On Tue, 6 May 1997, Captain Napalm wrote:
> My own collection of Byte starts with August of 85 (Amiga 1000 is the
> cover story) and ends somewhere in late 89 or early 90. The library at the
> university I attended had issues starting from Jan '77 (which I read 8-).
> The dates given here are approximate, looking at a Byte from 1980, then 1985
> then 1990 will show almost three different magazines.
>
> -spc (It started sliding when Robert Tinney stopped doing magazine covers,
> (~87) then it nose dived once Steve Ciarcia stopped writing hardware
> articles, (~88 or 89) although there are some that think it started
> way back in '77 when Pournelle started his column)
Well, most of my older Byte magazines were destroyed by water several
moves ago, and I wouldn't mind acquiring most of them again. I had mostly
given up on Byte in the mid-eighties, but in recent years I've wound up
with a subscription (recently finally expired) due to McGraw-Hill ceasing
publication of more useful magazines. Ciarcia's articles were always
excellent (and I know that most of them were released in book form awhile
back), and his current magazine, "Circuit Cellar Ink" is pretty good,
especially if you're a serious hardware hacker as I no longer am.
Actually, nowadays, Pournelle's column is about the only thing I read in
the magazine, and now that it's available on the web (with extra text), I
really don't care to subscribe. Opinions vary concerning Jerry Pournelle.
I've known him for over twenty years due to our mutual interest in science
fiction and membership in the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society (I'm
still a member despite living in New Jersey -- Death Shall Not Release
You!). Over the years we've had a lot of conversations and arguments,
about politics (he's in favor of having a government, I'm opposed), about
space development (we're both in favor) and computers (I was a Shacker,
and while I was living elsewhere on the continent he had bad experiences
with a very early TRS-80 and the company rather hurt themselves by being
uncooperative and ignorant of the power of the press -- which is why after
I showed him one of the first Model 100s, he went out and got a NEC
equivalent). He's a man of strong opinions who's always trying to learn
something new and so am I. Really, he should be a member of this mailing
list -- he's experienced directly more of the history of computers than
most of us who've worked and played with them. That plus having the clout
to get information from the movers and shakers.
--
Ward Griffiths
"America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within
the system, but too early to shoot the bastards." --Claire Wolfe
Received on Tue May 06 1997 - 16:01:35 BST