Network Computingwww.networkcomputing.com

It has become common practice for magazines like ours to celebrate such longevity and accomplishment, sometimes amid the carrion of others long gone, sometimes proclaiming our strength like a Chinese shot-putter on erythropoietin. I doubt much of that matters to you; still, we bask in our hubris.

It's often debated whether the role of the media is to record history or to lead it. Many of us in the profession aspire to the latter; many of you probably wish we'd just stick to the former. Neither is wrong, nor perfectly achieved.

My hope after 10 years with Network Computing--eight as a full-time member of its staff--is merely, as Dr. Larch in John Irving's The Cider House Rules would say, "to be of use." Of course, your interpretation of that may differ from mine. Sometimes, while reading a competing publication, I'll curl it up and swat a fly, and to that end, of course, it's of use.

Use, then, depends on what your problem is. Our founders believed there was more weekly news than bad Dennis Miller analogies and enough custom-built test labs staffed by eager journalists-cum-computer enthusiasts kneeling at the prie-dieu of a new techno-religion. Custom test labs, for all their glory and repeatability, don't mimic the inconsistencies and intangibles of the real world. News helps you keep up, to be sure, but it does nothing to get you ahead.

Network Computing has always taken the dirt road, hiring IT professionals instead of journalists, having them test solutions on real-world, production networks, helping you--as you've asked us to do countless times--make the difficult decisions about what to buy and from whom to buy it.

We've clung closely to that core notion while watching in wonder at the world's sudden infatuation with technology, the so-called lifeblood of a new economy. We could have told them all along. They still don't get it, though. They're caught up in the trappings of it all, the polish and not the wood; they get their buzz from the smell of our smoke--a fleeting high that lasts only until the next thing comes along.

And still, we're here.

We haven't just fought off other publications for the services of our editors, but corporations, universities, analyst firms and the call of the start-up world, America's great scapegrace. Occasionally, we've lost the battle. Still, these fare-thee-wells pay us visits, contributions, criticism and praise, and remain part of the extended family.

We invited several to reminisce in these pages, and you'll find them no less cynical and hardened to vendor and industry spin than when they first wrote for us. Their attitudes drove us back in the day and drive us still. Their battle cry was no more profound than an insistence to stop the babble and send the damn product.

We rejoice in the decade, but this isn't about us: This is about the products, the companies, the technology and the people who made it happen, and that is what we celebrate in these pages and will continue to celebrate throughout this month. Still, we don't stray too far from our roots--we've included a regular issue's worth of content to boot.

With the size of this issue, I could probably swat a rat.

--Fritz Nelson, fnelson@nwc.com