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Q&A with Harry Please

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  • 22 Dec 17 at 4:04 pm #33779
    Anonymous
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    A place to ask Harry questions about himself, hopefully, we get unclassified answers 🙂

    What’s Harry’s favourite book at the moment?

    22 Dec 17 at 4:57 pm #33796
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Good question. Lots of favourites. Bet you haven’t read “Group representations in Probability and Statistics” by Percy Diaconis! (or his fantastic book with Ron Graham called Magical Mathematics: The Mathematical Ideas That Animate Great Magic Tricks – on second thoughts that is much more Christmassy!)

    For fiction, this year Harry read (among other things) American Gods by Neil Gaiman, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz. Hard to see a pattern there.

    Waiting to be read on the shelf are Design Crazy by Max Chafkin (about Steve Jobs), Birth of a Theorem by Cédric Villani and the last three novels in the Jack Aubrey/ Maturin series by Patrick O’Brien. (The competition story was inspired in part by that series in 2006 and Harry has still not got round to finishing the series!)

    • This reply was modified 7 years ago by .
    22 Dec 17 at 10:00 pm #33800
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Favourite cipher? From Cipher Challenge or just in general.

    22 Dec 17 at 10:03 pm #33804
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Hard to say. I was blown away by the RSA cipher when first told about it. It made the Enigma cipher seem very old fashioned, but then I didn’t understand the subtlety of the Enigma back then and am very fond of it now. Maybe those choices are a bit predictable though. Hmmmmm.

    22 Dec 17 at 10:04 pm #33805
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Mince pies, wrapping presents, being kind to the Elves. Keeping an eye on the site to see how you are all getting on!

    22 Dec 17 at 10:04 pm #33801
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    What’s Harry doing for Christmas?

    23 Dec 17 at 1:24 am #33809
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    What are you most afraid of?

    23 Dec 17 at 12:10 pm #33818
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    What started your interest in ciphering?

    23 Dec 17 at 12:11 pm #33823
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Which code breaking do you prefer for a Christmas viewing: Enigma, Breaking the Code, The Imitation Game, National Treasure or The Da Vinci Code? Or something else?

    23 Dec 17 at 9:46 pm #33836
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    That depends on a lot of things. Not keen on snakes though!

    23 Dec 17 at 9:47 pm #33837
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Easy one- The Code Book by Simon Singh.

    23 Dec 17 at 9:50 pm #33838
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Have a soft spot for the Robert Redford movie Sneakers, probably because I loved the movie 3 days of the condor too. National Treasure is quite cipher challenge-y though. Nowadays usually spend at least some of Christmas with Sherlock. Shame there isn’t a new one this year.

    25 Dec 17 at 12:41 pm #33863
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Is harry a Time Lord? Looking forward to the Doctor Who Christmas special?

    [Q: Is harry a Time Lord? A: What sort of spook would give out information like that?
    Q: Looking forward to the Doctor Who Christmas special? Yes!]

    • This reply was modified 7 years ago by .
    • This reply was modified 6 years, 11 months ago by .
    31 Dec 17 at 12:10 am #33939
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Yeah Harry- Code Book is great. Even got its own cipher challenge!!!

    31 Dec 17 at 4:46 pm #33962
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Q: Where do you get your inspiration for 8B from? Especially in years like last year, where you created your own cipher!

    A: Excellent question. I have no idea! It is a lot like maths research, you immerse yourself in it and it becomes part of your waking life. You find yourself thinking about it in odd moments, and then an idea just pops into your head. But you have to live it!]

    • This reply was modified 6 years, 12 months ago by .
    • This reply was modified 6 years, 11 months ago by .
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