making

Microsoft is once again betting that its customers can do a better job than anyone else of selling its software.

The company's $80 million "Make it Great" ad campaign for Office 2010, which kicks off today, is focused entirely on letting a small group of early users of the product tell their stories. Microsoft faces the not insignificant challenge to convince consumers that the product is worth shelling out cash for, as opposed to using free rivals, sticking with their old version or even using one of Microsoft's own free products.

Aaress Lawless, the editor of … Read more

Take note all you DIYers and parents with creative kids. If you don't want to shell out $40 for a high-tech iPad stand, you can make your own--or have your kid make one.

With the help of his father, my 10-year-old nephew Brett went to Home Depot, got a piece of wood, a hinge, and a couple of knobs, and presto, instant iPad stand. I'm not sure Brett's going to win any design awards, but the thing does look pretty sturdy and only cost $12.40 plus tax. That may not be as cheap as Case-mate's … Read more

Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but art, it seems, is whatever a court says it is.

The folks at Lucasfilm, creators of the "Star Wars" franchise, took the designer of the original Stormtrooper costume to court in the UK and had their light sabers thrust right back at them.

According to London's Times, Andrew Ainsworth, the man who originally created the helmets and armor for the first "Star Wars" movie, decided to capitalize on his design by selling replicas made from the original mold online.

Lucasfilm clearly thought Ainsworth's view … Read more

Two Microsoft employees have unveiled a crowd-sourcing Web site inviting suggestions for how Microsoft Office could be improved.

Steve Zaske, a product planner on the Office development team, wrote in a blog post Monday that the site, MakeOfficeBetter.com, was inspired by Dell's IdeaStorm site. On both sites, the public can submit suggestions for product improvements, and other people rank the submissions to establish their popularity and priority.

"I'm a huge fan of crowd-sourcing, and love Dell's IdeaStorm website, so I thought I'd build one for Office," Zaske wrote, adding that he and Office … Read more

Aleo Photo Collage Maker lets you organize pictures into interesting designs. This is a fun way to use your digital snapshots.

The program's interface was a breeze to navigate, thanks to its simple flow and obvious command icons. Most users can skip the step-by-step Help file, but it is available for those who need a little more direction. Creating collages was a simple process that focused on dragging and dropping photos. You select a template or create your own by inputting the dimensions and simply slip photos into the clearly labeled slots. Thumbnails of user photos are displayed after … Read more

Crowd-sourced decision-making helper Hunch.com is out of private beta today. The site helps people make decisions based on how they answer questions from user-created quizzes (See our hands-on from April). Anyone can create these, however the strength of the site is that they can be linked to credible, outside sources to back up any advice or claims. There's also an algorithm that learns more about you as you use the site. The more it knows, the less of the quiz questions you have to answer to get valid recommendations.

Hunch says you only need to answer 10 sample … Read more

The annual Maker Faire, which lies somewhere between San Francisco's counterculture tradition and Silicon Valley's materialism, is set for this weekend in San Mateo, Calif.

Now in its fourth year, the event is organized by Make magazine and showcases the work of people who build everything from wooden bicycles to life-size robotic critters.

I've been making some fun things myself since I bought a small milling machine awhile back. Here's a titanium adapter I made to attach a small commercial USB flash drive to my keychain:

Not long ago I found some blocks of aluminum bar … Read more

The submissions came in fast and furious at the deadline, and in the end, only five could win.

I'm talking about CNET News' Maker Faire contest, that is, in which readers were challenged to come up with the best way to use a do-it-yourself (DIY) philosophy to remake America.

After receiving the submissions, I forwarded a numbered, anonymous, set of finalists' entries on to our celebrity judge, Make magazine senior editor Phillip Torrone, who then chose the five winners.

Each winner will receive four tickets to the upcoming Maker Faire in San Mateo, Calif., as well as a festival … Read more

In just 16 days, Maker Faire, the annual do-it-yourself nirvana, will be returning to San Mateo, Calif., and you could be there courtesy of CNET News.

Last month, I posted an entry here offering 20 free Maker Faire passes for the best 150-word submissions on how you would use DIY to remake America. Unfortunately, I didn't receive enough submissions to make it a particularly competitive contest. So we're changing the game a little bit.

Instead of offering 20 people one free pass to the May 30 and 31 event, I'm going to offer five packages of four … Read more