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Alan Turing was the mathematician whose cipher-cracking transformed the Second World War. Taken on by British Intelligence in 1938, as a shy young Cambridge don, he combined brilliant logic with a flair for engineering. In 1940 his machines were breaking the Enigma-enciphered messages of Nazi Germany’s air force. He then headed the penetration of the super-secure U-boat communications. But his vision went far beyond this achievement. Before the war he had invented the concept of the universal machine, and in 1945 he turned this into the first design for a digital computer. Turing's far-sighted plans for the digital era forged ahead into a vision for Artificial Intelligence. However, in 1952 his homosexuality rendered him a criminal and he was subjected to humiliating treatment. In 1954, aged 41, Alan Turing took his own life.

Alan Turing was the extraordinary Cambridge mathematician who masterminded the cracking of the German Enigma ciphers and transformed the Second World War. But his vision went far beyond this crucial achievement. Before the war he had formulated the concept of the universal machine, and in 1945 he turned this into the first design for a digital computer.

While many think of algorithms as specific to computer science, at its core algorithmic thinking is defined by the use of analytical logic to solve problems. This logic extends far beyond the realm of computer science and into the wide and entertaining world of puzzles.

Algorithms specify the way computers process information and how they execute tasks.

In this dazzlingly interdisciplinary work, acclaimed author Brian Christian and cognitive scientist Tom Griffiths show us how the simple, precise algorithms used by computers can also untangle very human questions. Modern life is constrained by limited space and time, limits that give rise to a particular set of problems. What should we do, or leave undone, in a day or a lifetime? How much messiness should we accept? The authors explain how to have better hunches and when to leave things to chance, how to deal with overwhelming choices and how best to connect with others.

This entertaining and readable book provides a solid, comprehensive introduction to contemporary electronics. It's not a "how-to-do" electronics book, but rather an in-depth explanation of how today's integrated circuits work, how they are designed and manufactured, and how they are put together into powerful and sophisticated electronic systems. In addition to the technical details, it's packed with practical information of interest and use to engineers and support personnel in the electronics industry. It even tells how to pronounce the alphabet soup of acronyms that runs rampant in the industry.

A tale of programming and software best practices from the Computational Fairy Tales universe. In all his years as a wizard, Marcus has never seen a spell cause this much damage. When Hannaldous's sloppy attempt at a shield spell accidentally curses the castle, the walls start crumbling at an alarming rate. Now Marcus and his apprentice Shelly must figure out how to repair the damage before the castle turns to dust. Along the way they will encounter gossiping worms, perfectionist bakers, opportunistic rabbits, and copious amounts of mold. The Best Practices of Spell Design introduces practical aspects of software development that are often learned through painful experience. Through Marcus and Shelly’s quest, the story encourages readers to think about how to write readable, well-tested and maintainable programs. Readers will discover the importance of comments in recipes, the value of testing potions, the dangers of poorly named ingredients, the wonders of code reviews in magic libraries, and the perils of premature optimization.

Bit by Bit tells the whole computer story for the first time.

If you want to understand the future before it happens, you’ll love this book. If you want to change the future before it happens to you, this book is required reading.

Computers are everywhere, running our lives, handling our social interactions, serving as the backbone of every business. And yet, how well do we understand them? How much do we know about their rise to ubiquity? We take computers for granted, but there is a fascinating wealth of ideas waiting to be explored, a rich trail of information explaining how we got to where we are now. That trail includes grand dreams, intricate puzzles, mind-stretching concepts and a cast of colourful characters. Brown Dogs and Barbers is a story about computer science. Join me on a journey through the story of computing, discover just what makes the machines tick, learn why computers work the way they do and meet the cast of characters responsible for it all.

Finally, this brand new book exposes the secrets of computers for everyone to see. Its humorous title begins with the punch line of a classic joke about someone who is baffled by technology.

What do flashlights, the British invasion, black cats, and seesaws have to do with computers? In CODE, they show us the ingenious ways we manipulate language and invent new means of communicating with each other. And through CODE, we see how this ingenuity and our very human compulsion to communicate have driven the technological innovations of the past two centuries. Using everyday objects and familiar language systems such as Braille and Morse code, author Charles Petzold weaves an illuminating narrative for anyone who’s ever wondered about the secret inner life of computers and other smart machines.

Have you ever thought that computer science should include more dragons and wizards? Computational Fairy Tales introduces principles of computational thinking, illustrating high-level computer science concepts, the motivation behind them, and their application in a non-computer—fairy tale—domain. The goal of this book is not to provide comprehensive coverage of each topic, but rather to provide a high level overview of the breadth and excitement of computer science. It’s a quest that will take you from learning the basics of programming in a blacksmith’s forge to fighting curses with recursion. Fifteen seers delivered the same prophecy, without so much as a single minstrel to lighten the mood: an unknown darkness threatens the kingdom. Suddenly, Princess Ann finds herself sent forth alone to save the kingdom. Leaving behind her home, family, and pet turtle Fido, Princess Ann must face goblin attacks, magical curses, arrogant scholars, an unpleasant oracle, and rude Boolean waiters. Along the way she must build a war chest of computational knowledge to survive the coming challenge.

Many of today's tech professionals were inspired by the Usborne computing books they read as children. The books included program listings for such iconic computers as the ZX Spectrum, the BBC Micro and the Commodore 64, and are still used in some computer clubs today.

A gripping and page-turning thriller that explores themes of power, information, secrecy and war in the twentieth century. From the author of the three-volume historical epic 'The Baroque Cycle' and Seveneves. Neal Stephenson hacks into the secret histories of nations and the private obsessions of men, decrypting with dazzling virtuosity the forces that have shaped the past century. He weaves together the cracking of the Axis codes during WWII and the quest to establish a free South East Asian 'data haven' for digital information in the present.

Standard procedure is to delete on sight. But for a comedian with a mischievous side and a lot of time on his hands, the spam folder proved the perfect opportunity to have some fun.

Book to accompany the Radio series.

What is a self, and how can a self come out of inaminate matter?' This is the riddle that drove Hofstadter to write this extraordinary book. Linking together the music of J.S. Bach, the graphic art of Escher and the mathematical theorems of Godel, as well as ideas drawn from logic, biology, psychology, physics and linguistics, Douglas Hofstadter illuminates one of the greatest mysteries of modern science: the nature of human thought processes.

The post is a creaking old institution, overshadowed by new technology. But there are people who still believe in it, and Moist must become one of them if he's going to see that the mail gets though, come rain, hail, sleet, dogs, the Post Office Workers Friendly and Benevolent Society, the evil chairman of the Grand Trunk Semaphore Company, and a midnight killer.

Traces the history of hackers, from clunky computer card punching machines to the inner secrets of what would become the internet. This book also includes profiles of Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, MIT railroad club and more; the shapers of the digital revolution.

Linda is the author and illustrator of Hello Ruby, a series of children’s picture books about the whimsical world of computers, as well as the founder of Rails Girls, a global movement to teach young women programming in over 260 cities.

If you can afford it, this series of books is a must. However, you'll be parting with almost £1000...

A demonstration of how the true mathematician learns to draw unexpected analogies, tackle problems from unusual angles and extract a little more information from the data; a collection of truly practical lessons.

What is the shortest possible route for a traveling salesman seeking to visit each city on a list exactly once and return to his city of origin? It sounds simple enough, yet the traveling salesman problem is one of the most intensely studied puzzles in applied mathematics--and it has defied solution to this day. In this book, William Cook takes readers on a mathematical excursion, picking up the salesman's trail in the 1800s when Irish mathematician W. R. Hamilton first defined the problem, and venturing to the furthest limits of today's state-of-the-art attempts to solve it. He also explores its many important applications, from genome sequencing and designing computer processors to arranging music and hunting for planets.

Meet Lauren, an adventurer lost in Userland who needs to find her way home by solving a series of puzzles. As she visits places like the Push & Pop Café and makes friends with people like Hugh Rustic and the Wandering Salesman, Lauren learns about computer science without even realizing it—and so do you!

If a man supports Arsenal one day and Spurs the next then he is fickle but not necessarily illogical. From this starting point, and assuming no previous knowledge of logic, Wilfrid Hodges takes the reader through the whole gamut of logical expressions in a simple and lively way. Readers who are more mathematically adventurous will find optional sections introducing rather more challenging material.

Seymour Papert is Lego Professor of Mathematics and Education at MIT, where he is also co-founder of the artificial intelligence and media laboratories.

Every day, we use our computers to perform remarkable feats. A simple web search picks out a handful of relevant needles from the world's biggest haystack: the billions of pages on the World Wide Web. Uploading a photo to Facebook transmits millions of pieces of information over numerous error-prone network links, yet somehow a perfect copy of the photo arrives intact. Without even knowing it, we use public-key cryptography to transmit secret information like credit card numbers; and we use digital signatures to verify the identity of the websites we visit. How do our computers perform these tasks with such ease?

Martin Erwig, 2017. Erwig illustrates a series of concepts in computing with examples from daily life and familiar stories. Hansel and Gretel, for example, execute an algorithm to get home from the forest. The movie Groundhog Day illustrates the problem of unsolvability; Sherlock Holmes manipulates data structures when solving a crime; the magic in Harry Potter’s world is understood through types and abstraction; and Indiana Jones demonstrates the complexity of searching. Along the way, Erwig also discusses representations and different ways to organize data; “intractable” problems; language, syntax, and ambiguity; control structures, loops, and the halting problem; different forms of recursion; and rules for finding errors in algorithms. This engaging book explains computation accessibly and shows its relevance to daily life.

In 1991, a 21 year-old student, Linus Torvalds set about writing a free alternative to the UNIX operating system. The system he established is now used by more than 10 million people & the numbers are growing. It is fast, it can be used on any number of hardware platforms, from multi-chip super computers to palm pilots, &, astonishingly, it's free. The story of its development reveals the importance of cooperation in new technology. Hundreds of programmers from around the world have worked outside government and corporate control to create a product that has caused conventional business to blanch. The book describes in vivid detail the dreamers and businessmen who have turned a private passion into a global phenomenon.

The Computing curriculum is a challenge for primary school teachers. The realities of primary school resources mean limited access to computer hardware. But computing is about more than computers. Important aspects of the fundamental principles and concepts of computer science can be taught without any hardware. Children can learn to analyse problems and computational terms and apply computational thinking to solve problems without turning on a computer.

Computers now impact almost every aspect of our lives, from our social interactions to the safety and performance of our cars. How did this happen in such a short time? And this is just the beginning.

Codes have influenced events throughout history, both in the stories of those who make them and those who break them. The betrayal of Mary Queen of Scots and the cracking of the enigma code that helped the Allies in World War II are major episodes in a continuing history of cryptography. In addition to stories of intrigue and warfare, Simon Singh also investigates other codes, the unravelling of genes and the rediscovery of ancient languages and most tantalisingly, the Beale ciphers, an unbroken code that could hold the key to a $20 million treasure.

The Dark Net is a revelatory examination of the internet today, and of its most innovative and dangerous subcultures, stretching from secret Facebook groups to the encrypted and hidden Tor network. In it, Bartlett goes in search of the people behind the screen, meeting trolls and pornographers, drug dealers and hackers, political extremists and computer scientists, Bitcoin programmers and self-harmers, libertarians and vigilantes.

Most popular Russian puzzle book ever published. Marvelously varied puzzles ranging from simple "catch" riddles to difficult problems. Lavishly illustrated with clear diagrams and amusing sketches. Edited for English-readers, while retaining warmth and charm of original. Inexpensive edition of first English translation.

A great book for A Level, supported by a wonderful website with lots of interactive labs, and java applets that can be downloaded for use in lessons. I use it for several areas - and particularly like Chapter 4 about theoretical computing.

One reviews says “If there are any of you who think that the high end of computer science is another form of mathematics, then this book is for you. If you think that computer science is just programming then maybe you should take a look at this book as well. After reading this book you will have a good overview of the “science” of computer science.” Another says “Dewdney is one of the most stimulating writers on applied thinking and computer science that I have had the pleasure to read. Where the standard CS textbooks are most stale, Dewdney is the most provocative. He illuminates the dark corners of abstract thought with practical puzzles and plain language. This book is written in small bite size chapters that grow in complexity around multiple ideas…The appeal to Dwedney and his book stems from the fact that everything he writes is game-like or puzzle-oriented.”

Most people are baffled by how computers work and assume that they will never to reinforce your them. What they dont realizeand what Daniel Hilliss short book illiantly demonstratesis that computers seemingly. Complex operations can be oken down into a few simple parts that perform the same simple procedures over and over again.

The Programmer's Odyssey was written because modern intensely focused training regimes are creating coders who know little about the profession they are entering and it aims to fill this knowledge gap. At the same time it has also become popular with mature programmers as a reminder of their early careers.

You may have watched hundreds of episodes of The Simpsons (and its sister show Futurama) without ever realising that they contain enough maths to form an entire university course.

A radical and optimistic view of the future course of human development from the bestselling author of How to Create a Mind and who Bill Gates calls 'the best person I know at predicting the future of artificial intelligence.

Meet two of Victorian London's greatest geniuses... Ada Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron: mathematician, gambler, and proto-programmer, whose writings contained the first ever appearance of general computing theory, a hundred years before an actual computer was built. And Charles Babbage, eccentric inventor of the Difference Engine, an enormous clockwork calculating machine that would have been the first computer, if he had ever finished it.

A Soft-Systems Guide to: Creativity, Problem-Solving, and the Process of Reaching Goals.

Howard Rheingold. Written in 1985 and available online, an very readable, concise account of the development of computers, with some prescient predictions for the future (that is, the 1990’s). This is a history that focuses on ideas rather than dry facts. As the author says, “You can’t understand where mind-amplifying technology is going unless you understand where it came from.” Of particular interest for educationalists will be Chapter 11 ‘The Birth of the Fantasy Amplifier’, which charts the trajectory of Alan Kay (developer of Squeak, amongst many other things), and the influence of Papert and Minsky on his development.

How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy.

Most histories of the personal computer industry focus on technology or business. John Markoff's landmark book is about the culture and consciousness behind the first PCs--the culture being counter- and the consciousness expanded, sometimes chemically.