New! Improved! Front Page

We have added a new three-image gallery and a "Latest Maker News" section to the front page of makezine.com. It's a great way to keep up with current content and happenings on the MAKE site, at MAKE magazine, Make: Projects, Maker Faire, and more. Fresh daily!

Intern's Corner in Make: Newsletter

We have an amazing group of engineering interns that work in the Make: Labs. They build and test many of the projects that make their way into the magazine, and they're usually creating some tremendous racket that, if you listen closely enough, you might be able to hear lingering within the pages of the magazine. (The editors sure heard it while the magazine was being put together!) Pictured are interns Brian Melani and Eric Chu, assembling our new MakerBot just in time for Maker Faire. Not pictured are Tyler Moskowite and Nick Raymond. The MAKE crew just moved into a new area of our building, and Make: Labs has some swanky new digs. They're going to be launching a new Intern's Corner column in the newsletter next month, and for starters, they'll be giving us a tour of the Labs.

If you'd like to know more about projects the interns do, check out the Intern's Corner column on the MAKE website, which chronicles some of their builds. You can see the archive of that column here.

We Love A Tool

For years we've been doing the popular Toolbox column in MAKE magazine, which reviews individual tools and resources that our contributors are passionate about. And for several years, we've done a themed tool roundup on the website. Recently, we launched a new weekly tool review as part of our online Toolbox coverage. Look for new reviews every Tuesday, or "Toolsday," as we like to call it. To see all of our online tool reviews and roundups, check out the Toolbox archive category.

Grow. Cook. Eat. Hack.

Growers, cooks, brewers, and bakers are all makers. For some reason, many of us don't see food preparation as a form of making worth talking much about. But we all have to eat, and most of us have a hand in making it. So we decided to take a month to focus on food basics, as well as the geekier gadget side of food making. We're running a Food Skill Builder set, with how-tos and cool food hacks, all of which you can follow via our Food and Beverage category.

 

The Great Global Hackerspace Challenge

Many hackerspaces have been hives of activity recently, as groups from around the world participated in element14's Great Global Hackerspace Challenge . Twenty-seven hackerspaces ended up entering projects, and the judges of the initial round had their work cut out for them, with lots of amazing entries. After poring over submissions, they decided on the three finalist groups. The final phase judging of those three and the award for the winning entry will take place on Sunday, May 22 at 5:30pm, at Maker Faire Bay Area. We hope to see you there. I (Gareth Branwyn) will be one of the judges. It should be a lot of fun. The three finalists are:

BuildBrighton and their Phonicubes project (A fun way to teach kids to read using interactive blocks)

Hackerspace Charlotte and their Feltronics (Teaching electronics through simple electrified felt circuits)

Pumping Station: One and their GGHC Biosensor Array (An inexpensive biology teaching tool)

Our very own John Baichtal will be interviewing the three finalist groups and discussing their projects on the MAKE website over the next week. So stay tuned...

Road to Maker Faire - Weekly Interviews and Videos of Makers

In the lead up to Maker Faire Bay Area, we've been running two excellent maker profile series on the MAKE site. Nat Wilson-Heckathorn and Brookelynn Morris are doing a series of Meet the Makers videos every week, profiling fascinating folks who'll be participating at this year's Faire. And MAKE Senior Editor Goli Mohammadi is doing a series of weekly text interviews with makers who'll be exhibiting. Here are some highlights:

Meet the Makers videos:

Maurice Connolly (a sculptor who throws his work off of cliffs)

Meredith Scheff (soft-circuit maker)

Sung Kim (woodworker and instrument-maker)

Satya Kraus (handmade motorcycle builder)

Interviews with Goli:

RD-D2 Builders

Kinetic Sculptor Christian Ristow

The Paper Airplane Guy