PC World, 1983-2013 • Hacker News Board

Re: PC World, 1983-2013

#21

Post by vidarh » Sat, Jul 13, 2013, 4:52 PM UTC

donretag wrote: post #13

RexRollman wrote: post #2

Personally, the only computer magazine I feel sad about not being in print is Byte. I loved that magazine.

Dr. Dobb's Journal was another great magazine. I still enjoy printed material. I subscribe to 3 magazines (which rotate since I do not have time for more) and purchase my non-techie books solely in print.

It was fantastic up until the end of the 90's, but DDJ steadily got more and more bland after that.

There are still specific issues and articles I remember very well, like their article on ternary trees, and various issues on programming languages.

Re: PC World, 1983-2013

#22

Post by nostromo » Sat, Jul 13, 2013, 4:57 PM UTC

ghshephard wrote: post #8

RexRollman wrote: post #2

Personally, the only computer magazine I feel sad about not being in print is Byte. I loved that magazine.

Byte was one of the clear contenders for the best (if not the best) general computer magazine - but as an avid commodore 64 hacker back in 1982-1983, Compute!, with it's monthly updates on various things like undocumented 6510 opcodes, and their interesting assembly programs that we typed in by hand (mostly consisting of a bunch of data/poke statements, will always hold a warm place in my heart.

You're in luck: http://archive.org/details/compute-magazine

I just had a burst of pleasurable nostalgia, followed by the sting of feeling old. ;)

Re: PC World, 1983-2013

#23

Post by huherto » Sat, Jul 13, 2013, 4:58 PM UTC

donretag wrote: post #13

RexRollman wrote: post #2

Personally, the only computer magazine I feel sad about not being in print is Byte. I loved that magazine.

Dr. Dobb's Journal was another great magazine. I still enjoy printed material. I subscribe to 3 magazines (which rotate since I do not have time for more) and purchase my non-techie books solely in print.

For me it was Byte, DDJ, and Computer Language.

Re: PC World, 1983-2013

#24

Post by walshemj » Sat, Jul 13, 2013, 5:13 PM UTC

RexRollman wrote: post #2

Personally, the only computer magazine I feel sad about not being in print is Byte. I loved that magazine.

Testify brother any one else notice the shoutout in toy story one to BYTE?

Always wished I had the nerve to get our electronics shop at BHRA to build the modems costing $35 for one project instead of paying £300 for a five answer modems and £600 for an answer originate - highly naughty at the time as you could only connect approved devices to the BT network - as it was we had them taken apart and some components changed to tweak the gain.

Re: PC World, 1983-2013

#25

Post by pagekicker » Sat, Jul 13, 2013, 5:23 PM UTC

I remember when this was thick as a brick. An engine for printing money. Those were the days.

Re: PC World, 1983-2013

#26

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jul 13, 2013, 5:23 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: PC World, 1983-2013

#27

Post by Sven7 » Sat, Jul 13, 2013, 5:25 PM UTC

weisser wrote: post #7

The magazine's title always seemed like an omen that death was inevitable.

It makes me wonder...in the faced paced tech world today, where things appear as fast as they disappear, what the odds are of finding a title that stands the test of time.

Re: PC World, 1983-2013

#28

Post by D9u » Sat, Jul 13, 2013, 5:36 PM UTC

    >in 1991, a fresh-faced CompuServe service dubbed ZDNet—

Apparently the author of the article is not too familiar with Ziff Davis. (PCMag, etc)

(from Wikipedia) In 1989, the company launched the ZDNet site. In 1991 ZDNet on CompuServe and on the fledgling Internet were augmented by the purchase of Public Brand Software, the leading shareware disk provider. In 1995 it launched the magazine Yahoo! Internet Life, initially as ZD Internet Life. The magazine was meant to accompany and complement the site Yahoo!.

I picked up on it immediately because I was once a subscriber to several Ziff Davis publications.

Re: PC World, 1983-2013

#29

Post by finnw » Sat, Jul 13, 2013, 5:39 PM UTC

PC World the magazine. Not to be confused with the retailer of the same name (http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/index.html)

Not that I would be too upset if that retail chain closed down.

Re: PC World, 1983-2013

#30

Post by larrys » Sat, Jul 13, 2013, 5:43 PM UTC

jasonjei wrote: post #15

Speaking as somebody born in 1986, PC Magazine and Ziff Davis ignited my interest in software and computers as a child. It will always have a special place in my heart, even as a relic of print media (Ars Technica and AnandTech have replaced or obsoleted many aspects of the magazine even in its ironic non-computer print death throes of trying to modernize to the Web).

Slim pickings reading wise the decade your were born for computers. I had to drive up to the Princeton U. Bookstore (about 40 miles away) in order to get a book on Unix or C.

The year before you were born I had a machine in which 4mb of memory (in 80's dollars) was something like $4000. That was the cost of the extra memory (the machine was perhaps 35k in 80's dollars approx.) The hard drive was 70mb (Unix multiuser system).

Separately you missed out on the era of hiding Playboy under the bed from mom.