Make Magazine Rocks!

I picked up Make magazine, published by computer book powerhouse O'Reilly, the other day, and am amazed! It's a quarterly publication and I'd heard of it but never really read it. This issue had 9 do it yourself music projects. The pitch-bending one is pretty cool--I once met a guy at Jazzcamp (yes, I'm like the bandcamp girl in American Pie: "This one time? At Jazzcamp?") who played a Speak-n-Spell. Here's what I like about Make:

1. Excellent design. We tried to achieve this look at my old magazine. Somehow it's geeky yet consumer. Excellent photographs, even though they're of DIY projects. Great thick matte paper. Nice type treatments and primary colors. Nice small magazine (6.5" x 9.5") format. Pleasurably thick, good thump factor. Practically no advertising in it, so they either make all their money via subscription or this is still in the launch/investment phase.
2. Reasonably lean staff. I suppose that's typical for San Francisco. Not a lot of people on the masthead--I counted about 12 editorial, and a few of those are probably contractors.
3. Excellent writing and good copyediting. Only one glaring mistake (a sentence missing). A tremendously diverse assortment of stories, all good: In a profile on Dean Kamen, the inventor of the Segway, he talks about "frog kissing" in R&D, or the importance of taking risks. There's another piece on an IBM R&D guy, Thomas Zimmerman, that gives a concise and inspiring glimpse into how he comes up with ideas for new inventions. And an amazing, short piece on a Serbian woman who made a film during the war ("How to make a film, with no money, while being bombed").
4. Most important, excellent--nay, brilliant--concept! And they've even coined a term: Maker. Well, they didn't coin it, but it's definitely part of a new DIY trend. I love the implied opposition of maker vs. user.

In the bookstore, I saw a book they've come out with on the same concept, with photos and stories of various projects. One guy built a silver Mac G5 chassis out of acrylic or somesuch and simply placed it over his G4. You gotta love that kind of spirit.

Hmmm. I wonder if I should apply for a job there.