Make Magazine

My house used to be awash in magazines flowing through the front door via U.S. mail. There were over 50 a month, but now it's down to about a dozen and a half. (In fairness to me, about two-thirds of those remaining are computer or design rags read only by my better half.)

One magazine that's been here for a few years without much attention from me is Make, founded by Mark Frauenfelder of Boing Boing fame. I know, I know, you'd think I'd read that, but it disappears into the magazine maw and I never see it.

Well, after looking through issue 28, I have decreed that when it arrives, it shall be left somewhere that I can find it. I know I'm not likely to become a maker at my age, but there are lots of articles of interest to those of us who are afraid to use a soldering iron.

Like Is it time to retool public libraries as TechShops? That's the kind of thing that would never occur to me. Or this idea for creating (or converting) a swingset from a billboard. I won't make one, but it inspires me to know that there are people who have.

There was even a short bit on creating a life-size Mousetrap game. After a long day of social networking, comment flame wars and political pandering, who wouldn't like to relax by rolling a ball down a chute so ends up in a bathtub?