Customer Reviews

Make: Technology on Your Time, Vol. 2

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

 

 

The cover on this one is a bit deceptive since the large robot stuff is just a short article. But the rest of the magazine rocks! Great projects from simple marshmallow shooters, to a PC modded into the case of an Atari 2600, to robotic dogs and mice. There is ten solid pages on podcasting, both receiving podcasts and creating your own. If you thought the first one was great you will love this one.

Try to get your hands on the premiere edition. This is a tinkerer's dream come true. I love the MakeShift section. Never knew that aspirin adds life to a dead auto battery. Live and Learn.

Barely 2 months ago, O'Reilly put out volume 1 of this book/magazine series. Now here is volume 2. Guess they are serious about the periodical nature. As in the first volume, there is a grab bag of unpredictable moddings (this seems to be the book's favourite term). Which may well be the enduring attraction, on an ongoing basis. You just can't tell what crazy, funky stuff will show up, as you turn the pages.

Clearly, what catches your eye will vary with whomever you are. But let me describe one article. Chris Smith studied people who signed up on World of Warcraft and made a nice living by earning gold pieces and selling these on eBay. Surely, you might think, this is small scale? But he found that in 3 months, $1.3 million of these sales occurred. And the top seller made $111k. Not bad for 3 months work. Though keep in mind that in any distribution, the top person might be very unusual. Well, Smith also points out that in February 2005, the top 5 sellers made an average of $20k each! Damn!

Not so long ago (pre-Web), this would have been a pure science fiction scenario. Set in the far future. Appropriately, we are indeed in the 21st century.

If you spent any time building technical projects as a kid with your parents, this is a wonderful gift for them: it brings back the memories of some of their proudest moments.

I grew up reading "The Amateur Scientist" in "Scientific American" magazine, and built many of the projects (as well as the requisite radios and go-carts) with my Dad. Forty years later, I subscribed to Make: and realized that this is the modern successor to "The Amateur Scientist".

I bought a subscription for myself and my Dad: now, although we're seperated by miles, we can discuss the projects and relive the times we spent together building and breaking things.

If you like making stuff , or wondered how people go about inventing things, this is your magazine.
I've been inspired to make all sorts of things, and have found that my kids enjoy playing with hand made things as much, or more than any toy we can buy at the store.
There are also all kinds of great ideas for re-using technology.
It covers everything from marshmallow guns to robots. Very entertaining and inspirational and a great supplement to a good science education.

If the Make crew can keep the quality this tight, it will herald in a golden era of makers everywhere. This is a fitting follow-up to the amazing premeire issue. The great projects and how-tos quickly made my to-do list a mile longer.