Tag Your Green!

Have you heard about our Green Projects Contest, part of GE's ecomagination? Do you have an innovative project that you think is "green" or one you've been thinking about starting? Do you think you have an environmentally friendly project, a proposed solution to today's environmental problems? Does it promote conservation? Appropriate use of technology? Do you think other people think it's worthwhile? Let's find out.

How the Contest Works:

• Post your green-worthy DIY project to our Green Project Contents website.
• Grab the code generated after you've registered your project. Place this code on the project page of your site, blog, wherever you want — Tag Your Green!
• Encourage readers, family. friends, and your social network to vote for your project.
• Post the link to your MAKE Green Project page to Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks and encourage others to do the same.
• Posts that get lots of votes will be eligible for great prizes. First prize is a trip for two to Maker Faire!

Ben Dubin-Thaler, and the BioBus, one of the "Maker Pioneers" we've been video profiling on our Green Projects site.

Make: Holiday Gift Guides 2010

 

The Sound-Reversing Car Kit from Sylvia's Super Awesome Guide

Every day since the middle of November, we've been running gift guides on Make: Online, covering nearly every aspect of making, from tools and equipment to kits and items made by makers, to geeky toys for grown-ups (and for kids). This is not only an opportunity for us to give you some ideas of what to get your family and friends for the holidays, it's also an opportunity for us to take stock of what interesting technologies and products have been developed over the course of the year. Here is a selection of our guides:

• The Ultimate Open Source Hardware Gift Guide 2010
• Tools for Makers
• Bikes
• 3D Fabrication
• Robots
• Gifts for Dads
• Mark's Made by Hand Guide
• Cooking for Geeks
• Dangerous Giving
• Gifts You Can Make
• Retro Tech
• Sylvia's Super Awesome Guide
• Diana Eng's Gift Guide
• Hackerspaces
• Made in Japan
  
• DIY Photography

See the archive of all of our Gift Guides here.

 

Make It Last: Robot Plant Project

We've been running a series of projects and contests, sponsored by Microchip and Energizer, designed to explore the relationship between microcontrollers and power (batteries) via several unique and energy-conserving project designs. The first project was to build a data logger (see bottom of the linked page). The second project, currently underway, involves building a programmable robotic plant. Above is the design that we're following (as depicted by MAKE illustrator Damien Scogin), but those entering the contest are free to create their own version of robotic plant life.The winner of the contest will receive a $200 gift card and a copy of our best-selling book, Make: Electronic . For more details, and a link to the project newsletters, check out the Make It Last landing page.

The Videos of Collin Cunningham

We're very lucky to have some extremely gifted video makers on our team: Kip Kay, Becky Stern, Marc de Vinck, and John Park, to name a few. But a truly unique gem atop our dragon hoard o' talent is Collin Cunnigham. His unique style (the dude does 'tronics in a suit!), sense of humor, engineering skills, musical chops, editing, and much more make him endlessly entertaining and we think one of the most lucid video educators on electronics and related geekery.

Here are some of Collin's Greatest Hits:

MAKE Presents: The LED - A movie about the origins of the LED and how to make your own from carborundum!

MAKE presents: The Resistor

Collin's Lab: USB Hacking with Arduino

Collin's Lab: High Power LEDs & the Digital Color Organ

Circuit Skills: Circuit Board Etching

Circuit Skills: Surface Mount Devices

And here are the full YouTube playlists for MAKE Presents and Collin's Lab (and Circuit Skills)