Real (printed on paper) Magazines

[JohnS_AZ]

I wanted to start the year off with a clear desk/bench so I started cleaning and ended up with a fairly substantial pile of tech magazines. Unlike Dave and Chris, some of us still actually read stuff off of paper.    It got me curious. What are your favorite tech reads? Here's what I get every month:

Test & Measurement World
Test Engineering & Management
Compact PCI / TCA Systems
ECN (Electronic Component News)
EDN (Electronic Design news)
Military Embedded Systems
Electronic Products
PC104 - Small Form Factors
Control Engineering
Digital Signage Magazine
NASA Tech Briefs
Defence Tech Briefs
Embedded Computing Design

[EEVblog]

I still get the real paper version of Silicon Chip!
and
IEEE spectrum
Electronics News

Dave.

[David]

I get the IET (Institute of Engineering and Technology) magazine here in the UK and I have to say it does have some really good articles!

[saturation]

Although I do get paper versions of some of these, I don't know since I don't read them, I read the red stuff online.  I haven't bought a paper newspaper in at least a decade.

I also get the IEEE stuff too, members since 1995.

Although the news is mostly interesting, I read it mostly for what's new in components and trends.

Test & Measurement World
Test Engineering & Management
Compact PCI / TCA Systems
ECN (Electronic Component News)
EDN (Electronic Design news)
Military Embedded Systems
Electronic Products
PC104 - Small Form Factors
Control Engineering
Digital Signage Magazine
NASA Tech Briefs
Defence Tech Briefs
Embedded Computing Design

[williefleete]

i like reading some of the old electronics Australia magazines especially the servicemans log etc when i can get my hands on them
if i could i would get the silicon chip magazine

[EEVblog]

i like reading some of the old electronics Australia magazines especially the servicemans log etc when i can get my hands on them
if i could i would get the silicon chip magazine

I went through a serviceman column phase once. I pretty much ignored it for many years and then decided I really liked it and systematically went back through the old archives and read every one of them!

Dave.

[RayJones]

i like reading some of the old electronics Australia magazines especially the servicemans log etc when i can get my hands on them
if i could i would get the silicon chip magazine

I went through a serviceman column phase once. I pretty much ignored it for many years and then decided I really liked it and systematically went back through the old archives and read every one of them!

Dave.

I went through a similar phase with the serviceman column.

Somehow I cannot see myself ever repeating that practice with SC's Vintage Radio column. 

[johnboxall]

Silicon Chip and Elektor. Though I'm starting to think of SC as a bit of a charity... I buy it, read it once, then usually forget about it. My mother of all people likes the "Serviceman's" stories.

[RayJones]

Silicon Chip and Elektor. Though I'm starting to think of SC as a bit of a charity...

Yes indeed. SC just never seems meaty enough these days.
There are some good projects at times but a lot are simple toys that serve no real useful purpose in the long term.

One of their best would have to be the SLA charger designed by John Clarke. I've built one of those and it is getting knocked about very regularly.
Actually come to think of it, I only seem to like John Clarke's designs....

[Uncle Vernon]

I still buy paper copies of SC, the quality varies month to month and at times you get a run of a few months where you wonder why your buying it at all.

The construction projects are almost universally woeful and to be designed more for shifting the excess stock of the major advertisers than about producing things that are useful and a good learning experience.

I've always enjoyed the serviceman column (love the illustrations) but it seems like the industry it represents it's a dieing commodity.

My main gripe with SC is with its interaction with it's readers both in letters and in what is dished out in article content. There is a real air of condescension and superiority in replies along with far to much effort to justify their position against the inevitable spelling Nazis and other nutjobs.
SC has no real continuity, there was a huge amount of interest and enthusiasm around their recent webserver project. Which was a project which interested a lot who would not have been a typical SC reader. But for all intents and purposes rather than building on a success it appears the attitude is design done, Jaycar has them on the shelves time for another 20W amplifier or third rate car alarm.

Just like any other business how you respond to customers decides your success. SC is not very good at responding or adapting to the desires of those who do or would potentially buy their magazine. Whether they eventually do or not will determine their ultimate survival.

 

[Uncle Vernon]

Silicon Chip and Elektor. Though I'm starting to think of SC as a bit of a charity... I buy it, read it once, then usually forget about it. My mother of all people likes the "Serviceman's" stories.

Silicon chip could do a lot worse than publishing a lot of the bit's and bobs you've put in your website or something similar.  Although they are pretty dismissive of anything that doesn't create a direct path to their regular advertisers.

[ColinA]

Anyone reading Nuts and Volts?

[johnboxall]

Silicon Chip and Elektor. Though I'm starting to think of SC as a bit of a charity... I buy it, read it once, then usually forget about it. My mother of all people likes the "Serviceman's" stories.

Silicon chip could do a lot worse than publishing a lot of the bit's and bobs you've put in your website or something similar.  Although they are pretty dismissive of anything that doesn't create a direct path to their regular advertisers.

Thank you. Yes, SC seems to avoid subjects that I am primarily interested in (Arduino etc) unless they are sponsored articles from people like Ocean Controls. I had considered cleaning up some articles and a few new project ideas for submission, but I don't want to do business with the fart-machine distributors.

[RayJones]

I concur with Uncle Vernon's assertions too about SC being condescending etc.
I probably only buy it out of boredom of nothing better on the newsagent shelves!

I have sent a couple of mails to them in the past, both times no acknowledgment, nor even published.
You feel like you are speaking to the wall of their bit bucket.

Also I have commonly referred to them as "Thermionic Valve" purely because their title never really exercises the chips they infer - modern silicon devices - which believe it or not does include microprocessors and the algorithmic design behind same.

How many designs are by Branco Justic lashing up some of his surplus crap for some no real perceived need?

Given the magazine is steered by a dinosaur, to expect better is a distant hope.

[Uncle Vernon]

Thank you. Yes, SC seems to avoid subjects that I am primarily interested in (Arduino etc) unless they are sponsored articles from people like Ocean Controls. I had considered cleaning up some articles and a few new project ideas for submission, but I don't want to do business with the fart-machine distributors.

My comment intended as a compliment rather than a suggestion.

As for Fart-Machine Electronics, I'm surprised they haven't joined all the dinosaur retailers with their whine about GST on small imports.

The magazine and the established suppliers are very stale and far from customer responsive.


The Arduino phenomenon while having more than it's share of junk, shows that a thriving community can be developed. It also shows that there is the opportunity for other than the established  channels to make a fair dollar out of their enterprise.

Silicon chip could be alive and enthusiastic, but to date, it certainly is not.

[JohnS_AZ]

I grew up (and got started in electronics) reading Radio Electronics and Popular Electronics, both of which are long gone. I'm kind of surprised that given the ease of electronic publishing, internet distribution, and now all the Kindles and other readers out there that nothing has been produced to take their place. MAKE is okay for what it is, but electronics plays a very small role in their content.

Maybe the time is right (ripe) for a new E-mag.

[Bored@Work]

MAKE is okay for what it is, but electronics plays a very small role in their content.

That and their hidden marketing / product placement.

[mkissin]

Circuit Cellar (http://www.circuitcellar.com/) can have some good stuff in it, although I will admit I get the electronic version rather than the dead-tree version. They also tend to have some interesting design contests from time to time.

I often find myself surprised that Elektor, Nuts and Volts, Practical Electronics, and Silicon Chip can have very similar (if not identical) projects in the same or adjacent months. I haven't bothered with SC for quite some time now. A quick browse at the news stand is enough, and perhaps I'll buy 1 issue in 6.

[RayJones]

I have found that Practical Electronics do re-print SC articles (for the UK market?)

I can't believe Elektor would re-publish a SC article, and on the converse the usual Elektor article does not fit the SC mould.

Circuit Cellar has always been a good read, and you can see how Elektor and CC did end up as semi-merged entities (remaining as separate publications).

Heard a lot of Nuts and Volts, but never seen one

[Bored@Work]

Maybe they are drawing from the same sources, like manufacturer application notes (an Elektor specialty) or open source projects. Maybe the magazines haver an internal market, reselling non-headline articles to each other. Or maybe it is plain old copying of ideas.

[mkissin]

I can't believe Elektor would re-publish a SC article, and on the converse the usual Elektor article does not fit the SC mould.

They're not re-publishing the article, per se. It's more like a couple of magazines have decided to independently do the same project.

It could be that I'm just thinking of Practical Electronics and Silicon Chip. I've pretty much stopped reading most of them, as there are only so many homebrew audio amps that I need.