Cryptonomicon

A while back, I mentioned that I had a plan for an ongoing project to create book cover for books that I've read. Well, it never got off the ground, but a while back I had a small stroke of inspiration and decided to create a poster/cover for Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon. The design details are related to the search results for the terms (converted into binary, and given a graphical treatment). The stark black & white treatment results from the nature of the in-book Cryptonomicon, a collection of military code-breaking material.

In this case, the details for the poster revolve around the issue of warrantless wiretapping perpetrated by AT&T and the other major telecoms at the behest of the U.S. government. The numbers may be out of data, but were accurate when I created the poster.

To anyone reading this who wants to put a political spin on it, yes, I think it was a bad thing. A VERY bad thing, particularly considering how EASY it was to get even retroactive permits. I don't mean to single out AT&T – all of the major telecoms except Qwest have been implicated. It just happens that AT&T was caught.

To the pedantic sci-fi nerds who really hate Neal Stephenson, all I can offer is my apologies. It's not that bad of a book, and I'm sorry you're unable to enjoy anything other than didactic hard sci-fi, and that anything that's gotten some public acclaim (and the author hasn't died yet), even when it's not in the sci-fi genre, cheapens sci-fi. Battlestar rules!