Announcements

EFF’s Bloggers Right Fundraiser

EFF’s Bloggers Right Fundraiser

Blog 150X60We’ve added a badge on our /blog section for the EFF Bloggers Rights fundraiser, we hope Makers out there will consider supporing the EFF too – “EFF is a donor-funded nonprofit group of passionate people—lawyers, technologists, volunteers, and visionaries — who depend on your support to continue successfully defending your digital rights. Litigation is particularly expensive; because two-thirds of our budget comes from individual donors, every contribution is critical to helping EFF fight —and win—more cases.” [via] Link.

The Magnificent Drill Cart

The Magnificent Drill Cart

Img 2671Here’s a simple and clever way to build a motorized cart for kids: power it with two 18V cordless drills. The drills friction-drive the cart’s front wheels via two 3/4-inch sanding drums, and you drive and steer the thing by pulling the drills’ triggers, one with each hand. Two fully charged drill batteries will run the cart for about 45 minutes of play time. Thanks Paul! Link.

The New Inventors

The New Inventors

InventNick writes “In reference to Xeni Jardin’s mention of the “American Inventor TV Series” on Boing Boing, I thought you might be interested in a TV series that runs on the Australian national broadcaster called ‘The New Inventors’ – It’s a revival of a late 70’s series called ‘The Inventors’ and each week features three makers and their projects which are assessed by a panel of design and engineering experts. The linked page doesn’t reference more recent episodes, but should give you some idea of the kind of ideas presented.” Link.

Get better gas mileage at MaxMPG…

Get better gas mileage at MaxMPG…

Cimg0247-435X318MAKE subscriber John writes “I started this site because of the importance, to ma at least, of vehicles that get good mileage. You don’t necessarily need an overly complicated hybrid (though I’m a fan of hybrids) to get good mileage. My goal is to get at least 40 mpg out of my Nissan pickup simply by making the engine more efficient and improving the aerdynamics while not taking away from its utility. This is important to me because of the environmental impact of cars and because of national security. We are all impacted by the environment but I’m in the Navy, have been deployed to the Middle East four times and so have a keen interest in our nation weening itself from oil as much as possible.” Link.

MAKE @ American Inventor – November 17th

MAKE @ American Inventor – November 17th

AmericaninventorMAKE will be covering ABC’s American Inventor’s auditions November 17th at 8am in San Francisco. If you’re going, let us know (before or after if you want to share your experience). “AMERICAN INVENTOR is an exciting new primetime reality show for ABC from Simon Cowell and the producers of American Idol. Set to premiere in early 2006, the show will undertake the biggest search ever for America’s best new invention. An embodiment of the ultimate American dream, the show will uncover the hottest new product and make some struggling inventor’s dream come true. The show will celebrate the best in homespun American ingenuity and will turn one person’s idea into the next big thing.”Link. Look for our special write up this week!

MAKE OUT :-]

MAKE OUT :-]

750ThumbOne of our favorite web comics The Joy of Tech did an excellent job of breaking the story about our new entry in the Magazine arena – MAKE OUT: Geek love on your terms. In the premiere issue you can win a McGyver Fantasy date and build a love detector. Thanks to everyone who sent this in! Link.