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I understand (I think), what you are saying. But I'd also argue that, back in the day, Byte & similar magazines were targeted at a fairly small subset of the po

I understand (I think), what you are saying. But I'd also argue that, back in the day, Byte & similar magazines were targeted at a fairly small subset of the population. Today, I think equivalent magazines are Make, Adafruit's blog, internet & all the resources available online. So, I think such magazines / content still exist & they still have an audience (if not a larger audience, thanks to MOOCs & Arduino / Pi, etc.) If you are making an argument that, in general, most magazines today publish trash, and somehow, the magazines published in the past were more content rich.. I'd challenge that with two points: a) Content heavy magazines / websites still exist --> Economist, Ars Technica, etc. They have a strong audience. b) The pool of people reading has gotten larger; and more magazines are catering to a more diverse population, some of which, as you imply, are drivel. But to say that such content is no longer published, or is accessible, I would think, is incorrect. I'd argue such content is much easier to access today than ever before.

icantdrive55 9y ago
Yes they were targeted to a smaller portion of the population. Electronics projects, and hi-fi stereo systems were all the rage. Guys still had their hobbies. Most guys didn't have computers, but the guys who did could do a lot with their computers. I was too young, but I remember the older boys doing things, and hooking up things to their computers that we can't do with new MBP's. Meaning, their wasen't closed systems. Their was no need to buy product like the Rasberri Pi. When watching that movie about Jobs, I remember Seth saying, "You're going to decrease the number of ports from 12 to 3?". That really stuck with me. I remember guys taking those ports and doing all kind of stuff. Most of it was not recommended, but guys were experimenting with their computers. You could open them up, and repair them. There are some days I wonder if we would have all been better off without Jobs, and the Mac. That is in the long run. I got off topic, but the old magazine reminded me of a kinda better day. You paid for the magazine, and the magazine provided working hardware/software projects. You usually didn't need to buy a bunch of other pricy stuff to get the gizmo in the mag to work. You did need to buy a bread board, resistors, cpas, and the like, but that stuff was cheap, and bout at a surplus store, or Radio shack. I now buy a multi grand Apple, and you can't start hooking up my hardware projects to the back. It's pretty and slick, but there are some days I would like to have a few 12v pins to run my projects off of. There are many days I wish I open the device to upgrade, and repair--easily. Looking back, I think if Wos was the CEO, we might be farther along in innovation. I will admit my first computer was a Atari St 1200--I think? I bought it for college. I was the only kid in my classes who had a word processor. I even felt like I was cheating. I never told anyone about my computer. I would listen to them paying $2/page to a Typist, and not say anything. My girlfriend knew, but didn't want any part of computing. It was for Nerds. Plus, her indroduction to my computer was me stupidly drawing a dick pick. She was a good sport though, and said, stop it, it's making me horney. She's now making $500,000 a year, as director of something web in a small hedge fund near the valley. Did I get into all the peripheral projects I saw in BYTE--no, I didn't. I liked computing, but got tired of sitting in front of a screen. In all honesty, I wanted to be out in the world, birdogging almost anyone who would have me. Yea, I wish I could have a surgical clip on that Testosterone. My point is those old computers were in a weird way better/different that our slick closed boxes.
- ddingus 9y ago
  I keep a working Apple 2e on my hobby bench. It's fun to do things with. So open. It's amazing. To me, Jobs did us a favor. I use my phone, nice laptop, a mix of Apple, Android, Linux, Windows to do amazing things, talk with people around the world, etc... Total win. Stuff we take for granted today... science fiction made real. No joke. What I think should have happened is Woz continued with the Apple 2 line. Jobs didn't need to kill it to get his vision out there. I got a GS to to tinker with, but haven't hooked it up yet. Too much going on. But, it hints at what would have come. Today, people are always doing what Woz did. It's fun to build or run a little micro. One can get right to the bits, control things. It may well be that Apple could have continued right along, a parallel to the PC, and had that happened, we may well have seen the product of that being the reference, or standard hack / hobby platform. Now, we do have the Raspi. It's not bad, but it's also not easy to make effective use of it low level. Something with roughly that amount of compute power, but accessible in that open Woz way, would be just perfect.
Tanegashima 9y ago
I don't think the difference here is the population size. I think the biggest difference is the target audience. Old computer magazines: sophisticated, educated readers that want the truth. New tech sites: uneducated masses, typically teenagers that just want confirmation bias on their choice. It's also increasingly complicated today to be a magazine like Byte was back in the day. Even if a team tries really hard, it's no use, the universe is so big that's impossible to report everything, the publication will always be lying by occultation.
b4ux1t3 9y ago
This really hit home. I was born too late to be involved with these magazines when they were in their "heyday". But I grew up in the early days of the Internet, and there have always been places on the Internet and the Web with content like this. The best part is that most of it is now free, and has been for 20 years or longer.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]

icantdrive55 9y ago

Yes they were targeted to a smaller portion of the population. Electronics projects, and hi-fi stereo systems were all the rage. Guys still had their hobbies. Most guys didn't have computers, but the guys who did could do a lot with their computers. I was too young, but I remember the older boys doing things, and hooking up things to their computers that we can't do with new MBP's. Meaning, their wasen't closed systems. Their was no need to buy product like the Rasberri Pi. When watching that movie about Jobs, I remember Seth saying, "You're going to decrease the number of ports from 12 to 3?". That really stuck with me. I remember guys taking those ports and doing all kind of stuff. Most of it was not recommended, but guys were experimenting with their computers. You could open them up, and repair them. There are some days I wonder if we would have all been better off without Jobs, and the Mac. That is in the long run. I got off topic, but the old magazine reminded me of a kinda better day. You paid for the magazine, and the magazine provided working hardware/software projects. You usually didn't need to buy a bunch of other pricy stuff to get the gizmo in the mag to work. You did need to buy a bread board, resistors, cpas, and the like, but that stuff was cheap, and bout at a surplus store, or Radio shack. I now buy a multi grand Apple, and you can't start hooking up my hardware projects to the back. It's pretty and slick, but there are some days I would like to have a few 12v pins to run my projects off of. There are many days I wish I open the device to upgrade, and repair--easily. Looking back, I think if Wos was the CEO, we might be farther along in innovation. I will admit my first computer was a Atari St 1200--I think? I bought it for college. I was the only kid in my classes who had a word processor. I even felt like I was cheating. I never told anyone about my computer. I would listen to them paying $2/page to a Typist, and not say anything. My girlfriend knew, but didn't want any part of computing. It was for Nerds. Plus, her indroduction to my computer was me stupidly drawing a dick pick. She was a good sport though, and said, stop it, it's making me horney. She's now making $500,000 a year, as director of something web in a small hedge fund near the valley. Did I get into all the peripheral projects I saw in BYTE--no, I didn't. I liked computing, but got tired of sitting in front of a screen. In all honesty, I wanted to be out in the world, birdogging almost anyone who would have me. Yea, I wish I could have a surgical clip on that Testosterone. My point is those old computers were in a weird way better/different that our slick closed boxes.

ddingus 9y ago
I keep a working Apple 2e on my hobby bench. It's fun to do things with. So open. It's amazing. To me, Jobs did us a favor. I use my phone, nice laptop, a mix of Apple, Android, Linux, Windows to do amazing things, talk with people around the world, etc... Total win. Stuff we take for granted today... science fiction made real. No joke. What I think should have happened is Woz continued with the Apple 2 line. Jobs didn't need to kill it to get his vision out there. I got a GS to to tinker with, but haven't hooked it up yet. Too much going on. But, it hints at what would have come. Today, people are always doing what Woz did. It's fun to build or run a little micro. One can get right to the bits, control things. It may well be that Apple could have continued right along, a parallel to the PC, and had that happened, we may well have seen the product of that being the reference, or standard hack / hobby platform. Now, we do have the Raspi. It's not bad, but it's also not easy to make effective use of it low level. Something with roughly that amount of compute power, but accessible in that open Woz way, would be just perfect.

Tanegashima 9y ago

I don't think the difference here is the population size. I think the biggest difference is the target audience. Old computer magazines: sophisticated, educated readers that want the truth. New tech sites: uneducated masses, typically teenagers that just want confirmation bias on their choice. It's also increasingly complicated today to be a magazine like Byte was back in the day. Even if a team tries really hard, it's no use, the universe is so big that's impossible to report everything, the publication will always be lying by occultation.

b4ux1t3 9y ago

This really hit home. I was born too late to be involved with these magazines when they were in their "heyday". But I grew up in the early days of the Internet, and there have always been places on the Internet and the Web with content like this. The best part is that most of it is now free, and has been for 20 years or longer.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]