Microserfs
2 journalers for this copy...
A Novel about computer geeks. To be released
Journal Entry 2 by michaeljl at Noodles at 6830 SW Beaverton-Hillsdale Hwy. in Beaverton, Oregon USA on Sunday, February 15, 2004
Release planned to local Bookcrosser.
I have too many books on my "to be read" pile as it is but I couldn't resist picking up this book. I had heard about it a few years ago but never got around to reading it. Bookcrosser michaeljl was kind enough to pass this book on to me. Thanks!
This is an entertaining story about some Microsoft employees who leave to join a startup in Silicon Valley in the mid-1990s. Because it is written in the style of an online journal it reads more like a string of pithy anecdotes than a novel. I found it amusing but not very deep (in spite of all the philosophical discussions sprinkled throughout the book). There were a some cute observations that made me think but mostly it was just a fun book to read. However, as the book came to a close it got surprisingly corny and "happy ending-ish" for a book about a bunch of misfit high tech workers. Strange.
Here's one of my favorite quotes:
The Fry's chain completely taps into MSE: Male Shopping Energy. This is to say that most guys have about 73 calories of shopping energy, and once these calories are gone, they're gone for the day--if not the week--and can't be regenerated simply by having an Orange Julius at the Food Fair. Therefore, to get guys to shop, a store has to eat up all of their MSE calories in one crack-like burst. Thus, Fry's concentrates only on male-specific consumables inside their cavernous shopping arena, aisles replete with dandruff, bad outfits, and nerdacious mutterings full of buried Hobbit references.
Near the EPROM shelves, Karla, Todd and I were marveling at the pyramids of Hostess products, the miles of computing magazines, the cascade of nerdiana lifestyle accessories: telecom wiring supplies, clips, pornography, razors, Doritos, chemicals for etching boards, and all the components of the intangible Rube Goldberg machines that lie just beneath the Stealth black plastic exterior of the latest $1,299.99 gizmo.
[end of extract]
If you have ever been to a Fry's then I think you'll agree that the author's description is dead on.
Here's one of my favorite quotes:
The Fry's chain completely taps into MSE: Male Shopping Energy. This is to say that most guys have about 73 calories of shopping energy, and once these calories are gone, they're gone for the day--if not the week--and can't be regenerated simply by having an Orange Julius at the Food Fair. Therefore, to get guys to shop, a store has to eat up all of their MSE calories in one crack-like burst. Thus, Fry's concentrates only on male-specific consumables inside their cavernous shopping arena, aisles replete with dandruff, bad outfits, and nerdacious mutterings full of buried Hobbit references.
Near the EPROM shelves, Karla, Todd and I were marveling at the pyramids of Hostess products, the miles of computing magazines, the cascade of nerdiana lifestyle accessories: telecom wiring supplies, clips, pornography, razors, Doritos, chemicals for etching boards, and all the components of the intangible Rube Goldberg machines that lie just beneath the Stealth black plastic exterior of the latest $1,299.99 gizmo.
[end of extract]
If you have ever been to a Fry's then I think you'll agree that the author's description is dead on.
I gave this book to a friend of mine.
