I Sing the Body Electronic: 8a Year with Microsoft on the Multimedia Frontier

Freelance writer Moody spent the year from December 1992 through December 1993 with six members of a Microsoft unit that was developing a children's multimedia reference product named Sendak. As he was given virtually unlimited access to the group, Moody is able to present a week-by-week account of the trials and tribulations of each team member as they try to make Sendak a viable product. In describing the inner workings of Microsoft, Moody reveals a company not immune to the corporate politics and personality conflicts that afflict huge companies, but one that nevertheless is willing to push the boundaries of technology, driven by chairman Bill Gates's obsession with staying ahead of the competition. Indeed, Moody's accounts of meetings with Gates are compelling. A fast-paced read that does not get bogged down in technical jargon, the book suffers from one flaw: Sendak was far from finished when Moody's year with Microsoft was up, so he describes its completion and launch--the product was shipped in November 1994 under the name Explorapedia--in relatively few pages. 50,000 first printing. (Sept.)