Subject: Gernsback Publishing closing

From: "Cini, Richard" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue Apr 1 07:55:22 2003

Hello, all:

	I just got my latest copy of Nuts & Volts last night and to my
surprise, there's a note from Larry Steckler of Gernsback, the publisher of
Radio-Electronics and Popular Electronics (merged into Poptronics). He says
in the note that Gernsback Publishing is closing after 94 years and N&V will
be fulfilling the balance of the subscriptions.

	I pass this on to the list with mixed emotions. For many years I
subscribed to both R-E and PE but once I found Nuts & Volts, I did not renew
either subscription. They strayed too far from the content I liked and N&V
had some interesting regular columns -- Amateur Robotics and BASIC Stamps --
that more closely followed my interests.

	I had the same feeling when Byte, well, bought it, in 1995 -- a
formerly great publishing that lost its way and its relevance to its core
readership.

Rich

==========================
Richard A. Cini, Jr.
First Vice President
Congress Financial Corporation
1133 Avenue of the Americas
30th Floor
New York, NY 10036
(212) 545-4402
(212) 840-6259 (facsimile)

---

From: steve <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed Apr 2 02:19:07 2003

Yes, I believe the January Issue was the last issue.
Circuit Cellar is another good mag, targeted more
toward professional engineers. N&V lost something when
it went to the small format, but still is a good
hobbyist mag. Midnight engineering was promising, but
I think its publisher (Bill Gates) couldn't manage the
day to day business tasks.

steve
--- "Cini, Richard" <[email-masked]>

---

From: Bryan Pope <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed Apr 2 02:21:49 2003

> day to day business tasks.

Was Nuts & Volts ever available on the newsstand?  Whenever I 
go to B&N or MicroCenter I always look for Circuit Cellar to see 
if there are any articles of interest.  Even it is hard to find.

Yet B&N stocks the 2600 mag.

Cheers,

Bryan

P.S. The place I have found with the *most* selection of magazines is the 
World's Biggest Bookstore in downtown Toronto.

---

From: "Hans Franke" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed Apr 2 02:24:31 2003

> World's Biggest Bookstore in downtown Toronto.

Be careful when using such adjectives...
Gruss
H.

--
VCF Europa 4.0 am 03./04. Mai 2003 in Muenchen
http://www.vcfe.org/

---

From: steve <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed Apr 2 02:30:42 2003

Yep, B&N has always carried Nuts and Volts along with
a couple UK electronics mags (in that slightly larger
mag format)

---

From: "Zane H. Healy" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed Apr 2 02:36:06 2003

>Yet B&N stocks the 2600 mag.

I've found it at Barnes & Nobles, Borders, Powells Books, and I think I've
even found it at Fred Meyer's (NW Chain of stores that sells a little of
everything).

>World's Biggest Bookstore in downtown Toronto.

If some place can beat Powells Books, then how big are they?  Powells Books
takes up an entire city block, is multi-story for a good chunk of that
block.  They don't even stock technical books in the main store, for that
you've got to go a couple blocks away and the Technical Bookstore is has
more books than most normal bookstores!  Plus they've got so many books
that they had to open another LARGE store about 20 minutes away, and then
finally get at least one warehouse.  They've been one of Amazon's major
suppliers from Amazon's start.

			Zane

--
| Zane H. Healy                    | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| [email-masked] (primary)    | OpenVMS Enthusiast         |
|                                  | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
|     Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing,    |
|          PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum.         |
|                http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/               |

---

From: Hans B Pufal <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed Apr 2 02:41:32 2003

> if there are any articles of interest.  Even it is hard to find.

It was available at selected locations. I used to pick up copies at 
Tower Books in Atlanta when I visited across the pond. ISTR there was a 
list of places it was availbale at published in each issue.

   -- hbp

---

From: Bryan Pope <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed Apr 2 02:47:43 2003

> suppliers from Amazon's start.

When it originally came into being, there were no other book stores (that I 
knew of) like it.  Nowadays the Chapters and B&N's are about the same size.

Cheers,

Bryan

---

From: "Philip Pemberton" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed Apr 2 03:20:43 2003

Cini, Richard wrote:
> formerly great publishing that lost its way and its relevance to its
> core readership.
Elektor are their same old selves, though. I was going to build one of their
USB sound cards - except for one problem. The main controller chip is a
Burr-Brown (TI) part that is damn near impossible to get in the UK...
EPE on the other hand are still publishing their wonderful little "This part
is available in England and can be made to do [some wonderful thing]" type
articles. As long as EPE is still in publication, I'll still keep reading
it. Unless it turns into another "Electronics And Beyond" (pseudo-science
articles? puhleeze)

Later.
--
Phil.
[email-masked]
http://www.philpem.dsl.pipex.com/

---

From: [email-masked] (Tony Duell)
Date: Wed Apr 2 03:26:32 2003

> if there are any articles of interest.  Even it is hard to find.

In the UK, Nuts & Volts (which I don't buy) and Circuit Cellar (which I
do) are available from Borders (as are several other US magazines like
Home Shop Machinist, etc). 

> Yet B&N stocks the 2600 mag.

I've seen that in Borders too...

-tony

---

From: [email-masked] (Tony Duell)
Date: Wed Apr 2 03:26:36 2003

> Elektor are their same old selves, though. I was going to build one of their

Tastes differ. Elektor is the _only_ UK electronics magazine that I buy...

> Burr-Brown (TI) part that is damn near impossible to get in the UK...

Several years ago I needed a Burr-Brown chip that nobody seemed to list. 
So I phoned Burr-Brown to be told they's supply 1-offs (and the price was 
not excessive). I don't know if they still do, but it's worth trying.

-tony

---

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed Apr 2 03:26:43 2003

On Wed, 2 Apr 2003, Tony Duell wrote:

> > USB sound cards - except for one problem. The main controller chip is
> > a Burr-Brown (TI) part that is damn near impossible to get in the
> > UK...
>
> So I phoned Burr-Brown to be told they's supply 1-offs (and the price
> was not excessive). I don't know if they still do, but it's worth
> trying.

Burr-Brown is part of TI now, and they use TI's gigantic distribution
structure.

Peace...  Sridhar

---

From: Ron Hudson <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed Apr 2 03:26:50 2003

> Was Nuts & Volts ever available on the newsstand?

We sell it at Halted. Tell'em Ron sent you.

We currently have 3 issues available.

Ron.

---

From: "Philip Pemberton" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri Apr 4 12:10:03 2003

> Tastes differ. Elektor is the _only_ UK electronics magazine that I
Hmm... I've never been able to get any of the "unobtainium" parts for any of
their projects. DigiKey stock the device, but I am *not* paying £12
shipping! It should cost around $5 to send a Jiffy bag via USPS, plus about
$2 for the Jiffy envelope. Which makes $7 or about £5...

> was
Burr-Brown has been "absorbed" into TI. I'll try TI UK first, then if that
fails, I'll start contacting their distis - Arrow, etc. What annoys me is
that Farnell are listed as one of TI's distis, but all they seem to stock
are TI opamps and 74LS chips!

Later.