Book recommendation

Book recommendation

by Tim Hunt -
Number of replies: 1
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I spent a lot of this weekend reading Colossus: The secrets of Bletchley Park's code-breaking computers by Jack Copeland and others (http://www.amazon.com/Colossus-secrets-Bletchley-code-breaking-computers/dp/0199578141/), and it is amazing, so I thought I would recommend it here.

Of course, it is the story that book has to tell, rather than necessarily the way the book is written, that makes it amazing, but acutally it tells the story very well. It makes what we are all doing on Moodle seem fairly tame and inconsequential by comparison.

Of course, if you ever find yourself in the UK near Milton Keynes, you must visit Bletchley Park and see where it all happened.

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In reply to Tim Hunt

Re: Book recommendation

by Frankie Kam -
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Nice one Tim. Here's what I dug up with Google:
http://www.colossus-computer.com/colossus1.html

In those days, how did they do it? I can't even survive without my handheld calculator when totaling exam script scores.

And nothing beats having a book to hold in one's hand, though.

Frankie Kam

P.S., here's another link:
Colossus: Bletchley Park's Greatest Secret
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colossus-Bletchley-Parks-Greatest-Secret/dp/1843543311
Synopsis: In 1940, almost a year after the outbreak of the Second World War, Allied radio operators at an interception station in South London began picking up messages in a strange new code. Using science, maths, innovation and improvisation Bletchley Park codebreakers worked furiously to invent a machine to decipher what turned out to be the secrets of Nazi high command. It was called Colossus. What these codebreakers didn't realize was that they had fashioned the world's first true computer. When the war ended, this incredible invention was dismantled and hidden away for almost 50 years. Paul Gannon has pieced together the tremendous story of what is now recognized as the greatest secret of Bletchley Park.

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