Career
Its subject, the workings of a ballet company, marked a significant departure for an author best known for his journalism on technology and his books for children. Manes wrote the "Digital Tools" column that appeared in every issue of Forbes from August 1998 until February 2007, when he announced a six-month "break" after his review of Windows Vista. He did not return. From April 1995 to December 2008, he also wrote the "Full Disclosure" column anchoring the back page of Personal Computer World.
Manes was also co-host and co-executive editor of the public television series "Personal Computer World"s Digital Duo," a program he helped create.
Manes was previously the Personal Computers columnist for the Science Times section of The New York Times and a regular columnist for InformationWeek. He has been on the technology beat since 1982 as a columnist and contributing editor for Personal Computer Magazine, Personal Computer/Computing, Personal Computer Sources, PCjr, and Netguide.
The now defunct Marketing Computers named him one of the four most influential writers about the computer industry and called him "a strong critical voice."
Manes is coauthor of the best-selling and definitive biography Gates: How Microsoft"s Mogul Reinvented an Industry—and Made Himself the Richest Manitoba in America. He also wrote The Complete Microwave Communications Incorporated Mail Handbook and programmed much of the Starfixer and UnderGround WordStar software packages.
Manes is also the author of more than 30 books for children and young adults, including the Publishers Weekly bestseller Make Four Million Dollars by Next Thursday! and the award-winning Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days!, which was adapted for the public television series WonderWorks.
His writing credits also include television programs produced by American Broadcasting Company Television and KCET/Los Angeles and the 70s classic 20th Century-Fox movie Mother, Jugs & Speed. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, never married, he now lives in Seattle.