Humor Books - Page 4

Downloaded: The Third Collection of the 5th Wave

Rich Tennant

List Price: $9.95 By: Andrews McMeel Publishing Amazon Marketplace: 11 new & used starting at $2.77

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Comics & Graphic Novels -> General
Subjects -> Comics & Graphic Novels -> General AAS
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Business & Culture -> Humor

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Never make Santa cope with a 14.4 chimney 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful.

Ah, yes, cartoons with fantasy elements - testing a new network admin with a snakepit; preparing for the MSCE exam by working a Rubix cube underwater without an airhose; providing morphine drips for system upgrades. No relationship to reality at all. :)

This book has no introduction, afterward, or anything except various strips of _The Fifth Wave_, probably familiar to more readers as the cartoons appearing in the For Dummies books than as ComputerWorld magazine's most popular feature. :) Some of the strips have previously appeared in various For Dummies books, but since there are more than 200 strips in this book, that shouldn't be a problem.

The strips cover all sorts of 'technical' topics, from using a snake charmer to try to retrieve a lost file to 'Linux poker'. ("Everyone gets to see everyone else's cards, everything's wild, you can play off your opponents' ands, and everyone wins except Bill Gates, whose face appears on the Jokers.") Tarzan, Lord of the Web makes a couple of appearances ("Lord of the Jungle - where future in that?"), although Buddy Diskk, Computer Comedian does not. (Tennant doesn't even need to crack many AOL jokes, let alone use a comedian character.) We have a few visits to MousePad Land.

Lots of these strips feature kids, especially kids in school and the teachers coping with them, from the teacher who failed an algebra student but liked the kid's animated equations to the teacher who assigned the kids to search for discount vacation airfares. Parents get their fair share too: the couple concerned that their kid can't hot-key from app to app as well as the other kids; the parent who won't buy an ISDN line; the father who installed a vibrating pager in the kids' bunks; the dad who pepped up his ghost stories with multimedia. Some of the kids run roadside stands selling internet access, while others call 911 while the rest of the family is trapped in a computer-game dungeon.

Some non-techie topics are included too, such as the security-conscious 'cube farm' with guards on horseback; experimental alternatives to pie charts; using a wild rhino to test the disaster recovery plan; and people who think 'working with the kernel all day' involves KFC.

CyberYenta's Old-Fashioned Wisdom For Newfangled Times

Rachel Levine

Amazon Price: $7.23 List Price: $9.94 Usually ships in 24 hours By: AuthorHouse Amazon Marketplace: 23 new & used starting at $0.62

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Business & Culture -> Culture
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Business & Culture -> Humor
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Wonderful Wit of Cyber Yenta 5 out of 5 stars.
15 of 15 people found this review helpful.

Written in a unique voice that combines gentle oberservational humor with a keenly sharp wit and knowing eye, Ms. Levine has created a wonderful character and hilarious book. Tackling today's technology with warmth and wisdom, "Cyber Yenta" shares her funny and touching views and opinions on just about everything--and it all rings so very true. Torn between nodding my head in agreement and laughing hysterically, I easily imagined having "CyberYenta" in the kitchen for tea and wished for more of her common-sense guidance and pointers.

I found this book extremely funny, touching and authentic. Not only did it help demystify confusing technological advances but served as a very funny and warm antidote to modern complexities.

Editorial Review:

Everyone knows what a Yenta is, right? A busybody. In the old days, if not for her, how would you know what was going on? So why do you need a Yenta in the Cyber Age when everyone and his brother-in-law not only reads the newspaper but 86% of you are publishing your own?Don't be such a big shot! You think I would write a whole book if I didn't know a little something? So, go pay for the book already. From me you get a guarantee that you will laugh so hard you'll plotz.

The Best of Verity Stob

Verity Stob

Amazon Price: $24.99 List Price: $24.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Apress Amazon Marketplace: 43 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Business & Culture -> Humor
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Programming -> Languages & Tools -> General
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Programming -> Languages & Tools -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Verity Stob &emdash; programmings funniest memoir

— Andrew Orlowski, The Register

Her humor is original and versatile. Poems, stories, scripts, hacked diaries, parodies -- the book has them all.

— Alex Moskalyuk, Slashdot Contributor

Now, thanks to Apress, those who've missed out can catch up with The Best of Verity Stob, an anthology of her work from way back when hard disks were measured in MB and RAM in KB.

— Pan Pantziarka, TechBookReport

Reading the intro, I quickly became a Stob fan.

— Tom Duff, Duffberts Random Musings

Verity Stob is the comedienne of the programming world. She has been writing satirical chronicles of techie life since 1988. Her column first appeared in the legendary .EXE Magazine, then Dr. Dobbs' Journal, and it now graces The Register.

For the first time, the very best of Stobs columns have been collected into one essential book. Discover why Mrs. Bill Gates calls in a programmer to fix her plumbing; find out about the Google computer that suffers from Tourette's syndrome; discover the shameful secret of the CEO who types his correspondence in CAPITAL LETTERS, and much, much more!

Net Talk

Nancy Tamosaitis

List Price: $5.95 By: Ziff-Davis Press Amazon Marketplace: 20 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Business & Culture -> Humor
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Networking -> Data in the Enterprise -> General
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Networking -> Data in the Enterprise -> General AAS

Editorial Review:

Compiling hundreds of acronyms and emoticons (smileys), NetSpeak includes everything from the everyday (BTW, FWIW, IMHO) to the humorous, bawdy, and downright bizarre. The author spices up NetSpeak with celebrity comments on the way they use emoticons and acronyms on-line. Tamosaitis also weaves a humorous essay that employs many of the acronyms and emotions referenced throughout the book.

505 Weirdest Online Stores

Dan Crowley

Amazon Price: $9.95 List Price: $9.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Sourcebooks Hysteria Amazon Marketplace: 32 new & used starting at $1.78

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Home Computing -> Internet -> General AAS
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Business & Culture -> Humor
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Web Development -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

The Childhood Goat Trauma Foundation, And Much More! 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This is a wonderful book for those who like laughing at the excesses of the Internet. Many of the sites in this book are designed to be laughed at ("Naked Dancing Llama"), but, disturbingly, many are not ("Villisca Axe Murderers"). The scope of the book is quite comprehensive and everyone I have shared the book with has been simultaneously mortified and amused. Some of my favorite sites from the book are "Bob Barker Prison Supplies," "Ornithopter Zone," "Texas Bigfoot Research Center," "Pole Vault World," and of course "Air Sickness Bags," a site for collectors of (what else?) airsickness bags (www.airsicknessbags.com.) Really.

While many of these stores ("The British Lawn Mower Museum") are not designed primarily as stores, all of these sites have something to sell, from designer diapers from Montana, to wooden computer peripherals.

This book is eye opening, hilarious, and just a little bit frightening.

Editorial Review:

Following up his hit 505 Unbelievably Stupid Web Pages, Dan Crowley again takes on the Web’s weirdest and wildest in 505 Weirdest Online Stores.

This is the ultimate guide to the Internet’s strangest stores, where you can spend your time and money in pursuit of dehydrated water, duct tape fashion and a corporate hairball. For all those who love eBay but are tired of products that have actual uses, check out these sites:

• The Childhood Goat Trauma Foundation (www.goat-trauma.org)
• Political Talking Action Figures (www.prankplace.com/politics.htm)
• Lunar Land Owner (www.lunarlandowner.com)
• Air Sickness Bags (www.airsicknessbags.com)
• Michael Jackson Artwork (www.helenakadlcikova.com/michael_jackson.htm)

Byte Me!: Hayduke's Guide To Computer-Generated Revenge

George Hayduke

Amazon Price: $15.96 List Price: $19.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Paladin Press Amazon Marketplace: 28 new & used starting at $9.29

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Business & Culture -> Humor
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> General
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 2.0 of 5

Unless you're totally inept, don't bother. 1 out of 5 stars.
22 of 25 people found this review helpful.

I thought I'd be able to find some sophisticated ways to get revenge on the internet--mail bombing, sending pages to thousands of people with my target's phone number, et cetera. Better still, I thought, maybe I'd learn some low-level cracking stuff: the kind of stuff you could use to wreak some serious havoc.

Alas, this is revenge for the very, very simple-minded only. Come on, now--who needs a book to tell them that superglue anywhere in someone's CPU will be irritating? Yes, the ideas presented in this book are just that lame. There are a few gems, but don't bother buying this book to mine them from.

Editorial Review:

Need to get even in the computer age? Just say Byte Me! Turn your mark into roadkill on the Information Superhighway with this hilarious guide from revenge master George Hayduke, the man who put the URL in HURL! Log in to a place where the unwitting object of your ire finds his own computers, fax machines and phones turned against him. From sneaky little annoyances to major meltdowns, Byte Me! has dozens of tried and true (and evilly entertaining) ways to even the score. Learn how to cover your electronic tracks and find all the cybersources you'll need to pull off your humorous Haydukery. Show your enemies that when revenge is computer-generated, the mouse is mightier than the rat! For entertainment purposes only!

Your Computer Thinks You're an Idiot!

Randy Glasbergen

Amazon Price: $7.99 List Price: $7.99 In stock soon. Order now to get in line. First come, first served. By: CCC Publishing Amazon Marketplace: 6 new & used starting at $6.48

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Business & Culture -> Humor
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Hardware -> PCs
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> General

Nerds 2.0.1

Stephen Segaller

List Price: $15.00 By: TV Books Amazon Marketplace: 22 new & used starting at $2.94

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Home Computing -> Internet -> General AAS
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Business & Culture -> History
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Business & Culture -> Humor

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Nerds 2.0.1: A Brief History of the Internet presents the development of the Web as a product of colliding, dualistic forces: the individuality of the personal computer and the universality of a global network. Along the way, other complementary opposites arise, such as the intersection of the "computer lib" hippie hacker and the IBM or Pentagon bureaucrat. The biographies of these visionaries, and the magnificent changes their ideas induced, make Nerds 2.0.1 compelling reading.

Nerds 2.0.1 is a unique computer-history book, in that it is really a history of networking. Author Stephen Segaller covers all the current heavy hitters of the technology industry in depth: Novell, 3Com, and Cisco. In particular, the story of the creation of Cisco--and the ousting of the original founders by the sponsoring venture capitalist--shows the high-level stakes and intrigue this billionaire world holds. Segaller also chronicles the failures of companies who didn't realize what their programmers had made available to them. IBM, Xerox, and, some would say, Microsoft are big players in this part of Segaller's tale.

The author puts technological developments in a helpful context: the infamous 100-hour Silicon Valley workweek, the "dog-year" life span of an Internet start-up, and the managerial shufflings of a sponsoring venture capitalist firm all make sense in the world he describes. --Jennifer Buckendorff

Tales from tech line

David Pogue

List Price: $10.00 By: Berkley Trade Amazon Marketplace: 16 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Business & Culture -> Humor
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> General
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

This Book Will Make You Feel Like A Genius Around Computers! 5 out of 5 stars.
12 of 17 people found this review helpful.

I love doing site visits to companies . . . and my favorite part is talking to the people who operate the help lines. First, I like to see how busy they are. If no one is there and they have nothing to do, I assume that they are doing a great job (or the phone lines are disconnected). If there are lots of people and they are busy, I wonder what's the fuss. Second, I like to find out what these people find funny about their jobs. Over the years, I have heard some terrifically funny stories about phone calls that have come in. But nothing I heard in all these site visits compared to the stories in this book.

The bottom line is that people who have never seen a personal computer before find it pretty confusing to figure out what everything is used for and how to employ them.

As an example, consider the mouse stories. Some people operate them over the keys, while others use the monitor screen. Some people keep them in the plastic bag, thinking this is a dust cover.

Every help desk knows that the most common problems are that computers are either not plugged in or not turned on. The stories here nicely embellish on those themes. One woman worked barefoot and kept hitting the surge suppressor switch with her big toe, turning the computer off. Some people can't find the power switch (what power switch?). One major thought that off stood for official, and wondered why his computer wouldn't conduct official business. One computer system crashed every lunch hour (a contractor had installed a plug in the ladies room, and someone unplugged it at lunch to use the hair dryer daily).

Floppy disk drives present another opportunity. Some people think you just keep putting more and more floppies in, without ever taking one out. Others fail to notice that they don't have a floppy drive, and push floppies into the chassis to just sit there.

Some people find the icons confusing: one woman took the whole family out of the house at 3:37 a.m. when an icon that looked like a bomb came on the screen. She didn't want anyone to be hurt by the bomb in the computer when it exploded.

Of course, the software isn't always that intelligent, either. One program told the user: Cannot find keyboard. Hit F1 to continue.

You will not only find this book humorous, you'll also appreciate the difficulties that other people have with computers. You'll feel better the next time you can't figure out why your computer won't cooperate.

I think it's all an antidote for the one hour and forty-five minutes I spent on a weekend trying to get help from a software vendor without ever getting any useful information. At least I never tried that again. Maybe I should send in my story for the next edition!

Overcome the misconception stall that everyone else has less trouble with computers than you do!

Donald Mitchell

Coauthor of The Irresistible Growth Enterprise (available in August 2000) and The 2,000 Percent Solution

(donmitch@fastforward400.com)

Editorial Review:

"I'd like to buy the Internet. Can you tell me how much it costs?" "Do you have WordPerfect for Gameboy?" "Isn't there a manual for this mouse pad?" They reformat disks...with scissors. They point to File...with their fingers. They try to get online...without a modem. They're the Users--everyday people whose computer-related problems baffle, bewilder, and entertain tech-support staffers around the world. These hilarious true stories prove that technology can turn even college professors and top executives into babbling fools--and, once and for all, settles the question: "Which is better--hardware or software?"