Making Things Talk--New from Make

The (Electronic) Gift of Gab!
New Book "Making Things Talk" Gets Your Electronic Creations 
Talking to Each Other 

Sebastopol, CA--Building electronic projects that interact with the
physical world is fun, but when your homebrewed creations start talking to
each other, things get really interesting! In "Making Things Talk"
(O'Reilly, $29.99), author Tom Igoe bestows the power of communication
upon your favorite tech creations through simple projects that present the
guidelines for electronic verbosity. Whether its microcontroller-powered
devices, email programs, or networked databases, Igoe demonstrates the
ability of electronics to interact in fun and interesting ways.

Some examples include:

- The Pet Lover: Want to play with your pet while you're away? Discover
the "Networked Cat Cam" and the interactive pet bed that sends you
personal emails!
- It Takes Two: Wire your favorite stuffed animal and enjoy a game of
"Monski Pong." Just be sure not to lose!  
- Who's Out There: Broadcast messages to others on your network; build a
battery-powered GPS that reports its location wirelessly; send data across
the Web based on physical activity in your home, office, or backyard. 
- Three Easy Steps: Set up communication between microcontrollers,
personal computers, and web servers using three easy-to-program, open
source environments: Arduino/Wiring, Processing, and PHP.

Arriving in bookstores October 15th and available online today at
www.store.makezine.com, Making Things Talk is perfect for diehard
"techies," but also serves as the perfect primer for people with little
technical training, but a lot of interest. "The workbenches of hobbyists,
hackers, and makers have become overrun with
microcontrollers-computers-on-a-chip that power homebrewed video games,
robots, toys and more," explains Igoe. "This book contains a series of
projects that teach readers what they need to know to get their creations
talking to each other, connecting to the web and forming networks of smart
devices." 

Tom Igoe teaches courses in physical computing and networking at the
Interactive Telecommunications Program in the Tisch School of the Arts at
New York University. He is co-author of the book Physical Computing:
Sensing and Controlling the Physical World with Computers, which has been
adopted by numerous digital art and design schools around the world.

For a sample copy of "Making Things Talk," please contact Mary Rotman,
707-827-7119 or maryr@oreilly.com.  To interview author Tom Igoe, please
contact Catherine Lewis, 212-255-8455 or Catherine@rosengrouppr.com.

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has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in
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to the growing community of resourceful people who believe that 
if you can imagine it, you can make it. Consisting of Make Magazine, 
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creative inspiration and instruction. 

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