24 March 2005
Thu, 24 Mar 2005 14:43:00 GMT
Mark Frauenfelder (Editor)
2005-03-24
A great magazine I’ve been looking forward to getting for awhile now, with all kinds of interesting stuff. How to make real awesome stuff, directions and photos, stories, reviews of neat techo gear, and a great read. I’ll be waiting for awhile to get my next one though, unfortunately.
The only magazine I’ve ever missed not re-subscribing to is Popular Science, and this magazine kicks it’s ass. Here’s the stuff I foldede the page over or underlined:
- Backyard Monorail: Some guy in California build himself a one car monorail 5-10 feet off the lawn in his backyard (!!), with steamed and curved wood tracks powered with a motorcycle engine. It looks real sweet. 14
- MIT Center for Bits and Atoms: A lab where you can make ”(almost) anything your want.” Real nice miling machine plus cad software plus a lot of other neat gadgets ($25,000 worth) and you could have a lot of fun, I bet. 24
- Getting Started in Heirloom Technology: Looking into the past for valid solutions to current problems. I’ve always thought that society these days is way too overbuild, reaching for the sky when just staying on the ground actually works lots better. Good evidence of that here, along with a nice looking booklist [note to self: be sure to check for them at the library]. 43
All four of the features look great, with easy to follow directions and real helpful illustrations. I shoud buid all of them, but’s I particularly like the idea of making a magstripe reader. 54 – 117
- Magnetic Stripe Reader: How to make a little slide through thing, and interface it with your computer (unfortunately not your mac). I think it would be even sweeter with a usb interface, but I don’t know if the software would work. 106
- Soldering Primer: The dumbasses guide to learning to solder. I’ve done a little soldering, but never much more then connecting wires, and I’ve never done it that well. But a real nice guide (illustrated, again). 164
- Lab-o-Rama: Nice looking ‘electronic project lab,’ I have one a lot like it but older and I’m sure it didn’t cost $75. But it’s sweet for learning the basics of building electronics, and I pulled it out of my closet maybe a year ago to keep on playing with. It’s fun! 184
Overall – worth the subscription. And it was sweet: I got the magazine yesterday, snatched it and started reading it right away, only to come back and find another one in the pile of mail! Here’s what O’Reilly had to say: @Please disregard the additional copy of Make you received, the extra copy
was sent to ensure that you would receive an issue.@ That’s impressive…
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