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Cyhist Jul 14 1996 D
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Date: Sun, 14 Jul 1996 23:20:20 -0700
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From: Nelson Winkless To: "Multiple recipients of list cpsr-history@cpsr.org" Subject: CM> Wayne Green, Byte, Kilobyte, and Kilobaud.
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Sender: Nelson Winkless Subject: Re: Wayne Green, Byte, Kilobyte, and Kilobaud
John Oliver's curiosity about the absence of Wayne Greene (gee, I
automatically added an "e" after the "n," and maybe that's right) from the
list matches my own. I haven't communicated with Wayne in at least ten
years, and have no idea what, if anything, he's up to.
With luck, our moderator will drop or cut this post if more reliable
information comes in, but as I understand it from stories that came to me
casually...
Wayne was big on ham radio, and for some years produced a magazine
for radio amateurs, becoming well established as a publisher.
Carl Helmers was an early personal computer fancier who, in 1975,
with the advent of the MITS Altair, produced a technical newsletter for the
new field of personal computers. The newsletter reportedly developed a
following, and it seemed to hold promise as the basis for a full-fledged
magazine.
Somehow, Carl and Wayne got together to create the magazine from the
newsletter, and BYTE came upon the scene with Carl as editor. (Don't know
whether this preceeded or followed David Ahl's CREATIVE COMPUTING...which
was originally based on the small DEC PDP systems, not yet quite "personal
computers," and don't know whether the BYTE name was already established
with the newslatter, or came with the magazine.) BYTE was a hot property,
and grew rapidly.
By some time in 1976, things had grown awkward in the little
publishing family there in Peterborough, New Hampshire, and there was a
great out between Wayne and Carl. Somehow, Wayne was out of BYTE, but his
wife Virginia was the new publisher, and Carl remained editor.
Not to take this lying down, Wayne began to publish a competitive
magazine, called KILOBYTE, nominally a thousand times better than BYTE. That
caused a major hassle, and Wayne was prevented from using the name, so he
called tha magazine KILOBAUD.
David Bunnell commented once that it must be fun to stand around the
lobby of the post office in little Peterborough, watching the warring
factions confront each other as they came in to pick up the mail.
KILOBAUD stayed in publication for some years, but faded as BYTE
flourished, and became part of the McGraw Hill publishing empire. (I've more
than once heard BYTE described as the best technical journal ever published.)
Wayne did a series of magazines of various kinds, all, I think, in
that odd four-columns-per-page format to which he was attached, believing
studies that said the narrow columns had been proved easiest to read. His
contribution to popular technology has been significant and colorful.
One story said that when he'd set up KILOBYTE, he promoted the new
venture by running without charge all the of the ads that had run in the
most recent issue of BYTE, hoping to win the hearts and business of those
advertisers. Unluckily, the business was even then changing so fast that
much of the information in the ads was incorrect, just two months later, and
the advertisers had to straighten out a lot of confusion. Some were
indignant, and complained to Wayne. To make them feel better (the
unconfirmed story goes), he
gave them another freebie, running the ads without charge again, and
compounding the confusion mightily.
Wayne's ham radio activities made him a celebrity worldwide in
amateur radio circles, and last time we communicated, he was traveling
around China, hobnobbing with high level folks who happened also to be hams.
Again, I'd have to dig through old notebooks and artefacts to find
the names of people who should also be identified here. They're on the tip
of my tongue, but...
--Nels Winkless
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nelson Winkless Email: correspo@swcp.com
ABQ Communications Corporation Voice: 505-897-0822
P.O. Box 1432 Fax: 505-898-6525
Corrales NM 87048 USA Website: http://www.swcp.com/correspo
______________________________________________________________________
Reply-To: cpsr-history@Sunnyside.COM
Originator: cpsr-history@cpsr.org
Sender: listserv-reply-errors@Sunnyside.COM
Precedence: bulk
From: Nelson Winkless To: "Multiple recipients of list cpsr-history@cpsr.org" Subject: CM> Wayne Green, Byte, Kilobyte, and Kilobaud.
X-Listprocessor-Version: 9.1 -- List Server by Sunnyside Computing, Inc.
X-Comment: Discussion of history of computing
X-Info: For listserv info write to listserv@cpsr.org with message HELP
X-Message-Id: <911426034619.LTK.013@cpsr.org>
X-UIDL: 837505885.035
Status: RO
Sender: Nelson Winkless Subject: Re: Wayne Green, Byte, Kilobyte, and Kilobaud
John Oliver's curiosity about the absence of Wayne Greene (gee, I
automatically added an "e" after the "n," and maybe that's right) from the
list matches my own. I haven't communicated with Wayne in at least ten
years, and have no idea what, if anything, he's up to.
With luck, our moderator will drop or cut this post if more reliable
information comes in, but as I understand it from stories that came to me
casually...
Wayne was big on ham radio, and for some years produced a magazine
for radio amateurs, becoming well established as a publisher.
Carl Helmers was an early personal computer fancier who, in 1975,
with the advent of the MITS Altair, produced a technical newsletter for the
new field of personal computers. The newsletter reportedly developed a
following, and it seemed to hold promise as the basis for a full-fledged
magazine.
Somehow, Carl and Wayne got together to create the magazine from the
newsletter, and BYTE came upon the scene with Carl as editor. (Don't know
whether this preceeded or followed David Ahl's CREATIVE COMPUTING...which
was originally based on the small DEC PDP systems, not yet quite "personal
computers," and don't know whether the BYTE name was already established
with the newslatter, or came with the magazine.) BYTE was a hot property,
and grew rapidly.
By some time in 1976, things had grown awkward in the little
publishing family there in Peterborough, New Hampshire, and there was a
great out between Wayne and Carl. Somehow, Wayne was out of BYTE, but his
wife Virginia was the new publisher, and Carl remained editor.
Not to take this lying down, Wayne began to publish a competitive
magazine, called KILOBYTE, nominally a thousand times better than BYTE. That
caused a major hassle, and Wayne was prevented from using the name, so he
called tha magazine KILOBAUD.
David Bunnell commented once that it must be fun to stand around the
lobby of the post office in little Peterborough, watching the warring
factions confront each other as they came in to pick up the mail.
KILOBAUD stayed in publication for some years, but faded as BYTE
flourished, and became part of the McGraw Hill publishing empire. (I've more
than once heard BYTE described as the best technical journal ever published.)
Wayne did a series of magazines of various kinds, all, I think, in
that odd four-columns-per-page format to which he was attached, believing
studies that said the narrow columns had been proved easiest to read. His
contribution to popular technology has been significant and colorful.
One story said that when he'd set up KILOBYTE, he promoted the new
venture by running without charge all the of the ads that had run in the
most recent issue of BYTE, hoping to win the hearts and business of those
advertisers. Unluckily, the business was even then changing so fast that
much of the information in the ads was incorrect, just two months later, and
the advertisers had to straighten out a lot of confusion. Some were
indignant, and complained to Wayne. To make them feel better (the
unconfirmed story goes), he
gave them another freebie, running the ads without charge again, and
compounding the confusion mightily.
Wayne's ham radio activities made him a celebrity worldwide in
amateur radio circles, and last time we communicated, he was traveling
around China, hobnobbing with high level folks who happened also to be hams.
Again, I'd have to dig through old notebooks and artefacts to find
the names of people who should also be identified here. They're on the tip
of my tongue, but...
--Nels Winkless
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nelson Winkless Email: correspo@swcp.com
ABQ Communications Corporation Voice: 505-897-0822
P.O. Box 1432 Fax: 505-898-6525
Corrales NM 87048 USA Website: http://www.swcp.com/correspo
______________________________________________________________________
