I just read on Slashdot that Dr. Dobbs Journal, a long-running magazine for computer programmers, will no longer be printed. It will be on the web only. That is a shame, as it is one of the last very good magazines and sources of quality information for professional programmers, and has been printed since 1976.
That means I officially have no magazine subscriptions any longer. I refuse to pay for web based magazines because that is not how I like to read them. I don’t sit at my computer and read that kind of stuff online, it’s just too hard on the eyes. And let’s be completely honest here, I read magazines in two places… in bed and on the crapper, neither of which has a computer anyway. Sure, I could take a laptop in those places, but I don’t personally own one, and refuse to buy one for myself until they make them as light as a magazine and don’t burn the crap out of my legs when I use them. And no, my Motorola Q or iPhone is not a suitable way to read a magazine either.
Newspapers are in trouble, magazines are going away, and we have the wonderful web to thank for it. Ultimately we will be left only with half-baked, half-assed news and information written by people that have no business writing or teaching. This is sad day in computer history.