No. 2 (1991)

DEAR READERS! We are pleased to present the second issue of our magazine. It would be nice to say the 102nd or even the 22nd, but alas... - only the second issue of ‘Baitika’ is ready. As we wrote these lines, we still didn’t know how you—our readers—would receive the new magazine. And without your feedback on it—what you like, what you don’t like, what’s missing—it is, of course, difficult to produce the magazine. The ‘Reader Survey’ published in this issue, prepared by the editorial team in collaboration with the All-Russian Research Institute of Market Conditions and Demand, will likely help us. I hope you’ll find a little time to fill in our questionnaire. I think that ‘Baitik’ will then become more interesting and useful for you. Perhaps it too will need a revamp. For now, we’re sticking to our usual course, meaning that the second issue retains many of the sections you’re already familiar with. However, as we promised, there are also some new ones. There are three of them. The first, ‘Prospects’, is dedicated to important events taking place and expected in the world of computing and their impact on our daily lives. We are launching this section with an article on one of three joint Soviet-American projects in the field of education — the ‘Pilot Schools’ project, which involves equipping several thousand schools in our country with IBM RS/2 computers. In subsequent issues of the magazine, we will continue to publish articles on this topic. The next new section – ‘The History of the Computer’ – is devoted to the history of computing technology. Surprising as it may seem, this history spans several millennia. It is, of course, impossible to cover it in detail within the pages of our magazine, so we shall endeavour to highlight its most important and interesting stages. The third new section – ‘Horizons’ – features two articles at once. The first article, an easy read, is about the vast possibilities of computer networks. The second, a very serious piece, is about the ‘Embryon’ home neurocomputer based on the BK-0010. It launches a whole series of articles on neural computing – a new and highly promising field in computer science. Perhaps the second issue has turned out to be more varied than the first. As we work on the next issues, we are striving to make them even more interesting.