Make also goes on field trips to explore what other like-minded contraption creators are doing. Dougherty and contributing editor Bill Gurstelle, a former engineer for AT--T Inc., have visited the Punkin Chunkin World Championships in Delaware, a contest for makers of huge devices designed to hurl pumpkins great distances.

Gurstelle is no slouch in that department. He's authored a number of books including "Backyard Ballistics" and "Whoosh Boom Splat: The Garage Warrior's Guide to Building Projectile Shooters."

Gurstelle, who describes what he does as "PG-13 science projects," compares Make to what Popular Science magazine was 25 years ago, full of projects made for people "who like to take control of the gadgets and gizmos around them."

Wilhelm started an early version of Instructables.com while still a starving grad student because he was seeking advice about how to make equipment to support his kite surfing hobby on the cheap. The site is now nearly profitable and is seeing online traffic grow about 10 percent a month, hitting 2.5 million unique visitors in January, said Wilhelm. One of the most popular projects is the "Invisible Book Shelf," made by attaching an L-bracket to a book which you then attach to your wall, and then pile more books on top.

Dorkbot, an amateur meet-up group for technology tinkerers, has been thriving as well. Started in 2000 by Douglas Repetto, director of research at the Computer Music Center at Columbia University, the group has regular meetings in New York and another dozen cities for people to display various electronics projects both artistic and functional. Dorkbot proclaims on its Web site that it's all about "People doing strange things with electricity."

That certainly applies to Mike Davis, who made the mobile computer. Davis had spent plenty of time exchanging ideas with other hobbyists online, but he said there was no substitute for going someplace in person and see projects first hand.

"I had a fairly brisk online social life for a while with a lot of geeky people, but it's not as tangible as in real life," Davis said. "Bringing the car and having people poke at it, it just seems more real."

------

Online:

Make magazine's Web site: http://www.makezine.com/

Instructables Web site: http://www.Instructables.com

Dorkbot, or People Doing Strange Things with Electricity: http://www.dorkbot.org/