What to do with old technical journals?

The cats woke me up this morning, as they often do. I may go back to bed later, but for now, I'm up.

While I was going through the stuff I have in the basement of my mom's house, I came across two boxes of magazines. One was filled with issues of Communications of the ACM from 1983-89, and the other had issues of the IEEE Spectrum and Computer magazines from 1985-86. These are publications from technical/professional societies I belonged to at the time. My professors saved their old issues, as they had them displayed in their offices. And so I thought, why shouldn't I?

Somewhere, in a corner of my garage, I think I have a box or two of issues of Communications of the ACM from 1989-1999, when I chose not to renew my membership with ACM. I felt that I was paying for a magazine that I wasn't reading, and at the time, the society's news and activities were not relevant to what I was working on at the time.

I'd hate to throw out these old magazines. As with most of my paper output, I'd rather recycle them. But I think they'd be useful to someone. So I've been hanging on to them, hoping for a worthy recipient. I thought about local college and university libraries, but they probably already have the issues. Does anyone have any other ideas?

I'm keeping the issue that has Donald Knuth's "The Telnet Song", and the issue that Cliff Stoll signed for me. But everything else can go. And I'm keeping all the SIGGRAPH stuff because I think they're way cool.

Time to update the holiday card list.....

Every year, at about this time, I determine who's been naughty and who's been nice, based on whether or not they've sent me any holiday cards in the past few years. The naughty ones get knocked off my card list. The nice ones stay on, and get greeting cards. Last year, I only sent out 40 cards. This year, I might bump it up to 50, since I'll be sending to a few more relatives this year.

I usually send a photo card with a picture of my daughter. That goes to family, relatives, and a few good friends. I also write an annual newsletter, updating people of the significant events in the past year.

This year, in an effort to reduce my greeting card costs, I'd like to use email to send my holiday greetings. But I have a question. Is it still considered tacky to send holiday greetings by email?

If you want a holiday newsletter from me this year, and you don't mind it being sent via email, drop me a line at jim dot poltrone at gmail dot com.