I’ve had to rewrite this letter in my mind several times to keep it from sounding like a fan letter penned by a silly schoolgirl to Elvis.
Wow! I just got my first issue of MAKE and I’m giddy with excitement. I’m a not-very-closeted geek, and have attempted (sometimes successfully) some fairly strange projects, but your people have shattered any illusions of grandeur I might have held. I read it cover-to-cover-to-cover and now I’m re-reading it again!
I’m reminded of the stories they tell about Nikola Tesla, how he had ideas, visions, of fully fleshed-out inventions flying through his mind so fast that he couldn’t even snag them all as they raced by. Now after reading your magazine I think I may know just a little bit how he felt!
I’ve turned some like-minded friends on to this incredible ride, who now feel like they need to subscribe, simply by describing some of what I read in Volume 05. —Dave Sica
MAKE AMENDS
We heard quite a lot from our readers about the misdrawn illustration on page 112 of Volume 05. In the piece, “How to Build a Power Tap,” the illustration can cause some confusion as well as a tripped circuit breaker. The drawing shows a dual plug receptacle, which, when wired improperly, can cause a short circuit. Do NOT attach the wires from the extension cord to the screws on the same side of the recep-
tacle, because it will create a short circuit.
Many eagle-eyed online readers of our digital edition tipped us to our error, even before the print edition was mailed to subscribers or showed up on newsstands. This quick communication let us notify tens of thousands of subscribers via email before they even received their copies. It also allowed us to put a warning sticker on another 15,000 copies that hadn’t yet shipped to retailers.
Hey, I love the magazine, keep it up. I was not all that happy with my PSP; I also attained an extreme distaste for Sony due to events following my purchase of the PSP. And so I was compelled to disassemble it. As soon as I broke the seal I knew that I had voided the warranty and so, I thought, why not proceed? In the process of putting it back together I decided to put the case back on and take this picture, and wanted to share it with you. I hope this makes you feel as good as it did me.
—SpotDart
Thank you for the help, and please know that we’ve added an electrical proofing step in our editorial process.
The corrected illustration is at left. You can also download it from makezine.com/images/05/p112revision.pdf. The PDF is designed so you can paste it right over page 112 in MAKE Volume 05.
OTHER ERRATA:
In Volume 05, page 58, “No More Scratches!” suggested using toothpaste to remove scratches from glass. To clear up confusion and avoid disasters, please remember that this ONLY works on glass (and should be tested in an out-of-the-way area first). It should never be used on plastics or on glass with coatings, and it will damage many modern eyeglasses, which, despite the name, are not made from glass.
In Volume 05, page 138, Fig. 2, the distance between the left edge of the base and the center of the leftmost mirror block was incorrectly labeled as 7" rather than ¹ 7". You can find the correct dimensions on author Rob Hartmann’s blog, at pseudoscope.blogspot.com.
In Volume 05, page 175, the price of the Poqet PC was wrong. The Poqet PC actually costs $159 plus shipping.
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