Rants and Ramblings: random commentary about culture, media, politics, technology and whatnot.

wired

I have to say, I love the cover of this month’s issue of Wired magazine.

Last weekend, I walked down to Whole Foods to get some veggies to go with dinner, and, while waiting in the checkout aisle, I spotted the magazine in an adjacent aisle. Seized with the sudden impulse that I had to get this magazine, I nudged my way out of line, reached across another customer to snag the magazine, and squeezed back to my original place in line, just in time to hand my purchases to the cashier.

I’m sure I earned whatever dirty looks were directed my way.

But the cover is so cool. I couldn’t resist that Lego army, all staring at me with arched eyebrows, daring me to pass them by.

The cover story itself — about how input from die-hard fans is shaping new product development in Lego’s Mindstorms product line — was a decent read, but the rest of the issue didn’t really spark my interest. I used to subscribe to Wired, but dropped my subscription in large part because of the magazine’s sometimes experimental design, which too often seemed to blur the line between content and advertisement. This was the first time I’d read a physical copy of the magazine in probably a couple years, and I noticed that its design has changed quite a bit, swinging the pendulum away from experimental more toward “conventional” feature design. I was surprised that even the cover has changed, from a thicker, matte-finish cardstock to a more standard-magazine glossy cover. It was a lot easier to digest than the Wired of old, but I’m not convinced that I like it any better.