Techie craft

A few months ago we acquired a cookbook for the electrical engineer in all of us - The Hungry Scientist Handbook. We have a new addition to the science geek/homemaker genre: MAKE: the best of...75 projects from the pages of MAKE. It is jam-packed with craft ideas for anyone with a cabinet full of electrical components, a soldering tool and a knowledge of circuitry.

• Make a mini-amplifier for your headphones out of an Altoids tin.
• Turn your old VCR into an automatic cat-food dispenser.
• Build a light-controlled robot from your computer mouse.
• Construct a 'clock' that monitors the number of unread email messages in your inbox.
• Launch potatoes over 200 yards with stun-gun power.
• Build your own wind-powered generator.

The instructions assume that you know what you're doing when it comes to wiring, chemistry and model construction....the contributors have ironed out the bumps for you. Their ideas might ignite your own creativity, as well. This is the perfect book for the tinkerer in you, and who knows? You might actually get something useful out of it.