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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