Actually, I could as well have titled it:
PC Magazine against c't.
What is c't?
c't = computer technology is a German magazine, and I wish, I really wish, they would decide to bring out an English version. They would sweep the market within 2 or 3 months. They got some international recognition when their journalists discovered how to circumvent Intel's CPU ID handling mechanism.
The only English/American magazine that comes close to c't would be BYTE, but there is still one level of difference. We are comparing the 'USA TODAY' (PC World) against the 'NY TIMES' (c't) with BYTE being somewhere in the middle.
Let me give you some examples of what you will find in these mags:
* PC World: NEW SECRET TIP:
How to resize a window without using the mouse!
* PC Magazine: FOR POWER USERS:
Bypass the autostart of a CDROM in Windows 95 by pressing the shift key while inserting the CDROM.
* c't - well.. this does not fit in one sentence.
They did translate some of their articles into English and made a summary available on the web.
Basically you can start here: http://www.heise.de/ct/english/
- Configuring Windows NT 4.0 on large disks http://www.heise.de/ct/english/99/12/204/
My Dell dealer recently told me again that it is not possible :-)
- Linux and NT as Web Server on the Test Bed
http://www.heise.de/ct/english/99/13/186-1/
This shows how a good and serious benchmark looks like.
- Acid Test: c't software exposes fake Pentium II models
http://www.heise.de/ct/english/98/09/022/
Their journalists found a way to determine in software whether your 300MHz CPU in reality is a 266MHz and you have been sold a fake CPU.
Frankly, I do not understand how they did it.
Quote: 'Unfortunately, it is not all that easy to find out whether a Pentium II has ECC. Any relevant information is top secret. Consequently, we had to make do without help from Intel.'
- NT bug - file cache chokes on big files: "All you can eat"
http://www.heise.de/ct/english/97/01/302/
Here is a quote, which also shows their humor:
"The bug in NTs cache implementation occurs noticably only with large files. Being mean, one could say the algorithm works just like Microsofts company strategy: flooding and filling out the whole terrain slowly step by step, occupying everything that was free and never surrendering anything"
After reading well-researched material like this, and when I sit here at my desk and see the colorful cover of PC Magazine with a big 'BUY SELL', I am just close to tears. This crab is all about buying and selling, and if they ever would report about the NT bug regarding the caching, it would be in the form of glorifying Microsoft's latest service pack which maybe fixes it.
PC Magazine, PC World and such just do not have the people to do better.
You may think now that c't is a technology magazine, targeted at PCs.
Not at all. They write about other platforms as well, Macs, Suns, different operating systems like BeOS which is probably not really known at PC World.
And other than their English counterparts they will not simply glorify technology for the sake of it. They occasionally have articles that deal with social aspects of computers. Such a subject may well be the center subject of the issue and there may be 40 pages = several articles or so dedicated to it.
Although I have a masters degree in CS and I am developing software for over 15 years, I must admit that I understand only 50% at best of each issue of c't. Sometimes maybe less. But the 45% which I understand are well worth it.
On the other hand: when I browse PC World, I think I understand 90% - 100%.
P.S.:
I just read that one of the journalists at c't discovered a defect TCP stack in Windows NT service pack 6 and started a discussion about it in newsgroups before publishing it in their magazine. Ever seen people from PC World do that?
12 issues. PC WORLD is the best-selling monthly computer magazine in America with over 6.2 million readers devoted to personal computing and related t...More at Zinio.com
Users of IBM computers and their compatibles will benefit from PC World Magazine. This is written for both technical and non-technical readers; its c...More at Magazineline
PC World magazine is the complete resource on how to select, buy and use PC products and services. Each issue of PC World magazine features products r...More at Magazines.com
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.