Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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110 of 114 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A geeky winner!, February 28, 2005
Make: Technology on Your Own Time is not a book... exactly. It's a mook, which is a hybrid of a magazine and a book. It's a magazine, but not a typical one. In my initial perusal, I think I wasn't high on it because I'm not into home projects because I don't have time.
I read it closely. Shortly, I became engaged and enjoyed reading the articles. Though I don't plan to make anything (like I'm going to put a monorail in my backyard-yes, this is a real project), the stories and the writing drew me in.
I like geeky things, but I'm not a geek in terms of building computers from scratch and hacking gadgets. These are the kinds of projects covered in the mook. The premiere issue includes the following projects: magnetic stripe card reader, camera on a kite, $14 video camera stabilizer or buy one, and a 5-in-1 network cable.
The quarterly mook has a Web site with things not covered in the print edition as well as a blog. Its design is clever with color codes on the cover and side for the major projects. The initial issue has 192 pages of quality paper and color printing to justify $8.74 an issue.
The mook has a homemade yet professional feel and has "home improvement" style fonts to add to its DIY (do-it-yourself) theme. The photos give the impression they're taken by average people and not photographers. They're good quality and complement the articles.
People who don't have time to build and like technology will find it an engrossing read thanks to the personable writing and instructions that don't make eyes glaze. Few new magazines make it past the first year or so. Make should thrive for years to come.
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33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Read, May 29, 2006
This quarterly magazine really hits the spot, if you're in its crosshairs. It's a clean miss for others.
It's pretty easy to tell whether you're in the target audience. Do you have a closet full of decommisioned PCs, cell phones, and other 21st-century rubble that you just know you could do "something" with? Do you have a Dremel tool, fine-tipped soldering iron, and more than one kind of epoxy in the house? Do the phrases "It works" and "It's beautiful" mean roughly the same thing to you? Does the idea of a home CNC milling machine stir you to jealousy or a quick look at your checkbook? Two or more yes answers probably qualify you as the intended reader.
This is about hacking your PC mouse or the cage for your pet mouse, about resurrecting last year's laptop as an electronic photo frame, and about how simple a robot control can be (you'd be surprised). It's like Popular Mechanics, but for the people who consider software, resistors, and pieces from antique clocks to be interchangeable. Although a few of the ideas in each issue have low-tech appeal, most are aimed at skill sets from "geeky highschooler" to "electronics professional".
This magazine comes from O'Reilly, the publisher who fills the bookshelves of dilbertian cube farms everywhere. In some ways, this looks like a self-concious attempt at community-building, creating a forum for home robot-builders and artisans of the silicon age. Well, maybe that's not a bad thing - the communities are out there, but not easy for a beginner to find or to break into. It also helps that the the minimal advertising (part of the reason for the hefty cover price) is well targeted to the electronic and gadgeteering hobbyist. The title is only up to issue number 6 at this writing, so I'm not sure that it's wholly found itself yet. For example, I would have preferred a schematic for some of the circuits in addition to the assembly instructions. Still, with a scriptwriter from MacGyver, there's a lot to like here - for the right reader.
//wiredweird
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48 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
a geeky blend of all my favorite mags, March 9, 2005
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!
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by Mark Frauenfelder
by Mark Frauenfelder
by MAKE magazine and Instructables.com The editors
by Make Magazine
by Mark Frauenfelder
by Staff Of O'Reilly Media
