It's been pulled from the underground and pokes fun at technical books, Active X and all things Microsoft. With absolutely no promotional effort, this book has been raved about on newsgroups. Surely, our society must have passed some technological milestone in order for component software to merit a comic novella. Mr. Bunny's Guide to ActiveX attempts to enlighten the reader about Microsoft's distributed-computing solution without actually explaining the technology, as more gauche programming books frequently do. This book is funny! To wit (so to speak), an excerpt: In Visual Basic, you form windows using forms . A form is a window that you form. At first forms are unformed. You must form your forms using the form designer (formerly the former ). In the form former, an unformed form forms a uniform formation.... You get the idea. This book is a hoot and a half. The basic idea is that a smarty-pants bespectacled rabbit and a hick farmer travel around together, having metaphorical experiences that (more or less) help explain how ActiveX works. Hey, Mr. Bunny makes about as much sense as any other approach to COM documentation, and he's a lot less pretentious. Mr. Bunny's Guide to ActiveX will appeal to people who already have a pretty good grasp of what Microsoft's component architecture is all about--and who have realized it's a complicated morass worth a laugh or two. --David Wall From some editor: First off, this was a fun book to read, work on and publish! It is a new technical book parody that will have you laughing in the first few pages - even if you don't want your boss to know you are reading a lighthearted book. It is aimed at developers with some knowledge of ActiveX or COM, who will appreciate the inside jokes, but the book is also chock-full of smart humor for Java and Linux folks. Here is what a couple of recognizable folks had to say about Mr. Bunny. The day I brought Mr. Bunny home, my 16-year-old daughter took one glance inside it and nabbed it for herself to read. I finally pried it away from her two days ago and read it through myself. It's hysterical! You can't afford to ignore anything. I thought it was all over, and then I looked *very* carefully at the Sound Effect definitions in Appendix C ---and had yet another belly laugh. Everyone who cares about good technical writing should read this book---no prior knowledge of ActiveX required. I'll be recommending this to my friends. --Guy Steele "Mr. Bunny's Guide to ActiveX" is the most original computer book to come out in the last five years. Whatever prompted Carlton Egremont III to write this book, or Addison Wesley to publish it, or me to review it is beyond me. But this book is destined for cult classic status. --Roger Sesions ActiveX has been around for literally dozens of months, but until now it has remained an inscrutable mystery to all but the most overpaid contract engineers, three Sufi priests, and Don from Nevada. Finally, here is a book that dumbs down the topic so it is understandable even to a piece of shoe leather. Mr. Bunny's Guide to ActiveX begins with the basic building block of all computer software: the pixel. From here it digresses into a classic fantasy adventure story about a cute little talking bunny and a hapless everyman farmer/programmer on an amazing journey to the heart of component-based software. You will actually learn ActiveX by reading out loud to your children at bedtime! Don't miss out on all the fun in today's highly competitive and stressful technology industries. Let Mr. Bunny bring your web pages to life. (You do have a web page, don't you?) The sky will open and everything you ever desired will be showered upon you, so wear a hard hat. I'm tired of writing blurbs. Just buy the book. Praise for Mr. Bunny (intentionally blank) Other Stuff About Mr. Bunny "I slept with this book under my pillow, and now I have a flat spot on my head." -- Some Guy "This is a shockingly subversive book. Carlton Egremont III is a dangerous individual who sows the seeds of fear and confusion about computer technologies. Masquerading as both a technical guru and a children's author, he threatens to undermine the foundations of modern society with his Mr. Bunny books. Cute illustrations, though." -- Some Other Guy "Two thumbs. . ." -- Two Other Guys 0201485362B04062001 Carlton Egremont III was a spoiled trust fund child who has grown up to revolutionize the way we think of. . . him. He is the author of numerous unpublished shopping lists, and is the founder and sole member of the Society for the Advancement of Baby Babble (GWEEP), an organization that seeks to popularize the author's first language. 0201485362AB04062001