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What Magazines Do You Read?
Osgyth asks: "Everyone is quick to complain about a magazine when the author makes a mistake or a stupid comment. Wired and PC Magazine are only some that have fallen to this attack. Which 'PC related' magazines does the Slashdot crowd read? Are they informative and accurate? Or merely read for their entertainment value?" Why limit the topic to just PC Magazines? What other periodicals do you all read that you find interesting?
Extra!, the paper magazine of the media watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR).
FAIR analyzes how the media reports, what they report, what they don't report, and calls out their biases.
They've done a lot of work around telecommunications policy , looking at what the governement is saying, what business is saying, and how it will affect you and me.
They don't speculate--I love them because they are so analytical. They are data heads who use the LexisNexis database to stastistically evaluate how the media does. Is there a conservative bias in media? They'll give you the numbers and let you decide.
Subscription is $21/year.
I'm much funnier now that I'm a subscriber.
The ones that I do like to read are most of the men's fitness/health magazines. My all-time favorite is Mens Health though. They seem to be very accurate on alot of things and I still haven't seen it matched by the myriad of other ones that are out there.
Hmmm.
I have only subscribed to one magazine ever... Maxim . The first time I picked up Maxim I said to myself, "what a joke." I didn't realize just how right I was! I have subscribed most of the way through college and it continues now. The stack on the shelf behind the toilet is chock full of great articles, beautiful women, and some of the best "toys" that you could find. I wish I could afford all the goodies they list.
:)
The best part of Maxim is that my gf enjoys reading it as well and doesn't complain about the half-naked hotties that dot its pages.
It's inexpensive (generally under $17.00/year), it's funny, it's well put together, the articles are worth reading, and the women are plentiful and gorgeous. The only thing that I wish it had that it does not are the 1000+ line BASIC programs for me to type in that Byte used to. Now *THAT* was HOT!
No, I don't work for Maxim but I wish I did.
Wired and PC Magazine are only some that have fallen to this attack.
While Wired can still be interesting (I read it since I started getting a free subscription somehow) it has steadily turned into the "shiny things" computer magazine. Anything stupidly expensive instantly gets coverage. PC Magazine went from being a reasonable source of information to a huge glut of advertisements with worthless content sprinkled in here an there.
2600 is entertaining still and I buy it regularly (don't want to be on that subscription list though *GASP*!) although some of the articles list tech information that's just nowhere near correct. A little too heavy on the lame windows exploits/security information too.
Non tech: Maxim and Stuff really do have pretty interesting/funny articles (and other things too)
Casual Games/Downloads
I was reading Mental Floss until my local Barnes & Noble stopped carrying it... I might just have to start up a subscription.
I do subsribe to National Geographic but I've found myself not reading it that much but just looking at the pictures.
I gave up buying consumer PC mags as they didn't tell me anything that I hadn't already found out at least 6 weeks before. I still read some of the weekly trade magazines though, mainly because I get them free at work.
Other than that, the only ones I buy are related to mountain bikes, or occasionally hi-fi kit.
The Financial Times offers analysis as well as news and rarely makes the thicko comments inferences found in other papers (including The Times I'm afraid to say - I mean 'Loosers' was clearly a reference to Wayne Rooney - not to Rebecca Loos...)
As an aside - none of the newspapers have decent IT columns///
Only magazine I buy periodically is the Reader's Digest - usually at airports.
And yes, ACM CrossRoads too, though I find it has very little useful content nowadays - they need volunteers btw.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
Smithsonian, the official mag of the Smithsonian Institution. I always tell people, if you can't find at least one article of interest in any given issue, than you are a very boring person.
Save Maine's economy: write stuff down. All comments are exclusively my own, not my employer.
Hey, I know its not "cool" but I got the best kick ass vaccum cleaner they make for $150 dollars and its more quiet then my fridge.
;)
Oh, and PC Mag occasionally, although the writting has gone down hill.
Wired has great articles, but who has time to read them.
"Club" - if you don't know what this mag is, don't ask.
Informative and Funny. How can you go wrong? Seriously, this is the more entertaining than I thought a computer magazine could be. The writers are brilliant.
I also read whatever magazines the previous occupants of our house subscribed to. This usually amounts to Latina and Stuff. I wouldn't recommend Stuff. It's like Playboy without the softcore porn and competent writers.
My dingo ate your honor student.
The two things I do subscribe too are national / international news magazine called The Week it's great for the stuff that you don't think about till the weekend.
And a literary magazine called The sun, that does mostly personal essays, fiction, interviews, poetry, and photographs.
"think of it as evolution in action"
Since the question was Which 'PC related' magazines does the Slashdot crowd read? I can't really comment. I don't do to much off-line reading about tech. the problem is that it changes so much, by the time you get the magazine, what you're reading is out of date...
But i do keep my car and photography magazines around.
A densely packed periodical with a ton of well thought out opinion pieces that cover the whole world. Their articles contain a lot of fact but are - ultimately - opinion pieces. I don't always agree with them, but when I don't I have to sit down and think about my reasons.
Although, if you read their technology quarterly you realise that they aren't delving that deep into each issue they research.
IMHO, as per.
J:)
Oh well, no point in steering now.
I stopped reading magazines all together years and years ago. Too little content for too much money (seriously, why pay for advertising?)
Reminds me of the Fight Club quote:
We're consumers. We are by-products of a lifestyle obsession. Murder, crime, poverty, these things don't concern me. What concerns me are celebrity magazines, television with 500 channels, some guy's name on my underwear.
I read The Economist. The articles are well-written and insightful and, since it's published in London, you get a non-US perspective which is hard to find these days. Also, it doesn't try to be exclusively conservative or liberal (not that there's anything wrong with that -- I read Salon too).
They do tend to see free-market capitalism as the cure for everything. I don't really have a problem with this (in fact, market-based solutions often work in places you might not expect them to), but it's something to keep in mind when you read the magazine.
Remember the days when Republicans were the party of fiscal responsibility?
Minerva Magazine is awesome, although the web site is rather weak in comparison.
What, my username didn't tip you off?
...but, as if anyone were interested, I regularly read:
:-)
The Economist - intelligent political and economic coverage with a distinct UK/European background. Smart enough to make you think even if you disagree with its editorial slant, as I often do.
The New Yorker - good writing, often thought provoking and cartoons.
Atlantic Monthly - more intelligent current affairs writing.
Granta - excellent if sometimes inconsistent modern fiction.
GQ - decent men's magazine, although the US edition is noticebly dumbed down in comparison with the UK edition.
Premiere - movie reviews and in-depth articles on the entertainment industry; think Entertainment Weekly with brains and a staff of almost journalists
Of the computer-related magazines, I used to subscribe to Wired, but it has descended into mediocrity in the last few years. At least it had verve during the dotcom years. I also enjoyed Byte and have issues going back to the early 80's. It was beginning to head towards just another PC review magazine before it folded, but in its heyday it really was a hobbyist's delight.
Sailing over the event horizon
"Unix Sys Admin" - always great
"TapeOp" - home recording
but that's it, it's all on the Internet these days, no?
CVB
free ipod and free gmail!
Notably, Wired took the #1 spot:
Myself, I read Atlantic Monthly, The New Yorker, The New Republic, Aperture, Harpers and Scientific American. I'm thinking of picking up Reason, Foreign Affairs, The Economist and The Weekly Standard.
So close and yet so far from the world's perfect ID number
I don't remember when, where, who or how, but I once received a piece of advice I've never forgotten, which seemed wise at the time, and which I've since found invaluable.
There are magazines devoted to everything -- sports cars, handguns, knitting, ferrets, Italian cooking, Civil War reenactments, log cabins, etc. Magazines are a terrific (and cheap) way to expand your horizons.
crib
Please don't read my journal
American Iron Magazine because AIM has a good balance of tech, reviews, and custom bikes.
Backpacker provides not only reviews of equipment and hikes, they're now including GPS waypoints with the maps.
It's all fun and games until someone loses the key to the handcuffs.
One Time when I got thru a Playboy real quick, I decided to see what the articles were about and oddly there was review on the iPod, which it praised.
Computer trade rags get skimmed briefly then tossed, or just tossed.
Wasn't the original name Boot Magazine?
A friend still has a subscription to it, and finds it worthwhile to continue. I occasionally grab a copy from him for interesting articles, such as the one they had a couple of years ago about ripping audio.
You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
As do I. I really like the long-format Playboy interview, and I've tracked down old issues based on finding, say, the Jimmy Carter "Lust in My Heart" issue or the last print interview Martin Luther King Jr. did before he was assassinated.
I love the heck out of older Playboys. Did you know that OJ Simpsons was once the spokesman for a line of Hunting Knives? I get a kick out of the tone of some of the then current-events articles and the little blurbs about the high-tech (e.g. Videodiscs in the late 70s) of the day.
Nowadays Playboy has moved closer to Maxim/FHM-style content, which I consider a sad state of affairs, but it's one general interest magazine I do generally read in its entirety.
One thing that REALLY SUPREMELY pisses me off is how much worse the content is in Cosmopolitan than Playboy. Open a Playboy, and the first 120 or so pages are largely political or general interest (the forum, the interview etc), then a 3 - 7 page pictorial, then 20 more pages of general-interest material or fiction, then the PMOM (3 - 7 pages), 50 more pages - fashion, sports etc., the last pictorial, then more general interest stuff. There might be an article about sex - history of contraception or somesuch, and there's the Advisor, which is a two page column that's about half sex questions in a given month, but... it's not generally bad or explicit.
Open a Cosmo: Fashion, fashion, celebrity news, DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS RELATED TO PROSTATE MASSAGE, general interest, fashion, diet tips, six pages on "Spit or Swallow"... basically, other than the ~15 pages of artistic nudes in Playboy, something like Cosmo is a FAR worse Smut Rag.
But, er, I like the pictures in Playboy, too.
-- I wanna decide who lives and who dies - Crow T. Robot, MST3K
I pay for The Nation, which is an excellent news/politics weekly. Some of the stuff is online, but there's nothing like having the paper itself for the train.
I used to get Harper's but I really don't have time to finish a Harpers and they usually just end up in the bathroom after I've read the main story. A fine magazine with some very intelligent writing. The Harper's index is worth the admission price alone.
I subscribe to salon.com too. I never understood the allure of Lumpen and the other 'hip' liberal weeklies.
Thanks to the web and tivo I watch almost no televised news and get my AP/Reuters and NYTimes, Wash Post, etc for free.
The reviewers in the New York Book Review usually bring up challenges to the argument/methodology used in the books reviewed. Most of the reviews also cover 2 or 3 books on the same topic, comparing the strengths/weaknesses of each.
Just a warning though, there is an obvious liberal bias to the review. It isn't of the Michael Moore/Al Franken variety that "all republicans suck" but is more reasoned and researched arguments against specific policies. And even though I'm liberal it would be nice to have some intalligent consevative views printed more often just for variety's sake.
About the only critcism I have of the magazine is that nearly every issue for over a year now has had an article (usually an editorial as opposed to an actual book review) on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (almost uniformily critical of the Israelis). Which is fine, Israel is certainly open to some criticism, but after ten articles it becomes a little tiresome.
I used to subscribe to Men's Health and found the health and fitness articles informative and well written, but after 2 years the articles became a bit repetitive. Other than medical updates there is only so much you can really write about doing arm curls.
Maxim? Wired? gee, maybe I should check them out next time I pick up my new American Idol CD at the walmart.
Here's what I like, when I can find them:
These pretzels are making me thirsty.
I read wired (though lately not in print, because I'm starving) and a british magazine called Computer Arts (http://www.computerarts.co.uk/) because I'm a graphic artist, and there's really nothing in holland that can compete with this beauty.
And when my budget allows for it, the Dungeon and Dragon monthlies. cause I'm a geek like that.
Machine9dotNet
There was a time when some journalists were driven by the ideals of their profession, to inform the public. As our society has become more materialistic, however, that has become much rarer. Nowadays, journalism is driven by the profit motive. And the way to make money in a mass market is to entertain, not to inform.
There are a few exceptions - some people are also driven by the wish to convince others of some agenda. But, of course, this also leads to bad journalism. Our media have degenerated into a mixture of entertainment and propaganda.
I used to read The Economist. Now I don't read periodicals at all. I get raw news from the Internet, and I'm old enough to be able to make some sense of it. But we rarely get the full story about anything.
Here's a old man's observation: the only time you can be pretty sure you're getting the truth, is when the government tries to ban or suppress a story, but it comes out anyway.
...in electronic copy edition. This is the only magazine I pay for. I find enough reading material online to fill both my geek and non-geek news quotas.
I read Cook's Illustrated seriously, (They are the guys behind the TV show "America's Test Kitchen") and I occasionally leaf through Bon Appetit or Gourmet when I feel like reading more about food related things like restaurants and entertaining and pretty food pictures rather than actual cooking.
Cook's Illustrated rocks. =D
If you've ever thought about subscribing to Car and Driver or Motor Trend or a similar mag, I urge you to check you Grassroots Motorsports. It definitely caters more to the autocross and weekend racer market than the average consumer, but the articles are long, informative, entertaining and written by people without God's budget. Every year they do a this-year-dollars challenge, which this year ended up with 70-something highly competant racecars for under US$2004. To stay on-topic, I read 2600, The Economist, Scientific American, and after reading this thread, I'll take a look at StratFor, Extra!, and Mental Floss.
Even if you have no interest in the material (clothes and makeup for 20-something women), pick up a copy of Jane and analyze it for its design and its point of view.
Communications of the ACM and Dr. Dobbs Journal.
Well, actually my subscription of DDJ lapsed a while back, and a rarely read CACM anymore.
But if I were going to read a magazine, those would be the ones.
plus-good, double-plus-good
I subscribe to as few print rags as possible. Nevermind the nagging guilt over all those dead trees, I simply don't need the clutter! If want to read up on something, I'll do it on the web.
;) It's also one of the few that discusses actual programming instead of marketing BS.
I only get two magazines at work, "EE Times" and "Embedded Systems Programming". I'd ditch EET except then I'd have to check "none of the above" on the ESP renewal form. Sounds silly, but ESP is one of the few that's actually selective with their free subs (ie. you have to lie a little better than the average joe
At home the only thing I get is the never-ending subscription to "Popular Science" that I got suckered into a few years back; it barely even rates as bathroom reading...
The only one i subscribe to is 'Nuts and Volts'. If electronics interest you at all i would strongly recommend it. It has great information on all kinds of electronics stuff, and every month it has several different projects that it walks you through. They give you schematics, pictures and all that junk. I believe this month weve got a self powered voltmeter as well as info on PCB layout (and a bunch of other stuff i dont remember.) They always have a great Q&A section, and interesting articles. It also has a sister mag called Servo that is all about robots, im not in to the whole robot thing, so i only have a few issues of that one, but it seems good if you want to really get into robots.
I always said that the worst sort of perverts were the ones who read the articles instead of looking at the pictures.
From what I've heard of the articles, I was probably right. Since Playboy stopped publishing the works of Kilgore Trout, it's all been downhill.
See what I've been reading.
New Scientist is a British import I really wish I had the cash to subscribe to. Their science coverage is a notch above Scientific American and a few steps above Discover. It is a magazine that I make a special trip to the library for at least once a month. In addition, it is quite interesting to see how a European science periodical approaches issues such as GMOs and energy policy.
Fortean Times sort of a brainy "Ripley's Believe it or Not". It manages to cover the weird and bizzare without falling into either smug skeptical dismissal or empty-headed conspiracy. Their recent coverage of H. P. Lovecraft's connection with the occult was excellent. (verdict: Lovecraft was a life long atheist who did just enough background research to fill his stories) In some cases they are willing to step in and declare a myth to be bullshit. For example, with the WWI angels legend, the creator is both still alive, and explicitly honest as to having created that little bit of propaganda.
The Atlantic features in-depth stories on topics that are relevant, yet one seldom finds the same kind of information that any story in the Atlantic features. For example, as the Iraq situation heated but before the rest of media seriously used the word "invasion," the May issue featured Tales of the Tyrant, a piece about Saddam.
Earlier than that, the April 2001 issue gave us culture closer to home in The Organization Kid, which anyone who has been involved in the education process as a student, parent or teacher should be forced to read. The article adopts a skeptical tone of today's do-it-all culture without being didactic or heavy handed.
The former NYT Editor who left after the Jayson Blair scandal aired his opinions concerning the Times, the importance of the Times and the direction of news in America in a piece so long and thoughtful that I planned to read the lead before a run, and instead spent 1.5 hours reading and digesting the article before running even crossed my mind again.
And then there's the "Primary Sources" sections, which I'll leave for another rave. Fact is that The Atlantic is a consistantly great read.
Excellent post. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one upset by their move to more of a Maxim type format.
My wife reads it as well. Often before I do, since she usually gets to the mail first.
I've had any number of friend's girlfriends who are shocked that my wife "allows me" to get the magazine. When I press the issue, asking if they've ever actually read one (or even opened one), the answer is always no.
I like your comparison to Cosmo. I'll have to remember the next time one of them gets holier-than-thou and implies that Playboy is in the same category as cheap pornography.
Nobody's mentioned The Onion. Yes it has a paper edition, and yes its available at book stores.
Every week, topical, broad, and well written. Rarely do they publish completely stupid articles, without at least acknowledging that many readers might find them so, New Scientist is the best magazine out there.
They publish good computer related articles as well, from social issues like privacy and security to physics issues of fabrication techniques.
Most importantly though, they still have a concept of journalism, unlike WIRED's mornoic McLuhian "there is no objectivity" "geeks are our heroes" "all technology is perfect and wonderful" breathlessness that overwhelms any actual intellectual value that might lurk accidently unexpunged from their articles. Unfortunately their worse-than-useless meme has infected most of the US technical press to a greater or lesser extent.
Technology Review used to be good, but took a huge dive into pathetic pandering and breathless sensationalism under the train wreck that was John Benditt. They started to recover a tiny bit under Robert Buderi, but alas, they've just replaced him with somone from that other "long boom" loosers magazine, Red Herring, though I don't know anything else about Jason Pontin and he may turn out to be smart - perhaps he left Red Herring out of disgust?
Why is it that random placement of irrelevant paragraphs and illegible typography has become central to any US magazine's technology identity? If there was one thing more stupid and ill-concieved than WIREDs self professed end of objectivity, it was the illegibility they passed off as cutting edge design, after stealing it from Mondo 2000 and cleaning it up a bit.
Even that centuries old bastion of reason and depth, Scientific American, has succumbed to the "expanded readership" afforded shallow, mindless optimism and has scaled back their thinking articles for more content that would be at home in WIRED's pages, and seems to have cut back on opposing views, letting corporate flacks define the market impact of their inventions without any critical review - the very heart of WIRED's journalistic abdication.
As far as I've found, aside from professional journals, that leaves New Scientist as the best source of real news about technology, and the only source I've found with any critical analysis of the consequences of an invention or discoverty.
The reason why I rant so is that, particularly since the advent of the internet, WIRED style breathless but glossy reprints of corporate press releases are irrelevant. When I want to know what Microsoft thinks is their greatest innovation, I'll go to their website and save my money. What I'm willing to pay for is a journalist who takes the time to read MSFT's latest boast, then finds the people who can meaningfully and authoritatively comment on the veracity of the release and integrates the answers, all properly attributed. Only New Scientist still does this.
Linux Journal (subscription)
Linux Magazine
Wax Poetics (subscription)
2600 meaning to get subscription
sysadmin (subscription)
Ready Made (subscription)
Wired (only purchased in airports)
Mother Jones (off the rack, when the cover grabs me)
Stay Free! (subscription)
Future Music almost every month
And I buy about a dozen random magazines a month, news, music making
CIA Industries - Running the world for fun and profit
I gave up on SciAm after the nasty hatchet job they did on bjorn lomborg.
They used to have real live science; now it seems like it's politically biased in favor of the accepted dogma. Sad really.
What a strange bird is the pelican, his beak can hold more than his belly can.
I'm 100% certain no-one cares at all, but what the hell.
I am currently subscribed to Cook's Ilustrated and Cuisine at Home. I occasionally will buy Saveur, Gourmet and Good Food (a UK mag-I love Borders). If it's around I'll paw through the latest National Geographic and laugh when they blither on about global warming and evolution as if they're established, proven facts. If someone I like is on the cover, I'll pick up Maxim or FHM, but generally those magazines seem like they're made for guys who never matured beyond the fourth grade.
I also like Macworld OK, MacAddict more and Mac Design most of all. PC Magazines are all the same: how to make your PC faster, defend against viruses/trojans/worms, how to tweak windows to make it faster/crash less/take out the garbage/satisfy your woman better than you could ever hope to/whatever. So I read them for comic relief.
Told you you didn't care.
I think that I'll try to do that. It'll probably pick me up out of my discouragement. I'm sure that I'll start off @ the public library, though. I could save big bucks that way. I might try to start @ the "A" section of the magazine rack, then work my way over to "Z". It seems much more structured that way.
While I'm on the topic of public libraries, I'd like to suggest to everybody to go to the public library, & borrow some children's music to learn a foreign language. I tried that with French, & picked up some catchy tunes & new words.
testing out my trending skills
Noone reads Linux Journal? I like it so much I just got a subscription...along with Wired which I've had for a while.
Other than those two, I sporadically get Linux Format(expensive, but comes with nice DVDs), Linux World(little too focused on enterprise for my tastes), 2600(compact, sometimes useful, often entertaining in its un-usefulness), C/C++ Programming(had a subscription but only read half of them), Men's Fitness(another subscription that rarely got put to much use...), and every now and then its fun to read Heavy Metal(adult-oriented cartoons if you've never read it).
btw, thanks to whoever mentioned free subs. to stuff like Wired...I just extended mine a year for free!
once you go slack, you never go back
1. @Server
2. Application Development Trends
3. BtoB
4. Baseline
5. Business 2.0
6. Business Integration
7. Cargill News
8. CIO
9. Computerworld
10. CRM
11. DB2 Magazine
12. DM Review
13. Business Integration Journal
14. e-business advisor
15. Electronic Commerce World
16. Enterprise Architect
17. Enterprise Development
18. Executive Edge
19. eWeek
20. Forbes
21. Fortune
22. InformationWeek
23. InfoWorld
24. Intelligent Enterprise
25. Internet Week
26. Java Developer's Journal
27. Java Pro
28. Line 56
29. Linux World
30. Lotus Advisor
31. Manufacturing Systems
32. Mobile Business Adviser
33. Mobile Enterprise
34. Oracle Magazine
35. PC Magazine
36. Portals
37. R&D
38. Software Development
39. SD Times
40. Software Test & Performance
41. Technology Review - MIT
42. Transform
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44. WebSphere Developer's Journal
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47. XML Magazine