Ask Slashdot: What Magazines Do You Still Read?

AmiMoJo writes "Over on Slashdot Japan, there is a discussion about what magazines people still read (Google translation of Japanese original). Japanese people still tend to read a lot of periodicals, while in the west readership seems to be in decline. Do you read magazines regularly, or at all? Are websites a good substitute, or do print publications still offer something worth spending your cash on?"

Comments

None

[gameboyhippo]

None... The Internet has replaced the function of magazines.

Re:None

[PopeRatzo]

Batteries? Oh, those. No, I rarely bother with them other than the internal ones you get with mp3 players, kindles, tablets etc.

You bother with them all the time, by having to remember to plug them in at night. You bother with them when you have to think about whether you're going to be able to finish the movie you're watching on the plane before the battery dies. You bother with them by having to keep your eye on the little battery symbol because once that goes down, your "mp3 players, kindles, tablets etc." are useless until you find somewhere to plug in.

When people are asked what is the most important feature they wish they had on their electronic devices, "longer battery life" is always #1. So yes, people are clearly bothered with them.

Push vs. Pull

[dtmos]

Print publications are literally put into my hand, giving me more incentive to read them upon receipt. Web sites require an active effort on my part to go read them, which is often not done due to my habit of procrastination ("I'll take time to check that tomorrow"). Even email links to my monthly periodicals go unused, for similar reasons.

To me, it's the difference between polling- and interrupt-driven systems. The processor has to be constantly (or at least repetitively) awake to poll, while the processor can be asleep and awoken by an interrupt. The interrupt-based system is usually the lower-energy way to go.

Re:Push vs. Pull

[oGMo]

Yes if only there were some sort of Rich Site Summary that could be published by websites that would allow a piece of software ... let's call it an aggregator to be fancy, or maybe just a reader... to pull content for you, much like a mail delivery person. If you found a site you liked, you could just click on a link to subscribe, and your friends could share articles and feeds with you. Google should get on this!