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Seems this fellow Chris Doyle built a model of Serenity from the upcoming movie

There's a key word missing from this sentence that might put it into a clearer perspective, and that word is Lego. That said, the Lego Wash is adorable.

I showed my (now 7 year old) brother to Lego's website. It has a lot of games there, but many of them are of an educational type too. It is, howver, rather flash intensive, but my brother enjoys it.

Not to nitpick, but any true Lego fan would notice that those bricks are WAY too big to be Lego blocks. They look like Duplo to me.

...with this lego Star Destroyer.

Right. This is the LEGO Death Star. It's rounder and less pointy.

I wouldn't pay more than $300 for it. But that's just me.

http://shop.lego.com/product.asp?p=10030

Give it a go. For as little as 360 euro's you can try to beat the 10 hours! (if you have no friend(s) - the time to beat is 20 hours)

The cult recently opened one of their "temples" in California (of course). They have many local churches.

Like the Scientologists who have their "e-meter", these lego freaks have their or psuedo-technological props. They even have an mystic Oracle that you can ask questions on the internet. And just like the leader of the Scientologists, their leaders aspire to be JRR Tolkien. Not only that, these foul fiends have the temerity to rewrite the Bible.

And they are Holocaust revisionists, too boot

1. Exhibit A - one of their foul leaders proudly displays their trumped up "evidence"
2. Exhibit B
3. Exhibit C
4. Exhibit D
5. Exhibit E
6. Exhibit F

They worship strange, vile gods. And are building machines to take over the world.

The cult recently opened one of their "temples" in California (of course). They have many local churches.

Like the Scientologists who have their "e-meter", these lego freaks have their or psuedo-technological props. They even have an mystic Oracle that you can ask questions on the internet. And just like the leader of the Scientologists, their leaders aspire to be JRR Tolkien. Not only that, these foul fiends have the temerity to rewrite the Bible.

And they are Holocaust revisionists, too boot

1. Exhibit A - one of their foul leaders proudly displays their trumped up "evidence"
2. Exhibit B
3. Exhibit C
4. Exhibit D
5. Exhibit E
6. Exhibit F

They worship strange, vile gods. And are building machines to take over the world.

The cult recently opened one of their "temples" in California (of course). They have many local churches.

Like the Scientologists who have their "e-meter", these lego freaks have their or psuedo-technological props. They even have an mystic Oracle that you can ask questions on the internet. And just like the leader of the Scientologists, their leaders aspire to be JRR Tolkien. Not only that, these foul fiends have the temerity to rewrite the Bible.

And they are Holocaust revisionists, too boot

1. Exhibit A - one of their foul leaders proudly displays their trumped up "evidence"
2. Exhibit B
3. Exhibit C
4. Exhibit D
5. Exhibit E
6. Exhibit F

They worship strange, vile gods. And are building machines to take over the world.

The cult recently opened one of their "temples" in California (of course). They have many local churches.

Like the Scientologists who have their "e-meter", these lego freaks have their or psuedo-technological props. They even have an mystic Oracle that you can ask questions on the internet. And just like the leader of the Scientologists, their leaders aspire to be JRR Tolkien. Not only that, these foul fiends have the temerity to rewrite the Bible.

And they are Holocaust revisionists, too boot

1. Exhibit A - one of their foul leaders proudly displays their trumped up "evidence"
2. Exhibit B
3. Exhibit C
4. Exhibit D
5. Exhibit E
6. Exhibit F

They worship strange, vile gods. And are building machines to take over the world.

I could find it on Cartoonnetwork.com but I found it after a Google search: http://www.lego.com/starwars/default.aspx

Yeah, there are a lot of Hary Potter and Star Wars sets out there, but they still make the good stuff. I just bought my 5 year old daughter this at Target to add to her current collection. The only thing that bugs me is that the flat plates aren't part of the standard sets anymore, though you can still buy them directly from lego

People all over this world are making things. (Imagine that!) Shown here is a Lego machine that can solve a Rubik's Cube, a guy who built a keg-cooler based on the Peltier effect, and a computer that calculates...

That's not the LEGO body, the LEGO body looks like this http://shop.lego.com/leaf.asp?cn=105&d=18&t=7

Or... Mindstorm - less abstract, hence IMHO for the beginners could be more attractive. And... you can keep the kit to play with it after the fair ;-)

1) Give kids Lego Mindstorms
2) ???
3) Profit!

You could show them how you use code to control things - Like with Lego Mindstorms.

Maybe if you went to the company site instead of the shopping site (.com is geared towards American consumers) you might had figured out:

http://www.lego.com/eng/info/

I never knew until now. Hell going to their site, look at the bottom, says nothing of Denmark Here

Maybe an urban myth though.

It's definitely not correct, at least not now. Lego sells green bricks in many of their sets, and in bulk.

The case itself is going to look pretty much like a standard (if not a little bigger) full size tower. It'll have an opening door on the front that allows you to get to the removable hard drive bays. I'm only using black bricks, I tend to be somewhat anal that way, I can't mix brick colours, (well, unless it's symetrical.. heh).

I started off with designing the hot-swappable removable hard drive enclosures, followed by their housings. Then moved on to the 5.25" enclosures. Everything is pretty much as breatheable as a screen door, so no fans in the removable enclosures are required. After the enclosures and their respective enclosures had been designed, I moved on to the case itself, which was pretty much a breeze except for designing locking mechanisms for the enclosures that made sense. (Ie, accessible.) I have a number of fans strategically positioned around the inside of the case, and the intake and outtake air is channeled in and out of the case respectively.

Once I had the case completely designed, a quick export of a parts list later, I was on Bricklink.com [http://www.bricklink.com/] to start searching their online stores for parts. (They have HUNDREDS of stores accross many, many countries, they're online auctions, you can find pretty much ANYTHING there, with many degrees in price to chose from.)

And that's where I am today, I'm slowly (it's expensive to buy 30,000+ single lego pieces) getting parts in the mail, and saving up for more. I'm taking pictures of the entire process, and I have renderings done by MLCAD, but I don't have a website to host them. If anyone would like to see it or would like to help me host it in the near future (read: a week or 2), you can always drop me a line at 'PseudoSchizo@gmail.com'.

I should really sign up for /. so I can post under an actual name.. hrmm.. ah well, perhaps next time. ;)

Cheers,

Ben 'Jammin

The clones do make some good kits though -- war stuff that Lego would never touch, more serious models, and this awesome space shuttle , which, at 2000+ plus bricks is not only MASSIVE, but also pretty fun to build -- It's got way more stuff (satellites, space labs) than, and is vastly superior to the merely 827 piece current shuttle offering from Lego.

From the mouth of the horse (lookout, it has a timed redirection...

The word LEGO is a brand name, and is very special to all of us in the LEGO Group Companies. We would sincerely like your help in keeping it special. Please always refer to our products as LEGO bricks or toys and not LEGOS. By doing so, you will be helping to protect and preserve a brand of which we are very proud, and that stands for quality the world over. Thank you!

And ever since then, they've really begun to nail that demographic.

yep

Lego Mindstorms

What was it that drew you to a life of programming? How old were you when you first used a computer?

I remember seeing this board on tv. Maybe a motherboard for some crappy computer. And I was enchanted. I couldn't have been more than a few years old. And I saw Mr. Wizard's world on Nickelodeon and I liked when they had robots on there. And my brother kept setting himself ablaze with batteries and things you're not supposed to use D-cell batteries with. I was loving it all and couldn't wait to get my hands on a computer.

I finally got my chance when my mother got me a Pocket PC (radio shack, not windows). It had a 1-line display, could be programmed in BASIC, and had an assembler. Then I went to a computer themed middle school, computer-themed high school, and got my degree in Computer Science at University. It always came naturally to me and I didn't need anybody to turn me on to computers.

What pieces of modern software do you think would be a good way to introduce today's kids to the world of computing?

I think Squeak would be good because it's just fun-looking. You get to play with the race car and the mouse's eyes follow your cursor around.

Even better would be a Lego Mindstorms set. Lego has got to be the coolest toy ever and it's programmable. And I don't care how old it is... LogoWriter is big fun. It was compiled, had methods and variables, and we could draw with it. I wish I could find a copy of it.

Ya we had one of those real robotic turtles I wanted to add a camera to it and drive it with commands around the school in 3rd or 4th grade... I was so disapointed when she told me she couldn't do that. Although I was programming before that even. Thats a good idea though... very hands on and imediate results for what you program. As many know, Lego makes robots now that you can program. Sounds like fun and lots of learning!

Actually that wasn't my first experience with computers. I remember when Dad came how with a "portable" computer (luggable at best). It had Compaq DOS version 1.02 on it. I just turned 5, so my first game was a game were you picked the upper case or lower case letter that matched the one they were showing. In order to run my games I had to learn the basics. In second grade my school started experimenting with teaching programming at an early age which was quickly traded for typing classes. In 3rd-4th grade we were introduced to LOGO. 3rd-5th I spent more time in typeing type classes working on an elementary school paper. In 4th or 5th grade I actually started programming. I saw the book which was called BASIC on the shelf and decided it must be easy if it's called basic and read it practically cover to cover. After copying a few of the sample programs I began changing them and then starting my own. In 6th the started teaching programming in Qbasic and GWbasic at school which I flew through. In 8th grade I sat with a friend and learned Turbo Pascal over the summer and became a regular BBS poster at a few dial-up BBSes I remember when they finally connected their e-mail accounts to the web, that felt like it took forever to me although they were one of the fastest to do it. And the BBS chatrooms were a regular spot and I still remember saying happy new year to everyone on the BBS when it turned 1992. By the end of 8th grade I was running my own BBS. Also around this time I had found access to the internet through a friend of a friend whos advisor had given him access to an internet account through the school. In 9th grade, I was teaching an advanced turbo pascal class at school and began programming for a MOO. In 10th grade (1993) I was helping programming a VR-MUD world which could be added to a BBS. In 11th grade I was in a university program and had access to the internet which luckily was the same year Netscape came out and I finally saw the WWW with pictures when the systems were upgraded to allow PPP access at the end of that year! I'm up to about 20 programming languages now and the funniest thing about this whole history was that I didn't realize I was constantly on the front-line of technology until looking back just now to compare dates. That was simply when I first learned about something and became interested.

First of all, you could start with Lego Mindstorms (which is a little humorous as it's so close to LOGO [by name, at least]). This seems like a good hands-on way for kinds to learn some programming with tangible effect.

There is also a teaching version of Scheme (somewhat like lisp). See the FAQ for the "Teach Scheme" project here.

There is also a list of softwrae to use in teaching programming here, but I've not looked it over and am not sure how useful it is.

How about a variety of nice hats for my lego people, so they aren't all bald?

There's a set you can get that's just hats & hair:
http://shop.lego.com/product.asp?p=10067&cn=105&d= 18&t=7

almost

I've usually found technically minded kids from 7th grade through high school get a kick out of making computer games, even very crude, simple ones. I had a class in high school where we'd write simple programs and build things with Legos and motors, etc which turned out to be fun even for people that usually wouldn't be into it.

On the programming end, PyGame, an API for writing games in Python based on SDL should provide the gentlest introduction while still having kids do real "programming". And it's all free as long as kids have access to a computer lab. DirectX/C++ is usually too much for newbies to handle, but beginners can usually do some basic work in Python.

An element of competition may help increase interest -- I know this is way beyond anything you'd be planning and the scope of what high school kids could handle but here we have a game/AI programming contest (6.370) which provides a base platform/game engine so people without much game programming experience to still make something useful.

Lego Mindstorms probably also work in giving kids something "technical" to play with, but might be expensive for a volunteer project (unless you can get funding or have the kids buy the sets.)

I'd say start small -- many kids are elated to even get draw a ball bouncing across the screen, and it may spur their enthusiasm to learn on their own from there. Just tell them they can learn to make computer games.

-fren

My wife, an elementary school teacher, has been coaching a Lego league team. They use lego mindstorms (the robotic kit spawned from MIT I'm sure many slashdotters are familiar with) to build a robot that will compete against other local teams robots at a variety of tasks.

The 5th graders have been very enthusiastic and there was far more interest than space available. High School kids were used as volunteers to help the younger kids and chaperone. Once again the interest was much higher than the space available.

I think that robotics is still an exciting technology and it is much more accessible than it ever was when I was in school.

"you'll get to compete for Lego studs"

Excellent... so then there'll be plenty of this then? And hanging around in bars?

Ooooh, you mean that type of stud...

My mistake.

It appears to be more of a change in focus and remembering they have classic lines as well as story based lines, the press release is Here

a 3D modelling tool designed for kids and marketed as a game

LEGO anyone?

The proper terminology is LEGO(R) Bricks, not Lego, not Legos.
If the LEGO trademark is used at all, it should always be used as an adjective, not as a noun.
For example, say "MODELS BUILT OF LEGO BRICKS". Never say "MODELS BUILT OF LEGOs". [also from that link at lego.com]

AS YOU WISH Or did you know about this? and were waiting for someone else to point to it

I don't understand why everyone's so annoyed with star wars lego. Is it because star wars is no longer cool on slashdot? I agree that some of the smaller sets have more unique pieces that are less versatile. But has anyone tried looking at the Ultimate Collectors Series sets? Those more expensive sets with LOTS of little parts. No unique parts in that darth maul model or the star destroyer.

I don't have space in my apartment for real scale model building, so this is as close as I get and I don't mind it at all. Of course, those new designer sets look pretty cool too...

An adjective? I thought it came from the Danish for "play well". It must be an imperative predicate that has undergone a function shift, 'cause it sure ain't no verb no more. (Ooh! Extra points for a triple negative!)

I seem to recall that back in the early 70s/late 80s, LEGO used to print a paragraph on this topic in the little catalogues that came with the larger sets: "Don't call them 'Legos' [don't think they used all caps then]; they're 'Lego building bricks.'" Thumbed my nose at 'em, though--like I was going to let some Dane tell me how to talk to my toys!

Still the best Christmas present ever, though. :)

I missed my chance at ever getting a Lego train set.


You mean like these? Lego trains are in sort of a revival at the moment. If I were you, I'd get a metroliner (or three) and some club cars before they go away. Also, check out the other legend sets. They're re-releasing some of the best lego sets from before the dark times, before juniorization.

Actually, the Star Wars sets are pretty good about using reusable pieces. This TIE Bomber is 229 pieces, and the only custom pieces are the cockpit windows, the bomb, and the pilot. A very nice set.

The buckets of 1000 pieces should be easy to find. Here they are at the Lego store.

Keep an eye open for the sales at Toys R Us - I got 40 of these tubs for $10 each.....

Take a look at the New Castle sets, and the Trains and the Return of older City sets and more.

Take a look at the New Castle sets, and the Trains and the Return of older City sets and more.

Take a look at the New Castle sets, and the Trains and the Return of older City sets and more.

Take a look at the New Castle sets, and the Trains and the Return of older City sets and more.

Lego is an adjective, not a noun. It's not like sheep at all.

They don't make a "big bucket of generic lego" anymore, at least I can't find it at Toys'R'Us.

> They don't make a "big bucket of generic lego" anymore, at least I can't find it at Toys'R'Us.

Bullshit. It is even featured on the main page of legoshop.com

http://shop.lego.com/product.asp?p=4411

Legos are awsome. I buy about 1 set a month for my childs (okay, we probably now have 20K pieces...).

Some sets are better than others, but specialized pieces are not the problem (it is amazing how you can recycle those). The problem is that:

1/ Lego pieces last forever. You run out of reason to buy new ones.
2/ You ability to build don't scale with the number of pieces. (Contrary to computers, it takes a *lot* of pieces/time to do something big). Hence the 20K pieces are not *that* usefull

And for people that says that todays set sucks, it is because they have not tried things like http://shop.lego.com/product.asp?p=8455 (amazing)