Books! (or, why I drag myself over to the computer at 3:30 when I can't sleep)

[azurelunatic]

Going Postal deserves some kind of award for good computer metaphors. (Yes, this is the sort of thing my brain does when I go to bed early and then wake up in the middle of the night.) Ooo, Nebula Award! Whee!

That's the best broken-down-for-the-layman metaphorical depiction of cracking that I've ever read.

Comments

[atalantapendrag.livejournal.com]

I haven't read that one yet.


I am revoltingly behind on Discworld.

[amberfox.livejournal.com]

I'm terribly fond of both Going Postal and Thud. I'll admit that part of the charm of Thud is Vimes reading "Where's My Cow" to baby Sam even night. It's a great book all around, but how can you not adore that?

[azurelunatic]

Some of the more recent ones had been getting a little threadbare of plot and cunningness, but this one is quite fine indeed, and worth the read.

[amberfox.livejournal.com]

Oh, and behold the shinies.

[azurelunatic]

Sweet.

[wibbble]

I don't know where my copy of that /is/...

Also, The Diamond Age has some nice explanations of cryptographic techniques as part of the storyline and plot.

[azurelunatic]

So it does! Though I think I learned more from The Cryptonomicon, naturally. That one got me almost up to speed when Sandstrom was discussing encryption in the context of security.