READER INPUT
Where makers tell their tales and offer praise, brickbats, and swell ideas.
I just wanted to comment on how much I love
MAKE magazine and how much I appreciate all you
guys do for us. The mag is absolutely fantastic and
the podcasts are my absolute favorite. Keep up the
great work; your content is some of the best on the
entire net. —Andrew Montgomery
As a new subscriber, a novice maker, and a
graduate student at UC Davis, I am impressed with
the detail and care taken in publishing the project
“Tabletop Biosphere” by Martin Brown (Volume 10,
page 110). I have been working with exotic and
invasive plant species to prevent and control their
proliferation in both Florida and California. Let me
express the appreciation of myself and my colleagues
for your notation in the article reminding and educating your readers of the risks and proper disposal
of any organisms they may obtain in the course of
making. —Thaddeus Hunt
Editor’s Note: Thaddeus, thanks for the kind note. Our
office biosphere was “sealed” on March 31, 2007. The
ghost shrimp, we are happy to report, was alive and
kicking as recently as Oct. 9! That’s 6 months of biosphere goodness, and it gives us hope for successful
larger-scaled biospheres in the near future.
Finally got the paid subscription to MAKE
magazine. First such purchase of a magazine
subscription in 20+ years ... it’s that good!
—Randy Poppe
I have recently found your magazine … it’s
great. And this is from someone who has never
done any type of electronic project or task as I read
in your magazine. Although I work in the computer
industry, I am not an engineer. I love to tinker and
will continue to read your magazine until I have the
courage to make one of your projects. As a manager
I was not able to get my hands dirty, as it were. Keep
up the good work.
My suggestion, and something I would like but
cannot build, is a RAM memory checker. The cheapest
one out there is around $800. There are other
problems besides the price: it gives too much
information, for one. The two best features of a
MAKE LAB BIOSPHERE: Still thriving 6 months later!
RAM checker would be the ability to check all
types — SIMMs, DIMMs, SDRAM, DDR, etc. —
and the ability to Bluetooth to a printer. The
simple check of the RAM would be sufficient: is
the RAM OK?
Now, what I don’t know is whether someone has
already done this project. Any referrals would be
welcome. —Garrett Romain
Editor’s Note: What do you say, readers? Got any ideas for
Garrett? Post them at
makezine.com/12/readerinput.
MAKE AMENDS
The illustration of the ratchet
assembly on page 118 in MAKE, Volume
11, is incorrect. Please refer to Figure 12 at
makezine.com/
11/birdfeeder to see exactly (and correctly) how it all
goes together.
To summarize the error: The pawl does not go through
the hole in the top of the pivot screw, and the ratchet
spacers don’t go over the pivot screw.
The battery in Figure A on page 152 in MAKE, Volume 11,
was mistakenly identified as a lead-acid battery. It is, as
many readers pointed out, a NiCd battery. We apologize
for the mix-up.
In our MAKE: Halloween special edition, we attributed
the photographs of HauntCon, pages 75 to 78, to Lillian
Gurstelle. They should be credited to Karen Hansen.
On page 81 of the Halloween special edition, a 4-way
5-port valve (under the heading “Solenoid Control
Valve, Body-ported”) was identified incorrectly. We
regret the error.
Make: 187
