
Alan Turing's notebook sold for $1M - simas
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-32295436
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rhizome
Slightly less of a garbage link:

[http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-32294655](http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-
england-32294655)

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nmc
I feel deeply outraged that this precious scientific artifact was simply
auctioned, instead of given to TNMoC, the British Museum, or really any
institution committed to studying it and presenting it to the public.

~~~
Ntrails
Paraphrasing the article: "It was given to someone else by Turing, who kept it
for their lifetime (as it contained a personal note), whilst everything else
of his they possessed WAS handed to a museum."

It seems the heirs of the owner were less interested in preserving history for
the masses and more concerned with a free 500k. I'm not sure I can blame them
terribly much. I can't help but be curious as to the message though.

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vixen99
I enjoyed 'Alan Turing: The Enigma' by Andrew Hodges.

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lmnt
Could anyone recommend any books about Turing's life and works?

~~~
jgrahamc
My recommendation when anyone asks this.

1\. Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges [http://www.amazon.com/Alan-
Turing-Enigma-Inspired-Imitation/...](http://www.amazon.com/Alan-Turing-
Enigma-Inspired-Imitation/dp/069116472X/)

Definitive and detailed biography.

2\. Alan M. Turing by Sara Turing [http://www.amazon.com/Alan-M-Turing-
Centenary-Edition/dp/110...](http://www.amazon.com/Alan-M-Turing-Centenary-
Edition/dp/1107020581)

Deeply personal biography of her dead son.

3\. The Annotated Turing by Charles Petzold [http://www.amazon.com/Annotated-
Turing-Through-Historic-Comp...](http://www.amazon.com/Annotated-Turing-
Through-Historic-Computability/dp/0470229055/)

Turing's famous 1936 explained in detail.

~~~
willvarfar
These recommendations are spot on.

As so much of Alan's posthumous fame is for cracking the naval enigma in WW2,
I'd recommend starting out by first reading "The Code Book" by Simon Singh for
general background.

Personally I find Alan's work on ACE the most fascinating. Sadly I can't
really find much about it beyond Hodge's biography. Anyone got any good leads
re ACE?

~~~
jgrahamc
Alan Turing's Automatic Computing Engine by Jack Copeland
[http://www.amazon.com/Alan-Turings-Automatic-Computing-
Engin...](http://www.amazon.com/Alan-Turings-Automatic-Computing-Engine-
ebook/dp/B007AQ1FKG)

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ghshephard
I can't find any information as to whether the contents of the book have been
scanned anywhere - anybody know?

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collyw
Having watched the imitation game recently, I thought notebooks weren't around
in his lifetime. Then I remembered Apple decided to rename their laptops to
"notebooks" after people started burning their laps.

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xchaotic
Does it run Linux? ;)

~~~
collyw
Humor on HN? You should know better.

~~~
rantanplan
This was considered humor on Slashdot about 10-15 years ago.

Doesn't qualify as such today.

