© Mark Ollig
In October 1957, two significant events happened in the world of technology.
On Oct. 1, the first computer magazine, DATAmation, was published by Thompson Publications of Chicago.
On Oct. 4, the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik 1, the world’s first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.
Sputnik 1 shocked many Americans and started the “space race” between the two countries.
The launch of DATAmation magazine demonstrated a growing interest in computers among the general public. It was significant in helping to propel the technological revolution.
In September 1975, McGraw-Hill published BYTE, a monthly microcomputer magazine.
BYTE appeared when electronic magazines began advertising build-it-yourself computers such as the Altair 8800 and IMSAI 8080.
In the 1983 movie “WarGames,” David Lightman, a young computer hobbyist, uses his IMSAI 8080 computer to hack into an online gaming system. However, he accidentally accesses NORAD’s War Operation Plan Response (WOPR) military central supercomputer.
When Lightman starts playing the Global Thermonuclear War game on WOPR, the supercomputer believes it is engaged in a real war, causing it to activate the United States’ nuclear arsenal in response to Lightman’s simulated attack.
It’s a good movie.
In 1977, I purchased my first BYTE magazine, primarily because of its digital-binary reference to bits and bytes.
I knew eight bits made up one byte, so there you go.
Bits and Bytes also became a good name for a newspaper column.
But I digress.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, as a young telecommunications and computer enthusiast living in a small apartment above the bank in Winsted, I often spent evenings reading through computing magazines and sipping freshly-brewed coffee from my Mr. Coffee maker.
These magazines were a window into the exciting new world of personal computing. They helped me stay up-to-date on the latest technologies and gave me a sense of community with other computer enthusiasts.
BYTE magazine’s coverage of the latest trends and developments in computing sparked my interest in this field.
The illustration on the cover of the April 1981 issue of BYTE featured a computer wristwatch with a display screen, a keyboard, and a miniature floppy disk inserted into its side.
The inner page of the magazine mentions the cover, noting it was associated with an editorial on future computers.
There was also a note to the readers that the magazine was issued in the same month as April Fool’s Day, hinting the illustration on the cover was satirical.
In 1981, technology for miniaturizing electronic devices was already in development, so it was a prediction by BYTE that a 5.25-inch floppy disk, nearly the size of a dinner plate, would eventually be miniaturized to the point where it could be used with a wearable wrist computer.
The BYTE front cover, depicting a future when computers are portable and wearable, was widely discussed as a real possibility by computing engineers and designers.
BYTE magazine ceased print publication in July 1998 because of decreasing advertising revenue and the growth of online information.
It relaunched as an online digital magazine a year later and continued publication until 2009.
In April of this year, Maximum PC and MacLife became the last monthly-circulated paper-printed computer magazines to cease publication, ending an era that began nearly 66 years ago with DATAmation.
DATAmation itself had already ceased printed magazine publications in 1998.
A wide selection of free online information and the convenience of consuming digital content on smart devices has led to the decline of print magazines.
However, many computer magazines no longer in publication are still able to be viewed online at the Internet Archive website: https://archive.org.
Numerous wrist-worn computing devices are available today, including the Citizen CZ Smartwatch, which sells for around $450.
In addition to telling time, this smartwatch features a Snapdragon Wear 4100+ system-on-a-chip processor, 8 GB of storage, and a 1.28-inch touchscreen display with a 416 by 416-pixel resolution.
The Citizen CZ Smartwatch runs on the Google Wear operating system and is compatible with iPhones and Android phones.
Its features include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, NFC, texting, YouTube Music, Google Maps, medical monitoring, and telecommunication capabilities when tethered to your smartphone.
The CZ Smartwatch includes built-in AI software applications from IBM Watson and the NASA Ames Research Center.
The 8 GB CZ Smartwatch holds 20,000 times more data than a 5.25-inch floppy disk from 1981.
DATAmation magazine still covers computing technology through its website at https://www.datamation.com.
Its October 1957 issue can be seen at https://tinyurl.com/bytesData.
And yes, I kept my April 1981 BYTE magazine, which features a wearable computing watch and miniaturized floppy disk on the front cover.
