Beale ciphers, an unbroken code that could hold the key to a USD20 million treasure.… (more)
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    The Man Who Knew Too Much: Alan Turing and the Invention of the Computer by David Leavitt (themulhern)
    themulhern: The Leavitt biography might give this book some additional interest, but even more importantly this book will render much of what was muddled and unclear in Leavitt's presentation of code breaking entirely comprehensible.
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Although this is intended as an introduction to crypto for younger readers, I really enjoyed romping through it. Singh is a great storyteller and a fantastic explainer of often-complex technical setups, and feeling good and inspired to get back into ciphers after this. Not sure how it compares to the Code Book, which I'll probably skim through to see what I've missed. ( )
  6loss | Nov 7, 2019 |
This is the short version of Singh's "The Code Book" and is roughly half the length. So far it's quite good. It gives an explanation of Babbage's method for cracking the Vigeniere cipher which is entirely comprehensible.
  themulhern | May 19, 2019 |
Good intro to cryptography and cryptographic history. Very readable
  clydec | Nov 15, 2005 |
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This is an adapted version of The Code Book for younger readers. Please do not combine with the original work.
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How to make it, break it, hack it, crack it. The secret history of codes and code breaking. Simon Singh's best-selling title The Code Book now re-issued for the young-adult market. The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography. Simon Singh brings life to an amazing story of puzzles, codes, languages and riddles -- revealing the continual pursuit to disguise and uncover, and to work out the secret languages of others. Codes have influenced events throughout history, both in the stories of those who make them and those who break them. The betrayal of Mary Queen of Scots and the cracking of the enigma code that helped the Allies in World War II are major episodes in a continuing history of cryptography. In addition to stories of intrigue and warfare, Simon Singh also investigates other codes, the unravelling of genes and the rediscovery of ancient languages and most tantalisingly, the Beale ciphers, an unbroken code that could hold the key to a USD20 million treasure.

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