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You do know that the basic tiles are still offered, right?
But a lot of stores don't seem to want them.

Try Creative Building and Creator.
But yes, it does seem to be Indiana Jones, Batman, Star Wars, and the likes that give the greatest profit for stores.

It is sad that Lego City and Lego Castle are now specialized blocks with a lot less creative freedom, but I don't exactly think you can blame Lego for the loss of creativity.

Things have moved on. but the creativity is still there. You can still get buckets full of plain bricks, but you can also download lego digital designer - free CAD for lego! How cool is that? And you can order all the individual bits you need from the store. And it works in linux via WINE.

although some look suspiciously like Duplo bricks to me.

Guess who makes Duplo bricks

there are a lot of guys who know how to make molds and know how to hit 0.05 mm tolerance
I assume they are using some commodity resin like polycarb or polystyrene

If you had actually read some of the posts, you would already know that legos are made from ABS and the tolerance is as small as 0.002 mm (.PDF).

'Teenage' can cover a wide range, but we've had fun with Lego Mindstorms http://shop.lego.com/ByTheme/Product.aspx?p=8527&cn=17&d=70

I used to work as a TA in some intro classes that used Karel and Karel++ http://pclc.pace.edu/~bergin/karel.html Kinda like Lego Mindstorms on your screen. It's really pretty cool what you can do with it (make a binary calculator out of robots, for instance). The classes would start with a few weeks of Karel, then move on to other languages.

For me anyway, it's about learning to think and express your ideas via programming, the language is really secondary (i.e. most learn more than one, if they go on in the field).

Stuff like this was fun (for most people) and laid a decent foundation for later.

First off, I think you should start with a language such as Python or Ruby. I started with BASIC which was easy to grasp, and more modern languages are easy yet more powerful.

Second, when I started programming I was first looking at my brother, writing really simple BASIC programs on the C64. Later, I was interested in fractals and wrote algorithms for drawing fractals. I had a book with code examples for different fractals, but in some other language (I don't remember which). The process of interpreting the algorithm in the first language and translating it to BASIC was very good for learning. Tweaking and extending the algorithms and seeing the changes visually was very encouraging.

Today, if I were to teach a kid programming, I think I would look into Lego Mindstorms. It helps if the kid is into Lego or robotics, of course. That's a contained environment with a powerful and easy language, which is also part of something else, with immediate feedback on the changes. You can program it in either the Lego-supplied RCX Code (BASIC-like) or ROBOLAB (LabView-based), or any of a number of languages supplied by the community (C, C++, C#, Java, Lua etc).

Really? Lego has them for just over 3.8 cents each. http://shop.lego.com/ByCategory/Product.aspx?p=6177&cn=227

Sure... Call me when your molds and method are good enough to produce parts with tolerances of 2 microns, with only 18 bricks in a million failing QC. Reference, see page 18.

For the most value for your money I prefer the box of blocks (no doors, windows, filler, etc.) from the LEGO website.

Maybe their operations were infiltrated by Slashdot memes...

Have you seen what Lego has been up to this decade in terms of web services? I just discovered this yesterday:

Lego Factory is a whole system where you can not only download a free app to build a virutal model with nearly the entire library of Lego pieces, but you can then make instructions and automatically order a set of the pieces required to build it in real life.

Amazing. Even something this close to where my mind was at age 10, and I still couldn't have dreamed of it.

Funny :/

I was refering to these type of sets:
http://shop.lego.com/ByTheme/Product.aspx?p=10179&cn=245&d=100
http://shop.lego.com/ByTheme/Product.aspx?p=10177&cn=245&d=100
http://shop.lego.com/ByTheme/Product.aspx?p=10182&cn=245&d=100

Sets that have over 1000 parts and have ecsquisite detail.

Funny :/

I was refering to these type of sets:
http://shop.lego.com/ByTheme/Product.aspx?p=10179&cn=245&d=100
http://shop.lego.com/ByTheme/Product.aspx?p=10177&cn=245&d=100
http://shop.lego.com/ByTheme/Product.aspx?p=10182&cn=245&d=100

Sets that have over 1000 parts and have ecsquisite detail.

Funny :/

I was refering to these type of sets:
http://shop.lego.com/ByTheme/Product.aspx?p=10179&cn=245&d=100
http://shop.lego.com/ByTheme/Product.aspx?p=10177&cn=245&d=100
http://shop.lego.com/ByTheme/Product.aspx?p=10182&cn=245&d=100

Sets that have over 1000 parts and have ecsquisite detail.

What amuses me is how closely the NASA's color scheme matches the LEGO mars mission color scheme. ;)

http://shop.lego.com/Product/?p=7690

Which came first I wonder?

I was in a similar boat to you - console-style multiplayer games on a PC system. In the end, we found quite a few good games:

Little Fighter 2
Simple 2D fighter
Has:
    Gamepad support
    Up to 4 players
    Co-op mode
    Versus Mode
    Modding Community
    Free

GL Tron
Simple 3D arcade game of Tron
Has:
    Gamepad Support
    Up to 4 players
    Open Source

Project 64
N64 Emulator
Some good roms can be found here.
Has:
    Gamepad Support
    Super Smash Brothers!
    Huge catalogue of old games
    Up to 4 players
    Free

Lego Star Wars
Has:
    Gamepad Support
    2 player co-op

To be honest, we only ever played the demo of this, but it seemed a pretty good game, and it's got good reviews.

Frets on Fire
PC Guitar Hero clone
Has:
    Split screen play
    Gamepad/Official Controller Support
    Import Guitar Hero songs
    Open Source
    Community made songs, mods, etc.

A little warning with this one: it takes a while to set up. It should really be considered beta software, and ATM it is going through some developer reorganisation. The official game is still kinda buggy, but there is a good fork available (just hidden away in forums). Will probably become a lot better in a few months time.

If you can get a cheap old PC and get a small LAN together, you'll get a lot more options - there's a lot of good old PC games out there. If you want to game on the cheap, just stick to the older games - Win98 era or so.

RS-232! Another port killed by (the frankly much better) USB, it had the interesting feature of coming in two widths of connector. The only uses for it I ever had were for connecting my (ultra-fast at the time) 14,400 baud modem, and for programming the Mindstorms brick. (That went to USB with v2, but v1 and 1.5 used RS-232.)

Take robotics from the research lab into homes, you say?

My, what a marvelous idea!

NASA has a history of letting people name things. It's a fun and easy way to get people interested in space travel, science, exploration, and whatever else it is that NASA is doing. The more people excited about NASA, the better.

The 1:58 smacks of PR-speak, like the "5 out of 6 dentists agree" of yore. Even Legos' official PR doesn't pin it down that tightly. See http://parents.lego.com/Features/50th%20Birthday.aspx for more interesting factoids about one of the best early geek toys ever. Oddly, this doesn't make me feel particularly old.

There's been something of a renaissance in the last few years, what with the modular Cafe Corner (which has a whole blog devoted to it) and the creator houses. Not to mention lego's official 3d modeller which links in to their ordering system - design a model and they'll ship you all the parts for it in a custom box with a picture of your model on the front.

There's been something of a renaissance in the last few years, what with the modular Cafe Corner (which has a whole blog devoted to it) and the creator houses. Not to mention lego's official 3d modeller which links in to their ordering system - design a model and they'll ship you all the parts for it in a custom box with a picture of your model on the front.

It's spelled "bionicle". Not Bionacle.

I think you're getting Lego confused with Tentacle pr0n somehow.

That's no Moon!

Product endorsements, informative links, allegations of having a girlfriend - this has to be an advertisement. Joking aside, to whom are we focusing the collective attention of Slashdot on? While an USB microscope can be a cool toy or an inspirational tool of learning, the child's age and interests go a long way to qualify a gift's quality.

As technology professionals and/or Slashdotters, we tend to go a bit overboard with our attention to gadgets. For a seven year old, the USB microscope would be a neat curiosity for a short time, but after a week of investigating the complexities of boogers at extreme magnification, its usefulness would probably diminish quickly. At 13, an interested child would probably get frustrated quickly with the limitations of an entry level microscope. An uninterested one would probably follow a path similar to the seven year old's.

For gifts that feature the wonders of nature (chemistry, physics, math, colors, electronics, etc.) simple items can be much more engaging teachers than flashy electronic gadgets. After all, hasn't your nephew grown up with the overwhelming presence of cheap and easy "brain dead simple" gadgets? Give him something that will show how much fun it can be to solve a complicated problem.

Back to the age question. . . For a younger child, perhaps 5 to 8, look for some sort of unique puzzle or construction set - you'd be surprised at the building block sets that are available these days. An older child, boy or girl, may get good creative use out of a lego mindstorms kit, a beginner's programming book, or a good set of sketching pencils. The truly cool gift that is best for your nephew is likely to still be cool long after the USB microscope has passed on.

Well, perhaps this one will be more your style, and budget. Millenuim Falcon keychain

My only concern is - what do you do if you're missing a piece? Cataloging 5000 pieces is a huge task in and of itself...

And now, you can get a box of 400 lego's for about $25. Doesn't seem too unreasonable to me.

At the risk of putting words in the OP's mouth, I don't think he was being so charitable as to say say poor coders would code better in something other than VB6. Rather, the insinuation about it being hard implies that some people have about as much business writing code as they would building bridges.

As for whether the current state of affairs is good, or what would have been better, it really depends on whose perspective you're looking from. If you and I had to have an engineering degree to code, it would most likely mean much higher wages and much higher quality products. It would also mean there would be less software in general, and bad software is a fair bit less likely to kill anyone than a bad bridge. I don't even know where to begin judging what would the effect be on 'the industry'.

While I don't necessarily agree with it, the boat might float a bit higher in the water if some people got off. (That also doesn't mean they need to be thrown off...)

But really, the lesson that's really important here is that VB's syntax makes baby jesus cry. It's like furniture made out of Duplos. It might really be sturdy, but you'd still feel nervous putting your weight on it.

• Want a image of that disk?
  Windows: Shell out cash for Norton Ghost.
  Linux: dd if=/dev/hda1 of=/home/sokk/backup.img
  
• Want to reliably copy your system from one disk to another?
  Windows: Reinstall everything, copy documents from old install.
  Linux: rsync the old root filesystem to the new disk. Change some settings in /etc/fstab and /boot/grub/. Run grub-install /dev/newdisk/
  
• Found a bug?
  Windows: Send a bug report to the software company. Hope that the bug gets fixed. If not, you're out of luck.
  Linux: Send bug to maintainer. Is it unmaintained software? hire someone to do it, or do it yourself.
  

Lunar lander

Where's my prize?

Lego has been offering something like this on their site already, called Lego Digital Designer, which allows you to put 3D models together, upload them to the site, and (if you really want to) buy them with a customized box of your choosing. While it's not an MMORPG, it does allow you to build virtually. But it sucks. I think it seriously cramps the creativity of building with your hands. It lacks sensory perceptions (sight, feel).

IMHO, we've got too many kids (and adults) glued to their screens playing games all day. The MMO looks creative, but it takes the fun out of building when you have to use a mouse and keyboard.

Just for the heck of it, here's a couple robot kits worth a look:

- Lego Mindstorms NXT (note: flash-based site with music)

The Lego Mindstorms kits have been around for a while now, but they offer almost infinite possibilities to those willing to experiment with different approaches to accomplishing a particular goal. Devices as complicated as photocopiers have been built using these kits.

- VEX Robotics Kits

The VEX kits are fairly new compared to the Lego Mindstorms sets, but are a bit more advanced and could be dubbed as an "Erector Set", but with a brain. The VEX kits were developed in part by FIRST and were briefly distributed by Radio Shack in a move to get more people interested in robotics.

If he'd been using lego bricks he might be in trouble. Luckily, there's no such thing as legos so he should get away with it.

Just remember rule one:

Pillage, then burn!

It works well. You can design a model, get the parts in a box shipped to your door, and if you want to, publish it online. Instructions are only available online, but you get a picture for the box front.
You can buy others' creations as well:

http://factory.lego.com/gallery/ (sorry about the flash)

Dick Smith Electronics sells a few of these. You can find the 300-in-1 kit by visiting the main page and searching for "K0030" (for some reason they prevent deep-linking). I played with a few of these things back in the day and I remember them being pretty fun. However, these days I'd probably recommend Lego Mindstorms instead. With the kit, you're pretty much stuck with the 300 (or whatever) things it can make. With Mindstorms there's a huge fan base with new things being created and details published all the time.

And build my very own piratebay server (TM): http://cache.lego.com/upload/contentTemplating/LEG OAboutUs-PressReleases/images/2057/pic5F182603-C54 E-47D0-BD11-1156C6D5C655.jpg

I always thought that Lego Mindstorms was the "the perfect robotics platform for hobbyists, schools, and universities alike", especially after the release of their NXT kit.

Hell, if you look here, you can see that they've:

* Released the source to the firmware, so people can write code right down to the metal.
* Provided *hardware* schematics, so people can hack their own gear.
* Fully opened the specs to the programming environment, bytecode, etc, on the shipped firmware.
* Opened up the Bluetooth protocol used by the NXT firmware.

Additionally, they've opened the doors to third party accessories.

Seriously, what can a hacked Roomba offer that's better than all that?

I always thought that Lego Mindstorms was the "the perfect robotics platform for hobbyists, schools, and universities alike", especially after the release of their NXT kit.

Hell, if you look here, you can see that they've:

* Released the source to the firmware, so people can write code right down to the metal.
* Provided *hardware* schematics, so people can hack their own gear.
* Fully opened the specs to the programming environment, bytecode, etc, on the shipped firmware.
* Opened up the Bluetooth protocol used by the NXT firmware.

Additionally, they've opened the doors to third party accessories.

Seriously, what can a hacked Roomba offer that's better than all that?

I always thought that Lego Mindstorms was the "the perfect robotics platform for hobbyists, schools, and universities alike", especially after the release of their NXT kit.

Hell, if you look here, you can see that they've:

* Released the source to the firmware, so people can write code right down to the metal.
* Provided *hardware* schematics, so people can hack their own gear.
* Fully opened the specs to the programming environment, bytecode, etc, on the shipped firmware.
* Opened up the Bluetooth protocol used by the NXT firmware.

Additionally, they've opened the doors to third party accessories.

Seriously, what can a hacked Roomba offer that's better than all that?

Who ever wrote this article sure chose his words to make it sound expensive. He made it sound as if you have to buy that Pioneer robot for $40,000 in order to use it.

That's simply not the case. You can develop for a wide range of robots with this from the Parallax Boe-Bot, Lego Mindstorm NXT and Roomba all the way up to those expensive robots for $40,000 or more. You can even build it for custom robots based on little pics like the BASIC Stamp computer and others similar to it.

The beauty of this package is that you can program it visually (using the Visual Programming Langauage) or in C# or VB - depending on your skill level.

Bill

The /. blurb mentions a 40K robot "for home use" but according to the links on the M$ website there are plenty of other compatible robots, like the LEGO Mindstorms which has a MSRP of a mere US$ 249.99. With these kind of prices, I think this might be a fun hobby to get the kids into...

I did, but someone who was probably mad at me for another reason modded me down.

Despite that, I got a catalog the other day with the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Except for the engines and nose cone, it's basically all just bricks. Might be hard to tell from the online image though. I was really impressed.

Lego is also somewhat expensive, most kits hovering somewhere around the $0.10/piece mark, and even though the Dreamliner is licensed property, the cost per part is way under that, and it's probably because it doesn't use a lot of special pieces.

For the record, though, I don't mind the special pieces at all. After all, using them in other creations can be just as creative. There's no point in longing for the days when you built a boat that didn't look like a boat and had every color in it when you can built a fairly nice creative boat now, unless you also pine for the days before microwave ovens and cell phones.

My biggest problem with Lego is that my creations wouldn't use special pieces, but my visions of grandeur are far greater than the fatness of my wallet.

I knew I was getting old when I first realized that these kids today with their modern legos have it too easy, what with all those crazy custom pieces. Why, when I was a kid, we had to use our imagination to build stuff.Thats how I felt a couple years ago.. Almost every Lego kit I looked at would only build what was on the cover..

My step sons new Technic 8288 Mobile Crane and a bunch of the kits out now remind me more of the old Lego I remember.

Yeah the bricks are different.. most are just sticks with holes you link together but they open up new ways to build.

I remember the Technic 8860 set I had as a kid.
It built a car with working suspension, steering, rear differential, a 2 speed shifting transmission, 4 cylinder engine with a crank and pistons that turned when the car moved.

Some of the stuff I see today is almost as cool as I remember that set was.
I gave what I had left to the kids.. over half the sets are missing but they still have fun with em.

I'm getting tired of people complaining about "special" pieces. Whine, whine, whine. No one is forcing you to use them. Just because your building from 1979 was a piece of multi-colored garbage doesn't mean that's how it should be today.

And while I admit they seem to be getting lazy about it (look at some of the new Lego City planes), you still need an imagination to use those pieces for your own models.

I was happy, though, with the new Boeing 787 "Dreamliner" model. Yes, there's the engines and nose cone, but the rest of the plane is strictly bricks (or so it seems from close examination). It may be hard to tell from the website, I have the catalog in which it's quite clear, and quite unlike the other planes they've recently released.

Moreover, Lego is really quite expensive - most models hover somewhere around the $0.10 per piece. This Boeing, despite being a licensed product, is way under that.

And for purists, there's always Bricklink.

Ask them to replace the parts. They will. Usually, they won't even charge you for it, nor require the bad part back.

http://www.lego.com/eng/service/replacementparts.a sp

Worked fantastic for the one bad part from Lego I have ever received. That ranges from the early 80s through today, and yes I still get bricks in fairly high quantity.

I suspect your real problem is that your son has bricks which are not actually Lego bricks. Mega blocks and others try to be like Lego but the quality just isn't there in their bricks. I've been kicking a few out of my collection recently that I found while sorting.

Lo and behold the slideshow link gives you a 404 File Not Found.

I was able to view the slideshow. Nothing impressive, but nice pics.

this presentation is better, including short video clips of the machines in action. It's also more fun. Requires Flash, though.
same presentation without it opening in a popup window

+1 irregular webcomic reference - nice one!

Speaking of cool lego sets, I almost creamed my pants (nb correct uk usage of pants.) when I saw this.
You download a CAD tool which lets you design your lego thingy on your PC. Then you upload your design to the lego mothership, they count how many bricks you need and give you a price. They then ship it to you with a picture of your gizmo on the front. Fantastic!

ok it's a bit but pricey but OMG! (ok, I'm 35 and should know better but hey, it's Lego!).