22 December 2005
Thu, 22 Dec 2005 19:58:00 GMT
O'Reilly Publishing
2005-12-22
So make came out about a month ago. My copy got shuffled through the mail somewhere, never quite getting to me. I sent a nice note to the folks at O’Reilly, and they were kind enough to send me a second copy, although it was a bit scuffed and coming unbound.
Impressive stuff:
- Beatbox – little plastic boxes that hook up to a central controller and tap against whatever surface they rest on. You set them with a sensor on the top by tapping out whatever you want, just with your fingers. There’s a great video on the site. 22
- On page 127 they have a nice bit on automating your coffe brewer (I was pissed they dedicated 20 pages to coffee, yuck) with x10 and misterhouse, a collection of perl scripts to manage the x10. I can’t wait until I get my own place because I’ll trick it up so good with this kind of stuff.
- Page 168 there’s a sweet looking guitar that hooks into your computer via usb and comes with software for learning to play. Not only that, but under the fretboard there’s an array of LED lights that work so when your playing along with the lesson, finger positions light up and you know where to go. It’s impressive, but I wonder whether or not it plays nice with macs.
- 182 there’s a guy with an insane computer desk setup: “One mouse to rule them all.” Then the next two pages are impressive. A DRM rant from Cory Doctorow followed by a few thoughts on wabi – sabi.
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