63
votes
Accepted
What is the origin of this bizarre advert of people wearing swimsuits in a room with computer hardware?
It's advertising computer room air conditioning.
No doubt appeared in some late 1970's or early 1980's US-based computer magazine. But exactly which one I couldn't find based on a little bit of ...
- 7,831
37
votes
How is it possible that they used to type "Mb" when they meant "MB" in printed computer magazines in the 1990s?
Was not the "B = byte, b = bit" standard established even back in the day, in the 1970s/early 1980s?
Not really. It existed (I think at least as far back as 1979's JEP100, but I don't have good ...
- 5,161
31
votes
Accepted
BYTE Magazine outside the U.S
BYTE was distributed internationally, and it had an international supplement (printed inside the magazine, same as the US regional supplements), at least in the late 80s and early 90s; that was the ...
- 131k
28
votes
Is there any hard data about type-in programs in the 80s?
I don't know if there exists definitive proof how many people typed in these listings. Anecdotally, I spent many an afternoon typing them in, and even teamed up with a school friend (he types 20 ...
- 3,772
26
votes
What was the legal arrangement between author, publisher and end user for 'type-in programs' in old computer magazines?
[Preface: This focuses solely on the legal situation at the magazine buyers side, as any contract between author and publisher will not only include the right to produce multiple copies - that is the ...
- 236k
24
votes
What was the legal arrangement between author, publisher and end user for 'type-in programs' in old computer magazines?
I wrote both type-ins and reviews for Europress, also known as Database Publications Ltd. Everything I wrote for them was under an “all rights” agreement. Every month I received a statement with a ...
- 22k
22
votes
Accepted
Early 1982 PCW article about pseudo random dungeon mapping
It turns out that the magazine was, in fact, Practical Compµting (and not PCW), the issue was March 1982, and on page 93:
Listing 1:
10 INPUT X
20 C = COS(X)
30 C = C*100
40 C = ABS(C)
50 C = C - INT(...
- 4,500
19
votes
Accepted
Which was the first magazine presented in electronic form, on a data medium, to be read on a computer?
The oldest magazine of that kind I know might be CURSOR for the Commodore PET. Its first issue is dated July 1978. It was as well the most bare-bones delivery I know. Just the cassette, no box, ...
- 236k
17
votes
What was the legal arrangement between author, publisher and end user for 'type-in programs' in old computer magazines?
It's been just over 40 years, but I think Personal Computer World (a UK-based magazine) bought publishing rights to an article I placed with them, which included a type-in listing, as well as diagrams ...
- 14.2k
14
votes
BYTE Magazine outside the U.S
In Czechoslovakia, the equivalent was Bajt (Czech and Slovak orthography of the word /bait/; at that time, both "bajt" and "byte" spellings were in use). Established in 1990, it ...
- 5,063
13
votes
Where can I donate my old Computer Shopper Magazines to make sure they get scanned and shared?
My writing career began in 1992 in Computer Shopper (in an article about using user groups for tech support), and I have a huge fondness for the magazine. I was also one of the sysops on the ZNT:...
- 131
11
votes
Where can I read the article from Personal Computer World, Nov 1978, which introduced the 8th Rugg/Feldman test program?
I have a full collection of 1978 and 1979 PCW magazines.
The Benchmark Tests are documented in Vol. 1 No. 1 under the article "Direct Addressing: Where to get your Personal computer". The ...
- 111
10
votes
BYTE Magazine outside the U.S
[This is mostly about Germany/German speaking countries]
I have never personally seen a localized issue of BYTE magazine,
There wasn't one, AFAIR.
Was BYTE widely distributed in Europe or Asia at ...
- 236k
10
votes
Which was the first magazine presented in electronic form, on a data medium, to be read on a computer?
Just to have a starting point, per https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Softdisk_(disk_magazine), Softdisk was first issued September 1981.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_disk_magazines seems to ...
- 1,099
10
votes
What is the origin of this bizarre advert of people wearing swimsuits in a room with computer hardware?
I see DATAC on the advert. On googling I found the following:
Since 1977, the DTAC commitment to the customer, a quality heavy equipment air conditioning product and specialized service has helped us ...
- 101
10
votes
What was the legal arrangement between author, publisher and end user for 'type-in programs' in old computer magazines?
When my project was accepted by a magazine, I was told it would be published under a "first British serial rights" agreement, but I had no idea what that was.
Nowadays, a quick Internet ...
- 201
9
votes
Is there any use for PC Magazine issues from the 1990s?
The issues you have are most likely neither rare nor valuable. But they could be, given the right collector. A simple approach is to offer the lot in an eBay auction starting at $1. Most of these ...
- 61.5k
9
votes
BYTE Magazine outside the U.S
ASUS had issued 《0與1科技》雜誌 (literally 0 & 1 technology) since 1981 in Taiwan which was subtitled as BYTE 中文版 (literally BYTE Mandarin Version). Further relationship is unclear. Its website http://...
- 3,794
9
votes
BYTE Magazine outside the U.S
Hungary had a local variant (BYTE Magyarország, meaning BYTE Hungary) that was a locally edited monthly publication. As far as I can remember, it was compiled from translated articles of various ...
- 191
8
votes
Accepted
Where can I read the article from Personal Computer World, Nov 1978, which introduced the 8th Rugg/Feldman test program?
No online resource found, but to record for posterity, here are some relevant links:
The Centre for Computing History (Cambridge, UK) has a list of covers and brief summaries of contents. As you note ...
- 1,091
8
votes
How is it possible that they used to type "Mb" when they meant "MB" in printed computer magazines in the 1990s?
Was not the "B = byte, b = bit" standard established even back in the day, in the 1970s/early 1980s?
Sure, it was, but magazines and the like were not only consumer publications, but as well made by ...
- 236k
8
votes
BYTE Magazine outside the U.S
BYTE used to be available at well-sorted newsagents all over Europe (I can confirm UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain at least) starting from the late 80s. I don't really remember a European or ...
- 37k
8
votes
Is there any hard data about type-in programs in the 80s?
Unless someone can present actual data to the contrary, I'd say there is no hard data (as in, actual numbers) on the popularity of the type-in programs.
There is, however, plenty evidence that people ...
- 1,620
8
votes
Is there any hard data about type-in programs in the 80s?
I can only offer anecdotal evidence in the form of a personal experience, but yes; I did type in a lot of those program listings back in the day, on my Commodore 64.
My first encounter with type-in ...
- 2,112
7
votes
Which was the first magazine presented in electronic form, on a data medium, to be read on a computer?
Somewhere around 1980, the Vogon News Service was started.
This was an unofficial daily mailing list within DEC. It was a digest of news items sent in by readers and regular contributors. Its genesis ...
- 38.2k
7
votes
Any source for German Magazine "Computern mit Kindern", single issue, late 1984?
I have a small collection of YPS comic books (also published by Gruner+Jahr) and some recollection of what you're looking for.
And sure enough YPS #473, which according to this database came out in ...
- 481
7
votes
Is there any hard data about type-in programs in the 80s?
The personal anecdotes in answers and comments to this question seem to me to constitute some degree of documentary evidence about the prevalence of program entry from listings in magazines and ...
- 301
6
votes
Accepted
Where can I donate Old Mags and Media in bulk in UK?
We are a computer museum here in the Northwest, we were going to open up in August but unfortunately have had to push it forward because of the Covid. We are looking for magazines to put into our ...
- 76
6
votes
BYTE Magazine outside the U.S
In Milan, Italy, I often bought BYTE at a major bookshop with a good selection of science and technology publications. It was exactly the same US edition, but I have vague recollections of some ...
- 1,540
6
votes
Is there any hard data about type-in programs in the 80s?
Our family bought an Exidy Sorcerer in 1979. Dick Smith Australia had 3 cassette tapes on sale at the time, which were really just simple BASIC games. Unless you went down the expensive route of CP/...
- 61
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