Make:

Whoo hoo! That's my alarm clock!

It's a free and open source design, described here: http://cheaphack.blogspot.com/2008/01/turing-alarm-clock.html

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Nice looking clock, I was actually wondering about it from the picture.

That's why I hate these photomontages the site is so fond. This is "Make", not. "Look at pretty pictures".

Thanks for sharing the link and for creating the project nick.

Now if only someone can train Phil not to bother posting at all if he's not going to take the time to do it properly. Or is he saying only people who have the unlimited resources to go to every make event count.

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@Nice - listen, there's no way to document every single thing going on. i do the best i can, most things on make are links to well-documented projects. with photo sets, yes - sometimes these are for the people who were at the event - anyone can comment, anyone can put links - this is a community where people participate. the maker is more important than someone taking pictures and trying to run an event or publish things online and in the magazine. if i need to choose to post or not post because of time and information, i'm going to post and as you've seen here the makers will visit and/or update their photos with more details.

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phil,
Considering the nature of this site, what do you think you're accomplishing by repeatedly flooding the front page with pictures every single maker event?

Yes, the maker events are great things, and deserve some coverage. I don't have a single word to say against these events, but all you are doing is making this blog harder to navigate.

There's already the flickr photo pool. Flooding the front page of the make blog over and over and over every event is just so much white noise.

This is only one example. Every time you get something stuck in your craw, you do the same. Yes, let's remember 1-31-07, but come one do we need post after post after post of multiple almost identical photos? Again with no documentation just pictures.

Your last sentence is very telling "if i need to choose to post or not post because of time and information, i'm going to post". So you make it very clear that you'd rather post a ton of garbage just for the sake of getting it posted than take a few moments to post a lesser quantity of gold.

That's my point exactly right there. You go out of your way to flood the main page with so much garbage that it becomes hard to get at the gold, and you decimate the quality of an otherwise excellent site.

It should not be up to the designer to spot the photo of their item and link it in the comments. The editors should be doing that on the main page, and if you don't have time to do it now, don't post it until you do.

And that clock by nickjohnson is brilliant by the way, yet you don't even mention it except for one unmarked photo in your flood.

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@Nice - nick posted a link to the project here, what's the problem? it's that that the point, more makers here and documenting their projects on flickr/instructables/comments. he knew to stop by here.

4 photos from an event aren't garbage, you can click the link to the photo set or read the comments.

we don't post photos from every single event, just enough to encourage people to do their own events, get inspired, share their photos. that's the nature of MAKE, it was and always will be. i'd love to post more -- it's hard for people to believe this is a big DIY movement. i think we do the best we can showing what's going on.

the 1-31-07 posts were on the site and gone in less than a day, we posted as things happened. this isn't print, these aren't atom, they're electrons. the artists who sent the photos in didn't send anything more than photos and locations, so that's what i could post. any time i have more information i put it up, it's not like we're sitting on text and choosing not to post it.

there's a lot going on this week, i don't think any of it was "garbage" and i'm disappointed that anyone would say that about things that makers spent a lot of time on.

it's impossible to know every single link to every single project i see, but with the help of the community, the makers and others we'll do our best - that's all we can do.

really if i could do more i would, but sometimes it's just not possible.

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PT - Don't listen to the haters. Keep up the good work!

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I think Phil's point about this being a community is a great one. If he finds an interesting photo that someone sent in, there is usually some way to track it down, either via the person that took the photo, the maker themselves, or the group where it came from. As someone who has taken photos for our MakePhilly group, I don't have time to get personal interviews, description of the item, how they made it, etc. There is so much going on at these meetings it's hard to document each item in it's entirety. But, it's a community... if you like an item, want to know more, I'm sure you can find someone who can track down the original maker, and you can ask them directly any questions you have.
Just my two cents.
I'd rather see tons of cool things posted, than only a few with detailed descriptions.

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@cyenobite - thank you so much... this is what most folks say to me, but i'm also glad people say what they feel here too and we'll always try harder to be better.

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Phil,
If you don't know the difference between a link to a project on your main page and a link in the comments of a montage, you're beyond help.

By the way, this is Makezine, not polysci-news-zine. What makes you think posting so many times "as things happened" about Jan 31 was a good idea. It's so out of the scope of this site that way that it's just pathetic that you even think you're right to have done it.

cyenobite,
My point is that this is a site that covers a great deal of material and for the most part does an excellent job. Because of the sheer volume of information, it's a challenge for the editors to present it in a useful fashion.
What Phil does is completely flood the front page with whatever he personally thinks is important. He dumps all the useful content posted by his collegues onto the next page and as he said himself in this thread he doesn't care about quality, just quantity.

So by his own statements here, he's shoving everyone elses quality posts down to make room for his garbage.

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@nice - if you look at the latest posts from an event, i've made sure there was more information. i have no problem with feedback and trying to make things better.

that said, we're not going to try and please everyone and don't expect that from any of our authors on MAKE. there's something for everyone.

when there is time we will always do our best to link every project, this week there wasn't - that's the way it goes, having makers from the community stop in here and post in the comments with more about their work is a goal -- maybe some folks won't like that, most do.

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It's interesting what you say about not pleasing everyone. Because the site has a such wide variety, most of what's on here appeals to relatively few people. But that diversity is the greatest strength of the site. There are countless postings here I never would have sought out on my own yet I've found very interesting. As a result this site has vastly expanded my horizons.

Please understand there's nothing I'm saying you shouldn't be posting, just that if you're going to post at least do it properly. If you don't have the time, don't post it. Floods only hurt the site, either pictures with no links to what they are or the same thing over and over.

There's no need to do a half-assed job posting a lot because it's all this week at the event. Save it. When you have a quiet period next week, post it properly. These people spend countless hours on their projects, they deserve proper attention not a little nod because you'll too swamped. It hurts the readers even more when they see something they want to know about but there's only a picture.

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@PT,Nice et al....

This has been brewing for some time. As a person who LOVES the comments, I do not care for multiple subject posts/pics without a comment/link line below each one. MAKES:) each one that less focused, IMO. (Halloween anyone??!?)

"There's no need to do a half-assed job posting a lot because it's all this week at the event"
Hey....Play nice, Nice.......PT has a pretty good blog running here.........a link to yours maybe? I would like to compare....

Hope this is settled before post-o-ween....

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@nice - it's been 3 days since the make nyc post, the makers have posted photos, there's a video, pretty much everything have some type of description or more, makers have stopped in here, flickr photos have been updated.

we're not going to please everyone - that's just how it goes.

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PT don't listen to "Nice" who isn't very nice at all! Nice where is your site? I've been a Make fan from day one, PT does an excellent job and I for one am happy to see more Makers in the comments.

The only garbage here is YOUR COMMENTS! HAH!

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