I get the feeling that this forum is becoming a testing ground for AI..

appiah4 wrote:

I get the feeling that this forum is becoming a testing ground for AI..

It is, oh bother! Erm, can anyone point me in the direction of a Turing Test crib sheet? Just asking for a friend (honest).

The computer market is so much broader than it used to be, that a magazine focusing only on traditional desktops and laptops would have to be specifically designated for that purpose. "Traditional Desktops and Laptops Magazine (TM)" or something.

But I swear I've seen magazines that do this.

Maybe you meant "personal computers", because the "computer" you speak of is merely only one type of computer. Those tiny ARM CPUs that run tablets/IoT devices/smart-fridges/etc are no different in their basic function (solve mathematical equations accurately at high speed; e.g. "compute" stuff) than the mostly x86-architecture chips that power our PCs. For that reason, all of those non-PCs that nonetheless contain a CPU ought to be fair game for a "computer magazine".

Not that I read such magazines anymore, but these are just my thoughts on this.

right! Traditional / Personal Computers.

Thanks for your perspectives guys

people still buy magazines?
Some of you guys are truly retro indeed!

chinny22 wrote:

people still buy magazines?
Some of you guys are truly retro indeed!

u kidding man? The thrill of browsing awaited next issue of the magazine was priceless. An extinct beast

Ahh magazines.. sometimes i page through the few 1993-1994 era pc mags i have a copy of. Great ads.

If I saw a fridge ad in a computer magazine that wasn't part of a CPU cooler I would through it out or burn it. Thankfully I never have.

doaks80 wrote:

If I saw a fridge ad in a computer magazine that wasn't part of a CPU cooler I would through it out or burn it. Thankfully I never have.

But you did already!!! Just open any "computer" (e)Magazine and you'll find plenty of pages advertising (or reviewing) plenty of pseudo-"refrigerators"-with-computers-inside, where for 'pseudo-"refrigerators"' I mean anything that is not really a computer, but that ended up in the magazine just because it has a computer inside. Few examples:

• Wrist watches: they're not computers. They're wrist watches. With computers inside.
• Smartphones: they're not computers. They're phones which, thanks to the computer they have inside, they're kind of smart.
• iPods: they're not computers. They're music players, kind of like the old days cassette-tape players. With computers inside now.
• Kindle: it's not a computer. It's a book. With a computer inside.
• Wrist fitness trackers: man I hate those!

BeginnerGuy wrote:

Ahh magazines.. sometimes i page through the few 1993-1994 era pc mags i have a copy of. Great ads.

Exactly!!! Oh man, 1993-1994 is perfect!
The only copies I could find from sellers were from 1995.

aries-mu wrote:

But you did already!!! Just open any "computer" (e)Magazine and you'll find plenty of pages advertising (or reviewing) plenty of […]
Show full quote

But you did already!!! Just open any "computer" (e)Magazine and you'll find plenty of pages advertising (or reviewing) plenty of pseudo-"refrigerators"-with-computers-inside, where for 'pseudo-"refrigerators"' I mean anything that is not really a computer, but that ended up in the magazine just because it has a computer inside. Few examples:

• Wrist watches: they're not computers. They're wrist watches. With computers inside.
• Smartphones: they're not computers. They're phones which, thanks to the computer they have inside, they're kind of smart.
• iPods: they're not computers. They're music players, kind of like the old days cassette-tape players. With computers inside now.
• Kindle: it's not a computer. It's a book. With a computer inside.
• Wrist fitness trackers: man I hate those!

All my computers magazine are from the early to mid-late 90s and I can surely say I have never seen any of the above in any of them.

doaks80 wrote:

aries-mu wrote:

But you did already!!! Just open any "computer" (e)Magazine and you'll find plenty of pages advertising (or reviewing) plenty of […]
Show full quote

But you did already!!! Just open any "computer" (e)Magazine and you'll find plenty of pages advertising (or reviewing) plenty of pseudo-"refrigerators"-with-computers-inside, where for 'pseudo-"refrigerators"' I mean anything that is not really a computer, but that ended up in the magazine just because it has a computer inside. Few examples:

• Wrist watches: they're not computers. They're wrist watches. With computers inside.
• Smartphones: they're not computers. They're phones which, thanks to the computer they have inside, they're kind of smart.
• iPods: they're not computers. They're music players, kind of like the old days cassette-tape players. With computers inside now.
• Kindle: it's not a computer. It's a book. With a computer inside.
• Wrist fitness trackers: man I hate those!

All my computers magazine are from the early to mid-late 90s and I can surely say I have never seen any of the above in any of them.

Exactly! When computer magazines were computer magazines

For a while computer magazines were the only place to see what new gear was out and get some slightly unbiased reviews of the hardware and software.

Some of the very early Windows benchmarking software came from magazines (PC magazine Winstone, Winbench).

A lot of mainstream computer mags in the 90s were mostly "buy falcon mach v dont play outdated 2d games", at least the ones from ZD anyway.

I like food. Food is good.

heh falcon... remember seeing those falcon northwest ads all the time

thanks guys!

Unknown_K wrote on 2019-01-22, 23:07:

For a while computer magazines were the only place to see what new gear was out and get some slightly unbiased reviews of the hardware and software.

Some of the very early Windows benchmarking software came from magazines (PC magazine Winstone, Winbench).

Yeah, in the "news" or "what's new" or "what's coming" or something like that section. A few pages-long section in a whole magazine of hundreds of pages dedicated to real computer things. Now it's the other way around. If you can still find a computer magazine, it'll be mostly weird toys and stuff, and a little bit "computers".

I think what has kind of happened is Computer Magazines are trying to legitimize their purpose by twisting the "branding" a little bit. "Hey, it's got a computer in it, let's write about it". Because nobody wants to hear about a pile of frighteningly similar PCs or the brand new yet-same-old Apple only 1/4 of the population can truly afford.

In the old days, because of broken barriers...the 640K Barrier, the 32-bit barrier, the 528MB HDD Barrier......getting actual full motion video on a PC with synced up and not-ear-raping quality sound...there was always some new exciting thing whether it was 3D shutter glasses or a laptop with a pen and touch screen that could be flipped over into a Tablet.