Ask Slashdot: Geek-Centric Magazines Still Published On Paper?

QwkHyenA writes "I've recently cancelled my Linux Magazine subscription because they went paperless. I know, I'm a heartless geek and should be 'shunned,' but I enjoy the unplugged sensation of reading paper periodicals. What sort of magazines are out there that still are delivered via USPS that will scratch my Engineering, Coder, System Administrator and 3D Printer itch?"

Comments

Analog

[j-pimp]

Analog: Science Fiction and Fact

Communications of the ACM

[larry bagina]

Proceedings of the IEEE, etc.

The one you ONLY buy in print with cash

[__aasehi2499]

2600, maybe a mask too ;D

Re:The one you ONLY buy in print with cash

[MisguidedPenguin]

Mmm, I've bought it with my Visa, and even had a subscription to it a few times, and I have since been declared Top Secret Eligible, so if you get put on a watch list for it, they apparently don't care that much about it.

Re:The one you ONLY buy in print with cash

[ebunga]

For security clearances, they don't care about what you know. Rather, they care about who you know and whether that $20,000 in unsecured debt makes you easy to blackmail.

Communications of the ACM

[sticks_us]

Join the ACM.

This still comes on paper every month (plus a digital edition):

http://cacm.acm.org/

The articles cover a wide range of topics, including:

- Computing and society
- Legal issues
- New trends in computing
- Programming language geekery

Some of it may be too "niche" or "hardcore" (depending on your interests) but there's usually something for everybody in every issue. No, it won't be quite as task-specific as some of the mags out there (i.e., Not many articles with titles like "Turn up the Volume with LVM: twenty ways to crank up your hard drive!!") but excellent, nonetheless.

YMMV of course.

Make Magazine

[ThoughtMonster]

Not strictly "geek" stuff, but always interesting. Though I guess you already know of it.

For 11

[xigxag]

http://www.circuitcellar.com/

http://www.2600.com/

http://www.linux-magazine.com/ (Linux Pro)

Makezine

[tamyrlin]

The make magazine is pretty good if you are into DIY. If you are into electrical engineering I guess Circuit Cellar or Elektor could be interesting as well.

Perhaps...

[jtownatpunk.net]

Buggy Whip Monthly

Sorry but tech mags are going to be the first to drop paper distribution. I used to work for a large magazine and their printing and postage costs are insane . Like "buy a private island with a year's printing and mailing costs" insane. Each postage increase adds a nice 3-4 bedroom house to the year's overhead.

Since geeks are the most likely target market to accept a shift to electronic distribution, it's logical that they would be the first to make the move.

Re:Perhaps...

[vlm]

Photocopy the schematic, trash it all up with soldering iron burns in the basement lab... Photocopy the parts list and haul it around with me everywhere until I acquire all the parts I need from fests and whatever? Scribble notes and equations all over the printout as I modify as necessary and see fit. Scribble notes on the schematic as I build (so, the analog ground is the green wire, and the optoisolated digital side ground is the black wire, vs the RF ground that is balun xfrmr isolated to the leftmost toroid core...)

Most electronic distributions historically seem paranoid nuts about allowing purchasers to copy or print out articles, completely missing the point that if I didn't find at least one article in the mag worth printing out and hacking up, I wouldn't buy the %^&! magazine to begin with. Either you let me fire up ye olde laser printer or you go bye bye.

HackerMonthly

[nFriedly]

http://hackermonthly.com/ They take the most popular articles from http://news.ycombinator.com/ and, with permission, republish the article in a beautiful print format.

IEEE Spectrum

[JohnM4]

IEEE Spectrum is a magazine sort of like Popular Science except it's based on reality. Articles are geared for the general techie/engineer type and don't rely on you knowing specific fields. http://spectrum.ieee.org/

Re:Scientific American

[marshotel]

http://www.americanscientist.org/ American Scientist is a bit more like the old SA. Much smaller circulation and not as timely but most articles are written by scientists not journalists.

IEEE

[ACorrosionOfDeviants]

Another relatively inexpensive option is the IEEE.
http://www.ieee.org/

Although the IEEE is encouraging members to switch over to digital only to reduce costs and waste, IEEE Spectrum and many of the technical society journals are still available on paper for those who want them.

- The society journals can be quite technical and specialized, but IEEE Spectrum maintains a broader focus.
- The IEEE Computer Society (www.computer.org) is the largest society in the IEEE, with lots going on and lots of publications.
- Other groups that might be of interest include the communications society (http://www.comsoc.org/), the robotics and automation society (http://www.ieee-ras.org/), or the society on social implications of technology (http://www.ieeessit.org/).