Hello there, here are your daily updates from the MAKE blog - 2009/01/02.
Washing machine sends messages to Twitter when the clothes are done...
Austin's Burning ClockLast night, Austin had a beautiful, community-grown New Years Eve celebration. Austin Bike Zoo, ArcAttack!, and others came out with improvements to their already-great shows, and the new star was a working, 34-foot wooden clock tower. Filled with resolutions, it later became a work of fire art. Here's my favorite slideshow, via zAdventure on Flickr: Some (possibly dubious) reports of minor injuries aside, this was the best New Year's art I've seen. Thanks to Community Art Makers for a breathtaking project! If you've got photos from last night in Austin (or any other great New Year's art), please link to them in the comments. Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Arts | Digg this!"The Year in Materials" Stretchable electronics and the strongest material ever
iPod speakers made out of iPods
I took a pair of speakers, and put them in two of the original iPods where the scroll wheels normally were. I was looking through a bunch of old stuff when I came across my original iPod. I had long ago scavenged it for parts, so I came up with another use for it. Although I already had the iPod speaker "shell", I wanted to make two speakers so that it could be stereo sound. My iPod speaker shell was barely recognizable with too many scratches to count, so I ordered two front panels and two back panels. Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in DIY Projects | Digg this! Hacking an ibook batteryDon't let that dead laptop battery ruin your life. Repacking a old ibook battery with new cells is a easy operation. Within 10 minutes and $30 you can have a battery that lasts twice as long as the original. Here's the video, complete with catchy soundtrack: Of course, exercise due caution when making your own battery packs (especially if they're lithium-ion!) Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in DIY Projects | Digg this!Not New Year's resolutions - What are you going to MAKE? What we are making...Every year there are lists and list of New Year's resolutions, we're not going to do that here at MAKE. This years it's all about what you plan to make! I asked our team and advisory board to send me what they plan to MAKE in 2009 and here is what some of them are going to make! Since I made everyone answer my email over the holiday break, I'll start with mine :) Click "read more" to see over a dozen others from the MAKE team and our advisory board! Lastly, post what YOU plan to make in 2009 - I'll check the comments at the end of the day and pick a winner (We'll send you out the very popular Maker's notebook). Limor Fried and I are working on a cool project that should be done in early 2009, you take an off the shelf power usage device like the Kill-a-Watt and add an Xbee wireless module - once tapped in to the Kill-a-Watt you transmit the power usage to a local computer and that computer publishes how many watts per day you're using to your twitter account and will also add something like #mywatts so everyone can compare what they use. You could also use an Arduino with ethernet or wireless and eliminate the computer completely. The project will be open source of course and we expect someone will see it and do a commercial product. Phillip Torrone, Senior Editor, MAKE Magazine Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Announcements | Digg this! New open source hardware business - Robotics, from Chris Anderson, Wired's editor in chief
Update: Chris posted more about the biz model here. iPhone 3G unlock
CNC treeMy internet friend, David Erwin, had a crisis on his hands; the Christmas tree was a "brown, shedding, fire hazard and it ended up in the front yard on the 23rd." Well, being a ShopBot owner (as well as the owner of the best darned mid-century modern door company out there, Crestview Doors) he did what any good maker would -- he CNC'd a tree out of styrofoam! Go David!! Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Holiday projects | Digg this!Robotic ornithopter in-flightAwesome slow-mo footage of a butterfly ornithopter from the Shimoyama-Matsumoto Laboratory, University of Tokyo, Japan. [via BotJunkie and Smart Machines] Artificial butterfly wing on a butterfly-type ornithopter Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Robotics | Digg this!DIYBio for biohackers Mac Cowell recently started the site DIYBio as a resource for biohackers working outside academic and industrial labs. DIYbio is an organization that aims to help make biology a worthwhile pursuit for citizen scientists, amateur biologists, and DIY biological engineers who value openness and safety. This will require mechanisms for amateurs to increase their knowledge and skills, access to a community of experts, the development of a code of ethics, responsible oversight, and leadership on issues that are unique to doing biology outside of traditional professional settings. One of their current projects is the BioWeatherMap, where you can help compare microbes on crosswalk buttons worldwide. Check out the Instructable about the process! City of books papercraft animation
Just captivating. Via Wooster Collective. Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Paper Crafts | Digg this!Fuzzlab uber effects box
Beavis Audio Research brings us the Fuzzlab, an fusion of 4 classic DIY guitar distortion circuits into one hefty tweakable unit. The construction was a very long and educational process - Now that all is said and done, I learned a great many things from this project. I made a large number of mistakes and came up with a few mildly innovative ideas along the way. I also ended up with a huge pedal that looks cool :) Some Key Points:Check out the project's page for a bunch of really helpful tips and ideas - The Beavis FuzzLab Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in DIY Projects | Digg this! Totem pole made from audio machines of the pastThis artwork by Anders Valde is called "Totem For Vebjørn Tandberg" and is a interesting sculptural jumble of old radio receivers, tape decks, record players, and stereo speaker cabinets. The piece is currently on display at Gallery Bodøgaard in Norway. Totem For Vebjørn Tandberg by Anders Valde Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Arts | Digg this!New year light animationRead more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Arts | Digg this! Happy New Year makers - year of the ox, and my new paper shredder I found in the trash About 5 years ago we started MAKE, a handful of motivated people shared a belief that makers should be celebrated. Through hard work and sacrifice a lot of dreams came true. 16 volumes of projects that will stand the test of time, handed down to sons and daughters, a Maker Faire that has hundreds of thousands of participants, a web site that captures the imagination of millions with the best community online, an online store with the best selection of electronics kits made by makers - in just a few days Make: television will make it's debut on public television and the web. We didn't do this by ourselves, you did, the makers. It was a good year, but also a pretty crummy year too. We are at a defining moment in history, the world is a mess - what we do now will shape generations to come. The solutions to our problems aren't going to come from the same people who created them. How will we inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers? We all can have a role - makers, teachers, parents, siblings, communities, a relentlessly curious friend. At Maker Faire parents tell us that their kid picked up MAKE or saw something interesting on our site, maybe it was a post, maybe it was a video - it sparked something and years later they've gone on to become a maker, an artist, a scientist, an engineer. How can we do more of this everyday, how can we celebrate making things and the people that make them in more ways? 2009 is going to be one of the most challenging years ever, 2008 wasn't easy, 2009 will test our collective ability to endure. But something is stirring, there is energy out there - people are making things again, people are coming together to share, to learn, to inspire each other, people are starting businesses selling the things they make. If you make something, you're not alone - through the web, through the pages of MAKE, through videos, through Maker Faires, through the site here, at hacker spaces - we're going to get through these tough times together and we'll be better for it. We're going to "make" our way of it. 2009 is year of the ox - according to the Chinese calendar, the ox is an animal that brings prosperity through hard work. The outgoing Rat symbolises "wealth". I'm happy to jettison the celebration of stupid, we are what we celebrate, good or bad - reality tv, irrational ideologies, ponzi scheme economies, the dumbing down of things, good riddance to bad rubbish. I can't think of a more fitting symbol than the ox for the next year, unswervingly patient, tireless, fortitude... hard work. I feel lucky that I work with the best group of people in the world at MAKE, it makes working hard a lot of fun. We hope you've gained something from MAKE over the last year, maybe looked at things a different way, took something apart, put something together - or maybe spent some extra time with your kids building something together. In 2009 we have big plans for MAKE, from international Maker Faires to connecting more makers with makers in person and online - 2009 will not be the year for small ideas and small plans, with your help we'll celebrating making around the globe more than ever before. In 2009 we'll ask many of you for help with things we need to do - we can all share mutual responsibility in making things better. I hope to meet more of you online and in person in 2009 to get this important work started, but most of all, meet people who will become new friends as we make this all happen together. I know there is a lot of cynicism and doubt out there, from snarky comments on blogs to a collective "look the other way" when problems arise - but we're not going to stop what we do here at MAKE, the makers are not going to stop building and sharing amazing things, the investments of time and resources in the world of making will help build our future - we all know we need to do something. I think America is going through some big changes, the more challenging things get the more gratifying it is to be patriotic, perhaps it's because I like to fix things. Maybe we are like that thrown away shredder that now sits in the MAKE office, at first glance it's broken and not worth anything - but once taken apart, inspected, it's clear that our motor is strong, our parts all work, we just need some makers to fix our switch to get working again. Happy New Year makers. More Recent Articles
|
 |
Click here to safely unsubscribe now from "MAKE Magazine" or change subscription settings
| Your requested content delivery powered by FeedBlitz, LLC, 9 Thoreau Way, Sudbury, MA 01776, USA. +1.978.776.9498 |
No comments:
Post a Comment
Keep a civil tongue.