Maker Faire tour with Mark Frauenfelder

What kind of DIY tech wonders can you find at Maker Faire? Make Magazine editor-in-chief and BBtv co-host Mark Frauenfelder traveled to Austin, TX with camcorder in hand to show us. Mark introduces us to a ticklish dinosaur robot named Pleo (above), and a guy named Craig who makes amazing garage-tech musical instruments. (XJ)

1. [Anonymous]

   That’s a familiar GarageBand drumbeat loop in the intro! Very slick.

2. [Stefan Jones]

   That’s good to hear. Bruce Sterling posted a list of ribbon winners and they sounded very interesting.

3. [Stefan Jones]

   I wished there’d been a dozen items like the last one, rather than the Pleo demo. He’s a product from a big company, ingenious but not a DIY sort of thing.

4. [Stefan Jones]

   Also, syntha-critters like Pleo make me feel a little sad, because I know that in a few years they’ll be lying in a bin in the Goodwill Thrift Center, looking pathetic and abandoned.

5. [Mark Frauenfelder]

   Hey Stefan — I videoed 18 different makers, and hopefully we’ll get around to most of them!

6. [GuabaMan]

   mmm nice but i miss Xeni!

7. [devophill]

   D’you think that guy is tired of people saying, “Hey, isn’t that just a Chapman Stick?”

8. [Anonymous]

   …Or you could just get a cat. It will also cuddle with you, has built in tickle-sensors called nerves, and even does REAL purring! Amazing!