Street Tech

Pot Cleaning Or: How to Repair Old Electronics in Minutes

Home electronics today are made so cheaply and repair costs are so expensive that it's usually not worth trying to repair damaged gear. Most repair shops have a bench fee starting at $30/hour and you'll pay for the full hour even if the repair takes only 30 minutes. You'll also

Holiday Gift Guides for Geeks

We've started our massive menu of holiday gift guides on MAKE. We'll be running them from now until Christmas, and covering everything from dangerous gifts (things that go woosh, boom, splat) to crafting gear for guys. Guest guiders will include Bill Gurstelle, from Backyard Ballistics, and Diana

Introducing O'Reilly Answers

I love "lazyweb" sites, Q&A sites, and other crowdsourced resources that deal in instant-gratification content. I especially like them when the signal to noise ratio is high; when a lot of really smart, inspired people come together to share their expertise.

As

Halloween Memories on DudeCraft

One of my favorite websites is Paul Overton's DudeCraft, a crafting site for guys. I was flattered when he said he was asking a bunch of well-known bloggers to share their Halloween stories and he asked me. Here's my piece.

[That's me as Cousin

Make: Online Halloween contests

I hope you have our Make: Online Halloween contests on your radar. We've teamed up with Microchip, Inc. this year and are giving away Microchip products (microcontrollers, sensors, I/O boards, etc.) leading up to our big Halloween contest where we'll be giving away nearly $1,000 worth of

Introducing the Make: Science Room

I am thrilled to announce that we've launched a new area on Make: Online, called the Make: Science Room. Here are the deets (from my post about it):

The Make: Science Room is our DIY science destination. Here you'll find how-tos on setting up a home lab,

Device Volume II

Last year, I had the pleasure of contributing to an art book put together by Greg and Amy Brotherton, for their Device Gallery in La Jolla, CA. The book was called Fantastic Contraption, and featured some of my favorite artists working in what I

20% Off everything in the Maker Shed!

Until midnight (PST) on Sunday, you can get 20% off *everything* in the MakerShed store. Here's a note from Dan Woods of Maker Shed:

It's hot here in Sebastopol. So hot, that the PG&E substation across the street blew a transformer

Steampunk goings on at Maker Faire

I'm just back from the third annual Bay Area Maker Faire. This year, one of the things I helped organize was the steampunk presence at the Faire, namely the Contraptor's Lounge, featuring such icons of the scene as Jake von Slatt, Datamancer, and Molly Porkshanks, and the Saturday Night Steampunk