On 1/14/2016 8:27 AM, rbowman wrote:
On 01/13/2016 08:41 PM, Don Y wrote:
Ah, OK. We don't have any magazine subscriptions. She just recently
commented on yet another attempt to get her to RE-subscribe to a magazine
she had years ago: "I saved the old issues and all they do is
recycle the same articles..."

I found that a long time ago except for the magazines covering a moving target.

In her case, she's interested primarily in art and various media.
Ain't much "new" happening, there! "Look! We've discovered
a NEW COLOR!!! Eeeewww! Metallic Chartreuse!!!"

It's rather like the school system; they start a beginning class, work them
through to more complex matters, and then restart the cycle in a year or two.

Exactly. The articles may get rewritten (different authors?) but the
material is largely the same. That's not to say that the new rewrite
might be better or more easily understood...

I'm down to 'Circuit Cellar', 'Motorcycle Consumer News', and 'Guns & Ammo'. I
don't even remember subscribing to the last one. I certainly haven't paid for
it in years but it keeps coming like some of the trade magazines.

"Circuit Cellar" became a manual for how to ASSEMBLE things many years ago.
It's the nature of the beast; you can't really write much where you
expect your readers to have lots of resources at their disposal!
"Using your scanning electron microscope, locate the gate region
of the FET controlling the output stage. Now, engage the laser
to vaporize the connection from this to the output pin. Then..."
Heck, I suspect many of its readers can't use a soldering iron -- esp
on SMT devices!

Most magazines have to pander to too wide of an audience. So, they waste
a lot of time covering "basics". Then, don't have enough space left to
really address the "meat and potatoes".

I spend most of my reading in journals -- where the authors can make
some reasonably safe assumptions as to the minimum technical abilities
of its readers and jump right into the "interesting parts". This
cuts down on a lot of preliminary fluff which makes it easier to
spend time thinking about the *substance*.

E.g., SWMBO's magazines might spend (waste?) time telling you how to
*hold* a pencil! (you hold a pencil differently when drawing than
when writing) Why can't they assume a reader has this minimum level
of proficiency? Instead of wasting space on it?