How to make a dot-matrix LED display

Instructables has posted a step-by-step guide to creating your very own dot-matrix display out of not much more than a collection of LEDs, a few wires, some resistors, and a microcontroller. The guy behind the project is hoping to sell a few pre-made kits, which will probably be the best option for those that feel a little lost staring at the board layouts and the lines of code required to get the display to show the letter "b". For some reason we feel a sense of empowerment after glancing at the guide -- then again, that feeling could just as easily be our inner child, urging us to build one and send rude messages to people across the room.