Magazines

I used to read a lot of magazines - Electronics, Byte, PC World, Electronics Today and a slew of others, but that was all in the last century. Since then I occasionally glance through EP&T because they keep sending them, but I generally don't read paper magazines any more. The coverage is no longer comprehensive, quality has suffered as demand has dropped and the internet has taken over. Search engines are a huge improvement in some senses, but browsing and serendipitous discovery are problematic with the internet. If magazines were still as good as they were in their heyday, I would still read them.

I used to read a lot of magazines - Electronics, Byte, PC World, Electronics Today and a slew of others, but that was all in the last century. Since then I occasionally glance through EP&T because they keep sending them, but I generally don't read paper magazines any more. The coverage is no longer comprehensive, quality has suffered as demand has dropped and the internet has taken over. Search engines are a huge improvement in some senses, but browsing and serendipitous discovery are problematic with the internet. If magazines were still as good as they were in their heyday, I would still read them.

>The coverage is no longer comprehensive, quality has suffered as demand has dropped and the internet has taken over.

Totally agree. It seems I learn more from the ads than from the content. I kind of wonder if that's because the people writing the content are the younger journalist/writer types and so the things they can write about are generally things we've already learned in the past. Like all those "10 things you didn't know..." or "info that will change your life!" memes that drive me nuts with useless repetitive info. And the power company teaching me how to cut my energy bills by turning off the lights - something our parents drilled into us as kids!

I receive a couple of contractor magazines... because I'm a software contractor and that's pretty much the same thing as a construction contractor , but I love them for the things I learn... from the ads

The ads point out new technologies that are making life easier. So I know I can add a bathroom in my basement at minimal cost, I know there's newer better roofing underlays and interesting insulations and building panels and methods.

I'll probably use a lot of that info to build a new shed soon.

-Nico

Don't forget Popular Electronics, Radio Electronics, and Circuit Cellar (still around). More for professionals but still full of interesting ideas (at least in the

"good old days") Electronic Design, EDN (Electronic Design News), and Computer Design.

For software there was Dr Dobbs (Running light without Overbyte), and C Users Group.

Plus a whole slew of hardware and software magazines that only lasted a few years and which I still have a few back issues of.

Anyone remember micro cornucopia magazine?

I still have a bunch, and would gladly offer them to a good home.

tom

I used to get Dr Dobbs, very educational

Yes I do, and I subscribed to it too. Several years ago I went through all my old tech magazines looking for ones with at least one

article good enough to keep and threw away the rest. At least one Micro Cornucopia made the cut. Some of the others were:

PC Techniques, MicroComputer, Microsystems, Micro Systems (a different magazine), Windows/DOS Developers Journal,

Programmers Journal, and Embedded Systems Programming (another aimed more at professionals).

It was an excellent magazine for many years. I still have most of the ones I received when I subscribed to it.