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How exactly is it bullshit? WinXP is still the most popular OS by far and in a few short weeks with the release of IE 9 will be stuck with an outdated browser. Due to bad design decisions at MSFT that cause IE in XP hook deep into the system and files connected to it required to run Windows Update (which you can check yourself by running one of several "IE Removal Tools" which actually remove IE instead of hide it from view) make it even more attractive and dangerous.Finally as long as WinXP is supported what features Vista and 7 have is irrelevant as I showed above they are by far the minority when it comes to IE.

And then finally you have the actions of the MSFT "security team" themselves. While the other browser makers opened support tickets and continued working with the writer right up until release MSFT closed the ticket and cut off contact with the writer until he told them he would release into the wild, which then got back responses like "PR Nightmare" and who then tried to stall for time by saying it wasn't replicable with the July tool even though after confirmation by the writer that yes, the July tool found the same bugs they admitted they found that as well and couldn't explain cutting the support ticket but I can.

If you look up the history of the IE security team you'll see time and time again researchers finding bugs, doing the right thing and handing the info to MSFT, only to have the bug ignored until they threaten or release into the wild. This has happened over and over again. so why you would say it is bullshit when we have a history of being a day late and a dollar short is beyond me. And why anyone would use IE in this day and age when there are much safer browsers out there where the teams behind it seem to really be on the ball and listen is frankly more than a little crazy. Finally I know this is only an anecdote but here in the shop I've found by moving users away from IE I've had their rate of infection drop by a good 75% on fully patched XP machines tells me all I need to know in all honestly. IE simply isn't safe for general usage, and I've seen that with my very own peepers. Believe what you want.

>>>the magazine without all the things that made it great is bullshit,

Pretty much. Like reviving the Bionic Woman or Knight Rider and then changing the whole premise of the show. Of course that worked in the case of Battlestar Galactica, but when you're already dealing with a good show (or magazine) there's no point abandoning it.

BTW I've never read Byte. At least not that I remember. My main two addictions were RUN for commodore VICs and 64s plus AmigaWorld (essentially the same as RUN but for 32-bit instead of 8-bit machines). I don't think BYTE would have interested me since I never owned an IBM PC at the time, and from what I remember that was it's main focus. Another magazine I remember was COMPUTE's Gazette but never subscribed to it since it didn't feel as polished or useful as RUN.

So: Just curious: What killed the magazine? - I see Jerry Pournelle is still writing his columns. Love his stories; never read his tech columns: http://www.chaosmanorreviews.com/

RUN (1984-93) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Run_magazine
AmigaWorld (archives) http://amr.abime.net/issues_30
Byte http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byte_(magazine)

Yep that was number one on my list. You might want to add Nuts and Volts as well.
Oh and the entire internet for software.
I really miss Byte :(
Oh and this as well http://www.chaosmanorreviews.com/

You need to look into websites, there is no magazine that captures the zeitgeist of the personal computer industry today:

http://www.arstechnica.com/
http://www.lifehacker.com/
http://www.tomshardware.com/

then there are specialty sites that focus on very particular topics, but those are some good, general sites to start with...

To get your John C. Dvorak fill, you could go here:

http://www.dvorak.org/blog/

And Jerry Pournelle is here:

http://www.chaosmanorreviews.com/

Hope that helps

No, not a land war in Asia. From here

Ah, you read Jerry Pournelle? His "Chaos Manor" in "Byte Magazine" was one of my favorite columns in the print edition. My other one was Steve Ciarcia's "Circuit Cellar", which now an independent magazine.

Falcon

No, not a land war in Asia. From here:
  The Open Source and CopyLeft people are acting as if common sense prevails in US copyright law, and they are, I am told, dead wrong.

http://www.chaosmanorreviews.com/rss.xml (Jerry Pournelle, author etc, sort of tech diary)

http://fakesteve.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default (Fake Steve Jobs, 'interesting views')

I've got more but I thought these were less obvious, yet as 'must-have' as theregister and slashdot.

Jerry Pournelle was great, I always read his column first, and computer companies always sent him equipment and software to review because Jerry could break anything, and if your stuff could survive Chaos Manner, you were made. He's on the web at Chaos Manor Reviews if your jonesing for a fix of Jerry.

Jerry still writes articles which are available online.
http://www.chaosmanorreviews.com/

And he keeps a daily journal.
http://www.jerrypournelle.com/
http://www.jerrypournelle.com/view/currentview.htm l

"Good science fiction writers...?"

You must not be familiar with Niven and Pournelle!

As for "a bunch of wild directions" both are grounded in their science. SCIENCE, not wild ideas. Both are adept at looking at on-the-edge break throughs and figuring out the impact it could have on society. For instance, there has been increasing news reports about the sale of the organs of political prisoners in China. Rich people can get whatever they need for a few tens of thousands of dollars. Of course it's all illegal but that is no problem when there are corrupt officials. All of this is no surprise to those of us who read Niven's work in the 1970s. He called them "Organ-leggers."

Oh, and Pournelle has also been a successful computer columnist for many years. His "Chaos Manor" column was one of the best things in Byte magazine. Do check out his Chaos Manor Reviews at http://www.chaosmanorreviews.com/ and his Chaos Manor Musings at http://www.jerrypournelle.com/index.html.

Actually Jerry Pournelle seems to really like Vista. He used to write for BYTE since the days of CP/M.
He has his own website at http://www.chaosmanorreviews.com/. I don't think anyone should buy Vista and frankly I think it needs a lot more work but he does seem to like it.