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X-Y plotters were once a common sight in places that needed high-quality hard copies of computer-generated line drawings. Blueprints and charts of all types could be produced with multiple colors on large pieces of paper, with perfectly smooth lines and curves. But eventually pixel-based laser and inkjet printers increased sufficiently in resolution-and decreased sufficiently in price-to make plotters something of a rarity. . Still, some things were lost in this particular march of progress. One casualty was the distinctive lines of vector-based graphics and text. Another was fun: Watching a laser printer print is about as interesting as watching a refrigerator, while there's something mesmerizing in seeing the head of a plotter spring to life and construct an image line by line through confident sweeps and arcs. The US $171 iBoardbot from JJRobots is intended to bring back some of the romance of the plotter, but with a contemporary twist-it's cloud controlled and self-erasable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What better way to introduce a young person to the joys of engineering than by giving a gift that you construct together? I tested four suitable kits. Two are for unusual electronic musical instruments, and two are for dabbling in radio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]