Slashdot Mirror
'Make' Premier Issue
But enough with the links. On the front page the magazine features 181 pages for DIY technology, promising stories on aerial photography, backyard monorails, XM radio hacks, iPod tricks, DIY magnetic card reader and blogging made simple. Make is roughly half the size of a normal full-page magazine (like PC Mag or InfoWorld) and generally feels like a paperback book more than a magazine. The paper is also not the glossy print you'd see in normal magazines, it says on page 8 that they used New Leaf Paper, made 100% from post-consumer waste. Make generally uses normal-type font, which should be readable by anyone, except for some pages where they switch to really large fonts.
The magazine is broken down into several logical categories. It starts with editors' welcome letters and short features of some DIY projects people have done on their own (this guy's backyard monorail stands out). The Maker pages in this premiere issue contain an interview with Neil Gershenfeld from MIT, an article on heirloom technology, possibility of building an open-source car and an expose of Bay Area Dorkbot group.
The Projects category (starting at p. 49) is where the real fun starts. The projects take up majority of the pages, and it makes sense - looks like the authors put their best into providing excruciating details, pieces of advice and general information, so that anyone can follow their work. The projects are well-illustrated, some contain necessary diagrams and cartoon-like explanations of what needs to be done to assemble the proper devices, the step-by-step pages contain both pictures and text. Each project is sub-divided into several parts - Set up (list of everything needed before you start), Make it (the actual step-by-step instructions and discussion of the projects), Use it (reasons for tinkering with the project in the first place). The setup list is also provided on Make Web site, like here's the list of components for magnetic stripe reader.
The projects for the issue include adding a disposable camera to the kite for aerial photography, a $14 video camera stabilizer, 5-in-1 network cable (the combination of RJ45 and DB9 inputs) and the magnetic stripe reader.
The major projects are followed by the projects consuming less time and efforts. This is mainly for people who would rather spend more money at the spot, buy some cool accessory to complement their electronic device, and do minimal engineering on their own, as far as I understand. The categories include Home Entertainment, Mobile, Cars, Online, Computers and some additional projects that did not fit anywhere above. The table of contents contains the complete list of projects.
It looks like the magazine that is needed in the market. At some point playing with technology became synonymous with running to the nearest mall and getting the latest electronic gadget, and even RadioShack nowadays mostly looks like a flashy storefront for selling cell service plans and new PDAs. Make is the magazine for people who like to look under the hood, who like to work on do-it-yourself projects and who feel great accomplishment when a project is over, even though its practical usability might be questioned. Of course, the amount of projects in the magazine is a bit overwhelming, but my guess is they figure you'll find some extremely interesting and some are just not interesting at all.
Since I grew up in the Soviet Union, Make magazine reminds me of Young Technician (when technician meant someone involved with technology), a Russian must-subscribe boy magazine that would pull the latest science and technology news together, and also dedicate large portion of its pages to readers' projects. Of course, nowadays, in the age of Hack A Day, Lifehacker and numerous HOW-TOs such magazine might not exactly have the exclusive coverage of the DIY projects. Google might turn out more results, but for some of the projects it also looks like the authors were either pioneers or authorities in their field since googling for DIY aerial photography provides just Make article and a bunch of links to it.
Make is a quarterly publication, so $35 subscription fee covers only 4 issues per year. A bit expensive, but if you plan to enrich yourself and spend free time more productively, I think Make has lots of content to entice the reader and keep him busy for 3 months. First impression might not mean a whole lot, but Make was one of few magazines that I enjoyed reading from page 1 to page 192.
I think I'll wait for its successor, CMake magazine. I've heard that it's a lot easier to understand.
"Well, then fire it up and show me what this..." (sigh)
Yeah but, will it ever replace Slashdot?
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
We have to go...outside to do these projects?
I heard about this on the previous /. article, It sounded like a cool mag, but you can never be too sure. now that a real human has read it and told me about it, i am much more comfortable about shelling out my hard earned bux.
of course, now i'll have to suffer with h4x0r inferiority complex, but thats the price i'll pay....
You got yours before I got mine. I think our mailman's on a bender, again.
(Still waiting)
What'dya mean there's no BLINK tag!?
Future editions are expected to feature many such real life pictures of geeks in action, potentially attracting thousands of subscribers.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
yeah!
i've been waiting for this badboy for a while now. not that i'm actually adept at tinkering, but that's the whole idea, i guess, right?
for the meantime, i've been reading nuts and volts magazine while running the elliptical thing at the gym. its so funny, because everyone else is reading fitness magazines, and i'm lookin at inductor related schematics. wtf?
yeah i went to RPI.
"when the sun sets on the ghetto, all the broken stuff gets cold"
tar xzvf make-magazine-1.1.tar.gz
./configure --pages=192
cd make-magazine-1.1
make articles
make magazine
ROMANES EUNT DOMUS
I'll give you a hint; spin the alternator really fast with the ignition key on. Pantyhose work wonders for a makeshift engine belt, but are difficult to explain to the wife when she finds them wadded up in your glovebox.
For the pictures. Not like Playboy, for the articals
Pantyhose work wonders for a makeshift engine belt, but are difficult to explain to the wife...
Never mind that, how do you explain your sig to your wife?
Want to improve your life? This guy will show you how!
But seriously, those things were huge. It was a giddy era. Negroponte was waxing philosophical about digital this and digital that. Articles about crazy new technology abounded. Everyone walked around wearing shades because the future was so damned bright.
The future just ain't what it used to be, eh?
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
Those are all things I did, but a lot of times I feel like I'm one of the only ones here who ever did this kind of thing.
Sorry, I was busy getting laid....
http://jayceecorder.blogspot.com
* Grass-trimming Hybrid from Hell: Hacking together your Roomba and a riding mower.
* SpaceShip Two plans.
* Wood: Where does it come from?
* Trap Doors 101
* The wacky world of George Foreman Grill hacking.
* The first article of a five part series on DIY genetic engineering, describing how to modify your colonic bacteria so that your farts smell like orange potpourri. (The issue with part five, "Catgirls," is predicted to be best-seller.)