MacTutor
Barry Simon's computing books
One reads that Barry Simon is a professor at the California Institute of Technology and a contributing editor of the Capital PC User Group's Monitor. Again one reads that Barry Simon is a contributing editor at PC Magazine. One finds a large number of articles by Simon showing remarkable expertise in getting the most out of a PC. Someone interested in PCs in the 1990s might see Simon as a world leading computer scientist. They might never know that he is also a world leading mathematician and a world leading physicist. Let us look briefly below at some of the many books he has written on PCs. Before we look at these, here is a quote by his co-author Woody Leonhard which tells us a little about Simon the computer expert.
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1. Barry Simon writes computer books.
Woody Leonhard writes:
Many of you know Barry from his academic work and community achievements. I have a rather, uh, different perspective. I had the distinct honour and privilege of co-writing a handful of computer books with Barry, including several Mother of All Windows books, and The Mother of All PC Books.
I'll never forget Barry's squeals of delight when he found foolish inconsistencies in Windows, the way his voice would drop low and he'd talk fast when he was working through a particularly snarly problem, and the way he'd rub his hands with glee when a solution suddenly appeared.
Barry wrote about PCs with extraordinary clarity and wit. The Mother books became (in)famous for their casts of characters - no dry technical mumbo-jumbo here. My favourite character from the early Mother books was the eight-legged cockroach (and bug expert) known as Erwin. We gave Erwin the enviable assignment of pinpointing and explaining bugs in Windows, a task for which he was eminently qualified.
Barry describes Erwin's birth this way (quote from "The Mother of All Windows 95" book), from the perspective of uber-iconic Mom, the Mother of the Mother books, as it were:
2. The Mother of All Windows Books (1993), by Woody Leonhard and Barry Simon.
Many of you know Barry from his academic work and community achievements. I have a rather, uh, different perspective. I had the distinct honour and privilege of co-writing a handful of computer books with Barry, including several Mother of All Windows books, and The Mother of All PC Books.
I'll never forget Barry's squeals of delight when he found foolish inconsistencies in Windows, the way his voice would drop low and he'd talk fast when he was working through a particularly snarly problem, and the way he'd rub his hands with glee when a solution suddenly appeared.
Barry wrote about PCs with extraordinary clarity and wit. The Mother books became (in)famous for their casts of characters - no dry technical mumbo-jumbo here. My favourite character from the early Mother books was the eight-legged cockroach (and bug expert) known as Erwin. We gave Erwin the enviable assignment of pinpointing and explaining bugs in Windows, a task for which he was eminently qualified.
Barry describes Erwin's birth this way (quote from "The Mother of All Windows 95" book), from the perspective of uber-iconic Mom, the Mother of the Mother books, as it were:
Erwin has been with me since my first book, pointing out bugs and warning folks about the unthinkable. He's a dashing eight-legged refuge from the 1930s. The physicists in the audience will no doubt recall Erwin Schrödinger, one of the founders of quantum mechanics, who invented a famous "thought experiment" in which a vial of poison gas might (or might not) kill a cat. Schrödinger's cat became justly famous among the psi-squared crowd. A few years ago, a computer book writer had the temerity to refer to Schrödinger's cat in a book submitted to IBM. The IBM Thought Police wouldn't put up with such an offensive allusion to a cuddly animal, so they changed the manuscript, exorcising Schrödinger's cat and introducing in his stead Schrödinger's cockroach, an animal that could be (presumably) sometimes-dead without offending the more delicate readers of IBM manuals.
2.1. From the Publisher.
The Mother Of All Windows Books CD Version ventures where no Windows book and companion disk have gone before: into the heart of the beast, to reveal the hard Windows facts of life. Read the book and learn how Windows really works - not how its designers thought it should work - and find hundreds of ways to make it work better for you. On your computer. Day in and day out. Run the CD's software and find out which Windows products will let you work better and faster, and make it more fun. The CD contains the WinSleuth Gold Windows system snooper. CompuServe's WinCIM and a free sign-up worth $25, working models of major Windows applications - Ami Pro, ClarisWorks, Freelance Graphics, Quark XPress, IntelliDraw, PhotoStyler, and many more - in addition to the latest Windows printer and video drivers; hundreds of megabytes of video clips and video viewing software; dozens of newsletters; the new "safe" SmartDrive; the top 100 shareware Windows programs; and a hundred fonts, thousands of icons, games, utilities, and much more. CD-MOM includes detailed, step-by-step instructions on assessing and using the CD's, software, even if you don't own a CD drive. As long as you can beg, borrow, or steal a CD drive for just a few minutes you can put this incredible collection to work. Mystified by the "Use Fast Access" check box? Or why your machine locks up unexpectedly? Can't get your sound card to work? Does your modem hate you? Want to make Windows run faster? Want to make Windows run, PERIOD? Need some new hardware? Is it time to get a CD-ROM drive? MOM steps you through it all, with insight and wit. It's all here in plain English: the concepts, the practicalities, gotchas and glitches, tricks and advice, plus hundreds of previously undocumented, or worse, incorrectly documented, settings. If you want the straight scoop on Windows - no pulled punches, no warmed-over user's manuals - just ask MOM.
2.2. InfoWorld 4 Oct 1993
A Windows book due out in November revives claims that Microsoft Corp's systems knowledge gives the company's applications programmers competitive advantages.
Microsoft officials immediately denied taking unfair advantage of a little-known but documented - API that handles Windows multimedia sound files.
"There were no internal APIs used by our applications group that were not available to other [developers]," a company representative said.
In The Mother of All Windows Books, authors Barry Simon and Woody Leonhard describe a "wave mapper" sound processing program on several Microsoft CD-ROM titles.
The wave mapper - a special device driver performs on-the-fly decompression for sound wave files as well as translation of 16-bit wave files so that 8-bit sound cards can play them back. This allows Microsoft to cram more audio onto a CD-ROM disc than it could otherwise, because it does not need to include separate files for both 8-bit and 16-bit cards.
Although the programming call used to invoke special wave mappers is documented in developer kits, information on how to write a wave mapper is not provided, giving Microsoft's developers a clear advantage, Simon said.
The code for the wave mapper was actually provided to ISVs "[so] any developer could have written a wave mapper," the Microsoft representative countered.
Additionally, the wave mapper was not developed by the systems group but by the advanced consumer research group, which was entirely appropriate, the Microsoft representative said. A 32-bit version of the utility is, however, included in Windows NT, he added.
Although other Windows experts agreed that some advantage may have been gained, most interviewed by InfoWorld questioned whether any such gain was significant.
"There's nothing nefarious about it, but they never even think about [the propriety of] it," said Andrew Schulman, co-author of Undocumented Windows.
That book created a major stir among developers last year when it revealed Microsoft's use of undocumented Windows calls in its own applications. (See "Microsoft blasted for hidden Windows code," August 31, 1992, page 1.)
"I'm less concerned about the idea that it's in there than I am about the idea that it might come out in the next version of Windows and turn out to be a really crummy piece of software," said Bob Landwehr, co-owner of Silicon Highlands Software, a multimedia programmer, in Renton, Wash.
Nonetheless, author Simon said Microsoft has admitted that its sheer size dictates that it be held to a higher standard, and it should follow through on those statements.
2.3. InfoWorld 10 Jan 1994
Windows still has a few tricks left to be found and revealed; it has so many depths and quirks that it seems we may never know the end of it.
With this spirit in mind, a new Windows book has just been produced by two writers who aren't afraid to explore Woody Leonhard, coauthor of The Hacker's Guide to Word for Windows (Addison-Wesley, 1993), and Barry Simon, a computer columnist.
Leonhard and Simon's book, subtitled "The Mother of All Windows Books," is notably irreverent in its approach. It includes program demos and shareware loaded on a CD-ROM, which brings me to the book's title: CD-MOM (Addison-Wesley, 1993).
At $49.95, the book has a weighty price. But I think you'll find something useful. The CD-ROM contains "working models" of retail applications that are crippled in some minor way, including IntelliDraw and PhotoStyler from Aldus Corp.; Ami Pro, cc:Mail, and Freelance from Lotus Development Corp.; Picture Publisher from Micrografx Inc.; and QuarkXPress from Quark Inc. It also features about 100 shareware programs. Most of these programs have been published before, but it's nice to see them all in one place.
One of the book's three sections describes the contents of the CD-ROM. (Addison-Wesley also offers the book without the CD but with two diskettes for $39.95, including a coupon to get the CD for an additional $10.)
The other two sections document the Windows applets and every possible line and setting in WIN.INI, SYSTEM.INI, and other "innie" files, as they say.
You'd think that, by now, every possible quirk of the included Windows applets would be known. But I picked up a few tidbits that only the truly persistent would have uncovered.
For example, I am a big user of the neglected Windows Recorder. I load it every day to use redefined key combinations and the like. At times, when recording a Recorder macro, you need to use the File Run dialog box in Program Manager to start another application. But such a Recorder macro won't play back into the Program Manager if the Program Manager window is minimised. You get an error message and the macro halts in its tracks.
CD-MOM suggests a "black magic work-around" for this problem. If you switch to Program Manager (in your macro) by using Alt-Tab repeatedly until PM comes up, your macro will work even if Program Manager is minimised, and even if a different number of Alt-Tab keystrokes are necessary than when you recorded the macro in the first place.
CD-MOM includes the authors' opinions on various Windows controversies. They express disdain for the way many popular PC magazines compare peripherals, for example, by defining "benchmark" as "an inaccurate measure of computer performance."
They also introduce their own rating system for video boards: the Toasted-BunnyMark. This is the number of flying toasters (from the After Dark screen saver, [510] 540-5535) and Energizer bunnies (from PC Dynamics, [818] 889-1741) that make it across the screen in one minute. No video manufacturer would make its drivers "cheat" on a screen saver, they reason. And they found that the speed of these savers most closely matches their own subjective judgment of a video board's feel.
The authors haven't neglected the ever-popular topic of cheating on Windows games, either. They report that if you run Minesweeper once to create WINMINE.INI, you can add the line Sound=10, and the game will then whoop your PC's speaker when you win or lose a round. Then, they say that if you minimise a game and launch the Mine-sweeper icon a second time from PM it will stop the clock in the minimised game so you can rack up impressive scores. Good work, guys.
2.4. PC Mag 22 Feb 1994
Leonhard's and Simon's style bombards you with whimsy, irreverence, and humour. If CD-MOM's personality delights you, she'll captivate you; otherwise the jokes, puns, and cartoon characters may distract from the substance.
2.5. PC Mag 13 Sep 1994
There aren't many good Windows books, but Woody Leonhard and Barry Simon's CD-MOM: The Mother of All Windows Books, CD-ROM Version, would have stood out even in a field of stellar entries. Witty, idiosyncratic, sometimes cranky, and often corny, the book captures the feeling of a Windows expert sitting at your elbow, chatting away, listening to your complaints, agreeing, offering solutions.
The accompanying CD has more than 240MB of useful stuff. (Many CD-ROMs tucked inside the back covers of books have one-tenth that much content and use only a small fraction of the disk's capacity.) And though there are 20 program demos of questionable value, there's also a complete copy of Dariana's WinSleuth Gold, Win-CIM, and the usual CompuServe free-time sign-up offer, plus 5,000 icons, 100 pretty good shareware fonts, and 100 "hand-selected" shareware programs-selected, one assumes, by shareware expert Simon, because this is an A+ list.
The one thing missing is the text of the book itself. It would have been a big job to move the book's thumbnail sketches and funny kvetches into the digital domain, but it would have been a pleasure to use CD-ROM's search capabilities.
3. The Mother of All Windows 95 Books (1996), by Woody Leonhard and Barry Simon.
The Mother Of All Windows Books CD Version ventures where no Windows book and companion disk have gone before: into the heart of the beast, to reveal the hard Windows facts of life. Read the book and learn how Windows really works - not how its designers thought it should work - and find hundreds of ways to make it work better for you. On your computer. Day in and day out. Run the CD's software and find out which Windows products will let you work better and faster, and make it more fun. The CD contains the WinSleuth Gold Windows system snooper. CompuServe's WinCIM and a free sign-up worth $25, working models of major Windows applications - Ami Pro, ClarisWorks, Freelance Graphics, Quark XPress, IntelliDraw, PhotoStyler, and many more - in addition to the latest Windows printer and video drivers; hundreds of megabytes of video clips and video viewing software; dozens of newsletters; the new "safe" SmartDrive; the top 100 shareware Windows programs; and a hundred fonts, thousands of icons, games, utilities, and much more. CD-MOM includes detailed, step-by-step instructions on assessing and using the CD's, software, even if you don't own a CD drive. As long as you can beg, borrow, or steal a CD drive for just a few minutes you can put this incredible collection to work. Mystified by the "Use Fast Access" check box? Or why your machine locks up unexpectedly? Can't get your sound card to work? Does your modem hate you? Want to make Windows run faster? Want to make Windows run, PERIOD? Need some new hardware? Is it time to get a CD-ROM drive? MOM steps you through it all, with insight and wit. It's all here in plain English: the concepts, the practicalities, gotchas and glitches, tricks and advice, plus hundreds of previously undocumented, or worse, incorrectly documented, settings. If you want the straight scoop on Windows - no pulled punches, no warmed-over user's manuals - just ask MOM.
2.2. InfoWorld 4 Oct 1993
A Windows book due out in November revives claims that Microsoft Corp's systems knowledge gives the company's applications programmers competitive advantages.
Microsoft officials immediately denied taking unfair advantage of a little-known but documented - API that handles Windows multimedia sound files.
"There were no internal APIs used by our applications group that were not available to other [developers]," a company representative said.
In The Mother of All Windows Books, authors Barry Simon and Woody Leonhard describe a "wave mapper" sound processing program on several Microsoft CD-ROM titles.
The wave mapper - a special device driver performs on-the-fly decompression for sound wave files as well as translation of 16-bit wave files so that 8-bit sound cards can play them back. This allows Microsoft to cram more audio onto a CD-ROM disc than it could otherwise, because it does not need to include separate files for both 8-bit and 16-bit cards.
Although the programming call used to invoke special wave mappers is documented in developer kits, information on how to write a wave mapper is not provided, giving Microsoft's developers a clear advantage, Simon said.
The code for the wave mapper was actually provided to ISVs "[so] any developer could have written a wave mapper," the Microsoft representative countered.
Additionally, the wave mapper was not developed by the systems group but by the advanced consumer research group, which was entirely appropriate, the Microsoft representative said. A 32-bit version of the utility is, however, included in Windows NT, he added.
Although other Windows experts agreed that some advantage may have been gained, most interviewed by InfoWorld questioned whether any such gain was significant.
"There's nothing nefarious about it, but they never even think about [the propriety of] it," said Andrew Schulman, co-author of Undocumented Windows.
That book created a major stir among developers last year when it revealed Microsoft's use of undocumented Windows calls in its own applications. (See "Microsoft blasted for hidden Windows code," August 31, 1992, page 1.)
"I'm less concerned about the idea that it's in there than I am about the idea that it might come out in the next version of Windows and turn out to be a really crummy piece of software," said Bob Landwehr, co-owner of Silicon Highlands Software, a multimedia programmer, in Renton, Wash.
Nonetheless, author Simon said Microsoft has admitted that its sheer size dictates that it be held to a higher standard, and it should follow through on those statements.
2.3. InfoWorld 10 Jan 1994
Windows still has a few tricks left to be found and revealed; it has so many depths and quirks that it seems we may never know the end of it.
With this spirit in mind, a new Windows book has just been produced by two writers who aren't afraid to explore Woody Leonhard, coauthor of The Hacker's Guide to Word for Windows (Addison-Wesley, 1993), and Barry Simon, a computer columnist.
Leonhard and Simon's book, subtitled "The Mother of All Windows Books," is notably irreverent in its approach. It includes program demos and shareware loaded on a CD-ROM, which brings me to the book's title: CD-MOM (Addison-Wesley, 1993).
At $49.95, the book has a weighty price. But I think you'll find something useful. The CD-ROM contains "working models" of retail applications that are crippled in some minor way, including IntelliDraw and PhotoStyler from Aldus Corp.; Ami Pro, cc:Mail, and Freelance from Lotus Development Corp.; Picture Publisher from Micrografx Inc.; and QuarkXPress from Quark Inc. It also features about 100 shareware programs. Most of these programs have been published before, but it's nice to see them all in one place.
One of the book's three sections describes the contents of the CD-ROM. (Addison-Wesley also offers the book without the CD but with two diskettes for $39.95, including a coupon to get the CD for an additional $10.)
The other two sections document the Windows applets and every possible line and setting in WIN.INI, SYSTEM.INI, and other "innie" files, as they say.
You'd think that, by now, every possible quirk of the included Windows applets would be known. But I picked up a few tidbits that only the truly persistent would have uncovered.
For example, I am a big user of the neglected Windows Recorder. I load it every day to use redefined key combinations and the like. At times, when recording a Recorder macro, you need to use the File Run dialog box in Program Manager to start another application. But such a Recorder macro won't play back into the Program Manager if the Program Manager window is minimised. You get an error message and the macro halts in its tracks.
CD-MOM suggests a "black magic work-around" for this problem. If you switch to Program Manager (in your macro) by using Alt-Tab repeatedly until PM comes up, your macro will work even if Program Manager is minimised, and even if a different number of Alt-Tab keystrokes are necessary than when you recorded the macro in the first place.
CD-MOM includes the authors' opinions on various Windows controversies. They express disdain for the way many popular PC magazines compare peripherals, for example, by defining "benchmark" as "an inaccurate measure of computer performance."
They also introduce their own rating system for video boards: the Toasted-BunnyMark. This is the number of flying toasters (from the After Dark screen saver, [510] 540-5535) and Energizer bunnies (from PC Dynamics, [818] 889-1741) that make it across the screen in one minute. No video manufacturer would make its drivers "cheat" on a screen saver, they reason. And they found that the speed of these savers most closely matches their own subjective judgment of a video board's feel.
The authors haven't neglected the ever-popular topic of cheating on Windows games, either. They report that if you run Minesweeper once to create WINMINE.INI, you can add the line Sound=10, and the game will then whoop your PC's speaker when you win or lose a round. Then, they say that if you minimise a game and launch the Mine-sweeper icon a second time from PM it will stop the clock in the minimised game so you can rack up impressive scores. Good work, guys.
2.4. PC Mag 22 Feb 1994
Leonhard's and Simon's style bombards you with whimsy, irreverence, and humour. If CD-MOM's personality delights you, she'll captivate you; otherwise the jokes, puns, and cartoon characters may distract from the substance.
2.5. PC Mag 13 Sep 1994
There aren't many good Windows books, but Woody Leonhard and Barry Simon's CD-MOM: The Mother of All Windows Books, CD-ROM Version, would have stood out even in a field of stellar entries. Witty, idiosyncratic, sometimes cranky, and often corny, the book captures the feeling of a Windows expert sitting at your elbow, chatting away, listening to your complaints, agreeing, offering solutions.
The accompanying CD has more than 240MB of useful stuff. (Many CD-ROMs tucked inside the back covers of books have one-tenth that much content and use only a small fraction of the disk's capacity.) And though there are 20 program demos of questionable value, there's also a complete copy of Dariana's WinSleuth Gold, Win-CIM, and the usual CompuServe free-time sign-up offer, plus 5,000 icons, 100 pretty good shareware fonts, and 100 "hand-selected" shareware programs-selected, one assumes, by shareware expert Simon, because this is an A+ list.
The one thing missing is the text of the book itself. It would have been a big job to move the book's thumbnail sketches and funny kvetches into the digital domain, but it would have been a pleasure to use CD-ROM's search capabilities.
3.1. PC Mag Aug 1996
With its title, The Mother of All Windows 95 Books ($39.95), by Woody Leonhard and Barry Simon, has a lot to live up to. For the most part, it fulfils its promise with more than 900 pages of tips and tricks. The crowning jewel is a detailed discussion of the registry and methods for tweaking the system by adding, deleting, and modifying registry entries. The bundled CD-ROM includes the entire Windows 95 Driver Library and what is probably the world's largest collection of freeware and shareware. Much of the text is a dialogue between caricatures of such figures as Bill Gates and Rush Limbaugh. At times, it's like DOS for Dummies in drag. But if you can get past the book's overly cute style, there are treasures to be found.
4. The Mother of All Windows 98 Books (1999), by Woody Leonhard and Barry Simon.
With its title, The Mother of All Windows 95 Books ($39.95), by Woody Leonhard and Barry Simon, has a lot to live up to. For the most part, it fulfils its promise with more than 900 pages of tips and tricks. The crowning jewel is a detailed discussion of the registry and methods for tweaking the system by adding, deleting, and modifying registry entries. The bundled CD-ROM includes the entire Windows 95 Driver Library and what is probably the world's largest collection of freeware and shareware. Much of the text is a dialogue between caricatures of such figures as Bill Gates and Rush Limbaugh. At times, it's like DOS for Dummies in drag. But if you can get past the book's overly cute style, there are treasures to be found.
4.1. From the Publisher.
In this irreverent sequel to the bestselling The Mother of All Windows 95 Books, the irascible and irrepressible Mom and her loyal sidekicks return to give you the inside track on Windows 98. With a wacky sense of humour and in-depth insider knowledge, The Mother of All Windows 98 Books (a.k.a. MOM98) goes right to the heart of what you need to know to become a Win98 power user. MOM98 illustrates how, and more importantly, why things work (or don't work) enabling even novices to quickly become wizards with Win98.
5. The Mother of All PC Books (1995), by Woody Leonhard and Barry Simon.
In this irreverent sequel to the bestselling The Mother of All Windows 95 Books, the irascible and irrepressible Mom and her loyal sidekicks return to give you the inside track on Windows 98. With a wacky sense of humour and in-depth insider knowledge, The Mother of All Windows 98 Books (a.k.a. MOM98) goes right to the heart of what you need to know to become a Win98 power user. MOM98 illustrates how, and more importantly, why things work (or don't work) enabling even novices to quickly become wizards with Win98.
5.1. PC Mom: The Mother of All PC Books, Wherein Mom's Mordant Minions Muck in the Multimedia Madness.
Mom is back - better than ever! In this new masterpiece, bestselling authors Leonhard and Simon take readers on a hilarious tour through the world of the PC. Whether users are trying to wring the last bit of power from their PC - or just trying to get it to work - PC Mom is a goldmine of useful information in plain English. Includes two CD-ROMs
The Mother of All PC Books is the ultimate PC resource with a sense of humour. Ever wonder what's going on inside your computer? Whether you should finally blow the bucks on a fancy sound board? Whether you should finally blow the bucks on a fancy sound board? Curious if those whiz-bang new games are any better than the old ones? Have you been thinking about upgrading from SmartDrive to a competitive disk cache? For that matter, what is a disk cache? You've come to the right place. PC MOM gives you the straight scoop on hardware, software, and PC's newest wave, multimedia and "edutainment." If you've ever wondered how to get an unbiased answer to a tough question - particularly without asking somebody who's trying to sell you something you've come to the right place! PC МОМ not only explains what to do, but also shows you why you do it - no pulled punches, no baffling techno-speak, no intimidation. Just a fun, rolling gazetteer of the latest and greatest uses for your PC. Whether you're trying to wring the last bit of power from your PC or just trying to get it to work ! - PC MOM is a goldmine of useful information in plain English. Remember - MOM knows best!
5.2. PC Mag 16 May 1995
Following up on the success of CD MOM: The Mother of All Windows Books, Barry Simon and Woody Leonhard have written PC MOM: The Mother of All PC Books. The book-which comes with two CDs tries to explain everything about PCs.
PC MOM pursues the narrow path between boring techie books that take themselves all too seriously and books that try so hard to spoon-feed subjects that all you get is pabulum. At that it succeeds admirably. If you enjoyed the three icon characters who presented distinct perspectives throughout CD MOM, you'll love PC MOM's five downright iconoclastic characters who appear far more frequently. Otherwise, their constant presence can be disruptive.
The most distinctive difference between the books is CD MOM's clear focus on Microsoft Windows and PC MOM's broad subject matter spanning hardware and software. If you're new to PC innards, you'll find everything you need to know, from "mom's board" to SCSI to peripherals to monitors to modems. Particularly noteworthy is a computer-ills "survival course."
Software chapters emphasise fun. Fully a third of the book covers arguably the hottest software today: multimedia, "edutainment," and games, plus reference products. PC MOM minutely details the DOS operating system and related topics. Not surprisingly, Windows - the subject of the earlier title - is explored only briefly.
The accompanying CD-ROMs are simultaneously a delight and a Games addicts will revel in the complete Public Software Library shareware games collection. Curious about utilities like Dashboard, Version 1, Norton File Assist, or PC Tools File Manager? They're here. Other notables include 4DOS (the acclaimed shareware COMMAND.COM replacement), a standard edition of Shakespeare's works, and Free Phone's 1-800 Telephone Directory.
But while PC MOM's CDs are worth far more than the cover price, we were spoiled by CD MOM, which byte for byte offers more useful business tools and software difficult to find on other CDs.
PC MOM surpasses most alternatives in its entertaining explanations of techie PC subjects. But as so often happens with movie sequels, the original was more appealing.
Mom is back - better than ever! In this new masterpiece, bestselling authors Leonhard and Simon take readers on a hilarious tour through the world of the PC. Whether users are trying to wring the last bit of power from their PC - or just trying to get it to work - PC Mom is a goldmine of useful information in plain English. Includes two CD-ROMs
The Mother of All PC Books is the ultimate PC resource with a sense of humour. Ever wonder what's going on inside your computer? Whether you should finally blow the bucks on a fancy sound board? Whether you should finally blow the bucks on a fancy sound board? Curious if those whiz-bang new games are any better than the old ones? Have you been thinking about upgrading from SmartDrive to a competitive disk cache? For that matter, what is a disk cache? You've come to the right place. PC MOM gives you the straight scoop on hardware, software, and PC's newest wave, multimedia and "edutainment." If you've ever wondered how to get an unbiased answer to a tough question - particularly without asking somebody who's trying to sell you something you've come to the right place! PC МОМ not only explains what to do, but also shows you why you do it - no pulled punches, no baffling techno-speak, no intimidation. Just a fun, rolling gazetteer of the latest and greatest uses for your PC. Whether you're trying to wring the last bit of power from your PC or just trying to get it to work ! - PC MOM is a goldmine of useful information in plain English. Remember - MOM knows best!
5.2. PC Mag 16 May 1995
Following up on the success of CD MOM: The Mother of All Windows Books, Barry Simon and Woody Leonhard have written PC MOM: The Mother of All PC Books. The book-which comes with two CDs tries to explain everything about PCs.
PC MOM pursues the narrow path between boring techie books that take themselves all too seriously and books that try so hard to spoon-feed subjects that all you get is pabulum. At that it succeeds admirably. If you enjoyed the three icon characters who presented distinct perspectives throughout CD MOM, you'll love PC MOM's five downright iconoclastic characters who appear far more frequently. Otherwise, their constant presence can be disruptive.
The most distinctive difference between the books is CD MOM's clear focus on Microsoft Windows and PC MOM's broad subject matter spanning hardware and software. If you're new to PC innards, you'll find everything you need to know, from "mom's board" to SCSI to peripherals to monitors to modems. Particularly noteworthy is a computer-ills "survival course."
Software chapters emphasise fun. Fully a third of the book covers arguably the hottest software today: multimedia, "edutainment," and games, plus reference products. PC MOM minutely details the DOS operating system and related topics. Not surprisingly, Windows - the subject of the earlier title - is explored only briefly.
The accompanying CD-ROMs are simultaneously a delight and a Games addicts will revel in the complete Public Software Library shareware games collection. Curious about utilities like Dashboard, Version 1, Norton File Assist, or PC Tools File Manager? They're here. Other notables include 4DOS (the acclaimed shareware COMMAND.COM replacement), a standard edition of Shakespeare's works, and Free Phone's 1-800 Telephone Directory.
But while PC MOM's CDs are worth far more than the cover price, we were spoiled by CD MOM, which byte for byte offers more useful business tools and software difficult to find on other CDs.
PC MOM surpasses most alternatives in its entertaining explanations of techie PC subjects. But as so often happens with movie sequels, the original was more appealing.
Last Updated September 2025