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.'"

Comments

Good magazine so far...

[dafragsta]

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.

Get a subscription to MAKE...

[eggoeater]

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.

url to the mag

[Racer X]

http://www.oreillynet.com/oreilly/make/

It may be a throwback

[LetterJ]

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.

my inlaws

[udderly]

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.'

Re:my inlaws

[OglinTatas]

You may be joking about the home suture, but In my younger days, I had successfully sealed a few slices and gashes with superglue or regular sports tape. No major vessels were compromised, so it wasn't all that spectacular. But in fact, surgeons use a version of superglue for their non-suture sutures. It is available to the home user under the brands dermabond or liquid bandage.

I used to be a DIY type, making homebrew beer, DIY beer coolers, DIY fish "pond" (in my dorm room) with DIY biological filter, etc. Several years after college if finally occured to me that what I made was invariably more expensive, less effective/efficient, bigger and just plain uglier than the commercially produced equivalents. And so I quit. (I still subscribed to MAKE when it was first published)

I think the point of DIY is being creative in solving problems, to be inventive, to have a sense of accomplishment when something is made. "I did that" instead of "I bought that." It is something that any DIYer can appreciate himself, even if no one around him does.

On a distantly related note, I fear there may be a decline in ingenuity in general, as mass produced fare is so cheap and so readily available that few people feel the urge to fiddle, to improve anything, since they can just go out and buy something else.

I'm currently mulling over a project to convert an optical mouse into a DIY (right) foot operated computer pointer with (left) foot operated pedals instead of buttons. I know there are commercial products that do this ($130-$200+) but they aren't _exactly_ what I envision.

Some other DIY/tinkering stuff

[Mille Mots]

I can't listen to the interview (at work), but I think I get the idea behind MAKE (a DIY project magazine that makes use of broken, obsolete, or unused gadgets around the house, eh?). It sounds like a great addition to my collection of Nuts & Volts magazine, QST, and Circuit Cellar.

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. :)

I prefer...

[Fallingcow]

./configure magazine.

When I was a little boy...

[TomorrowPlusX]

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.

Re:When I was a little boy...

[Dogtanian]

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.

No, the reason you grew up as a sterile, hairless wimp is because all those highly-toxic-explosive-compounds your father and grandfather played around with had horrible effects on their genes and reproductive systems.

Re:Pick your Poison

[Dogtanian]

The solution is to make cash.so.2.0.1 a softlink to cash.so.0.0.1; this fools the installation into thinking you have greater 'cash' than you actually do.

You'll run into compatibility problems when you start invoking the more advanced 'relationship' or 'marriage' functionality; the program will complain vociferously, but let's face it; most of us just want to play around with 'girl' for an evening or two, and then try something else. "cash.so.0.0.1" does fine, so long as you can pretend it's "cash.so.2.0.1".