Godlike Genius of Alan Turing #

19 January 1999

Only Tuesday, so I am led to believe, although it feels more like Thursday, due to the current lack of work. It seems odd being told to “sit around and wait until we dig something else up for you to do,” but it seems that this is the curious life of being an IT resource. I used the opportunity afforded to me by this slack time to mess about with some HTML; even the most authoritarian network managers allow the use of Notepad and a copy of IE3, so I set about designing a new front page for this site.

I cheered myself up by spending a happy five minutes or so filling in some holiday forms for next Friday and our April jaunt to Ullapool. Holidays are wonderful inventions, and it’s amazing how quickly I’ve adapted to having just 25 days a year, instead of the hundred-odd I was used to at uni.

Browsed through the NME, which was surprisingly depressing. Only a couple of years ago I read it religiously on a weekly basis; now it holds little appeal. Not that I’m going off music (honest), just that I seem to be drifting apart from the views and culture of the music press. There has to be an easier, better way to keep on top of the popscene. Think I’ll turn to the internet, and get back into the habit of swapping cassette with friends, listening to the radio, and browsing the decent record shops. We’re off out in Nottingham this weekend; I think a trip to Selectadisc is called for.

23:04

I’m shit at reading TV guides, I always totally fail to notice the occasional programmes which are likely to interest me. So I was glad when a colleague told me of a new series on Channel 4 chronicling the wartime code-breaking operations at Bletchley Park. Decent TV with mathematical subject matter is few and far between, so this is a real treat. Next weeks’ episode centres around the Godlike genius of Alan Turing, responsible for giving me many headaches during my Mathematical Aspects of Computing course in ‘96-‘97. Just hearing such names again has rekindled my interests in topics of cryptography, data compression, and graph theory. I think I’ll trawl the net for such topics at the weekend. Isn’t it odd how you’re more willing to be interested in something when you’re unlikely to be asked questions on it later? You’re free to research just the aspects of a subject you wish to, with no external pressures.