-
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/03/maker_business_adafruit_industries.html
"About Adafruit video" by RocketBoom
A lot of readers are likely familiar with Adafruit Industries, supplier and maker of many kits found in the Maker Shed. In addition to my role here at MAKE, as senior editor, I also work with Limor (Ladyada), helping her with the open source hardware kit business. I'll have a few articles about general things we do around here to keep the ship afloat and charting new waters, but I thought I'd start this "Maker Business" article with an overview of how it all works and how we use many many web tools/services. One of the most asked questions I get from makers is "what shopping cart do you use?" The short answer is Zencart, and while I think it doesn't actually matter what you use when you start out, this is what we're using at Adafruit. A recent milestone, we just shipped our 50,000th order. We mostly create and sell open source hardware, most of the tools we use are open source -- I've never seen an article detailing "everything" a business uses online, so here's one. I think you'll enjoy it. Let's take a look...
Read more |
Permalink |
Comments |
Read more articles in Makers |
Digg this!10 Hours, 39 Minutes ago | More »
-
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/03/maker_business_advice_on_reaching_e.html
Steve Roberts is a maker OG (original gangsta). With his amazing Winnebiko and BEHEMOTH projects, and his longtime evangelizing of "high-tech nomadness," he's been a leading light in the maker movement for decades. I definitely count him as one of my great inspirations in pursuing artful-engineering (or is it engineered artfulness?) as a lifestyle. Steve has recently published an awesome book, called Reaching Escape Velocity. I review it in the current issue of MAKE, Volume 21. The book is subtitled: "Launching gonzo engineering projects with sponsors, media, volunteers, and other potent forces." It's a thin volume, but it's jam-packed with grand inspiration and practical ideas. I asked Steve if we could share some of it here, and he kindly obliged. -- Gareth
From the Foreword:
A Grand Vision is only the beginning. No matter how much passion you bring to bear on the project of your dreams, the odds of actually escaping the "gravity well" are low... unless you find a way to leverage larger forces. This document, derived from 25 years of audacious feats of gonzo engineering, presents the keys to six tools that are essential to a large-scale project:
[ ] A Business Angle
[ ] Your Own Education
[ ] Corporate Sponsorship
[ ] Media Coverage
[ ] A Public Presence
[ ] The Team of Volunteers
I have contemplated publishing a book on this subject for years, and only now (2009) have decided to do so. It can be considered the collection of "trade secrets" that have made my adventures possible... the art of working with sponsors, media, and volunteers to get an insanely ambitious project off the ground and keep it moving on its own momentum.
From Chapter 1: The Business Angle:
The best generalization I can give you is that the boundaries between specialties are where it's at. It is no accident that most projects in the domain of gonzo engineering are, by their nature, comprised more of new ways of combining existing technologies than of linear envelope-pushing; the latter, while honorable and necessary for ongoing industrial progress, is less likely to yield the kinds of breakthroughs that make the media flock to your door. It's not that there's anything wrong with it, it's just that individuals have a much harder time with "straight ahead" advances in the state of the art than do well-funded companies... that sort of work does lend itself well to structured engineering methods and thus tends to be the most likely course of corporate product development
(think Moore's Law).
Read more |
Permalink |
Comments |
Read more articles in Makers |
Digg this!
March 8 2010, 6:00pm | More »
-
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/03/maker_business_zeichen_press.html
In response to our Maker Business coverage, I got a wonderful email from Fran Shea of Zeichen Press. She wanted to tell us about her foray into the small letterpress business she started with her sister-in-law, Jen. Being a huge letterpress fanboy, how could I resist? Here's a short interview I conducted with Fran. -- Gareth
Jen (left) and Fran (right) in their element in front of the type cabinets at Zeichen Press
First off, can you give us a little background on your company, where you're located, what you do, and what made you decide to go into this particular business.
We're in Minneapolis, MN. We do a few things: We design and letterpress-print a line of greeting cards that are sold in indie boutiques around the world. THE WORLD. We also design and letterpress-print custom projects like: posters, invitations, business cards, etc.. We also handle creative and marketing for companies that trust us to do that for them. Jen's background is in interior design, and mine is graphic design and art direction, so this seemed like a natural direction.
Read more |
Permalink |
Comments |
Read more articles in Makers |
Digg this!
March 4 2010, 5:00pm | More »
-
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/03/why_making_matters.html
AnnMarie Thomas gave a short talk at TED this year on Why Making Matters. She blogged the following, based on the speech she gave:
I truly believe that the one of the best ways to have an impact on the world is to give as many kids and young adults as possible the tools they need to change the world. In a quest to do this, I've read a lot of biographies of engineers and inventors whom I respected and began to see an obvious trend.
• Paul MacCready, one of my heroes, designer of human powered aircraft and champion for more sustainable modes of transformation, grew up building model airplanes on his family's ping pong table to the extent that at the age of 14 he set the world record for flight duration of an autogyro.
Read more |
Permalink |
Comments |
Read more articles in Makers |
Digg this!March 3 2010, 2:03pm | More »
-
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/03/maker_business_magnolia_atomworks_p_2.html
Our dynamic DIY duo, John and Erin, take stock and look toward the future of their intrepid little company. -- Gareth
Magnolia Atomworks, part 4: The aftermath, lessons learned, and the future
By John Edgar Park and Erin Kelly-Park
Laser cutting the Phi symbol on the original Mystery Box. Phi is the golden ratio, which are the box's dimensions.
The greatest lesson we learned through this whole process is that everything costs money: you can't add a single item, feature, idea, person, or process without it digging into your bottom line. If you want to make the most money, you've got to do everything yourself. We realized early on that, in our case, we wanted to make a little money on the side, not burn out trying to do everything ourselves. We had minimal expenses in starting our business, so if we can recoup the cost of the laser cutter we bought, within a few years, we'll be pretty happy.
Prototype of a laser-cut absinthe spoon. It works! And, it may find its way into the Makers Market at some point.
Sales of the Mystery Box have been good. The Maker Shed sold out before Christmas, and we just finished fulfilling their first re-order. This is great, because we didn't have to do any additional work, just place a re-order with our cutter. Renewed sales are the dream for this sort of business, because it leaves us free to design new things.
Read more |
Permalink |
Comments |
Read more articles in Makers |
Digg this!
March 2 2010, 5:00pm | More »
-
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/02/is_the_techshop_model_in_trouble.html
It sounded like a dream: a health club for nerds, only instead of treadmills and weight sets, members paid $125/month to work with CNC routers, laser cutters, and other high-end gadgets. The first of three TechShops opened in Menlo Park, California in 2006 but two more, one in Beaverton OR and the other in Durham, NC followed.
Currently, only the Cali shop remains open.
Both the TechShop Portland and TechShop Durham have closed their doors and are seeking smaller spaces. In the former case, it appears the shop was evicted after missing two months' rent.
In a Toolmonger.com forum thread, TechShop Durham founder Scott Saxon blamed the economy:
We have just under 25,000 sf here and secured our lease, as did Portland, during financially good times. The economy tanked right after we both started. Lack of funding is not the reason for anything. The reason we are moving is the landlord is unwilling to adjust to the current times. The rent here is simply too much.
We are moving to a much cheaper facility and with our present membership, about the same as Portland, we will succeed in 2010. I believe Portland will do the same. This is not political speak. This is just the way it is as told by the numbers.
Could it also be that the shops are experiencing member drain from the burgeoning hackerspace movement?
What do you think, readers? Is the day of the giant franchised TechShop over, to replaced by smaller, leaner, nonprofit hackerspaces? Will Portland and RDU bounce back along with the economy? Leave your thoughts in comments.
Note: A member of the Portland community asked me to link to the TechShop Portland forums which has additional discussion of the situation there.
More:
Read more |
Permalink |
Comments |
Read more articles in Makers |
Digg this!February 26 2010, 2:00pm | More »
-
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/02/the_man_behind_macgyver_swiss_army.html
Great interview @ Lifehacker with Lee (who writes for MAKE each month!)... Kevin writes -
With our DIY Week coming to a close, we thought we'd ask Lee David Zlotoff, creator of MacGyver and inspiration to clever makers and hackers everywhere, to share some of his thoughts on DIY, fix-all tools, widespread MacGyver-love, and MacGruber. Zlotoff grew up in Brooklyn and graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School, where he thrived in shop and pre-engineering classes. After landing in Hollywood, he picked up work as a writer on Hill Street Blues, a producer on Remington Steele, and, through a twist of fate and over-selling, creator and producer of MacGyver, the 1985-1992 action series whose secret agent refused to use a gun, preferred non-violent solutions, getting himself out of tricky situations using whatever he had on hand. Sure, some of the stuff at hand seemed a little too coincidental, but the solutions were vetted by scientists and engineers, even if not every step was shown to prevent eager fans from trying at home.
Read more |
Permalink |
Comments |
Read more articles in Makers |
Digg this!February 26 2010, 12:16pm | More »
-
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/02/macgyver_of_the_day_electronics_hac.html
February 25 2010, 12:51pm | More »
-
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/02/macgyver_of_the_day_ham_radio_hacke.html
February 22 2010, 12:56pm | More »
-
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/02/maker_business_magnolia_atomworks_p_1.html
With a contract manufacturer hired and their new company formed, John and Erin of Magnolia Atomworks race to fulfill their first orders. -- Gareth
Magnolia Atomworks, part 3: To Market, To Market
By John Edgar Park and Erin Kelly-Park
You may think this has all been fun and awesomeness so far, and we'd have to agree. But wait! There's also some fantastically boring stuff to do when you start a kit business.
For one, we had to figure out packaging. After trying some different configurations at home, I went online and ordered a few hundred boxes and padding to be sent to our cutter. ThinkGeek requested a barcode for their internal tracking, so I used an online UPC barcode generator to make a label with a barcode on it. Originally, we were only going to have instructions online, but at the last minute, we changed our minds, so I designed a one-page instruction sheet and had that put into the box, too. These things all cost time and money, although I was happy to be able to use my Maya skills to do the diagrams for the instruction sheet. On the plus side: if you order over $100 at Uline (the shipping supply company) you get a free Hall & Oates CD! No, really. (We let the guy doing the laser cutting keep it.)
With holiday deadlines looming, the kits were cut, packed, and shipped off to our resellers just in time. With all that sorted out, the fun could begin again. We now had one thing left to hurry up and do: spread the word. Marketing the Mystery Box consisted almost entirely of blogging and twittering. It can be a big challenge to get the word out on a product. That's why advertising costs so much. By staying close to my maker roots, and targeting resellers instead of trying to sell direct to consumers, we were able to maximize our sales.
Once they were available for sale, on ThinkGeek and the Maker Shed, a friend of mine mentioned on Facebook that she wanted to get a Mystery Box, but would probably need help assembling it. So, I shot a video of myself assembling one. I posted it a few places online and I think it helped with some sales. Both resellers included the video on their respective product pages. It took a couple hours to shoot and edit (including at least an hour of trying to find interesting, royalty-free background music), but it cost us nothing to make. All of this seemed good in theory, but would the Mystery Box kits actually sell? Only time would tell...
Tune in next time for the thrilling conclusion: Part 4: The aftermath, lessons learned, and the future
More:
In the Maker Shed:
Mystery Box Kit - The Mystery Box is a clever puzzle box made by our very own John Park, host of Make: television.
Read more |
Permalink |
Comments |
Read more articles in Makers |
Digg this!
February 22 2010, 9:00am | More »
-
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/02/hackerspaces_hive_76_video.html
A VIMBY video about hackerspaces, featuring Philadelphia's Hive 76 and Mr. Johnny Hackerspace himself, Mitch Altman.
Read more |
Permalink |
Comments |
Read more articles in Makers |
Digg this!
February 18 2010, 11:00pm | More »
-
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/02/mouse_trap_car.html
Greg Borenstein posted drawings and photos of the mouse trap-driven car he's been working on to the MAKE Flickr Pool.
Mouse trap car
Read more |
Permalink |
Comments |
Read more articles in Makers |
Digg this!
February 16 2010, 6:00pm | More »
-
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/02/make_together_more_couples_that_col.html
We asked several of our favorite maker couples to tell us a little bit about the ups and down of their collaborative process. This touches on two of our current site themes, today being Valentine's Day, and this quarter having a Maker Business theme. All three of these couples have turned their passion for making things, and their ability to work well together, into successful small maker businesses. Jillian Northrup and Jeffrey McGrew run Because We Can, a CNC-driven design and fabrication shop in Oakland, CA. Amy Parness and Ariel Churi run Sparkle Labs, creating "hi-tech, high-touch" products and environments, such as the awesome DIY Design Electronics Kit. Dave and Cheryl Hrynkiw run http://www.solarbotics.com/, the premier supplier of BEAM and other types of robotic kits and parts. Thanks to all three couple for taking the time out to talk to us. Happy Valentine's Day -- Gareth
MAKE: What sorts of projects do you collaborate on? How long have you been doing it?
Jillian Northrup (and Jeffrey McGrew): Well, right now, we run our design-build business, Because We Can, together. But we've been working together since we met, which was in 2000. When we first started dating, we decided to put together an arts and events newsletter and secret society, of sorts, we called it "Loteria Cabal." We wrote a monthly newsletter together, doing about four events a month (one of the events was our wedding!). It was really fun! We did that for about three years, then stopped, focused on the Art Car we made together for about a year, then decided to start the business that we run today. We've been in business since 2006.
Amy Parness (and Ariel Churi): We make toys and art projects together. We also make dinner. We like to make cupcakes and ice cream. We've been doing it for about 7 years.
Dave (and Cheryl) Hryrinkiw: Cheryl supports my weird ambition to be a self-proclaimed "Chief Geek" at my own little technology company. We've been at it for...wow... 17 years?!? Why is she still married to me?
The Solarbotics staff. Cheryl and Dave are on the upper right.
Read more |
Permalink |
Comments |
Read more articles in Makers |
Digg this!February 14 2010, 7:01pm | More »
-
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/02/make_together_couples_that_collabor.html
My friends Sean and Claire are always making and doing together. They do urban exploring, they psycho-geographically map the high-weirdness and local color of their beloved Baltimore, and they're always working on some kooky project together. Where other couples might be going out for a romantic dinner at some over-priced eatery, Sean and Claire will more likely to be found playing footsie while building their rendition of a Cabinet of Wonders from the Future or working on their Baltimore Babylon (my name for it, not theirs) model train board. In celebration of Valentine's Day, I asked them to write something up about the ins and outs of being a couple that collaborates and to tell us more about their unique take on model training. -- Gareth
Make: Together
By Claire and Sean Carton
Barbie and Ken. Bill and Hillary. Bob and Rita (Marley). Laurie (Anderson) and Lou (Reed). Burt and Lonnie.
If there's stuff to make, and the willingness to make it, there's a long history of couples making it happen together. And call us icky romantics, but we think there's something special about two people coming together to make something bigger and better than either individual might accomplish on their own. Not to mention: It's fun!
"Beads? Bunny ears? After several months of working on their train layout together, they just
don't care, anymore."
As a couple, we've always loved collaborating. It's probably one of the things that drew us together in the first place, starting with bashing out information architectures and creative strategies at a digital agency in Baltimore, MD, ten years ago. The process of collaborating, of brainstorming, of negotiating through the tough parts, of sweating the details, and finally, celebrating the birth of something that we'd created together, has always been a center point of our relationship.
So, how do you make it work, making things together? It isn't always easy. But we've done a passable job at figuring out how to creatively collaborate without killing each other, or ending up in divorce court. So we thought we'd take this opportunity to share with you some of what we've learned about making together. Is is Valentine's Day, after all.
Rather than serving up a bunch of bland, half-baked advice, we thought we'd take you inside one of our recent projects: our postmodern (and somewhat post-apocalyptic) train set, and the inevitable fallout. Hopefully, along the way, you'll gain some insight into how we make this work, and maybe take away some inspiration for how you can undertake collaborative projects together (if you aren't already).
Closeup of "Tyler's," Claire's re-creation of a 1968 riot-era bricked-over package store/bar
Read more |
Permalink |
Comments |
Read more articles in Makers |
Digg this!February 14 2010, 8:30am | More »
-
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/02/maker_business_magnolia_atomworks.html
Last year, John Edgar Park and Erin Kelly-Park started a maker business called Magnolia Atomworks to create interesting products and kits, such as the Mystery Box (and something allegedly to do with robots and iPads). Here, in the first in a series, part of our Maker Business coverage, John explains how the Mystery Box product came about. -- Gareth
Part 1: How we ended up starting a maker business
By John Edgar Park
It's all John Baitchtal's fault. John B's a contributing writer here at Make: Online and Wired's GeekDad. One day, John tweeted a link to a TED talk by J.J. Abrams about a mystery box he's had since he was a kid (the kind you used to be able to buy in the back of comic books). J.J. said that the possibility of what he imagined the box contained was probably far greater than the reality, so he'd never opened it. He uses this metaphor in his films and TV shows.
I loved this idea, and wanted John B to experience it firsthand. I designed and built a one-off box for him, using a loaner Epilog Zing laser cutter I was reviewing for MAKE magazine. I filled it with artifacts he'll never see, and sent it off. John blogged about it on GeekDad, it gained traction, and ended up on Lifehacker and Boing Boing. Pretty soon, I was getting email from people around the world asking if they could buy a Mystery Box of their own.
Read more |
Permalink |
Comments |
Read more articles in Makers |
Digg this!
February 12 2010, 5:00pm | More »
-
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/02/projects_failure_and_mounting_a_scr.html
When the concept of doing a Projects: Failure something came up years ago, originally as the idea for a Make: Books (in case you hadn't realized, "Projects: Failure" is a silly twist on our "Make: Projects" book series brand), we were talking about how it could be story-driven, people sharing spectacular failures and what they learned from them. I blurted out: "Oh, like mounting a scratch monkey!" Everyone looked at me like I'd forgotten to take my meds (again). But I've never stopped associating this idea with the scratch monkey. I've brought it up several times since we've launched this series online, and each time, people tilt their heads sideways like a dog hearing a high-pitched noise. So, here's the scratch monkey story.
The term "scratch monkey," or the adage "always mount a scratch monkey," comes from a tragic, allegedly actual, incident that took place 1979/1980, at the University of Toronto. It became a cautionary tale that floated through early netspace, especially USENET newsgroups, and a number of different versions emerged. It became part of the hacker lexicon, part of the venerable Jargon File, and then part of the resulting Hacker's Dictionary. Here's an excerpt of the entry from The New Hacker's Dictionary (3rd Edition):
As in "Before testing or reconfiguring, always mount a scratch monkey," a proverb used to advise caution when dealing with irreplaceable data or devices. Used to refer to any scratch volume hooked to a computer during any risky operation as a replacement for some precious resource or data that might otherwise get trashed.
This term preserves the memory of Mabel, the Swimming Wonder Monkey, star of a biological research program at the University of Toronto. Mabel was not (so the legend goes) your ordinary monkey; the university had spent years teaching her how to swim, breathing through a regulator, in order to study the effects of different gas mixtures on her physiology. Mabel suffered an untimely demise one day when a DEC field circus engineer troubleshooting a crash on the program's VAX inadvertently interfered with some custom hardware that was wired to Mabel.
There's definitely a key lesson in there about projects that fail and what one can learn from them: never commit resources to a project you can't afford to lose if something goes wrong and to test your project first in ways that won't destroy it (or key components) if something goes awry. How many times have you (have I) committed that last crucial part or piece of material, or whatever, to a build and then had it get ruined? So, when in doubt, if you can: always mount a scratch monkey!
BTW: The version told in the Jargon File/New Hacker's Dictionary claims it came directly from the sysadmin involved in the incident. But the AFU and Urban Legends site questions this. Here's part of their entry:
Current University of Toronto sysadmins have expressed skepticism. For one thing, in almost all versions of the story, including the ostensibly documented one in the Jargon File, the computer is a VAX; at the time a VAX would have been a very unusual platform for this kind of data acquisition (they used PDP-11s). The Toronto zoology department has never been licensed to work with primates; the only section of the university that could have done experiments of this nature was the School of Medicine. Investigation continues
.
Let's hope it isn't true, no monkeys were harmed in the making of this cautionary tale, and you can still benefit from the moral of the story either way.
Here's the rest of the Jargon File entry.
Here's the Wikipedia page with some links to some of the variations on the story.
More:
Read more |
Permalink |
Comments |
Read more articles in Makers |
Digg this!
February 9 2010, 6:30pm | More »
-
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/02/maker_business_venturing_out.html
Kicking off our Maker Business series is this piece by Jeffrey McGrew, who along with his wife Jillian Northrup, and their trusty CNC machine named Frank, are a two-person (and a bot) design and fabrication juggernaut. From their design-build studio in Oakland, CA, they do custom interior design, furniture, and such artist wonders as the "Art Golf" course they've set up at Maker Faire. Here, Jeffrey shares some words of advice to those who may be thinking of going "Maker Pro." -- Gareth
Venturing out...
By Jeffrey McGrew of
Because We Can
We get a lot of friends and folks asking us about how we got started. And we know a lot of folks through the Maker Faire that would love to turn "pro." So, I thought I'd jot down the six big things that I see as being key elements to getting started in such a business. I hope they help, and I'd love to hear more from other folks! [Chime in via comments. -Ed.]
1. Get as debt-free as possible, and try your best to stay that way.
We would have never been able to buy the robot (or CNC machine) and make the jump to working for ourselves had we not had our financial lives in order first. Having six months in savings to fall back on, no debt, other than a half-paid off car loan, and not taking on huge debts to get started, made it possible for us to make a lot of mistakes and learn things instead of going out with a quick bang. I've met a fair number of people who want to start their own business, but simply can't, due to this single issue alone. No amount of great business ideas, hard work, or luck can overcome the burden of an unstable foundation on which to the start. Also, honestly, once you get your business going, you'll find that your priorities, and what you think is important, will change greatly. If you're really happy (which running our own business certainly make us), then you'll need less stuff anyways. So, save your pennies, don't worry about getting the latest and greatest, and pay off all those loans and credit cards before you take that leap.
2. Plans are worthless, planning is essential.
That quote from Winston Churchill sums up nicely a lot of what you'll need to do when you start a business. You don't need a perfect plan, with every step already outlined, in giant Gantt charts. But you do need a plan. And you need to be smart enough to change that plan as circumstances change. Running a business is more like sailing a ship than launching a rocket. What I mean is that you need a plan, and to be prepared, but honestly, at some point you'll just point yourself at the horizon and go. And then everything will change, you'll need to change direction, plans, and ideas. You'll re-aim for that spot you wanted to get to constantly as the world around you changes in response to what you're doing. And heck, sometimes you'll find when you're halfway there, you actually want to go somewhere else. So don't fret too much and over-plan everything (and therefore never get started), or freak out when things don't go according to your plans. But at the same time, don't aim for that horizon without one!
Read more |
Permalink |
Comments |
Read more articles in Makers |
Digg this!
February 8 2010, 6:00pm | More »
-
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/02/projects_failure_and_the_cover_of_m.html
When I think of horrifically frustrating project experiences that end in an outcome far exceeding expectations, two instances spring to mind. I tell these stories frequently (stop me if you've heard this one before) because I think they represent the power of perseverance in the face of projected failure.
The first tale I've told countless times, probably even here, about a friend of mine, a fabric artist, who, back in the 80s, entered a weaving contest in a fabric arts magazine. She'd never done any weaving. She got some books, borrowed a loom, and decided to weave the fabric to make a seersucker shirt. It quickly turned into a nightmare. The seersucker threads kept breaking as she wove them. It quickly became a huge exercise in frustration, but she kept at it. She thought her difficulty was due to the fact that she was a newbie. Finally, after much struggle and heartache, she finished the weave, made the shirt, and submitted it to the contest. The magazine called a month or so later and said they were stunned by the piece, especially because you "can't" hand-weave seersucker. She'd won the contest, and a ginormous, gorgeous Swedish loom that consumed most of a small room in her house. This is a perfect example of how you can do things when you're ignorant of (or ignore) the common belief that you can't. Sometimes ignorance is a huge advantage.
The second story concerns my BEAM robot pieces in MAKE, Volume 06. I agreed to write an introduction to BEAM and two simple BEAM robot projects for the issue. I've done plenty of BEAM projects over the years (since the mid-90s) and had made several Symets (think: solar-powered top), but I'd never made a Solarroller, except for a kit version. Still, I figured I'd choose those as my projects. How hard could a roller be? It used the same solar-engine circuit as the Symet, a cassette motor and part of the body of the cassette player for the structure, and a couple of wheels. No biggie. So, of course, I made sure to wait until the absolute last minute to start working on the piece.
Read more |
Permalink |
Comments |
Read more articles in Makers |
Digg this!
February 5 2010, 8:30pm | More »
-
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/02/why_i_believe_in_maker_culture.html
My friend, Willow Bay, has a brief piece on The Steampunk Workshop called "Why I believe in maker culture." Snip:
All the things I do in life (which, admittedly, is a lot) are about Doing. I'm up to my eyeballs in Stuff to Do and up to my elbows in What I'm Doing because I love it, and because I so adamantly believe that Maker Culture is a healthy response to an unhealthy pop culture. Here's a glimpse at why I feel this way.
When you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Which is to say, you use the tools you have to solve the problems at hand. Tools and technology do, of course, range everywhere from a wrench to language to roads to electricity. And when your tool is the mindset of a maker, any system at hand looks like something to be tinkered with and improved upon.
Willow is also the director of a relatively new makerspace in Seattle called Jigsaw Renaissance. I love the first paragraph of their About Us page:
So, here's the idea: Ideas. Unfiltered, unencumbered, and unapologetically enthusiastic ideas. Ideas that lead to grease-smeared hands, lavender sorbet, things that go bang, clouds of steam, those goggle-marks you see on crazy chemistry geeks, and some guy (or girl) in the background juggling and swinging from a trapeze.
What is your feeling about the concept of "maker culture?" Is there such a thing in your mind? It it a fad or something more significant and enduring? Has becoming a maker and participating in things like Maker Faires, hackerspaces, Dorkbots, or other DIY festivals and activities, changed the way you look at the world?
Why I believe in Maker Culture
Read more |
Permalink |
Comments |
Read more articles in Makers |
Digg this!
February 5 2010, 5:30pm | More »
-
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/02/hr_giger_wedding_cake.html
February 3 2010, 11:00pm | More »
-
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/01/chinese_makers_home-made_submarine.html
There are some great quotes in here:
"I never learned anything. I have a 5th grade education."
"I made this submarine because I have a lot of creative ideas."
"I made this to appeal to someone who can back me up and give me a helping hand."
"I seldom use a ruler. Everything is based on a feeling."
Chinese inventor's home-made submarine
Read more |
Permalink |
Comments |
Read more articles in Makers |
Digg this!
January 28 2010, 11:30pm | More »
-
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/01/olympic_skier.html
Olympic skier Jeret "Speedy" Peterson says tinkering is the spice of life. Photo by NBC Sports / USOC
It's pretty easy to see how knitting might be relaxing and a good way to spend idle time for a person who's on the road a lot. Someone like an Olympic athlete. But taking apart a weed whacker to relieve stress? That's something only a maker can understand, and that's exactly why Olympian Jeret "Speedy" Peterson takes things apart.
The 28-year-old has been taking things apart since he was a wee tot, and has been on the U.S. National Ski Team since he was 16. He's used his building skills to do construction work, and dreams about designing, or at least witnessing, the first magnetic motor. And he's the only person to have completed an intricate 3.2-second jump called the Hurricane.
So this February, while you're watching freestyle skier Speedy perform his signature Hurricane jump, remember that he's likely to be taking apart a lawn mower or dirt bike when he gets home. Just like you or me.
After qualifying for his third Olympics this past December, Speedy was nice enough to answer a few questions for us relating to his tinkering urges. Here's what he had to say...
Read more |
Permalink |
Comments |
Read more articles in Makers |
Digg this!January 28 2010, 5:00pm | More »
-
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/01/stunning_images_of_space_taken_from.html
Here's a great story in the Telegraph about an amateur stargazer who tricked out his garden shed in the U.K. and surprised professional astronomers around the world with his top-notch images.
Peter Shah, 38, cut a hole in the roof of his wooden shed and set up his modest eight-inch telescope inside. After months of patiently waiting for the right moment he emerged with a series of striking images of the Milky Way.
His photographs of a vivid variety of star clusters light years from Earth have been compared to the images taken from the £2.5 billion Hubble space telescope.
But it cost Mr Shah just £20,000 to equip his garden shed with a telescope linked to his home computer. He said: "Most men like to potter about in their garden shed - but mine is a bit more high tech than most."
You can read the full story here.
Read more |
Permalink |
Comments |
Read more articles in Makers |
Digg this!January 23 2010, 3:40pm | More »
-
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/01/new_hackerspace_in_provo_ut.html
The Transistor is a community of tinkerers, gamers, programmers, and general DIYers, based in Provo, UT. They have a new space they wanted us to tell you about, as well as free, weekly Arduino/Electronics Nights.
The Transistor
Read more |
Permalink |
Comments |
Read more articles in Makers |
Digg this!
January 19 2010, 6:00pm | More »
-
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/01/von_slatts_gas_and_waste_oil_foundr.html
One downside to being a big fan of a particular maker is how long it can seem between new projects on his/her site, entries of a multi-part projects journal, what they had for breakfast, anything. Certain builders, I go to their sites (or look at their newsfeeds) obsessively, and it can be maddening waiting for new content. C'mon, make something! Wow me! Entertain me! Dance, dance! And then, when a post or project does show up, it's such a thrill, like a little maker Christmas present. I'm sure some makers feel this "pressure," and like those of us on the consuming end, it's probably both a positive thing (it eggs them on to start and follow through on projects), but it's also... well... pressure, and who likes to be under that?
Anyhoo, I've been following Jake von Slatt's foundry furnace build and was delighted to see a new, meaty post on the gasoline fuel ejector and blower systems. He used a Bosch fuel injector from a BMW (bought on eBay for a couple o' bucks) and metal from an old PC server to construct the blower. I love his use of the brass lamp parts to create an adjustable air-flow controller.
And all you 555 fans out there, he used a simple 555-based pulse-width modulation (PWM) circuit so he could adjust the "duty cycle" (and thus, the fuel-flow) of the fuel injector.
I guess the next step is to introduce the waste-oil system to the furnace. I'll be anxiously eying my RSS feeds... (No pressure!)
Foundry Furnace Part 4 - Gasoline Burner
See the whole foundry series here.
Read more |
Permalink |
Comments |
Read more articles in Makers |
Digg this!
January 17 2010, 12:01am | More »
-
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/01/neil_gaimans_nye_benediction.html
I love this touching New Year's Eve message delivered by author Neil Gaiman at Symphony Hall in Boston (during a gig with his girlfriend, Amanda Palmer, playing with the Boston Pops).
May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.
...I hope you will have a wonderful year, that you'll dream dangerously and outrageously, that you'll make something that didn't exist before you made it, that you will be loved and that you will be liked, and that you will have people to love and to like in return. And, most importantly (because I think there should be more kindness and more wisdom in the world right now), that you will, when you need to be, be wise, and that you will always be kind.
Read more |
Permalink |
Comments |
Read more articles in Makers |
Digg this!
January 2 2010, 11:00pm | More »
-
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/01/new_years_resolutions_-_maker_editi.html
I know a lot of people turn their noses up at the idea of making annual resolutions. Personally, I'm a ritualist, and an eternal optimist, so I do it every year, even though the resolutions don't usually stay resolute for very long. When we went through this exercise here last year, my resolution was to scratch-build a 3-Bicore BEAM walker. Never happened. But I got close, a couple of times, even gathered all the parts, just never seemed to find the time. Too busy writing about other people making stuff.
Time is actually something we're going to try and make here this year. As you all know, our MAKE "motto" is "technology on your time." A lot of people complain to us that they have a lot of trouble finding ownership of that time to actually work on projects, and to be organized enough to spend what free time they can find, as efficiently as possible. So time and organization are going to be a couple of the themes we resolve to explore here on Make: Online in 2010.
What are some of your maker resolutions for 2010? Please share with us in the comments.
And Happy New Year!
Above image is of Brian Marshall's Adopt-a-Bot Robot Band, spotted in the MAKE Flickr pool.
Read more |
Permalink |
Comments |
Read more articles in Makers |
Digg this!
January 2 2010, 3:01pm | More »
-
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/12/best_projects_of_2009_make_magazine.html
What were your favorite project in the magazine this past year? All of the major projects are listed below. Vote for your faves. And PLEASE tell us know in comments if you actually built any of projects and what your experience was, if you were happy with the results, etc.
What is your favorite MAKE magazine project of 2009?(answers)
Read more |
Permalink |
Comments |
Read more articles in Makers |
Digg this!
December 29 2009, 4:00pm | More »
-
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/12/twin_cities_maker_finds_a_hack_fact.html
Two hacker collectives in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area have joined forces to lease space for a shared workshop.
For the past year, Twin Cities Maker have been meeting at coffee shops and members' homes, slowly gathering funds and members in order to realize their shared dream: to create a hackerspace where members can congregate, work, and share ideas. Simultaneously, a second group of makers calling themselves the Hack Factory of Minnesota were planning the same thing. A couple of weeks ago, the two groups found out about each other and joined forces.
Earlier this month, the two groups toured a light industrial warehouse in southeast Minneapolis, and immediately took a shine to the space. It seemed like a logical fit -- the initial lease was for 1,650 square feet, consisting of a large workspace with a garage door and an enclosed, air conditioned office. Even better, there's the possibility of adding up to 2,850 square feet on the ground floor -- including a near-perfect classroom space -- as well as additional space in the basement.
The following week, Hack Factory signed the lease, and the two groups voted to merge bringing their combined numbers to about 30 members.
So how will the merger work? Which name will be the one that gets used? TCM and HFM have identical missions and philosophies, they want to merge and will merge; they just have to work out the details of merging. TCM has a larger web presence including a forum, wiki, and Facebook group, while HFM has already filed for nonprofit status with the state and is the official lessor of the workspace. One early thought is to call the workspace the Hack Factory and the organization Twin Cities Maker.
See the Twin Cites Maker Flickr group for pictures of the new space.
Interested in getting in on a Twin Cities hackerspace on the ground floor? Visit twincitiesmaker.com today to learn more.
Read more |
Permalink |
Comments |
Read more articles in Makers |
Digg this!December 18 2009, 7:00pm | More »
-
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/12/gizmodos_most_popular_diy_projects.html
Gizmodo has a piece on their favorite DIY projects from 2009, with the ability for users to vote on their favorites. Not surprisingly, MAKE is heavily represented. Here are three of our projects that they include. Vote for YOUR faves.
Build Your Own DTV Antenna
Jimmies Uglified Camera
Ask MAKE: Surplus TVs from the DTV switch
Most Popular DIY Projects of 2009
Read more |
Permalink |
Comments |
Read more articles in Makers |
Digg this!
December 18 2009, 6:00pm | More »
-
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/12/new_intuit_future_of_small_business.html
What a wild few weeks for open source hardware and for small businesses, check out this report from Inuit... It's called the "Intuit Future of Small Business Report - Hobbypreneurs". They outline the maker movement and talk about many maker companies...
Today’s passion-driven hobbyists are tomorrow’s entrepreneurs – otherwise known as hobbypreneurs, who successfully combine their passion for a particular hobby or craft with pragmatic business smarts to create new revenue streams for themselves and their families. Intuit today released the latest findings from the Intuit Future of Small Business Report series, written by Emergent Research, that focus on the “Maker” movement and the reasons that hobbypreneurs mean business. The report includes perspectives and data from a recent Maker Faire, where hobbyists identified their motives and reasons for starting their own small business.
Here's a direct link to the PDF.
Read more |
Permalink |
Comments |
Read more articles in Makers |
Digg this!December 10 2009, 6:35pm | More »
-
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/12/ol_ballistic_bill_in_the_uk_telegra.html
MAKE contributing editor Bill Gurstelle got a nice write-up in the Telegraph on the art of living (slightly) dangerously:
Citing various studies, Gurstelle argues that moderate risk taking has various benefits. Canadian researchers found that managers who took risks were more successful while a German study discovered that people who took more risks said they were happier.
Gurstelle believes his books tap into two rich seams in modern society - contempt for the health and safety bullies, and a more general fear of technology. While he describes himself as a liberal and doesn't own a gun, he's with the libertarians on the issue of being allowed to make your own mistakes.
"We live in the age of the lily-livered, where people make terrific efforts to remove all possible risks from their lives," he says.
"It becomes a fairly pallid, sterile experience. You certainly won't be hurt but you won't be creative. And it's especially true for children. Are they going to grow up to be so risk averse that they don't contribute anything?"
America's DIY ballistics king Bill Gurstelle shoots from the hip about health and safety
Read more |
Permalink |
Comments |
Read more articles in Makers |
Digg this!
December 7 2009, 6:01pm | More »
-
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/11/more_of_make_tokyo_gathering.html
Fra Fondi, of HobbyMedia, sent us a link to this video, part 1 of a report on the recent Make: Tokyo gathering. The vid is in Japanese, but still fascinating to watch.
We get Dale Dougherty and Phil Torrone, they get a dude dressed up as a cowboy! I feel cheated.
Make: Tokyo Meeting 04
More:
Photos from Make: Tokyo Fall 2009
Read more |
Permalink |
Comments |
Read more articles in Makers |
Digg this!
November 30 2009, 5:00pm | More »
-
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/11/inside_the_halo_armor_with_vrogy.html
Over the past few years, I have been fascinated by this Halo armor project by Michael aka Vrogy. The piece that first caught my eye was his M6G pistol made of foam. He's been posting to the MAKE Flickr pool for quite a while, allowing us to see what he's up to as the projects evolve. Recently, we've had an email exchange where he has shared some of the process and techniques that he is employing on this masterful personal project. He has also been posting updates for the work on his blog.
There are a few others who have been down this road, though most people in the hobby tend to take the easy way out, either with low-detail suits and props which are quick to build, or recasting statues to build armor. A few have gone all the way to full suits, but mostly by hand-sculpting everything - which probably works out to the same amount of hours.
Check it out after the break for details on his software and prototyping techniques.
Read more |
Permalink |
Comments |
Read more articles in Makers |
Digg this!November 29 2009, 11:00am | More »
-
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/11/thanksgiving_thankfulness_on_your_t.html
Ever since you made one of those turkeys out of an outline of your hand in kindergarten, you've probably been aware of the fact that Thanksgiving might not be the preeminent maker's holiday. Unless your forte is food. Or turkey papercraft.
But being thankful, taking stock of ourselves and our world, is something we should all be able to get behind as makers, even those of you who don't live in the States and aren't celebrating this particular holiday today. The subtitle of MAKE magazine is "technology on your time." It's about slowing down (likely), taking stock of your physical world, your technology, figuring out how it's made, and figuring out how to improve it, and by extension, how to improve the quality of your life in the process. So, in some ways, the ritual notion of Thanksgiving is kind of encoded within the mission of MAKE itself. That was also part of the idea behind the "ReMake America" theme of Maker Faire this year. Taking stock of what we have, the bounty we still enjoy, even during an economic crisis, and then figuring out what we can do to creatively improve the quality of our lives, using the resources at hand. It's a mission we're still on.
So on this day, we at Maker Media will slow down, sit down, take stock of what we have, of what we've accomplished (okay, and eat and drink like just-rescued castaways). And we'll think about the coming year and what we can do to better document and celebrate "technology on your time." We'll hoist a glass to all of you in the process.
Thanks for making 2009 such a great year for the maker community and thanks for supporting us in all of our Maker Media endeavors. We couldn't do it without you!
Now, if you'll excuse us, we have some hand-print turkeys to cut out and glue.
Thanksgiving project to help you work off lunch:
DIY Thanksgiving roundup 2009
CRAFT Thanksgiving roundup 2009
Thanksgiving papercraft redux (above image)
Read more |
Permalink |
Comments |
Read more articles in Makers |
Digg this!November 26 2009, 8:30am | More »
-
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/11/man_invents_electric_lobster_taser.html
Tasering just isn't for 10 year olds, a UK man invented a lobster zapper that some feel is more humane than just tossing them in boiling water. I would like to try this electric lobster they speak of. Looking at the photo, it looks like two big metal plates that "zap". The company is called "CrustaStun".
A company in the United Kingdom is about to lift the lid on a device that zaps lobster with electricity to kill them, and the inventor said Wednesday his humane alternative to boiling is about to give the entire industry a jolt.
British entrepreneur Simon Buckhaven said the CrustaStun system, developed over the past decade by his company Studham Technologies Limited, near London, kills the lobster with an electric charge, so the crustacean feels no "pain or distress."
The application of a stun (110 Volts - 2-5 amps) causes an immediate interruption in the functioning of the nervous system of the shellfish. By interrupting the nerve function, the shellfish (be it Crab. Lobster or other) is unable to receive stimuli and thus by definition, cannot feel pain or suffer distress (Dr. Dave Robb 2000 - Bristol University - paper on sentience in Crustacea, Baker 1975, Jane Smith 1991, Bateson 2000, Sherwin 2000 & Gregory & Lumsden 2000). The prolonged application of the stun causes a permanent disruption which kills the shellfish.
Sounds tasty!
This isn't the only lobster tech from Crustapreneurs...
In short, Hathaway took the idea of providing people with pre-shucked lobster, researched it and found that the government had been looking for ways to extend the shelf life of foods without freezing or irradiation for years. He discovered there are only two companies in the world that make machines that use extremely high water pressure to process foods and give them extended shelf life. (The government applied that process to its MREs, or meals ready to eat, for the military.) About a year and a half ago, Hathaway learned that this process also separated shellfish meat from the shell and that several Canadian lobster processors were using this system. Hathaway came up with the money for a machine. He started the new business by qualifying for a block grant from the state (which had a matching fund) and through private investors. Then, instead of having an architect design a fancy, state-of-the-art building on the coast, he decided to go back to his roots. He took a space in the nearly empty, old Etonic sneakers factory in Richmond, a slightly down-at-the-heels river town in central Maine between Wiscasset and Augusta, an area with people needing work. In April 2006, he opened his new company, Shucks Maine Lobster.
Buckhaven, meet Hathaway.
Read more |
Permalink |
Comments |
Read more articles in Makers |
Digg this!November 23 2009, 10:00pm | More »
-
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/11/make_and_national_lab_day.html
As part of the US government's "Educate to Innovate" program, they're doing something called National Lab Day, a "national barn-raising for hands-on learning." On the projects page for Lab Day, they have a bunch of Maker Shed kits and a PDF article from MAKE, Volume 15. FINALLY, they've caught onto us. Exciting. [via adafruit]
National Lab Day
Read more |
Permalink |
Comments |
Read more articles in Makers |
Digg this!
November 23 2009, 1:32pm | More »
-
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/11/tiny_solar-powered_brass_engine_in.html
November 21 2009, 9:00pm | More »
-
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/11/did_he_say_cheesemakers.html
MAKE editor and publisher Dale Dougherty has his five minutes of creativity fire-starting with this recent presentation of "Blessed are the Cheesemakers," at Ignite Sebastopol II. Take a whiff of "the feet of God."
Ignite
Read more |
Permalink |
Comments |
Read more articles in Makers |
Digg this!
November 19 2009, 5:00pm | More »
-
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/11/flashback_spinout.html
Back in August of 2006, on the pages of MAKE Volume 07, Colin Berry shared the story of his maker brother Kevin Berry and the role that the Soap Box Derby played in his short life. This intimate story moved us all. In October of 2006, Colin read the story as part of our Maker Files series, with an introduction by Dale Dougherty, MAKE's editor and publisher. Below is Colin's story in full. To hear him tell the tale, here is the MP3. Or you can get the audio delivered automatically with iTunes.
Spinout
Was building a Soap Box Derby racer my brother's last best chance at escaping his fate?
By Colin Berry
All his life, my brother Kevin was plagued with terrible luck. It began when he was a teenager in the early 70s, in Longmont, Colorado — our hometown — and soon became something of a family legend. If the Trojan theater was giving away free tickets to Planet of the Apes, the kid in front of Kevin in line would get the last one. If Kevin sold enough newspaper subscriptions to win a clock radio, it was broken when he opened the box. If one of his friends shoplifted a pack of Odd Rods bubblegum cards on the way home from school, Kevin got collared for it. It was a pattern. He weathered it well, half-joking about his luck with his shy, gap-toothed grin, but over time it took a terrible toll.
In shop class, however, Kevin seemed to step out from its shadow. He was adept with tools and proved himself a skilled carpenter at an early age. I was seven years younger and remember marveling at the projects he brought home from junior high school: a varnished gun rack; a Newton's Cradle, with its five suspended steel balls; a sturdy set of bedroom shelves for his Revell models. Looking back, it follows that the noisy, meditative setting of the woodshop appealed to Kevin. It was a place where no one shouted at him and where no electronic parts could mysteriously fail.
In our basement, Dad had a woodshop, too, a flagstone-floored, fluorescent-lit grotto with an oversized plank workbench, barrels of wood scraps, and tools hung on a pegboard. It was here, from 1969 to 1972, that my brother built four Soap Box Derby racers. He would start in late winter, when snow still covered the ground outside, transforming a small stack of lumber and paper sacks of hardware into a teen-sized, gravity-propelled vehicle.
Balancing the shell of the car across two sawhorses, he built each the same way: a pine plank floorboard supported several plywood bulkheads, to which he anchored Masonite sides and a top. Each car ran on four red-rimmed Soap Box Derby wheels, controlled by a simple cable steering system and foot-pedal drag brake. Each was painted and then lettered with Kevin's name, number, and sponsor logo (Weicker Moving and Storage). And each one got faster.
Read more |
Permalink |
Comments |
Read more articles in Makers |
Digg this!November 18 2009, 8:00pm | More »
