Home brewed books
The San Francisco Bay Area’s been abuzz over Maker Faire, which took place in San Mateo this past weekend. What is Maker Faire? In short, it's a convention, sponsored by the magazine Make, to celebrate do-it-yourself technology. There are presentations by respected innovators, a whole slew of exhibitions about niche electronics, a crafts section and, yes, a catapult contest.
If you weren’t able to make it to the event, don’t worry - you can get your fix of homemade technology by searching back issues of Make on Google Book Search. Here’s a link to one, and more volumes are available through the ‘Other editions’ section. I’m a fan of the tagline on the cover: “HACK YOUR PLANTS.” Just the kind of thing I want to see when I open up my mailbox.
My sister likes to say that Make is geeky, which is probably fair. She’s more a fan of ReadyMade magazine, which Make calls “a sort of sister publication,” and is pretty much a less geeky version of Make. She recommends a book called D.I.Y.: Design It Yourself, which is full of tips on how to make things like t-shirts, CD jewel cases, business cards, and blogs. It’s a great resource if you need a push to get started on a project.
By the way, do you have any idea why the Maker Faire is spelled in such an antiquated way? Turns out that it’s a Paradise Lost reference. The things you can learn from search!
