RIP Captain Jerry Roberts – Bletchley Park Codebreaker | Hacker News Reader

RIP Captain Jerry Roberts – Bletchley Park Codebreaker

unbound.co.uk

52 pointsColinWright10 comments

By chance I happened to meet Captain Jerry Roberts while looking for a room some years ago: their garden (basement) flat in Pimlico had a spare room in what had originally been a cellar under the pavement (sidewalk) in front of the house, which they rented out.

I decided the nearly windowless room was a little dark and dank for my liking, but both he and his wife were very pleasant and it was certainly the most interesting of the many visits to different properties I made at the time.

Note for visitors to London from abroad: It's super easy to get to Bletchley Park from London. I think it took me something like 90 minutes total to get from my hotel in central London to Bletchley park on the train. The staff is well informed and very helpful. They have working replicas of the bombe and colossus machines. It's all very cool. Highly recommended if you have half a day to kill in London.

They're also building a replica EDSAC. http://www.tnmoc.org/special-projects/edsac

http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/ Is the website too.

Like has been said it's easy to get to and worth the trip if you're into the history of computer science.

I went a year ago and it was very inspirational and the perfect antidote to startup BS and all that NSA stuff. Around the time i went i was reading a book about the history of cryptography and it was great linking everything together!

It's just a shame Alan was treated the way he was although the letter from Gordon Brown PM in the main museum is definitely worth a look for any LGBT history guru!

What was the name of the book you were reading?

One of the better books I read was by David Kahn "The Codebreakers: The Story of Secret Writing"

I love cryptography and am always looking for good books on the subject.

The Code Book by Simon Singh is one of the best intros, I think.

It covers a lot more than Bletchley, but it gives Bletchley really good coverage and context.

A friend of mine built an enigma machine based on the description and wiring diagrams in the book: http://williamedwardscoder.tumblr.com/post/19946053957/enigm...

It's all changed since a year ago. Bletchley guides are no longer allowed to show you the computers, you have to buy tickets specifically for the National Computer Museum

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/28/bletchley_park_sacks...

Note also that you want tickets for the National Computer Museum as astonishingly, Bletchley Park no longer includes it on the tour. Bletchley are behaving like arses, in my opinion

http://www.zdnet.com/national-computer-museum-downgraded-by-...

While in the UK over Christmas that was a plan though because of all the flooding and bad weather my partner and I decided against it since we didn't want to lose our last day in bad transit.

If I can recall it's something like a 45 minute train ride from Euston station to Bletchley.

I've just finished reading Connie Willis' "Blackout/All Clear" novels, and I'm very sad there are fewer and fewer people from that age still around. As you can see today, almost all of us have forget the lessons learned from that war and some countries are starting to behave like just before WW2 nowadays.

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