Blog

Alex Moskalyuk over on Slashdot has a review of our first issue of Make Magazine. He gave it a 10 out of 10. I really like this part “Make is the magazine for people who like to look under the hood, who like to work on do-it-yourself projects and who feel great accomplishment when a project is over, even though its practical usability might be questioned”. Mark was IMterviewed over on Gizmodo about the magazine as well.

I just interviewed Brian Greene, professor of Physics and Professor of Mathematics at Columbia University. He is author of the best selling books “The Elegant Universe”, “Fabric of the Cosmos” and recently a NOVA special. His area of research is superstring theory, quantum theory of gravity as well as a unified theory of all forces and all matter. We talked about superstrings, branes, experimental ways to investigate all of this along with what tools he uses and how technology has changed the way physicists work together (they use AIM!). This will be part of our Make:Audio series to be released here soon. Brian, wants to build a telescope as a project (I’ve always wanted to as well). I think we’re going to definitely put that in a future issue. I’d like to build my own scope, then use one of my digital cameras to take photos.

I’m ordering a GloFish soon. GloFish are fluorescent zebra fish that were originally bred to detect pollution in the water. If the fish is glowing, then there’s bad stuff in the water. Recently, these have gone on sale as pets. The “pet versions” will just glow all the time. There has been a bit of a debate over these little guys, right now you can’t own, transport or sell them in California. Before my new glowing friend gets here I want to build an aquarium for him. For daytime viewing, a fluorescent or halogen light and for night time viewing a black light. The fish absorb light and re-emit light, apparently it’s quite striking to see it in person. Web cam, web controlled lights, and web viewable stats on the tank is what I have planned too. I’m currently checking out King Vinnie’s DIY aquarium site– if there are any others let me know.

Here are a few projects I’ll be kicking around soon using GPS. GPS tagged photos, using Google Maps with a GPS and GameBoy GPS. The one I think I might turn in to an article is the Google Maps one– with a high speed wireless card and a Tablet PC, I think that might make a good in car GPS system. Maybe I’ll tie A9 in to it and see where Amazon took all those photos. If anyone is doing stuff like this, let me know email, AIM/iChat or Skype me.

We have a short article about live steaming in Make 01, written by Xeni Jardin. Live steaming is the hobby of making small, ride-able trains. Yesterday, my wife and kids and I went to the Los Angeles Live Steamers meeting in Griffith Park. They have a great setup there, with lots of track laid out and several trains running. They offer free rides to the public every Sunday.

Some social bookmarking, cosmos and photo goodness– The first is a Flickr group pool. Anyone can join and add photos of projects or cool things they’re up to. I’ll be posting lots of photos from articles I’m working on, events and device glamor shots. Here’s a neat slideshow of it all so far. Next up, the Make del.icio.us bookmarks. These are our bookmarks you can check out as we check stuff out. And finally, the Technorati Cosmos results for Make Magazine. Check out what Dan Bricklin had to say! “This is a dream publication for an engineer or an engineer at heart.”