In an opinion piece on Wired, iFixit’s Kyle Wiens, who tore down a new MacBook with Retina display, declares it: “Unfixable, unhackable, untenable.” He writes: On the other hand, Apple has consistently introduced thinner, lighter products. They learn from experience. They react to their customers. They’re very adept at presenting us with what we want. And they give us options from time to time and allow product sales to determine their future designs. We have consistently voted for hardware that's thinner rather than upgradeable. But we have to draw a line in the sand somewhere. Our purchasing decisions are telling Apple that we’re happy to buy computers and watch them die on schedule. When we choose a short-lived laptop over a more robust model that's a quarter of an inch thicker, what does that say about our values?
The New MacBook Pro: Unfixable, Unhackable, Untenable          
Voting for Project Remake is now open! Thanks to the over-100 makers who submitted their upcycled, remade, or reclaimed materials projects. The winners include salvaged wood designer serving trays, a hot-modded bicycle fender, sports gear fused from discarded plastic bags, a waste veggie oil system, and fashion accessories built from throw-away gift cards. Vote for the maker you think most deserves to have their project featured under the Project Remake banner at World Maker Faire in NYC this September. You can vote once per day. And because the voting launch was slightly delayed (we apologize for that), we’re extending this voting period through July 11th. While you’re at it, be sure to enter yourself to walk away with, I mean drive away in, a zero-emission all-electric Nissan LEAF. This “leading, environmentally friendly, affordable, family car,” is powered by a 24 kW·h lithium ion battery and 110 hp electric synchronous motor. You’ll be automatically prompted to enter this sweepstakes upon voting in the Project Remake Contest, but note that this sweepstakes ends firmly at 11:59PM EDT on June 26th. Enter NOW to win!          
As people are often quick to point out, Father’s and Mother’s Day are Hallmark holidays, designed to sell greeting cards. But knowing that, I’m still all for any holiday that ritually acknowledges the people in our lives. I don’t think we do nearly enough to celebrate each other, the work we do, the sacrifices we make, and the unique contributions we make in each others lives. (I just don’t give pre-made greeting cards. I have a ball making my own.) So, here’s to my dad, my granddad, and all of the other male mentors and father figures in my life. And in yours. Happy Father’s Day, everyone! We ran a conversation piece earlier in the week on the “Craziest Thing Your Dad Ever Made (or Attemped to MAKE).” Here are some of the highlights: Sewinsi writes: “…he made a tool for inserting hearing aids….. that resulted in not one, but two trips to the audiologist to have them removed.” Jesse Smith: “My dad built a Van's RV-4 experimental aircraft (http://www.vansaircraft.com/public/rv-4int.htm) over 7 years when I was a kid. I was the "buck boy", who climbed inside the fuselage to apply counter-pressure to the rivets with a bucking bar while he riveted. He had to learn welding, metalwork, electronics, fiberglass making, and a dozen other things to get that bad boy off the ground. He built it so well, it was certified for aerobatics and he joined a formation flying group! He told me that when he got it certified, it performed just fine past 8 G's, at which point he almost blacked out!” Dbarak: “My dad tried to make a sailboat once by "attaching" a water ski to the bottom of a small life raft using screws (the bottom didn't have air). He then tried to make a mast and boom using 1×1 pine wood and a sail using red (cotton?) fabric. He didn't have a clue about the aerodynamics of a sail (needless to say, I didn't at that age either). It didn't take long, once we got it in the water, to figure out it wasn't going to work. Thankfully his other DIY projects have actually turned out fairly well.” Sten Turpin: “My dad once tried to build an electric fence to keep raccoons out of his lotus pond. He connected chain-link to the 120V line out of an outdoor light fixture. Oddly, it kept shorting out. (That was the craziest thing I saw him build, but he did a lot of awesome stuff, too, like our deck, his new porch, a tiny log cabin out of trees he took down).” Chuck: “I'll never forget the time my dad installed a used ceiling fan on our patio. It was out of balance and made noise so he was determined to balance it. Using what was at hand he scotch-taped an ink pen to one of the blades and turned it on to check it. After moving the pen from blade to blade and positioning it just right, he found the sweet spot and it worked perfectly. Then my step mother walked out and said 'What are all these tiny black spots all over the wall?' The centifugal force of the fan had flung ink in a cool pattern on the patio walls. To this day he swears this never happened.” KellySchrock: “My dad is a maker from way back. He's a farmer, with a Master's in music. When I was 5, he made a "dart thrower" out of a stick, some string, and some darts he carved out of cedar shingles (sort of like lawn darts, but they flew much further and weren't heavy enough to do much damage if they hit you). One Christmas, he locked us all out of the basement and made all of our Christmas presents. My younger brother's gift was a wooden barn with sliding doors, a folding roof, a loft with a sliding ramp for running toy tractors up and down it, and windows. He still has it 35 years later.” Robb Sadler: “My youngest memory is that he made me a toy table saw using an erector set motor drive and one of the gears as a blade that i sat at for hours and cut paper. He also built me a cool console made of steel and thick plexiglass that had open sides and wired up 120v switches and motors and lights inside. I also played with that for hours. It wasn't that safe, but it was a lot of fun. I am thinking of doing a 12v version maybe with the kids this weekend. Love you Dad!” You can see all of the crazy (and not so crazy) dad builds on the original post. And don’t forget our downloadable maker cards for dad, which includes the popular Tips My Dad Says card. You can see last year’s Father’s Day discussion that led to that card, with plenty of other tips and words of wisdom from maker dads.          
Like many of you who were at Maker Faire Bay Area 2012, I’m still recovering. Seeing, meeting, and talking to thousands of makers is overwhelming and it is energizing — there is nothing like it. Today happens to be Father’s Day, so I thought I’d post an observation that I can’t get out of my head. I’m hoping it will now leap out and get into yours  I believe the maker movement is now in transition, the older folks (like myself) have worked in and around what’s been called the “maker movement” for almost 10 years now. We all come from different places and different backgrounds, we were basically adults as this effort to celebrate DIY really ramped up. But our time is coming to an end, I don’t mean we’re going to quit doing this, I mean we are handing the keys off to the next generation. It’s no longer ours. The kids I met at Maker Faire and meet all over the world at MAKE/DIY events have only known a world where a “maker” was always a real thing one can be or do. They’ve always known Maker Faires, hackerspaces, and open source electronic kits to build. Most or all of their lives the idea of making things, taking things apart and sharing has not been something new, it’s something that’s always been there for them. The average maker isn’t just a 35 year old guy, it’s becoming a 10 year old girl or boy with a 3D printer. There are kids who can recognize (and have used!) the open source hardware logo just as easily as us older folks recognize the Nike, Coca-Cola, or Apple logo. These kids are living in a time when there’s $25 Raspberry Pi computer or an Arduino inside of just about anything. They’re on Google+ Hangouts sharing their projects, they’re posting their creations on DIY.org and Instructables. They have Creative Commons and open source licenses on the the things they make. When we all started MAKE in 2005, a 10 year old kid would now be about 17. Parents have found me at Maker Faires and talked about how installing Linux on an old iPod or making a TV-B-Gone turned their kid into a different person, more curious about how the world works, and how they went on to pursue art, science, engineering. Imagine being 10 years old now and always knowing there are 3D printers and laser cutters around, files to download, and people to learn from. A lot of us put our works out in the world so others can copy, but we are more than CAD files or the code we release, I think the kids today will also “copy” our willingness to share and see the benefits of open source not only for technological advancements, but for social good. You never know what will spark a kid’s imagination, and there are so many things that can these days. What a wonderful time to be a young person. So to all the moms, dads, educators, friends of kids – I think we did a pretty good job to get this place ready for them, we’re handing the maker movement over to them now. On this Father’s Day, I wanted to say thank you to everyone out there, not just fathers, but everyone who made the last seven years of “making” possible. Pictured above, Dave’s kids Tweeted – “The kids holding their earned skill badges” After these makers soldered up a kit correctly, they were each awarded a soldering badge from their Dad. If you look really close, it’s not just an iron-patch and an electronic kit they’re holding… it’s our future.          More Recent Articles | 
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