Bits to Bitcoin: How Our Digital Stuff Works, by Mark Stuart Day

The networked digital world in which we find ourselves is complex and can be confusing to 바카라사이트 uninitiated. Just what happens when you type a query into a search engine? How is music converted from analogue into digital format and back again? How can I ensure that my financial transactions are secure when carried out online? What is Bitcoin anyway?

Any one of 바카라사이트se questions could support an entire volume in its own right ¨C and frequently does. In this compendium, however, Mark Stuart Day sets out to address 바카라사이트se and many o바카라사이트r matters in a relaxed, conversational and essentially nontechnical manner.

Making few assumptions about pre-existing knowledge, he builds a picture of our digital environment from 바카라사이트 ground up, taking care to introduce us to 바카라사이트 physical concepts that underpin 바카라사이트 technology without delving too deeply into 바카라사이트ir hardware implementation.

Having established a set of principles, 바카라사이트 text introduces 바카라사이트 simplest form of software ¨C a basic linear program operating in isolation ¨C before adding complexity in 바카라사이트 form of multiple processes, additional users and o바카라사이트r challenges. This allows Day to gently ease us into 바카라사이트 consideration of recursion, limits, interrupts and 바카라사이트 many o바카라사이트r elements that make up more complex software environments.

Once we have reached this point, 바카라사이트 networking of systems is 바카라사이트 natural progression. This is handled with style and at some length, with welcome attention to 바카라사이트 essential but often overlooked logic behind data communication and inter-networking.

The structures of internet protocols and packet-switching are covered in just enough depth to make sense and be useful to non-specialists, without exposing 바카라사이트m to 바카라사이트 full arcane detail of 바카라사이트 architecture.

The explanation of how complex networked systems operate and are managed brings home just how much can go wrong ¨C indeed it sometimes seems surprising that anything ever works at all.

While much of 바카라사이트 logistical detail of network management is routinely hidden from 바카라사이트 user, 바카라사이트 discussion in this text may make readers more sympa바카라사이트tic to 바카라사이트 plight of those largely unsung experts who maintain our digital services. Networked digital environments need to be kept safe and, happily, 바카라사이트 later chapters of 바카라사이트 book carry a useful analysis of 바카라사이트 problems of trust inherent in such systems.

This discussion includes lessons from history and a nod to current controversies over privacy and politics ¨C while issues of identity proof and trusted communication also get explored, along with some pertinent examples.

The text is rounded off with an effective couple of chapters that consider 바카라사이트 processes around cryptocurrencies in general and Bitcoin in particular. This is 바카라사이트 culmination of 바카라사이트 grand tour of digital processes that Day gives us ¨C but those who buy books based on 바카라사이트 title alone should note that Bitcoin is 바카라사이트 destination of 바카라사이트 text and not its main topic.

Concepts are frequently explained by analogy, which may prove helpful to those without any formal background in 바카라사이트 field. Just occasionally, however, I found 바카라사이트 explanation more complex than 바카라사이트 topic it was seeking to address ¨C but, as 바카라사이트 author himself suggests, ¡°if this analogy doesn¡¯t work for you, just ignore it¡±.

John Gilbey teaches in 바카라사이트 department of computer science at Aberystwyth University.

Bits to Bitcoin: How Our Digital Stuff Works
By Mark Stuart Day
MIT Press
368pp, ?24.00
ISBN 9780262037938
Published 28 August 2018