MAKE’s editor-in-chief Mark Frauenfelder will be on a special NPR Talk of the Nation. This will be a live, call-in talk program on the “Do It Yourself” culture this Wednesday, December 28th the 3pm ET (noon PT) hour. Tune in, turn on, call in, make stuff… Link. To figure out what station it will be on in your area, use the station finder. We’ll also post a link to the podcast when it’s up too.
Here’s our MAKE Widget (download it here) and a how to on how to make your own! – “Widgets are great–there is no denying it. Arranging these small, lightweight utilities on your Mac OS X Dashboard desktop puts lots of useful and fun possibilities at your fingertips and eyeballs. But when a widget you want doesn’t exist, there is only one thing to do: make it.” Link.
Ok Makers, get your aggregators ready! We’re finishing out 2005 with a ton of posts, articles, contests and more – if you haven’t yet, add MAKE to: Kinja, My AOL, MyYahoo, Google, Bloglines, Rojo, Newsgator or Pluck (or any other feed reader with our RSS feed). Look for lots and lots of fun! If you’re new to RSS, take a look at these articles for just about everything you might need or want to know.
Ok, I’m going to try out a bit of experiment on Christmas day inspired by the “Call for Help-a-thons” – post up any and all questions about setting up your new computer, protecting a PC from viruses/spyware before letting the kids online, iPods, converting videos, PSPs – anything you happen to need help with. I’ll check the messages and answer them and/or do a Skype/Gizmo/Instant message session. Most folks won’t be at their computers and online, but if you’re reading Makezine.com and need a hand with your tech, post up and let us know. Lastly, if you didn’t get MAKE for the holidays and want a free copy of MAKE (digital edition) read the comments…
Speedometers, rearview mirrors, many will have LCDS (I can’t wait to mod one!)….“To say the new Mercedes S-Class dashboard is impressive is probably the understatement of the year. Basically, it’s a [LCD screen] embedded in the dash that displays all your data virtually. What’s cool is it mimics analog gauges like the original Carrera GT concept was sporting when we all first saw it for the first time. But the real mind blower, is when the night vision activates and everyting in front of you disappears and you see a video screen displaying what’s in front of you.” [via] Link.
Pat sent in this holiday treat, how cars are made! “…a video of the making of a very important (and common) mode of transportation: cars. Thanks to the good people at Toyota Motor Manufacturing in Georgetown, Kentucky for supplying the 5-minute narrated video of the manufacturing process. It goes from stamping through painting and powertrain through the end of the assembly process. At the end, you see the car being driven off the line.” Link.
Ok, we think most of the logistics have been solved with our AOL Instant Message bot, the MAKEbot. The MAKEbot delivers the best of MAKEZine.com, Flickr, Instructables and del.icio.us all via your buddy list. Click here to add the MAKEbot to your buddy list, then type help for a list of commands or just click here to subscribe. I’m also trying out this AIM code – it should tell you the status of the MAKEbot right in this post, so let’s see how it goes…There should be a little icon here –> . If there is, click’em and add’em. Lastly, the MAKEbot has a secret code if you can figure it out, it gives you a discount on MAKE and our new book Makers.
