Domain: makezine.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to makezine.com.
Comments · 355
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The eternal question
Many amateurs or hobbyists have faced this dilemma in their own personal (and professional) work spaces for centuries nows. Two groups I know a little about are wood workers and machinists, who have written dozens of books and articles about this subject, in both the general and specific case.
0. Safety equipment: dust masks, goggles, safety glasses (with side protection), gloves (nitrile, latax, neoprene), hearing protection (ear muffs, ear plugs), and as needed!
1. Tools
2. Storage / management of those tools
3. Hard copy (dead-tree) documentation, it is being rapidly moved online thanks to cheap and compact computers and laptops, but much older reference material is still in old-school paper form (which can be handy) (example references to collect: ARRL Handbook, Art of Electronics, Machinery's Handbook, Woodworking Basics, Understanding Wood, Wiring Simplified)
4. Commonly used materials (lumber, hoses, holes clamps, fabric, sheet metal, dowels, nuts & bolts, wood and metal screws, etc.)
5. Parts (in anti-static containers for any static sensitive parts like CMOS ICs)
6. Labelling tools
7. Log / Lab notebooks . These should be paper-based, though can be complimented with online documents, a honest to goodness hard copy lab book is essential.
8. Chemicals
9. Large, easy to read clock
10. Test equipment: rulers, tape measures, calipers, digital multi-meter
11. Plenty of AC mains circuits and outlets. Preferably with a separate circuit for lighting versus wall outlets. - Avoid extended use of extension cables, and excessive use of power bars.And time.
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Re: Tool-libraries exist
No need for an alternate universe, tool libraries, while not common, do exist. In part associated with the maker "movement" which has increased the number of formal open-membership hacker spaces around the world.
I suspect any medium to large city could make a tool library work, and a number of public libraries are acting as catalysts for the tool libraries, in the cases where they are not yet large enough to be free-standing organizations.
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ACCRC Rules.
One of the best places is ACCRC. Usable stuff is refurbished for charity organizations, schools, etc. and the rest is handled responsibly and locally by ECS Refining in Santa Clara
Unlike the "normal" e-waste companies who take hardware and ship it Chindifrica to places where kids melt components off PCBs over an open fire, ACCRC actually does it right.
My God, has it really been 5 Thanksgivings since I wrote my Alice's Restaurant parody in response to a comment on a Slashdot post on "Whose Burden is it to Recycle Computers?" when the CA law came out.
The punchline to the joke is that less than two years after I wrote it, life imitated art. Officer Obie really did have a problem when someone took a big pile of garbage and turned it into something that a school could use, and it was only through the dumb luck of blind justice that the Judge didn't see it that way.
I've never had to pay a dime to ACCRC, but whenever I make a dropoff, I've always tossed a few bucks in as a donation, because I know that anything useful will get used - if not at a school, at least in an art project, and the rest will be disposed of of safely and responsibly.
So we'll sing it again when it comes around on the guitar.
"Reuse any hardware you want from Natalie's Restaurant,
(excepting drives with .JPGs of Natalie)
Reuse any hardware you want from Natalie's Restaurant,
Monitors, just around the back,
Just a half a mile from the railroad track,
And you can get any grits you want at Natalie's Restaurant."Do de do, dee de doo de doo...
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Make Magazine?
There are plenty of excellent DIY sites out there. I have a couple of projects featured on Instructables -- their interface makes is really easy to share your projects step-by-step.
Strange that Make Magazine is missing. Or Hack-A-Day.
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Re:store and release energy?
It seems to me that this would preclude the use of massive windmills (i.e., flywheels), such as the one on the craft. Later, the rules specifically prohibit flywheels:
First, the total weight of the vehicle is only 450 pounds (204 kg).
Secondly, the "windmills" are indeed sails which are (considering the total weight of the vehicle) fairly lightweight and have trivial kinetic mass (ie. not massive). Also relevant is that for a flywheel to be efficient, the mass should be as far from the axle as possible.
So in this case no, rotating sails =/= flywheels and the spinning mass of the sails is a "trivial force", especially considering the weight of the vehicle against the weight of a driver, since the driver would most likely counteract any intentionally or unintentionally placed flywheel of a mass relative to the total weight of the vehicle.
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Re:store and release energy?
If you look at Rick Cavallero's replies to posts here, you'll see he directly answers that question, clarifying that there is a ratchet to prevent the propeller from directly turning the wheels (i.e. only the wheels can turn the propeller). This was how they proved to NALSA that they were not using stored energy from the propeller as a flywheel to accelerate the vehicle.
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Faraday cages
If this topic has gotten you concerned about your personal stuff getting fried (if not by a CME, then by a nuclear EMP), you may want to look into constructing a Faraday cage. Here's a couple helpful links:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100211130814AAGmUNZ
http://forums.makezine.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=752 -
Re:They own NO robots
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Re:See also MAKE Magazine
You can also check out MAKE Magazine for BYO projects. I also highly recommend going to one of the Make Faires if you can. I just went to one in September and it was amazing to see all the people and projects there.
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Recommendation: RBT's science stuff
Robert Bruce Thompson write science books for home study. He is currently working on a set of science kits to accompany them. You can find more information at Make: Science Room.
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Re:Hard to believe
There's something more that the article did not mention. It's not as if 19th century technology has been forgotten already.
If there is a market for it, you can be sure someone will build a modern machine to do it better, faster, and cheaper than those old machines do.
You've missed the point. There are people who want to hand make things, such as Makers. And there are others who want what they make. Etsy is a market for both. Other links from my bookmarks are for handspinning or making your own threads and yarn, weaving and knitting for turning those threads and yarns into cloth, and Making Cordage By Hand.
Falcon
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Re:Let me know when the price drops
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Solar BBQ (Solar Oven)
If you get tired of listen for radio waves, and looking for "wild feed" TV signals, then I'd suggest you go green and use it as a (parabolic) solar oven to cook with.
There are plenty of plans and ideas online for you to try. Some easy metal work, and food cooked for free as a reward, what more can any guy ask for?
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Re:As opposed to doers?
It's a reference to the subculture embodied by this Make.
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Next-generation robust distributed communications
I have to agree with your sentiment. And "Nature Deficit" disorder is part of it, but that does not explain why most kids may not understand what a bootloader is on a computer or whatever if they are indoors a lot around computers. I guess I was lucky to just come in at the edge of things (my first computer was a 6502-based KIM-I, and my first languages were Assembler, Commodore BASIC, and Forth). Still, anyone can run a Virtual Machine on their PC and watch what happens with a simulated computer booting up.
Maybe this is related?
:-) From:
"Ignorance, Apathy, and Greed"
http://www.progress.org/fold21.htm
"The causes of social problems exist on many levels. When we ask why social problems such as poverty, unemployment, crime, and war exist, each time we determine a cause, we can ask "why" again, as children often do until they are hushed. Poverty exists because some folks can't find jobs or the jobs pay poorly. But then why is the wage level so low? Because of the tax and land-tenure systems. Why do we have those systems? Because special interests pay to legislate it. Why do special interests get away with it? The voting structure lets them. Why does that structure exist? The voters don't demand to change it. Why not? When we dig down through all the layers to the roots of the causes, we find three fundamental causes of social problems: ignorance, apathy, and greed. The ultimate remedy for social problems therefore must confront all three root causes. It does little good to just run down the street shouting "share the rent!" or "stop war!". Uttering a slogan does no good unless it arouses sympathy."Here is something related I posted on how my perspective may be different because my mother lived through the German bombing and invasion of Rotterdam and subsequent intentional starvation:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1755090&cid=33264228Still, there are exceptions with some younger people, like the "open manufacturing" community I am involved in.
http://www.openmanufacturing.net/
Which includes indirectly the RepRap, MakerBot, Maker, etc. scenes:
http://www.makerbot.com/
http://www.makerbot.com/
http://makezine.com/
http://100kgarages.com/While small, that's an encouraging trend towards DIY and an encouraging hopeful scene.
At the other end of trends, you may find some other links through your local historical societies. I've found that mine is a place where there are people who are interested in how things work (or worked) in various ways (mostly older women in that crowd, but some older men who know a lot about machinery and industry). These are people who know all this sort of stuff:
http://www.lindsaybks.com/dgjp/index.html
My father was a Merchant Mariner for twenty-something years, then a machinist and tool-maker, so I've learned some stuff from watching him.While I agree with your parallels on the rest of the points, on basic income, while you make a good point, in general, it means something a little different (essentially, it means social security for everyone young or old as a substantial check from the government every month acknowledging their right as a citizen to the fruits of some of the industrial commons, as a formal government program to deal with rich/poor divides, the concentration of wealth, the lack of jobs, etc. in a systematic way still within a capitalist framework).
http://www.usbig.net/whatisbig.html -
Re:Amateur satellites
The antenna issue can be dealt with but how would he know how to find the satellite out in the backcountry? He'd have to lug a laptop with sat tracking software installed along with him.
There is sat tracking software for both Android and the iPhone.
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Re:Amateur satellites
The antenna issue can be dealt with but how would he know how to find the satellite out in the backcountry? He'd have to lug a laptop with sat tracking software installed along with him. Besides, working satellites can be pretty tricky. Not only do you have to track the moving bird with your antenna, you have to continually adjust your frequencies to compensate for the Doppler Effect. The OP doesn't even have his ticket yet; it might be a little much to expect an inexperienced operator to make a satellite contact.
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Re:No Mistake
As weird as this is to the "concerned parents and teachers" in Oklahoma, it is a basic effect of our minds and perception. There are no demons, no narcotic gateways, no pushers, and for most people, no permanent effects(*).
When the "Brain Machine" aka Sound-Light Machine (SLM) article came out in MAKE, I immediately built one. For me, it works great, and the visuals I see tend to be geometric patterns, depending on the frequency of the beats. It can be quite intense. For those who haven't seen this, apart from the silly graphics on the glasses as pictured in the article, the "brain machine" is a pair of safety glasses with LEDs, the microcontroller, and a headphone jack. The LEDs flash in synchronicity to the binaural beats, and this is what makes it so powerful -- your brain gets two very important senses stimulated the same way. Once the sequence finishes, the effect is totally over, there is no linger feeling, or "high" or demonic possession.
They used to sell audio cassettes that had binaural beat recordings. After I built the SLM, a friend showed me cassettes he had purchased a couple decades ago in Europe, but I haven't heard them to compare.
(*) The only caution I can think of is the possibility of bad effects in people susceptible to seizures. I don't know enough about that condition to know if seizures can be triggered through our hearing, but the SLM-like devices could possibly be a trigger to light-sensitive individuals.
One can find lots of related devices on the net. In no order are:
MindSpa
Procyon AVS
For helping with autism: Audio/Visual EntrainmentSeeing this video I can't help but laugh. It's the same tired Suburbanite Scare Story that D&D was in the 70's-80's, or that "satanic cults" were in the 80's.
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Check out the open manufacturing mailing list etc.
http://groups.google.com/group/openmanufacturing
"We bring free and open source software development methodology to the physical world."I help moderate that list, which ranges over a variety of related topics. There are many other related places you can look at or ask questions at, too; some other links to get started which are often more shelter-related:
http://www.inhabitat.com/
http://www.os-house.org/english/os-house/home
http://ostatic.com/blog/open-source-house-launches-design-competitionOther general resources:
http://makezine.com/
http://www.appropedia.org/ -
Re:I got one....I have several coworkers who have done this, using DC motors from treadmills and blades made from pieces of 6" schedule 40 plastic pipe cut on an angle, a la the MAKE magazine plans here, with more details in this version. The problem is that 1: most places simply don't have enough wind to make energy generation worthwhile, and 2: those that do, often have storms in which the wind is so great it destroys the wind turbine. My friend who lives in Wyoming has built several vertical-axis turbines using 55 gallon drums with blades attached to the outside, that do okay (but not well, because they're mounted pretty close to the ground -- but they've survived the occasional 100mph windstorm) while my friends here in Colorado have made ones that have produced a consistent 40-60 watts until a windstorm has destroyed them, in both cases ripping the mooring lines and their concrete footings out of the ground and smashing the turbine when it hit the ground. They're very simple, just a commercial generator with blades spinning it directly.
A successful design needs to have some system for surviving gusts, and every design I've seen adds a lot of extra parts. Tails that predispose the propeller to point out of the wind, work well, but seem to impact the efficiency pretty heavily. The best designs use controllable-pitch props, but that's an innately difficult bit of mechanical engineering, adding lots of moving parts.
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Re:I got one....I have several coworkers who have done this, using DC motors from treadmills and blades made from pieces of 6" schedule 40 plastic pipe cut on an angle, a la the MAKE magazine plans here, with more details in this version. The problem is that 1: most places simply don't have enough wind to make energy generation worthwhile, and 2: those that do, often have storms in which the wind is so great it destroys the wind turbine. My friend who lives in Wyoming has built several vertical-axis turbines using 55 gallon drums with blades attached to the outside, that do okay (but not well, because they're mounted pretty close to the ground -- but they've survived the occasional 100mph windstorm) while my friends here in Colorado have made ones that have produced a consistent 40-60 watts until a windstorm has destroyed them, in both cases ripping the mooring lines and their concrete footings out of the ground and smashing the turbine when it hit the ground. They're very simple, just a commercial generator with blades spinning it directly.
A successful design needs to have some system for surviving gusts, and every design I've seen adds a lot of extra parts. Tails that predispose the propeller to point out of the wind, work well, but seem to impact the efficiency pretty heavily. The best designs use controllable-pitch props, but that's an innately difficult bit of mechanical engineering, adding lots of moving parts.
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Makezine!!!
http://makezine.com/ would be the modern day Byte.
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makezine?
Makezine is the closest thing I've seen to anything like that lately. Lots of Arduino projects. I've also linked some projects you might find interesting:
How to program a person.
How to scavenge a CD drive for parts.
Arduino accelerometer.
Electronics enclosure.
But I'm probably way off, since it sounds like you're looking for software projects, not hardware. -
makezine?
Makezine is the closest thing I've seen to anything like that lately. Lots of Arduino projects. I've also linked some projects you might find interesting:
How to program a person.
How to scavenge a CD drive for parts.
Arduino accelerometer.
Electronics enclosure.
But I'm probably way off, since it sounds like you're looking for software projects, not hardware. -
makezine?
Makezine is the closest thing I've seen to anything like that lately. Lots of Arduino projects. I've also linked some projects you might find interesting:
How to program a person.
How to scavenge a CD drive for parts.
Arduino accelerometer.
Electronics enclosure.
But I'm probably way off, since it sounds like you're looking for software projects, not hardware. -
makezine?
Makezine is the closest thing I've seen to anything like that lately. Lots of Arduino projects. I've also linked some projects you might find interesting:
How to program a person.
How to scavenge a CD drive for parts.
Arduino accelerometer.
Electronics enclosure.
But I'm probably way off, since it sounds like you're looking for software projects, not hardware. -
makezine?
Makezine is the closest thing I've seen to anything like that lately. Lots of Arduino projects. I've also linked some projects you might find interesting:
How to program a person.
How to scavenge a CD drive for parts.
Arduino accelerometer.
Electronics enclosure.
But I'm probably way off, since it sounds like you're looking for software projects, not hardware. -
It's called "The Internet"
I learned on Byte and Compute! as well but that's because back then that's all there was. That and a few books.
Now there's a gajillion ways now to be a techie. Whether it's coding to the metal or using JavaScript or Flash, using Java or C# or C++ or C or hand coding assembly. The number of ways to get the same buzz I got from those magazines in the early 80s has increased exponentially.
If you're stuck in the 80s though and just want to hand poke hardware then try the Arduino movement or one of these
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/12/fun_games_and_entertainment_open_so.html
And no, I'm not dissing those projects. I'm just trying to say that writing something in JavaScript or Python gives me the same feeling I got back in the 80s from typing in programs out of Compute! It's 2010. I'd much rather be programming in C# on XNA on my PC/360 than in basic or assembly on my Atari800.
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Makezine
Just have a look here for inspiration: Makezine.
I'm in no way (apart from spiritually;) affiliated with yada yada yada -
EEG/EKG open hardware projects?
Others have suggested that you work on open source projects. You also indicated interest in EEG. This site has a number of open source projects that are doing good and involve serious research and development. I would look in the medical area for the most serious projects.
If I had more time and a little more electronics engineering skill I would be participating in the EKG project. Working well, it would save lives in many countries where cost of portable equipment is a major factor.
Just a thought.
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Terrible, possibly fatal blow to the economy
Without the 8 or so hours a day that cable channels broadcast mindless infomercials, retail activity in the U.S. will grind to a halt.
Meanwhile, I'll be sitting pretty with crystal clear reception of the two dozen or so locally broadcast channels, thanks to the home brew dipole antenna I made with plans from MAKE magazine.
Cut the coax!
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Re:These are NOT big numbers.
A billion dollars is not a big number, and not really worthy of tooting ones horn over. Are you kidding me? And 50 million dollars for an industry isn't even enough to launch a magazine over. Wow.
Yep. Sure isn't. (and yes, I know this is not quite what you meant. I couldn't resist!)
and I think that everyone here is missing the point. It's not "wow, $50 million? that's a big industry!" It's more "wow, $50 million? OS hardware is growing fast from the ~$0 from about 5 years ago." And FYI, SparkFun Electronics, one of the companies listed, makes more than $10 million in annual revenue, which is some serious growth for one company in a new field. Couple that with sheer awesome, and you get a powerful combination.
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Re:We have it. It's called the World Wide Web.
Who controls the data you enter into an OpenID account?
I do. I'm not sure OpenID works they way you think it does.
I'm not even sure how OpenID works. I regularly read the blog entries for MAKE Magazine. One day they switched their commenting system credentials, and it says you can log in with OpenID. Oh, and another page somewhere says that if you've got an account with Google, you've got an OpenID. "Great!", I thought. Except I couldn't figure out how the hell to log in with my google/OpenID to the MAKE blog commenting system.
I'm a software professional. I research and dig through code all the time. I use my Google-fu to find answers. After an hour of surfing, I gave up trying to find the answer to HOW to use my Google acct as an OpenID and log in. I just abandoned the idea of contributing useful comments to the blog. I don't know whether to blame MAKE, OpenID, or myself for not researching for more than an hour.
(In fact, at the moment of this writing, http://www.openid.net/ is answering HTTP requests with some kind of incompete TGZ response content type. wtf?)
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Re:First there were hackers.
OK how about I redeem myself with Doc Brown
Yea, that's better.
I haven't done much hacking in a long tyme, years, myself. About all I do is cooking and gardening. So I've been thinking of combining electronics and gardening. Makezine printed an article on using a Garduino microcontroller to garden. It measures how much light and water plants get and if needed will turn on grow lights or a water pump. It's a bit late for this year though. Now what I'd do if I had a greenhouse would be to add heating, preferably geothermal, then I could add a month or two to garden.
Falcon
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Re:Short list
That's a great list, I have every one of those and use them often, but it has a very steep starting point.
Books like Gettng Started in Electronics by Forrest Mimms, Practical Electronics for Inventors, Tab Electronics Guide to Understanding Electricity and Electronics (2000) by Randy Slone, Teach Yourself Electricity and Electronics (5th ed.) by Stan Gibilisco, Grob's Basic Electronics by Mitchel E. Schultz, or MAKE: Electronics: Learning Through Discovery by Charles Platt are more suitable first book for a starting point.
Also ARRL's Ward Silver has a great little hands-on book of lessons, ARRL's Hands-On Radio Experiments that is cheap ($20 US) and a great 2nd book. (Electrical Engineering 101 2nd. ed by Darren Ashby is another great 2nd book, oriented to new EE students / grads).
Make-zine and their blog are full of interesting hobbyist oriented stuff for beginners, and cool projects to inspire you to learn more.
For licensed amateur radio operators, the QRP community and their own QRPedia is a area of kit-building and home-made of simple radio transmitters and receivers that can be simple to get started, and fun to operate (as the solar cycle improves).
All About Circuits is partial (unfinished) online basic electricity and electronics textbook.
Fun stores (of many) include Ada Fruit Industries, and SparkFun.
The more hobbyist friendly big parts distributors in US are Jameco, Digikey, and Mouser. Anyone interested should request a catalog from them. They also ship to Canada, and Digikey does operate in Europe, but Farnell is generally better to deal with. G3SEK's Technical Topics website includes a list of UK electronics suppliers that deal with individuals (rather than businesses-only).
Enjoy!
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Re:Short list
That's a great list, I have every one of those and use them often, but it has a very steep starting point.
Books like Gettng Started in Electronics by Forrest Mimms, Practical Electronics for Inventors, Tab Electronics Guide to Understanding Electricity and Electronics (2000) by Randy Slone, Teach Yourself Electricity and Electronics (5th ed.) by Stan Gibilisco, Grob's Basic Electronics by Mitchel E. Schultz, or MAKE: Electronics: Learning Through Discovery by Charles Platt are more suitable first book for a starting point.
Also ARRL's Ward Silver has a great little hands-on book of lessons, ARRL's Hands-On Radio Experiments that is cheap ($20 US) and a great 2nd book. (Electrical Engineering 101 2nd. ed by Darren Ashby is another great 2nd book, oriented to new EE students / grads).
Make-zine and their blog are full of interesting hobbyist oriented stuff for beginners, and cool projects to inspire you to learn more.
For licensed amateur radio operators, the QRP community and their own QRPedia is a area of kit-building and home-made of simple radio transmitters and receivers that can be simple to get started, and fun to operate (as the solar cycle improves).
All About Circuits is partial (unfinished) online basic electricity and electronics textbook.
Fun stores (of many) include Ada Fruit Industries, and SparkFun.
The more hobbyist friendly big parts distributors in US are Jameco, Digikey, and Mouser. Anyone interested should request a catalog from them. They also ship to Canada, and Digikey does operate in Europe, but Farnell is generally better to deal with. G3SEK's Technical Topics website includes a list of UK electronics suppliers that deal with individuals (rather than businesses-only).
Enjoy!
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Re:Breadboards!
I have wished for the past two years that I could find my old Radio Shack experimenter kit with the breadboard and spring connectors.
Yea, under my desk I have the Electronics Learning Lab. I've thought about giving it to one of my nieces. Heathkit had some good ones too. Now we have Make Zine and Craft Zine for makers and other Do It Yourselfers.
Falcon
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Re:Forrest Mims
If you're going with Forrest Mims, go all the way and get his Electronics Learning Lab. From there check out MakerShed's Intro Electronics. Also check out, and subscribe to, Make Zine. You mention micro-controllers, they have a number of projects that will let you learn them. One I liked and thought about trying was Garduino: Gardening + Arduino. This project uses an Arduino controller to control how much light and water plants get.
Now the OP asked about ham radio and CB, the best thing there is to find a local amateur radio group and ask them about learning. I don't know if things have changed much, but the local groups I knew or heard of were willing to help new people. They even had free classes.
Falcon
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Re:Forrest Mims
If you're going with Forrest Mims, go all the way and get his Electronics Learning Lab. From there check out MakerShed's Intro Electronics. Also check out, and subscribe to, Make Zine. You mention micro-controllers, they have a number of projects that will let you learn them. One I liked and thought about trying was Garduino: Gardening + Arduino. This project uses an Arduino controller to control how much light and water plants get.
Now the OP asked about ham radio and CB, the best thing there is to find a local amateur radio group and ask them about learning. I don't know if things have changed much, but the local groups I knew or heard of were willing to help new people. They even had free classes.
Falcon
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Non-wifi options
Parabolics are finicky and hard to build. A cantenna is much easier.
An active repeater is preferable but is not legal to make unless you're a cell phone company (special government licenses, hence the high price). Passive repeaters are laughably cheap and better than nothing. They have a directional outside antenna, which you orient towards the nearest cell tower, and an omni inside antenna for reradiating the signal inside your house.
If you're dying to communicate without wifi, you COULD use APRS (warning: 90's era webpage) to send texts over HAM bands. This is a popular interface for DIY mobile trackers: you can transmit and receive GPS coordinates over handheld radios, decoding with a laptop or microprocessor. No cell phone necessary.
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Android did it
Something like the "Android controlled door opening Linux WiFi router" (via Make)
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Re:No stylus eh?
If you mean handwriting support, you're boned. If you just want a stylus for being a bit more precise: http://www.google.com/search?q=stylus+for+iphone http://tenonedesign.com/stylus.php http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/06/diy_iphone_stylus.html Anything that's conductive (and earthed to you) can be used as a stylus on capacitive screens. My missus has even used a mushroom to type on my N1.
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Re:The Gaussian
This is really quire unfair when you look at the magazine historically.
Popular Mechanics published science and craft projects for both kids and adults for the better part of 100 years.
It's amazing how better written old Popular Mechanics were, a lot closer to what Make magazine is now, at least in spirit.
By comparison, modern day issues are mostly consumer-toy magvertisements and fluff pieces.
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Re:Doesn't surprise me
Why can't I buy a frame that simply displays a
.RSS on the internet?Get a Chumby. Or if that's too cute, just buy the Chumby guts and put 'em in your own frame. Screen's a bit small, but it's designed (and intended) to be hacked.
In answer to your question - because nobody pays $100 for something that's just a digital picture frame, and if you're selling them for $20, you've gotta have a pay "service" with recurring revenue to make the business plan work. Knocks most of us techies out of the market. And Grandma won't want to deal with setting up RSS feeds, she just wants something that's easy to set up, and she won't notice the $5/month or whatever the fee is.
As of a couple of years ago, 580,000 people still rent their landline phones from AT&T, and have paid upwards of $10,000 over their lifetimes. We're not talking smartphones here, we're talking that old rotary-dial thing from the 50s.
Never underestimate the power of inertia.
Back in the dialup days, I paid the phone company $8/month for an "answering machine service". When I was on dialup, it was nice to have all incoming calls routed to voicemail. On broadband, no need to pay $8/month for the rest of my life when a $5 surplus answering machine would have done just as well at screening out telemarketers. And yet after I switched to DSL, I took three months to get off my ass and cancel the silly $8/month charge. D'oh.
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Make Magazine!
My 13yr old son has found Make Magazine to be wonderful read. Their associated store has some great stuff.
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making
Face it, you are a nation of consumers with no real manufacturing left.
The US still has manufacturing though much of it is hidden and you have to look for it. Check out Etsy, the place to buy and sell hand made things. Makezine and Craftzine are American zines for American makers and crafters. The US still has spinners who spin and create their own threads. Some of whom will go on to make their own cloth, others sell their threads to those who will make cloth. Then they will make or sell to those who make clothing. Only a few blocks from where I am typing this there's a workshop for hand bound books. Actually Minneapolis has a few places that custom bind books.
And this isn't particularly a dig at the US
... I think all Western economies will go the same way, as the governments and people all have the same short-sighted attitude. Pretty soon the only things left will be service jobs and tech jobs in the West, all manufacturing and production will be done in China and the surrounding ASEAN nations.Ah but those other nations will become like the West too. The beauty of freer markets is that they improve everyone's lives who are allowed to participate. Your sweatshop is their employees' good life. Even Chinese want their iPhones.
Falcon
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Re:Star Trek.....
has any cell phone company even thought to license and/or make a functional cell phone of the replica of the Star Trek communicator of the original series?
"Make" are way ahead of you...
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/11/star_trek_bluetooth_communicator.html
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Re:Awesome.
I'd go for self-built polished concrete with inset optic fibres - like this guy: http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/09/how-to_polished_concrete_desk.html
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Re:This is great!
And, boy, you lose of those fuckin' shoes or they getcha!
Yeah, you know, I was worried about RFID in my soles so I made me some sandals* just to be safe.
;)* this is not my page
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Re:Teach 'em something useful
I'd also argue that DIY Tech should have a stronger electronics background
Why an electronics background? Being able to grow your own food may be more useful if you want Do It Yourself projects. That or building a shelter. Of course being able to repair if not design and build your own electronics could pay more than being able to clothe, feed, and shelter yourself with your own hands. Then again why limit yourself, why not learn unrelated subjects? For instance "Makezine" has had projects on mycology or growing mushrooms as well as on using a Gardino microprocessor to water an indoor garden, give them more light, or warn when it gets too cold.
I read "Makezine" and want to try to do half of the projects it has. Unfortunately while I have plenty of tyme I don't have much money, I'm on disability and don't work. Perhaps I can make things and sell them.
Falcon