I don’t know. In our world it doesn’t make sense when it is encoded. It isn’t even *supposed *to. Books are written about the theory of strong encryption and I will confess that I don’t understand it well enough to explain it. Weak encryption isn’t too difficult to explain, but even that could take pages. A very very simple cypher is a letter substitution. A slightly less simple, but still rather simple cypher might use a phrase and logical XOR.
There are cyphers that involve looking up the first letter on the page of books, such that you just list numbers, which correspond to the page.
You can take that further and start listing number pairs, such that you go to a page, then count the words and look at the first letter (or the last letter) of the word. All of these are fun, but require special knowledge by both people (in this case both parties must know which book to use.) The Bible is popular because you can find it everywhere (in any hotel in any city.)
But this isn’t really good for software.
Strong encryption (which is what we must use) are usually block cyphers and though I can code the algorithm, I don’t think I could explain the theory. 9 times out of ten I will buy someone else’s code library and just call their code.
Rather than try to give a primer, I will refer you to How Stuff Works
I’m not familiar with that book, but I am familiar with that particular epidemic. That must be the one in Soho, in which the epidemic was ended with the removal of the handle to the Broad Street water pump, an action instigated by John Snow, who figured out it must be the water. Before Snow, no one knew what caused cholera.
Thanks. I’ll look at that when my brain is fully rested. I had to wonder if the code Stephenson described was even possible. Later they used a binary code that Eliza “wrote” using stitches on a sampler. That one I could almost get my head around, but not the other.
I just started Tim Powers’ The Anubis Gates. This is one I’ve always meant to get around to and it seems like it’s got a lot of potential so I’m burning to have some quality time to dig into it.
I love a long, chatty book, and I’m entertained by Stephensons’s digressions, like the Captain Crunch bit (I used to know a guy who was almost that obsessed with that cereal).
Khadaji, at first I wasn’t enjoying the storyline set in the 90’s as much as the one set during the war. I’m a firmware developer, and I already understand most the stuff Randy Waterhouse was explaining about “Finux” and networking and how video is displayed on a CRT, for example. But it got steadily better. Randy’s description of his trip into the jungle had me laughing out loud, as did the part where he figures out a way to fairly distribute his grandmother’s furniture among his aunt and uncles.
But if you made it 1/3 of the way through, I think you read enough to determine that you just don’t like the way he writes.
I haven’t gotten to the end of *Cryptonomicon *yet, but so far my only complaint about the writing is that he uses a lot of similes. There are maybe 3 or 4 per page. For 900 pages. It was distracting at first, but once I got sucked into the narrative it stopped bothering me.
The Anubis Gates was one of my June 2007 books – my best reading month ever. Every book had me going “Wow, this’ll be hard to beat”.
The other books that month were Cloud Atlas, The Book Thief, The Book of Lost Things, Francine Prose’s reading/writing book, Softspoken, The Pesthouse, and What the Dead Know.
Just finished up the last two Rouge Angel books, and wish I hadn’t bothered. Word to the wise, stop before Provenance. That book and the next one are pure crap. Got a phone call that Stop Dressing Your Six Year Old Like a Skank just came in the bookstore, so hopefully I’ll get that today and have it to read.
I think that Cryptonomicon is going to be a library request or something. I hate plopping down money for something I don’t like. Or maybe I’ll see if someone has it at paperbackswap.com .
I’m about halfway through Edward Rutherfurd’s The Rebels of Ireland. Its an alternate history take on Ireland from the 1500’s to its independence from England. It is quite a tome at almost 900 pages hardback, but an enjoyable school break read. I look forward to finishing it and reading some of his other books.
I’m also working my way through Margaret Atwood’s *The Blind Assassin * again. I last read it a few years ago while in school, so now I am rereading it while I have time to truly digest it and not make myself confused.
I’m reading old science fiction short stories from James Tiptree, Jr and Henry Kuttner, alternating between The Last Mimzy Stories and Her Smoke Rose Up Forever. they are both very good but Tiptree’s outlook depresses me a bit so I have to intersperse with other stuff. I think Kuttner was more of an optimist, and I can see why Alice Sheldon (Tiptree) ended up committing suicide.
I’ve got The Name of the Wind and I’m starting either that one or Lies of locke Lamora next, haven’t decided yet.
I was at the bookstore about a week ago and spotted the Honor Harrington books. I remembered someone here at the Dope saying they were a good read so I decided to give them a try. I’m about 35 pages into On Basilisk Station and am just not getting the love. I want to scream, enough with the backstory and other dull bits! Have something interesting happen, already! I’ll probably give up if nothing significant happens by page 50. Sigh.
Finished The Wizard Hunters by Martha Wells before that and thought that was a very good read. It’s fantasy but isn’t too heavy-handed with it, which suits me just fine. I have The Ships of Air, which is actually the first of The Fall of Ile Rien trilogy, on order at the book store. (The Wizard Hunters is the second but I didn’t know that when I bought it.) Hope it’s in soon.
I have Alastair Reynolds’ Pushing Ice (Loved, loved, loved his novella Understanding Time and Space) and Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin’s Three Cups of Tea next on my reading list.
After a quick jaunt through some Order of the Stick compilations, I am now starting Seeds of Change: Six Plants That Transformed Mankind. It’s the story of Quinine, Sugar, Tea, Cotton, The Potato and Coca. So far, it’s not bad.
Those look interesting. I didn’t realize there were so many detective series set in Ancient Rome. (That sounds weird - the plural of “series” is “series”.) I like Steven Saylor’s books, but so far I’m lukewarm about John Maddox Roberts’ SPQR series. I have the first of the Lindsey Davis books waiting to try.
Tikki I enjoyed Pushing Ice a lot. Some of Reynold’s stuff is so-so, but that was a good book. Only falut I have with a few of his stories is that they leave a lot of unanswered questions.
I finished up Stop Dressing Your 6 Year Old Like a Skank! Satruday. It was funny in places, but I’m not sure I’ll be picking up her other books. It reads a lot like a Dope book actually, a series of colums that had been printed in the paper then collected into a book.
I’m re-reading a couple of the Recluce books right now until I find something to spark my interest.
I’m enjoying it. I’m toying with the idea of picking up Gluck’s responseDamasio’s Error, Descartes’ Truth just to see how he argues against the science presented.
Just finished The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread, Don Robertson’s 1965 cult classic that has just been republished in paperback by HarperCollins (original publisher Putnam). I’d never read it before and I am rocked by its greatness. I will be seeking out more by this author, who died in 1999.