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Makers of MAKE
BoredStiff writes "An NPR show called The Connection inteviewed The Makers of MAKE.
They discussed who's behind MAKE magazine, and why they think there are a lot of people out there with an interest in re-inventing with the
gadgets that run our daily lives. MAKE magazine is a deliberate throw-back to the how-to science manuals of an
earlier era -- back when technology wasn't so cheap people did more 'do it yourself.'"
I've got my first two issues and at the very least, they are interesting. They straddle the line between pure MacGyver-ness and the kinds of things you'd find in 2600 magazine.
Saturday night I'd like to MAKE my girl, but right now I cannot make ends meet.
It's great to have a magazine dedicated to the people who want to build their own stuff. I remember carving my first spoon. Out of a bigger spoon.
The problem is that you end up with all these little toy gadgets and nowhere to put them. I wish there was a magazine that explained how to build something that could be used to store those gadgets.
It's an awesome mag. The amount of detail on how to build a project is fantastic, and there's lots of small projects in addition to the two or three large projects. The editors don't mince words about telling you how to hack stuff either. The latest copy had instructions to remove macrovision on certain DVD players.
$7.95/mo, 200 GB disk, 2TBxfer, MySQL, PHP, RoR.
Do the makers of MAKE really make MAKE or is it the content that will make MAKE? Enquiring minds want to make, I mean know.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
http://www.oreillynet.com/oreilly/make/
It may be a throwback, but the issues so far have still had a heavy bias toward the whole casemod/ipod/gaming end of the "making stuff" spectrum despite the fact that there are TONS of other topics that still embody the DIY attitude, many of which are actually the same ones that were part of the earlier era of DIY. A lot of those have never gone away. Heck, the whole hippie/commune/energy conservation crowd has been doing-it-themselves for a long time, building practically everything they need.
As I've been digging to find resources for my new site (listed in my sig), I've been thrilled to discover just how many projects are out there fully-documented in arenas I've never messed in myself.
Last night, I made a batch of plastic in my kitchen to put a USB memory key back together. I found the recipe for casein plastic online, didn't have to leave the house because all of the ingredients were already there and I had never even heard of casein plastic until I stumbled across it for site research.
Projects like that, the little laser tripwire kit I found that can be combined with mirrors to give you the security grid shown in every bad heist movie, etc. are all over the place.
Fortunately, it looks like, via their blog and more recent web content (like their contest to start a dead car in the middle of nowhere) that their topics may become more diverse.
The Glass is Too Big: My Take on Things
Scientific American's Amateur Scientist has always had interesting things to make. The older columns (from before the age of lawsuits) featured more exciting things such a a 6-foot homemade rocket, atom smasher, and 20 W CO2 laser.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
The inherent DIY-ness of the 'Makers of MAKE' reminds me of my in-laws. With them (in-laws), they have a genetic predisposition which makes them have to do every task themselves, no matter how ridiculously hard and non-cost-efficient.
When he sliced open his leg, my brother-in-law was totally incensed because Walgreen's didn't sell a home suture kit (you think that I'm kidding, but I'm not). I was really scared when my wife decided that she need Lasik eye surgery and began looking at lasers on ebay and googling 'home eye surgery how to.'
Other great DIY 'tinkering' sites I like are AX84.com, 18watt.com, and Byonics.
I'd post a link to my site with pictures/notes on my own hand-built tube amp project or my mini-GPS/APRS project (not yet out of planning), but I'm afraid of the /.-ing I'd take. :)
If you've ever built a Heathkit something or another, or a old analog signal cable descrammbler from radio shack parts (or for the newer generation, if you've ever modded your xbox I guess), you owe it to yourself to check out the Make magazine. It has lots of great projects and it proves to my wife that I am not a crazy as some other people.
"Look Lois, the two symbols of the Republican Party: an elephant, and a fat white guy who is threatened by change."
./configure magazine.
In other news, the makers of MAKE magazine sue the makers of the popular command "make", forcing hunders of thousands of l{u,i}n{i,u}x users to type "eckyeckyeckySHAZAM" instead. Man pages proved to be inconclusive and no help to confused sysadmins.
Will wank off Linus Torvalds for fame.
I thought everybody knew that Stu Feldman wrote make(1)?
Oh, wait...
Sure, you probably could find the info in any of these articles if you looked on the web. But would you have looked? The topics are eclectic, many covering things I'll never build, but it's interesting to read about what others are into. And I like having a physical book. I can read it when I'm at lunch or in a waiting room. I'm looking forward to being a long-time subscriber. I hope it does well. /K
As a former computer magazine editor myself, I kind of wondered about the viability of a dead-tree magazine for hackers in the age of the URL myself, especially one that costs fifteen bucks an issue. But MAKE has been very well-received, and they're supporting it with an active daily blog. I've enjoyed both issues so far, and am eagerly anticipating the next. It probably helps that it's from the O'Reilly book people, who really grok hackers, since they come from the same gene pool. Plus their production values are incredible. Full color on every page, high-quality paper, etc. Copies of MAKE will be around at least as long as those old National Geographics in your grandfather's attic.
Serving your airship needs since 1995.
Sort of. And probably a good one.
I grew up reading do-it-yourself books, encyclopedias, magazines (especially Popular Science and Popular Mechanics of the 50s, 60s, and 70s saved by family). Casting aluminum myself was childs play given I went to school with kids who built calculators out of discrete components in elementary school. Do-it-yourself was just what we did. It wasn't different than catching carp yourself instead of pestering mom and dad to buy them for the tank, or sometimes pond you made with a shovel and hose.
Looking this over, I'll probably eventually get around to subscribing. If only American schools of today put more emphasis on the basics that allow us to build more complicated technology. Wood shop, metal shop, auto, electronics, so many are now cut to nothing no matter the administration being right (the basics are reading, writing, math, history) or left (the basics are sociopolitics, emotions, and safety which precludes hands-on anything). People should know how to build the machines they use in case they ever do need to make them.
Maybe I'll buy a couple subscriptions for my local schools.
If my grammar and spelling are off, I am [distracted/tired/careless] (take your pick)
LAME!! As soon as I read this article, I tried to subscribe to Make Magazine, but they're charging SALES TAX!! I have never and will never pay sales tax on a magazine subscription!
Bad move!
This is from a site for children (and on the first page of a google search for "casein plastic"). If you're really hardcore, you may be able to deviate from the recipe and get by without an adult to help you. ;)
t Sheet=114
http://www.suzy.co.nz/suzysworld/Factpage.asp?Fac
Make Casein Plastic
Casein is a plastic that is made from milk. It was one of the first plastics ever made and was used for making things like buttons.
What you need:
An adult to help you
2/3 of a cup of milk
8 teaspoons of vinegar
a pot
a plate
a stirring spoon
What you do:Pour the milk into the pot and get an adult to help you bring it gently to the boil. When the milk begins to steam and bubble, dribble in the vinegar, stirring the milk all the time. You will see lumps begin to form. When the little lumps clump together to make a big solid lump get the adult to pour off the liquid and then tip your casein plastic lump onto a plate. When it cools a little bit mould it into a shape, like a button then leave it to harden over night. You'll end up with hard casein plastic. The first plastic that was ever invented - it's a bit different from the plastic we're used to!
When I was about 8 or 10, my father ( a machinist, and DIY type, though of a mechanical nature, not techy ) bought me four volumes of _The Boy Mechanic_ -- a *beautiful* set of books by Popular Mechanics, from the 1920's.
These books had *everything* from simple things like making your own arc-lamp to radios, to steam engines, to stirling-cycle engines, to lightweight gasoline airplane engines ( for free flight ) to chassis for a go-kart, to simple transmissions, to making your own lathe, and so on. Plus, a *lot* of pyrotechnics. A LOT of pyrotechnics.
All gorgeously illustrated in the clean slightly-post-art-nouveau style of the 20's, with little boys and teenagers doing things that would get you arrested today.
What broke my heart were paragraphs that would say "Just go to your local chemist's and buy 12 pounds of insert-highly-toxic-explosive-compound". I'd ask my dad and say, "where can I get insert-highly-toxic-explosive-compound". He'd say, "Son, we live in a pussy age where you'd get arrested for just asking about that stuff."
I guess this is how we grow up today. Sterile, hairless wimps.
lorem ipsum, dolor sit amet
If you subscribe to O'Reilly's Make magazine, use promotional code M5ZXML to get a free bonus issue (5 for $35 instead of 4).
I pay attention to what Philip Torrone is up to.
He started the engadget Podcast, hackaday, and now MAKE.
it seems like he's really good at getting cool stuff off the ground and then he leaves it to other people once its up and running
http://flashenabled.com/ is his site
"What does slashdotting mean?"
"You've never heard of slashdot?"
"I know it makes websites not work."
It's definitely a geekier magazine than most, but none of the stuff seems that unique. Many of the projects are stuff I already read about here on Slashdot or elsewhere on the net; many are oversimplified; many are not explained well enough. It was also funny that they had that article about yak-shaving, but the proposed solutions weren't that inspiring, and then the rest of the magazine is devoted to many ways of yak-shaving that they hoped would be as diverting as possible.
Of course it tries to be many things to many people. There are so many varieties of geekery, so their coverage of any one variety is cursory. Maybe for the type of geeks that have never done anything outside the software area, it's something to get their feet wet.
Popular Science sometimes finds some real, inspiring news that I didn't already read on the net. That is nice. I used to like Electronics Now back in the late 80's and early 90's; they had some really unique projects. EE Times is also an excellent industry news source, but I quit subscribing to the paper version now that it's 100% online and free. With Make, I hope that it just hasn't found its stride yet, not that it's going to be permanently just fluff.
FYI, caesin is one of the predominant proteins in milk. It is not plastic. What you are making is a coagulate, using the acid to unfold the proteins and get them to clump together.
Another description of this "plastic" is acid-precipitated cheese.
You have made a lump of mozzarella and dried it out.
Here's a quote:
9.4.5 Make plastic from milk casein
Casein is a phosphoprotein thermoplastic polymer that may be used to make insulators, buttons, handles, adhesives and artist's priming paint. We can make casein from the reaction of skimmed milk with ethanoic acid (acetic acid).
Calcium caseinate + 2H+ ---> casein + Ca2+
(i) To prepare an approximately 10% ethanoic acid (acetic acid) solution, add 1 mL of glacial acetic acid to 10 mL of water. Separate cream from milk or directly use skimmed milk.
Pour 200 mL of skimmed milk into a 500 mL beaker.
Heat the milk to 50oC and then maintain the temperature at 40 to 50oC.
Add drops of the prepared acetic acid solution to the warmed milk with constant stirring.
After all the acetic acid solution is added, continue stirring for five minutes and then leave the mixture standing until the liquid becomes clear and the separation of the casein curd from the whey is complete.
Filter the lump of casein by suction, squeeze it with a teaspoon, wash it with water, wipe it dry with a piece of filter paper, mould it into shapes and then expose it to the air for 1-2 days.
Harden the plastic by immersing the dried casein in formalin (formaldehyde solution, methanal solution.) for one day.
Finally, polish the hard casein plastic with sandpaper.
Addition of aqueous ammonia solution to the casein can make glue.
The Glass is Too Big: My Take on Things