`Humour The Computer' (HTC) Related Reading


The January 1995 version of this list is an appendix of HTC.

Last updated on August 19th, 1996.

Quickly jump to authors beginning with: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z

The new entry is marked with an icon; look under T.

The books (and other resources) described here have the common aim of being both humorous and concerned with computing. Aside from that, they are very different, ranging from cartoon guides to folklore to novels. I make no claims that this list is comprehensive, but it has been greatly improved by the generous help of the following people, whom I heartily thank:

Needless to say, if you have any suggestions about how to make this list even better, please get in touch. Details on how to contact me are here.

A few keywords are used in the entries: OOP: Out Of Print (according to 'Books in Print', 1993-1994); R: Read by me; E: There's an Extract in HTC.

A. To Top

Adams, Douglas. 1979. The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Pan Books, R.
This book and its sequels have very little to do with hitch-hiking. Adam's work has been described as a combination of "satire, humour and carefully crafted lunacy with whimsical speculation about such universal themes as 'life, the universe and everything'." The BBC radio series of the same name, which was the source for the first book, is also very enjoyable. The other Hitch-Hiker books are: 'The Restaurant at the End of the Universe' 1980, 'Life, the Universe and Everything' 1982, 'So Long and Thanks for All the Fish' 1984, and 'Mostly Harmless' 1992. The first 'Dirk Gently' book contains some computer-related humour: 'Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency' 1987. It was followed by: 'The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul', 1988.

Adams, Phillip. and Newell, Patrice. (eds.). 1995. The Penguin Book of Jokes from Cyberspace, Penguin.
Jokes downloaded from the Internet, and submitted by readers of The Weekend Australian.

Adler, Bill. (ed.). 1968. Dear Dating Computer, Bobbs-Merrill, OOP.

Ahl, David. H. (ed.) 1977. The Colossal Computer Cartoon Book, Creative Computing Press, E; R; OOP.
A lovely selection of cartoons from 'Creative Computing' magazine from the mid 70's. The magazine was also famous for its April Fools parodies, some of which are included in HTC. Three of the best April issues are from 1978, 1980 and 1982. Also of interest by the same author: 'Amazing, Thrilling, Fantastic Computer Stories' 1976.

Ainsley, Robert. and Rae, Alexander C. 1988. Bluff Your Way in Computers, Ravette Books, R.
Some of the advice includes: seven golden rules for computing bluffing, how to identify different kinds of users, and how to choose a computer. My copy is a few years old, but I believe that a new edition came out at the end of 1993.

Alcock, Donald. 1977. Illustrating Basic, Cambridge University Press, R.
At school, this cartoon book helped me to understand data structures for the first time. Alcock has also written several other books in a similar style, on C, FORTRAN, etc.

Amann, Dick. and Smith, Dick. 1978. Forgotten Women of Computer History, Programmed Studies, Inc., OOP.
Concerned with sex discrimination against women in the computing field. Also has a humorous element (don't ask me how).

The Annals of Improbable Research (AIR), R.
Dedicated to dangerously potent science humour. AIR is a new magazine produced by the entire former editorial staff (1955-1994) of "The Journal of Irreproducible Results (JIR)," the world's oldest satirical science journal. The new magazine's co-founders are Marc Abrahams (air@mit.edu), who edited JIR from 1990-1994, and Alexander Kohn, who founded JIR in 1955 and was its editor until 1989. AIR is published by the MIT Museum in Cambridge, MA. The editorial board consists of more than 40 distinguished scientists from around the world including seven Nobel Laureates. AIR appears six times per year.

There is an amusing AIR WWW page, which is still under construction.

For details on subscribing to the magazine, send a SASE to: 

The Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)
PO Box 380853
Cambridge, MA 02238 USA 
Tel: +1 617 491 4437
General Info: info@improb.com
Editorial: marca@wilson.harvard.edu
Subscriptions: air@improb.com
There is a miniature version of AIR available free over the Internet. The mini-AIR is distributed as a LISTSERV application, and about 12 issues will be published per year. To subscribe, send a brief email message to either of these addresses: 

        LISTPROC@AIR.HARVARD.EDU
The body of your message should contain only the words "SUBSCRIBE MINI-AIR" followed by your name.

The USENET newsgroup clari.feature.imprb_research presents a syndicated weekly column of reports extracted from AIR.

Armstrong, Jeffrey. 1985. The Binary Bible of Saint $ilicon, Any Key Press, OOP.
An example illustrates the writing style: "Boota, the on-line one who taught us how to achieve nerdvana." The word play makes plentiful use of religious imagery.

Arneson, D.J. 1983. The Official Computer Hater's Handbook, Dell, OOP.
On the back cover, it says "Everything the computer hater needs to know about: How to destroy a computer; What to do with a dead computer; How to spot a computer hacker; How to tell if your teenager is using computers; How to understand computerspeak; How to turn off computer conversations at cocktail parties; Video games... the 25c lobotomy; The real difference between computer chips and buffalo chips."

Asimov, Issac. and Jeppson, J.O. 1982. Laughing Space, Houghton Mifflin.
An anthology of humorous science fiction, containing a few stories concerned with computers and robots.

B. To Top

Barry, John A. 1991. Technobabble, MIT Press, R.
An examination of the language of technology, with an emphasis on computing. It's no surprise that a lot of computer folklore is tied up with jargon.

Barth, John. 1966. Giles Goat Boy, Doubleday.
The computer acts the goat?

Bear, John, PhD. 1983. Computer Wimp, Ten Speed Press, R.
A list of 166 things that anyone should know before buying a computer. There is a sequel: 'Computer Wimp No More: Intelligent Beginner's Guide to Computers', 1991, Ten Speed Press.

Bell, Patty. and Myrland, Doug. 1983. The Official Silicon Valley Guy Handbook, Avon Books, OOP.

Bethke, Bruce. 1995. HeadCrash, Warner Aspect.
Being the True Adventures of Jack Burroughs, master hacker. Cribbed from William Gibson, Vernor Vinge, and even Harry Harrison, but amusing enough to check out.

Bishop, Ann. and Warshaw, Jerry. 1982. Hello, Mr. Chips!: Computer Jokes and Riddles, Lodestar Books, OOP.
A collection of riddles involving computers.

Breathed, Berke. 1980-90's. Bloom County Cartoons, Little, Brown and Co.
There are some good cartoons about computers (Apple Macs), among the 10,000 other ones about penguins. They have all been reprinted in 10 or so books.

Brown, Gene. 1983. Small Bytes: An Irreverent Computer Dictionary, Collier Books, OOP.

Busch, David D. 1985. Sorry About the Explosion: A Humorous Guide to Computers, Prentice-Hall.
I wonder where the explosion fits in?

Byte, Dr Maurice K. (Steve Carter and Josh Levene). 1984. How to Make Love to a Computer, Pocket Books, OOP.
From the back cover: "Let a leading computer sexologist teach you his secrets. Why a Computer is an Ideal Partner; Is Size Important?; The G Spot Controversy; Plugging In; The Many languages of Love; The Mysteries of Aural Sex; Hardcore Software and Other Computerotica; The Big O Versus the Little o; The Special Needs of a Word Processor; Premature Programming; and much, much more!"

C. To Top

Ciarcia, Steve. 1978. Take my Computer - Please, Scelbi Computer Consulting, OOP.
The author documents the scrapes you can get into with a home computer (back when any home machine was uncommon).

Cook, Rick. The 'Wiz' Series, Baen Books.
This series includes in chronological order: 'Wizard's Bane' 1989, 'Wizardry Cursed' 1993, and 'Wizardry Compiled' 1993. They feature a UNIX 'wizard' who is summoned to a fantasy world where he becomes a 'real' wizard, whose magic works like a computer language. Most enjoyable for readers with a knowledge of UNIX. A typical line from 'Wizard's Bane': 

  "The closest I ever came to magic was working with UNIX wizards." 
  "Eunuchs wizards?  Did they do that to themselves to gain power?"
Cornwall, Hugo. and Gold, Steve. 1989. Hugo Cornwall's New Hacker's Handbook, (4th ed.), Century. Full of hacker-type information, and some great stories.

D. To Top


Datamation's Net Humor Selections. A pleasing collection of classics (e.g. BOFH and Real Programmers) with new stuff and links to other fun sites. Located at http://www.datamation.com/PlugIn/humor/humor.html as part of a larger Datamation Web site.

Ditlea, Steve (ed.). 1984. Digital Deli, Workman Publishing, OOP.
A "comprehensive user-lovable menu of computer lore, culture, lifestyles and fancy."

E. To Top

Ebert, Roger and Kratz, John. 1994. The Computer Insectiary: A Field Guide To Viruses, Bugs, Worms, Trojan Horses, and Other Stuff That Wil Eat Your Programs And Rot Your Brain, Andrews and McMeel.

Enns, Neil. 1995. Computer Humor WWW Page.
A collection of computer humour, including "The Computer Science Song Book", "Melvin Magazine", "BOFH", etc. Also includes cartoons by John Z and Randy Glasbergen. Contact Neil Enns at ennsnr@brandonu.ca to add entries.

F. To Top

Fiddy, Roland. 1993. The Fanatic's Guide to Computers, Exley Pub. Ltd, R.
Cartoons by the author. Some good ones.

Flaherty, Doug. 1986. Humanizing The Computer: A Cure For The "deadly embrace", Wadsworth Pub., OOP.
Includes a chapter on computer fiction and humor.

Frampton, Rodger (ed.). 1990. It's a Funny Thing, Robert Hale.
A collection of byte-size stories, anecdotes, witticisms and cartoons from the world of computers and Information Technology. The material was donated by many people working in the industry and all the royalties from the book go the the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children in London.

Frayn, Michael. 1995. The Tin Men, Penguin, E; R.
The funniest novel written about computer scientists, technocrats, and the absurdities of research. Originally published in 1965 by Collins, it won the Somerset Maugham Award.

FTP sites
Numerous anonymous FTP sites store humorous material. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then pick up a book on the Internet. I've listed below the addresses and directories of some good places. The material typically runs into the megabytes. 

Address 		Directory 
mc.lcs.mit.edu 		/its/ai/humor and /its/ai/humor1 (very good)
cathouse.org  		/pub/cathouse/humor (very good) 
nic.funet.fi  		/pub/doc/humour
rascal.ics.utexas.edu  	/misc/funny
donau.et.tudelft.nl   	/pub/humor 
ocf.berkeley.edu    	/pub/Library/Parodies
prep.ai.mit.edu 	/pub/gnu    (the Jargon file is stored here)
When I was first collecting articles in late 1992, I used an archie server to search for all the file names which contained 'humor' or 'humour'. It built a list of hundreds of names, with the files spread across almost as many sites.

An alternative to using FTP is to access these sites using Mosaic (or similar software). See the entry on the World Wide Web for some details.

G. To Top

Gall, John. 1975. Systemantics, How Systems Work and Especially how they Fail. Fontana (originally published by Quadrangle/NY Time Book Co).
Not specifically about computers, but many of the principles are applicable to computer and software systems. There is a follow-up book called 'Systematics: The Underground Text of Systems Lore', 1986, (2nd edition), General System Press.

Garfinkel, Simson. Weise, Daniel. and Strassmann, Steven. 1994, The Unix-Haters Handbook: The Best of the Unix-Haters On-line Mailing List Reveals Why UNIX Must Die!, IDG Books.
Contains a forward by Donald Norman, Apple Computer and Anti-Forward by Dennis Ritchie, AT&T Bell Labs. It has a lot of hilarious material, and is not to be missed.

Gerberg, Mort. 1986. Computer Hooters!: Computer Riddles, Jokes, and Knock-Knocks, Scholastic Inc., OOP.
A collection of riddles and jokes about computers using words and ideas associated with computers.

Glass, Robert L. 1978. Tales of Computing Folk: Hot Dogs and Mixed Nuts, Computing Trends, R; OOP.
Stranger-than-Fiction stories, mostly from a series of 'Sociology of Computing' articles published in ComputerWorld. Glass has written several other books along similar lines, which are in print: 'The Universal Elixir and Other Computing Projects Which Failed', 1977; 'The Power of Peonage', 1979; 'Computing Catastrophes', 1983; 'Computing Shakeout', 1987; 'Software folklore', 1991 (all published by Computing Trends).

Godin Seth (ed.). 1993. The Smiley Dictionary, Peachpit Press, R.
A smiley, in case who didn't know, is something like this :), but there are hundreds of variations, many of them collected in this little book :^}.

Gonick, Larry. 1991. The Cartoon Guide to the Computer, Harper Perennial, R.
This guide painlessly introduces computing with the aid of some excellent cartoons. Incidentally, Gonick has produced cartoon guides for several other subjects, including genetics and statistics.

H. To Top

Hartman, Peter. 1990. Junior Citizen's: An Owner's Manual: Child Care for the Computer Generation, Great Bear Press.

Hedtke, Patricia Callander. 1993. A Field Guide to Windows Icons: An Introduction to The Commonest Icons in North America, Osborne McGraw-Hill.
From the cover: A witty take-off on naturalists' field guides that describes common and uncommon sightings of Windows icons.

Heinlein, Robert A. 1968. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Berkley, R.
Not so much a novel, as a handbook on lunar revolution. It's included here because of a sentient computer that tell jokes, and displays a reviving streak of black humour towards the end of the story.

Hofstadter, Douglas R. 1979. Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. Basic Books, R.
It's quite hard to sum up this magnificent book in a few lines. The discussion ranges over music, logic, artificial intelligence, genetics, and onwards. It closes with a conversation involving Charles Babbage, Alan Turing, the author, a tortoise, a crab, and Achilles.

Hogan, James P. The 'Giants' series, Ballantine.
This series includes in chronological order: 'Inherit The Stars' 1977, 'The Gentle Giants of Ganymede' 1978, 'Giant's Star' 1981, and 'Entoverse' 1991. The stories feature self-aware computers, sophisticated enough to make witticisms in social situations, which is more than many real computer scientists can manage.

Holmes, Jeffrey. 1975. Shakespeare Was A Computer Programmer, Brunswick Press, OOP.
Great title.

Honeysett, Martin. 1982. Micro Phobia: How to Survive Your Computer, Tribeca Communications, OOP.
Cartoons.

I. To Top

No entries for I yet.

J. To Top

James, Geoffrey. 1987. The Tao of Programming, InfoBooks, R.
This collection of computing proverbs aims "to share with you a few serious thoughts presented on soft pillows of warm smiles." It was conceived while the author was practicing Tai Chi. The order form at the back of the book mentions 'The Zen of Programming' which probably merits a look. He has also written 'Computer Parables: Enlightenment in the Information Age' 1989, published by InfoBooks.

Jennings, Karla. 1990. The Devouring Fungus: Tales of the Computer Age. W.W. Norton, R.
A comprehensive discussion of computer lore.

Johnston, J.M. 1992. Biting The Wall, Acme Press.
This novel concerns shenanigans at the computer center of a small American college. Nearly every character is amusingly eccentric. Although the story isn't outrageously funny throughout, there are some wonderful moments.

The Journal of Irreproducible Results (JIR), E; R.
Since 1955, JIR has been the publication of record for overly stimulating research and ideas. JIR publishes original articles, news of particularly egregious scientific results, and short notices of satiric and humorous intent. For details on subscribing, write to: 

        The Journal of Irreproducible Results
        c/o Wisdom Simulators, P.O. Box 380853
        Cambridge, MA 02238, USA
Also see the entry on "The Annals of Improbable Research".

There are two "best of" JIR books: 'Sex As a Heap of Malfunctioning Rubble (And Further Improbabilities): More of the Best of The Journal of Irreproducible Results', Marc Abrahams, (ed.), Workman Publishing, 1993, and 'The Best of the Journal of Irreproducible Results', George H. Scherr, (ed.), Workman Publishing, 1983.

K. To Top

Kaufman, Robert Emanuel. 1978. A FORTRAN Coloring Book, MIT Press, OOP.
Witty, bordering on corny. For example: variables called DAFDIL and P2NIA, a cartoon with a floor mat (FORMAT), and example code to calculate the temperature in a liquor still.

Kawasaki, Guy. 1992. The Computer Curmudgeon. Hayden Books.
A classic repository of the Macintosh attitude. Including: Why using a Macintosh is like sex; The sly strategies and clues to getting good tech support; How to get a job in the hot world of computers; Five ways to tell whether your kid will be a Mac or PC user; Who the REAL enemy is.

Keenan, Tom. 1993. TFASOTAHPTIRLEHTJB (The First, Advanced, State-of-the-Art, High Performance, Totally Integrated, Revolutionary, Leading Edge, High Tech Joke Book). Oak Ridge Public Relations, Inc.

Keller, Charles. 1982. Ohm On The Range: Robot and Computer Jokes, Prentice-Hall.

Kelly-Bootle, Stan. 1995. The Computer Contradictionary, The MIT Press (2nd ed.). A fully updated version of The Devil's DP Dictionary, McGraw-Hill, 1981.
A homage to Ambrose Bierce's 'The Devil's Dictionary' set amongst computer folk. The dictionary entries make numerous references to fictional characters and organisations.

L. To Top

Lebovitz, Nancy, 1994. Button Mail-order Catalogue, R.
A collection of 2259 slogans of all types (not just computing): you choose the slogan you want, and a button sporting that saying will be sent to you for a small fee. (For fellow English people: buttons are the same as badges.) The computing categories include: angst, bugs, dealing with users, personal computers, programming, puns, specific languages, UNIX and related operating systems, USENET, Other Networks, Email, and bulletin boards. For more details contact: 

	Nancy Lebovitz,
	400 Wollaston Ave. #C6,
	Newark, DE 19711, USA
	Email: nancy@genie.slhs.udel.edu
Leiber, Fritz. 1961. The Silver Eggheads, Ballantine, OOP.
The novel dissects the world of publishers, writers and readers, with humorous references to a wide range of literature.

Le Noury, Daniel. and Panish, Paul. 1984. Computer Crazy, Sybex, OOP.
French Cartoons.

Lerner, Lawrence. 1974. ARTHUR: The Life and Opinions of a Digital Computer, University of Massachusetts Press (also Harvester Press), OOP.
The philosophical verse of a thick-witted Artificial Intelligence program. A forgotten classic.

Ley, James M. and Logsdon, Eileen M. 1983. Computers Are Useless: 100 Uses For a Dead Computer, Thunderbolt Publications, OOP.
Cartoons.

Lodge, David. 1984. Small World: An Academic Romance, Secker and Warburg.
A novel set in an English literature department of a university, which features computers as part of a minor side-plot. This mainly concerns a version of Eliza, and computer analysis of an author's work (which actually ruins his ability to write.) Some of the technical details are incorrect, but the book is still a great read.

Lubar, David, 1995. It's Not a Bug, It's a Feature, Addison-Wesley.
A collection of computer quotes that 'will keep you smirking well into the wee hours of the morn.'

M. To Top

Mad Science. The First Internation Virtual Convention on Mad Science.
Submit a piece of mad science

Malik, Rex. 1987. The World's Best Computer Jokes, Angus and Robertson, OOP.
Includes the prize winning jokes from the Times-CMG humour competition.

Mates, Nathan. 1995 Nathan Mates's Humor Archive
Formidable archives from rec.humor and other places.

Matusow, Harvey. 1968. The Beast of Business: A Record of Computer Atrocities, Wolfe, OOP.

N. To Top

Neumann, Peter G. Risks.
Peter Neumann is the moderator of the comp.risks news group, and for those of us who enjoy reading about computer calamities, this group always has plenty of juicy tidbits, liberally spiced with gallows humour. The best items also appear in the Risks section of Software Engineering Notes, a monthly ACM Press publication. In 1994, Neumann wrote a book on risk themes, entitled Computer-Related Risks, published by the ACM Press (Addison Wesley).

News Groups on the Internet
The Internet is one name for the spaghetti-like network of computer systems that support news groups (and other things). To be precise, it is USENET that carries news articles, and this is accessible from the Internet.

If the preceding sentences are news to you, then you should peruse the many excellent texts about the Internet.

A recent estimate put the number of mainstream news groups at over 800, with a similar number again of more unusual groups. This of course doesn't take into account the plethora of local and regional groups, which probably run into the thousands. It's likely that a high proportion of news groups have some humorous content, but for the sake of your sanity, I'll only list a few of the main ones: 

	rec.humor.funny (moderated) 
	alt.humor.best-of-usenet
	rec.humor
        rec.humor.oracle      (the USENET equivalent of Delphi)
	alt.tasteless.jokes   (strong stuff, as the name suggests)
rec.humor.funny is also available in book form, on CD-ROM (see [Templeton]), and is archived at a lot of FTP sites.

Other good sources of humour are: 

	comp.risks (see [Neumann]) 
	alt.folklore.computers
O. To Top

Orfali, Sebstain. (ed.) 1984. Computer Comics, Ronin Pub.
Cartoons.

P. To Top

Panish, Paul., Panish, Anna Belle., and Small, Terry. 1984. Mother Goose Your Computer: A Grownup's Garden of Silicon Satire, Sybex, OOP.

Pfeifer, Diane. 1993. Quick Bytes: Computer Lover's Cookbook, Strawberry Patch.
Vegetarian cookery and computers.

Q. To Top

No entries for Q yet.

R. To Top

Raymond, Eric (ed.). 1993. The New Hacker's Dictionary, MIT Press (2nd edition), R.
If you want to understand what a Hacker is saying, then this book will allow you to translate the guy's mumbled utterances into English.

The text of the dictionary is available at a lot of Internet sites, usually called 'The Jargon File' (see [FTP Sites]), but downloading all of it is more painful than simply buying a copy.

A useful World Wide Web (WWW) version of the Dictionary can be found at http://web.cnam.fr/bin.html/By_Searchable_Index?Jargon_File.html. It is searchable by keywords. See the entry on the World Wide Web for some details on the WWW.

A few more book details (including a picture of Eric Raymond) can be found as part of The MIT Press WWW site.

Richard's Humor Tree.
Includes two sections on computers.

Rochester, Jack B. and Gantz, John. 1983. The Naked Computer, William Morrow, OOP.
The full title describes the book as "a layperson's almanac of computer lore, wizardry, personalities, memorabilia, world records, mind blowers, and tomfoolery."

S. To Top

Sanderson, David W. 1993. Smileys, O'Reilly and Assoc.
From O'Reilly's catalogue: A collection of the computer underground hieroglyphs called "smileys." Originally inserted into email messages to denote "said with a cynical smile":-), smileys now run rampant throughout the electronic mail culture. They include references to politics 7:^] (Ronald Reagan), entertainment C]:-= (Charlie Chaplin), history 4:-) (George Washington), and mythology @-) (cyclops). They can laugh out loud %-(I), wink ;-), yell :-(0), frown :-(, and even drool :-)~.

Schneider, Ben Ross. 1974. Travels in Computerland or, Incompatibilities and Interfaces, Addison-Wesley, OOP.
"An outsider's perspective on the mad world of computing. Written by an English professor who knew little about computers before finding himself engaged in a mammoth computer project converting 'The London Stage', an 8000-page calendar of performances from 1660 to 1800, to a computer-accessible information base for scholars in theatre, drama and history. Based on his experiences while working on this project, the book is a witty tale of the long, hard road from idea to reality via computer" [from the blurb on the back cover].

Selkirk, Errol. and Kandler, Benny. 1986. Computers for Beginners, Writers and Readers, R.
A lively 'comic book'-style introduction to computing, which covers a wide range of topics.

Shockwave
A humorous weekly US radio program, specialising in science fiction and fact. A number of the scripts have a computer slant, including the radio play 'You're Riding the Shockwave'. A Shockwave FAQ is maintained by it's producer David E. Romm (romm@winternet.com).

Sias, Mary Ellen. 1984. Computer Jokes and Riddles, Weekly Reader Books, OOP.
A collection of jokes and riddles about computers using words and ideas associated with computers.

Sladek, John Thomas. 1968. The Reproductive System (Known as 'Mechasm' in the US), Gollancz, R; OOP.
The story begins when a failing toy company gets government support for 'a project that is utterly, hopelessly useless'. They develop a machine that can reproduce itself and, naturally, things get out of hand. Among other things, Las Vegas gets eaten.

Other Sladek books of interest:

'Roderick', 1982, and 'Roderick at Random', 1983, Carroll and Graf.
The adventures of a Candide-like robot boy among humans, many of whom are intent on explaining how the sentence 'this sentence is false' should cause a mental seizure.

'Tik-Tok', 1983, Gollancz, OOP.
A robot who's Asimov circuits don't work, allowing it to take life with relish, never be suspected, and move on to a life in politics.

'Bugs', 1989, Gollancz, OOP.
A rather black book revolving around an AI research company and the missing robot that they've built.

Spencer, Donald D. (ed.). 1994. Computer Humor (2nd ed.), Camelot Publishing.
A collection of computer cartoons, drawn by Theresa B. Balon and others. Spencer has written several other books: 'Computer Cartoon Visual Masters' 1987, 'Cartoons for Computer Classes' 1988, and 'Computers, Computers, Computers' 1992, all published by Camelot Publishing.

Stephenson, Neal 1992. Snow Crash, Bantam.
The main character is named Hiro Protagonist, and that pretty much says it all. Hiro splits his time between delivering pizzas for the Mafia and saving the world. This is unarguably the best work in the field of cybersatire. Stephenson takes equally brilliant shots at government bureaucracy, cuberpunk cliches, and suburban mall-culture.

T. To Top

Templeton, Brad. The TeleJoke Books, Clarinet Communication Corp, E; R.
These compilations are drawn from the rec.humor.funny news group. There are four books: Vol. I 1988, Vol. II 1989, Vol. III 1990, and Vol. IV 1991. A complete archive of rec.humor.funny is also available, as part of a CD-ROM anthology of Hugo and Nebula nominees and winners for 1993. More information can be obtained by FTP from ftp.clarinet.com in the files /sf/info and /clarinet_info/jokebooks.

Tennant, Rich. 1992. The 5th Wave: BYTE-ing Humor, Andrews and McMeel.
A surfing/computing book?

NEW Tennant, Rich. 1994. Version 2.0, More Byting Humor from The 5th Wave, Andrews and McMeel.
A collection of single panel cartoons that have appeared in trade publications and newspapers around the world.

Tennant, Rich. and Barry, John. 1984. The Unofficial I Hate Computers Book, Hayden, OOP.
It sounds promising.

Trancz, Will. 1995. Confessions of a Used Program Salesman: Institutionalizing Software Reuse, Addison-Wesley.
The blurb says: 'This book addresses the important topic of software reuse in a humorous, entertaining way.'

U, V. To Top

No entries for U or V yet.

W. To Top

Wahlstrom, Mat. 1992. 101 Uses For A Dead Computer, Hayden, OOP.
Cartoons.

Webb, Spyder. 1983. What Do You Think, Machinehead?, Reston Pub. Co., OOP.

Weber, Robert L (ed.). 1992. Science With a Smile, IOP Publishing, R.
A lovely anthology of science-related humour (including computer science). A great book for dipping into, and you can salve your conscience by calling it instructive. Weber's earlier books are just as much fun: 'A Random Walk in Science', and 'More Random Walks in Science', both published by the Institute of Physics, UK.

Weisman, Omri. 1996. The Biggest List of Humor Sites on the WWW
A very extensive list of links to many different humorous WWW sites. There is a subsection on computer humour. The starting point is http://www.cs.bgu.ac.il/~omri/humor-sites.html.

Wells, Clyde. and Saidis, Frank. 1986. 101 Uses For An Unused Home Computer, Peachtree Publishers, OOP.
Cartoons.

Wilde, Larry. and Wozniak, Steve. 1988. The Official Computer Freaks Joke Book, Bantam Books.

Williams, Kipper. 1986. Warning! This Computer Bytes!, Javelin, OOP.
English humorous cartoons from various artists.

Winchester, Dorothy M. and D'Spain, Rob. 1987. 101 Uses For Your Burned Out Computer, Computer Paraphernalia, OOP.

Woo, Dianne. 1992. The Computer Munched My Homework, Tor Books.
Aimed at kids.

The World Wide Web (WWW)
I have seen the future, and it's called the WWW (or Web): a much easier and more enjoyable way of browsing through the Internet (`surfing' if you prefer).

A great starting point for WWW-accessible humour is Omri Weisman's page: http://www.cs.bgu.ac.il/~omri/humor-sites.html which leads to formidable archives.

X, Y. To Top

No entries for X or Y yet.

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Zakour, John. M. 1994-present. Computer Cartoons on the WWW
A large collection of computer-related cartoons, drawn by John M. Zakour, and added to every weekday. Start at http://zeb.nysaes.cornell.edu/ctoons.cgi/l-english. There is a form for sending John comments about his work, and the language used in the cartoons can be varied.

Andrew Davison