I used to read Byte as a lad. I never had money or knowledge to really do anything since I was alas, just a lad. I had to wait several years to acquire a C-64. From the present article, it occurs to me there was a special kind of hell, if one did have money and time in that era, to fiddle, endlessly, with peripheals and software, never really doing anything. Dr Pournelled wrote some great books (with Niven) so he at least did get some things done despite the distractions.
I miss Byte. I’m a second-gen programmer and in the late 80s and 90s my dad had a subscription to Byte and a few UK computing trade papers. I’d read it cover to cover even if I didn’t really understand most of the contents, but Jerry’s column always stood out against the rest. He seemed to be a natural communicator.
He was, after all, a professional writer. He brought in the perspective of a user who wants to use the computers and, occasionally, needs to program them. He always tried to be a couple years ahead of the market, using stuff that'd be insanely expensive for just about anyone, but that suppliers sent him because being featured in his column was a great sales driver.
Byte was the magazine that had things I dreamed about and pointers to learn about new things. I started reading it in the 80's and lost track sometime in the 90's. It with Antic, Dr. Dobbs Journal, and Creative Computing defined what was computing to me in my jr high and high school years. I don't really think any website has given me the same feelings as those magazines.
Since the 80's I would eagerly wait for monthly releases of Microhobby, Crash, Amiga Format, DDJ, CUJ, Computer Shooper (UK edition), Gamasutra, Linux Journal, MS Systems Journal.
Steve Ciarcia was my big reason for reading Byte. He was an incredibly skilled hardware hacker. I subscribed to Circuit Cellar Magazine after he left Byte. He once built a purpose-built board for calculating and generating fractal images, and you could parallel up the boards to generate the image faster.
Pournelle never did much for me. He spent most of his time rambling about esoteric problems he was having and how he worked around them.
As a disconnected aside, I'm a bit sad my first exposure to Jerry Pournelle was when he was a guest on This Week in Tech podcasts. By the time I picked them up, he certainly was long in years and I felt he rambled more than made coherent points. In prime, he would have been great to hear from every few weeks on technology news.
Oh wow! I had to cringe at the "Why Pay $4000 For A Complete Accounting System" ad. That's probably the worst copy I have seen.
First it rambles on about a very boring history of this company took over that company that licensed this thing that ...
Then just incase you haven't fallen asleep and you still want to buy, they put you off by telling you you'll get bad support and a buggy product.
Then finally past that hurdle, and if anyone is left with their wallet open, thinking of spending their hard earned $100, it inflates the price to $450 because there is some technical dependency on some runtime thingy.
Followed by a full-page ad for a Forth interpreter! Those were the days. I suspect many companies like this could make money for lack of competition, but I dunno, I was 10 years old then.
I occasionally thumb through these old magazines, and I'm always impressed with how many small technology businesses were making niche products and placing these ads in the 80's. What I find more astonishing is how geographically diverse they were. For example, of the 14 ads in this article with addresses, only 3 were from the Bay Area.
It's interesting how free software drove huge advancements. In the early 386 days few people used Unix because a seat license would cost more than the computer.
At first I thought we were attaining a critical mass, when enough free software was available for us to build even more, better free software but now I realize it's more like an exponential curve I can't quite see where it ends.
The side effect of it is that the majority of RAD like tools are only available in enterprise space, because only those companies are willing to pay for developer tools.
Hence why companies like Qt or JetBrains are selective what they allow with their free versions.
Then we get Electron apps, because many devs don't feel like paying for such tools.
Yeah but all the ads were bad until well into the 90s. You'd be happy to thumb through them all, searching for a highlight that you could afford, or a terrible ad for some tape game (pg214), that eventually became MS Flight Sim, or just on the way to the listings!
Back then Peach Tree Software was the package. So getting it for $100 would seem like a steal. The context is lost a bit now so it wasn't as bad as it may first appear. Although still not great.
"And now the news... CompuServe announces the availability of international, national, and regional news through your personal computer or terminal... A 300-baud modem is all your personal computer or terminal needs to access all the services available via local phone calls in more than 175 North American cities from 6 PM to 5 AM weekdays, weekends and most holidays. And the basic charge is only $5.00 an hour, billed in minute increments, to your charge card. Want more information? Write."
But you'll need this: "Put your computer in touch with the world. AJ [Anderson Jacobson] makes it possible for only $185 with the A 242 acoustic data coupler."
Or "A Modem Inside a Telephone. A switched-network, 300 bits-per-second (bps) full-duplex Bell 103/113-compatible modem, housed inside a standard telephone set, is now being produced by Racal-Vadic."
If you weren't into the newfangled "glass teletypes", you could get "The DATA-TRANS 1000. A completely refurbished IBM Selectric Terminal with built-in ASCII Interface. $1495"
The amazing thing about Byte was the amount of cash it generated in ad sales. Ad spaces cost hundreds or thousands of dollars depending on size, and the magazine was packed full of them. In the 80s it was a real cash cow, generating millions a year after printing and distribution costs. Ad revenue only declined when the Internet began to take over in the 90s.
The other amazing thing is how expensive computers were in real terms. You can add a zero to early 1980s prices to get a rough RPI equivalent. Business systems advertised for >$10k on paper cost serious money - and usually offered an 8-bit CPU running at a few MHz, and 64K of RAM for those willing to stretch their budget.
Wow, memories. A TRS-80 was my first computer at age 16 and I still remember upgrading from 4K (K!) to 16k and wondering what I would ever do with all that memory!
What did USR used to sell as well as modems? 300 baud modems mind you, not fancy v.Everything Couriers yet.
Ad for full height floppy drives and 14" hard drives.
Apple III review. X10 home automation project with circuit diagrams. Now, if only X10 had been followed up with a standard into the TCP/IP years... ;)
BASIC Listings at the back. With explanations of the listings.
I miss Byte, oh and Personal Computer World (UK), Amiga Transactor and Dr Dobbs. ...and the terrible ads!
Oh well, feeling old with my morning coffee.