I love this magazine because even a guy like me who is hopeless with a soldering iron can dream and actually do.

The other thing about this magazine is it gives you a way to actually think about taking an idea to prototype.

And sometimes the most obvious idea, in make, can be a game changer for you.

Like this cable holder for a desk, like duhhh how easy!

And there is the Make mentality,

Tips and tricks: we’re big believers in them here at MAKE. We collect them like cherished baseball cards. It’s astounding how much a simple tip or new technique can significantly change your workflow or how you organize yourself. We have so many tips collected, we thought it’d be a shame to not share some of them with you. So we’re sharing them in a series of special edition Make: Newsletters. If you have tips or tricks to share, please email us at tips@makezine.com. You may see them in a future newsletter.
-Gareth Branwyn

What people sharing?

I love this magazine and the spirit of sharing.

Now lets take it into our own industries!

And pretty much every time I read something on the Duarte blog I have a new door opened!

This week I was introduced to Dan Roam, how did I miss him is what I am wondering?

Dan is all about the thought process.

What is clear to me as I walk back into my University classes this week is we as teachers need to be doing more to conceptualize how our students think.

Honestly I am not sure I have given the thought process much though.

Well Dan has started me down a path that is sure to get very interesting fast!

Check out this video and tell me it doesn’t make you ask a few questions about your own approach to thinking.

Click here to view the embedded video.

But you can be more organized and focused.

Every now and then I stumble upon some ideas on time management and project management that make me take notice.

One of the resources I return to with respect to time is Inc.

Here are 22 tips to manage your life!

And these are my favorite.

6. Don’t check e-mail first thing in the morning. The first thing I used to do after waking up was read e-mails and reply to urgent ones on my iPhone. My brain went from sleep to start-up mode in only a few seconds. That was killing, so I forced myself to not read e-mail first thing in the morning. The funny thing is that if you allow yourself to wake up gradually, it feels like you slept better and longer. Now I shower and have breakfast before reading my e-mail. – Ronald Mannak, founder and CEO, Yobble, creator of the Air Guitar Move iPhone appcessory.

1. Start dancing. It’s physical, it’s fun, it’s social, and you can’t check your phone or be working on your laptop while you’re out dancing. Find the coolest place wherever you live, and go out dancing once a week. You’ll feel completely renewed, energized and ready to tackle the world, or at least your start-up. – Vivian Rosenthal, founder and CEO of GoldRun, an augmented reality iOS application.

15. Communicate constantly with your spouse. Then you will know how to  best support each other. Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, says the biggest decision you’ll make in your career is who you decide to marry. I think this has really been true for me. Start-ups are not just physically challenging but also emotionally challenging, with amazing highs and equally strong lows. Having a spouse that you know is in your corner is a huge source of comfort and confidence. – Anishiya Taneja, founder and CEO of TravelDNA, a travel planning site.

21. Be schedule driven. If someone has not scheduled a meeting with me in advance, including my daughter, it won’t happen. We text each other using a free texting program called Jaxtr that I hope will allow me to soon phase out AT&T texting (I’d save $360 a year!). I also use Microsoft Outlook with Google Calendar. At mADtivity we also use a SmartSheet for scheduling, timelines, and project management.” –Stan Weitzman, CEO of mobile ad network mADtivity.

I think this Inc. list is a useful starting point for the real world transition of students.

The big question is always how do we take our book smarts to the curb and become street smart.

Mark Hurst, Mr Gel, included this link at the end of his latest newsletter.

I love the idea that someone has go to the trouble!

And over 538,000 people have taken a look.

Don’t ask why, ask why not!

About 100 Hawaiian-language newspapers published from 1834 to 1948 are being translated by roughly 3,000 volunteers. The newspapers are currently housed in Hawaiian archival collections as originals and microfilmed images, but when the project is finished, more than 60,000 pages of daily life in the Hawaiian Kingdom will be available for viewing on the Internet.

This is the coolest idea I have read about in a long time.

And the 1st thing it made me think about was the rich history of the printed press in the UAE.

Well, if we go back before the federation of the UAE there were a handful of people writing broadsheets, by hand, and placing them on their Majalis doors for the community.

Imagine if these publications could be brought back to life?

In a sense this is the type of historical journalism that the UAE needs to embark upon.

A history project that is still young enough to have materials and people of the era around.

The Awaiaulu project is a great example and a doable idea here in the UAE.

Anyone interested?

What is a teacher?

Public education?

Smart?

Not?

Economics vs intellectual?

I am moving to a new school in September to help create the UAE’s leading mass communication program.

I say leading because if we are going to just do what is typical today there would be no point in moving to CUD from ZU.

We are going to put a program in motion that is in constant re-invention.

We are thinking of journalism in terms of the craft and the delivery.

We are thinking advertising in terms of what, who and where.

We are thinking about PR in terms of the story and delivery.

No more we need huge expensive pools of equipment to make media, WE DON’T NEED A HUGE SET OR A HUGE LAB.

What we need is people who are engaged as mentors and learners.

Watch this video this to me is where CUD’s mass communication program is going.

There are a lot of TEDx events taking place these days, things have sure come a long way from 2009 when Giorgio Ungania and myself organized the 1st TEDxDubai.

Big, small, local, regional, ethnic, artistic the question that people are asking is what makes a great TEDx?

Unlike many things size does matter.

It is my personal belief that many TEDx organizers have become blinded by size and want to scale their events.

TEDx is all about engagement of a community and from where I am sitting the closer you can get to the community and actually get them involved in the process of communication, 2 way not mass or one way, the better.

The other challenge that TEDx organizers face is who to engage as speakers.

Again TEDx is all about community and too many organizers spend too much time trying to be TED.

Tap the community and the magic happens.

This TEDx event is one of those events that has wrestled with its identity and I think it has found the mix of size, content and community that makes it very relevant.

My own foray into TEDx events has taken me to Salons that are small, almost impromptu and in very public places.

Instead of people coming to TEDx the event comes to them, interesting idea and it seems to work.

The beauty of TEDx, from where I am sitting, is the ability it has to engage a community.

And the best thing about a TEDx event is there are many examples but as many variations as you can dream up.

One of the greatest challenges to any education institution is how to take what is happening inside the walls to a larger community.

Think ideas and think finances.

What we are talking about is a win win.

What if I could get a million people doing courses and for 1 dollar they could get a certificate?

That would be cool.

And what if the certificate had value because my course completion was authenticated and validated?

MIT is well on the road to making a global open education possible.

MITx will endeavor to break down barriers to education in two ways. First, it will offer the online teaching of MIT courses to people around the world and the opportunity for able learners to gain certification of mastery of MIT material. Second, it will make freely available to educational institutions everywhere the open-source software infrastructure on which MITx is based.

This sounds really cool and I wonder how Zayed University where I am now or the Canadian University of Dubai where I am moving to in July can borrow a page from MIT.

This just works so well on so many levels.

Of course not literally but they are generally not thinking about how they are presenting ideas and instead getting caught up with the noise.

Video artists Mac Premo and Oliver Jeffers summed up 2011 for The Daily in a stylish stop-motion clip that chronicles the year’s biggest stories, from January’s shooting of Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords to the curtain closing on the Iraq War.

This is just cool!

What I would love to see is more students trying to do stuff like this and beyond!