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Makers

Posted by samzenpus on Fri Dec 30, 2005 01:38 PM
from the If-you-build-it dept.
Books Media Book Reviews Technology
James Alguire writes "Anyone who's tinkered with LEGOs, Lincoln Logs, or an Erector Set knows the thrill of turning ideas into something tangible. Even if all you've ever done is assemble IKEA furniture, you've felt the satisfaction of turning a collection of parts into a functional object with your own two hands. Makers: All Kinds of People Making Amazing Things In Garages, Basements, and Backyards by Bob Parks, and published by O'Reilly, celebrates the basic human desire to create, to nail together two things that have never been nailed together before and see what it does. While I have worked in construction, built computers from scratch and done my share of soldering, I still felt a sense of wonder after reading about the 76 projects outlined in this book." Read the rest of James's review.


Makers profiles 91 people from around the planet, from high school students to dedicated scientists who have cobbled together a remarkable array of home built devices. Some are answers specific needs, like Zach Radding's automated parts dispenser powered by a personal computer; or to further scientific discovery, like Dan Bowen and Mike Coffey's low cost high-altitude weather balloon and tracking package. Some, like Bathsheba Grossman's sculptures, printed from digital CAD files to metal, and Owen White's computer controlled laser cutter, bridge art and science. Others, including Tom Chudleigh's spherical wooden treehouses, or Matty Sallin's alarm clock, that wakes the sleeper by cooking bacon, merely fulfill some puckish desire. All the projects reveal the ingenuity, skill, foolishness, risk and passion humans are capable of in pursuit of their dreams.

Each profile identifies the "Maker", their profession, geographic location, the cost of the project being profiled, the amount of time the project took to complete and a web site where more information about the project can be found, followed by a description of the project, the process of creation, the technology used, the reasons for doing it, including pithy comments from the makers themselves. Bob Parks' writing is fresh and crisp and each vignette provides insight into how to think a little sideways about technology.

The concept for Makers grew out of the success of O'reilly's quarterly do-it-yourself (DIY) magazine, Make: Technology on Your Time. The publication provides recipes for modding, tweaking or reworking personal technology, and profiles of DIY people and their clever contraptions.

The book provides an interesting mix of cool gadgets to consider; from Douglas Repetto's motorized table that emulates the movements of a baby horse, and Kelly Dobson's voice activated blenders, that respond to their own language, to several "don't try this at home" devices like Richard Flanagan's jet engine powered go-kart (up to 60 miles per hour), Matthew Stiger's washtub Tesla coil (it shoots 7-foot sparks), or Richard Hull's homemade nuclear fusor (that's right your neighbor could be experimenting with nuclear fusion in his garage). I was surprised by the number of projects that were constructed from recycled components, many scrounged from devices on hand, purchased cheaply on eBay, or dug out of dumpsters.

Two of my favorites from the book are a machine that solves Rubik's Cubes (in about 10-minutes) built entirely from LEGOs by J.P. Brown, and probably the most poignant profile in the book, Sathya Jeganathan, a physician in India, improvised baby warmers, built using standard light bulbs for about $100 replacing expensive modern warmers costing $4000 that are difficult to maintain. Using the improvised warmers has cut infant mortality in Sathya's hospital by 50%.

Makers: All Kinds of People Making Amazing Things In Garages, Basements, and Backyards is a compact hardcover book that would be at home on any geek's coffee table. The profiles are brief but thought provoking, and the whole effect provides a new view into the serious and whimsical aspects of technology. After reading this book you will definitely look at old appliances and electronics with a different eye. Personally, I would like to have seen more step-by-step photos for many of the projects, but the included images and diagrams are high quality and give you a good impression of the gadgets. I also had problems with the text in the maker summaries, at the top of each profile. It was printed in a smaller typeface than may be comfortable for some and the light blue ink was difficult to read in some lighting situations. One of the best features is the URL listed in each profile where the reader can get even more information about the projects. If you like to tinker with technology then definitely check this book out. and if you can't get enough go to the Make Magazine's online site for even more do-it-yourself techno-hacking.

You can purchase Makers: All Kinds of People Making Amazing Things In Their Backyard, Basement or Garage from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
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  • No mention? (Score:4, Funny)

    by drewzhrodague (606182) <drewNO@SPAMzhrodague.net> on Friday December 30 2005, @01:40PM (#14366004) Homepage Journal
    No mention of teledildonics, hombuilt jet engines, or hombrewing, but still looks neat nonetheless.

  • For the record (Score:5, Funny)

    by *no comment* (239368) on Friday December 30 2005, @01:43PM (#14366021) Homepage Journal
    I get no satisfaction out of building that shitty IKEA furniture. 5 hours to of tinkering to get destroyed the first time you move...stupid desk.

    • Re:For the record (Score:3, Interesting)

      by melonman (608440)

      Probably a bad plan if you move every other week. But buying a new Ikea desk every 5 to 10 years is probably cheaper than buying a solid oak one every 30 years. Makes moving easier too.

      • No help on the moving front, but if you buy a solid oak desk, you can resurface it instead of replacing it, because it is still intact. When the desktop starts to get thin, you just drop another layer of oak on top and refinish it. None of this is very difficult to do well (mostly you need clamps, and a router is nice but not required) and it's a lot cheaper than constantly buying that ikea bullshit.
        • And if you do any serious amount of work on your desk, lots of IKEA stuff feels like a wobbly piece of shit. Nothing is worse than trying to scribble aggresively when you get a really good idea, and having the table wobble all over the place. I say, if you can't jump up and down on the desk without it wobbling ... then it's not worth my time. I've got a thick pine desk (much cheaper than oak), and it's quite stable. And the legs can detach from the desk surface so it's easy to move, even by myself.
          • exactly why I have a 1960's metal desk at home.
            It is rock solid.

            I am hoping to get it repainted parakeet yellow, with cherry red handles, and flames on the side.

            • You can repaint it yourself. Go to the paint store and get some auto paint rattlecans including a clear coat, and some 500 and 1000 grit sandpaper. Wet-sand every surface to be painted with 500 and then 1000. You don't need to take all the paint off, just kill all the finish. Then spray it with the paint. Lacquer is easiest, acrylic will probably last longer. Try to get 50% overlap and put it on thin enough to do several coats, 10-15 minutes apart. Remove the handles and paint them separately. The flames ar
              • I don't do one thing: Paint.

                I'll fix pipes, rewire, poor concreate, build shelves, whatever. I do not paint.

                I tried for a long time to paint well, but somethinf elludes me. It is always uneven, streaks or is thin. Somehow most of this only shows up when it dries.
                I have even painted under the guidence of people who are good at it. Aftrwords they look at the wall scratch their heads, and then repaint it.

                "...hojillion dollars"
                Are you saying that I just need to get a ho for the guy at the paint shop? cause When
                • Actually, you might be able to throw a paint guy fifty bucks or something, if you can find someone who works for a shop where they don't mind if they do side work. You should do all the prep, which is what painters hate and what they will definitely charge you for. Mask off anything that needs masking with the green 3M masking tape (easiest to remove later, and still removable after a week or two unlike the beige shit) and so on. Buy the paint and clearcoat; you'll need one or two quarts of each for coverag

        • Re:For the record (Score:4, Insightful)

          by SB5 (165464) <`moc.liamtoh' `ta' `tapdribeerf'> on Friday December 30 2005, @03:07PM (#14366579)
          No help on the moving front, but if you buy a solid oak desk, you can resurface it instead of replacing it, because it is still intact. When the desktop starts to get thin, you just drop another layer of oak on top and refinish it. None of this is very difficult to do well (mostly you need clamps, and a router is nice but not required) and it's a lot cheaper than constantly buying that ikea bullshit.

          Will a wireless router running Linux work?
      • But the oak will look nicer, and if it is of decent quality, can be handed down from generation to generation.
        • Do you really care about the second part? I know I don't want any of my parent's furniture- waaay different tastes. Anything that lasts for more than a decade is overkill. Who knows what your life will be like in 10 years (wife, kids, bigger house, smaller house), why buy for decades when its not necessary and more expensive?

    • Re: For the record (Score:5, Funny)

      by it0 (567968) on Friday December 30 2005, @01:49PM (#14366067)
      That is a feature ;)
    • ...shitty IKEA furniture. 5 hours to of tinkering...

      It takes you 5 hours to build an IKEA furnature? I could see that if they left parts out of the box, maybe. But 5 hours just to build it? Or are you doing some custom hackjob?
      • I've built some bigger (non-IKEA, granted) DIY furniture kits, like a wardrobe and an entertainment center, and they both well over 10 manhours to complete. The simple fact of the matter is that the large stuff needs space to work on easily, and the stuff usually gets put places where there isn't a lot of room.
      • Not usually, but that desk.....grrrrr

  • Come on... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by RedNovember (887384) on Friday December 30 2005, @01:44PM (#14366027)
    If you're going to do a book review, at least title it as such!
    aka: "Book Review: Makers"

    Those of us who use RSS would like to know.

    • Re:Come on... (Score:3, Funny)

      by metlin (258108)

      Muad'dib! It's a huge Maker! :O

      • Re:Come on... (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Ztream (584474)
        Bless the maker and his water.
        Bless the coming and the going of him.
        May his passage cleanse the world.
        May he keep the world for his people.

    • Re:Come on... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by TCM (130219)
      Why should the category be duplicated in the title? I sounds like either you or Slashdot need to fix something RSS-related so that the category gets prefixed to the title. On the front page it looks OK via HTML.
    • That's never the way it's been. Game reviews are the same - just the name as the title. It was pretty obviously not a news story.

  • I wonder if... (Score:3, Funny)

    by JPamplin (804322) on Friday December 30 2005, @01:44PM (#14366030)
    I wonder if you have to assemble the pages into an entire book before you read it. ;-)

  • Make your own blast furnace (Score:4, Interesting)

    by NutMan (614868) on Friday December 30 2005, @01:45PM (#14366043)
    Here is a site [lindsaybks.com] with many books that tell you how make all kinds of fun gadgets.

  • I like working with Power Tools... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by IAAP (937607) on Friday December 30 2005, @01:50PM (#14366079)
    and tools: period. You know what's funny, if you're smart and like working with your hands the careers that pop up on the SIGI (sp?)an other career programs are: Surgeon, Dentist, and something else that I can't remember.

    I have a VET who says that surgeons love to work with their hands, that's why their hobbies include woodworking. Which now makes sense. Here in Atlanta, in one of the most upscale neighborhoods, is a shop that sells - you guessed it - woodworking tools and machines.

    How this applies: building stuff doesn't necessarily mean that your kid is going to be laying pipe for a living. (Considering the off-shoring issues, that may not be a bad career - just wait, there'll be a renaissance in the trades for a career) but it may lead him to develop his motor skills to become a surgeon, vet, etc....

    Accurate Spellign is purly by accident.

    • just wait, there'll be a renaissance in the trades for a career

      Many plumbers and electricians already make damn good money with nothing more than an apprenticeship/trad school. They are in heavy demand in many areas in part due to suburban sprawl (new buildings) and in part do to modernization of homes people buy in preexisting areas. Sure their job is regarded as low-class but they are in demand and payed well for it. I knew a plumber who has a Poli-Sci major from an excellent university but he decid

    • > How this applies: building stuff doesn't necessarily mean that your kid is going to be laying pipe for a living.

      He should be so lucky! But this is slashdot, and future porn stars don't really hang out here :)

  • To Glue... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Tablizer (95088) on Friday December 30 2005, @01:51PM (#14366092) Homepage Journal
    celebrates the basic human desire to create, to nail together two things that have never been nailed together before and see what it does.

    This comes to mind in a Shatner voice: "To glue.....what.....no man.....has....glued.....before!"
           

    • Re:To Glue... (Score:5, Funny)

      by brontus3927 (865730) <edwardra3.gmail@com> on Friday December 30 2005, @02:11PM (#14366217) Homepage Journal
      shouldn't that be "to boldly glue what no man has glued before" ?
      • shouldn't that be "to boldly glue what no man has glued before" ?

        Must ... resist ... grammar ... !!!

        Correctly, it should be to glue boldy what no man has glued before.

        Or is splitting an infinitive just splitting hairs?

        • Re:To Glue... (Score:5, Interesting)

          by timster (32400) on Friday December 30 2005, @03:48PM (#14366856)
          The rule against splitting infinitives was invented out of whole cloth by someone who liked Latin better. There has never legitimately been any such rule in English.

          That being said, it is not advisable to pointlessly, carelessly, verbosely, and excessively, causing people to start wondering where the verb is, split an infinitive.

  • Whaaa? (Score:3, Informative)

    by big_groo (237634) <groovis.gmail@com> on Friday December 30 2005, @01:56PM (#14366120) Homepage
    Another Slashvertisement?

    While we're at it, let's pimp the website too. http://www.makezine.com/ [makezine.com]

      • Re:Whaaa? (Score:3, Informative)

        by brontus3927 (865730)
        From TFA: ".The concept for Makers grew out of the success of O'reilly's quarterly do-it-yourself (DIY) magazine, Make: Technology on Your Time."

        The book is a spinoff of the magazine published by the same publisher. Of course, when Microsoft sells a book about Windows, that could just be a coincidence too.

  • My favorite maker is Mark Tilden (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Tilden

    Mark used to work at the University of Waterloo before they stupidly managed to lose him. Pathetic. Anyway, Mark used to build his robots entirely out of recycled parts. His work definately inspired my own efforts. For instance, he could re-program the chips in musical greeting cards and use them as processors in his robots. My favorite story has him presenting at a conference. He took one of his little robots, crumpled it up in his hands and put it on an overhead proj
  • ...celebrates the basic human desire to create, to nail together two things that have never been nailed together before...

    That's what I tried telling the twins, but would they listen?

  • Humanity portrayed positively. (Score:3, Funny)

    by stimpleton (732392) on Friday December 30 2005, @02:23PM (#14366285)

    If this book is a metaphor for man striding forward, in all his/her creativeness, and glowing potential, then TV reality shows provide the lactic acid and procrastination.

  • Hey, I did that!! (Score:4, Funny)

    by El_Smack (267329) on Friday December 30 2005, @02:56PM (#14366499)
    "the basic human desire to create, to nail together two things that have never been nailed together before and see what it does."

    I put together two things that looked like they fit, sometimes refered to as "nailing", to see what would happen. What happened was a third thing running around the house that took up all my spare resources. Totally worth it though, 'cause I've made 2 more things since then.

  • What about Patents? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by argoff (142580) on Friday December 30 2005, @03:02PM (#14366546)
    After all, the story that we've all been spoon-feed is that "noone has an incentive to invent without patents", and that "all the inventors would be dying and starving in the streets" without them? Hmmmm.
      • patents for individules are not that expensive, or time consuming.

        While they have been abused, I would hadly call the vehicals of abuse any more that I would call a computer a vehical of abuse.

        My grandfather held many patents, and they helped him from time to time.

        Patents can hel protect an inventor against corporations.
        What needs to happen is end software watents, business model patents, and have a board thar reviews prior art clamis made by the public.

  • Mmmmm fresh baby from my Easy Bake Oven. 40 Watts of cake like goodness.

  • My take on Make (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    So far I've received 2 issues and I'm a little disappointed. The first issue was much better but the latest seesm to lack substance. Too much time is spent profiling elite "makers" in their high castles and not on cool crazy projects. I find far more interesting things online than in their magazine. At least it's easier to take a copy of Make into the can with you.
  • If it's anything like the MAKE:Blog [makezine.com], there will be 30 profiles of people who wrapped their iPods in duct tape, another 30 who crocheted little socks for their iPods, another 30 who stuck USB thumbdrives into Altoids cans, and one who actually pulled off a cool hack.

    And 40 of these profiles will be duplicated in another book called "Boingers [boingboing.net]".

  • Computer from scratch... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Karma Farmer (595141) on Friday December 30 2005, @03:38PM (#14366795)
    While I have worked in construction, built computers from scratch and done my share of soldering,

    Making a computer from scratch has always sounded like fun.

    I'm assuming there are now inexpensive ways to print a multi-layer circuit board, and people no longer wire-wrap chips to a breadboard. However, I've always wondered about firmware and peripherals and compilers and operating systems and the like -- how long does it take to write the software to even get something that will boot off media?

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