We’re starting to build our little MAKE:land area in Second Life, stop on by secondlife://Crescent/13/99, see a virtual edition of MAKE, ride a dune buggy, see some MAKE movies and a few other surprises. Mac or PC, get the free client here – I’m Torrone Trumbo. IM me, and we’ll add you to the Maker group too.
Nicholas Negroponte, the co-founder of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, detailed specifications for a $100 windup-powered laptop targeted at children in developing nations. Negroponte, who laid out his original proposal at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January, said MIT and his nonprofit group, called One Laptop Per Child, is in discussions with five countries–Brazil, China, Thailand, Egypt and South Africa–to distribute up to 15 million test systems to children. Link.
Sean writes “The three finalists from our DIY Eco-Tech Contest were nothing short of impressive. Now, we want to know which entry you thought was the creme de la creme. Before you decide, make sure to visit (or revisit) each of the finalist’s entries. The finalists: A solar-powered hydrofoil, a solar-powered bubble machine and a solar-powered FM transmitter/headphone combo. Go vote for your favorite DIY eco-tech!”… Link.
Todd Oldham has a new show on HGTV called “Hand Made Modern” my pal Eric told me about – looks very MAKE friendly, so I’m going to MythTV it and check it out. Runs every night, all next week. Link.
If Peter Wallace’s recent experience with hotel access cards is an indicator, leaving your electronic hotel room key behind when you check out could leave you open to identity theft... [via] Link. In MAKE volume 01 we showed how you can build your own card reader.
Switchfoot’s new album Nothing Is Sound shipped from Sony with copy protection software on the CD, much to the dismay of thousands of iPod-wielding fans. The band posted a response on their official forum apologizing for the protection and detailing ways to circumvent the protection and rip their songs to PC. Switchfoot linked to open-source program CDex’s download page with instructions on disabling the autorunning protection and ripping the files to MP3. Many of Switchfoot’s fans have been upset by the copy protection measures, and it’s nice to know the artists seem to care about the issue. [via] Link.
MAKE was picked for the home section! Thanks to everyone who voted! In our travels around the Web, we come across countless sites and services. But with only 24 hours in the day, we have to settle on a relative few as places to work, play, and get things done online. These are our picks for the cream of the crop... Link.
