News

The maker hobby intersects with a variety of others, largely thanks to its broad nature and hands-on approach. There are makers who are coders, who are artists, who are weavers, woodworkers, musicians, printers, metallurgists, hardware engineers, schoolkids, and more - but one area in which there is a near-total overlap is that of ham radio. With many countries requiring those interesting in getting an amateur radio licence to complete an exam which includes at the minimum a basic understanding of electronics and soldering, it's little surprise to find many hams continuing that education even when their licence is in-hand. Jim...

If you're in or around Manchester this weekend, you'd be well advised to book some time out for the Manchester MakeFest at the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) - especially given that it's entirely free entry. Following on from the hugely successful Liverpool MakeFest, the event promises to be an absolute blast for makers, tinkerers and hackers of any age, with attractions including a collaborative marble run, 'nappy science,' creations from Noisy Toys, glass-making, and various workshops including learning to solder with the gang from MadLab. We'll be in attendance on the Sunday, and we'll be bringing our tame...

We're always fascinated to hear from maker communities, from those in our back garden through to the far-flung reaches of the globe, which is why we were thrilled that our friends at Seeed Studio have interviewed the founders of HardCopyWorld, a maker space in Korea. In doing so, Seeed has wonderfully highlighted just how unifying the maker lifestyle truly is: aside from some local concerns, such as the lack of documentation for both hardware and software in languages other than English, the comments made could have come from anywhere in the world. The interview also touches upon the group's most famous...

Too many people view old, obsolete electronics as little more than scrap - but to the maker a pile of outdated gadgets can be a treasure-trove of cheap components. Earlier this month, Nerd Club's Chris Holden detailed a homebrew CNC pick-and-place machine built using stepper motors and other components from a flatbed scanner and a DVD drive. Designed to speed up the process of placing surface-mount components on a circuit board ready for soldering - although the result, Chris admits, is a device which actually takes longer than doing the task by hand - the build is interesting for several...

Today marks the launch of Windows 10, the latest in the long-running family of operating systems from software giant Microsoft - and the first which comes with a focus on the maker market. Although Windows enjoys an overwhelming majority share of the traditional PC market, Microsoft's most famous product has struggled with the rise of embedded and mobile systems where lightweight, typically Linux-powered, alternatives rule the roost. The company's answer to this is three-fold: a unified experience across smartphones, tablets, convertibles, laptops and desktops; allowing users of Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 to upgrade to Windows 10 free...