6 ms·
Mike Mageek is dead
- kevml 2y agoI’ve read the register throughout the years but I never thought much about the folks behind it. The obituary tells a wild story that was heartwarmingly written by a friend. Now I’m waiting for the biopic!
- rbanffy 2y agoWeird, with Daniel Radcliffe playing Weird Al Yankovic, is probably the right tone for this one.
- DonHopkins 2y agoThe Register is one of the few great iconoclastically cool news sites I am truly fond of and respect, in the company of Suck.com, FuckedCompany.com, and Morph's Output on the Information Superhighway. But unlike those historic news sites of yore, it's still somehow managed to say in business, and remains relevant and interesting, after all these years.
- godelmachine 2y agoThe Register is one of the few websites on the internet which makes tech articles worth reading. They make the reader realize the significance of tech, who might otherwise pass it off as nuances which only nerds should be aware of.
- RachelF 2y agoVery true. Their journalists understand the technology they are writing about and explain it clearly. They also provide background and a bigger picture. One can view them as sceptical, perhaps even jaded hacks, but what they write generally stands the test of time. In my opinion, it is the best tech news website.
- nebulous1 2y agoUltimately they drove me away by using too many "cute" names for tech companies.
- gerdesj 2y agoI understand where you are coming from but silly stuff like that is one way to encourage what I am now going to call: "harmless tribalism". You may not be familiar with the extensive campaign to find a suitable name for Microsoft. The winner was Micros~1. It took quite a lot of discussion and once the winner was declared, most people hated it but it became the standard. That's the nature of proper, decent, discourse. People riffing on all sorts of stuff and basically having a laugh. No one was hurt and a lot of fruitful chat was had. Perhaps you are not familiar with this: https://www.theregister.com/Design/page/reg-standards-converter.html https://www.theregister.com/Design/page/reg-standards-conver... That too was the result of a lot of banter and some quite scientific and mathematical digressions ensued. el Reg has changed. It is rather more "professional" these days or as we say in the trade "boring". However, it is still there and you never know, vestigil thingies can re-grow. It is certainly more alive than /. but it is bordering on lumbering around with its arms outstretched looking for brainzzzz.
- dredmorbius 2y agoMy! Favourite! Is! Still! How! Yahoo! Headlines! Were! Written! This seems to be a thing of the past, perhaps a consequence of Yahoo's sale to Verizon: <https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/03/yahoo_aol_apollo/ https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/03/yahoo_aol_apollo/> (The most recent occurrence I can find, dating to 2021-5-3. Despite the subhead.)
- lproven 2y ago`MICROS~1` being how 32-bit Windows abbreviated the first file or folder named "Microsoft $BLAH" for 16-bit code. So while (IIRC) Office 95 installed into C:\Program Files\MSOffice (in DOS, "C:\PROGRA~1\MSOFFICE"), Office 97 called its folder "Microsoft Office" which in DOS looked like C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~1". The Inquirer's name for Microsoft was "the Vole". The British field vole's specific name is Microtus agrestis. (Former Inq and current Reg writer here.)
- toyg 2y agoI don't necessarily disagree, but it should be noted that, after a few years, Magee very publicly disagreed with the direction taken by The Register, and started its own separate thing (the Inquirer).
- randombits0 2y agoIt lost the bite that bit the hands that feed IT. The Buzzard is bummed.
- dredmorbius 2y agoSome folks apparently need to familarise themselves with El Reg's slogan.
- dredmorbius 2y agoShortly after that happened, I found myself at a tech-conferance-adjacent soire (financed by, in El Reg's parlance, Chipzilla, open bar natch) with several Reg hacks and Magee hisself. Despite the parting of ways, all seemed to be getting along famously. Mike handed me his business card, with the Inquirer imprint. I examined it carefully, looked at him gravely, and intoned "but you've misspelled 'Register'". He looked back at me quite chagrined. Great guy, and an amazing history. Godspeed Mad Mike!
- fitsumbelay 2y agoPretty familiar with The Register but never heard of this guy before. Sounds like an utter boss
- ekianjo 2y ago> In December 2000, Magee suffered a heart attack and died on the operating table only to revive and being told that he would have to do the same operation in ten years (he didn’t). When he returned to work, he stated publicly that he disagreed with the editorial direction of The Register. thats what you call "a change of heart"
- chx 2y agohttps://www.theregister.com/2007/04/20/cf-y5_toughbook/ https://www.theregister.com/2007/04/20/cf-y5_toughbook/ this review of the Panasonic CF-Y5 is one of the highlights of the genre (I had the good luck to own one): > The exterior design of the machine's casing is reminiscent of a Sherman tank cross-bred with a 1970s sports saloon, while the lid opens with the grace of a bank vault door. Yet the designers have managed to make the machine look attractive all the same, the overall effect being what you'd expect from GI Jane in a glittery ball gown.
- martinpw 2y agoThis is one of my favorite articles in terms of writing style - nothing else like this in those days (to put it mildly): https://www.theregister.com/2008/07/28/sun_dziuba_tm/ https://www.theregister.com/2008/07/28/sun_dziuba_tm/
- thedailymail 2y ago"This brought him into contact with Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page. Despite his fame, his accountant did not allow Page to have much money, so he approached Magee for a loan to buy an esoteric bookstore. The loan was never repaid." I hope to have one paragraph in my obit as cool as that.
- tomcam 2y agoGet hoodwinked by Jimmy Page doesn’t cover anyone with glory
- lovich 2y agoDon’t know why you got flagged other than fans of the man being upset. Based on the story laid out in these two comments, he was approached for a loan by an already wealthy man who never paid him back. T That’s just dumb, like contributing money to fundraisers run by companies pulling in billions of dollars a year in profit, so they can do the tax write off or earn money off the float of your contribution. Don’t be so starstruck you let stars grift you. Or do, this is a hacker news comment, not a cop
- kimixa 2y agoFrom the (lack of) context we don't really know the intent or opinions of those involved. I've seen things that are technically "loans", but realistically gifts as there was never any expectation of being paid back. Or it might not. I certainly can't tell from the article, and a quick google doesn't seem to suggest it's well documented.
- tomcam 2y agoReason can tell us something about the intent of those involved. > Despite his fame, his accountant did not allow Page to have much money No one got in Jimmy Page's way ever. There's not a chance in hell that he didn't have the £10,000 or whatever an obscure occult bookshop would cost in early 70s England, an economy still devastated by WWII and a worldwide recession. He's also a smart guy with an obviously good memory. Even now, despite decades of drug abuse, he sounds like an archetypal English gentleman. Zero loss of mental acuity at an age when many are ravaged by dementia. Mageek was ripped off by Jimmy Page. Shameful for both parties.
- CoastalCoder 2y agoWell, he was very, very indirectly a managing director over BOFH. It was just a matter of time. Cheekiness aside, I love what he did for IT and the Internet. I'm sorry to see him go.
- gerdesj 2y ago"The Rodgister used the slogan "Biting the Hand That Feeds IT" to reflect its" The Rodgister. Is this the fucking Grauniad or el Reg?
- gerdesj 2y ago... anyway, Lester will be waiting, with a glint in his eye.
- gumby 2y agoThe fate of journals wax and wane, and for me the apex of el Reg was in the era of Andrew Orlowski and (RIP) Lester Haines (they overlapped). Orlowski knows his computing history and writes really well. Haines wrote not just knowledgeably but with a carefree humour that made you feel like he was smiling with you as you read his work. His loss was a real blow. I still read it regularly, but some of the spirit has gone. But you never know -- someone new could show up and revive that joi deivivre je ne sais quoi. Haines definitely did that when he joined.
- ggm 2y agoA very idiosyncratic house style. Both of headline and flow text. Not always clear. Perhaps as clear as mud. If you don't like puns (I love 'em) it must be a bit of a nightmare.
- TacticalCoder 2y ago> If you don't like puns (I love 'em) it must be a bit of a nightmare. Mike Magee's last logoff doesn't register.
- toomuchtodo 2y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Magee_(journalist) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Magee_(journalist)
- kinlan 2y agoThe obit seemed mostly lifted from this.
- ChrisMarshallNY 2y agoLesson learned: Never loan Jimmy Page money.
- toomuchtodo 2y agoOn the contrary, recognize that you're buying a killer story under the guise of a loan.
- ChrisMarshallNY 2y agoThat was like Picasso allegedly doodling on the backs of checks he wrote, as they were often not cashed.
- southernplaces7 2y agoThat was Dali as far as I know.
- DonHopkins 2y agoJ.S.G. Boggs elevated paying for goods and services with a drawing of money into a form of performance art. >Boggs became famous for drawing incredibly realistic banknotes by hand and then using these "Boggs Bills" to pay for goods and services. The twist was that the merchants who accepted the bills often recognized them as art and would give him change as if they were real money. The merchants would then sell the "Boggs Bill" to collectors for significantly more than its face value. >Boggs' work attracted the attention of the U.S. Secret Service, which was concerned with the legality of his art, given its resemblance to counterfeit currency. He was investigated multiple times but was never convicted of any crime because he never attempted to pass his work as real currency. Instead, he always made it clear that the bills were his own artistic creations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._S._G._Boggs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._S._G._Boggs >Boggs viewed his "transactions" as a type of performance art, but the authorities often viewed them with suspicion. Boggs aimed to have his audience question and investigate just what it is that makes "money" valuable in the first place. He steadfastly denied being a counterfeiter or forger, rather maintaining that a good-faith transaction between informed parties is certainly not fraud, even if the item transacted happens to resemble negotiable currency. >Boggs was first arrested for counterfeiting in England in 1986,[20] and was successfully defended by the human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson QC & Mark Stephens and acquitted.[21] As detailed in Geoffrey Robertson's book The Justice Game, all Bank of England notes now carry a copyright message on the face as a direct result of Boggs' activities, the idea being that if they cannot secure a counterfeiting charge, then they can at least secure a copyright violation.[22] In 1989, one of the original £5 "bank notes" from the trial was included in the British Museum exhibition Fake? The Art of Deception;[23] this item was added to the British Museum's permanent collection the following year, via donation by the artist himself. In 2022, this drawing went on public display in the British Museum's room 68 (the "Money Gallery") alongside one of Banksy's "Di-faced tenner"[24] £10 notes.[25] >He was arrested for a second time in Australia in 1989, acquitted and awarded the equivalent of US$20,000 in damages by the presiding judge.[2][26] >Boggs' home was raided three times between 1990 and 1992 by the United States Secret Service on suspicion of counterfeiting.[27] In the raids 1300 items were confiscated, although no legal case was brought against him.[28][29]
- ChrisMarshallNY 2y agoI love El Reg, and have really appreciated that it has aged gracefully, unlike most of its contemporaries. The staff are really knowledgable, and that isn't always apparent, from their casual approach. I learn a lot from that redtop. His story is pretty much classic. The Inquirer was also quite enjoyable. I like that Simon Travaglia is still penning his BOFH series. I have followed him since the 1980s.
- guardiangod 2y agoI've been reading his drivels (in a good way) since the 90s. God speed "Mad" Mike Magee. Supposingly he was friend with the current CEO of Intel, Pat Gelsinger. In the 90s during a meeting with Intel staff, Magee asked a very uncomfortable question and Gelsinger, then an engineer at Intel, kicked him under the table to stop him. Since then whenever Mike reported news on Gelsinger he would write his name as "Kicking" Pat Gelsinger. Magee also started Charlie Demerjian's career by hiring him as a freelancer at The Inquirer. Demerjian then made a name for himself by being a very accurate pain in the ass for Intel and Nvidia for years to come.
- wslh 2y agoI just look at Charlie posts and (re)discovered this "AMD's Zen 5 is a missed opportunity in messaging" [1]. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41290792 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41290792
- enos_feedler 2y agoI remember meeting Charlie in 2009 at Nvidias GPU conference in downtown San Jose when I was working for NV at the time. It was me, Jensen and Charlie. I remember Jensen putting his arm around Charlie and pointing at him and making some jokes about what a pain in the ass he was. Thats all I remember, unfortunately. I quit drinking since then. At the time, Charlie was the celebrity not Jensen. I grew up reading the inquirer and saw Charlie's name attached to everything I read. Mike Magee created something that launched my entire career trajectory and gave a voice to a subject that I was so passionate about with no one around me to share it with. RIP
- rbanffy 2y agoSomeone must tell Mr Magee this was definitely not funny.
- paul7986 2y agoUp voted and thanks for covering my horror story of being invited to meet Google while along side MIT student's meeting the same R&D team at Google. If they or any tech company invites you to demo demand money upfront or don't go if you are solo inventor (if you are bro(ed) up in Silicon Valley then you might be fine yet the MIT student had connections and...). https://www.theregister.com/2018/11/30/google_stole_my_patent/ https://www.theregister.com/2018/11/30/google_stole_my_paten...
- hinkley 2y agoOld title made a lot more sense.
- n1b0m 2y agoThe entire article seems to be copy and pasted from Mike Mageek’s Wikipedia entry
- casenmgreen 2y agoI had a slightly poor experience with El Reg. I had a bit of a story about AWS. I contacted them. There was some interest. I finished the write up (I was investigating an AWS service) and emailed it to the journalist. We'd had a fair bit of email exchange up to that point. Never heard back - at all. Not a peep. I waited two weeks, just for him to reply, then gave up on it and published. I later emailed an editor at El Reg about this, no reply also. Obviously, what El Reg publish or do not publish is completely up to them and I have no issues whatsoever with whether they are interested or not - the only issue here is the silent treatment. Not a big deal at all, but let a faintly bad taste in my mouth. I kinda stopped reading in the end after that. A friend pointed out El Reg run paid infomercial articles from AWS about the very service I investigated, but I have no idea what actually happened.
- mapt 2y agoThe man who learned basically everything about the technology industry that they didn't want us to know yet in bars outside of tech conventions, and then shared it with us in the very best traditions of tabloid media (which has mostly awful traditions). Spawned his own successor to the Register at The Inquirer and trained writers for an entire genre of spinoff platforms like Fuad Abazovic (Fudzilla) and Charlie Demerjian (SemiAccurate). Dr Thomas Stewart Von Drashek will be organizing the funeral.
- wyck 2y agoThe shop didn't last long and only published 2 book, it's now an dentists shop. More info here about the shop and other Page strangeness, including the shop's logo. https://ledzepnews.com/2024/02/21/the-history-of-jimmy-pages-equinox-occult-bookshop/ https://ledzepnews.com/2024/02/21/the-history-of-jimmy-pages...
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- zeristor 2y agoWas his name Mike Magee, or Mike Mageek? I wasn't confused before, but I am now.
- leashless 2y agoI knew him a little in his capacity as a mad Hindu cultist. He was mad, Hindu, and a cultist. https://shivashakti.com https://shivashakti.com is where you can find that aspect of his work.
- byyoung3 2y agoat first i thought this was logan paul's friend