I don't think I get this. They could have put together a blog or similar website which they pushed articles of this type out to once a month, with all the convenience of linking and being able to view the content (there's very little imagery in this edition) in whatever platform you already use. Instead they've chosen a digital imitation of a physical magazine, which you need some kind of specialised reader to read, wont be indexed by google and will make it hard to reference. Am I missing something?
I have to say it's a pleasure to read something in this format rather than just another blog site. I think it gives a different feel, a clean-ness, something I can't really explain, that's missing from most websites. Maybe it's simply the typesetting?
In the "Up Front" section they make it clear that they're trying to re-create the magazine feel, and that they're experimenting with this, so I expect it will change. I look forward to seeing where it ends up.
It will make it easier to cite, Issue X, pages 1 - 3, and since they chose pdf there is less of a chance that they'll update/change it. I agree it breaks the web a little, you can't comment on articles or link directly to them, but that's a trade off I'm sure they thought through.
Google indexes pdf's so I don't know where you go the idea that they didn't.
It would also be easier to have conversations about. Instead of forcing everyone who wants to talk about a particular article to download the whole PDF, you can link them directly to the article (and with a better Web, you could link them to the exact sentence and paragraph you want to draw their attention to).
I might be an edge case here, but I regularly print web pages to PDF so that I can ship them around to various devices when I'm travelling and either don't have access to the internet, or I'm not able to connect (on an airplane, for example).
Also, a PDF reader is specialized in the same way a browser is specialized; they're both essentially ubiquitous now.
I love the idea, especially since the magazine reading experience is somewhat diminished on the web. Unfortunately, the only way they achieve this is by using a pdf, which isn't terrible, I would just prefer to navigate some sort of html in my browser.
Are there any projects out there that attempt to make reading on the web more "print like"? Typogridphy (http://csswizardry.com/typogridphy/) is a good example of making a website less like website and more like a well styled magazine, but I have only seen one site use it (http://hacker-newspaper.gilesb.com/). Obviously this is more likely due to my ignorance of other such sites, but the point still stands that there isn't much development in this area.
I've read it all; it contains good content, but nothing extraordinarily interesting, like a good computer magazine used to do in the 90s.
I think the funniest thing is them bashing ebook publishers for trying to imitate the worst parts of books (i.e. turning pages) and then have them publish the magazine in pdf format.
Otherwise, I like their approach. I think their vision of e-publishing is one of the best in the industry; when I get some more free time, I'll go and see which of their non-DRM-ed books I could use.
I subscribed to DDJ for more than a decade. Toward the end, Michael Swaine was the only really good thing about it. I'm glad to see his column again. Maybe it's just nostalgia for another time, but I enjoy it.
Only complaint so far.. The RSS feed for the magazine page is in fact for their entire site. I'd like one just for the magazine. (Though since they don't update the feed that often it shouldn't be an issue for me)
