The Amiga issue. I held on to that one forever.
Also learned Prolog from Byte magazine.
Really miss that mag.
BYTE Magazine
81–90 of 114 posts
Re: BYTE Magazine
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
I recently found myself in Boston needing computer stuff, and wound up at Micro Center in Cambridge. It was interesting in that they had pictures of the computing legends. Your list reminded me of that, as most of your list was represented in these portraits.
What were the prices like? Anything interesting for sale there that is not found in other stores?
There is one close to me in the DC area. The biggest thing is that they have just about everything you would want a computer/electronics store to have ... machines (PC and Apple), components, networking gear, highend gaming peripherals, hobbyist electronics/computers, repair services and a bunch of other related products and toys. Sometimes at work we are looking up server components for an upgrade/replacement, network switch and I think even rails for a server once then realize microcenter just down the street has it at about the same price. Most of this stuff just isn't available anywhere else in one place except online at this point.
Re: BYTE Magazine
#83My favourite number, that I kept for years later, was from September/1990. It had interviews with everyone that was "important" back then (Gates & Allen (MS), Mitch Kapor (Lotus), Doug Engelbart (mouse & GUIs), Tony Hoare (quicksort), Brian Kernigham, Donald Knuth, Bob Metcalfe (Ethernet), Philipe Kahn (Borland), Bob Noyce, Dennis Ritchie (C), Bjarne Stroustroup (C++), Wolfram) predicting the future. None of them pre…
LoL. Random page. "A small price to pay for greatness" 25MHz Dell for $3599
Re: BYTE Magazine
#84Interesting reading these in the light of excessively intrusive advertising on websites being one of HN's favourite dead horses to beat. I'm reading the smalltalk issue and the introductory editorial has a hyphenated word split over a two page ad spread plus a half page ad on the page it finishes on. Which is also opposite a full page ad. (the next two pages are ads)
I wanted to mention the same thing, it is littered with ads. However I remember reading some gaming related magazine way back in the early 2000s and there were also many ads (and still are I guess), so it's not a BYTE specific thing, but print-media in general.
Re: BYTE Magazine
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
What were the prices like? Anything interesting for sale there that is not found in other stores?
There is one close to me in the DC area. The biggest thing is that they have just about everything you would want a computer/electronics store to have ... machines (PC and Apple), components, networking gear, highend gaming peripherals, hobbyist electronics/computers, repair services and a bunch of other related products and toys. Sometimes at work we are looking up server components for an upgrade/replacement, netwo…
> Most of this stuff just isn't available anywhere else in one place except online at this point.
By anywhere else, do you mean _near you_? In a word, Frys. hahah
Re: BYTE Magazine
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is one close to me in the DC area. The biggest thing is that they have just about everything you would want a computer/electronics store to have ... machines (PC and Apple), components, networking gear, highend gaming peripherals, hobbyist electronics/computers, repair services and a bunch of other related products and toys. Sometimes at work we are looking up server components for an upgrade/replacement, netwo…
> Most of this stuff just isn't available anywhere else in one place except online at this point. By anywhere else, do you mean _near you_? In a word, Frys. hahah
Lol yeah. I was looking up similar stores and nothing popped up. Thanks for the correction/knowledge.
Re: BYTE Magazine
#87I have always felt that Jerry Pournelle’’s Chaos Manor and Steve Ciarcia’s Circuit Cellar were highly influential on the whole idea and style of blogging. The way of writing about technical topics based on personal experience from one’s passion is at the heart of good blogging.
Jerry Pournelle I could have easily lived without. He had piles of his hardware and software given to him, and he had high level access into various companies when he had a problem because of his position at Byte. Couldn't relate, and never understood why people enjoyed his articles that much. OTOH, Steve Ciarcia was like a god to me. The variety and scope of his projects was crazy. I built his BASIC-52 controller bo…
Pournelle I always hated, because his column was soooo loooong and rambling, and it was inevitably an advertorial for some super-expensive not particularly interesting product he got for nothing and then received exemplary support for, usually directly from the CEO. And then, just as inevitably, there would be a prominent mention of his next and/or last books.
Considering how much money Byte made from ads, I suspect Pournelle was incredibly well paid for his efforts - in addition to all that free hardware.
Nice gig.
Ciarcia was superb - back when many developers understood the hardware down to component level. So much cool and creative skill, month after month.
Re: BYTE Magazine
#88I grew up on Byte magazine. Love the covers and the articles on programming. My parents had bought me a TRS-80 Model I with Level III Basic and learned programming by typing in programs (and then debugging them) from Byte and other magazines. Did anyone ever type in the Scott Adams Treasure Island adventure game from the December 1980 issue? https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1980-12
Re: BYTE Magazine
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
Jerry Pournelle I could have easily lived without. He had piles of his hardware and software given to him, and he had high level access into various companies when he had a problem because of his position at Byte. Couldn't relate, and never understood why people enjoyed his articles that much. OTOH, Steve Ciarcia was like a god to me. The variety and scope of his projects was crazy. I built his BASIC-52 controller bo…
Was that the 8052-AH Basic one? (Funny I still remember the numbers). I worked for a place where I built a commercial system using that. We used it for a couple of things, a nurse call system, a datalogger, just GP IO, was a great time.
Exactly. And it is still out there if you want to download it (and the source!), burn an EPROM, and relive some memories. The code, along with some cool hardware designs, can be found here:.
Re: BYTE Magazine
#90In another universe I’m mining these for ideas for retrofuture/cyberpunk rpg and short fiction ideas.