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I remember this issue. I used to read Byte magazine cover-to-cover, multiple times per issue. I also built many of the circuits they published and learned a t

I remember this issue. I used to read Byte magazine cover-to-cover, multiple times per issue. I also built many of the circuits they published and learned a tremendous amount from both hardware and coding articles. It's hard for people today to imagine a monthly publication with over 500 pages, yet that's what Byte became. It was fantastic. I still have a box full of articles I clipped before discarding my collection (at some point you have to let go). The other thing that's amazing to me --unrelated to Byte-- is how much of current AI/machine-learning is stuff that was being done as far back as thirty years ago. I have a four volume set on AI dating back to that era. Most of the neural network stuff we see as magical tools today exists in those books. The difference is that we now have machines with massive storage, working memory and speed. In some ways we haven't really gone very far at all, a perspective lost to those who don't have the benefit of history.

zxcvbn4038 5y ago
Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar was one of the best parts of Byte magazine, the first thing I read when I got a new issue. There were always a lot of hardware hacking projects in the TRS-80 Color Computer oriented Rainbow magazine, I learned a lot from those although I was always a bit weary of accidentally destroying a relatively expensive piece of hardware with a bad circuit. The artwork is the biggest thing I miss from the early computer magazines. Really amazing stuff that reminded me of all the sci-fi magazines from the fifties. Nothing like that today.
DonHopkins 5y ago
Byte was great, but Creative Computing and Dr. Dobb's Journal were the ones I REALLY enjoyed and looked forward to every month.
- robomartin 5y ago
  Yes, Dr. Dobb’s was the other one I consumed voraciously, along with Popular Electronics. I think my only other subscription was to MIT’s Journal of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (which was available with companion VHS tapes showing off the research).
sizzzzlerz 5y ago
I was an irregular reader of Byte but I did enjoy it. Particularly, the front cover artwork was usually unique and interesting and, silly as it sound, the ads. I pour through them every time I got a copy. Its a real hoot to look at them today.

zxcvbn4038 5y ago

Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar was one of the best parts of Byte magazine, the first thing I read when I got a new issue. There were always a lot of hardware hacking projects in the TRS-80 Color Computer oriented Rainbow magazine, I learned a lot from those although I was always a bit weary of accidentally destroying a relatively expensive piece of hardware with a bad circuit. The artwork is the biggest thing I miss from the early computer magazines. Really amazing stuff that reminded me of all the sci-fi magazines from the fifties. Nothing like that today.

DonHopkins 5y ago

Byte was great, but Creative Computing and Dr. Dobb's Journal were the ones I REALLY enjoyed and looked forward to every month.

robomartin 5y ago
Yes, Dr. Dobb’s was the other one I consumed voraciously, along with Popular Electronics. I think my only other subscription was to MIT’s Journal of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (which was available with companion VHS tapes showing off the research).

sizzzzlerz 5y ago

I was an irregular reader of Byte but I did enjoy it. Particularly, the front cover artwork was usually unique and interesting and, silly as it sound, the ads. I pour through them every time I got a copy. Its a real hoot to look at them today.