Good-Bye Computer Shopper

Computer Shopper

I can still remember those catalog size copies each month, and I bought lots of things from them. I hadn't read it for years, since I have moved on from that kind of reading. I actually don't read any computer magazines from cover to cover and haven't for years. There is so much information on the Internet that spending a lot of time in a magazine like Computer Shopper seems to be a waste of my time today. Glad that it was there at the time, but don't think that any magazine no matter the content will rise to those heights again today.

At the end of the day

For over half a millennium, print media has held sway for information dissemination. Low cost and portability were key factors in the medium's dominance.

Today, a different landscape both in the nature of information and its forms of dissemination has altered the equation. Much more of the data pie is ephemeral information, a data form that ill-justifies the impacts and expenses of traditional publishing, given today's alternatives.

Newsprint paper has been the medium for ephemeral information for well over a century. Do you think it coincidence that the publications which, by nature of the information they published, once used newsprint are the first to succumb to the brave, new e-world?

Going small was a mistake.

When I was a teenager I bought every issue of Computer Shopper and would poor through it finding out everything I could and finding every odd device or bit of software advertised inside. It was great and provided hours of reading material and a chance to buy things that would never appear in my local PC store.

When they dropped it down to a normal size mag I never once bought an issue. The few I looked at were a huge disappointment. They might as well be online only because they've been worthless since that time anyway.

As a pretty advanced geek I have to say I'm very disappointed in computer magazines today. To get anything interesting you have to pick up one of the few good remaining electronics magazines. Even Dr. Dobbs is gone now. The last remaining PC mag I care about is Make. Why do we need 50 PC mags that all give you nothing but tips on how to remove your spyware? Pure crap. I've gone from having about 10 subscribed geek mags to just Make.

Heavy

I was a letter carrier (mailman) back in the early days when it was a huge piece of mail. Only because I was a geek myself and would read them before delivery that I didn't mind the weight.

End of an Era

I was a Shopper Reader since the skinny stapled newsprint days. It was more than a magazine in those days, it was the transition from S100 and CPM to the IBM clones which was a big part of why people bought the shopper. In those days you could still add things and expiriment with a board and chips and wirewrap and the whole thing was simple enough to understand completely.
With DOS you got the whole BIOS listing and had the information to do whatever you wanted to do. A large proportion of the early adopters were the kind of folks who played with hardware and assemblers. Efficiency was important and you had programs like WordStar that did amazing things with a few K of fast code that fit on a low density floppy. Now, you are lucky to be able to cram a word processor on a CD of 700 some odd megabytes. And it runs slow on a machine with hundreds of times more power.
A PC is pretty much an appliance now, and users may never even think about what goes on inside. And it's a far more complicated beastie which will require serious engineering skills to understand. Those are the same reasons the Shopper faded, A PC is not an end in itself to be marveled at, it's just something to run horribly bloated inefficient software on, a black box. So why mess with all the details.
But for a generation of users, it was a tremendous learning tool and vehicle to the cutting edge. Tracking those users would reveal the people behind many wonders, so where is the next generation going to come from? Facebook experts?

Regards

cww

All the best Shopper

Well, I don't think Computer Shopper saved my life directly but indirectly it kept my sanity intact as an expat working in Saudi Arabia (late 80's to mid 90's) where boredom is your enemy.

I would patiently wait for Computer Shopper to arrive at the newsstands every month and spend a couple of days reading and re-reading the catalogs and articles in it... I especially enjoyed Bill's The Hard Edge Columns.

Reading Shopper armed me with info I needed about hardware and software so when I was on vacation in the US I would know what to order... by phone usually from companies advertising in Shopper at the time. I remembered poring over digital scanner comparisons, image editing software shootouts, PC shootouts, etc. Those were the days...

God Speed Computer Shopper!

OH the Day's of the Shopper

I saw my first Computer Shopper in a Doctors office, I picked it up and started reading and from there never looked back.
I still have some of the first issues stored in a building and I do not know why.

But in all these many many years I have to look back and say that Computer Shopper put me on my way of computers. I have been building and designing High End gaming machines from that first month of Reading.
I do not think many people really know how much that mag influenced the computer industry.
I know it did me, and I am going to be sorry to see it go. One thing I remember is that when they down sized the shopper it just did not seem like the same mag. I wondered how much longer it would take before the mag went online only .
I have to say thanks to all that made the mag what it was.

You sure made a big change in my life that is for sure! I would not be where I am today if it was not for you and the Computer Shopper!

Goodbye Shopper

Well, I must say I've been reading your articles for some time now. I've even had an occasional email exchange with you, not in the past couple of years, but it has happened.

With that in mind, I thought I would share with you the story of how the shopper saved my life. You see, I was born into a computing family. My father worked for Burroughs as a field engineer fixing big iron at places like the post office and various government and manufacturing places. I always had my hands in IT, cars, and hunting. The latter was almost required growing up in South Texas. After a stint in the US Navy, I returned home and started going to school. When on break from school, I worked a ranch an hour south of San Antonio. Out there, there were no computers or telephones. I wasn't rolling in dough either. Being the year of 1990, cell phones were expensive and out of my price range. I don't think there was a cell tower out there at that time anyway. Hell, the 1500 acres I took care of only had a one room cabin and an outhouse.

On this particular outing, I was there for a solid week. I had cut my hand and was bleeding. It was bad enough that I decided I had better go the emergency room, which was miles away, so I wrapped my hand and went to my car. Luck was against me that day as not only had I cut my hand but I also had a flat tire. That part of S. Texas is covered with red sandy loam and when I began jacking up the car, the jack would sink into it, never lifting the cars flat tire off the ground so the spare could be installed. I tried several things to keep the jack from sinking, but none would work. I was seriously considering starting up the old tractor and using it to get where I had to go but it was an old ford tractor not capable of any speed. Just then, I noticed the copy of the shopper in the trunk. I had put it in there so I would have something to read while in the "little" house (and yes, I mean the outhouse). As it turns out, the shopper is a great tool to help keep the jack of an old jack for an old car sinking in the sandy loam of S. Texas.

I was able to make it to the hospital that fateful day and received 15 stitches. To this day, there's a copy of shopper in the back of my suburban.