Network Computing Disappears From the Face of the Earth

Another of the trade rags I read is disappearing from print. This morning's e-mail carried Art Wittmann's "Strategy Session: Transformations" column with the following:

"We're saying goodbye to the standalone print version of Network Computing. But worry not--we're not going gently into that good night. ... Starting in July, Network Computing will be merging with its sister publication, InformationWeek."

It was not left unsaid that the unnamed people who produce the print version would be missed. Those of us who've suffered unemployment know the feeling in the pit of our stomach's when the bottom drops out of your world.

One of the visuals I expected to use in the next computer class I teach is to hold up a copy of InfoWorld's thick 20th anniversary edition and say, "And now it looks like this!" holding up my other hand with nothing in it. InfoWorld announced in April of 2007 that it "closed down its print edition and moved to a Web-only model." Many like myself, half-jokingly wondered what we would read in the loo, but behind it was the same sense of loss I feel when the exigencies of the march of time disrupt the quotidian.

I enjoy reading old magazines. Sometimes, they read much like science fiction and HP Lovecraft novels where an ill defined something looms behind the narrative. Anyone reading Time magazine in the 50's and 60's understood that the author's were writing in the looming shadow of world communism. Such understanding might not be apparent for a youngster reading the same article 40 or 50 years later. Those of you old enough to be able to be able to reread "The Worldly Philosophers by Robert Heilbroner 30 to 50 years later should be struck to see how the permanence of communism was taken for granted. So too in the trade press, stories' brief reference to IBM's industry hegemony/FUD (Fear Uncertainty and Doubt), Microsoft's Evil Empire, or the out-sized egos of Steve Jobs/Edward Esber Jr. (Ashton-Tate)/Philippe Kahn (Borland) provided only hints of the mind share these actually occupied.

It was only by reading a number of articles in different sources from the same time that I could get a feel or get a sense of the time. Whether it is true or not, I feel it is easier to read an old article in a magazine lying around, than to stumble across the same online. (My jaundiced attitude is conditioned by the inefficiencies of the search capabilities of Computerworld and Informationweek, but that's another story.)

So it is with a small sense of dread that Time marches on as I wonder what I was doing as it passes.