5 comments about Battle Of Wits: The Complete Story of Codebreaking in World War II.

1. I was interested in the history of codebreaking in World War II but my very incomplete knowledge about the subject stemmed from fiction work, both movies (such as "Enigma') and books (such as Neal Stephenson' 'Cryptonomicon'). After reading this book I have now a very clear picture of what really happened. The author does a great of explaining in great details the history and background of this cryptograhical war. The emphasize of this book is really on efforts by both British and Americans to break German codes although activities to break codes of other Nazi allies also described. The author does a very good job of explaining how various algorithms worked in a language that should be understandabe to anybody (for somebody who is interested in more technical details there are a number of appendixes). It provides a very good and 'live' portraits of people that were involved in these activities. It made me realize how much bureaucracy and stupidity these people had to overcome. Highly recommended for anybody who is interested in the subject but feels he still didn't get a complete picture.



2. It seems there is no dearth in books on intelligence[codebreaking ] in World War II.Ever since British Govt lifted Official Secrets Act in 1974 there have been explosion of books on this sensitive subject.

   Author dwelts upon complex intricate nature of German, Japanese ciphers;difficulties involved in breaking it which make up most of this book .Author's narration at times looks convoluted,abstruse.Especially dificult to follow mechanism of American IBM computer used to break Axis ciphers.Americans being more mechanically minded came up with devices like Comparator,RAM [Rapid Analytical Machinery ]for breaking codes.Appendix section of the book contain detailed explanation of German naval Enigma and Japanese purple ciphers plus techniques used for decoding it.

   What I like in this book is the section dealing with U boat warwhat author calls shadow warfare.This was a dicey situation with warring powers reading each other codes with themselves not aware of it.On the negative side ,To assert FDR had no fore warning about Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor when we have abundant evidence to the contrary partially detracts the value of this book . Budiansky has virtually ignored Eastern Front despite the fact former Soviet Union bore brunt of war against Nazi Germany.I feel this to be a manifestation of author's cold war mentality unfortunately prevalent among few academics in the West.

   What we do not know even today wheather Russians too read German ciphers.Soviet dictator Stalin definitely knew about Ultra thanks to Kim Philby and Cambridge spyring.Soviets had a spy network operating in the Nazi-occupied Europe [Red Orchestra].Information it provided influenced some crucial battles fought on the Eastern Front.For details refer Red Orchestra by Tarrant V.E.

   To sum up,Budiansky's work is highly Anglo-American centric.To call this book-as given in the title'Complete story of codebreaking in World War II'- is actually misnomer.




3. This was a great read. It helps quite a bit to be able to understand technical subjects, because this isn't a simple technology. Great detail.



4. I have for many years wondered exactly how the supposedly unbreakable German Enigma machine and the Japanese diplomatic and Naval codes were broken. Stephen Budiansky does a great job at explaining how this was done. This was no easy task, requiring the ability to explain complex mathematical and mechanical concepts in a political and military context. Budiansky is uniquely suited to this task and I for one am grateful for his successful effort. He has a master's degree in applied mathematics, along with work in military studies as a Congressional Fellow. To this one must add that he is a good writer, as attested to by the fact that he is a correspondent for The Atlantic, The New York Times and The Economist among other prestigious publications.
   
   This is no dry academic text, but is a story of great excitement, of great internal rivalries and intrigues. It is also fortunately much more, as it also goes into detail about the design and operation of the code machines and ciphers, as well as the novel approaches that were used to overcome them. It goes into considerable detail about these approaches, without becoming overly pedantic. This book covers the Japanese Diplomatic and Naval codes as well as the German Enigma machine. As such, it covers both code machines and ciphers, with a very good discussion of the history of both and the distinction between them. This book is more than a dry discussion of mathematics, but also delves into the personalities of the people involved and the internal rivalries between the US Army and Navy and between the civilian and military branches of the governments involved. It touches on espionage and the application of the knowledge of what was learned from the code breaking.
   
   I was aware of the general outlines of what was done, of Bletchley Park and the American equivalents and of the importance of the early work of Polish code breakers. What I was not aware of was exactly how this was done. The Germans were confident that even if the allies got hold of a code machine they could not unscramble a message that was coded with what was a virtually unlimited number of possible combinations. I now have a better idea of how this was done and if you read this book so will you. I learned of the importance of a spy in Germany who early on provided a few messages and some code setting that were of great initial help, how German regularity in the form of the messages and the laziness of some operators in reusing the same text were of great importance, of the struggles to overcome the continual changes in the machines and upgrading of the codes. Most of all, I learned of the creativity and persistence of the human mind. My only criticism, and it is a minor one, is that very little space is given to the German and Japanese efforts (many of them successful) in deciphering allied codes. I hope that this will be the subject of a future book of Budiansky's.



5. This book is great! Highly recommended to everybody interested in World War II History and historical aspects of cryptoanalysis.

No comments about Introduction to Spectral Theory in Hilbert Space.

5 comments about The Evolution Of Cooperation.

1. "The updated edition includes an extensive new chapter on cooperation in cancer cells and among terrorist organizations."
   
   WHAT?? I bought this, with the new preface and cover, and it DID NOT CONTAIN NEW MATERIAL IN THE BOOK. I wrote the published, and THEY DID NOT REPLY. Crappers.



2. An idea that is elegant, simple, and powerful is a beautiful idea. That is why I think this is a beautiful book. It is elegant in its ideas and the way these ideas are presented. It is easy to read and understand with very simple math. Yet, the insights and conclusions of the book are very powerful and very interesting.
   
   The book studies how agents behave and interact in social systems. It studies what strategies those agents might adopt and what strategies are most beneficial to the agent and to the whole social system. The results are very interesting. Another major question the book tackles is whether or not the strategy of cooperation can evolve in a social system where the majority of agents don't cooperate. The results are very interesting.
   
   I strongly recommend this book.



3. It is interesting to note this book which was written more than 20 years ago is still fresh in ideas.
   
   Some philosophers said human are born benign, but some said otherwise. The most famous answer was given over three hundred years ago by Thomas Hobbes. He was pessimistic and argued that before government existed, the state of nature was dominated by the problem of selfish individuals who competed on ruthless terms and life was solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short. He thought cooperation could not develop without a central authority.
   
   You may have heard, or played, the Prisoners' Dilemma. The setting was that two criminals together committed a serious crime were caught. The detective kept them in separate cells and asked each of them to confess the crime. Circumstantial evidence was weak and so if both of them cooperated and kept silence, they would only be convicted of a minor offense. The detective told each of them that if he confessed and turned into a prosecution witness against the other, he would be acquitted while the other would get the maximum sentence. If both of them confessed, they could beg leniency for a lighter sentence. The game theorists proved that the best strategy for the game was to confess and to defect against the other. This may partly prove that Thomas Hobbes was right.
   
   The crux of the game was that the prisoners did not know the intention of the other party. They could only guess the scenarios and calculate the probability of returns. Axelrod developed a variation of the game, involving repeated game interactions between two players with the results of each interactions known to them. He gave scores to each game played: 3 points each for mutual cooperation, 1 points each for punishment of mutual defection, 5 points for defection leading to conviction of the other, and 0 point for keeping silence while being defected against. When previous performance of the other side was known, the player could take it into account and develop a strategy to take advantage of cooperation and also timely defection to gain points. There is afterall merit in cooperation sometimes.
   
   A computer programming tournament of the iterated game was organized. Programmers engaged various strategies, ranging from algorithmic complexity, initial hostility, occasional defection, being nice or forgiving to induce cooperation, etc. The winner of the game was the program Tic-for-tac. Its strategy was to be nice and cooperative on the first move, then consistently repaying cooperation or defection according to the last move of the opponent. Analysis showed that the success of Tic-for-tac was based on four factors: being nice and never defect first, being provocable as it would retaliate by defecting whenever defected upon, being forgiving as it only retaliated once; being clear in intention as its strategy was quickly known by its opponents. Axelrod concluded that these basic characteristics were conducive to developing cooperation. Being nice and forgiving were essential attributes while making them known was also important. Being provocable was a good defense from being bullied of being nice and could raise the chance of survival.
   
   A further conclusion by Axelrod was that Tic-for-tac was robust even in a hostile environment. In such an environment where there was no cooperation, participants would gain a few points through mutual defection and a single Tic-for-tac would die out. However, if there were a small number of Tic-for-tac in such environment, interactions of cooperation between them would bring more points. If they were a close group, then such in-group interactions, however small in number, would be better off than the always-defect majority. As a result, this Tic-for-tac group would grow in the population and cooperation would eventually evolve to be the dominating strategy. This phenomenon has been observed in the development of many civilizations.
   
   The book also found that cooperation did not necessarily occur between friendly parties. It described the case of the trench warfare in World War I. Known as Live and Let Live, troops on both sides of the trench warfare spontaneously developed a strategy of cooperation whereby they shelled the other side according to a fixed schedule only known to the soldiers and allowing either side to minimize casualties. The generals were satisfied that the war was going on with the shelling but the combat line was neither advanced nor breached. The soldiers followed a similar strategy as Tic-for-tac that they never directly shelled bunkers nor supplies first, always retaliated with more accurate shelling when directly hit, always returned to pretentious shelling afterwards, and making sure that such behaviour was known to the enemy. This cooperative phenomenon which went on for a long time during the war saved many lives.
   
   From the perspective of a reformer, Axelrod proposed the strategy on how to promote cooperation. 1. Enlarging the shadow of the future - Mutual cooperation can be stable if the future is sufficiently important relative to the present because the players can each use an implicit threat of retaliation against the other's defection. 2. Change the payoffs - This is usually adopted by government in raising the payoffs in terms of taxes, harsh punishment for crime and obligations to honour contracts; that is: to raise the payoffs for cooperation and vice versa for defection. 3. Teach people to care about each other - Through education, adults shape the values of children so that the preference of the new citizens will incorporate their own welfare with the welfare of others. 4. Teach reciprocity - Always reciprocating defection may not be the standard of morality for some religions, for example the teaching of always cooperative by turning the other cheek. However, reciprocity is a robust strategy in upholding cooperation and avoiding exploitation. The self-policing feature of the strategy gives an incentive to cooperation. Teaching reciprocity to those with whom one will interact will help build a mutually rewarding relationship. 5. Improve recognition abilities - The ability to recognize the other players from past interactions and to remember the relevant features of those interactions is necessary to sustain cooperation.
   
   http://raympoonnotes.playgroundhk.com/2008/03/evolution-of-cooperation.html



4. I'm not the first reviewer so I won't provide a summary. This book can be a bit dense at times, especially if you're not a quant or charts person. I am, but you may not be. If you're not but are still interested in a descriptive discussion then you'd likely give it a 4-star due to skipping over a few sections.



5. I liked this book most for the insight that even in trench warfare in the first world war the soldiers on both sides cooperated. The lesson that I got from this book was something that I've known for a long time: When people cooperate, more good and greater wealth is generated than when they don't. I also liked the pretty good discussion on the prisoner's dilemma (though I still think THAT is an American fiction).

3 comments about From China With Love: A Long Road to Motherhood.

1. it was a good look at an insider's perspective on adoption. captures a new mother's heart as well as someone interested in world travel and politics.



2. I loved this book. It was a great look into the adoption system and the process of adoption. It also showed the challenges facing adoptive parents of children of a different race. Great story, very touching!



3. This is a great book to be an autobiography but there is little information about anything other than her travels. She uses words that most common people would never use. It is almost like she tried to use every word she is has ever heard before.

2 comments about Codebreakers' Victory: How the Allied Cryptogaphers Won World War II.

1. It is ironic that Hervie Haufler's book, "Codebreakers' Victory," was published at the same time that John Keegan's book, "Intelligence in War" came out. In the first sentence of his book, Keegan, an otherwise astute observer of military affairs, asks "How useful is intelligence in war?" Keegan's answer is, not very useful. He should have read Haufler. Though it contains only a little primary research, Haufler's compilation from solid sources collected over his lifetime is a major contribution to the study of intelligence during World War II. For battle after battle, on every front of the war, Haufler makes a solid case that intelligence has made a difference-in many cases a significant difference. It is unfortunate that Haufler is less well known than Keegan. I fear it may cause some to overlook Haufler's valuable book. It should not. Haufler writes in an easily readable style (in contrast to Keegan), and recognizes that, while intelligence may not win a battle or a war, it can make all the difference. Prior to this book, those interested in the role of intelligence in WWII would have needed to consult scores of books and articles to get this same picture. Haufler has done that work for us and has collected from the best the information in this volume. It needs noting that he does contribute some important primary research in the form of interviews with several WWII cryptanalysts. Haufler's only hyperbole is contained in his sub-title--"How the Allied Cryptographers Won World War II". That, one can hope, was added by his publishers and not by him.



2. Reads more like it was cribbed from Wikipedia, since most of the text is a recital of the events of WW2. Decent overview, but not much technical detail. Loses a star in the rating for referring to the commander of the 6th Army at Stalingrad as a "von".

No comments about The Abyss of Time: An architect's history of the Golden Section.

5 comments about The History of Mathematics.

1. I got a lot of information from this book. It has easy to follow explation about the therom.



2. I haven't read much on this subject, but I enjoyed this book. The description above says that it's designed for college juniors and seniors, and many of the technical details really will require that level of mathematical maturity. However, there is enough of what the author calls an emphasis on the "bibliographical element" that much of it would be interesting to read through only skimming the technical parts. The author also tries to explain why progress was made at certain times in history but not at others.

   The scope is relatively comprehensive: spanning from archeological finds that suggest early numbers systems to early twentieth century work in countability and set theory.

   The text itself reminded me quite a bit of my old high school history books -- readable but a little slow-paced at times. More interesting, though, are the problems at the end of every section
   -- problems that require the use of ideas and techniques from the time period being described. The author suggests these exercises as a good way to learn both mathematics and history, but they can be safely skipped.

   Just a single complaint: the book seems to have a slight slant toward Western mathematics: early Greeks, Europeans from the middle ages, modern Americans recieve the bulk of the attention while there is a single ten-page section entitled "Mathematics in the Near and Far East". While not a fatal flaw (it is of course true that most of modern mathematics has its roots in the West), I would have liked to see a more balanced account.




3. The book arrived in time for my class, and in almost perfect condition!Excellent Transaction!



4. Book was like new, but took a very long time to get here (over the max amount of time expected by seller). Also, when emailing the seller, NEVER got a response!



5. This book is too long, there's no way more than half of it can be covered in a semester. The problems are very easy and don't require the reader to think too often. I think this book had a hard time finding it's identity. The chapters are written like a history book with little computation involved but the questions at the end are all math based, generally reapeating the same concept over and over again. I'd say there are better, more concise, Math History books out there....for a cheaper too!!!

5 comments about Vedic Mathematics or Sixteen Simple Mathematical Formulae from the Vedas.

1. This book was given to me by a friend from India. I just have to say that this book is inspiring in such a way that it provides a new way of thinking in Mathematics. What I found most fascinating is that this way of thinking has been around for over 100 years and very little people know about it! It's a pity this is not taught in American schools because it gives a different perspective on how to solve problems - actually a much easier way to solve problems. If you have kids or you yourself want to solve problems easier (and faster), I strongly recommend this book.

   The majority of the American public is blind about the rest of the world's great achievements, not just mathematics, but also the arts and sciences. Truly unfortunate.

   Vince




2. This book makes "promblems" rename to "FUN." I never imaged math can be as fun and easy, but this book made it so. I gurantee it will make your brain work faster then the calculators. Shock your co-workers or professor with this methods and over smart your friends.



3. It is really amazing book of mathematics. I never knew that mathematics is so simple. Even it gave me explaination about current mathematic principles. After reading this book, I am able to solve equations very easily. This should be teach in every school. It is very easy and very interesting. I am shocked to realize that I did not knew about this book.



4. great book - my teenager is working his way through it in his spare time - wants to be able to wow his math teacher with doing difficult math in his head



5. While the subject matter is covered in the text I would not refer to it as "simple". The author is obviously a highly advanced mathatician and the material is presented with highly advanced terminologies that to some laypeople may be a little difficult to understand. That being said, if you stick with it you will learn different methods of doing advanced mathmatics in a much easier way than taught in the Western world.

5 comments about A First Course in Optimization Theory.

1. An excellent introduction at this level which is both lucid and rigorous with just enough examples to motivate applications while not leaving the reader swimming in redundancy. The previous review gives details, but I will add that the proofs are concise and clear. The only thing I would add to this book is more and harder problems, but that is easily remedied. If you want a theoretical introduction, buy this book right now -- its one of the best textbooks I have ever seen.



2. Excellent introduction to optimization techniques with a special emphasis to induce the student to an active and positive attitude towards the rigoruous demonstration of every proposition behind theorems and economic models.
   This is not a book for beginners, but an excellent one that helps to develop the abilities required to understand modern textbooks and papers on micro and macroeconomics.
   With an excellent presentation, and interesting end-of-chapter exercises, this book cannot be out of every economist's toolbox.



3. a good book with lots of preliminary math review, but exercises are not that well



4. This book is a great review prior to starting graduate study in economics. Its accessible even if you've never studied optimization before, and covers many of the main optimization concepts used in first semester graduate coursework.



5. This is an attractive, very well written, self contained book which takes you by the hand, explaining the basic notions of convergence, and then moving through a refresher course on multivariable calculus and such topics as Lagrange Multipliers, then the relation of optimization to convexity and quasi convexity and more advanced topics.
   Most of the examples come from economics, so this book could be ideal to bring an economics major up to level.
   However you should be aware that many books entitled optimization cover different material. For example a book on numerical optimization such as
   Numerical Optimization (Springer Series in Operations Research and Financial Engineering) have very different contents, so you need to be clear about what you want before you buy this book.
   I initially gave this book 1 star because I got a book with a few missing pages, which C.U.P graciously replaced for me, but now I would give it 4 stars, if only I could change the rating when editing my review!

2 comments about Engineering Problem Solving with C++.

1. As a computer science student who changed majors to computer engineering, this was one of the best programming books that I've read in college. It actually teaches you problem solving in a very straightforward manner. Not without flaws though, since there are quite a few typos and errors in the code of the programs in the book; however, everyone with at least some basic understanding of computer programming should be able to figure out what is wrong and fix them quite easily.
   
   With the help of this book I was able to apply C++ to a lot of common problems encountered throughout all engineering fields; from statistics to simple physics and math problems. After taking the class, in which this book was used, this book has become one of my main references.



2. This book seems like a lot more of sample reference code than anything else. It really doesn't teach very well how to do stuff but it does have a lot of code examples.