If you'd like a great non-technical tour of how computers really work conceptually, starting from simple morse-code switches through to assembler, Charles Petzold's "Code" is awesome:
Even having understood for years how computers work in principal, nothing quite put it together for me like this book.
There's a similarly great book on the history/methods of cryptography called "The Code Book" by Simon Singh that I recommend too - http://www.amazon.com/The-Code-Book-Science-Cryptography/dp/...
It's great because it traces the history but also walks you through how the cyphers actually worked, and provides the best intros I've ever seen to public key and quantum cryptography.
Simon Singh's book was my introduction to crypto and the wonderful Mathematics and mathematicians behind its vivid history. I had it with me all the time while doing the crypto-class.com online course a couple of months ago for a good historic perspective supporting Prof. Boneh's hardcore crypto topics. Highly recommended. Actually, his Fermat's Last Theorem book is also fascinating if you are interested in Math history.
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If you'd like a great non-technical tour of how computers really work conceptually, starting from simple morse-code switches through to assembler, Charles Petzold's "Code" is awesome:
http://www.amazon.com/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware-Softwa...
Even having understood for years how computers work in principal, nothing quite put it together for me like this book.
There's a similarly great book on the history/methods of cryptography called "The Code Book" by Simon Singh that I recommend too - http://www.amazon.com/The-Code-Book-Science-Cryptography/dp/... It's great because it traces the history but also walks you through how the cyphers actually worked, and provides the best intros I've ever seen to public key and quantum cryptography.
Simon Singh's book was my introduction to crypto and the wonderful Mathematics and mathematicians behind its vivid history. I had it with me all the time while doing the crypto-class.com online course a couple of months ago for a good historic perspective supporting Prof. Boneh's hardcore crypto topics. Highly recommended. Actually, his Fermat's Last Theorem book is also fascinating if you are interested in Math history.