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Rating: 
Summary: Highly recommend to the techno-literate.
Review: Fun and funny book. My copy is already dog-eared from it's trek through our I.T. department. The tech support guys howled at the Top Ten lists. The Microsoft interview yarn on pgs 14-15 cracked me up. (Close to the truth, to those of you who haven't been through the drill.) Would highly recommend to a specific readership,the techno-literate.
Rating:
Summary: Jokes, puns, one-liners, haikus, and observational humor
Review: Having edited more than fifty computer technology books (and authoring four of them himself), as well as writing numerous articles on the personal computer industry, who knew that Tim Barry's gift for computer humor would prove as keen as his expertise with Microsoft technology and products! The Totally Unauthorized Microsoft Joke Book is a 112 page compendium of jokes, puns, one-liners, haikus, and observational humor that will tickle the funny bone of anyone who has ever sat down to a computer keyboard. Don't miss Barry's "Windows Glossary" with more than two hundred terms "defined". There's even a chapter offering "101 Light Bulb Jokes"!.
Rating:
Summary: A Hoot!
Review: I had to put the book down I was laughing so hard. I especially liked the haiku's and Window's glossary. The "Top Ten" lists alone were definitely worth it.
Rating: 
Summary: A little humor at the expense of a very, very rich man
Review: Most of us have heard enough Microsoft jokes to know that you could fill a book with them; Tim Barry actually did it. The book, first published in 1999, was successful enough that he came out with this second edition three years later, adding some new jokes and tweaking others to fit them more readily into the new cultural environment (post-Y2K, a new Presidential administration, etc.). The preface says this book is 15% larger than the first edition and that 70% of the material is either new or has been updated. Thus, for those who enjoyed the first edition, there is certainly good reason to buy the second edition. Discounting superfluous pages at the front and back, we're talking about 100 pages of jokes here.
You will almost surely have heard some of these jokes before - one case in point would be the fake news release stating that the viruses that cause hoof and mouth and mad cow disease are the first two viruses discovered that do not actually spread via Microsoft Outlook. You'll find plenty of Bill Gates at the Pearly Gates jokes; all sorts of silly riddles; haikus devoted to Microsoft and its products; top ten lists; a lot of jokes about ineffective technical support and bug-ridden software; and numerous references to Gates' attempts to take over the world. In case you don't recognize some of the names found in the jokes (such as those of some Microsoft competitors), there's a list and description of "Dramatis Personae" at the end of the book. Finally, "by popular demand," you get a bonus chapter of 101 light bulb jokes. I found this is a rather inexplicable addition to the book - first of all, only a handful of these jokes have any relationship to Microsoft, and second of all, how many people would possibly demand the addition of exceedingly silly light bulb jokes to anybody anywhere at any time?
Frankly, I didn't find a lot of humor in these jokes - I should note, though, that those I enjoyed the most were ones I had already heard. Laughter doesn't come to me as naturally as it does to some people, and I haven't learned to thoroughly hate Microsoft yet (although I'm making progress), so I'm sure many will find this book funnier than I did. Those who think Bill Gates is evil personified will, of course, love every minute of it.
Rating:
Summary: Redundancy
Review: Not a bad book, but not as great as I hoped. There were way too many jokes about Bill Gates dying (although it would be nice) and comparing Gates to god. Worth it for the nerds who have a sense of humor (mac users!). Also has a really nice index which makes it easy to find your favorite jokes by the name of the persons in the joke.
Rating:
Summary: This is a good book.
Review: The top ten lists are refreshingly original. The glossary of Windows terms skewers the over zealous promotional engine that is the bane of the Sunday paper color supplement. The Microsoft New Product Hype Decoder is my personal favorite and was worth the price of the book.
Rating:
Summary: Definitely worth reading
Review: There is an art to telling a really funny story, and the author of this book has definately made that art a science. The book offers a surprising variety of humor, including everthing from longer jokes with really clever punchlines to top ten lists and humorous haiku's. Overall, I found the book quite funny, and well worth the price. It would be a great gift for anyone who knows anything about computers - even those who work for Microsoft in Redmond, Washington.
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