Slashdot Mirror
Are Computer Magazines Dead?
CitizenC writes "C|Net is currently running an article on why old school computer magazines like PC Magazine are dying rapidly.. it brought tears to my eyes reading this." Reminds me of Byte. I've never thought much of most computer magazines - they have too much stake in promoting the products of their advertisers to be believable. The floor is open for suggestions: what would make a good computer magazine to you?
I really don't feel anything can save old school mags. Well done web sites just offer too much interactivity and productivity to be bested by paper mags. Not to mention they are much more up to date.
They are out dated before the ink is dry
I'm really sick of magazines that are at least 50% advertising. Every once in a while I buy a magazine and rip out any of the pages with ads on both sides. It's amazing how much of those things is made up of their very thin content. How do they even survive?
I remember the days when the table of contents was on the first page on the magazine, not page 6 or 7. Magazines will kill themselves unless they smarten up and increase the content to ad ratio.
æeee!
What else can they say?
THe german C't is imho the best computermagazine in the world. It comes out every two weeks, has extensive coverage of a broad range of computernews, including politics, new technology, hard and software reviews, tips and tricks, along a broad array of platforms, is quite objective, is quite critical of intel and microsoft but do not do microsoft/ intel bashing, but give critical reviews with argumentation instead, and will also point out the good things of a microsoft or intel product. Doesn't follow hypes blindly, has good practical sections and stay critical of products of companies that advertise in them.
The only drawback for some: it's in german... for me that's no problem but for some it is. Well.. there's also a Dutch version..
Besides, I like reading on paper better than on screen.
I actually like Dr. Dobbs' Journal quite a bit. Sure, it's full of ads, but I like their ads. Occasionally spotty quality (and one or two VB-related pieces!) don't overwhelm the good stuff that's still there. --JRZ
Almost every magazine can fall victim to this. Magazines don't make their money from subscriptions or even newsstand sales, they make profits from advertising. We as readers need to be smart enough to tell when the writer is really being objective and when we're just being fed BS to sell advertising space.
When a publication prints a report about a product that is heavily advertised, we must take it with a grain of salt - you've got to be a smart reader.
Hey, what if there were a magazine that didn't accept advertising? Then everybody would take their reviews seriously! We could call it Consumer Reports. [/sarcasm]
-- "Complacency is a far more dangerous attitude than outrage." -Naomi Littlebear
That's what I say! Make Slashdot into a paper publication, and you've got yourself the best computer mag on the face of the planet!!!
My personal opinion on computer magazine is this:
Computer magazines are dying because of two things.
The first reason is that they lack content. Take Computer Shopper for instance. All but about 25 pages of their 200 page magazine (I am not sure of the exact length) were ads. I like to buy magazines for their quality content, not their ads. Now I understand that people sometimes get them because they are great catalogs, but there are more Dell computer ads in the magazine than there are pages of content.
The second reason is that most of the information is avaible for free on the internet. I can easily find hundreds of reviews and articles on every topic imaginable for free. The content in magazines is usually a few weeks out of date, while content on the Internet is up-to-date.
I hate to say this, but I have yet to figure out how to read online magazines in the bathroom. I suppose dragging a laptop with a network cable might be an idea, but .....
. waterwingz
The computer mag I read that comes to mind is Wired, which also has a lot of ads. However, most of them are pretty entertaining, so they usually don't bother me.
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Just as people tend to be concerned about the content on the television rather than the television itself, people are becoming more focused on the content of the internet rather than the hardware they use to access the internet.
Computer magazines are dead. I havent bought one in years. One of the main reasons is believability. How can one believe an article in a magazine is unbiased when the very subject in the artilce is paying for full page advertisements. Today PC magazines are full of ads, way more ads than content. If you want to find good unbiased reviews of software, hardware, new technologies explained just search the web. There are many good sites out there that are more relevant than paper magazines. Toms Hardware, Sharkey Extreme and ReviewFinder are what I use to keep up to date on the goings on in the PC industry. Besides, paper magazines are out of date months before they are printed since several months of lead time are needed to do editing, layouts and the printing. SAVE A TREE...Boycott paper PC magazines.
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Slashdot is the new computer magazine. It filters out all the news I don't want, advertising isn't intrusive, and I can read what other people think after I've read an article.
I wonder how long it will be until all magazines become sites like Slashdot? I wouldn't count on Crochet Monthly becoming a Slashdot-type site for a while, but it definitely might be that way someday.
BTW, has any more thought been given to the Slashdot Magazine? I'm not sure that I'd buy it, but then again, I sure could use some News for Nerds while I'm sitting on the can.
I haven't read paper computer magazines ever since I got a web connection. I have no use for dead paper periodicals, especially when the information in them is consistently more than a month older than what I'm reading online.
In fact, when the telemarketers from assorted magazines and newpapers bug me I just tell them that I don't read paper printed materials these days: I get all my periodicals online. I'd like to say that Slashdot is responsible for my change of habit, but it was the Macintosh rumor sites that really broke my addiction.
Is the bundled CD. I'd spend the money to get demos of things on CD that I don't want to spend 4 hours d/ling. I got a copy of MacWorld once just to get the copy of the BeOS that came with it.
I buy PC mags now just to get demos/patches and whatnot that I don't want to spend the time to d/l.
However this goes out the window when I can get phat-pipe bandwidth.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
First: Miller Freeman bought almost all the PC programming magazines in the mid '90s (Dr Dobbs, Computer Language, C Users Journal, etc) then jacked up the advertising rates ... many of the small shops (including mine) fled over time, and the circulation numbers became stagnet.
Second: Along came the net, and net based 'Zines (including BluesNews, Slashdot, you name it) which made a traditional magazine, with a two month publication leadtime, dead meat.
So, there you have it. A POX on Miller Freeman's house, who screwed up the deal initially by being greedy - that's what really started the downward trend in software development mags.
Now - a question for the Slashdot hordes: what's your favorite development news website? Enquiring minds want to know!
Eh, as you can see, history is replete with people proclaiming the end of X technology...which then promptly goes on to become insanely popular. Windows is the exception - it sucked from the beginning, and it's *still* popular. Eh, the general rule holds true however... newspapers are in no danger of vanishing for the same reason people prefer having a nice book to curl up with in bed instead of a CRT monitor to read the latest O'Reilly book. Which, btw, I have tried curling up with a CRT. While it's a very nice way to keep warm during these minnesota winters.. it's alittle difficult to keep them from falling out of bed and throwing shrapnel all over the place. Eh.. it was only a 14" though. =)
Yes.. eventually all of these technologies will be phased out. However, as you can see this won't be happening with any rate of speed. Don't think that just because time runs at 20x normal speed (Unless your upstream provider is AT&T *rimshot*) online it does so in the offline world as well!
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As a journalist working on an IT publication in New Zealand I have to tell you that we seriously don't care what ads are in the paper - in fact, as I write each story, I have no idea who or what is being advertised. We have a strict policy that editorial and advertising just don't mingle. Once in a while we get someone ring up asking to submit "editorial copy" and they are firmly set straight. You can buy an ad if that's what you want, but editorial content is written by the journalists and no-one else. If you have any blurring of the lines as you've all pointed out, your readers hate you for it. There's no such thing as being a little big compromised - that's like being a little bit pregnant.
I am a leaf on the wind
You've nailed the problem: any communications channel supported by advertising owes more to any individual advertiser than to any individual reader and more to its advertisers as a group than to its readers. Every choice made by the editors and publishers of an advertising-supported medium is suspect - the choice of what topics to cover, what writers to hire, how and how much to slant content. So it follows logically that a magazine supported by its readers would be more trustworthy than one supported by advertising. But we're a long way from figuring out how to do that. A lot of events - not only in the world of computers - are leading to the notion that we need a new model of funding journalism. Perhaps we could put some pressure on corporations and a few internet millionaires to endow journalistic media; a magazine with an endowment of a few million dollars could charge a modest amount for print copies and publish free online versions without having to accept advertising. Perhaps it could run an annual fund-raising drive, like public broadcasting stations do, to beef up its operating budget. A modestly endowed journal could pay reporters and editors well, and we could look to the internet, and especially open source software efforts, for models of how such an endowed enterprise might be effectively governed.
Everything possible to be believ'd is an Image of Truth - Wm. Blake
While there are still places you can read magazines where you can't get web access, I think the printed page has a long future ahead of it. I also disagree with the corollary that all printed magazines have a duty to pander to their advertisers. Any kind of publication that relies on revenue from advertisers will be subject to the same problem (and I'm not convinced it is a problem given the number of adverts you get in Computer Shopper). It's just that reading an article on the web, with the ease one can jump to a similar review on another site, makes bias readily apparent and easily spottable. It's not so easy on a train, but then I like to think I'm not so stupid as to believe everything I read :-)
Admittedly I don't know the economics of it, but I reckon that top journalists get paid top rates, and if the people churning out their articles on dead trees are paying more, well, that's where the good journalists are going to go.
Matthew @ Bytemark Hosting
I used to work for Byte Magazine. Many years ago. I even worked on BIX for a short while. I have all of 1978 in hardcover. I look at those magazines sometimes and what sets them appart from all of the magazines that cover the industry now is that they still engender excitement. Byte magazine went "commercial" in the early 90's when they changed the editorial staff due to declining sales. That staff changed the focus from computers to the business of computers. Magazines today are produced, edited and written by people interested in Business and not Computers for the most part. The ones that do actually focus on technology instead of profit have marginal sales (Dr. Dobb's is an excellent example of a mag. written by geeks for geeks.) Now that online sources of the same business data exist, why bother with the paper magazine? Also, I can read a hell of a lot more interesting stuff online than what usually fills the mags. I think I probably find only 1 article per week that is interesting in PC Week. YMMV, of course. The rest are pretty much drek. Even when they try to get technical they tend to botch it. So, don't weep too many tears. Online is probably a better way to publish anyway and kills fewer trees (assuming your electricity is coming from hydroelectric or solar power and not coal or oil!) --Pete
SJVN ( Easily the MOST cluefull editor over at ZdNet ) did a story about Linux for the print edition of Smart Reseller. As is the praxes the story was posted online as soon as the magazine hit the news stands.
:)
He made several points about what's right and wrong with Linux. 2 of his most important points however were only correct 2 months ago ( when he wrote the story ) but not at the time they were published. As the Internet lets us see more of this happening paper magazines will become less valuable as a source of leading edge information ( the old usage ) and more as a nice package of important things you may need to know even a year or more after buying it.
This means less of the "And company A is negotiating to buy company B" type story. If it hasn't happened by the time it hits print then there was probably something wrong with the source. Expect more of the "And this is how you configure DNS on *BSD or make the Easter Egg in the current version of wince come up".
These are interesting times in deed.
We can't ask print mags to start going through the whole compile -> edit -> revise -> print cycle as fast as web mags. Rob can fix a typo on the slashdot main page after only 50 or so people have seen it. A Paper mag doesn't have that option and must print a retraction the next month. Embarrassment before your entire audience 2 times in 30 days
--= Isn't it surprising how badly I spell ?
Now I don't buy normal magazines either (GQ, Vanity Fair etc.) Too expensive, no time and I am already saturated with infomation from other sources. I only buy the Washington Post, and text books now basically. Of course I can read the Post on the web, but it just doesn't feel as natural and its only 25 cents at the corner.
Well, the less paper the better I say.
The only reason all cover-ups appear to fail is that you never hear about the ones that succeed.
just a side comment, but the only reason I've bought a magazine lately is just for what ever is on the coverdisk. (Last time one had windows StarOffice 5.2a on it). It's been years since I've bought a mag for the articles...
<OFFTOPIC>
What I would like to see everything that has appeared on Freshmeat in the last week stuck on a CDROM and sold at my local newsagent each week. I would buy that.
</OFFTOPIC>
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Simon.
Sure, some died.
But some others have remained essential reading - even on a site like /., there's about a story a day from the venerable New York Times. And I personally read Time and the New Yorker (and I'd buy The Economist if a grad student budget could accomodate that...)
The reason is simple - commentary. Yes, shit happens, but to tell us what that means - or to at least give us one interpretation of what it means - requires more than a CNN sound bite will ever provide.
Even when you disagree with the interpretation - I regularly disagree with The Economist's ultra-conservative ideas - it makes you think. I happen to believe that there's no substitute for that.
Drawing the analogy to computer publications is obvious enough to be left as an exercise to the reader... :-)
"I will take the Ring," he said, "though I do not know the way."
I disagree with the idea that magazines have *not* adapted. On the one hand the article bitches that print media is too slow a medium, on the other that computer magazines have begun to fade away - being replaced by the likes of CNet and ZDNet. *DING* Give the woman a cookie. a) I think this article addresses issues raised concerning influence on print media by sponsors. Notice that she plugs CNet and gives slight notice to ZDNet? They ain't the only ones... I see no reason why CNet is any different from PC Computing in terms of sponsor pressure. b) It seems that even CNet is behind the times - because in my opinion CNet is a electronic form of a magazine. ZDNet clearly is - this is the new PC Magazine! They have changed (a little). The real future may be in audience targeted "e-zines" such as Slashdot. Maybe not, but certainly not the "I wish i was in print but i'm on the web" attitude of CNet. Use the media or lose the customers. I see that magazines have been shifting to the web. And clearly as they shift their core readers there they make up new markets for the old paper copy. PC Computing chooses to target suits not yet comfortable with getting news online. Good for them! Maybe they can knock some sense in... (then again, maybe not).
Avangto will suck down a web site for you, and put it into a format that can be stored on your Pilot and read offline. True, a lot of web sites really don't work well on a Pilot's screen, but many do. Some, such as Wired News and C|NET have special version for Avantgo. I believe there is a FAQ on Slashdot on how to make your story preferences Avantgo friendly.
At work, I always toss the Pilot in the cradle and hotsynch before a potty break. I can read up on stuff... or just play a game if there's nothing to read.
'course, it's Windows only. I suspect that there's a similar thing out that will download websites and translate them into doc format. If not... there should be. Hmm... sounds like a job for Perl :)
To me, it seems that sites like Slashdot, Ars Technica, and Tom's Hardware are fulfilling the origional purpose most of these "big" computer magazines had in the begining, informing the community, carefully reviewing products/books/ideas, building consensus, etc. Most of the big mags lost track of that and became the playthings of their advertisers. This isn't to say that Slashdot couldn't do the same thing but there will always be the oportunity for others to keep their fingers on the pulse of the true community of computer users/enthusiasts, especailly as Startup costs for a web site are minimal compared with a print Mag. ;-)) but sites like this one are really important for keeping a community pulling in somewhat the same direction.
Like others, I like DDJ (makes me feel smart when I read it and understand a good part of it
Computer Mags will go the way of the dinosaur. *sigh*
I too used to anxiously await the new months issue of several
computer magazines. These days I'm just dissappointed in the content. *shrug*
The main turn off for me is that over 90% of them are geared
towards people who don't know jack about computers.
Computer magazines have been the same for years and years
and years and years. Someone needs to come up with an
entirely new format. What this would be I have no idea... *shrug*
but as things stand now, I don't see a whole lot of them being in business in the next 10 years.
(hell, even 5 years)
What I WOULD like to see are E-print E-Zines. Someone
mentioned that it's kinda hard to drag the laptop or desktop
into the bathroom... I understand how they feel.
AND... Given an E-Print reader, one could download the magazine (from a secure site for a fee??) and
have it easily transportable. That would actually be nice.
This method would also allow them to make updated
news available constantly. Now if you can just figure
out a wireless update method... (neat) you could have
updated news all the time. (leave some way to seperate
the news you haven't read from the updated, eh?)
Just my take
Friends don't let friends buy Compaq's. (Dell/Gateway... same same) You want a good computer? Build it yourself.
I can get all of the information that I want about computers, the net, and geek culture on the web. No problem...when I'm connected to a computer. Still, there are places where I'm not able to get to a computer or where I don't want to bring one. Such a place exists in my home--it is primarily covered with ceramic tile and has at least one large ceramic fixture.
The solution, and the final death knell for print magazines in my home, will be the web pad. I've been dreaming of one of these since 2001: A Space Oddyssey. I know that I could get mail on a PalmPilot or some other palm-top computer, but I want a bigger screen. I'm thinking of something like a CrossPad but with a screen instead of a paper pad.
As for magazines--do you think that there is any way for magazines do do what Slashdot does? This is the excitement of the new media--it's more about discussion and exchange of ideas than it is aobut simply reading content. A web pad would allow that and it would allow for me to be anywhere I want, near or far from an outlet, and without the pain of having to boot up.
So, all this stuff will be around by 2001, right? And I'll be able to take a PanAm flight up to the orbiting space station whenever I feel like it, right?
Daisy, daisy....
Yeah, I'm as old as my UID would suggest.
I've never thought much of most computer magazines - they have too much stake in promoting the products of their advertisers to be believable.
/. Ok, i know there are some rather cluless writers, but they are at least trying to be as objective as possible.
This pisses me off. How can anyone be so stupid to think that we actually go: "Hey, this product sucks, but i'll give it an 8 out of 10, just because they advertise in our magazine!" I consider most paper magazines a lot more trustworthy than
On the subject, the web isn't going to kill paper magazines anytime soon. Most of the magazines i write for has increased sales as the web has become more popular. And not everything is out of date when it's printed, e.g. how-to articles, interviews etc. Most people prefer to read printed text over a screen, and for a good reason too.
"Bernoulli was wrong. X proves that you can fill a vacuum, yet still it sucks." - Dennis Ritchie
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"Insert witty quote here."
Magazines, especially those that purport to give unbiased information but in reality bow down to the advertiser dollars (pick any Ziff-Davis zine), are especially vulnerable today when anyone can utilize a search engine or peruse usenet postings to get the real scoop.
Just because information is found on the web doesn't mean that it's better, though. Just take a look at those rigged Linux vs Windows security tests that were put out months ago. I forget the particular magazine but the bonehead who wrote up the stories neglected to apply requisite security patches to his Redhat box because they were too numerous and were not found in a standard place. His boss had been on the hotseat for similar incidents in the past. Once the unfairness of the testing was pointed out by the vociferous linux community, they were forced to rerun the tests.
If you are in the business of providing content, you better make sure come correct or your audience will move on.
Hates people who have stupid little sigs
Now that was a computer magazine.
there are 3 kinds of people:
* those who can count
there are 3 kinds of people:
* those who can count
* those who can't
The only thing self-serving here is CNET. It's interesting this woman writes that:
"I should point out that CNET and other online sites won out by being able to snap up some top IDG editors..."
Won out? This from a company that lost $1.4 million in the nine months ending 9.30.1999? Give me a break.
And at least PC Magazine doesn't run those stupid TV ads I see CNET has all over the tube these days (whoever came up with that campaign theme should get fired).
PC Magazines will survive and thrive. For non-technical users -- i.e. the business folks who got all the scorn, such magazines will always be important. There is still no web site out there that provides easy to digest recommendations about the latest software/hardware for non-Geeks. My mother is not going to read Slashdot or even try to wade through CNet's byzantine navigation to get a printer recommendation when she can go buy any number of PC magazine's annual printer roundup.
Plus, is it just me or are CNET reviews on the extremely short side of things? Most PC Magazines do a pretty good job of answering the questions I have, while CNET usually leaves me asking for more. For example, go look at their pathetic reviews of 3d cards. Usually you get maybe one or two benchmarks vs. one or two competing cards with a 100-125 word review tops. Oh thanks, that was really helpful.
In summary, non-geeks will still need pc magazines, geeks will go to sites like Slashdot, Ars Technica and storage review, and I'm still trying to figure out who the target market is for CNET.
Why do the bad ones suck...
well to put it in the words of PC/Computing
"Computers in the language of business"
Exactly, they weren't written for us, we aren't the target, the targets are their peers, people looking for what to invest in...sheep basically...
The closest mainstream magazines i'll even touch...
1)C'T but its in german...
2)remember Boot?
-i loved that mag...but they grew and are a little more business than computer mag now...
they have changed to #3 after acquiring home pc's resources
3)Maximum PC...pretty good... but their staff is no more knowledgible than I or any other slashdot reader...
4)anything ZD sucks. period. I won't read that trash. They gave linux a D for stability and a D for performance...that isn't why i read it, but the fact that they didn't back any of that up, those are arbitrary, that makes me angry, they probably didn't even setup linux, they just printed it because they knew that linux is now a buzzword...
Now i'm pissed, can't think while pissed...
This is C|Net tooting its own horn. Yes, IDG has stumbled in the last few years, with a bad web strategy and a tendency to make wild, random changes to its strategy.
But how about Ziff-Davis? ZDNet is a very successful web venture, and very competitive with C|Net. And their editorial content remains much, much deeper in both quantity and quality.
Yeah, something like Computer Shopper is an anachronism, what with most hardware geeks now shopping online. But the likes of PC, Infoworld and PC Week, among others, will continue to flourish until full-color e-books become pleasant to read on a commuter train, or over a meal in a cramped luncheonette, or on the toilet. After all, most computer magazines are really sublimated pornography.
So yeah, they're doomed, and they'll eventually be the first genre to go all-e-book, but there are a few good years left, and it will only happen when e-book interfaces (and readability, and dot pitch) are better than a vintage-1999 "web browser".
And on another note, Byte collapsed because they changed into an enterprise computing magazine. 10,000 CTOs do not a viable newsstand magazine circulation base make. Their original formula--voracious eclecticism--was poised for a comeback thanks to the open-source revolution, and the editors and publishers didn't see it. The computing world was once again ready for its original mix of hardware projects, programming theory, treatises on chip fabrication techniques, code snippets and stringent product evaluations. If Linux Journal were any good at what it tries to do, it would be very much like the old Byte. Instead, they've got some high school intern reviewing Oracle 8i on the basis of how easily it installs and how easy it was to set up a 3-table CD-catalogger. And worse.
Apart from Pournelle's column, the magazine that shut down some time back was Byte only in name.
...however I guess the place has changed over time.
/.'ers) used to buy magazines for two things: technical articles/reviews and updated info on new products.
/.-form, one is even no longer bound by the magazine/reporter/editor's potentially biased point of view.
I - and my friends (And I guess most
Now, such information is more available on the WWW than in printed form. It's more updated, easier to access etc. And in the
Another issue is, that while the popularity of computers have spread, the magazines have much more people to appeal to. Not only techies, but also the techies kids, parents, grandparents - and (ohh boy) PHB's. Thus often - at least from what I have sean - the depth is sacrificed in favour of broader appeal.
There are very few magazines out there - be that the general magazines such as Byte, PC-Magazine as well as Linux-specific magazines - which appeal to real techies. All tend to focus on what I believe is the largest segment of the market: home computer users and management/IS-dept guys.
I guess that the magazines will continiue living - to a PHB, the phrase "...but says that...." will almost always be better accepted than "....Anonymous Coward writes on slashdot that...". And to the home computer users.
However there are always exceptions, of course. IEEE Computer Society and ACM provide excellent publications with a high-tech content. Of course mostly research-based, but still.....however they also come as electronic magazines nowadays....
Ohh......apologies if this came out partially in a previous posting. Netscape blew up in my face while copy-pasting (cannot wait for mozilla...)
-- "Life is a bitch - and she hates me..."
The reason I don't buy PC World, or any of those mags is usually because looking at the front cover, it seems that it's filled with articles about stuff I already know about... that they're made for "newbies"
Another reason is that even the most interesting of articles seems to take a real "media" approach to stories... for example.. if there was an article on mp3s. It wouldn't just speak in geek terms. I want a mag thats full of techno babble and written by geeks that doesnt take such a media view on issues. I'd rather read something I can relate to than something objective.
Shift is an excellent mag. It's made by our generation.. for our generation. This is the one I spend my money on. Not sure if ya americans have the privalege or not but if it's on your stands, give it a try.
You have paid for a total of 0 pages and so far 0 have been used up (0 today).
But it doesn't have to be that way and, at one time, it wasn't that way.
Anyone around when microcomputers were new stuff can remember Creative Computing, the original Byte, and once the IBM PC came out, magazines like IBM PC Technical Journal (or was it just Tech Journal. It was always great looking forward to a new Don Lancaster or Steve Ciarcia article for new hardware ideas or some nifty assembly code tricks in ``Some Assembly Required'' (I can't remember now; was that column in IBMPCTJ?).
Once I moved into larger systems, the newspaper sized magazines like Digital Review were staples of your tech reading. It had great multipart articles on tuning VMS I/O performance, and stuff like that. Product reviews were geared toward those with a technical bent with real benchmarks (not puff pieces sponsored by vendors).
Then the technical magazines started insisting that there was a good reason for abandoning their newsprint publications in favor of the glossy paper versions. Instead of continuing their original mission of providing a place for the dissemination of technical information for the people involved in IT, they seemed to turn into vehicles for graphics artists and magazine layout designers to try and win design awards. Enter the age of content-free but visually exciting magazines. Here's a clue for the publishers: It's the content stupid! We're not interested in eye candy. Technical magazines aren't supposed to look like Vogue.
Also, for those of us who were attempting to be somewhat ``green'', this was disturbing because, for a long time, glossy paper magazines wouldn't be accepted for recycling. Even more troubling was that the format of the magazine always changed to more of an advertising rag than a magazine targeted for the technical person (that was, after all, the real reason for the shift to glossy paper -- increased advertising revenues are possible if the ads look fancier).
Now the ones that are left are, by and large, nothing more than product reviews targetted for non-technical management. Heck, the advertisements are so outdated that they're less than worthless. (The vast majority of the ads are all selling the same products but can't even publish actual prices, instead urging you to ``Call!!!'')
I can't even bring myself to read PC Magazine at the public library anymore let alone buy an issue.
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with these guys, just a subscriber.
The reason I buy a magazine is to either be entertained, or to learn something. Computer magazines are generally bought for the latter reason. Most computer magazines being sold to day are just advertising tarted up with 'content' designed to work up enthusiasm for the stuff being advertised.
Right now the only computer magazine I subscribe to is the Perl Journal. Computer magazines with real content like the Prel Journal are what I would be attracted to.
Personally I just don't see that there will be any mass computer magazines three years from now. Everyone is putting their advertising money on to the internet. Stacks of dead trees have to be a very inefficient way of delivering advertising to an audience that is wired.
I don't see the Web killing off magazines. It may change their style a bit...but it won't kill them. Magazines were trying to be too up-to-date anyway with the product of the month. What they forgot about was the indepth articles on how to use these machines...good solid advice.
I don't see the Web killing off magazines. It may change their style a bit...but it won't kill them. Magazines were trying to be too up-to-date anyway with the product of the month. What they forgot about was the indepth articles on how to use these machines...good solid advice.
Of course, when you're used to reprinting someone's press releases (and don't know anything) you might think the sky is falling...but don't worry. It's just you.
I don't mind that a lot of mags die a slow death, there are too many of them around anyway.
Why would a mag die?
-Lack of interesting content.
Very easy to keep publishing the same kind of info, that was once very interesting, but may have become really annoying because times have changed. So a mag should be aware of why it exists.
-Too high a price.
There is a limit to what the masses want to pay for a mag. Keeping advertisers happy can be difficult, but giving your advertisers better reviews then others is a sure way to die. It will get noticed by the readers, they will stop reading your mag and the mag fades out like a candle. So keeping the readers interested is of vital importance.
-Wrong layout.
The wrong layout can really be devestating. A mag should look inviting, be easy to navigate, but all of this shouldn't be a problem when the right people work in the right places.
-Outdated information.
Well that can be a real problem. The net provides the most up to date info there is. But a lot of people don't want to look for it on the web, or read it on a computer screen, they want to receive a mag on a regular bases, so they can read of in the bathroom, in bed or in the train to work.
All I'm saying is, the ones that remain are the onces I would the to read. Some mags disappear, but they disappear for a reason, they weren't good enough, they published info too few people were willing to pay for, the published info that was old when it hit the shelves, they didn't replect the times we live in.
Some mags remain and other will take the place of the onces that have gone. These are the mags we want to read, these are the mags that publish interesting and up to date stuff, these are the mags we read in the bathroom and the se are the mags we read when commuting to our work places.
So if some mags go out of print it's not a sign of the end of all mags, but more a sign of renewal.
Yo.
Some posters have already noted the trend for computing magazines to be dumbed-down. This makes sense for various reasons. The first is that the market for non-technical computing magazines is far larger than the technical market simply because there are less people knowing more stuff :) And of course the market is smaller than you might expect because of online content.
So what you might call good computing magazines will be limited in number. Anyone wanting up-to-the-minute stuff gets on on the Web. D'uh.
But even if "News for Nerds" is suited to an online format, not everything is.
These are the magazines that might/do work (not for me, I'm cheap, I read them in the library!!):
1. Games (cover CDs alone will keep some afloat).
2. Introduction to Computer type magazines - the "really really new" market isn't going away. The Sydney Morning Herald's Icon section is still running "What is e-mail?" sections, as is internet.au.
3. Computer consumer magazines. OK, the market might be fading a bit thanks to online material, but in the same way some (lots of?) people read catalogues in their mailbox, some people want to look at ads for computers. And not all of them are going to go and visit a separate URL for each manufacturer. Especially if they're new to the market or buy computing equipment very seldom.
There are going to be computing magazines, just as there are for any other lesuire activity, even those centered around another medium - eg TV.
mag's of the future will only be ones that are great reading in the can.
:)
the only magazine i read regulary is PcAccelerator, it's a game zine with lots-a-hot-chicks.
great for reading in the can
-Jon
this is my sig.
I can't handle magazines, and to a lesser extent movies, for the same reason: advertising. Like many have mentioned, it has become blatant and in-your-face, sometimes even ending up as part of an "article".
What I really love are some of the electronic engineering trade journals that make a farcial attempt at impartiality with their articles where a particular application is discussed, as well as a solution. Different products are compared, and each are weeded out as having flaws except one. Surprise surprise, at the end of the article, we find a rep for the manufacturer of the "best" product has authored this sham.
There are a few magazines that seem to have escaped this trend-- Circuit Cellar and Nuts and Volts are a few examples I enjoy.
be free and come with a CD with as much updated GPL software as possible, and one or two featered apps (maybe demos for CAD or something). I've yet to read a magazine that didn't have articles I'd already read a month earlier somewhere on the net.
Perhaps it could run an annual fund-raising drive, like public broadcasting stations do, to beef up its operating budge
I think this is an excellent idea. Just as NPR does, fund itself, and just as the OSS/FSF works (I hope this is a correct analogy, pardon me if it isn't), write itself. That would be the perfect magazine, because if you truly wanted to share the information, you would. You get download free OSes, etc, etc,.. you should be able to read free magazines. All we need is people inspired, dedicated, and willing to do this.. any takers?
Insert mind here.
My school gets Computer Currents www.computercurrents.com magazine for free. It's a pretty down to earth magazine with a few "How to" down to earth questions, advertisement comes from local companies selling build to order pcs. So it's pretty nice if you're looking for some custom systems. My favorite part about the mag..well it's free ;) gives us something to read during lunch.
Ever since the Internet became my source of news and information, I've quit buying computer magazines -- and I used to buy them frequently. Slashdot, C|Net, The Register, AMDZone, HackerNews, PalmStation, and MSNBC has taken their place. Now I only receive magazines that would give me free subscriptions (from when I co-op'ed last year).
Maybe magazines aren't going to all die, but they aren't of much use to me.
Well, good informative or entertaining articles are a start. I got a Linux magazine recently (Maximum Linux) it came with a copy of Mandrake on a CD-Rom (cool! I have a _slow_ Internet connection, to slow for downloading.), and I liked the articles.
If all the computer magazines disappear tommorrow, I'll know how to make money... by publishing a computer magazine. I wouldn't expect _boring_ computer magazines to sell, though... maybe the venerable PC Computing needs better writers?
All the creatures will die, And all the things will be broken. That's the law of samurai. (Jubai, 1605)
And I'd bet most of us on Slashdot did the same. They're written for a lowest common denominator that I find myself far, far above. How many times have you read this:
"Linux, an alternative to Windows developed by Finnish college student Linus Torvalds..."
or
"...by TCP/IP, the "language" used by the internet for one computer to talk to another.
I have found all the ZD pubs - PC magazine especially - to be far too mundane to even bother perusing. The idea that the printed pub will die soon is a self-fulfilling prophecy - any zine that I even bother reading is forward thinking enough to already be on the web for my perusal either by PC or Palm. I doubt that they'll go away anytime soon though - the PHBs of the world have to have something to read on the john, and I've found that PC Magazine and/or Wired has filled that niche nicely.
--
"Some people say that I proved if you get a C average, you can end up being successful in life."
I think there is a world market for maybe five personal web logs.
The only computer magazine that I completely loved was "INFO". The coverage shifted from Commodore 64 to the Amiga in the mid-eighties. It's the only computer magazine that I have read with as much heart and soul. It was entirely produced on the Amiga and by the authors themselves, instead of by a corporation. I don't think anyone cares about these faceless PC magazines because their coverage is just plain bland. When was the last time an article in PC World was interested, the last time an author was passionate about the technology?
The prediction of their demise is premature, although not implausible; consider that newspapers have not been seeing big growth lately.
Magazines should, nonetheless, still remain for quite some time now.
The point to this thread is not that of when "magazines go away;" it is about:
In the Linux realm, there are presently Linux Journal, Linux Magazine, and Maximum Linux. One good question is of which ones of these will still be around in a couple of years.
We've seen Byte Magazine go through "phases," including a period of "going out of business."
Personally, I see little value to the Maximum Linuxes of this world. I look back with some longing to ancient byte of the '70s and early '80s. I look back with some regret at the failure of Micro Cornucopia. (Few will remember it.)
In the long run, magazines may be a "dead" concept, but as Lord Keynes said, "In the long run we're all dead." The point is to try to assess which magazines are likely to rise and fall between now and then, as well as which magazines we might like to see rise.
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
Croaker says of AvantGo (italicized text):
:)
'course, it's Windows only.
Actually...no, it's not. There's a program called malsync that will suck down AvantGo pages from a Linux shell prompt pretty as you please. This was the last of the utilities I needed that allowed me to use my Palm completely in Linux without ever having to reboot into Windows.
I suspect that there's a similar thing out that will download websites and translate them into doc format. If not... there should be. Hmm... sounds like a job for Perl
There's one of those, too. It's called SiteScooper and you can either run it yourself or download the fruits of its labors from this webpage in Doc or iSilo format.
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
...and especially 'The Hard Edge', the column Alice Hill cowrites with veteran writer Bill O'Brien, I'm not especially surprised that traditional computer mags are coming to an end.
.... the information tends to be more timely and less slanted in product reviews, especially on /. where you have so many wide and varied opinions...
What surprises me is that this comes from the mouth...errr....keyboard of Alice Hill. She's been writing for cshopper for more than 10 years, and is certainly a product of that industry.
Magazines have gotten a LOT thinner, particularly cshopper, which used to qualify as an occupational hazard for my mail carrier. Cshopper is maybe half the size it was in the glory days.
The article poster is right: PC magazines are very self serving to the products they advertise. But,personally, i used to read them for industry trends and op-ed pieces rather than for product reviews, which were always clearly slanted. Plus, I used to learn a lot from the "Tips and Tricks" and other technical sections, at least until they became more for newbies than for technical people, like they were in the 80s/early 90s. Cshopper still has the occasional gem...
But I've found myself buying fewer and fewer magazines and getting more of this type of information online: Slashdot, ZDNet, C|Net, Wired.com
So I have to say...out with the old and in with the new...
My journal has hot
This is no great loss to me.
The real loss was when Rainbow Magazine stopped publishing.
Some of you may remember this magazine which was geared towards the TRS-80 Color Computer.
I miss magazines that actually have machine language source code that you can type in yourself and run.
If you have the urge to fire up your old TRS-80 now, check out this website TRS-80 Homepage
There are only a couple of hardcopy magazines that I read now.. MacAddict and Macworld. I like MacAddict priarily because it is fun to read. Sure, most of the letters to the editor and the articles are juvenile... but they can be a bit fun to read. Macworld is much more "mature" but can be dull. I got sick of computer magazines that were filled with articles from "pundits" and "industry analysyts" and have pretty much given up on those sorts of magazines. To me, the entertainment factor is more important.
Aside from the "fun factor" MacAddict gives pretty good reviews of software and hardware as does Macworld.
Anyway, enough rambling.
Check out John Martellaro's take on it. John is writing about the Macintosh Web, but his arguments scale quite well, I think. Basicly, he is saying that publishing, whether on the web or in paper, is a business, and web business model has some big problems. If you think its hard for magazines to do good reviews, what do you think a web site with one advertiser on a page is going to do?
Just like online magazines, they could advertise for pornography. They could start having page 5 girls every month! Hey, centerfolds, too. You are reading it for the articles, aren't you?
Why not just have a CD that includes the magazine content? Hasn't this already been done?
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
At this location there is a mirror of the headlines and articles of /. in a Palm-friendly form.
SiteScooper will convert websites to doc. But what you really want is malsync, which is a Unix version of the AvantGo conduit, or Plucker, a GPL'd Palm HTML viewer with it's own conduit (written in AWK, currently being rewritten in Perl).
Byte started to suck when they hired Pournelle. It became a lost cause when they lost Steve Ciarcia.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
what would be interesting is say a 'weekly roundup' of the stories that genereated teh most comments over the week and have a 'summary' opinion or mini editorial etc. a recap of anything interesting that came out of the bludgeoning.. err debate. ^_^ hmm might not work tho. and who would do it. mebbe some moderators or forum manager.. hmmm... probably too time consuming.
Write your Own Operating System [FAQ]!
no sig for you
Maximum PC is just as good a mag as Ars and Tom's as far as quality reviews and insights... Take a look, it has some of the staff of Byte working on it also.
pronoblem
This reminds me of another place where the capitalistic model fails: Olympic coverage in the US (or lack thereof).
Most people rather watch how some runner overcame his father's death than to see actual sports. The problem is, unlike the Superbowl, the whole concept of the Olympics is for money-making.. (At least it shouldn't be.) It should be to foster world harmony. And thus, I think it should be publicly funded.
When I happened to be visiting China during the Atlanta games, the Olympics were on 2 gov't owned cable channels 24/7.. with EVERYTHING live whenever possible. (Reruns only came when there was nothing to see.) The primary (gov't owned) non-cable channel also carried all the big games.. live, of course, and in full. Obviously, the coverage still focused on sports China was good at, but ferchrissake I actually got to see SPORTS! Can't say the same for NBC.
The fact of the matter is, advertiser-based support of Olympic coverage is NOT working, and neither is subscriber-based support (as evidenced by the ill-fated TripleCast). What we need is for the Olympics to be aired on, say, public television, with massive donations from rich people who care (and viewers), as well as the governement.
I wonder if anyone is contemplating implementing this?
I agree whole-heartedly. Too many magazines like Byte are/were trying to be "Business Week" or "The Wall Street Journal" with a technical slant. It's ok to put a bit of business-related content in a computer mag but not by reducing or omitting techincal content or software/hardware information. I'm pretty much sick of reading articles written by journalists who think they know how to run multi-billion dollar computer companies.
because they focus on in-depth nity-gritty technical articles that one must take time to read and comprehend. Moreover, "how-to-code" info dosen't become stale over the course of a month or 2. That's why I prefer reading the DDJ stuff in print, just like I prefer reading textbooks in print. The mags that consist of "trend-spotting" and product reviews are better on-line where they are searchable and current. Especially since it only takes moment to skim the content out of them.
- bridgette
My subscription to PC World ran out last month so this is the first month without it in a while (2 years). I subscribed to it orignally to catch up on all of the info on CPU's as i was going to buy another one. I ended up getting a gateway 300 MHz... state of the art then, but pretty slow compared to what is out there now. I still run Linux on an old 486 boxen that just goes and goes and goes.
I still subscribe to Dr Dobbs and c/c++ Users journal... I really like both of them and it would be hard to do without them.
However PC World just follows Microsoft way too much. If Microsoft stops then PC World breaks their neck.
And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make
I do not think she at any point believed offline material will be phased out completely.
Would anyone still curl up in bed with a computer magazine reading news that you learned of in /. three months ago? I think not.
"Yes!! First letter to the editor! I rule!"
_joshua_
When Conde Nast bought WIRED, it was obvious that the end was probably imminent. WIRED used to be a pretty decent magazine despite the neon colors and drug-induced layout (grin). When the 'net started to take off, it was really the only thing remotely close to what was really going on.
I stopped buying them six months ago. I looked at the latest issue, just out of curiosoty - BYTE didn't have that many pages when it died!
A good magazine? That would be a build-it-yourself magazine, constructed from articles at different sources. Since the print mags can't do this, and search engines are (finally!) entering a heyday, only online mags can do it.
Mark Edwards
Proof of Sanity Forged Upon Request
Does the palm have the protocol stack to talk to cell phones?
Hmmm, what sets these magzines apart from the PC foo variety? Usefulness. The information found in these magazines will actually teach you lots of really neat stuff that you can use professionally and/or as a hobbyist.
Actually, this brings to mind another issue: electronics mags. It seems that the North American ones (Popular Electronics and Electronics Now) tend to go towards, "here, build this, but you haven't really learned anything applicable outside of this project." On the other hand, all the European ones I've seen (Elektor, Everyday Practical Electronics, etc) have been truly informative. They have a good balance of theory and construction articles. Too bad I live in North America...
(Caveats/credits: I wrote about half a dozen articles for PC MAGAZINE about a decade ago, before my then-employer got too deeply into the PC business for me to avoid conflicts of interest. I interviewed at c|net a couple of years ago; they and I were very interested, but there were reservations on both sides, and I turned down their not-too-strong offer.)
c|net, like Mark Twain's would-be obituary writer, might be right eventually, but is 'way too early.
Yes, BYTE shot themselves in the foot when they lost track of their audience. PC may be heading in exactly the same direction: do they want the enterprise crowd, the home crowd, or both? (They're walking the line more carefully then BYTE did.) The Web is faster, cheaper, and bigger than even COMPUTER SHOPPER at its peak.
Still, the Web has its weaknesses. Primary among them is its lack of ability to generate (and earn!) big advertising revenues. PC may get all its review hardware and software for free, but the test lab isn't cheap.
I think a lot of the dead tree publications, especially from the ZD family, are doing a good job at working both paper and electronic publication. The trick is to keep the latter from killing the revenue stream of the former.
BTW, if there's anything I've learned from watching the personal computer press for twenty years, its that "newbie" magazines don't last. Yes, the first time PC buyer will pick up a copy of FAMILY PC about the time he/she signs up for AOL, but won't be back to the newsstand, and won't subscribe.
One person's opinion. --PSRC (likely to fall asleep tonight with the current PC issue; less likely to renew my subscription, but we'll see)
Stupid job ads, weird spam, occasional insight at
Well computer magazines have changed over the years so whether or not they're dead depends on how you define them. When I was a kid COMPUTE! magazine was 300 pages long and published complete listings of programs and the only way to get them was to type in the listings. The writing was very technical back then and well above what a modern magazine could get away with. Then they stopped publishing software entirely and started writing philosophical articles on a very technical level. Now they're either reviewing software or writing about biotech or the meaning of life. So the days of COMPUTE! magazine are definitely over but computer magazines are just adapting to match today's less technically oriented audience.
are PC Accelerator and occasionally MaximumPC. I used to read PC Magazine, but they don't cater to the hardcore audience.
No magazine I've seen on the newstands actually contains new information-- all the "news" I read, even in MaximumPC, is old news. I've never read a review in PCXL that I haven't already read in a million places online.
I buy those magazines for the entertainment value-- namely PCXL. I read it cover to cover, since they throw in lots of oddball twists that I didn't get anywhere online. Ever seen "Goofus and Gallant install a 3D card?"
That's the kind of content magazines need to give nowadays. The kind of content that entertains you while you're sitting on the crapper, since many people don't take computers into the bathroom (yet.)
-CausticPuppy "Of all the people I know, you're certainly one of them." -Somebody I don't know
Maybe I'm the odd one out, but I enjoy the mag's. They do a nice job of comparison testing and for those of us not in the computer field as a full time job, it eliminates a lot of wasted time and space when all you want are the fast answers. What else can you read on the crapper that is more interesting (without pictures?)?
I'd be curious to know who all got their start in computers from those rather humble beginnings... and where the next generation will come from, without those blurry listings to type in, debug, and play with.
----
---
Book(n): Utensil used to pass time while waiting for the TV repairman
This may be slightly off topic, but I know I'm not the only one to notice the sudden growth of the UNIX section in most bookstores. Not to mention the new Linux Magazine and Maximum Liunux (which I have yet to find a copy of...)
My point being: people keep saying that the 'Net and computers are going to make books obsolete. Well, Linux seems to be having just the opposite effect.
I first found out about Linux right during Spring Break of 1998 in Orlando (Honda Campus All-Stars). That's when I started going to bookstores looking for Unix/Linux books. Slim pickin's. A few ancient Unix tomes, the Classic FreeBSD book, and maybe a RedHat 5.0 Oh yeah, and the O'Reilly books...and that was only at the bigger stores.
Fast forward to today...I can't find a bookstore that hasn't
Granted, some of these are classics (K&R, K&Pike, Unix Philosophy, etc.), but it looks like Linux is going to help keep publishing in business into the new Lillenium...Big Penguin Style!
Maybe some of the dying mags mentioned in the article should replace the PC in their names with Linux. I'd read Linux Byte...how about you?
I get PR reps or vendors calling occasionally too, asking if they can place copy in the magazine. Duh, hello! It's pretty fun telling them to go find another publication.
Certainly at PC Week (and I think at most publications), there is a huge wall between edit and advertising. I don't even know who works in our ad department, I never get phone calls or e-mails from them, and I never know what ads are going to be in the magazine. I don't even really look, actually. The only material affect ads have on my day-to-day life is they affect how many pages of edit there are, since the ad-to-edit ratio is mandated by the postal service (to get a particular mailing rate). When we have more ads in a given week, we need to write more, and vice versa.
People charging that ad dollars affect type or amount of coverage are being sucked in by a seductive argument, but one that just isn't true. Other issues, like unfamiliarity with technology x or the effectiveness of the PR company representing company y are examples of factors that actually do make a difference.
- Tim Dyck, Senior Analyst, PC Week Labs
Maybe the magazine needs to have a great idea about it's target readers and not only cater to those people, but spend more time being different from it's competition. Like MacAddict. It came along at a time when the other major Mac magazines where practically identical(Macworld and MacUser), and has been (as far as I know) very sucessful by pushing a different attitiude and style.
Are there any Linux publications that are more than just admin stuff, more advocate stuff? Has there ever been a Sintel advocate mag?
a man, a plan, a canal, panama
I get my news from /. . My parents read the paper. My twenty-one-year-old sister watches CNN. Very very infrequently do people I know go across media to get their news or information.
The fact of the matter is, PC magazines are based on the internet. There's also a paper-based alternative, should it be needed. But they're PC magazines. Nobody who doesn't have an Internet hookup will read a PC magazine anymore. It simply doesn't happen.
That's why people turn to the Internet. It's easier and they can do it while working (at the computer - big surprise there). If you read a PC mag, you usually already own a PC, so the Internet is available to you.
It would seem so logical to people :P
-- BlueCalx | http://nickd.org/
I don't care what you say, Computer Mags are useful. What else are die hard computer users supposed to read while on the toilet.
I remembered when this mag was the ultimate PC magazince, hence the title. What happened to it? It's now about half as big as it used to be. All the reviews are about a paragraph long, and tell you absolutely nothing about what you want to buy.
Typical PC Magazine(tm) review:
-hard to set up
-doesn't come with a color setup poster
-plugs aren't color coded
-scored in the top 5% in the benchmarks
Seriously, what good is that? That's basically all they tell you, anyway.
There's nothing that stands out in this magazine anymore (except maybe the ads). Definately not the reviews. And all the content is free on the net, anyways. While I would prefer a paper-based mag to an internet one anyday, PC Magazine just does not cut it anymore.
Here's an advertising section I'd like to see in a magazine or even standalone:
I keep getting all of these catalogs, you know the type, like MacWarehouse. I think it would be really great if someone with money published an OpenSource catalog. Make it look just like *Warehouse's one. List all of the OS packages, tools, WM's etc, and where the price is normally listed, just put FREE and the URL. Send it to the normal mailing list; everyone with a permanent address.
I think it would be great. Heck, we could even try and get the 'catalog' registered as a nonprofit org. =-]
Sorry for the slightly offtopic, but we are talking about dead trees.
The last computer magazines that I've purchased were bought primarily because they had the latest distro or lots of megs of interesting stuff on the cover CD.
It costs under $8au and saves me from having to buy the latest distro or spend a ridiculous amount of time downloading it. The magazine has cheaper & faster bandwidth than the internet. (at least on my connection)
January I left the information technology field for good. One of the reasons I was happy to go was the increasing feeling that I couldn't stay informed. The main cause of that was the deluge of free trade journals, tech magazines and newsletters stuffing my snail mailbox.
It's not that there wasn't enough information; there was too much. At one time, I received 43 publications a month, some weekly, some monthly, and most of them complimentary subscriptions. On top of that were at least a dozen necessary web sites to check daily, ever-flowing listservs and email newsletters. (And then, of course, there was my non-tech reading of all media forms, and radio. No television, though, thank God).
So instead of doing my filtering for me, as a good editorial staff should, nearly all the pubs made it harder. Most tech publications have poor editorial discretion, dubious relationships between ads and editorial, rampant cases of me-too-ism, killer-app-ism, and doubtful expert credentials.
But now I'm completely blind and happier than ever!
[joke]
Wordnik, a dictionary project which aims to collect
Hell. I always pick up the local *FREE* computer mags (which are 90% ads) *for* the ads. Heck, there's a few others computer mags that are free, with less ads, and I always skip over them.
Why? The local computer companies advertise a lot in there (and because of the competitiveness, the prices tend to be better than having to shop online for it [shipping, taxes...]). So, I just use the 'net for the few things I can't get locally.
byte magazine forever!
Not to offend but 99% of PC magazines have long been repedative crap. The real content these days is online and print magazines are losing out. Then again... i still like to sit down with a real paper magazine and read, if only more pc magazines were interesting and non-repadative... compter game developer is a great read if you ever get a chance...
//Insert Meaningfull Quote Here
I even went as far as to write a review for madbomber as a start on the magazine and wrote into Ask Slashdot for peoples opinions. Unfortunately for me the question didn't get accepted. I later began to realize that I couldn't do it all by myself anyhow and lack the funds to put together a whole operation so I guess the idea got shelfed, at least until such a time that I am more fit to bring it into reality. Anybody near Smithfield, Virginia looking for a business partner
Anyhow I don't think computer magazines are dying. I still much prefer to read my material without a monitor. I want to be able to lay down and read or take my reading material with me.
Well I used to be a subscriber to PC Computing, but when they insisted the best video card was an S3 Virge based piece of crap compared to some Voodoo I decided they didn't know too much. They even still used the outdated ZD Benchmarks for rating video cards even though everyone on the net knew the drivers of video cards were tweaked for this task and therefore irrelevant. They repeated this error by promoting a Banshe when the TNTs were out. They never covered the K6 until years after it was out. No in depth stuff....
Then I was saved by Maximum PC, full of kick ass reviews by kick ass editors. They have also had cool white papers on technical topics. There is none higher when it comes to home computer magazines. All hail Maximum PC...
JOhn
Campaign for Liberty
I find that I just don't need the info in magazines anymore. As some already stated, you can get FRESH info off the Internet for FREE. Why waste $20-$30/yr on a subscription. It adds up, man!
==============================
Windows NT has crashed,
I am the Blue Screen of Death,
He's around in spirit, though he doesn't actively write articles any more (aside from the closing editorial of each issue). He publishes a magazine that's a loose descendant of Circuit Cellar called Circuit Cellar, Ink. Companion website is http://www.circuitcellar.com/
In conclusion, it sounds like most Slashdot readers simply want a magazine that will reinforce their prejudices, instead of magazines that disagree with them.
Now, while I agree with the criticism of the dinosaur computer mags, I must confess my suspicion that they're being replaced with something worse: news sites like Slashdot whose readership is collectively biased about a particular something, and aren't even ashamed to admit it.
If the future of computer news is a splintering of interests into different web sites, each catering to a different source of fanaticism, then I'm afraid I'll remember the days of tree-based computer journalism with nostalgia.
I would be interested in a good computer magazine which is about the computing industry in general.
With articles about new companies and financial issues as well as technical breakthroughs etc. Aimed towards people who are interested in reading about what all the major players are doing to shape the industry without dumbing it down or filling it with advertising
Josh
>One where he supposedly locked himself out of
>his computer-alarmed house and had to do a >commando-style operation to get in.
Gosh darn it! I remember that article. It was so funny that I saved the issue for years. Don't have it now though. Lost in one of my many moves. It was truly hilarious though.
I picked up a box of old computer magazines from the early 1980's at a garage sale this past summer... Compute!, BYTE, and "Commodore Magazine." The content back then was a lot more interesting, at least to me. BYTE in 1981 was hardcore computing: PCB schematics, building your own FM synthesis circuitry, 6502 assembler, how the "new" TRS-80 works... stuff that's in-depth. 99% of today's magazines focus far too much on the "average" computer user who knows how to click a mouse and not much more. I'd like a magazine like '81 BYTE, something that isn't catering to the majority of Windows computer users.
Back in 1982. I got into computers because of it -- it was the first magazine which protrayed computers as more than faceless high-tech nightmares. It focused on the k00l stuph you could do with your cutting-edge Apple IIe and Atari 800 systems, and included lots of great software to type in. Yeah, that's right, you little punks:TYPE IN. In BASIC. No disks, no CD-ROMs. You wanted software in those days, you copied it, line by line, from a magazine. (Don't even think about OCR. Or scanners. Or, for that matter, modems.) It died with the age of 8-bit computing, killed by the likes of PC Magazine, as computers moved out of the den and into the office. Now, the trend continues. Ah well. Twenty years from now, someone will be writing moving memoirs of the old Slashdot days...
I think magazines that are instructional such as my favorites Linux Journal and Dobbs will continue but tech moves to fast to make it into print before it is old news. Of course girly mags will last quite a while too. *coughs* Portable can be useful for some content.
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
I have to agree with the CNet piece: a lot of the mainstream PC mags just don't have anything special to say anymore. They can't compete with the internet as a source of breaking info; people don't trust (probably unfairly) their product reviews, especially when loads of 'unbiased' reviews are available on the net; and there is not too much interesting stuff happening with mainstream computing: the machines are almost all the same, everyone runs the same software, etc.
However, the decline of the user-oriented PC mag, does not mean that all computer mags are going to die.
Developer/Programmer mags will still be sucessful because they provide overviews of recent changes. A developer is not going to change his environment, style, language, overnight, but flipping through a mag while in the can or taking the train will allow him to see what is newly out there and what different people are doing. In this situation a paper mag is even better than online, I think.
General purpose hi-tech mags (wired) will still be sucessful, because people turn to them to learn what is out there, and to read interesting views on technology etc. written by smart people. (Except when they have those boring "our economy is the best" issues).
I also think hobbiest mags (not for general users) would also be sucessful, because they are a source of neat things you can do with your computer (overclock your graphics card, etc.) from a trusted source and give a general guide of what is out there.
For finding info about a new product relase or a specific product, the web is a much better source of info because it is the most current and incredibly vast. But for "browsing" and being exposed to cool things you would not even now where to look for, a paper mag is much better.
of the ACM. Computer magazines are not going any where soon, they are just migrating. You don't have to program a computer anymore (i.e. regular users don't have to program), so there are less magazines that follow this. I don't buy that Computer magazines are dead.
I learn more about Windows by reading Linux Journal than from reading any other magazine. Communications has some good issues-oriented articles as well as some funky state of the art. I still read Byte on the web and I've archived my Dr. Dobbs so that I can read them now that I've had enough math to follow them:)
Long live computer magazines!
What attracted me to computer magazines when I was a kid? It was the one of the things that tied the hobbyist community together.
Byte. Compute. Compute's Gazzette... they gave us a way to look at the larger picture.
Now.. however, due to the nature of computers themselves... magazines can offer NOTHING that the online world can't do at a much cheaper cost.
Most computer magazines today are crud. They scrape the 'Net for stuff, then put it together in a magazine...
And conisder that, now, we read the literature/software/whatever about our machines USING our machines.. and it's realtime.... we aren't just reading online 'zines anymore, we are becoming the zines... it's a new paradigm.
What kind of magazine would be cool? magazines about culture. Not about industry, not about games, not about software, but about culture.
Mondo 2000 is/was cool (is it still out there? haven't seen it in ages)
Wired *used* to be cool (issue #1 anyway), as it dealt with a segment of society that there was no magazine for.. nameley, the net...now wired is mostly flashy ads and hype.
Honestly, it's the only mag I bother having a subscription to.
"I have a good idea why it's hard to verify programs. They're usually wrong." --Manuel Blum, FOCS 94
That's as maybe, but I used to work for a magazine (and I won't name it, I've worked for a few and they aren't all PC magazines) where I was told not to lay into someone because they were a large advertiser and had recently dropped advertising in a rival magazine because of comments published by that magazine. So I *know* it happens.
:v)
There is at least one NZ publication which is so pro-Microsoft it makes me puke. I can only presume something similar goes on there.
I don't buy 'em these days myself; like everyone else I'm fed up with the ads outnumbering the articles 10:1 as I glance through them in the lunchroom.
Vik
These are some that have been on the "keep" list. I get a ton of other mags but most fo them go directly from the mailbox to the library as donations. (Which are tax deductable).
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If I actually could spell I'd have spelled it right in the first place.
I have from BYTE #5 on, having joined the revolution slightly late. :-)
I thought as soon as McGraw-Hill purchased BYTE there was trouble. Carl Helmers left soon afterwards and the editorial quality began to drift. By the early 1990s (pre the change to 'business' which IMHO was already owned by the likes of ComputerWorld and InfoWorld) there were people writing stories that simply didn't understand where "the small systems journal" had come from. At the same time, they nearly doubled their advertisement rates and poof, 500 page BYTEs were no more. I wrote several letters asking for a return to the good old days and was told that it wasn't economically possible to keep high-skill technical writers writing for BYTE. At that point it was clear it was over.
When CMP purchased them, I went "well maybe" but in the end was even cheated out of the remainder of my subscription. So a POX apon them.
I didn't see any reason that McGraw-Hill couldn't have scaled Byte's readership back and made it back into a highly technical magazine that it started out to be. The M-H folks must just have loaded up all their publications with unbelievable overheads so that wasn't possible.
But hey, we're just the folks that pay the bills. Who gives a damn about us anyway?
I used to read PC Magazine until it became painfully obvious that they were going to do their very best to downplay OS/2 and use their mindshare to ensure the continued dominance of Microsoft.
I stopped reading computer magazines for a few years after that. Eventually I started reading PC Gamer, but quit when they began to dumb it down.
Last year though I discovered a magazine called "Boot". At first I dismissed it as another "hip" magazine -- you know, something for the kids. But when I looked past the graphic design I found that the content was really quite good.
Shortly after I started paying attention to it, Boot changed it's name to Maximum PC. It's worth much more than the $1 a month they charge for a subscription. The best part is that I have yet to detect any "paid for" non-advertising content.
My reason for purchasing a printed magazine is not the editorials or articles -- I can find lots of those online. I buy it for the product reviews. If those reviews aren't fully objective, comprehensive and honest then why should I waste my money? Computers may be "cheap" in the budget of the average business but hobbyists tend to want the most bang for their (much more limited) buck.
Never had the pleasure of reading Micro Cornucopia. My favorite computer mag of all time was ROM.
The computer magazines of the 1970s and early 1980s were better than almost anything I have read since. For example, SoftSide and 80 Micro, the old TRS-80 rags, were amazingly valuable sources of information. They covered everything, from useful machine language subroutines to undocumented operating system features to the occasional hardware hack. I still miss Jake Commander's columns on the TRS-80 CoCo ROM, and Dennis Báthory-Kitsz's homebrew kit articles.
For years, these magazines were essentially the only broadcast outlet for source code among hobbyists. You could legitimately put these magazines among open source pioneers -- in those days, publishing source essentially was the only way to make your software available to a wide audience, and infused many of us with a healthy respect for the value of making source code available to everyone.
Not many magazines carry on the same sort of anything-goes attitude. Dr. Dobb's Journal comes close, and they usually provide an interesting read, but they often seem too easily distracted by vaporware and buzzware to be really compelling. The Perl Journal was pretty promising when I last saw it (but who has time to read magazines these days?)
Have you ever tried to find an article you read once in a mag? I sure have done so numerous times (the tip on how to remove the HIMEM.SYS bug in the German MS-DOS, the 'how to exchange the komma with a dot on the numeric keypad' trick, the joke about SimAmiga in PC Player 4/96, ...)
;)
Now try doing that in an online mag which expires it's articles after 2 weeks!
Unless they provide us with an option to archive the articles on our disks, paper will always live on, even if it's just to print them out
Just IMHO
There *is* something wrong with the way advertising is handled in these mags. No company can be trusted to be objective when they get money from the companies whose products they review.
Of course, down deep, I'm sure all of us are aware that magazines have to advertise to survive. They *don't*, however, have to advertise computer-related products.
Computer geeks may be obsessed with computers, but generally they have most of the system they want/can afford. But do they have enough whiskey?
A magazine that wanted to make it clear that it was impartial would, in my opinion, seek out advertising that cannot possibly affect its judgement. Alcohol, cologne, watches, laundry soap, movies, cars, makeup; the things about which normal people get advertisements.
As for the computer companies who put ads in computer magazines, I think they are stupid and/or foolish. Most of their ads are for whole systems, usually advertised at around $1500, which seems totally inane to me - what kind of geek spends $1500 on a factory-assembled PC?
Now that's a print magazine that's worth buying
Fun, interesting articles. It doesn't matter if it's digital or dead trees. It's the content. The best computer magazine, by far, was "Micro Cornucopia". I still have most of the 53 issues. It covered transputers, writing Mandelbrot programs in Postscript, robotics, SOGs (Semi Official Get togethers, sort of an annual fly-in, pancake breakfast, hack fest). Ah, the good 'ol days, sniff...
Mike
The type of business magazines like "PC Magazine", "Computer World" and "Byte" has always been compromised by their advertisers. Not in terms of products, but their perspective on the computer world. Why do you think everyone wanted MS Windows in the first place? From computer magazine of course. They never ran any stories about UNIX, Mac or any other superior system on the block. Now, if they were to perish, to me, that would only mean one less channel of advertising [you pay for] in this world.
- Steeltoe
http://www.debunkingskeptics.com/
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CAIMLAS
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
The UK title is the highest circulation monthly computer mag in the UK. Part of the reason for this is that it's actually two magazines in one cover.
One chunk of Shopper is the adverts and introductory hand-holding articles. These are what a large chunk of the readership buy it for -- how to choose and buy a PC. According to Jeremy Spencer, editor and hovercraft racer in chief, something like 70% of these readers will never install any software on their machines beyond that which comes with it.
But the other side of the UK Computer Shopper is the geek-oriented editorial content. There's the Mac column. The Programming column. (How many magazines can you think of that have run introductions to machine code programming in the past year?) The Linux column -- that's my baby. (I've been writing about Linux in Shopper since 1994, and writing the Linux column since late '98.) There's even an Acorn Archimedes column. In other words, a bit of something for everyone, with the enthusiasts firmly in the editorial sights.
There's a reason for this split-personality persisting for so long in a high-circulation magazine. Back around 1990 Jeremy -- an old-school computer magazine editor -- realised that the market for enthusiast-driven magazines was shrinking; to keep one running he'd need to have another selling point. The result was a combination recipe; the sort of editorial content you used to see in BYTE or PCW, combined with the huge wadge of advertising and infomercials you see in a typical ZD title today.
Voracious eclecticism and a willingness to embrace the next revolution does make for a successful computer magazine. Shopper (in the UK) is already into Open Source. And hopefully it'll be keeping Jeremy in hovercraft for years to come ...
- A.P. (100,000 hits a month isn't much, btw...)
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"One World, one Web, one Program" - Microsoft promotional ad
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
I agree C't is a pretty good general-purpose computer magazine. However, once you want something more specialized you'll be on your own (e.g. in case you don't want all those product tests). As an example, I once got my hands on US Dr Dobbs Journal (http://www.ddj.com). It is (was at the time) quite a good technical computer magazine that is centered on what would be the Knowledge / Programming part in C't. But it's virtually impossible (and would be quite uncomfortable) to find DDJ in a library (even in a city with a university oriented towards technology), you (as a normal student) cannot subscribe to it because it's way to expensive outside of the US and you won't find but one article online (I can understand that decision). The point is, I want that information and would pay for it the adequate sum but cannot get it (once I earn that much money I don't think I have the time left for reading it ;-(). Somebody should come up with a safe way for micro payments. I could even pick exactly what I want to read. There is a DDJ article on XML query languages? I'll pay for it because going through all those W3C pages is quite time-consuming! An introduction to XML? Nah, I don't need that anymore. And BTW, I don't think it's enough just to surf the net for finding good background articles. It's a very difficult task to write an understandable, technically correct text on a specific topic, and nobody is going to write, edit, and publish this for free.
What we geeks forget is that there are millions (perhaps billions) of non-techies (tech-nots) out there. People who can't tell the difference between winNT and win95, much less the difference between debian vs. redhat. People who do not move at "internet speed".
Do not forget the people living in areas with little web access, but beaucoup print.
Print *is* a useful medium for these people for both leisure reading and getting reasonably up to date information. In many cases, it does not matter for them whether they hear about the Microsoft FoF today, or a week later.
I still buy Wired at the airport gift stores, just to gawk at the pretty advertising. But more and more, as a techie, I don't actually read the magazines anymore.
Someone above said that the web is more dependent on advertising than print. The kicker is that websites have massive turnover (the urge to click elsewhere to get the same/similar content), and writing trash that panders to your advertisers at the expense of the reader will surely make your pages less "sticky". To add to the turnover, there is a lot of metacontent (search engines, why_product_x_sucks pages, etc.) which tends to force the truth.
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
I want to read about other O/S, like alot of other people.
On every other page, its adverts... yes. great, i buy a mag for contents not to read adverts. i'd buy computer shopper or micromart for advert reading.
As for PC Magazine not doing well, i'm not surprised, it has to be the most boring PC magazine in existence.
most pc magazines should be called Windows magazine, ie, What PC = what windows, PC Gamer = Windows Gamer, PC format = Windows Format
PC's are not just about windows!! PC Magazines aren't intouch with latest computing trends, if it were, linux would be featured more. If magazines did keep in touch with computer users, they may find themselves being more popular.
Not everyone has web access, and telephone charges can be expensive. So, I'd rather pay for the magazine price, where I can read again and again, without paying for reading its content through phone charges.
Portability: currently I can bend a magazine, roll it up, and stuff it into my backpack anyway to make it fit - if I have too. Its also very light, compared to any current or near future full size viewing tablets I've heard of.
Distribution: how are they going to distribute a whole magazine quickly and effectively. Maybe in the future when we've all got highspeed access. But until then, and I'm thinking that broadband access for the masses is a long way off, it takes a long time to snag a whole magazine - compared to walking into a shop and handing over your money.
Readability: I can read a lot more on printed page, with less eye strain, than I can on a CRT or LCD. Granted, an LCD is easier on the eyes, but still not as nice as a printed page.
While I don't like the level of advertising in most computer mags I see, I can appreciate the fact that it does offset the price I pay for the magazine. I don't think it will be a fully viable alternative until the portability issue is solved. Maybe a hybrid system of distributing printed page, and allowing secure purchase of mag online.
Online purchasing could lower purchase price - a major problem with imported magazines.
In short, is the printed computer mag on the way out, No, I don't think so. Is C|Net blowing there own trumpet and spouting hype, yes, I think so.
... I can honestly say that advertising money had *zero* effect on editorial content. Strange as it may seem, the wall between Church and State at PC Mag was high and invulnerable. The editorial staff hated the marketing weenies. They were the ones who gave big wet sloppies to the likes of MS.
Now I know none of you will believe this, but 90% of the staff there *hates* MS and MS products. Having to deal with WagEd (MS PR firm) Nazis is enough to drain any enthusiasm you have out of anything.
What goes wrong and why is PC Mag tanking? Two things that are ever-present in the publishing world: Owner and managerial incompetence. Once you reach a certain level at the magazine, there's no force in the universe that can shake you out. You spend 90% covering your ass and that involves not taking chances.
The article is someone C-Net talking about how C-Net is better than prit media. 'Nuff said. She really misses the true reasons for the decline. Without a real shake-up, PC Mag is going to dive into the sea. And Michael Miller will never allow that.
(As to why PC doesn't cover the Web? It's not because we "didn't get it" like the author claims. It's because the Web issues sell fot sh1t.)
At least we were able to get the first open-source reviews in before the passive-aggressve management and awful work environment drove me out.
I actually enjoy buying some PC mags. Maximum PC was a great help when I was trying to figure out the difference between mobos and how everything was connected on them. And I didn't have to search all over the web for it. Secondly, if I'm mucking around with my Linux system's TCP/IP config, I can't jump on the web to check out an article that's buried God knows where. Having a LINUX mag in my lap is comforting. I think a good number of PC mags are newbie oriented and for a newbie like me to so many things, it really helps. And I just don't buy the ones I think are biased (pronounced 'most stuff by ZD').
The emacs religion: to be saved, control excess.
The internet shows through the failure of subscriber-based content sites that the average internet punter is of the opinion that all this information should be free. The information may be free, but the effort needed to collect, colate, analyse and present the information isn't, and we should be compensating those who do the actual work.
The number-one ranked comment as I write this is about how we should be pressuring wealthy people to fund these media services. The great american way -- get someone else to pay for it.
Even our beloved /. was grubbing for donations, and eventually ended up here with Andover.
Consider: would you pay $10 or $20 per year to use /.? Would you put your money where your mouth is? I'm honest -- I'm a cheap bastard so I'll cheerfully say that I wouldn't.
Most of those who would claim they would pay are liars.
I, on the other hand, accept the advertising as a cost of the "free" content. If a site wants me to look at a banner ad which tries to interest me in widgets or wonkies or Linux Servers, fine. I'll read the ads. (Banner ads are a lousy idea, but that's beside the point.)
Magasines may grow on trees, but it costs money to turn them from trees into Dvorak columns. That's going to come from somewhere. And if you won't put your money up for it, you have to chose between advertising and not having it.
So which is it going to be?
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you should read everything on the internet as if it had "but I'm probably talking out of my ass" appended to it.
Alex
Here in England we have a thriving computer magazine market. New magazines appear almost every month catering for more and more specific market areas. We even got a Linux only magazine for the first time this month (www.linuxanswers.co.uk).
As magazines disappear new ones take their place. We saw the demise of Amiga Power last year, and now there are 1001 new Dreamcast magazines.
Magazines will never die, they will just adapt to changes in the market, after all you can't access the internet all the time can you?
I can never seem to find the articles with all the ads. Then again, I'm never really sure which is which.
Can anyone find the TOC in less than 10 seconds in ANY computer magazine???
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1) Table of Contents is on 73; 2) Out of 432 pages, it seems like almost half are ads; 3) Nearly 20 two-page ads;
"He who questions training trains himself at asking questions." - The Sphinx, Mystery Men (1999)
I hope that hasn't changed, though I wouldnt' be surprised, since I can now research hardware and shop without a hard-copy magazine.
We must teach the 'Net to use diacriticals!
And what makes Slashdot any different? I have a banner ad for an SGI server right over this. And you get ads from VA Linux, Linux Care, O'Reilly, yada yada yada...
--The basis of all love is respect
I suppose most non-US residents will agree with me here... in the last 5 years, since the Internet became widely available, magazines are obsolete as newssources. Even now, with airmail distribution, I get technology news and product reviews 1 or 2 months before they appear in the magazines.
So there are two remaining reasons to buy magazines : 1) enclosed CDs - also becoming obsolete due the facility of downloading, and 2) the ads.
I have complete sets of most computer magazines, from issue#1 on, from 1977 to about 1993... after that I buy only one or two, every couple of months or so, just to look at the ads... and this won't last. So what do I still buy? Wired, because I like the ads and graphic layout; "How" (every 6 months or so, same reason), and some non-computer mags. But my magazine budget is not even 10% of what it was 5 years ago.
There is one magazine that is still pretty good. :)
"The Communications of the ACM". I think there is
not any bias to any company. Did we forget about this magazine? Does anyone read it?
Can you see Iron City here?
Besides Byte (which, sadly, died) I did not really read computer magazines. Most of them were waaay to simplistic, basic, and aimed at newbies.
However, I recently picked up a copy of Maximum PC magazine at Safeway and I am mailing in for a subscription this morning. This mag really rocks.
Sure, it doesn't have great Linux and open source coverage, but that's what
Aaron J. Shaver > adrec@internetcds.com
Well, all this gets me nostalgic.
I may in the minority here, but my early computer days were spent on TRS-80's (and occasionally on Commodore Pets with those funky flat plastic keyboards) -- in school and in the back of the local Radio Shack.
It always sorta disheartens me to hear these days (circa 1980) defined by the early Apple machines.
Yeah, the Apples were around, but I know that within my circle of geek friends, you were pretty much defined by your knowledge of Z80 Assembly -- or your lack thereof.
Plus -- to keep somewhat on topic -- I must say that 80 Micro was one of the greatest computer magazines out there. And, yeah, I remember the Byte magazines of this time -- more often than not focusing in on the TRS-80's, as well. I remember these were good issues of Byte, too -- thick, with lots of content.
80 Micro, too: I remember looking forward to each issue and typing in those long, tedious porgrams.
Heck, for us TRS-80 folks, this was the era of LDOS, NewDOS, and DOSPlus -- Big Five software (Targ, anyone?); copying protected disks with Super Utility Plus; and (IMHO) the first real "3d" First person shooters -- DeathMaze 5000, Asylum I, and Asylum II.
Anyone remember these games?
I rarely see the TRS-80 mentioned on these forums. Most people (at least those who didn't much care for the TRS-80's somber black and white screens) went with the Apple or the Atari 400/800.
But, the TRS-80 Model I and II and III and even the IV were great machines. I had an old Model III up until 1986; I did my college honor's project using Scripsit and my trusty dot-matrix printer.
I am sure any of my fellow pro-geeks in the UK can agree that the "trade paper" Computing Weekly is great for only one thing....the back page. Loads of outtakes, silly stories and the like to brighten your day. And of course, a choice Dilbert strip.
---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"
Nothing is better than curling up with a good mag while waiting at the airport, taking a lunch break out of the office, on a long trip, etc. I believe that paper mags will still be around for a while as long as there are people that allow themselves to get away from thier PC or Laptop. :P I myself admit to reading loads on online content but reading the mag anywhere you want to is just a great way of "staying connected" when away from your "connection".
This used to be a hot topic for me a few years ago when I subscribed to PC Magazine.
I realized that it was time to stop receiving this piece of crap when it was only June and the current issue I was reading contained the third 60- page review of the hottest 80 bubblejet printers around. Plus, Bill Machrone column was about yet another piece of music software that provided guitar lessons from some 80's hair- farmer has- been.
Geez! Enough already!
1 - You list several cases where pundits proclaimed a new budding technology wouldn't take off, and instead an old technology would continue to be used.
Then you compare this to:
2 - A situation which is exactly the opposite, where a pundit is claiming an old technology (print magazines) will falter in favor of a new one (online magazines).
Regardless of whether #2 is true or not, it is in fact the opposite of your attempted analogies, and the use of those analogies hurts your point rather than helping it.
Don't label something "offtopic" unless you know the topic well enough to tell what's on topic.
>When CMP purchased them, I went "well maybe" but in the end was even cheated out of the remainder of my subscription. So a POX apon them.
So I wasn't the only one. I never got any information from CMP on BYTE subscription fulfillment -- never heard anything at all. Even now I'm middlin' pissed about it.
I agree wholehartedly. Maximum PC is ruthlessly objective in their reviews and are quite willing to frag major advertisers. They have an intensive orientation toward hardware with a stress on overclocking. Their editorial content is intended for a monthly release, providing prognosies on future development, comprehensive comparisons of available technology, and usefull tutorials. They have an excellent sense of humor and no pretensions, making them the opposite of Wired.
The same company produces a lower level but hilarious sister publication called PC Accelerator , think Maximum PC meets MAXIM meets Mad!
Monthly publications work under a different time constant than books, weekly or daily publications. The longer the time constant, the more the analysis takes into account the perspective provided by following the story over time.
NPR, The New York Times, The Economist, The New Yorker, The New Republic, and The Atlantic or Harpers, all have considerable overlap on the topics that they cover, but none of them obsoletes the others. The Economist or the New Yorker cannot hope to scoop NPR or the NYT, but it provides a far more strategic coverage with much deeper research than the latter outlets.
The future of the computer magazine is to provide a strategic overview of trends and developments and provide a synthesis of disparate events. For example "The Way We Think" published in 1949 by Vanevar Bush is still an essential document on the web and personal computing. In much the same manner, "War is Virtual Hell" published in Wired #1 by Bruce Sterling is still as incisive as when it was published. Finally look up Alan Kays "Microelectronics and the Personal Computer" published on Scientific American in 1977 for an article which predicted roughly the next 15 years of PC development.
I think a return to the early 80's style is in order - if anyone else can remember back that far (and I know they have to exist).
I want a well rounded magazine - something that would be enjoyable to either an adult computer engineer to a kid just learning about his PC. I have seen very few magazines that did this properly, so I am going to speak from my experience growing up with a TRS-80 CoCo 2:
I started out with Tandy's computer publication - this was ok, with a few good programming examples. Later, I moved on to Hot CoCo - which was ok as well.
The magazine that stuck, though, was Rainbow. It covered the spectrum of the CoCo - from advertisements for software, software reviews, editorial comment, user submitted programming, hardware projects - all of it. A child could read and enjoy it, as well as learn a chockfull of information. An adult could learn and review things he may not have known before, as well as build interesting projects for his CoCo to boot.
I am certain other machines had similar magazines (RUN for the C=64 was close in this regard, and I remember seeing one for the Apple as well), so I don't want to make this a flame war.
My point is there doesn't seem to be any magazines to really get kids interested in computers, to a point deeper than game playing or using a few "normal" applications. The internet isn't always an option for these kids - parents are beginning to restrict the access to the net to thier children because of what they hear on TV and the media (which is more often than not, wrong). A magazine would be better in these cases.
Adults find it hard to learn more than the basics of computers, even with the internet, because they don't have a point of reference to go "deeper". They may know how to work a word processor, but what would make them want to know how a word processor worked - in depth? In the past, a magazine might have a program you typed in to spur this inquisitiveness on.
Many small and useful programs were published this way. While I don't expect a magazine to publish a full working 3d modeling program, is it too much to show how 3d algorithms work, with sample code? Or how to interface devices with the parallel port (or ISA or PCI slots?) with code to control those devices? How about in depth stories on up and coming technology?
I don't know anyone who is deeper into computers than "point'n'click" that learned from reading a book or magazine alone, or checking a web site. These individuals gained their knowledge from hands-on work. The printed words gave them the incentive to go ahead with it.
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
I rarely read comp magazines because 3/4 of them are ads, literally. You can flip through four pages, and only one will be content. I sometimes read foreign mags "Computer Arts" but theyre getting too expensive (14$). If a magazine had minimal ads, good content about a broad range of subjects, but NO stupid "WOW WE FOUND THIS SECRET PROGRAM IN WINDOWS CALLED REGEDIT" issues, those are completely retarded. I think 2600 was a good start, until idiots started writing in to say how they can "h4x0r" netscape and icq. If there was a similar mag to 2600 like, say 8080 or some spinoff type deal, that had articles about configuring firewalls, mail servers, or anything else, on multiple platforms, I think it would kick ass.
[w00t@freaky.bish]# rm
Most computer magazines are dead for a reason. The useless morons who run Ziff Davis have decided to mount a disinfomation campain . Make Zd publications and websites unbelivable and people will belive Microsoft.There by making computer magazine a thing of the past and making Micro$oft look good .
Note - I don't work for these mags, nor am I being paid by them, etc. I am promoting them merely because I think they're awesome.
Circuit Cellar Ink is an excellent magazine focusing on hardware and software interaction. Articles on embedded computers and software/firmware implementation, with real life examples of what techs in the business are doing. Current issue deals with making a MIDI sustain pedal, details of dual-slope analog-digital converters, Infrared Device technology and how to use it in your own projects, and other informational articles such as description of the current status of HDTV. One really awesome article that ran 1 or 2 months ago dealt with an engineer homebrewing his own microprocessor based on the Z-80 instruction set, but with little goodies thrown in. Way cool. Someone in an above thread mentioned they liked the ads in some good computer magazines. Same with this magazine, all sorts of embedded-related ads. Oh yeah, this mag is big on the PIC and Basic Stamp. If you don't know what these are, take a look!
Another good one is embedded systems programming . I haven't had the time to read the current issues in-depth, but I keep meaning to do so. Going through my father's collection back a few years, there are some majorly good articles here. This mag devotes itself, obviously, to embedded systems programming. Current issue deals with communication issues, real-time stuff, embedded web servers, etc. Another good thing is their tech columns, which deal with real-life examples of coding. They've had a series aimed at moving C coders (like me) to C++ through specific examples. Also mathematical applications, such as a multi-part indepth review of Z-transforms and Fourier Transforms, and DSP programming, and how to implement these in your systems. Way cool stuff, too, IMHO.
Just for browsing the net, an amazing source of info is from Don Lancaster's Lair . Rightly named the guru, this guy is a tech genuius (sp), and does all sorts of great stuff like working with PIC's inside and out, programming in raw Postscript to make his printer act as a peripheral computer, and other stuff. Go check out his page. Now! Engage.
"In a world without walls, who needs Windows" - Someone from LinuxToday
make world, not war
I think the comp mags should contain more helpfull information on problems users might be having, like Linux Journal does. Since I got it, I've stopped getting PC Mag and haven't missed it yet. I wish more companies that build linux hardware would advertise in it because it is an easy way to find parts and products that you may not have known were even made. Just my $.02
I thought the CNet piece made some good points (anyone who dumps on PC/Computing and PC World can't be all wrong, as they've been running on sheer momentum alone for years now). But the author and most posters here missed the real reason why computer magazines -- and most of CNet -- are so boring and irrelevant: Computers themselves are boring and irrelevant.
The story today is the network (I avoid the terms "Internet" and "Web" advisedly), how to connect different devices together, how to run new applications, how to leverage the power of the new revolution. The problem with the old-line PC magazines is that they cover networks as if they were merely a giant, nifty peripheral -- folding in tests of NICs or something every few issues just to leaven their core tests of 147 Pentium III systems and "why you gotta get one today." For heaven sakes -- the difference between a modem and a DSL line is a lot more important than the difference between a 8-bit CP/M system and an Athlon (well, at least if it's information you want).
What the market needs is a magazine that takes connectivity as the given, the core problem, then covers devices as the peripherals they are. During its first few years, Wired tended to do that, which is what made it interesting then. Why isn't anyone doing a home networking magazine? (In the interest of disclosure, I'm an editor for a magazine that covers networking for enterprise readers.)
There are lots of other factors, of course. But when print magazines provide content that people want to read, that is relevant to the real issues, that is enjoyable (yes, some people read things because they WANT to) people will still come. Should print be allowed to die out due to neglect and terminal lack of trendiness, it will wind up having to be reinvented. It's portable, random access, high-resolution, high-bandwidth (advertisers won't be able to pump the number of bits involved in a glossy photo over the Web any time soon), the cache is always pre-loaded, and you can drop it in the bathtub without undue alarm.
Finally, I don't want to read any more s**t about magazines and how beholden they are to their advertisers. There are all kinds of magazines with all kinds of editorial policies, some good and some bad, just as there are all kinds of Web sites. There's *absolutely nothing* that would make a Web site more ideogically pure or loath to be influenced by ad money than a print publication, and in fact there are many reasons (the very interactivity that people have lauded, temptation to provide an instant buying opportunity, measurements of clickthrough, privacy considerations generally) that make Web-based publications much more prone to advertiser meddling.
What makes a few Web sites superior today is the lower cost of entry, and the fact that they can be put out by people who haven't taken a permanent berth on the likes of a Ziff or IDG corporate supertanker and resigned themselves to seeing everything they do get turned into glossy pablum. But that's another story.
All in all, it isn't the medium that's the problem, it's the content.
Check out Circuit Cellar if you like the hardware side of computing magazines.
This is the only non-IEEE magazine I subscribe to. Everything else I pick off the bookstore shelf, as I see fit.
--The more you know, the less you know.
Whether they're Dead or Alive,
Add them to the Archive!
You can check out the computer magazine archive at http://www.caip.rutgers. edu/~msimons/library/compmaga.html we're a resource of old & new computer, electronics, and media magazines. I know the page isn't too exciting, but scans are coming soon once our curator is no longer sick and gets a better system/access. Access to the collection, OCR scans, and photocopies are available to any contributors to the archive.