Blog Review: MAKE

For my blog review I decided to review the blog of a new magazine by O’reilly, the magazine “MAKE”.
Make is self proclaimed: “The first magazine devoted to digital projects, hardware hacks, and Do-It-Yourself
inspiration”, the blog is basically an extension of the magazine, it seems like the magazine editors
are the posters. It teaches you how to hack and make interesting, although sometime useless things
with the technology around you, how to make the technology do things they are not meant to.

Here’s a few example of the kind of stuff you can find on the blog:

– How to turn the portable play station into a web browser
– How to make panoramic photos with your camera phone
– How to overclock (make faster) your Texas instrument calculator
– How to load wirelessly homebrew application on your Nintendo DS
– How to turn your cellphone in a magnetic stripe card reader.
– How to make Halloween decoration using wiper motors
– How to make an infrared web cam
– Solar powered iPod shuffle
– How Swatch watches work
– How to install a VSAT in Iraq

And the list just goes on and on…. there’s a few post a day.

I found that blog quite interesting, in the first place because although we often see electronic technologies
around us as black boxes, this blog shows that the black box is not that hard to break.
I think it is also a great potential source of ideas on how to recycle electronic devices.
I’m not sure of the popularity of that blog and the MAKE magazine, but it seems like hacking have turned
into a mainstream hobby.

One Response to “Blog Review: MAKE”

  1. jennifer says:

    I wonder if this blog is effect in demonstrating the “break of the black box” to the lay person. Not only if the writing is simple enough, but if the layperson is not daunted by the mere idea of visiting a website of the like.