"The Code Book" is the one you want. "Crypto" is good, but not nearly as entertaining as "The Code Book." It's more of a history of crypto and fights with the government over it. > -----Original Message----- > From: Paul Rech [mailto:pauljrech at yahoo.com] > Sent: Monday, September 24, 2001 8:30 PM > To: 'tclug-list at mn-linux.org' tclug main > Subject: Re: [TCLUG] The Key > > > I checked Amazon and there is a book called "The Code > Book" by Singh. > Is that the one? > > Because there is also a book called "The Codebreakers" > by David Kahn. > > I need to know for sure because I haven't bought a > computer book in at least three days. > > While we're at it, anyone read "Crypto" by Steven > Levy? > It gets good reviews. > > However, I thought he was the guy who wrote that > fawning piece about M$ in Newsweek couple years ago. > > "M$ has the best software, M$ has the smartest > people, if they don't they'll just hire the smartest > people and then write the best software". > > Not an exact quote but you get the idea. > > If that's the same guy, you got to question his > judgement. > > Paul > > > > > > > > "Austad, Jay" wrote: > > > > > For anyone who's interested in a nice discussion > of the role > > > of cryptography in history and a good description > of public > > > key cryptography I would recommend Simon Singh's > "The > > > Codebreakers." A very entertaining piece of geek > writing. > > > > This is an *excellent* book. It runs through the > history of different > > ciphers and how to break them. Note that all 10 > crypto challenges at the > > end of the book were cracked last year. Singh also > wrote Fermat's Enigma, > > which is an excellent book on Fermat's Last Theorem. > Interestingly enough, > > the proof for Fermat's Enigma uses techniques that > didn't exist back in > > 1630, so fermat's proof (if he truly had one) was > most certainly quite > > different. If you're going on a book spree, get > these two, you won't be > > able to put them down. Singh makes otherwise dry > topics quite interesting > > reading. > > > > Jay > > > ===== > Paul Rech > pauljrech at acm.org pauljrech at yahoo.com > 651-430-9935 hm 651-246-6823 cell > > "The instructions said "Win95 or better required". So I > installed Linux" > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Get email alerts & NEW webcam video instant messaging with > Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com > _______________________________________________ > tclug-list mailing list > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > https://mailman.mn-> linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list >