http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/5543
"There’s no way for me to know where your awareness starts with all this, so
let’s just start at the beginning.
Computer Shopper was a hell of a magazine. I wrote a whole essay about it,
which can be summarized as “this magazine got to be very large, very extensive,
and probably served as the unofficial ‘bible’ of the state of hardware and
software to the general public throughout the 1980s and 1990s.” While it was
just a pleasant little computer tabloid when it started in 1979, it quickly
grew to a page count that most reasonable people would define as
“intimidating”.
In a world that saw hundreds of magazines and thousands of newsletters come and
go about technology and computer-related subjects,
Computer Shopper was its
own thing entirely. Not only thick as a brick, but clearly opened to anyone who
waved cash and covering vendors who were selling computer components down to
the individual part level. You might have a good set of ads in
PC Magazine
but to browse over price lists of capacitors, power supplies and wiring, the
massive monthly
Computer Shopper issue was going to be your go-to.
There were two other aspects to
Computer Shopper that has given it a halo of
intrigue and positive memory: First, the paper was incredibly cheap, newspaper
tabloid level by some eyes. This seeming disposability infers a weird sort of
honesty about the advertising contents – it is what it is, it represents what
the actual pricing is, and what’s actually available. The lack of pure
slickness in the printing process was a baggage of “look, I’m lucky if we
survive another month and this is the straight up price we’re offering” across
the many hundreds of ads in a given issue."
Via Esther Schindler, who wrote "Oh my. Shopper was my first home."
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
