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November 23, 2009

Make: Holiday Gift Guide 2009: Mischief Maker's Gift Guide

Here are some gift ideas for your favorite creative skeptic, guerrilla artist, or depressed teenager. I'm trying to keep it fresh, so if you're looking for some more ideas, check out last year's Culture Jamming Gift Guide too. You have plenty of time before the holidays take hold, so set some time aside to MAKE something awesome for that artist friend or relative, or supply him/her with awesome tools and inspiration for creative deviance.

AVAILABLE ONLINE FOR FREE: Selected works by Evan Roth 2003-2008 ($free download or $20 in print)

Evan Roth is a groundbreaking artist who uses lasers, computers, and graffiti, and this book celebrates his most awesome projects. AOFF is an inspiring full-color look back at the last few years of Roth's work.

Read full story

Grounding tips for mixed signal PCBs

For some of us trying to sharpen our PCB layout skills, the right way to handle digital/analog ground planes can be a bit of a confusing topic. Eric Archer points out this straightforward article on the subject from Mr. Henry Ott -

Some people suggest splitting the ground plane in order to isolate the digital ground currents from the analog ground currents. Although the split plane approach can be made to work, it has many potential problems especially in large complicated systems. Can you list some of these problems? One of the major ones is that you can not route a trace over the split in the plane […] It is always better to have only a single reference plane for a system.

Hmm - ya learn somethin' new every day. Read more on the Grounding of Mixed Signal PCBs.

Virgil England's fantasy-land

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Virgil England's life-size dragon skeleton installation in Alaska's Chugach National Forest. A lot of readers were curious about the elaborate back-story that England has created for his fantasy armory work, so Virgil himself pointed me to Debra McKinney's article from the Anchorage Daily News of last May that explains more:

This is an ancient world where armorers are the masters of applied physics, where dragons and hellhounds lurk and where he with the biggest bad-ass weapon wins. England spends as many as 70 hours a week immersed in this alternate universe, creating tools of an ancient culture that never existed -- a time and place where reptilianlike bad guys drop in from a distant galaxy, where ritual assassination is sanctioned by the temple, where if someone steals your goat, dueling daggers settle the matter. The Het Lands, he calls it. He knows this place in such intricate detail he can talk of its history, social order and warrior ways until your ears leap from your head and take off running.

Virgil uses only techniques and materials that correspond to 10th-century "Earth" technology in crafting his pieces. There's more info at his personal website.

Novation Launchpad teardown

Novation's new Monome-lookalike gets the take-apart treatment over at Illuminated Sounds -

For those of you that are curious like myself, here are some images of me disassembling the Novation Launchpad. I hope this inspires some of you to do some cool modifications to the controller, and make sure to send us some images of your modified launchpad.

Check out the post for full-size pics including a close-up of the board's programming header.

Laptop Etch-a-Sketch via Arduino & Processing

Michael created the Hack-a-Sketch -

An Arduino board reads the inputs from two potentiometers (the knobs), and sends the information via USB to a Processing sketch which displays the path of the stylus on the screen. This was extremely easy to build because the Arduino is just running the StandardFirmata firmware. No custom code on the board. The Processing sketch was surprisingly easy to write. Using this really did feel like using an Etch-a-Sketch.

The shake sensing comes courtesy of a mercury switch behind the monitor. Of course a lot of laptops come with built-in motion sensors nowadays - might be fun to tap use those as erase triggers instead.

iPhone macro lens carousel

This iPhone macro lens carousel mod is a great way to recycle that pile of scavenged optics you've got laying around. [via LifeHacker]

Cheap iPhone macro lens for barcode scanning

Cameraphone DVD macro lens hack

Macro-Lens iPhone hardware mod

New in the Maker Shed: OLLO kits

New in the Maker Shed, OLLO kits! What are OLLO kits? OLLO is a reconfigurable construction kit for beginner robot enthusiasts. Using an easy to build plate and rivet system, you'll be on your way to making your own robots in no time! We carry the Motorized Action kit, which allows you to build 12 different types of robots. Also, we carry the more advanced Bug kit where you can make robots that trace lines, detect objects, or be controlled via a wireless remote. Either one makes a great gift for the holiday season.

November 22, 2009

BlueSMiRF found in credit card sniffer

Pt 2338
SparkFun BlueSMiRF found in credit card sniffer, interesting Sparkfun product placement. Nate writes -

That is an officer of the law holding up a device that was found within a 'PIN pad' in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. I didn't know what a PIN pad is, so here's a wikipedia article and google images. From the article (November 5th, 2009), it looks like someone has found a couple serial pins on the hand-held credit card reader commonly used within Canadian retail stores. They've wired those pins to a BlueSMiRF. This allows a person sitting ~100 feet away to see all the serial traffic including all the credit card information and pin #s. Not hard - all it takes is a bit of time, and malicious intent... All things can be used for good or evil, including our products. You can build amazing things that encourage children to learn (checkout Gever Tulley's amazing presentation at TED), or you can build things that steal. We believe that sharing knowledge and selling products that encourage innovation outweigh the inherent dangers. We believe that stifling innovation or suppressing knowledge lead to much more dangerous outcomes.

Thing about this scam is that the person(s) who modified the device needed a lot of access to the device(s) and then they need to hang around 100ft away all the time... inside job? Either way, the more this story gets out the more people will know about it.

Mystery iPhone musical instrument - World's most expensive ocarina

Pt 2337
MAKE Japan is having a meet up, check out this iPhone instrument! It looks like 3 iPhones mounted to a laser cut body and the player "blows" to produce music!

Stained glass d20s

From Flickr user Bloodthirsty Vegetarians, who also produce an eponymous podcast. [via Neatorama]

CRAFT Thanksgiving roundup

We have some special Thanksgiving recipes on CRAFT to make your feast extra delicious. Check 'em all out!

Thanksgiving Feast: How-To Brine & Roast a Turkey

Thanksgiving Feast: Side Dishes

Thanksgiving Feast: Pumpkin Pie with Caramel Pecan Topping

Homemade Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream

How-To: Bake a Turkey-Shaped Cake

3D renderings of the Mandelbrot set

A big Keanu "Whoa" over these gorgeous 3D renderings of fractals. The article offers a fascinating back story about the 20-year quest to adequately display a Mandelbulb, such a 3D analog rendering of a Mandelbrot set.

The Unraveling of the Real 3D Mandelbrot

New in the Maker Shed: Microbe Motel kit

The Microbe Motel is the grossest, smelliest, nastiest science kit we've ever offered. Ever! Other than some common household items, the Microbe Motel includes everything you need to grow colorful, stinky, colonies of household germs, bacteria, molds, and maybe even a fungus or two. Don't worry, you can kill them when you're finished.

Here are just a few of the experiments and projects you can do with the MAKE Microbe Motel Kit.
Are dogs' mouths really cleaner than human mouths? Culture bacteria from your mouth and your dog's mouth to find out.
Is the average toilet bowl really cleaner than the average kitchen sink? Find out by swabbing both and culturing the bacteria.
Find the grungiest areas in your home by swabbing and culturing your computer keyboard, television remote, telephone, etc.
Is money really as filthy as your grandmother told you? Find out.

More:
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Are you interested in Science? Don't forget to check out all the other experiments in the Make: Science Room.

Science through graphic novels

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Science Friday's "Science Through Graphic Novels"... Great interview(s)! Using graphic novels to teach science...

In this segment, we'll take a look at two graphic novels that approach science from a different direction. One tackles Darwin's 'Origin of Species,' while the other deals with the life and ideas of philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell.
Michael Keller - Journalist, Author, "Charles Darwin's On The Origin Of Species: A Graphic Adaptation" (Rodale Books, 2009) 
Apostolos Doxiadis - Co-author, "Logicomix: An Epic Search For Truth" (Bloomsbury, 2009)

November 21, 2009

Tiny solar-powered brass engine in a wineglass

This is the work of Szymon Klimek, who has been honored by the Internet Craftsmanship Museum. [via The Automata / Automaton Blog]

Maker Shed kiosks at Fry's

We're ecstatic about the fact that we now have Maker Shed kiosks, with magazines, books, and electronics kits, in several California Fry's stores. We think this is big news, not only for Maker Media, but for all indie makers -- a major retail chain is now giving small kit-makers this level of exposure. And, we think it's particularly cool that we designed and built these kiosks in-house, and even personally delivered them to the stores! What other publisher could claim that?

Here, Assoc. Publisher and General Manager of Maker retail, Dan Woods explains more:

Maker Shed kiosks are now installed in four of Fry's largest superstores. Each kiosk merchandises current and back issues of MAKE, Make: Project books, and kits, with an emphasis on maker-made kits produced by indie makers like Limor Fried's MintyBoost, Mitch Altman's Brain Machine, Ken Murphy's Blinky Bugs, Dale Wheat's Tiny Cylon and Wee Blinky kits, and Amy Parness and Ariel Churi's DIY Design Electronics kits. This indie maker angle was a really important selling point to Fry's. The kiosk's themselves are all-MAKE in their design and construction. The challenge was to create a merchandising/branding kiosk that could show off maker-made kits, as well as our books and magazines, all in a 2' X 2' footprint. The design we came up with incorporates the Maker Faire workbench framing as the internal structure, refurbished fence boards from West Sonoma, and some nicely weathered corrugated shed aluminum that was locally salvaged. The result is a nice combination of weathered shed and repurposed industrial tubing. They're uniquely MAKE, and Fry's is ecstatic. In fact, they were even trucked down and setup by Heather (Harmon-Cochran) and Rob (Bullington) in one day.

These are the stores that currently have kiosks. (San Diego will be set up by Fry's staff next week)

San Diego, CA
9825 Stonecrest Boulevard
(858) 514-4500

San Jose, CA
550 E. Brokaw Road
(408) 487-1000

Fremont, CA
43800 Osgood Road
(510) 252-5300

Sunnyvale, CA
1077 East Arques Avenue
(408) 617-1300

New hackerspace in Chicagoland: Workshop 88

Good news for those in Chicagoland! Planning is underway to form Workshop 88, a hackerspace in the west suburbs of Chicago. Here's your chance to get in on the ground floor!

We're currently in the planning stage, and we're looking for interested people in the area to help us get started. We're holding bi-weekly meetings Mondays at 6:30 until we're ready to rent some space and move in. The first meeting is this Monday, November 23, at the Boilerhouse Cafe, on the campus of North Central College in Naperville (29 N Loomis St Naperville, IL 60540).
Some of the things we'll be discussing:

Legal structure of the hackerspace

Membership structure and guidelines

Work that still needs to be done to build out our online presence

Current projects

This information is also available on our blog, at http://blog.workshop88.com. Updates and meeting notices will be posted there, as well as on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Workshop88. For additional information, we have a mailing list at info@workshop88.com.

Workshop 88 Planning Meeting
Monday, November 23, 2009, 6:30pm
Boilerhouse Cafe
29 N Loomis St, Naperville, IL 60540

Mint tin electronics dev kit packs the essentials

From the MAKE Flickr pool

Once you've caught the 'electronics bug', spending time away from the workbench/lab can seem an unpleasant prospect. Luckily, one can carry on learning and experimenting with a minimal amount of hardware. Nick shares his own recipe for ultra-compact electronics prototyping - the Altoids Tin Electronics Lab

This is a small electronics lab in an altoids tin. It contains nearly everything to work on small projects, such as a breadboard, components (including several ICs), and a adjustable power supply. The power supply is a simple LM317 circuit, with the 317's metal tab cut off to make it fit.

For details, check out Nick's essential part list. I'm guessing quite a few of us have mobile kits along these lines. Share pics of your setup via the MAKE Flickr pool - we'd love to see 'em!