All good things…
Let's not bury the lede, as they say in the newspaper business: This issue of Maximum PC will be my last. After more than 200 issues, 16 Dream Machines, and lots of bent hardware, my time here is done.
It has been a glorious time, too. When I started at boot (the predecessor to Maximum PC) fat CRTs were in, a Pentium II was the hotness, and real nerds had separate cards for 2D and 3D display. Heck, you had to have a separate MPEG2 decoder card just to play DVD-resolution videos, and Fast Ethernet cards, too.
Yup, in other words, I have been at this a hell of a long time. When old-timers leave, they inevitably wax poetic about the fun times they had. You know, like the time we accidentally triggered the fire alarm system causing a building-wide evacuation, a fire truck to roll up, and a pretty pissed off stare from the facilities manager. That, of course, wasn't as bad as the previous unnamed staffers who tested a "fire proof" data safe with a gallon of gasoline and a box of Duraflame logs. Somehow the tiny five-pound fire extinguisher didn't work and, well, this time the fire fighters actually had something to put out when the fire truck rolled up to the parking lot.
There are stories of prototype hardware shattered, motherboards exploded, CPUs bent, and pranks played on staffers, belly-aching laughs at the expense of, well, everyone, and the ever-exciting job of waiting for Santa Claus in the brown suit to bring the latest-and-greatest piece of hardware to test.
Through it all, the PC has never disappointed me in my belief that it's the most valuable technology tool known to mankind. It's always there to solve any problem you might have. Need to create 250MB photo mosaics using hundreds of photos, and then project it on a wall and couple it with a touchscreen so people can zoom in and out to find themselves? The PC can do it. I know, because I did such a project recently using nothing but off-the-shelf parts, and with just two days to plan it out, too.
And though I sound like a broken record, I'm going to say it again: The PC is not dead and there is no post-PC unless the future means that work and other things of consequence aren't going to be done. For that, we need to thank the hardware and software vendors who continue to push forward because that is the only direction to go.
It would also be wrong of me not to thank the current and former staff of Maximum PC. They have been some of the greatest journalists I've had the pleasure of working with.
I'll save my last few words for you though, the loyal reader of Maximum PC. Many of you have been reading the magazine for years and many of you have just discovered the wonders of the PC just recently. Thank you for one hell of a ride and always believing in the PC. I'll be just like you now—a subscriber and reader of Maximum PC.
- Gordon Mah Ung