Authors: Wessels, Duane and Matthew Weaver
Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc
Pages: 280
Cost: $15.99
Back in the olden days of personal or micro computers, say in the early 1970s, we were called hobbyists, and frequently, we had to build our own hardware. Think back to the day of the MITS Altair for one example (lots more information here.)
Even today, there are computer hobbyists wandering around. Granted, we don't have to assemble components on the motherboards by hand and solder them in place - I never was any good at soldering; I still have scars. Today, we can buy pre-assembled components, and put them together in our own configuration; much easier. All it takes is a willingness to try and the courage to keep butting your head against the wall - until you succeed. What a great feeling!
There are a lot of computer components out there, many of them specialized. As a practical matter, it is impossible for any one person to know everyone's inventory and how they all work together. So, as a hobbyist, you search the magazines, listen to friends, haunt the newsgroups, and every once in a rare while, you find a gem such as MAKE Projects Small Form Factor PCs.
This is an electronic book; that is, it is a document that has been issued in Portable Document Format (pdf). After paying your US$15.99 for the book at the O'Reilly Store, you download the file, get Adobe Acrobat Reader going, and read on....
Now I said this book was for hobbyists. There is a very good reason for this: By and large, you can buy specific items that cost less and do about the same as these projects you are going build here. While many of these projects are quite specialized, and the authors go into some detail telling you how to build each project; as the authors note, you can buy a system that does the same thing, but you won't get that sense of satisfaction when you put your new device to use as you want.
In their book, they tell you how to build a specialized computer that you can fit into almost anything. First, they tell you about small form factor equipment; to them the Apple Macintosh G4 Cube is large. One of their projects here is just a little larger than a pack of chewing gum. They don't like wasting that scarce resource, electricity, either. Many of their projects don't have fans or even hard drives; you are going to find out about Compact Flash cards for the operating system and data storage. (Hint: No moving parts equals low power requirements and even lower heat.)
They tell you how to build eight projects, each significantly different from each of the others. Yes, most of these projects fit into the realm of the hobbyist, or the severe computer enthusiast. Actually, of the eight, only three are for your entertainment: a digital audio jukebox, a digital video recorder, and a Bluetooth LED sign. The other five are devices that will help your network; you may not have considered building your own border gateway device (firewall, network address translation, and DHCP server), network monitor, Wi-Fi Extender, portable bridging firewall, or cheap Wi-Fi Secure Shell client. Don't worry if you don't know what those acronyms and abbreviations mean; by the time you finish the project, you'll be intimately familiar with each device. While the cost of the various devices (as provided by the author's parts list) is not inexpensive, you can purchase the parts for each device and make it for a reasonable amount.
The hardware for most of these projects is generally quite specialized. It is a good thing the authors give you good sources for most of the unique pieces. Of course, you can go down to Staples or CompUSA to buy the common pieces such as the CF cards, laptop hard drives, remote control, and so on. They give you an idea of what the hardware will cost, but please recall that this book was written at a specific time; the costs of the hardware may have risen or fallen (doubtful). Still the rough estimates are pretty good. Your mileage may vary, of course.
So you decide you want to build one of these devices; what about the software necessary to run the thing? The authors have you covered several ways from Sunday there as well. First, they use Open Source software, such as various flavors of FreeBSD or Linux, then they install specific or specialized applications on top of that operating system. Of course, if you are not familiar with the software or the operating system, the authors describe in good detail how to install them. Here is where you really need to know the lingo; as they say "If you are new to Unix, it may take a little longer as you learn about the intricacies of DHCP and TFTP. You should also be somewhat familiar with FTP, SSH, the Unix shell, and the vi text editor." Still, as a hobbyist, you don't expect to get things done the first time you try, do you? Silly rabbit, first time success is a dream, not for hobbyists.
If you want to expand your horizons a little, rather than building the simple (yeah, right!) device, the authors have included instructions on modifying the device even further. This is the last section in each chapter, and oddly enough, that section is called "Extra Credit". Quite a bit of additional information about the software you'll be using is included; so much so that sometimes it gets in the way of you doing your installation.
Having said all this, the authors try to make some very complex ideas and activities comprehensible to what they expect to be an average reader. They tried, but at times in their book, you really need to have a good grasp of the technology and language involved to understand what they are saying. If you are a serious hobbyist, you will either already know the language, or you will learn.
A distracting factor that detracted from this very good work, at least to me, is the rather incomplete editing done on the book. While the mistakes that editors catch are few and far between, there are a few in this book that make you wonder. The first big one I saw was the missing Figure 2-8. Oops.
To show what I think of this book, I bought it, then later that day, John sent me a free copy he had gotten from O'Reilly for review. (If only I'd waited, I'd have saved $15.99, but this way, I have my own copy.) Thanks to O'Reilly for publishing this book, and thanks to Ms. Henon at ORA for giving us a copy for review.
Bottom Line
This book is designed for, and talks to, hobbyists who want to build these devices for fun and because they can; cheaper devices may be had already manufactured and ready for install. This book is for those people who have fun building useful things, going into those realms not previously visited. Building these projects will require you to do some additional homework and studying out on the Internet to get a good feel of the authors' instructions. The authors know their topic, and they are quite willing to share. Even if you just read the book to dream "What If?", this book is worth a look.
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Date Revised: 13 August 2005
