• Tag Archives PC Magazine

  • PC Magazine (July 10th, 1984)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Source: PC Magazine – July 10th, 1984

    PC Magazine was one of the most popular computer magazines in the 1980s and 1990s. At that time, I’m not sure if PC World or PC Magazine had the bigger circulation numbers. There were plenty of other magazines for other (non-PC compatible) systems but even this early, it was pretty clear that the PC was winning. If nothing else, that can be seen my the size of the magazines. The July 10, 1984 issue of PC Magazine weighs in at over 400 pages and includes:

    Cover Stories

    • Taking Stock in Market Analysis Software – A look at three software packages meant for analyzing the stock market. These include The Brandon Stock System, Market Trend Analysis System, and Buy/Sell Trend Analysis. Generally, these required a subscription service to get the needed data (via disk or via modem).
    • Sticking to Fundamentals – A guide to analyzing the fundamentals of a company (income statement and balance sheet statistics) and the software to help you do it.
    • From Wall Street to Your Street – A look at Investment Manager, software designed to help you manage your investment portfolio.
    • The PC Way to Financial Independence – Using your PC to manage your finances. This article goes over using spreadsheets, writing your own software and more.

    Features

    • Project: Database, Part 3 – The third and final part of a review of available database software. The concentration is on simple databases. Software reviewed here includes Super Database Management, PFS:File and PFS:Report, Query!, Beast Data Manager, Data Design, and Rank and File
    • Stress Tests for Floppies – A series of tests to determine how fragile (or durable) floppy disks really are.
    • The 3270 PC Connection – The IBM 3270 is an expanded version of the PC-XT with rudimentary multitasking capabilities designed to interface with a mainframe.
    • Mix and Match Your Own PC – A guide to building your own PC compatible computer. It starts with a look at the relatively few PC motherboards available at the time, the Display Telecommunication’s MegaBoard, Electro Design’s IMP-12, Micromint’s MPX-16 or Super Computer’s Super PC.
    • Cloning Your Own PC – This takes the above concept, which is similar to building a PC today, a step further. This article is an introduction to building your own PC Clone starting from a bare circuit board.
    • CS-5 Adds Depth to PC Graphics – A detailed review of Cubicomp’s CS-5 Solid Modeling System. This is 3D CAD Modeling software with prices starting at $10,000 but that was a bargain compared to standalone CAD systems at the time.
    • The PC Health Advisor – Review of software designed to analyze health risks to you (not your PC). It includes a survey and database.
    • Negotiating the Course to Used Computerdom – A guide to shopping for a used computer. Includes advice on where to look, testing, negotiating and more.

    Pro Columns

    • The Complete M.D. Office Package – A doctor discusses what features should be included in any medical office management system. These include payment entry, libraries, reports, and more.
    • ASCII to Printer Code: A Postprocessor – A type-in BASIC program that will translate ASCII codes for specialized symbols from your word processor into a language your printer can understand.
    • Law Review – A review of two books written for lawyers who are planning to computerize their practice. These books are Microcomputers for Lawyers by J. Stewart Schneider and Charles E. Bown and Computer Power for Your Law Office by Daniel Remer.
    • PC Flight Planner – A guide to using the on-line version of the Official Airline Guide, Electronic Edition. Anybody can plan a flight today on the internet but doing so with online information in 1984 was much more novel.
    • Operation Cleanup – A type-in program designed to let you selectively delete files (e.g. you can select all BASic files and it will prompt you one by one whether you want to delete them or not).
    • Circulation of the PC – A review of Publiphile, software designed to assist you in managing your publication’s mailing lists and readership data.

    Departments

    • PC News – STM Portable PC released for $3449, PFS software released for IBM PCjr, upcoming UNIX software, new PC compatibles from ITT and Otrona, new integrated software package (Electric Desk) for the PCjr, new networking technology from IBM, Phoenix develops IBM compatible BIOS, new KB515 keyboard from Key Tronic, and much more.
    • On the Road Again – When to create new software version and the future of micro-to-mainframe communications.
    • What’s in a Name – The art of naming software.
    • Letters to PC – Letters from readers about Proportional Spacing on WordStar (book), using ProKey with wordSTar, bugs in Microsoft Word 1.0, a potential bug in KnowledgeMan (DBMS), WordVision, and more.
    • Lessons from Software Veterans – Peter Norton writes about lessons to be learned in the realm of small software entrepreneurs.
    • Educational Quest – A look at two new educational games: Run for the Money from Scarborough Systems and In Search of the Most amazing Thing from Spinnaker Software.
    • The Good, the Best, the Ugly: Three Unix Books – Reviews of The UNIX Programming Environment (the Best), The UNIX operating System (the Good), and The UNIX Book (the Ugly).
    • New on the Market – A brief look at new hardware and software including new expansion boards from Cygnus (parallel and serial ports), Taxan monochrome monitors, StoreageMaster 500 Series 18MB and 30MB hard drives (for $2495 and $3390 respectively), the Colby KEY-2 Keyboard, S/COM 3400 Streamer (tape backup system), CERTIFIED Accounting System, Forbidden Quest (adventure game), dMS-III (DBMS), RamDisk II (for emulating a disk drive in RAM), and much more.
    • User Group Profile: A Capital Survey – The results of a survey done by Capital PC USer Group. This was a large PC users group with 2,500 members.
    • User-To-User – A simple and free way to create a telephone directory, creating a menu for basic DOS commands via batch files, and more.
    • PC Tutor – Questions answered about changing sector size of a disk, BASICA vs. BASIC, using FORMAT with large amounts of memory (> 480K) in early PC-DOS versions, restoring a hard drive, and more.

    …and more!


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  • PC Magazine (March 1983)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Source: PC Magazine – March 1983

    Old computer magazine sure were big. Big doesn’t really even begin to cover it. This issue of PC Magazine from March 1983 is 562 pages. How many reading this have ever even seen a magazine that large? Obviously there were a huge number of ads but there was also a lot of content. This issue includes:

    First Look

    • Introducing the IBM PC-XT and Company – IBM introduces a number of new products, most notable were the IBM PC XT, an enhancement to the original PC. A basic PC-XT system that included 128K of RAM, a 10 MB hard drive and 360K floppy drive would set you back $4,995. According to the first inflation calculator Google threw at me, that’s equivalent to $15,429.89 today.

    Cover Stories

    • Avoiding The Worst: How To Care For Your PC – Basic tips for caring for your PC, floppy disks, and more. Useful advice includes not spilling drinks on your keyboard, keeping disks in their protective sleeves, not smoking around your computer, and more.
    • Block That Bolt, Hey! – Power surges and other power line problems were estimated to be responsible for 70-90 percent of computer equipment malfunctions. This article gives advice on using surge protectors and power line filters and compares several options.
    • Living With Lapses In Your Power Line – Tips for handling power outages and brown outs including the use of uninterruptable power supplies and battery backed-up memory.
    • Out Damned Spark – The damage static electricity can do and how to avoid it.

    Legal

    • The Ultimate Backup: Insuring Your PC – Making sure your computer is insured might sound like overkill but then considering a basic IBM PC XT system cost the equivalent of fifteen grand, maybe not so much.

    Languages

    • Programming With Funny Symbols – A look at the APL programming language.
    • PC APLication – An evaluation of an APL implementation for the PC along with a performance comparison to BASIC.
    • Keynotes – Customizing function keys to aid BASIC programming.
    • The Fundamentals of BASIC – An introduction to BASIC with an emphasis on string manipulation.
    • DR LOGO: A New Start For Beginners – A look at Digital Research’s new LOGO implementation.

    Software

    • 1-2-3: A Program You Can Count On – A look at Lotus 1-2-3 which combined spreadsheet and database functionality into one application.
    • The Ultimate Spreadsheet – A look at MicroPlan and a comparison to VisiCalc.
    • Guess What’s Coming To Dinner? – A look at a couple of programs designed for use in the kitchen, including Micro Cookbook, a recipe program and Diet Monitor, a tool for monitoring your diet.

    Applications

    • BankAmerica Plugs In To PC Power – BankAmerica invests heavily in IBM PCs to improve productivity.
    • The Automated Agent Helps Performers Get Gigs – A look at Ibis, software that helps talent agents schedule events for the talent they represent.

    PC Arcade

    • At Ease With PC – Reviews of PC games including Apple Panic, Kaleida, Micro-Football, and The Chrome Ranger.

    Word Processing

    • The Select Approach – Review of Select, a word processor/spelling checker/mail merge program targeted at the business/professional market.
    • Letter Imperfect – Review of TypeFaces, a product designed to allow you to produce various typefaces on certain dot matrix printers.

    Business

    • Parlez-Vous PC? – The IBM PC’s introduction to France.
    • Tie Me IBM Down, Boys – Marketing PCs in Australia vs. the U.S.

    Communications

    • Let there Be Ethernet – A case stud of one of the first PC Ethernet installations.
    • 1200 Baud: Speed Of Choice For PC Communications – How technological improvements will make 1200 baud modems affordable for most people.

    Sight And Sound

    • The PC Talks Back – A look at PC Parrot, a low cost voice synthesizer for the PC.

    Utilities

    • SimpliFile Takes The Mystery Out Of File Names – A review of SimpliFiles, a utility for adding descriptions to files so that it makes things easier to find than the default 8.3 filename restrictions in DOS.

    PC Program Exchange

    • How To Tell Time With TellTime – An educational program for teaching kids to tell time with analog clocks.

    IBM Eye

    • Anatomy Of A Colossus, Part III – The third part in a series on IBM and their future.

    Book Excerpt

    • Back To Basic – Excerpt of the book “Learning IBM BASIC For The Personal Computer” by David A. Lien.

    Departments

    • From the Editor’s Screen – A look at the current issue and what went into it.
    • Letters to PC – Letters from readers about LOGO, exponential growth in the PC market, spelling programs, pagination problems, and much more.
    • PC Comminques – Computer news including IBM talking with Matsushita about producing third party products with the IBM logo, a program for indexing books, and more.
    • PC Tutor – Questions answered about DOS, including un-erasing files, chkdsk error messages, generating superscripts and subscripts, the difference between diskcopy and copy, hidden files, and more.
    • New On The Market – A look at new products including ParlePC, a parallel input/output adapter with speech synthesis; 5 and 10 MB hard drives from Mountain Computers; a 256K memory board from Microlog; an 8-inch drive adapter for the PC; and much more.
    • Club News – Info about the latest clubs, bulletin boards, and newsletters for the PC.
    • User-To-User – Various programming tips from users.

    …and more!


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  • PC Magazine (February 1983)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Source: PC Magazine – February 1983

    For most of the 1980s and 1990s I would say there were two big PC oriented magazines in the U.S. Those would be PC World and PC Magazine. There were plenty of other but of those dedicated specifically to the PC, these were probably the most well known. In 1983 it may not have been a forgone conclusion that the IBM PC would set the standard for decades to come but but the writing was already on the wall. You could tell by the sheer amount of advertising which was a pretty good measure at the time of popularity. This issue of PC Magazine from February 1983 approaches 500 pages in length. It’s hard to conceive of a monthly publication having that many pages today. Many of those pages were of course ads. The contents of this issue includes:

    Cover Story

    • The Tale Of The Mouse – In 1983, the mouse was not yet standard equipment on PCs. This article gives a history of the device and enumerates its benefits.
    • VisiOn, A Mouse On The Digital Desktop – VisiCorp, the company famous for creating the first spreadsheet program VisiCalc, introduces Vision, a software/hardware package that include a mouse and software that makes use of it. “Rather than requiring you to memorize lists of commands, VisiOn lets you indicate what you want by pointing a small arrow on the screen at various items on the menus…”.

    Software

    • Personal Finance Programs For The PC – A look at various finance programs deigned to help balance your budget. Packages looked at here include Personal Computer/Personal Finance Program, Home Finance Program, and Home Budget Program. Naming sure wasn’t very original…
    • Five Financial Programs For The Home – More software to help you keep track of your finances that are a little more advanced than the above. Software reviewed here includes Bonus Accounting System, Financier Personal Series, FMS II, Home Accountant Plus, and Money Maestro.
    • Eight General Ledgers For Small Business – Running general ledger software was one of the main uses of personal computers for business uses in the early days. Eight different such packages are looked at here including General Ledger 2.0, BPI General Accounting, Datasmith Bookkeeping System, General Ledger System, General Ledger, General Ledger By Peachtree, Peachtree Series 4, and Versaledger II.
    • Expanding Your Printer’s Horizons – A look at a program called Sideways which was basically a program that let you print in landscape mode.
    • Five C Language Compilers – I still program in C today. Here’s a look at five C compilers from before I knew anything about programming including C88, c-systems C, Ci-C86, Telecon C and SuperSoft C. Included are benchmark numbers like compile time, runtime, .exe file size and more. Comparisons are made to IBM Pascal, IBM compiled BASIC and interpreted BASIC. It’s interesting to note that at the time, the runtime of compiled BASIC and Pascal programs was faster than compiled C programs.
    • The Dedication Of MultiMate – A look at MultiMate, a program that turns your PC into a WANG-like dedicated word processor.
    • Getting More Out Of VisiCalc – VisiCalc (a spreadsheet program) was arguably the first killer app for home computers. Here are a look at five “support products”, including The VisiCalc Book for the IBM Personal Computer, VisiCalc Home and Office Companion, VisiCalc Real Estate Templates, VIZ.A.COM, and Chartman I, II, and III.
    • Graph ‘n’ Calc Puts Numbers Into Shape – A review of this menu-driven program for creating graphs.
    • What Is (The) Answer? – Answer is a database program written in FORTH designed to allow for the creation of simple, flexible, customized database and filing systems. In addition to the PC, it was also available for the TRS-80, Osbourne, NEC, Zenith and Apple II.

    Hardware

    • Hard Disks Made Easy – A comparison of two removable hard disk systems. The 3.9-inch Tecmar and the 5.25-inch Genie. Both featured 5MB of storage per cartridge. The drives ranged from $1795 to $2295 and the cartridges were $90 to $119 each.

    Programming

    • Kaleidoscope – PC Magazine may not really be remembered for its type-in programs but it did have some in its early days. Included here is a BASIC program for creating a kaleidoscope display designed to be a programming tutorial.
    • How To Build A Computer Maze – A tutorial for creating a maze including a type-in maze game in BASIC.

    PC Arcade

    • The Organization Man Meets Pac-Man – Reviews of PC games including Executive Suite, Cosmic Crusader, Crossfire, and Snack Attack II.

    Legal

    • Trading Secrets – An article on protecting…and revealing trade secrets.

    Finance

    • Making Tax Write-offs Your Business – Ways to make your computer purchase a tax write-off.

    IBM Eye

    • Anatomy Of A Colossus, Part II – The second part of a look at IBM’s history and its role in the personal computer market.

    Education

    • How To Start A User Group – User groups were a pretty big deal before the age of the Internet. I never really belonged to one but there was a small group of local BBS users and sysops that I would hang out with sometimes in the early/mid 1990s.

    PC Fiction

    • EPICAC – Science Fiction writer Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. writes about a computer that falls in love.

    Book Exerpt

    • Games, Hypergames, And Metagames – Chapter five of a book called The Electronic Cottage. It investigates some of the uses for computers in games.

    Reader’s Turn

    • Quest For The Ideal Language – One person describes their ideal computer language. In this case it turns out to be FORTH.

    Departments

    • From The Editor’s Screen – An editorial on how the future is now.
    • Letters to PC – Letters from readers about a review of Personal Review, careers in computing, tips for buying a computer, misleading advertising, Dbase II, Vocab Teacher, local networks, Easywriter and the NEC 3550, Wordstar, MicroPro, and more.
    • To All From Ahl – Programming “today” vs. programming in the 50s, 60s and 70s.
    • PC-Communiques – The latest news, etc. from the computer world including walking robots, IBM to build PCs in France, IBM invests in Intel, farmers pick Farm Management System as best software for farmers, IBM donates computer equipment to schools, CP/M-86 price drops, and more.
    • PC Tutor – Questions answered about clearing the screen, displaying superscripts and subscripts, using Intel’s 8087 math co-processor, using a RAM-disk, using single sided disks on a double sided drive and more.
    • Club News – News from various user groups and BBSes around the country.
    • User-To-User – Users report problems and solutions. This month, using your VCR as an RF adapter, bugs in PC-DOS 1.1, selecting background and foreground colors in BASIC, and more.
    • Zero Base Thinking – Using a list of needs and wishes to help you choose a new computer.
    • New On The Market – A quick look at new products including Intellink (a device for simplifying Ethernet networks), a RAM expansion card from Apparat with 64K to 256K ($386 with 64K), the Gemini-10 dot matrix printer from Star Micronics, a new 528×960 resolution monochrome monitor from Quadram, the Datamate 103 300 baud modem, Supertalke II speech digitizer, and much more.
    • Coming Up – Coming next month, how to maintain your personal computer, LOGO for the PC, Financial Planners, Word Processors, and more.

    …and more!


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