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April 15, 2009

Make: television comes to Georgia

As of last week, you can watch Make: statewide on GPB at 12:30pm (pre-empted on 4/19/09). Make: television is very excited to welcome Georgia Public Broadcasting to the list of stations carrying Make:! We'd love to hear from the MAKE Online fans from Georgia. What sort of projects are grabbing your attention?

Make: television already has ties to Georgia. Daniel Bauen, maker of the brilliant tennis-ball launcher in Episode 6, hails from Atlanta.

Other links to check out:
Dorkbot atl site
Freeside Hackerspace

April 11, 2009

Make: television Episode 5

Make: television Season One has come and gone. But in case you missed it, we'll be rolling out the ten episodes of our premiere season again.

Episode Five, take two, bam:

Tour the elegant and hypnotic motorized wave sculptures, created by visionary maker Reuben Margolin. In the Maker Workshop John Park upcycles a discarded shopping cart into a stylish easy chair, and Mister Jalopy details the unsung wonders of his 1950 Studebaker. The Maker Channel features a treadmill bike, an obedient, robotic foot stool, a homemade foundry (built by two 14 year old wizards), and an ultra-high-temperature heat ray that can melt brass!

Get the m4v of Episode Five, or subscribe in iTunes. Watch the individual segments of Episode Five and find instructions for the Shopping Cart Chair after the jump.

All episodes, individual segments, and PDF instructions of our Maker Workshop projects from Make: television Season One can always be found at our Episode Guide. You can also watch Make: television videos on YouTube, Blip, Vimeo, or download our torrents at LegalTorrents.

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April 5, 2009

Maker Workshop mashup/John Park caricature

I'm honored and tickled by this caricature by Disney animator Joe Bowers. It explains what happens when you mix the Make: television Burrito Blaster project with the VCR Cat Feeder project.

Burrito Blaster on MAKE: television from make magazine on Vimeo.

Maker Workshop - VCR Cat Feeder from make magazine on Vimeo.

April 4, 2009

Mister J of Studio 360

MAKE Contributor Editor Mister Jalopy has been making the media rounds this week. First it was Nightline earlier in the week and today it was Public Radio's Studio 360.

Okay, now it's time for the media to focus on some of his other work besides the stereo cabinet iPod. He isn't a one-trick pony, you know. Mister J has layers (and lots of other cool projects).

Mister Jalopy on Studio 360

Make: television featured on Apple website

This is an excellent profile of Twin Cities Public Television and Make: television on the Apple Pro site. There are some details on methods TPT used shoot, edit, and color time the show using Final Cut Pro, and Motion. Additionally, as a fanboy going back to my Apple //e days, I'm pretty psyched about getting my mug on the Apple site!

Makers in Motion

Make: television Episode 4

Make: television Season One has come and gone. But in case you missed it, we'll be rolling out the ten episodes of our premiere season again.

Episide Four, take two, check it:

Meet the Flaming Lotus Girls, a women-centric maker collaborative that creates gargantuan, fire-breathing sculptures. In the Workshop, John Park builds a digital TV antenna from wire coat hangers and a $10 video camera stabilizer. William Gurstelle shows surprising uses for cable ties, and Maker Channel contributors show off a motorized lounge chair, an eye-popping I/O brush, a vest that controls a video game with a back massage, and an explosive, giant match made from thousands of matchsticks.

Get the m4v of Episode Four, or subscribe in iTunes. Watch the individual segments of Episode Four and find instructions for the ever-popular DTV Antenna and Camera Stabilizer after the jump.

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April 3, 2009

Make: Talk episode #005 (the Failure episode)

Well, today's Make: Talk was fun... while it lasted. I forgot to set the time interval for the show and it's defaulted to cut the stream at 15 minutes. Turns out, it continues to record, so we could have gone the full 45 for the archived version, but being new to this software/service, we didn't know that. The first 15 are worth listening to, though. We talk about happenings at MAKE, Make: Online, MakerFaire, and making in general. And you get to hear the beginnings of our Tom Igoe interview.

So sorry for the inconvenience. We're getting better as we go along and will work the bugs out. We'll have Tom on again next Friday, same time (12 noon PDT, 3pm EDT), so DO come back,

Funny enough, one of the main topics Dale, Goli, and I were discussing was failure, learning from failure, trying not to be embarrassed by your mistakes -- falling forward. So, I'll try and meditate on that for the rest of the day rather than feel like a complete bonehead.

Here are the Show Notes for what we discussed:

MAKE Classifieds (Closing today! Register for the Shed Gift Certificate drawing)
Fix the World! (The repair area for Maker Faire 2009 -- they need volunteers)
Maker Faire, May 30-31 (Plan to come. Bring the whole family and be prepared to be inspired)
Ask MAKE (New column from Becky Stern. Send Becky your questions.)
Show us your shop (We want to see your workspace photos!)

More:

April 2, 2009

Nightline segment on makers movement, MAKE

In case you missed last night's Nightline segment on the DIY movement and MAKE, featuring Mister Jalopy and Mark Frauenfelder and scenes from Make: television and Maker Faire, ABC News now has it on their website. It's the "Do It Yourself" segment.

More:
Welcome Nightline viewers!

Seattlest.com welcomes Make: television

Make: television received a warm welcome from the folks at Seattlest.com last week. Thanks for the feedback about the episodes, we're always interest in hearing people's reaction. Here's a snippet:

Make debuts on Seattle TV this weekend. We've seen the first two episodes of the show (you can see some clips and episodes here), and the first one airing at 11 a.m. Saturday on KCTS was a little deflating. It just wasn't what we were hoping for, and seemed to opt for Burning Man-style spectacle over substance every time. We've also seen the second episode, though, and all is well with the world: it's awesome. That one doesn't air until April 4, so set your TiVo now. It won't kill you to watch the first episode as well, but know that things get better quickly. (LINK)

Watch Episode 1, Episode 2 or watch them all at our Episode Guide page.

April 1, 2009

Welcome Nightline viewers!

If you're coming to our website after seeing the ABC News Nightline episode, welcome! We know Nightline viewers are a smart and curious bunch, so we thought we'd use this opportunity to introduce you (and others who might be new to MAKE) to what we do and why. We've got a lot of different things going on and are tremendously excited by the work we do and the global community of do-it-yourself (DIY) enthusiasts we collaborate with on our many projects.

Maker Media is the name of our company, we're a division of O'Reilly Media, the highly regarded technology publisher. Under the Maker Media umbrella, we produce the quarterly MAKE magazine, run two busy websites, Make: Online and CRAFT, produce annual DIY festivals, called Maker Faires, run a store, called Maker Shed, and we work with Twin Cities Public Television who produce the popular Make: television program on PBS.

MAKE magazine is how we got started in all of this. It's a quarterly technology projects magazine and a sort of house organ for the maker/DIY movement. Projects in the magazine range from old-school balsa wood and tissue-paper airplanes to what to do with old high-tech gadgets to building autonomous robots from techno-junk. Our current issue, Volume 17, is entitled "Lost Knowledge," and looks at the technology of the past, and featues projects that celebrate its marvels. The upcoming issue, ReMake: America, will explore sustainability and prospering through challenging times using DIY technology and good ol' human ingenuity. We produce both a print and a digital edition of our magazine. You can subscribe here and find back issues here.

Make: Online is our award-winning website that you're reading right now. It is one of the most popular watering holes in cyberspace for makers, crafters, inventors, tinkers, and amateur technologists and scientists of all stripes who come here for breaking DIY stories, original content on building, repairing, and making things, and for how-to project articles. We also have several popular video series that run every week on the site, Weekend Projects, MAKE Presents, and How-To Tuesday, that present cool projects, kit builds, and explain (in plain English) how various technologies work. Here's a recent Weekend Project:

CRAFT is Make: Online's sister site, covering the new crafting revolution. This is NOT your mother's home economics, this is baking, weaving, sewing, knitting, refinishing, and decorating for a tech-savvy 21st century.

Maker Faire is our annual DIY festival, makers meet-up, show and tell, and celebration of creativity, invention, self-directed learning, and the incomparable joys of making. We've held Faires in the SF/Bay Area for the last four years and in Austin, TX for the past two. A Maker Faire UK also took place in Newcastle, UK last month, the first one over seas. Last year's Bay Area Faire attracted some 65,000 people. Apparently, there are more people interested in art cars, a life-size mousetrap game, human-powered carnival rides, rocketry and robots, Tesla coils, and swap-o-ramas than you might think. This year's Bay Area Faire, May 30 & 31, is inspired by President Obama's shout-out to "the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things" in his Inaugural address, and his call to begin the "remaking of America."

The Maker Shed is easy to describe. Think of the coolest technology bookstore, museum gift shop, and craft and electronics stores you can dream up -- now roll them all into one. That's the idea behind the Maker Shed. It's a year-round online store and we also set up full-size retail operations at each of the Maker Faires. It's an irresistible collection of books, kits, robots, microcontrollers, science sets, electronics, craft tools and supplies, all curated by us, the people behind MAKE. It's all of the wondrous stuff we'd want to find in such a store.

To introduce you to MAKE and to the Maker Shed, we've put together a special "Welcome to MAKE" bundle. It includes a one-year subscription to MAKE (four issues), a copy of The Best of MAKE, a 380-page collection of our favorite projects from the first ten issues, and a copy of The Maker's Notebook, a unique project notebook, with plenty of high-quality graph paper for sketching out your projects, and a reference section in the back of weights, measures, facts, figures, and other indispensable info geared towards makers. The bundle saves you $41 off buying the items individually.

Make: television is the DIY series for a new generation! It celebrates all manner of "maker" - the inventors, artists, geeks, basement scientists, and just plain folks who mix new and old technology to create newfangled contraptions. The series encourages everyone to invent, re-invent, recycle, upcycle, and act up. Each half-hour episode inspires millions to think, create, and make cool, unusual, and useful objects in their lives. Some of the projects on the show have included a burrito blaster(!), a VCR-driven cat feeder, a cigar box guitar, a simple digital TV Antenna, a wind turbine, and a how to on building solar-powered robots from junk and basic electronics. Make: television began showing nationwide on Public Television stations and online at makezine.tv in January 2009. All of the episodes are now available online. Here's a sample from the Maker Workshop, episode 108, on building miniature robots from very basic parts:

Maker Workshop - Miniature Robots on Make: television from make magazine on Vimeo.

We hope you enjoy our offerings and will join us in our quest to put the joy of making back into our hectic modern lives. The full title of our magazine is "Make: technology on your time." We're all about taking control of our technology rather than having it overwhelm us. We do everything we can to learn about the technology in our lives, to improve upon it, make it our own, and to share what we've learned with the growing community of fellow makers. We hope you'll join us on this journey. And if you want to get a truly thrilling and eye-opening experience of the length and breadth of the maker movement, come to next month's Maker Faire. We can assure you it's like nothing you've ever experienced and that you will come away truly inspired.

If you have questions about Maker Media or any of our projects, please feel free to ask in the comments feature below.

Set TiVos on MAKE (and ABC's Nightline) TONIGHT!

If all goes according to plan (and there are no breaking stories to bump it), ABC's Nightline is running a segment tonight on MAKE and the maker movement. They taped a piece with Mark Frauenfelder and Mister Jalopy. There may be scenes from Maker Faire and Make: television as well.

The show broadcasts at 8:35pm Pacific,11:35pm Eastern. Please help us spread the word!

March 31, 2009

Make: Day recap - The highlights

The first ever Make: Day was held two weeks ago at the Science Museum of Minnesota, and featured over 20 Makers, 3 musical acts, and tons of interested MAKE enthusiasts of all ages. The response to Make: Day has been fantastic, and we're hoping Make: Day will become an annual event. Check out the highlight reel to see some of our favorite moments from the day.

March 30, 2009

Make: Outreach Project Pack

One aspect of Make: Outreach that we're particularly excited about is the Project Pack. As those of you in the maker community know, MAKE magazine and Make: television celebrate the do-it-yourself approach towards technology, and events like Maker Faire and Make: Day present a means of engaging with others interested in doing the same.

But chances are you know someone who looks at all things DIY as unfamiliar, or even daunting and intimidating. This is where the Project Pack comes in handy. You can find it, along with the Outreach Toolkit, by clicking on the Outreach Tools tab at the top of the Make: Outreach website.

The Project Pack is a PDF file containing full instructions for four simple, cost-effective projects, each inspired by a project featured in Make: television's Maker Workshop, and perfect for incorporating the MAKE message into everyday situations.

If you don't have room for a full-sized Portable Trebuchet from Make: television Episode 106, check out the Desktop Trebuchet project in the Project Pack, which uses some pencils, rubber bands, and paper clips.

If you were a fan of the Mini Robots that John Park built in the Maker Workshop on Episode 108 of Make: television, but want to start at the basics of robotics and circuitry, check out the instructions for a Simple Motor.

If you were fascinated by the Cigar Box Guitar from MAKE magazine, Vol 04, or Episode 110 of Make: television but aren't quite ready to hack a tape deck into an amplifier, check out the simple Recycled Instruments project.

All of these projects were designed with the idea that DIY is an empowering process, which will encourage the maker spirit in both experienced makers and those who are building these projects for the first time. Strong partnerships make for great outreach, and the Project Pack is perfect for instructing and inspiring participation in creative activities.

So check it out, and if you build any of the projects, let us know how it went!

March 28, 2009

Make: television Episode 3

Make: television Season One has come and gone. But in case you missed it, we'll be rolling out the ten episodes of our premiere season again.

Episode Three, take two, coming at you:

Enter the alternative universe of Jake Von Slatt, a leading Steampunk Maker, who turns modern technology into Victorian works of art. In the Maker Workshop, John Park mounts a remote control camera on a painter's pole to take stunning aerial photographs, and Cy Tymony demonstrates some sneaky uses for magnets. The Maker Channel presents a theremin orchestra, a smoke ring generator, a pulse-jet bike, and a video-hack method to paste yourself with a beer into congressional hearings on C-SPAN.

Get the m4v of Episode Three, or subscribe in iTunes. Watch the individual segments of Episode Three and find instructions for the Pole Cam after the jump.

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March 27, 2009

Make: Day review from Geekdad

John Baichtal, Geekdad contributor and Twin Cities maker, wrote a nice review of Make: Day over at the Wired Blog. Make: television is happy that so many families enjoyed this event, it turned out to be a great mix of fun for both adults AND kids! (link)

We share John's sentiments, about Make: Day and hope it continues...

"By all accounts the event's turnout was awesome -- it attracted about 5,500 attendees, or about a thousand more than a typical Saturday. Hopefully the hubbub will induce the movers and shakers to make this an annual event." Full article.

Photos are still pouring in! Take a look and be sure to tag your photos and add them to the Make: television pool.

We love this photo! A young girl pilots a robot built by the FIRST robotics club.

(photo credit: fivesixzero)

March 26, 2009

Introducing Make: television Outreach

A little over a week ago, Make: television (with help from the Science Museum of Minnesota and Geek Squad) hosted the first-ever Make: Day. Heavily inspired by the many successful and amazing Maker Faires that MAKE magazine has hosted around the ~~country~~ world, Make: Day was a blast. And in case you missed the news, Make: Day was filled with robots, music, stuff for kids, and tons of other crazy and cool projects and inventions.

The principles that guide much of MAKE magazine and Make: television are right in line with the goals of events like Maker Faire and Make: Day-- to celebrate the ingenuity and inventiveness in our communities. We believe those same goals inspire all makers, which is why we've launched a spiffy new Outreach website, chock-full of free resources for anyone who's ever thought of spreading some maker vibes across their community.

Here you'll find out how to:

Throw a Make: viewing party! You can watch an episode, and even invite local Makers, artists, or inventors to lead a discussion about the show.

Hold a "Meet-and-Greet" with a local Maker, such as an inventor, engineer, artist, or other creative community member who can demonstrate a project and inspire others.

Delve deeper into the technology of Make: by inviting an engineer or other technology professional to explain the science behind a project in the Project Pack.

Use the Project Pack to instruct and inspire participation in creative activities.

Hold a Mini-Maker Faire by inviting appropriate community partner groups and individuals who may wish to showcase their projects during the event.

Host a competition at work to see who can build the best project from the Project Pack!

The Outreach site was designed for all of you educators, after-school program teachers, community engagement workers in our midst to get people of all ages thinking, creating, recycling, upcycling, and just making. And the tools are perfect for, basically, wherever people are gathered! Go check it out for yourself. Think of these resources as only the beginning - once you get started, you might not stop.

March 25, 2009

Make: television is coming to Seattle!

Make: television continues to grow steadily across the country...

Starting this Saturday, March 28th, you can watch Make: at 11am in Seattle/Yakima on KCTS and KYVE.

We're excited to welcome Seattle/Yakima as the newest member of the Make: television family. Seattle is home to countless makers and awesome maker groups like the HazardFactory and Dorkbot SEA, Robothon, 911 Seattle Media Arts Center as well as our very own RFID implantee, Amal Graafstra.

What makes the Seattle area a hotbed for maker activity? Tell us about the places, projects and people who are vital to your maker community!

March 24, 2009

Make: television coming to Missouri, Rhode Island, Boston and Virginia

Public Television networks in Ohio, Kentucky, and Wisconsin just started airing Make: television, and starting this weekend, Missouri, Rhode Island, and Virginia are hopping on the bandwagon!

Make: television will be premiering on:

KETC St. Louis this Saturday at 10:00am.

WVPT Harrisonburg, VA this Sunday at 10:30am. You can find a map of WVPT's coverage areas here.

WSBE Rhode Island this Sunday at 2:00pm. And a note for Boston makers: WSBE will be premiering Make: television on Sunday on their primary channel, which is also carried by Comcast cable in the Boston area.

Makers in Missouri, Virginia, and Rhode Island (and Boston!), we'd love to hear from you! Let us know what you think about the show in the comments!

Now airing near you: Make: television

This past weekend, Make: television premiered on networks in Ohio, Kentucky, and Wisconsin!

Make: television now airs on WGTE in Toledo on Fridays at 3:30pm, on WKYU in Bowling Green on Saturdays at 2:30pm, and on Wisconsin Public Television on Sundays at 4:30pm.

MAKE fans in Ohio, Wisconsin, and Kentucky: we're happy to have you aboard! Let us know what you're up to and what you're making.

March 21, 2009

Make: television Episode 2

Make: television Season One has come and gone. But in case you missed it, we'll be rolling out the ten episodes of our premiere season again.

Episode Two, take two, coming at you:

Maker Cris Benton takes spectacular aerial photographs by rigging remote-controlled cameras to high flying kites. In the Maker Workshop John Park builds a Burrito Blaster, which can propel a burrito 50 yards, and Mister Jalopy shows off his giant iPod. The Maker Channel features vegetable flutes, cool remote control robots, printer that makes designs on a café latte, and a stealthy technique to park anywhere for free!

Get the m4v of Episode Two, or subscribe in iTunes. Watch the individual segments of Episode Two and find instructions for the Burrito Blaster after the jump.