Book Review - "Nine Algorithms That Changed the Future: The Ingenious Ideas That Drive Today's Computers"
Today I am going to give my thoughts on what I think about the book “Nine Algorithms That Changed the Future: The Ingenious Ideas That Drive Today’s Computers.” This book was a fun read. Much better than the last one.
When reading this book, I felt engaged. What does that mean exactly? It means that I was captivated by it’s words to a point. Unlike the last book this book went straight into the details, so it was more like reading a todo/manual than a textbook. But not to the point that it was uninteresting. There were some boring parts, but for the most part it went right to the point and
The most interesting thing I learned in the book was about RSA encryption. It was just really cool to learn that there is a way to make sure there is a private connection between 2 people even with people listening in. It’s a really fun concept.
There were some parts that I didn’t specifically like. Like where it got confusing and I didn’t understand what was going on, especially with the chapter on digital signatures. Another part I didn’t really like, and that was with data compression. I like data compression. I first learned about it here actually.
[2]
But there is something that bugs me in Chapter 7. It says 2 separate things that annoy me. “Data Compression: Something for Nothing”[1] and says “Lossless Compression: The Ultimate Free Lunch.”[1] I didn’t like it because it’s false. Lossless compression doesn’t give you a “something for nothing” or a “free lunch” because it sacrifices processing power to uncompressed the data or manipulate it.
I decided to look up some terms online that I wanted to more information about, such as RSA encryption. It was fascinating. In the end I couldn’t fully understand the technicalities of how it works in practice, but I understand the basic concept in theory.
This book helped explain things I didn’t know about algorithms. As I said, I learned things about RSA encryption, error correction, etc. I did know a very light understanding of these topics. Now I can’t say I have a deep understanding, because I feel like the book overlays the concepts in a way that’s easier to understand. For example, with RSA he used paint mixing as an example to help explain it. He puts it this way “The objective is for you and Arnold to each produce the same mixture of paint, without telling Eve how to produce it. If you achieve this, we’ll say that you and Arnold have established a “shared secret mixture.” [1]
The book however did leave me with some questions unanswered. Specifically, I didn’t understand by the end the exact details of how all of the functions outlined could be programmed. It seems like it’s at a level of a someone who is familiar with computers. It helps give appreciation for algorithms that are used every day behind the scenes that truly not many people know about.
I would recommend this book to a friend who is wanting to start out in a field involving computers. It gives them an idea on how to think about things in a clever way to be able to solve problems and come up with algorithms. The book may be uninteresting to someone who isn’t interested in computation. But overall has a good taste to pretty much anyone who wants to know more about computers and how they work a bit.
The book has significance because it really enlightens one that these algorithms exist and that definite work was put into creating these beautifully thought out algorithms. I think it was chosen as a textbook to open our eyes to algorithms that do exist in our world and that we don't think about. It also helps us understand thinking behind algorithms and how they are made.
Bibliography
1. MacCormick, John. Nine Algorithms That Changed the Future: The Ingenious Ideas That Drive Today's Computers. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2012. Print. pg. 44, 105, 106
2. Computerphile. "Entropy in Compression - Computerphile." YouTube. YouTube, 02 July 2013. Web. 05 Dec. 2016. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5c_RFKVkko>.
When reading this book, I felt engaged. What does that mean exactly? It means that I was captivated by it’s words to a point. Unlike the last book this book went straight into the details, so it was more like reading a todo/manual than a textbook. But not to the point that it was uninteresting. There were some boring parts, but for the most part it went right to the point and
The most interesting thing I learned in the book was about RSA encryption. It was just really cool to learn that there is a way to make sure there is a private connection between 2 people even with people listening in. It’s a really fun concept.
There were some parts that I didn’t specifically like. Like where it got confusing and I didn’t understand what was going on, especially with the chapter on digital signatures. Another part I didn’t really like, and that was with data compression. I like data compression. I first learned about it here actually.
[2]
But there is something that bugs me in Chapter 7. It says 2 separate things that annoy me. “Data Compression: Something for Nothing”[1] and says “Lossless Compression: The Ultimate Free Lunch.”[1] I didn’t like it because it’s false. Lossless compression doesn’t give you a “something for nothing” or a “free lunch” because it sacrifices processing power to uncompressed the data or manipulate it.
I decided to look up some terms online that I wanted to more information about, such as RSA encryption. It was fascinating. In the end I couldn’t fully understand the technicalities of how it works in practice, but I understand the basic concept in theory.
This book helped explain things I didn’t know about algorithms. As I said, I learned things about RSA encryption, error correction, etc. I did know a very light understanding of these topics. Now I can’t say I have a deep understanding, because I feel like the book overlays the concepts in a way that’s easier to understand. For example, with RSA he used paint mixing as an example to help explain it. He puts it this way “The objective is for you and Arnold to each produce the same mixture of paint, without telling Eve how to produce it. If you achieve this, we’ll say that you and Arnold have established a “shared secret mixture.” [1]
The book however did leave me with some questions unanswered. Specifically, I didn’t understand by the end the exact details of how all of the functions outlined could be programmed. It seems like it’s at a level of a someone who is familiar with computers. It helps give appreciation for algorithms that are used every day behind the scenes that truly not many people know about.
I would recommend this book to a friend who is wanting to start out in a field involving computers. It gives them an idea on how to think about things in a clever way to be able to solve problems and come up with algorithms. The book may be uninteresting to someone who isn’t interested in computation. But overall has a good taste to pretty much anyone who wants to know more about computers and how they work a bit.
The book has significance because it really enlightens one that these algorithms exist and that definite work was put into creating these beautifully thought out algorithms. I think it was chosen as a textbook to open our eyes to algorithms that do exist in our world and that we don't think about. It also helps us understand thinking behind algorithms and how they are made.
Bibliography
1. MacCormick, John. Nine Algorithms That Changed the Future: The Ingenious Ideas That Drive Today's Computers. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2012. Print. pg. 44, 105, 106
2. Computerphile. "Entropy in Compression - Computerphile." YouTube. YouTube, 02 July 2013. Web. 05 Dec. 2016. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5c_RFKVkko>.
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