February 02, 2007

Penrose Tiles to Trapdoor Ciphers

i caught the amusing blog entry where jim allchin announced his retirement last day at microsoft. within the post he outlined his expected new day agenda (by time of day) and i had to chuckle, because i'm sure i'll be equally as anxious when the time finally arrives. one thing in particular that resonated with me quite well was:

6:45 PM: Read kids a bedtime story. They seem to be recently interested in “chapter books.” I was amazed by how quickly they fell asleep when I read them one of my favorite classics, “The Theory of Recursive Functions and Effective Computability” by Rogers.
which immediately reminded me of when my eldest daughter asked me for a book to read many years ago. i looked over at my bookshelf and knowing that the art of computer programming by knuth wouldn't be her cup of tea, i handed her something more light --- martin gardner's penrose tiles to trapdoor ciphers ... and the return of doctor matrix [amazon].

she took the book... gave it her best to try and read it, but eventually returned it with a quiet thanks. ever since, she has been a bit cautious of my reading recommendations though i must admit she has been pleasantly please with all of my recommendations since -- i guess old dogs can be taught new tricks. i did squeeze surely your joking dr. feynman under her radar... and she has enjoyed it since.

Posted by ac at February 2, 2007 01:24 PM