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Adieu Personal Computer World

This is a farewell, not to PC World the retailer, which is just fine, but to the magazine Personal Computer World, which sadly is following PC Magazine into the ether.

It was a fine, really solid (and chunky) magazine that had an excellent balance of technical know-how and practical, application driven approach. It was the generalist of the computing magazines, the broad market number. It wasn't aimed at newbies or at heavy duty techies, but the wide sphere of readership, and it did what it did very well.

I wrote the business column for Personal Computer World for a number of years and really enjoyed doing so. Anyone in the UK of a certain age with an interest in using computers is likely to remember the magazine fondly.

You may wonder why I've used such an old fashioned cover shot. It's from the issue that would have been on the newsstands 10 years ago. And just for fun, here's my column from that issue - the photograph makes a passport photo look good, I fear. It's not my best column, but it seemed the right one to include. (Incidentally, Word still doesn't put business name into an address, something I was moaning about 10 years ago.)

Another casualty. Another milestone. I'm feeling old.

Comments

  1. That's how I remember you - with a tie! Sadly another custom that's died out...like the magazine and a lot of other things that we view from a distance....which I suppose it what evolution is about - lots of small changes that aren't noticed at the time but over a longer period add up to something meaningful. Where will it all end?

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  2. I remember me with a tie too - but I'm afraid I'm not at all sad that the practice seems to be dying out. They're not my favourite bit of attire, and there's something strange about the idea that you are more professional if you wear a strip of cloth, half-strangling you, around your neck.

    But if people want to wear ties, I certainly don't think it should be prevented. Except, possibly, bow ties. There's a limit.

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