One of the perks of being in the computer industry is that sometimes you get free stuff. It is no different in many other businesses. When I sold cell phones, I got free stuff related to that ecosystem. When I was selling high end stereo and video, things were really cool, both because I could get multi-thousand dollar stuff that was state of the art for 50% of retail, and I could afford to pay the 50% of retail to get it.

That was years ago, before my 2 beautiful children, that I would not trade for anything less than a pair of Infinity Reference Standard III speakers. (just kidding)

What is really annoying is when you can’t get what you want at any price. This is sad, because I just started receiving a free subscription to PC Magazine. I should be happy. It is still a decent read, mostly because of John Dvorak. It is however, a mere shell of what it used to be. The magazine is much smaller than it used to be, and much less useful to me, as I don’t have the same need for the information I once had as a novice. When it comes to digital anything that doesn’t explicitly have connection to computing [digital cameras, iPods, etc.], I really couldn’t care less. The reviews that are done on televisions leave me cold, as the ideas of what is important to them is of little import to me.

What I need is a magazine for computer people, knowledgeable, but wanting to learn even more, not necessarily programming, but a little of that not being bad….a magazine like Byte.

Unfortunately, Byte is no longer. I can no longer read about what is happening at Chaos Manor, and Jerry Pournelle. Stories covering the inner workings of IBM are not covered, perhaps they are less than relevant to most. Many things are found on the internet in snippets, but nothing that congeals it all into something really satisfying to read. The sad fact is that there is no magazine today that assumes the space left by Byte.

Can you feel my pain? Does anyone else miss Byte?

Tags: byte magazine, chaos manor, dr. jerry pournelle, pc magazine, john dvorak