Popular Science-ing

I just found out that Google has digital copies of old magazines available for free view. Maybe I'm behind the times. Anyway, while I may not be interested in their issues of New York magazine, I am ecstatic about their offering many, many, many issues of Popular Science. It's a step back in time. Now I can read the February 1981 article about new import cars getting 40 mpg! I can read intelligent articles about the Chevrolet Corvair (not just sensationalized garbage). I can see the September 1951 issue about the new Sports Cars (looks like a Jaguar XK120 on the cover).

And it's not just the articles, either. You get the almost-as-fascinating advertisements, too. Seagrams. Camel. The Atari 600. A solar watch. The gang is all here. And that's just the January 1980 issue.

I'm a geek. Not a geek in the I have a family room full of servers kind of way. No, I'm the guy the wants to take things apart. Sometimes, I even put them back together. I buy into Make Magazine's mantra of "If you can't open it, you don't own it". So, for me, this find is like...it's like...Christmas morning.

This also might be just the thing to force my internet service hand. Maybe it's time to look at something other than [gulp] dial-up. It's a big step.

Where was I...