Devouring Fungus [Paperback]

Jennings Karla (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 17, 1990

This humorous history of the computer offers a series of anecdotes of the way people view, use and misuse them, describes the uses and abuses to which they are put in personal and business life and underlines the way in which they have infiltrated all aspects of life. A typical tale from the book is one that recounts how a hacker in America found that his baby daughter had slipped a slice of processed cheese into his floppy disc sleeve - having watched him all too closely. The author, once completely computer illiterate, is a freelance writer, whose articles have appeared in the "New York Times", "Newsday", "Cosmopolitan" and others.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Anyone who has ever had a day's worth of computer work vanish into a black hole will relish this assortment of anecdotes about the mysterious machines and their devotees. Freelance journalist Jennings delves into history, recalling IBM's origins, the author of the first program (Ada Byron, daughter of Lord Byron) and source of the word "nerd" (Dr. Seuss). There is an insider's glimpse of Silicon Valley, where "People stop you in the street and ask for a dollar to buy a floppy." There are the games programmers play on users, like the accountant who searched for a water drain under the desk when a prank program led his computer to mimic a washing machine. High-tech cat and mouse is equally inventive: alerted by an unexplained charge in his user account, astrophysicist Clifford Stoll tracked down a spy ring that had gained access to Defense Department data (see Stoll's The Cuckoo's Egg , nonfiction reprints below). And we're reassured that computers don't do everything well: an English-French translation program missed the point when it rendered "Out of sight, out of mind" as "Blind, insane." The book is illustrated with cartoons by Garry Trudeau, Rich Tennant and others.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

A custodian plugs his electric floor polisher into the military base mainframe to buff the computer room floor, causing the system to crash every few days. The officer in charge wisely reports to his annoyed superiors that it is simply a buffer problem. This is one of the many appealing stories, legends, and myths found in Jennings's unique history of the computer age. The author, a freelance writer and former computer illiterate, presents with humor and pathos modern-day tall tales of technoweenies, computer criminals, and viruses. One glitch is hard to overlook: Cray Supercomputer's home is Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, not Minnesota; and hackers may have heard these yarns before. Otherwise, a nice addition for public libraries whose patrons think UNIX still means harem guards.
- Joe Accardi, Triodyne Safety Information Ctr., Niles, Ill.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton and Company, Inc.; First Edition edition (November 17, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393307328
• ISBN-13: 978-0393307320
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,059,367 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very funny; not just for computer people., May 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Devouring Fungus (Paperback)

This book is a real find. It is in some ways a version of "urban legends", those funny/amazing stories that everyone swears are true, that it happened to a friend (or a friend of a friend), or that they heard about it from some other reliable source. The thing is, The Devouring Fungus has both real and legend-type stories. Besides the stories themselves -- certainly things you'll want to send along to friends and families -- the author weaves a nice narrative.

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Amusing book on computer "folktales.", December 10, 1995

By A Customer

This review is from: Devouring Fungus (Paperback)

A book about the folktales and legends of the computer world. Interesting for the various anecdotes and the clearly written history of the beginnings of computers and the society surrounding them.
(This "review" originally appeared in First Impressions Installment One [http://www.owt.com/users/gcox/fi.contents.html]).