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Archive of BYTE magazine, starting with issue #1 in 1975

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Re: Archive of BYTE magazine, starting with issue #1 in 1975

#91

Post by hypercube33 »

rigonkulous wrote: post #73
dugmartin wrote: post #66

Its hard to express what it was like in the early/mid-80s (before I had my drivers licence) to bike a few miles to the bookstore at the start of every month and see all the new computer magazine covers for that month. It was so exciting. I didn't have much money so I stuck with Micro Cornucopia as it had the biggest signal to noise ratio (and before that Rainbow Magazine). I did pickup Computer Shopper later when I s…

Oh yeah, it was really joyous to go on such bike rides and so on. The newsagents were really important to my young developing, hacker mind. It was transformative to go, each week, and see new stuff or review things this way.

Printed stuff really shaped my life. From PC Magazine and Winworld (is that the name of it? it was a business like weekly or something) and MSDN magazine and PC Accelerator and 2600. Odd duck out in my life was Farmshow magazine but it's basically farm hacking and fascinated me as well. MIT Technology review came later and was good for a few years, I'm still waiting for the huge amount of breakthroughs they showcased in the 2000s to come to market but whatever I'd read about it years before it hit digg.

Re: Archive of BYTE magazine, starting with issue #1 in 1975

#92

Post by tasty_freeze »

I got into computers in 1978 when I started high school and they had two Wang 2200 computers, each with a whopping 8KB of RAM.

Although I was 14 I asked my parents for a subscription to Byte. Every so often I'd get an offer in the mail to join a "wine of the month" service, or life insurance, etc. Clearly they had sold their mailing list and they just assumed anyone with a subscription must be an adult.

Anyway, I loved Steve Ciarcia's column and hated Jerry Pournelle's column that got too much space. His schtick was that he was a power user using the hardware/software for doing real work. But he was far from normal -- he'd write florid articles about having a software or hardware malfunction and then calling up the owner of the company and they next morning the guy who wrote the malfunctioning app would be at Jerry's house debugging it. "XYZ Corp produces quality software that they really stand behind and you should buy it too." Yeah, Jerry, you didn't buy it, and the average Joe doesn't get personal attention like that. I found him to be an insufferable, self-important twat. 45 years later I still feel the same about him.

Re: Archive of BYTE magazine, starting with issue #1 in 1975

#93

Post by placebo »

tialaramex wrote: post #25
placebo wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're old, I guess that makes me ancient. Byte is what got me hooked on the path I walk to this day, though back then it would be far beyond my wildest dreams to believe that in my lifetime it would be possible to hold an intelligent conversation with software, and everything that entails

The LLMs are the philosophical "box of all conversation" trick, that's not intelligence, it just went from a neat philosophical device to explain why Turing's test doesn't do what you think intuitively it would do to a real world thing that is a mix of fun toy, useful technology and dangerous new problem.

I think that is a valid opinion, but don't think there is any conclusive evidence to make it a valid fact (while of course not disagreeing with "fun toy, useful technology and dangerous new problem" part). Would be happy to learn otherwise.

Re: Archive of BYTE magazine, starting with issue #1 in 1975

#94

Post by josgraha »

dugmartin wrote: post #66

Its hard to express what it was like in the early/mid-80s (before I had my drivers licence) to bike a few miles to the bookstore at the start of every month and see all the new computer magazine covers for that month. It was so exciting. I didn't have much money so I stuck with Micro Cornucopia as it had the biggest signal to noise ratio (and before that Rainbow Magazine). I did pickup Computer Shopper later when I s…

i love this comment, 100% agree and where were you in my childhood my friend?

Re: Archive of BYTE magazine, starting with issue #1 in 1975

#95

Post by CamperBob2 »

tialaramex wrote: post #25
placebo wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're old, I guess that makes me ancient. Byte is what got me hooked on the path I walk to this day, though back then it would be far beyond my wildest dreams to believe that in my lifetime it would be possible to hold an intelligent conversation with software, and everything that entails

The LLMs are the philosophical "box of all conversation" trick, that's not intelligence, it just went from a neat philosophical device to explain why Turing's test doesn't do what you think intuitively it would do to a real world thing that is a mix of fun toy, useful technology and dangerous new problem.

Ah, yes, the program that's "not intelligent" yet somehow turns in gold-medal results at international math and programming competitions designed to identify and test the smartest human students. Is that sentiment supposed to make us feel smart?

If anything, the closest thing we have to Byte in 1975 is /r/localllama in 2026. Believe me, there was no shortage of old men in 1975 who didn't get it, either.

Re: Archive of BYTE magazine, starting with issue #1 in 1975

#96

Post by k4rnaj1k »

mlhpdx wrote: post #67
le-mark wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

lol greetings fellow Basic pencil coder! I used to also write basic programs by hand because I didn’t have a computer. Pournelle original claim to fame was as one of the authors of “Strategy of Technology“ which was very influential in the 70s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategy_of_Technology

My people. My first paid programming was hand translating a BASIC app to C. I did it on the same paper the original was printed on (green/white continuous feed). When I thought I had it right I went to my mom’s work in the middle of the night to type it in and check it. Over the course of a summer I made it work. The money went to buying my first computer (kit).

[dead]

Re: Archive of BYTE magazine, starting with issue #1 in 1975

#99

Post by gramie »

ultratalk wrote: post #58
gramie wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From 1988-91, I was a volunteer teacher in Africa. I lived in a hut without running water or electricity, and I had a subscription to Byte. There was also almost nothing to read, so when my monthly issue of Byte appeared (2-3 months later than most people would receive it), I devoured that thing. I would read it literally cover to cover, including all those ads, several times. I wasn't (then) working in IT, so a lot…

What country were you in?

I was in Lesotho, a small country completely surrounded by South Africa (when the White farmers were expanding and taking all the Africans' farmland, they left Lesotho because it was all mountains, but with no minerals).

Re: Archive of BYTE magazine, starting with issue #1 in 1975

#100

Post by aurizon »

I remember Wayne well, W2NSD = never say die... He did well in ham radio magazines, and entered computer magazines running full speed with byte and others. His accountant advised him to put Byte in his wife's name for tax reasons. This later came back to 'byte' him when they divorced and she was adjudicated as the owner, but he never said die and went on to other things but never overtook Byte. I recall him at the Atlantic city hamfest, where the Apple launched. Woz and Jobs were there, at set-up and they had a problem, no solder or iron and a 74366 had failed when the card involved was pulled under power = failed. This was before there were low cost, low power 74LS366 were available cheaply. This part had to be desoldered and replaced. They had no chip, solder, iron or wick. John Ramsey had a booth there, so he lent them the solder iron etc and he was also selling a wide range of TTL parts = the rest is history. I also had a table selling diverse ham radio bits/pieces. Wayne was operating his magazine booth, more Wayne details here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Green
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