
Ask HN: What magazines do you subscribe to? - rottencupcakes
Be sure to explain why you subscribe to each magazine, and if you recommend it or not!
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HeyLaughingBoy
These are pretty much all trade rags, so recommendation is based on if you are
into the field or not. As an EE/software guy I have a wide range of technical
interests.

Electronic Design: new developments in electronic components and circuits.
Been a subscriber for 15+ years.

Machine Design: new tech & tutorials on older mechanical engineering
technology. I think it's better than Design News :-)

Embedded Systems Design: the once-thick canon gone skinny. Good, but the
website is better.

Communications of the ACM: automatically get it as an ACM member.

The above I've subscribed to for 10+ years!

IVD Technology: Covers In-Vitro Diagnostic medical instruments: my industry.
The only trade journal in this specific field I know of, so I guess I have to
recommend it.

Military Embedded Systems: it's a fun read sometimes, but mostly just a PR
vehicle for various manufacturers.

LED Journal: the latest in LED & lighting technology. Good for keeping up to
date on the field.

We used to get Smithsonian and probably should renew. Of all the magazines
I've subscribed to over the years, that was probably the best.

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epall
I really enjoy IEEE Spectrum, although it's not worth the price of
professional membership to me now that I'm losing my student status. It's
pretty deeply technical, but not way off into academic land, and it gives me a
great read on where the EE industry is at. Things like crazy new semiconductor
technologies or batteries that will enable whole new categories of electronics
show up in Spectrum all the time. The future of technology is notoriously hard
to predict, but Spectrum at least provides an overview of what might be
coming.

The best part? It's available online: <http://spectrum.ieee.org/>

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projectileboy
* The Economist - Editorialized news for adults

* The New Yorker - Amusing and often interesting

* Make - Fantastic projects; worth every penny

* History of Invention and Technology - Really entertaining maker stories, from the recent and distant past

~~~
brandon
I want to second Make magazine. Even if you don't _do_ anything in the zine,
the reading is great.

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yan
My list is pretty small:

* The Economist - great bathroom reading, good analysis of issues.

* Scientific American's Mind - I love reading about neuroscience and psychology experiments

* Rolling Stone - I bought tickets to a concert once and they started sending it to me for free. Eh sometimes interesting.

* Rock and Ice

* Climbing - I climb, so they are relevant.

~~~
bmj
Rock and Ice and Climbing have gone downhill (I've been reading them since the
early 90s). Alpinist (<http://www.alpinist.com/> is a far better journal,
though it is likely twice as expensive as both R&I and Climbing put together.

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yan
I agree, Climbing has been getting more noticeably worse than R&I, but my
coworker gets em every month so I have a subscription by proxy.

I subscribe to the Alpinist Newswires RSS and do check it out online
occasionally. I'm preparing to do the regular northwest face of half dome this
August (first big wall), it's just one of the places I've been looking for
inspiration.

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aaronbrethorst
Just like everyone else, I subscribe to The Economist for all of the reasons
elucidated in far greater detail elsewhere.

Unlike everyone else on the thread so far, I also subscribe to GQ because a)
the articles are periodically interesting and have nothing to do with
technology, b) just because I write software for a living doesn't mean I can't
wear Diesel or Marc Jacobs (and GQ helps me stay on top of such things).

I used to subscribe to JPG Magazine, but never re-renewed after they stopped
publishing for a few months.

~~~
lucasvo
Same combination here. The Economist is without doubt one of the most
interesting magazines and even though I usually agree very much with them,
it's not boring at all. Big plus: they have podcasts (word for word read by a
professional speaker).

GQ has quite a few interesting articles which are usually burried deep within
the magazine between a lot of ads. But I usually enjoy looking at the ads too.
It's a change from my day to day stuff.

I also enjoy reading national geographic but I haven't renewed my subscription
because they don't focus enough on technology.

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wallflower
eWeek / Had to lie about my corporate title but its been covering business and
technology well for decades <http://eweek.com>

Design News / the best engineering magazine I read - mechanical, product
engineering focus / <http://designnews.com> (free, I qualified)

Technology Review / let my subscription lapse but excellent MIT-written
periodical on technology in the labs

~~~
joe_bleau
If you like Design News, consider "Machine Design" as well. Very similar. so
you'll probably qualify for it as well.

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mooders
The Economist - required reading for global economic news and opinion.

Prospect - Excellent array of current affairs articles, all of which are
thought-provoking.

Private Eye - Long-standing satirical magazine aimed squarely at the UK
establishment.

Wired - Seemed a good idea at the time, not sure how much value I get from it.
Probably won't renew next year.

New Scientist - interesting read for an armchair science geek, but even I'm
wondering if it is dumbing-down ever so slightly these days. 50/50 chance of
renewing next year.

I also get regular access to Harvard Business Review as a business school
alumnus, which is always worth a read, even if it is just a reminder as to why
I took my MBA and said goodbye to corporate life :)

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Daemmerung
Yet another Economist subscriber here, for international affairs.

American Scientist, for science written for generalists. Bimonthly, so I'm not
drowning in unread back issues (ever tried staying abreast of Nature?). To my
eye, less sensational than New Scientist, and less editorializing than
Scientific American. Worth it for the columns by Henry Petroski and Brian Rice
even if you read nothing else.

Reason, for American libertarian political trash talk. I maintain the
subscription only because my not-exactly-libertarian wife enjoys it. Domestic
front propaganda, if you will.

If all three were taken from me, I would miss American Scientist very much.
Highly recommended.

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sgoraya
Harvard Business Review - Worth every penny; Great articles and case studies
from a large variety of business types. There are always a few take away
nuggets from each issue.

Scientific American - Been subscribing for years; Although the content seems
to have diluted a bit over time, I still enjoy it, especially the armchair
astrophysicist in me ;-)

Game Developer Magazine - No longer in the field but its one of my favorite
magazines ever - the project postmortems and technical articles are wonderful.

My subscription to the Economist recently expired - did not renew since I had
a lot of back issues piling up.

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joshfinnie
The New Yorker (One of the only magazines I find that has to be read in person
and not online)

Should subscribe to The Economist too, but being a student 1) I can't afford
it and 2) there is too much to read in a weekly magizine of that status! The
Economist is one of the most real news sources out there. I highly recommend
getting a subscription if you can afford it.

And interesting note: my subscription to Wired just expired after something
like 10 years (since I was 16). I just couldn't stand it any more!

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tokenadult
The Economist,

<http://www.economist.com/>

because it has the best international news reporting in an English-language
weekly. I recommend it to everyone. When I get each new issue, the first thing
I read is the obituary at the very back of the editorial content. That is
always amazingly well written, and frequently about very interesting people I
have never heard of.

Skeptic,

<http://www.skeptic.com/>

to learn more about a skeptical approach to life. The included Junior Skeptic
section is very good for children to read, and the magazine has very
interesting book reviews (and, for that matter, advertisements for books), so
I recommend Skeptic also.

Skeptical Inquirer,

<http://www.csicop.org/si/>

as another interesting magazine about a skeptical approach to life. I find
Skeptic more informative and entertaining, on the whole, but I think Skeptical
Inquirer has some editorial points of view that are more warranted than some
of the points of view of the Skeptic editorial board.

After edit: I also very much like the Atlantic, but the call of the question
is what I subscribe to, and the Atlantic and the Wall Street Journal and the
New Yorker and other worthwhile periodicals are available at the public
library that I walk to almost daily. I read those there.

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gamerates
Well, the key is to order all of your magazines online so that they cost next
to nothing.

New Yorker: Have for years, love the urban feel and the mix of arts & politics
and 10,000+ word articles on very strange things. Most importantly, great
writing and a great fact checking department.

The Economist: To the point, global, compact, and great writing and reporting.
Plus the student rate isn't that expensive. It combines well with my
Washington Post and WSJ daily subs.

City Journal: It's Quarterly, but is sort of like a more conservative free
market New Yorker. Great articles with a different slant.

Atlantic Monthly: I read a lot of the articles online, and read a lot of
Andrew Sullivan, so decided to support the magazine and pick it up in print as
well (got 2 years for under $10 online)

GQ: For the pictures and ads, although British GQ is better it's just too
expensive in the states. Personal interest in style/fashion/design.

Forbes: I let expire after they wrote an article titled "Love Global Warming"
(<http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2006/1225/038.html>) written by the head of
what is more or less an ExxonMobile thinktank. It was just too much for me.

Wired: Because it was free

Used to subscribe to Maximum PC (great magazine) when I use to tinker with
computers more.

Magazines I'm looking at subscribing to:

HBS: For upcoming mgmt consulting job

Urban Land Institute: Due to a growing interest in commercial development,
architecture, and urban planing

Probably a magazine on design/architecture... haven't decided what yet.

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ilamont
Don't subscribe to any magazines anymore. No time to read them.

But Wired still sends me free copies, which usually sit unread next to the
couch until I take a flight somewhere and need reading material. I also get
two alumni magazines which serve the same purpose.

Used to subscribe to Archaeology, Fine Cooking, Scientific American, Discover.

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nishantmodak
None. I get all I need from blogs.

At times, just read them while travelling - but after having the iPhone - that
also has stopped.

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JimmyL
* Harpers and The Atlantic - great plane reading

* Defence Technology International - interesting to see what is new in defence technology, subscription is free

* Bloomberg Markets - semi-technical stuff on finance, as well as solid general-interest news (I pick it up for free now and then from the local Bloomberg office)

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cmelbye
\- Technology Review for its coverage of the cutting edge in scientific and
technological advancements. \- WIRED for the gadget lover in me, and they have
really interesting articles about anything from vaccines to psychology. \-
Mac|life for the Apple fanboy in me ;-)

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apgwoz
GOOD (<http://good.is>) is the only one currently. It's bi-monthly so it's
easier to get a chance to read it. It's pretty good, but I bet just reading
their website daily would be better.

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mrduncan
Inc and Fast Company at the moment. They are usually a mixed bag of good and
not so good. For the price though ($12/year) they're tough to beat for decent
on-the-go reading.

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cloudkj
I don't subscribe to any, but the ones I read (either in online or print form
via other subscribers) are The Economist (global news, finance, business),
Technology Review (published by MIT; awesome tech insight), and Wired (just
for fun).

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Tawheed
INC Magazine

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jbrun
Lapham's Quarterly - A collection of essays from across the ages on issues
(religion, money, war, medecine...). Really helps you gain perspective.

<http://www.laphamsquarterly.org/>

------
warp
Edge Magazine, one of very few videogame magazines worth reading.

Zone 5300, dutch magazine consisting of small-press comics and loosely related
articles.

(oh, I don't actually subscribe to Edge, I just consistently buy it every
month)

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paulreiners
The New Yorker: Has very interesting articles and criticism. I recommend it.

Chess Life: Am a USCF member, so I get it automatically.

Computer Music: The best articles on creating electronic music. I highly
recommend it.

~~~
metajack
I wish computer music wasn't so expensive in the US. It's over $100/yr to
subscribe from here.

------
johnl
Economist Businessweek Fortune Wired Business 2.0 Inc Fast Company Scientific
American SFO Golf magazine Golf Digest Technology Review

Ranked in no order.

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andrewcooke
only one - csie (computing in science + engineering). it's a great, if
obscure, little magazine that focuses exactly on the kind of work i do (random
scientific consulting).

<http://www.computer.org/portal/web/cise>

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michaelaiello
* The economist: Technology quarterly, weekly news update page, analysis instead of opinion

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antpicnic
Fine Homebuilding

WoodenBoat

I like to keep the back issues.

Everything else I either read online or get from the library.

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spooneybarger
economist

\+ my acm membership comes with their magazine.

everything else i get online.

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joe_bleau
Circuit Cellar Ink. Strongly recommended.

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viggity
I'm a gigantic fan of Forbes

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rmason
Forbes, Inc, Wired and WHIR

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dantheman
* Reason

* Make

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vorobei
The New Yorker

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rwhitman
"Magazines"? What's that?

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siculars
national geographic adventure

triathlete

bicycling

time out new york

the economist

the new yorker

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dnsworks
The Economist, because I find their content fascinating, editorial integrity
to be second to no other mainstream magazine. They even admitted their mistake
for backing Bush over Gore. Plus it's fun to read all of those stodgy old
Economists' write-in letters. Better than daytime television!

