G. Pascal Zachary

As a folkloristic book, it does a poor job of telling the aspects of the story that would actually be interesting. It digresses into irrelevant biographies all over the place, which convey little more than rap sheet facts. It doesn't have a conception of what is interesting about technology. The writer is clearly very thin on the subject, presenting analogies about the functions of software in strangely distant and awkward terms. He thinks he's throwing in a little secret sauce by posting occasional snippets of source code or shell commands that don't mean anything to anyone, cargo cult style.

Written by a programmer intent to expose some of the key technical points about Windows NT, this could actually have been an interesting book from a historical perspective. In its present form it succeeds at stating little more than that the development of NT was an immense chaos and saw many clashes between individuals. It conveys some of the atmosphere in which the process took place. And despite the constant blustering about how monumental NT supposedly is for its time, it offers precious little technical information to explain this.

This edition of the book also suffers from very poor production, with various misprints and errors around the place as if no one had proofread it.… (lisätietoja)

The story begins when G. Pascal Zachary walks into a zoo in Africa and falls head-over-heels for Chizo, a petite African woman who is caring for an orphaned chimpanzee. Little does he know what a wild ride he is in for! Chizo introduces him to an Africa that few outsiders get to see with romantic bush meat dinners on the beach, how to survive a mugging, and how to neutralize the evil sprits ensconced in his favorite African art.
The story gets even wilder when this mild mannered and gentle white man takes the fiery and opinionated black women to America! Chizo teaches him how to deftly handle his Jewish mother and how to drive American roads with style. Along the way she learns to trust and believe in him. This is the story of a remarkable marriage! These two people could not be more different yet through trust, love and understanding they are able to build an extraordinary life together. Though the book sometimes felt crazy and out of control I appreciated the lesson here in their willingness to accept each other as they are.… (lisätietoja)