CompuServe Messages

Alex, You'd be amazed at how much defective hardware companies send to computer magazines. They rarely DO test the equipment before sending it out, strangely enough. Almost no computer magazines purchase the products they review. I'd guess that the cost is the main reason–Flying Magazine doesn't buy the planes either. 🙂 It's only loaner equipment, though. It's very rare that hardware doesn't have to be returned in 30 or 60 days. I honestly think that the vast majority of the mags are unbiased in the "payola" sense. I've met a few stupid freelance writers in my years who would write a positive review of a cardboard box with an 8-inch disk in it because they thought doing that would get them more reviews to write, but editors exist to try to keep people like that from ever working again. 🙂 The bias that exists is an ignorant perception that Commodore machines aren't to be taken seriously. Man, do I wish Creative Computing was still the leading computer magazine…. A far bigger problem than any "bias" is that so many magazine folks get to see the latest and greatest stuff that they lose track of what REAL people are using. From reading PC Magazine you'd think nobody had touched a 286 since 1989. I keep an A600 set up at COMPUTE and use it a fair amount just so I don't get too spoiled by my a4000, and so I can see how stuff performs on the kind of platform most folks use.