Announcements

Nicholas Negroponte, the co-founder of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, detailed specifications for a $100 windup-powered laptop targeted at children in developing nations. Negroponte, who laid out his original proposal at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January, said MIT and his nonprofit group, called One Laptop Per Child, is in discussions with five countries–Brazil, China, Thailand, Egypt and South Africa–to distribute up to 15 million test systems to children. Link.

Sean writes “The three finalists from our DIY Eco-Tech Contest were nothing short of impressive. Now, we want to know which entry you thought was the creme de la creme. Before you decide, make sure to visit (or revisit) each of the finalist’s entries. The finalists: A solar-powered hydrofoil, a solar-powered bubble machine and a solar-powered FM transmitter/headphone combo. Go vote for your favorite DIY eco-tech!”… Link.

Todd Oldham has a new show on HGTV called “Hand Made Modern” my pal Eric told me about – looks very MAKE friendly, so I’m going to MythTV it and check it out. Runs every night, all next week. Link.

If Peter Wallace’s recent experience with hotel access cards is an indicator, leaving your electronic hotel room key behind when you check out could leave you open to identity theft... [via] Link. In MAKE volume 01 we showed how you can build your own card reader.

MAKE was picked for the home section! Thanks to everyone who voted! In our travels around the Web, we come across countless sites and services. But with only 24 hours in the day, we have to settle on a relative few as places to work, play, and get things done online. These are our picks for the cream of the crop... Link.

Mag Ads are Insanely Inexpensive – Tip: Ads in MAKE: magazine are dirt-cheap, considering the size of the magazine’s audience (50K and growing), education level (high), income (high), ad-page density (commitedly sparse), and shelf-life (three months). You can get a full page for less than $3K– chump-change for big-company advertisers, and well within reach for many small businesses or even a committed Scout troop. Link. or email.