A journalist's bemused but revealing take on a hectic 12 months in the professional life of a Microsoft design/development team fashioning a new product intended to give the software colossus a jump start in the burgeoning multimedia market. Drawing on open access to the Generation X programmers assigned to the compact-disc project (an animated/illustrated encyclopedia for children known in-house as ``Sendak''), Moody offers a tellingly detailed and mercifully comprehensible account of the creative process in a field where the state of the art is comparatively primitive and decidedly fluid. As the author observes, developing CD-ROM software that provides TV-quality audio and video for use in a personal computer ``is a little like trying to show a movie on a calculator.'' In addition, members of the small task force had to deal with often bitter internal conflicts involving responsibility for slipped deadlines, the availability of resources, the product's bottom-line potential, and the great expectations of Bill Gates, the Washington-based company's nerdy but demanding co-founder. Working long hours in a chaotic environment pulsing to the rhythms of local rock bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam, the young coders soldiered on. Technical obstacles were overcome or sidestepped (e.g., by sacrificing once-prized features), while personnel problems were resolved by chance (maternity leaves) and, in a couple of cases, transfers. Convinced he has been witness to an epic disaster, the author is frankly astonished to discover the soap-opera proceedings have yielded a commercial, bug-free product (dubbed Explorapedia) roughly on time and within budget. In a subsequent interview with Gates, Moody learns the Microsoft way is to focus its minions on an ideal combination of technical excellence and retail appeal that is kept just out of reach. An informative and engrossing glimpse of whats behind the small wonders of an advanced consumer society. (First printing of 50,000)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-670-84875-1
Page Count: 290
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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