rickb@bucket.UUCP (Rick Bensene) (08/03/88)
I think it interesting that folks are JUST NOW beginning to see that BYTE has gone from a computer hobbyist magazine to a 'mass market, semi-business oriented' rag. I let my subscription to BYTE expire almost 2 years ago. At that time, I thought that they had gone hopelessly IBM, and that all the good articles about programming tricks, hardware hacks, and the occasional article on computer history, interesting developments in the computer field in other countries, and such, had essentially died off to near nothing. I think that BYTE really took its major dive when it went from being a magazine published by computer hobbyists who happened to be reasonably good journalists/publishers, to a magazine published by a big monster publising house, whose main goal is MARKET SHARE. It is unfortunate...I really enjoy going back through old BYTE back issues and reliving the excitement and enthusiasm that made the personal computer revolution what is was. There's still plenty of that energy around, but BYTE seems to see fit to ignore it, and concentrate on the aspects of the computer world involving making the most money! In case some out there haven't noticed the discussions about Steve Ciarcia in sci.electronics, Steve's contract with BYTE will terminate at the end of the year, so you can expect that the limited hardware hobbyist aspects of BYTE will disappear shortly thereafter. However, if you are a Ciarcia fan, he's gone off and is publishing his own magazine, called Circuit Cellar Ink. It is essentially a continuation with more detail of the BYTE Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar column. I've just subscribed to it, and am looking forward to seeing if maybe, just maybe, it ends up capturing some of the essence of the old and dearly missed BYTE. If you're interested in subscribing, or want more information about Ciarcia's rag, you can get it by calling their BBS at (203) 871-1988 1200/2400 baud, 24 hours a day. I am in no way connected with Ciarcia other than being a fan of his articles in BYTE. -- Rick Bensene Tektronix, Inc. PO Box 3500 C1-970 Vancouver, WA 98668 ..tektronix!tekigm2!rickb (work) Voice: (206) 253-5489 (10A-5P Pacific) ..tektronix!teksce!bucket!rickb (home) BBS: (503) 254-0458 300/1200 -- Rick Bensene Tektronix, Inc. PO Box 3500 C1-970 Vancouver, WA 98668 ..tektronix!tekigm2!rickb (work) Voice: (206) 253-5489 (10A-5P Pacific) ..tektronix!teksce!bucket!rickb (home) BBS: (503) 254-0458 300/1200
urjlew@ecsvax.uncecs.edu (Rostyk Lewyckyj) (08/04/88)
While I am also in general agreement with the opinion that
the quality and focus of BYTE magazine has been going down
for the last several years, I would like to offer some weak
defence on their behalf.
I began reading BYTE many years ago, and my subscription
still has over a year before it expires. I began reading
BYTE while already a working programmer for over ten years
and a long time member of the ACM and general voracious
periodicals reader. At that time pesonal computing was a new
growth area and I was looking for information about what was
being done with these machines. I found the programming and
computer science articles interesting in the popular science
or Scientific American kind of way. That is in areas I was
familiar with they were "so what, this is old stuff", and
otherwise it was "hm .. , this is interesting. I should
check it out in a real textbook". At that time there wasn't
such a flood of hardware or software , and no systematized
attempts at product comparisons. Although any comparisons
that appeared were very welcome. Finally, BYTE advertising
was, considered a valuable part of the magazine.
Over the years the industry has changed. Personal computers
have become consumer products. PC users are no longer amateurs
of computing. They are buying and using these machines as tools
for specific tasks. They *want* an overview of the products
available and capsule product comparisons.
This has allowed the publishers to get away with changing
BYTE from a magazine for discerning computer literate hobbyists
and amateurs to simply another trade publication. You may
note that they also did this to Electronics ~1984. They simply
republish manufacturers publicity/product releases and add
some product comparison material from their "labs".
As to the other articles, well those that they do decide to
publish, they are of about the same level as those of previous
years. BUT REMEMBER THAT YOU TOO HAVE GROWN. The articles
are not meant for professional procgrammers or budding computer
scientists. The articles of former years were interesting
to you when you were starting out. You remeber them fondly
because of the remebered effect they had on you when you
originally read them.
To sum things up I too am disappointed with what Mc Graw hill
did with Electronics, and is doing to BYTE. I wish they would
keep it as a computer hobbyist magazine, sort of a Computing
Scientific American. As a second choice I would accept a
good Consumer reports type of magazine. A publication of
honest high quality comparisons of small computer systems,
software, and peripherals. In depth independant product reviews.
In their product comparisons, I wish they would get away from
the fancy smantzy presentation graphics of three dimensional
bar charts and concntrate instead on verifyable results
presented in meaningfull tables and readable graphs.
-----------------------------------------------
Reply-To: Rostyslaw Jarema Lewyckyj
urjlew@ecsvax.UUCP , urjlew@tucc.bitnet
or urjlew@tucc.tucc.edu (ARPA,SURA,NSF etc. internet)
tel. (919)-962-9107joel@peora.ccur.com (Joel Upchurch) (08/04/88)
In article <5523@ecsvax.uncecs.edu>, urjlew@ecsvax.uncecs.edu (Rostyk Lewyckyj) writes: > In their product comparisons, I wish they would get away from > the fancy smantzy presentation graphics of three dimensional > bar charts and concentrate instead on verifyable results > presented in meaningfull tables and readable graphs. I agree about the 3-D graphics. PC Magazine has the same problem with graphics, although the quality of their product comparsions is far higher. When they do a product comparsion they review a lot of stuff, including some obscure ones you've never heard of. If often turns out that one of these obscure packages has exactly the feature you've been looking for. I agree that it would be nice if Byte was more general in their coverage. I already have my PC-Compatible magazines to keep me informed on this subject, what I want to know is what everybody else is doing. I'm having the same problem with Infoworld. They have actually said they are now a weekly for business microcomputers and that business micros mean PCs and Macs. As a result I get a lot of product reviews for stuff that has already been done more throughly in PC Magazine. It's getting to the point where if I want to find out what everybody else is doing I have to buy Computer Shopper (:>). -- Joel Upchurch/Concurrent Computer Corp/2486 Sand Lake Rd/Orlando, FL 32809 joel@peora.ccur.com {uiucuxc,hoptoad,petsd,ucf-cs}!peora!joel (407)850-1040