Byte magazine of yesteryear

I used to be a regular reader of Byte magazine, until it was killed off in the late 1990s. It was a good publication with a good range of articles and was my way of getting some real world computer industry knowledge whilst doing a computing degree that was a little theoretical and devoid of practicals.

It's the only magazine I have kept from that time, and I sorted through them the other day stopping to look at the 20th anniversary edition from 1995. One amusing article on a high capacity VOD server (something we are only beginning to see now!), that had 8GB RAID based drives per server. The storage capacity jumps have been huge since these days - and again are a case of hardware outpacing software developments.

There was a list of the most influential people, of course Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs both featured. This was all pre iPod and Mac re-launches so there was some concern for Apple post-Newton.

It makes you realise what a fast paced industry it is, although in some respects we ignore the past at our peril - that is a bad trait of software in general.