On Mon, Jan 08, 2007 at 09:48:04PM +1300, Andrew Errington wrote:
Most excellent. If it's not raining I might bring the electric bicycle I
have just built.
The City library is now stocking the most excellent O'Reilly "Make:"
magazine.
See www.makezine.com for more info.
It's an excellent mash up of software, electronics, mechanical and
carpentry fun-fun-fun.
A number of blokes here on Cantlug are clearly "Makers" in the sense
used in that periodical.
I think most folk here subscribe to the idea "If you can't open it,
you don't own it:"
I just love "The Maker's Bill of Rights"
* Meaningful and specific parts lists shall be included.
* Cases shall be easy to open.
* Batteries should be replaceable.
* Special tools are allowed only for darn good reasons.
* Profiting by selling expensive special tools is wrong and not
making special tools available is even worse.
* Torx is OK; tamperproof is rarely OK.
* Components, not entire sub-assemblies, shall be replaceable.
* Consumables, like fuses and filters, shall be easy to access.
* Circuit boards shall be commented.
* Power from USB is good; power from proprietary power adapters is bad.
* Standard connecters shall have pinouts defined.
* If it snaps shut, it shall snap open.
* Screws better than glues.
* Docs and drivers shall have permalinks and shall reside for all
perpetuity at archive.org.
* Ease of repair shall be a design ideal, not an afterthought.
* Metric or standard, not both.
* Schematics shall be included.
John Carter Phone : (64)(3) 358 6639
Tait Electronics Fax : (64)(3) 359 4632
PO Box 1645 Christchurch Email : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
New Zealand
