I SING THE BODY ELECTRONIC: A YEAR WITH MICROSOFT ON THE MULTIMEDIA FRONTIER

I SING THE BODY ELECTRONIC: A YEAR WITH MICROSOFT ON THE MULTIMEDIA FRONTIER Fred Moody (Viking, $23.95) When you learn that many of Microsoft's best and brightest could be mistaken for ''gangs of adolescents'' who manage stress by blasting Nirvana, the company's billion-dollar edge in the computer-software industry seems surreal indeed. Seattle-based journalist Moody offers such perspectives after tracking (with unlimited access to meetings and E-mail) the six-person team that developed Explorapedia, a children's CD-ROM. The play-by-play account often verges on soap opera; a foreshortened ship-date deadline only fuels the group's creative clashes and endless infighting. Vividly disclosed is the peculiar Microsoftian culture, such as the schism between designers (arty types) and developers (tech-heads), and the dreaded ''Bill meetings'' that reveal Gates' ''quirky charm'' and not-so-charming temper. When a shining product emerges from this utterly chaotic process, Microsoft's secret becomes clear: Hyperkinesis is everything. Fortunately, Moody's brisk pace keeps up. B+