Chapter 1, Microserfs Summary

Daniel narrates this story about Microsoft employees in the 1993 time period. Written as a daily journal, he reveals his housemates' characters by imagining what their Jeopardy! Dream categories would be. Daniel's are Tandy products, trash television of the 1970s-80s, Apple computers, career anxieties, tabloids and local flora. Michael has just received a demanding email from Bill, the CEO of Microsoft (Bill Gates), and shuts himself into his office to code the solutions. Michael's dream categories are FORTRAN, Pascal, Ada, LISP, Neil Peart (drummer for Rush), Hugo/Nebula science fiction award winners and Sir Lancelot. Concerned that Michael is not eating anything, Daniel and another housemate Todd shove flat food under Michael's office door (cheese singles, crackers, Pop-Tarts and so on).

The other housemates include Susan (680X0 assembly language, cats, early '80s glamour bands, her secret affair, license plate slogans...