[Phpwm] (Computer Science) Reading Material

[Stephen Parkes]

On 6/22/06, Paul Cooper <pgc at openadvantage.org> wrote:
>
> ----- pete graham <petegraham1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> [snip]
> > Either way I have decided that I am going to read more "tech" books,
> > can any of you guys suggest some that I might enjoy?
>
> I can recommend 'Newtonian Casino' by Thomas Bass - it's not exactly about programming but more about 'hacking' in the hardware + software + science sense. It's about a bunch of science students in the 80s who decided to beat the casinos with computers in their shoes (and along the way invented new discipline of statistical physics). I think I've read it 3 or 4 times over the years.
>

This has reminded me of the excellent "Bringing Down the House" the
story of the MIT card counting team.  Counting cards at blackjack is a
definate hack because it's a simple system that's hard to perfect and
these guys managed it.  They came up with systems to make card
counters difficult to spot by the casinos and made millions each
weekend at the only game in the casino that you can win without luck
and they did it all without a 6502 in the shoe ;)

sparkes

-- 
Steve 'sparkes' Parkes - tshirts http://nerd.ws - code http://zx-81.com
   Autistic LUG http://autisticlug.org - blog http://sp.arkes.co.uk