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Cyhist Jul 22 1996 F
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Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 23:42:34 -0700
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From: Nelson Winkless To: "Multiple recipients of list cpsr-history@cpsr.org" Subject: CM> Some memories of magazines
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Sender: Nelson Winkless Subject: CM: Some memories of magazines
The comments by Larry Press and Walt Crawford stir recollections
that really deserve some research before I blither about them, but that's
too much work, so...
SCCS (Southern California Computer Society) Interface Magazine
foundered, as Larry recalls...and my cloudy memory says that Bob Jones (with
his wife and gang of kids) stepped in to publish a magazine for that very
large club of computer enthusiasts. I think some dispute broke out over who
actually owned the magazine, when it turned out to be worth owning, and they
parted ways...Bob going off the publish Interface Age, which flourished for
some years.
The leader of SCCS was a round, balding chap (Dr. Lou...unh...Lou
...can't quite make that name snap in) who was a prominent attendee at the
World Altair Computer Conference. During some computer show in San
Francisco, he led three or four of us on a tour of the restaurants at
Ghirardelli Square. This involved walking among the patrons until Lou found
somebody eating a dish that
was interesting. He'd stand over the diner, pointing out the items on his
plate, and commenting on their preparation and desirability. We, his captive
audience, were as puzzled by this remarkable performance as the diners were.
"Why are we watching people eat?" asked Carol Stagg, a member of our party
who was then an ad space rep for Personal Computing. When Larry raises the
topic of SCCS, it immediately evokes memories of embarrassment at Senor Pico's.
Walt's enthusiasm for Creative Computing brings back a flood of
things. When I became editor of Personal Computing, my dad became interested
in computers, got one, began doing some advertising work (He was a bigtime
ad copywriter...did the Kellogg's cereals spots for years, among other
things, and wrote the Snap, Crackle & Pop song with one of my brothers) for
Gene Murrow at Computer Power and Light in Studio City...and to my horror,
began to publish articles in computer magazines under his own name.
The problem was that his name was the same as mine. He was NBW Jr.
I'm NBW III... but nobody pays any attention to the numbers. "You can't do
that," I said. "It looks as if the editor of one magazine is writing for
another. It's one thing to have your son follow in your footsteps, but to
have your father do it is too confusing!"
He was a bit testy, but began to use the name Timothy Purinton in
doing a series of articles David Ahl bought for Creative. (These things
involved a running character, a kid named Stan, who was a wizard at figuring
odds, and applying his computer to matters that involved them.) After a
couple of years of this, David was pretty tired of young Stan, and told me
he thought the idea was worn out. "Don't tell me," I said, "go talk to Timothy."
...and one other point. Walt liked the practical "user" aspects of
Creative, in contrast with Byte's relatively heavy technical slant. It was
necessary to find a niche for each magazine. Byte was clearly a technical
journal. We thought of Creative largely as a game magazine (Hammurabi, etc..)
I made a big issue of saying that Personal Computing was a magazine "about
people using computers." I didn't know much about the technology of computers
(and not much about producing magazines), but I could write and select
entertaining stuff about people, so that gave us the niche.
We had a running them comparing personal computer enterprises with a
kid's lemonade stand. We referred to The Lemonade Computer Company (for
which Kim Behm did a number of of superb illustrations). It wasn't all that
easy to find practical personal computer applications in the mid 70's. We
ran pieces on selling spreadsheet services (pre-VisiCalc), one on keeping
golf scores and statistics for tournaments, and one on selling "instant
portraits" printed out in alpha characters by computer in booths at fairs,
among a few others.
The situation has changed in twenty years...but not by adding a
whole lot of applications that people can sell as Lemonade services.
Instead, the systems and software packages are placed in the hands of the
end-users of the services. Some of us didn't anticipate this clearly.
Enough.
--Nels
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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> Some memories of magazines
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: <1627073168153.LTK.013@cpsr.org>
X-UIDL: 838134740.033
Sender: Nelson Winkless Subject: CM: Some memories of magazines
The comments by Larry Press and Walt Crawford stir recollections
that really deserve some research before I blither about them, but that's
too much work, so...
SCCS (Southern California Computer Society) Interface Magazine
foundered, as Larry recalls...and my cloudy memory says that Bob Jones (with
his wife and gang of kids) stepped in to publish a magazine for that very
large club of computer enthusiasts. I think some dispute broke out over who
actually owned the magazine, when it turned out to be worth owning, and they
parted ways...Bob going off the publish Interface Age, which flourished for
some years.
The leader of SCCS was a round, balding chap (Dr. Lou...unh...Lou
...can't quite make that name snap in) who was a prominent attendee at the
World Altair Computer Conference. During some computer show in San
Francisco, he led three or four of us on a tour of the restaurants at
Ghirardelli Square. This involved walking among the patrons until Lou found
somebody eating a dish that
was interesting. He'd stand over the diner, pointing out the items on his
plate, and commenting on their preparation and desirability. We, his captive
audience, were as puzzled by this remarkable performance as the diners were.
"Why are we watching people eat?" asked Carol Stagg, a member of our party
who was then an ad space rep for Personal Computing. When Larry raises the
topic of SCCS, it immediately evokes memories of embarrassment at Senor Pico's.
Walt's enthusiasm for Creative Computing brings back a flood of
things. When I became editor of Personal Computing, my dad became interested
in computers, got one, began doing some advertising work (He was a bigtime
ad copywriter...did the Kellogg's cereals spots for years, among other
things, and wrote the Snap, Crackle & Pop song with one of my brothers) for
Gene Murrow at Computer Power and Light in Studio City...and to my horror,
began to publish articles in computer magazines under his own name.
The problem was that his name was the same as mine. He was NBW Jr.
I'm NBW III... but nobody pays any attention to the numbers. "You can't do
that," I said. "It looks as if the editor of one magazine is writing for
another. It's one thing to have your son follow in your footsteps, but to
have your father do it is too confusing!"
He was a bit testy, but began to use the name Timothy Purinton in
doing a series of articles David Ahl bought for Creative. (These things
involved a running character, a kid named Stan, who was a wizard at figuring
odds, and applying his computer to matters that involved them.) After a
couple of years of this, David was pretty tired of young Stan, and told me
he thought the idea was worn out. "Don't tell me," I said, "go talk to Timothy."
...and one other point. Walt liked the practical "user" aspects of
Creative, in contrast with Byte's relatively heavy technical slant. It was
necessary to find a niche for each magazine. Byte was clearly a technical
journal. We thought of Creative largely as a game magazine (Hammurabi, etc..)
I made a big issue of saying that Personal Computing was a magazine "about
people using computers." I didn't know much about the technology of computers
(and not much about producing magazines), but I could write and select
entertaining stuff about people, so that gave us the niche.
We had a running them comparing personal computer enterprises with a
kid's lemonade stand. We referred to The Lemonade Computer Company (for
which Kim Behm did a number of of superb illustrations). It wasn't all that
easy to find practical personal computer applications in the mid 70's. We
ran pieces on selling spreadsheet services (pre-VisiCalc), one on keeping
golf scores and statistics for tournaments, and one on selling "instant
portraits" printed out in alpha characters by computer in booths at fairs,
among a few others.
The situation has changed in twenty years...but not by adding a
whole lot of applications that people can sell as Lemonade services.
Instead, the systems and software packages are placed in the hands of the
end-users of the services. Some of us didn't anticipate this clearly.
Enough.
--Nels
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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
______________________________________________________________________
