Customer Reviews
A jolly romp through the annals of computing - By: Mark R. Bannister, 10 Jun 2007 
If, like me, you've managed to live your life quite happily until now without ever having heard the name of Verity Stob, you will be delighted to discover she is an intelligent (sic) writer of hilarious computer satire, who has been penning witty quips for computer magazines since 1988.
This book is a large collection of her articles from the archives, as well as a few that were not published the first time around. It has to be said that a lot of the humourin this book is for computer programmers, however, if you know nothing at all about programming but know an exceptional amount about dongles, gender-benders & two-way 25-pin D-type parallel connections, there is one article you may laugh at.
Stob's humour is very British at times, but she helpfully provides a jocular Glossary of Britisms at the back of the book to help you along if you're of colonial descent.
Occasionally Stob can witter on into the depths of obscurity, leaving you far behind thinking "am I stupid, or is Stob pretending to be clever?", but her pretence is so utterly believable I am left feeling somewhat inadequate. In particular her re-writing of classic poetry to the tune of technical jargon, & her numerous visits to the Book of Yoc-am written outin biblical-style verses & chapters recounting the adventures of the sons of Kahn (formerly known as the Borland-ites), can get a little tedious.
However, there are so many gemsin this book, that anyone lucky enough to have lived through the development of PC software & technology between 1988 & 2004* will find this a laugh-out-loud & thoroughly entertaining read, which will trigger frequent mirthquakes. She's such a clever writer that even the article titles on the Contents page ooze wit.
I love this book, it now has pride of placein my toilet.
(* If you didn't get to live through it, I extend my belated condolences to you).
A must for any programmer - By: , 17 Jan 2006 
Even though some of the articles are 'before my time' (I'm 26), I recommend this to any geek.
This book has everything from describing emotionally attached assembly programmers who are so sensitive to their code they pass out when their machines are rebooted, to poking at fun to modern day programming paradigms.
Laugh out loud. - By: Dominic G. Connor, 04 May 2005 I'm the mad person you see on the Central line, laughing at some computer book on the way to work. Easily the funniest book on computersin print. This is humour for people who do computers, not the poor little drabs who merely use them.
The wit and whizzwigdom of the ace acerbic programmer - By: , 03 Apr 2005 When I announced, on cix, that my "Verity Stob (does not) have a big bottom" t-shirt had finally fallen to bits (that's 8 bits not your new fangled 32 or 64 bits mind) Ms Stob wrote to me saying I should console myself with her new book.
So I did, & I'm jolly glad I did too.
Such joy at reading some old favourites from her jottingsin .EXE mag. The subtle wit distilled from the understanding of the experienced practitioner & her coding pencil. The art of refined & clever programming by a master of her craft, clever, syntactically correct with all the correct verbs. A far cry from today's regression of languages to point & grunt.
This book is a must, to be chuckled at over & over & sit amongst the hallowed tomes of K&R, "Obfuscated C", Knuth & tattered cuttings of "Sam & the Fat man" from Freelance Informer (another defunct mag from the heady days when the streets of London were paved with drunk contract programmers).
Wonderful - By: Gary J. Walker, 05 Mar 2005 I'm astounded there aren't a whole load of positive reviews for this fine book. Funny, nostalgic, & hopefully Verity's column will reappear regularlyin some suitable organ.
