Book Review: Computer Wit and Wisdom by David Lubar

It’s Not a Bug, It’s a Feature!

A Review of Book Review: Computer Wit and Wisdom by David Lubar

So, you’ve been netsurfing for how long since your last break? You rub your

bewhiskered chin and try to think. Then you glance at the 271 dollar phone

bill laying on top of your bill book. Your wife is looking at you through

evermore slitting eyes.

"Yikes!

" you say.

"I need a break!

"

But what do you do now? Well, there’s nothing like a good computer book to

tide a computer lover over during those times when his wife INSISTS on using

the tied up phone line to call her mother and let her know that she’s still

alive!

"It’s not a Bug, It’s a feature!

" is a nice little diversion for such a

temporarily disconnected sort. It’s also a good little read for anyone who

enjoys computer humor. And let’s face it, if you use computers, your

possession of a sense of humor goes without saying.

The book is a collection of quotes from a variety of literary and literal

sources. The quotations are all tied to computers.

The literary

"quotees

" range from Don Quixote (

"A fine calculation you are

making! It is plain you don’t know the ins and outs of the printers…

") to

Mambo and Charles, Duckman’s two headed son (Machines will always be better

than people. People get angry, they make mistakes, they fail, but computers

never fail. They’re perfect.)

The literal speakers include Woody Allen (

"We know that the most advanced

computer in the world does not have a brain as sophisticated as an ant. True,

we could say that of many of our relatives but we only have to put up with

them at weddings or special occasions.

"), Winn Schwartau (

"There is no such

thing as electronic privacy.

"), and Thomas Watson, former leader of IBM (

"I

see a world market for about five computers.

"). By the way, Watson’s quote

was uttered in 1947.

We also hear from science fiction authors, US presidents, computer pioneers,

philosophers, instruction manuals, the list goes on and on.

The comments range from the prophetic (

"I submit to the public a small

machine by my invention, by means of which you alone may, without any effort,

perform all the operations of arithmetic, and may be relieved of the work

which has often times fatigued your spirit…

" –Blaise Pascal, seventeenth

century) to the ironic (

"Word cannot edit the unknown.

"–Error message from

Word 6.0, 1993) to the gut splitting hilarious (

"You mean I can put a

different disk in the computer? You’re kidding.

"–A user who had kept the

same floppy in her computer for over a year, 1993)

Don’t expect this book to solve any bootup problems you may be having at the

moment. It will, however, provide plenty of the essential lubricant of humor.

Oftentimes, that’s all that is necessary for me to resolve my own system

crashes.

Copyright © 1995 Ron Enderland for infoMedia. All rights reserved worldwide.

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