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Hard Goodbye to Alice and Bill
cuzality writes "Computer Shopper has decided to let 'The Hard Edge' go after twelve years and two months of 'edgy, sarcastic, reader-centric columns' by Alice and Bill. Many of us remember 'The Hard Edge' from all the way back when it was in the newsprint section of the inch-thick Computer Shopper, and it's always been the straight skinny direct from the Lab of Doom and Pepsi Cola. Though 'The Hard Edge' has met its untimely and abrupt end, Alice and Bill aren't splitting up: they will continue on together at AliceandBill.com, where they write about technology news and will be happy to accept your kind PayPal donation." (More below.)
"They are also signing up subscribers for an upcoming newsletter, but since they can't use the name 'The Hard Edge' (which is owned by C|Net, CS's parent company), they will have to use some alternate name, possibly 'Hedge Yard.' If you were loyal 'Hard Edge' reader, drop by and write them a nice note in their guestbook."
As a previous poster pointed out, CS disappointed LONG ago. But I have memories of my lean years in college (in more ways than one), where, if I bought ONE magazine, it was CS, and if I bought it for ONE reason, it was to read The Hard Edge. And sometimes for Poor's Computer Cures. But it was the Hard Edge, along with the endless ads, that gave CS its trademark flavor. I have long since stopped even looking at CS -- let alone buying it -- since it stopped being its unique self, and tried to mold itself into a more traditional computer magazine. Don't we have enough of those already?
Just because I know I didn't say it enough (OK, OK, I NEVER said it...):
Thanks, Bill and Alice (or Alice and Bill?), for teaching me about computers by guiding me past the marketing hype.
Watch the Teaser Trailer for "The Lightning Thief" Her
I'm sure there are many among us that spent their spare time in the early 90s pouring over the thousand plus pages of a ~$2 Computer Shopper just for the ads. Once I filled out the giant product advertiser card for every product in the magazine, a month later I wasn't the most popular person in the house when about 90% of the mail was absolute junk that even I wasn't interested in.
I think the web killed them though, along with consolidation in the clone market. Microsoft can be fairly blamed here as they made sure that with the onset of Windows, that writing drivers to their specifications was required to sell a system. Obvious advantages in mass-production were the result and the extinction of niche clone makers quickly followed.
No more going to the Chinese guy in the industrial park to buy systems. I remember my first trip there back in the 80s when I had a 286 board that wasn't working with my SIPPs, this guy threw my board on a pile of DOA boards and ripped out a new one, mounted 1MB of RAM on it and sent me on my way. Woohoo! That was CS at work.
CS was the heart of the hobbyist market of the 80s and early 90s. Drilling holes in toner cartridges and punching holes in floppy disks is long gone, as is building your own system as a common endeavor. CS' time has passed.
I never liked the Hard Edge much anyway - they devoted too many pages to that. I would have preferred general interest stuff rather, more hole drillings and hardware mods!
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
I worked for an outfit here in Virginia Beach called "Galaxy Computers" about a decade ago. It was a russian couple essentially trying to exploit Americans. While they weren't a total ripoff-- they made an effort to ship things honestly, but FORGET about returns and refunds. There were two competitors locally who both were CS companies, but they were related somehow.. It was strange, kind a like a "russan mafia" thing...
I liked it because I could get stuff at "cost" I remember proudly buying a 166 mhz pentium for "only" $800. Yikes. Aah to be 17 and living with my parents again...
The boss actually took a liking to me when I wrote a defensive (and successful) letter to the BBB when we had a genuinely unrealistic customer. A few weeks later, he asked me to write another letter based upon a complaint, but I refused, because this person had a legitamite complaint. Sasha then informed me "They you quit!" I said, "No, I'm still working here. If you want me to leave, then you fire me." "NO, YOU QUIT!"
Anyway, I think I worked for two more days before he actually fired me, which is the only job from which I've ever been canned..
It's also the only job I've ever had a paycheck refused at a bank.. (and when that happened they paid in cash) But it was fun trying to find people the best deals, and put systems together. I genuinely loved building computers from parts, (still do) and I took pride in talking to people and finding out what they wanted. I'm nostalgic for the big CS book, and that's carried over. I now pride myself on finding the absolute best deals on stuff for friends using froogle/ pricegrabber/ pricwatch/ slickdeals/ techbargains/ half.com/ you name it, but it will never have the nostalgia of pouring over those pages, circling, dogearing, and calculating shipping costs...
First - thank you to EVERYONE who said they liked the column. We loved doing it and still are reeling from the decision to replace us with a shopping section of products and prices. And to the person who said this news item was done as a cheap ploy to get PayPal donations - we wish! The %$%% site is down. Guess this isn't out month. But thanks to all, and I hope you'll check out Aliceandbill.com. We are funding it ourselves for Hard Edge readers and post every day, so we hope you'll like it. We are also "in talks" with a few mags about a new print home as well, so stay tuned.....Alice Hill