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Cracking the Quicksilver Code
wka writes "Todd Garrison describes in detail how he solved the cryptographic puzzle promoting Neal Stephenson's forthcoming book Quicksilver, and the reward for his effort. Stephenson himself calls Garrison's story 'remarkable' because Garrison was completely unfamiliar with the system of writing (Real Character) used in the puzzle. Also, Stephenson notes that the system and its creator play roles in The Baroque Cycle."
I don't get it. Maybe I should go read up on Real Character, but it just sounded like a different way to write english.
:)
I mean, the english language was broken down and made into a script of symbols to words. Like Chinese and other complicated languages except more ordered... I assume.
What's the deal? That doesn't sound universal or even particularly interesting. I mean, they had to "hack" the language to get things like "fax" and other modern concepts into it.
Maybe I'm just missing something (a healthly brain?)
The ratio of people to cake is too big
Although he doesn't seem to understand a lot of the underlying technicalities, Stephenson seems to have a poking hard-on for crytography. The science of "hacking" has become the sexy niece of the more stolid scientific arts, validating anyone who's ever pushed a slide rule or logged on to a serial console.
Bestselling yarns from Stephenson, Tom Clancy, and others get a lot of praise from geeks. Geeks are usually notoriously persnickety about minutae, but it seems that beloved authors like Stephenson and the late Douglas Adams get a free pass.
What is it about the relationship between geeks and authors? The author takes a relatively mundane scientific field and uses it as a base for a typical hollywood story, usually betraying his interest and love for the scientific field (sometimes begun in his/her childhood).
In response, geeks buy the book en masse, and they don't pick apart the bad science (like they usually do in lesser books). They become fans-for-life of the author who has tipped the cap to them.
So there's like a symbiotic relationship at work. The author who's looking for new frontiers, new avenues of masculinity (a great race car driver is dull and trite, but a great hacker is new and sexy). And the geek who might not have the most exciting job in the world, but he loves it...and he loves his job being validating in a book or movie more than anything else.
Is this cultural phenomenon unique to the US? Or do the schlocky escapist maestros in Japan, Germany, or Italy mix so well with the taciturn gadgeteers of those locales? It's really an interesting parasocial relationships.
(-1, Raw and Uncut is the only way to read)
Starts off well, but loses it long before the fairly disappointing conclusion. It didn't make me want to rush out and get Cryptonomicon, which I've never bothered to read.
There are plenty of better writers out there.
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
CIA Kryptos Sculpture
CIA Website
ABC News Article
I've read "The da Vinci code", and while it was superficially entertaining, almost every topic the book touched upon had a factual error, including the geography of Paris, some details about Leonardo's paintings, and several others. The subject matter (conspiracy theories involving the Holy Grail) is very exciting though, and a blitz marketing campaign made it a success. If you liked the subject, but prefer to get your facts straight, I recommend a novel by Umberto Eco (author of "The Name of the Rose", which was made into a movie starring Connery), called "Foucault's Pendulum". It's a hefty tome, but worth the read.
Its all about application though. Think of the use of the Navajo language by the US military during WWII. The Navajo language was meant to reveal ideas (the same as Wilkins language) and was subsequently used to encrypt information (the same as Wilkins language).
So depending upon the application, it might be one or the other.