--Anyone catch the editorial in the January '04 edition of Servo magazine? Sounds like they plan to abandon hobbyists and become a trade zine for the Big Guys. Sad if true. Anyone got any other zine recommendations? Servo's content is becoming pretty slim on schematics and heavy on pretty-picture stuff.
Given that the January issue is the 2nd issue of Servo magazine, it is hard to make long term predictions about its content.
I've reread the editorial and I conclude that he (Dan Danknick) is expecting great things from us so called "hobbyist robotics" enthusiasts. He is making an analogy about how the personal computer hobby wound up doing great things and spawned numerous succesful companies. (By the way, if you include the open source movement as the follow on to the personal computer hobby, I would claim that the personal computer hobby still is doing great things.)
With regards to other magazine's, they have come and gone. I got exactly one issue of Robot Science and Technology for my subscription fee before they ceased publication.
If we want Servo magazine to hang around, we as a collection of robotic enthusiasts need to take the time write up articles about our robotic creations and submit them. If we, as a group, want articles with schematics, we need to submit articles with schematics in them; I doubt any reasonable article will be turned down.
By the way, Bill Benson and I have submitted three articles to Servo magazine that have been accepted for publication and are planning on submitting at least three more. Other contributors to this newsgroup (e.g. Gordon McComb) have contributed articles as well. If you have a robotic creation worth writing about, please submit an article; I would love to read about it.
My $.02,
-Wayne
P.S. To E-mail me directly, send E-mail to Wayne -at- Gramlich -Dot- Net.
Well I just subscribed so I'm hoping I won't be disappointed. I was a bit miffed when I subscribed to Nuts & Volts back in August primarily to get the robotics supplements that were dropped a month later in favor another magazine subscription. But NV is a good mag and I enjoy it by itself.
-Dave
If you guys want to see something in the personal robotics column in Nuts N Volts, I'm open to suggestions. It really isn't meant as cookbook, rather it is meant to be inspirational and informative. The "nitty gritty" is left to Servo.
I have a lot of neat stuff on the horizon, but am always open to suggestions.
Mike Keesling
I will agree that the articles I've seen so far are a bit "fluffy", but that may just what they had starting out.
If we want more gritty articles, we have to write them.
-- D. Jay Newman
Writing articles can get painful, and it pays as well as a minimum wage food service job if you're not careful. (Speaking from painful experience) The best part is that I get to write off the goodies I buy.
Mike
I know. However, as near as I can tell, writing articles pays more than writing books...
-- D. Jay Newman
--For those who have succeeded in what they are doing to publish in this zine would be great. I'd sure like to see a greatly expanded Q&A scetion, however, for those of us who are still struggling to get to first base. --I got the feeling in the editorial that the magazine was going to shift gears and also try to become a trade publication for companies that were doing stuff waaay beyond the hobby realm. Every other zine I've read that has tried to 'serve two masters' has either failed or gone totally industry-centric and become, well, useless for all but a chosen few. I hope that's not where Servo is headed.
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