Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Book Review: Colossus- The secret of Bletchley Park’s Codebreaking Computers

Reading Colossus, a book about the world's first fully electronic computer that was built during the Second World War to crack the codes of high-level Nazi communications, is like reading a suspenseful spy story! It is entertaining to read and at the same time one learns a lot about the history of cryptography and code breaking secrets, decryption and related technologies.

After providing a brief history of cryptography from Cesar’s cipher to modern days the authors reveal the history behind Bletchley Park - United Kingdoms’ main decryption center during the Second World War, through recently declassified documents. Colossus covers this project in full detail and is also enlightening about the overall history of technology and computer systems.

Historical pictures along with many interesting charts make the book indispensable to anyone who reviews or writes about the history of computer technology.

This is a very interesting read for almost everyone, even non technical audiences.

A.M.

“Colossus: The secrets of Bletchley Park's code-breaking computers“, by
B. Jack Copeland, Oxford University Press, 2010, 462 Pages,
ISBN-10:0-19-284055-X.
http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/HistoryOther/HistoryofScience/~~/dmlldz11c2EmY2k9OTc4MDE5OTU3ODE0Ng==

Published in " HCIInternational NEWS - March 2010 - Number 42"
http://www.hci-international.org/index.php?module=newsletter&MMN_position=3:3

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