Subject: 'Humour The Computer' Related Reading
From: [email-masked] (Andrew Davison)
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 1994 01:52:21 GMT
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,rec.humor,rec.arts.books

'Humour The Computer' (HTC) Related Reading (V.3)

The list included below will become an appendix of `Humour The Computer',
an anthology of the comic, amusing and laughable aspects of computing.
Subject to the approval of The MIT Press editorial board,
the book is scheduled to be published in paperback later this
year.

I'm posting this list as a source of information, but also as a 
way of filling in gaps. I would very much appreciate any 
amendments and additions, and you will be credited in the text.

Thanks,
 Andrew Davison
 Email: [email-masked]

______________ LIST FOLLOWS ___________________

'Humour The Computer' (HTC) Related Reading 
Version 3;  10th March 1994

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, who I heartily thank:
Bruce J. Baker ([email-masked]);
Mark Brader ([email-masked]);
Roy Carlson ([email-masked]);
Ian Feldman ([email-masked]);
Lars Marius Garshol ([email-masked]);
David Goldfarb ([email-masked]);
Andrew Guy ([email-masked]);
Petri Maaninen ([email-masked]);
Donald Nichols ([email-masked]);
Eric S. Raymond ([email-masked]);
Brian Reynolds ([email-masked]);
Arne Rohde ([email-masked]);
Bob Roos ([email-masked]);
Col. G. L. Sicherman ([email-masked]);
Keely M. Swenson ([email-masked]);
Roger Scowen ([email-masked]);
Barry Traish ([email-masked]).

Needless to say, if you have any suggestions about how to
make this list *even better*, please get in touch.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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!"

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?"

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

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.

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

Frayn, Michael. 1965. The Tin Men, Collins, E; R; OOP. 
The funniest novel written about computer scientists,
technocrats, and the absurdities of research. This book 
should be reissued immediately.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Journal of Irreproducible Results (JIR), E; R. 
The JIR has a long history of publishing research of a
refreshingly silly kind. For details on subscribing, write to:
	JIR Subscriptions 
	Blackwell Scientific Publications 
	3 Cambridge Center 
	Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Kaufman, Robert Emanuel. 1978. A FORTRAN Coloring Book, MIT Press, OOP. 
Witty, bordering on corny.

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

Kelly-Bootle, Stan. 1981. The Devil's DP Dictionary, McGraw-Hill, R; OOP.
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.

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.

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

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

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 addition, Neumann has just finished a book on
risk themes, tentatively titled 'Computer-Related Risks', which will
probably appear in 1994, 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 
of 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) 
	rec.humor
	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

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

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.

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.

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."

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. 

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. 

Spencer, Donald D. (ed.). 1993. 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.

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 Fifth Wave: BYTE-ing Humor,
Andrews and McMeel, OOP.
A surfing/computing book?

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

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.

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.