A great deal of my “geekness” has been influenced by various magazines and zines that I read as a kid. In the days before Reddit and Digg, I would rely on these magazines to teach me more about the latest developments in the tech world. In fact, even with sites like Reddit and Digg, I still turn to my favorite rags for the latest in technology and hacking.
My must-reads:
- Wired: It really depends on the month though. I’d say that 50% of the articles are genuinely good, and the other 50% is filled with trash or advertisements
- Popular Science: Its not what you’d call “high brow” but the magazine highlights a lot of cool gizmos and gadgets that are being used out in the real world. They have some pretty ridiculous speculations about “future tech” that makes for a good chuckle as well.
- 2600, the Hacker’s Quarterly: I would highly recommend this zine if you can find it in your local Chapters/Indigo. This magazine literally changed my worldview about the hacker community and about the work that I do. The articles are very dense and technical, but its defiantly worth a read.
A newer zine has recently come out called the Hacker Monthly ($9 print copy, free pdf). I’ve glossed over the TOC and the articles definitely sound interesting. They’re more of a 2600-lite in the sense that their articles aren’t very technical or “traditional hacking”. Good reading nonetheless. A word of warning though; frequent redditors will recognize the articles as duplicates from progreddit!