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| Editor(s)/Author(s) | Mark Frauenfelder |
|---|---|
| Copyright | 2005 |
| Publisher | O'Reilly Media, Inc. |
| Book URL | http://www.makezine.com |
| ISBN | 0-596-10080-9 |
| Reviewer | Colin Steele |
| Review Date | November 11, 2005 |
If you're like most of us boys, there was a time in your life when you couldn't resist taking things apart to see how they worked. Your parents lived in constant fear of having their expensive electronics, washing machines, and gas-powered yard equipment disassembled.
And if you're like most of us boys, you haven't really changed much in the intervening years. Taking things apart seems to come with the chromosomes we were dealt. Enter MAKE.
We're all born with a little bit of the Tinkerer inside us. Some of us have more than others, but none can deny the impulse to mess with things. The urge is timeless. Back in 1882, the American Boy's Handy Book was first published, which covered such topics as Home-Made Hunting Apparatus, How to Make Blow-Guns and How to Rig and Sail Small Boats. Times and topics have changed, but the drive remains the same. Today, there are a bevy of publications that cater to the same instincts to tinker, including Circuit Cellar , Servo, and Nuts and Volts.
But unlike those publications, which are oriented towards specific technology hacking and tinkering niches (fetishes?), MAKE has something for everyone. There is a suitably thoughtful and highbrow consideration of the maker-friendliness of modern products by MAKE's editor, Dale Dougherty. Digerati Cory Doctorow weighs in on the subject of DRM. Uber-geek and publishing magnate Tim O'Reilly offers his two cents on the emerging user-centeredness of media in the new century.
But those are just the brainy bits.
The real fun of MAKE is in the hacking. Want to learn to weld? MAKE's got you covered. How about building a retro home entertainment center? Got it. Would you prefer some tips on setting up multiple VOIP phones using a Vonage connection? Yep.
MAKE features a dizzying range and variety of hacking tips, tricks, projects and howtos. Just skimming the articles makes me itch to run down into the basement, fire up the soldering iron and a dremel tool, and start messing with something. But, MAKE's real gems are its full-fledged projects.
Volume Three covers four big whoppers: Mod Your Rod, Halloween Haunted House Controller, VCR Cat Feeder, and Night Lighter. Mod Your Rod is actually a collection of automobile-related projects, including integrating an iPod into your car stereo, how to make biodiesel, turning your car into a mobile WiFi hotspot, and more. The articles are clear and concise, well written, and have an editorial voice that is personal and approachable. They are written by hackers, for hackers. Perhaps most important, all of them include clear and detailed instructions, materials lists, and illustrations. They're meant to be be read, sure, but clearly the point is to make something.
O'Reilly has wisely taken the values of MAKE's intended audience to heart. The form factor is a chunky 6.5" x 9.5", and MAKE weighs in at almost 200 pages. It's a full-color magazine, which is really a requirement for the DIY projects it features. It's printed on recycled paper, and subscriber issues are shipped in recyclable plastic bags. Nice touch. Fortunately, and much to O'Reilly's credit, there is a also noticeable lack of advertising in the magazine. The message comes across loud and clear, and I'm sure MAKE's intended audience appreciates is: MAKE is serious content, not an excuse to sell oodles of adverts. And we all know how much hackers and tinkerers want the stuff, not the fluff.
Published quarterly, the magazine has a companion web site which includes extra content, a weblog, podcasts, and more.
Get a subscription. It runs $9 per quarterly issue (subscription price), a bit on the steep side, but it's well worth it.
About the reviewer:
Colin Steele has worked on many interesting projects. His most recent venture is a business grade wireless network in the NoVa (Northern Virginia) region. In the past he has worked at Kesmai Games and America On-line. At Kesmai he had his fingers in the beginnings of the Voltron engine that The Sims On-line was ported to. If anyone's been looking for that guy who turned the AOL users loose on the Internet, Colin is not that guy. I repeat he had nothing to do with that. ;-) He also had nothing to do with the creation of AIM (AOL Instant Messenger).