OF4-11/13/06 9:25AM MAKE MAGAZINE
The Osgood File. I'm Charles Osgood on the CBS Radio Network. Do you know how to use rubber bands and silly putty to take pictures from flying kites? Do you know how to take apart an iPod and put it back together again? Well there's a magazine will show you how.
"I do think of ourselves as revolutionary in one way, and I also think of ourselves as returning to the way things used to be." said Mark Frauenfelder.
The minds behind Make Magazine after this
You can have fun and make useful stuff that turns technology into what you want it to be, says Mark Frauenfelder, editor of MAKE magazine..
"People are curious by nature. You know, people want to use their hands by nature. They want to make things, they want to change things, they want to customize things." said Frauenfelder.
"Make" shows you how to build such diverse objects as cannons that shoot potatoes and street legal electric cars. It also gives step-by-step guides to soup up your high-tech gadgets. The magazine's philosophy of hacking into anything and everything runs counter to the concept that consumers should never try to fix their own products.
"And if you take away that ability, it has consequences that are negative for society as a whole, I think. It makes people more dependent on outside sources to fulfill their needs rather than having people be self-sufficient." said Dale Dougherty.
Make Magazine's Founder Dale Dougherty published a "Makers Bill of Rights" to push manufacturers toward making repairs easier.
"All of these products have life cycles, and if we are not allowed to open them or reuse components of them, they go right into the landfill." said Dougherty.
"Make" has quickly tapped into the do-it-yourself marketplace. In its second year, the magazine has a paid circulation of 80 thousand, and its Website draws 400 thousand monthly visitors who ask questions and share projects.
"Science and engineering is really a practice, it's something you do all the time. One of the long-terms goals of Make is to be a positive force for change in science and technology education in the country." said Dougherty.
The Osgood File. I'm Charles Osgood on the CBS Radio Network.
The Osgood File. November 13 2006 |
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