Preparing for the Incoming Computer Shopper Tsunami (ascii.textfiles.com)

Article summary

The article discusses the author's efforts to digitize and preserve issues of Computer Shopper, a magazine that was a key resource for computer enthusiasts in the 1980s and 1990s. The author describes the challenges of scanning the magazine's large and fragile pages, and the process of debinding and scanning the issues. A collection of scanned issues is being made available on the Internet Archive. The project aims to preserve a valuable resource for computer history and nostalgia.

Main themes

• Computer Shopper magazine
• digitization and preservation
• computer history and nostalgia
• scanning and debinding challenges
• economics of computing
• historical research and analysis

What commenters say

• The magazine's ads were its main attraction, with readers eager to see the latest products and prices.
• The high cost and limited availability of computers in the past made it a expensive hobby to be a hacker.
• Some commenters disagree about the extent of page damage caused by automated book scanning systems.
• The thickness and size of Computer Shopper issues were impressive, comparable to phone books or other large publications.
• Younger people may not appreciate the significance of Computer Shopper or the challenges of preserving its content.
• The project to scan and preserve Computer Shopper issues is a valuable effort to preserve computer history and nostalgia.
• The magazine's content, including ads and articles, could be a useful dataset for economics research and analysis.