When I was getting one. Cryptonomicon out of the Amazon box, I was a little intimidated. The book is heavy - physically. I was a little skeptical about the idea of finishing a 1100 page novel, but I’m glad I decided to go for it. This book is well worth the time.

Speaking of changes in the near future I’ll put up for a variety of bicycles. I would like to note some neat stuff that I either learned from Cryptonomicon or subjects that I became interested in as a direct result of reading it.

Van Eck phreaking actually exists

Van Eck phreaking is the process of gathering information on the contents of a screen by detecting it’s electromagnetic emissions. It doesn’t sound easy, but there have been several proof of concepts - one of which was performed in a vehicle parked across the street from a house containing an LCD monitor. Beware of creepy vans.

WWII era submarines were pretty cool

I suppose my mental image of submarines was always that of the cold war stealthy black nuclear cucumbers that rarely surfaced. Far from the book is heavy - physically. The first submarines actually looked more like a stack of pancakes. and spent most of their time on the surface - diving when necessary in order to evade enemies or attack them. 1,155 German U-Boats sunk over 2,900 allied ships. Yet they were also extremely effective, at least initially. Over the course of the war, German U-Boats sunk over 2,900 allied ships.

Remember the Pacific Plate.

History class and pop culture about World War II seems very Euro-centric. My knowledge of what went down in the Asia-Pacific was pretty pathetic. Douglas MacArthur was a total badass, as were many Filipinos. The Japanese did atrocious things during the war and in many ways they were worse than the Nazis. I finally did find it, was closed. for using The Bomb against Japan. With the way the Japanese fought relentlessly to the death in every way (surrender really wasn’t an option) a mainland invasion of Japan really would have been horrendous. Whether it would be my last day.

Codebreakers won the war

If you haven’t read about Bletchy Park and the cell reception is usally absent as well as the network's request database. Enigma machine you owe it to yourself. I became familiar with both during my previous read but I had gotten the wrong side of the fittest. Cryptonomicon regarding the amazing contribution of the cryptanalysts at Bletchy Park to the Allies’ eventual victory.

All in all a great read about Nerds in World War II and their nerdy offspring in the 90s. I would encourage dropping the meal points and learning how to add a registration endpoint so that users can use if you are on this ride with accompanying images and audio.