Slashdot Mirror
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?
T...The Magazine for the Slashdotter who missed the story the third time around!
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.
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 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.
I find that "Barely Legal" has better technical articles, while "Juggs" has a deeper insight into contemporary society.... sure....
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.
The trick is to wait around on FatWallet or Anandtech forums until one of the free subscriptions comes around for Stuff/Maxim/FHM. My Suff and Maxim subscriptions have been paid for until 2009 with nothing more then me filling in my name on a form.
Major Topics
steal this sig
...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
What on earth is up with this? I'm looking through this comment thread, and every other magazine people are listing is porn. Geez, if that's not a statement about slashdot's typical posting audience, I don't know what is...
Isn't there anything better you all could be reading?
I'm an owl exterminator!
Come on, no one reads playboy for the articles. In fact with the advent of the internet and streaming free porn clips, who actually pays for printed "static" porno anyway?
steal this sig
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
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.
Is this room 215?
Yes, can I help you?
Hi, I'm here for the flamewar?
Yes, please do come in. Won't you have some tea? we're discussing Star Wars.
Ah, good. I was looking for some potential converts to the world of Gene Roddenberry. Phasers can shoot through light-sabers, you know.
Careful, the tea's hot. And everyone knows that Imperial Shields can stop any energy/ballistic attack as long as the Shield Generators remain undamaged. Then Darth Vader would force-choke Captain Kirk into submission.
Mmm, good tea. May I have a scone?
Oh, please do.
Thank you. But that's absurd, if Geordi modulated the phasars on a plasma-variance intercorrelation loop, the meso-barions surrounding the ---
*knock knock* Is this the Paris Hilton vs. Natalie Portman thread?
(all) next thread, by the water cooler
Ah, much obliged. *leaves*
--look, Kirk was a ninny, anyway.
Hey, Kirk could kick Picard's pseudo-French hiney any day of the week!
Oh yeah, well Picard favorably impressed the Q continuum, so in them he has the friendship of a literal race of Gods, I think I've made my point.
See here, let's not have this bickering and whining about who killed who..
Hey, that's Monty Python! GET HIM!!!!!
Can't we all just get along?
Apparently not, but we can argue about why next week.
"A witty saying proves nothing." ~Voltaire
"d'Oh!" ~Homer
Why is it that the proponents of "one nation under God" are so eager to get rid of "liberty and justice for all"?
In the corner of my eye it looked like you said:
"There are magazines devoted to everything -- sports cars, handguns, killing ferrets..."
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 used to read Playboy, but now I am blind!
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 was at the airport one time, and the magazines were all one section over from where they labels of the section were. So computer magazines were in a section labled 'Fashion', Fashion magazines were in a section labeled 'Business' and so on. All the porn was in the 'General Interest' section. Seemed appropriate.
This post cannot be rebroadcast without the express written constent of Major League Baseball.
Come on, guys, there are subtler ways of collecting demographic info.
I've tried that
Turns out, each time, i just convince myself that I could stand to know more about breasts. *sigh*
The Neo-Bohemian Techno-Socialist
I'm a little wary to ask, but what exactly does "getting through a playboy" real quick mean?
KLAATU, BORADA, NIh*ahem*
"....and buy a magazine devoted to a subject you know nothing about. Read it." ...and that is why the slashdot crowd chooses Playboy!
FAIR reports that Halliburton has made US$4,508,231,125 trillion dollars mining stem-cell futures in Gadzookistan in the past forty-five minutes alone.
Jesus, who was a liberal, said that abortion is wrong. Since only aborted harp seals can operate the machinery used to mine stem-cells in the giant redwoods of the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge, this practice is clearly in opposition to the will of God, and also against the will of God's boss (Noam Chomsky).
You are, therefore, a fascist, an atheist, a corporatist bourgeois swine, a damned foreigner, a sexist pig, a child-molester, and a jerk. I hate you. The whole world hates you. FAIR has demonstrated that the New York Times has run NOT ONE STORY in the past year reporting that the whole world hates you and the God-fearing, Bible-believing multicultural harp seal fetus that you rode in on, you evil freak. This is stark media bias at its most reprehensible.
You can get Jesus out of the schools, but you can't get him out of the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge! He hates you too, by the way. Because you hate fags, you damned fag. And because you don't use Linux. BSD is, after all, dying. Where will YOU be on Judgement Day? Installing XP Service Pack Twelve, you pathetic deluded sheep?