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

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. :)

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.