Curtis Johnson wrote in a message to Roy J. Tellason:

 CJ>    I haven't read _Computer Shopper_ in a while, but as of about
 CJ> three years ago it used to have some decent, long-length articles 
 CJ> about a particular bit of technology or software approach.

 RJT> I don't remember the last time I bought one,  except that I do
 RJT> remember that I never quite got the whole way through it.  They were
 RJT> about the size of phone books in those days.   

 CJ>    These days they're a *lot* thinner, but they're coming with a 
 CJ> CD-ROM that presumably contains the ads.  I haven't bought one in
 CJ> the new format.  Has anyone else here?

I saw one on the newsstand last night,  but I wasn't tempted to buy a copy.

 CJ>    No, I never saw that one.  There did used to be a lot of pretty
 CJ> good computer magazines, and with some of them you could tell that
 CJ> the staff and writers were having a lot of fun.

 RJT> Yep!

 CJ> Now the ones that I see (at least on the usual newsstands) are 
 CJ> pitched to consumers (i.e., buy, buy) instead of the enthusiast or 
 CJ> hobbyist who'd be more discerning about quality of hardware, 
 CJ> software, etc. and who'd want to know how it works.

 RJT> That's putting it mildly...

 RJT> The almost explosion of magazines over the past bunch of years 
 RJT> has really put me off reading a lot of them.  There was a time 
 RJT> once,  when I was so hungry for any kind of technical info that 
 RJT> I'd take pretty much what I could get.  This is going back a 
 RJT> couple of decades or more,  when there just wasn't that much out 
 RJT> there.  Then some people started to perceive this as a market to 
 RJT> be milked,  and that's where I got out of buying a lot of it.  
 RJT> It's *really* put me off buying a lot of magazines in recent 
 RJT> years.

 CJ>    There's booms and busts in any sub-genre of magazines over the 
 CJ> years.  A pity that survivorship through the bust cycle isn't more
 CJ> directly related to quality.

Yeah.

 CJ>    OK, this could make for a good thread for everyone to 
 CJ> participate in--what computer mags (electronic or paper) do you
 CJ> read and/or think are good, and why?

Here's a slight side-trip:  You talk up there about guys who were having
fun while doing this.  I happened across a book at a real good price
recently,  "Fire In The Valley",  talking about a lot of what
went on early in this stuff,  before it was an "industry",  by a
couple of guys who were there at the time.  Sure looks to be a good read, 
I just started it...

 CJ>  - Origin: Nerve Center: Source of the ELECTRONICS echo!

Eh?  (Moderator,  ELECTRONICS echo...)

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