Customer Reviews

MAKE: Technology on Your Time Vol. 1

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

While flipping through this "mook" (as it apparently is called), it brought back childhood memories of browsing my Dad's Popular Science (or was it Popular Mechanics?) magazines. I like the smaller, "bookish" form factor as it makes it feel more - well, uhh - like a book. Since this is a magazine, I was curious to see how many ads I was going to have to wade through. I was pleasantly surprised to discover there were hardly any; I hope they keep them to a minimum going forward.

The "how to" articles are very well done, with a great amount of step-by-step information in both visual and written detail. My only problem now is time. Every project looked like so much fun it was disappointing to realize I wouldn't be able to do them all before the next issue would arrive and give me a whole new set of cool projects. =) My personal time management issues aside, Make is high-quality publication, top to bottom.

What's not to love? The 9"x7" book format is much better than the typical magazine size, all the articles are interesting, and almost no fluff.

My only dislikes: The body type is really small, and some of the sidebars are set even smaller. Us older geeks really need a slightly larger font. I'm not a big fan of body copy set in sans-serif either, but can live with it.

I subscribed, PLEASE ship this in a poly bag. The Post Office can to cruel things to a magazine.

I stay on the lookout for the "Boys" guides, you know, those old books dealing with science and technology (a hundred years old, perhaps, but still quite educational). I've looked into a few more modern magazines, such as Popular Mechanics (good for what it is), Wired (mostly a culture thing, I guess), and 2600 (fine, if my goal was to electronically knock over a Target store or something).
This is what I was after: a 'book' series dealing with hacking together hardware, making stuff work, and making stuff work better.
Now my 'to do' list has grown substantially, with a bunch of things I really hadn't thought of doing!

I just received the premiere issue of Make Magazine from O'Reilly yesterday. Let me just say this mag is a geek's dream come true. It's not a magazine about coding. Heck, I'm not sure if calling it a magazine is even accurate. It's more of a journal or zine (but with higher production values). A geek quarterly, if you will.

For example... the premiere issue features an article on aerial photography. Not geeky enough for you? Ok, how about aerial photography accomplished by rigging up a camera to a kite? Still not geeky enough? Throw in a homemade mechanism for triggering the shutter from the ground. The best part is, this isn't just an article full of theory. These guys DO this stuff. The article is full of pictures, plans and step by step instructions on how to make it happen.

That's not all... other How-To articles include: making a 5-in-1 network cable, making a magnetic stripe reader, XM Radio hacks, tips and tricks for your IPOD, gmail hacks, IPAQ hacks and a lot more. This puppy is just under 200 pages of D-I-Y technology.

Still not geeky enough? How about an article on how to make your own railgun, using magnets, a ruler and some steel bearings? There's also an article about hacking robotic dogs to sniff out toxic waste. This is geek goodness in all it's glory.

If you like reading 2600 (the hacker quarterly), Maximum PC and Scientific American, roll them all into one and you have Make (but without the attitude of Maximum PC and the leetspeak of 2600). I'm gonna subscribe!

Not sure what magazine Brandnew was reading when he complained "70% of contents are sponsored, and ads appear everywhere", but it wasn't this one. Make has VERY few ads. I just quickly thumbed through this issue (Vol. 1), and was only able to find eleven pages that have ads on them, including inside the covers and the backcover. It's possible that I missed one or two others, but there's no way you'd ever say they were "everywhere". The ads that do appear are all relavent to the target audience. Like most magazines, they do have product reviews, but they're contained in about 10 pages, and again are all relevant to the reader.

Later issues do have more ads then the early ones, but even then, they are all clustered at the beginning and end of the magazine. In issue 4 (the latest) there are probably 15 pages of ads, and none appear in the main content area, between page 75 and 184.

Ok, now that I'm done debunking the nasty rumors spread by others, what do I think of the magazine itself? I love it. The projects are interesting, fun and informative. It's also one of the rare publications that isn't scared to publish ideas that could hurt someone. They publish all of the appropriate warnings, but they trust that you're smart enough to take responsibility for your own actions. Most of the projects are completely safe, but if you're buying this for your kids, I'd recommend that you check out each issue with them & decide on which projects they can do by themselves & which are better to do together.

Of course not every project will appeal to every reader, but they'll likely give you ideas that can be applied to other projects that do interest you. It might not appeal to everyone, but if it sounds interesting, you'll most likely love it.

I follow this category of projects on the net very closely and even recognizing some of articles in Make #1 as seen before I can say that I didn't enjoy reading magazine like Make in very long time.

I'm web developer myself and not particularly crazy about DIY, but I can recognize good magazine when I see it.

There is only one BAD thing about it is that it's not monthly - I can't wait for next issue.

I'd read about this on Slashdot.org, and knew I'd enjoy it, but put it off because I already have many projects going on in addition to school, a job, and family. I picked up Issue Two in an airport, and ordered both Issue 1 and a subscription when I returned.
It has experiements for computer types, Windows, Linux and Mac users, kite photography, Legos, robotics, case mods (Atari 2600 running XP, for example). Few ads, few product reviews, and in places there are two projects per page. I'm irrationally exhuberant and it's been a month. Check out makezine.com for a taste, then subscribe.

From my BlogSPot site: "The Boy Reviewer"

The fine people at O'Reilly have published another modern masterpiece. Think Wired meets Everything Else: The Missing Manual. My much-anticipated copy of the premier issue of Make arrived in yesterday's mail and I quickly devoured it. On the geek boards, there has been a lot of hype surrounding the launch of this new magazine and the pre-publication praise has been well-deserved. Packed with tons of tips for the tech-savvy hardware hacker as well as projects for the neophyte everyman, the first issue is a true delight. And I'm especially glad that the magazine includes projects for Apple users like myself.

Highlights of the issue include:
- step-by-step instructions for builidng your own Gauss rifle (a poor man's "particle" accelerator)
- a call for building an open-source automobile
- instructions for building a kite-born aerial camera
- hacks for the iPaq, Excel, and Airport Express
- cool iPod tricks
- 10 great Gmail hacks
- tons of other tech and real-world mods for the warranty-voider inside of each of us.

Note to friends: If I don't return your calls for the next few days, it's because I'm busy building a magstripe reader and constructing my kite-cam.

Good going, O'Reilly! I'm looking forward to the next issue the way a five-year old looks forward to Christmas!

When I was 13 (way too many years ago) I rigged a plastic camera I had received from saving bubble gum comics to a kite I got from saving green giant labels. The idea was to take a picture of my house and me from the air. My favorite toys were always built from parts of other toys.

So I was delighted to see this form of aerial photography as the cover article for the newly launched Make magazine. There were some really elegant solutions to problems I dealt with at 13. This magazine is filled with cool little projects any geek would want to play with. Build your own rail gun! That would be way better than the volcano model every other kid is bringing to science fair. The articles bring the science down to the ground where most of us can "get" it. Sometimes the underlying science is ignored altogether in favor of the sheer gee whiz of it all. But everything is fun, even if just to read about.

This is the kind of magazine you'll want to carry around with you to poke your nose in every time you have to wait in line or kill some time. I found that everywhere I went, the magazine created conversation from curious bystanders.

My only complaint, and it's a small one, is that all of the computer projects (only a few) were based on Apple computers. I'm sure both of the people who own Apples have their projects built now and perhaps the editors can get to the rest of us.

Do you enjoy reading about people doing crazy things? Do you enjoy seeing people scavenge odd bits and make amazing things out of them? Do you wish that you could make something really cool? If you answered yes to even some of these questions, then buy this. From trebuchets to kite aerial photography, from soldering to interactive art, from Lego to monorails, if you have interest in any sort of unique gizmo this is for you. Make is entertainment, and manual -- as much or as little of each as you like.