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Lego Institutes Bulk Ordering
mattdm
wrote in to tell us that Lego has instituted
bulk ordering of parts. The selection is somewhat limited, but they have most of the parts you would want to build your fullsize Lego house. And with five colors to choose from, you should be all set! Now the question is, with this quantity of Legos available, what do people think the coolest thing to build would be?
It seems like it would be trivial to create Lego-compatible plastic bricks. It's not like there's a whole lot to reverse-engineer there. And at the prices Lego sells at, I'm sure another company could undercut them.
Is there not enough of a market for this? Is there Intellectual Property preventing this?
Given how IP-aware and pro-reverse-engineering this crowd usually is, I'm surprised that I haven't seen anyone else bring it up, yet.
I have to throw in that, as an engineer (though not mechanical), I always thought it peculiar how much programmers enjoy Legos. I understand why engineers are drawn to them, and it's not like the professions are that far removed, but I would expect programmers to be interested in things less *physical*; like poetry, or classical music. Alright, so we've established that programmers like Haiku's, but still...
--Lenny
What is the minimal number of blocks for
a 1-bit adder. The simpler implementation
would be two 2-bit inputs and the output of 1-bit
sum and 1-bit carry. (A third carry input could
be added later.)
Whats a good way to represent 1 & 0?
e.g. slide left or right right.
How could design the units to cascade them?
You may have to clever about balancing mechanical
forces. The friction of several cascade bit adders could make them unmoveable.
Actually, that's false. The reason LEGO was cool when you were 5 is because it stimulates the creative part of the brain. That's the same reason it's cool at 25, but at 25 it's far more important to do it. In the process of "growing up" (16-24 yrs) most of your imagination and creative energy was methodically destroyed.
Adult use of LEGO is an excellent way to regain those lost abilities. LEGO is not a toy (though parents treat it as such) it's a well thought out and powerful system.
Why, I'd build a miniature scale replica of the Microsoft headquarters. Then I'd don my Godzilla outfit and have a field day.
--
http://www.aikiweb.com - AikiWeb Aikido Information
Perhaps there is a market (albeit small) for a program that let you model structures using lego bricks and then calculated how many you should buy of each color and size used.
Once upon a time, several years ago, a company called Gryphon Software made a program for the Mac (possibly for PCs as well) called Bricks, which let you build virtual models out of what were dead ringers for Lego bricks. They had a wide variety of shapes, special pieces, and colors. You could even write AppleScripts to build complex structures for you. VERY slick.
I still have a copy somewhere, but it looks like Gryphon is out of business; their site link takes you to a different company and that site doesn't show any info on the program.
I think what killed it is that people found it's a lot more fun to play with real bricks than virtual ones, but it would still be useful for visualization of large designs, exactly as you described. You can try bargain bins or eBay to locate a copy.
I use Macs for work, Linux for education, and Windows for cardplaying.
Why build an ordinary case? Now you too can have an iMac-looking computer case without being sued. Get one of the light kits to make it really spiffy-looking at night. :-]
slightly OT: am I the only one who finds it disturbing to see so many GREEN Lego bricks available? When I was younger, green bricks were an extreme rarity, usually limited to trees, baseplates, and flats used to connect the baseplates together. Even in Denmark, they're not too common, or at least they didn't use to be. (I was born there, so I have a rather extensive collection, back to the days when Samsonite was a licensee.)
Hmmmm. "Hello, Citibank? I'd like to apply for an raise in my credit limit."
I use Macs for work, Linux for education, and Windows for cardplaying.
Well, technically, you're the grammar nazi. But I maintain that proper nouns are supposed to be capitalized.
Yeah! Wacky Willies.
For those that haven't ever been to WW in Portland, Oregon, imagine a military surplus store crossed with Radio Shack and your parts bin.
They've got everything, from industrial chemicals to bulk wire to test tubes to heater elements. Definitely a geeks' dream.
-ted, now in San Diego (1000 miles from WW)
Think! The ultimate expandable system. A rackmount made in Lego could be added to ad nauseum as you expanded your beowulf system in pursuit of SETI@Home glory.
Anything I post is strictly my own thoughts and doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the opinions of IBM.
We had the worlds tallest building for many years, first with the Empire State Building, then with Sears Tower. But now, with Millennium Tower in Japan, Nina Tower in HongKong, and Petronas Tower in Malaysia, we are way behind.
Time to reclaim the title of "worlds biggest" and further the rise of geeks to America's adored elite :)
No, Thursday's out. How about never - is never good for you?
Build a "Universal Constructor" out of lego. And then give it a blueprint of itself, the LEGO bulk-ordering department, and Microsoft's bank account. :)
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Back when I was a poor and struggling programmer, I purchaced my first Intel-based system with a tax return check. This was in the middle of a chip embargo so prices were sky high.
Well, I had enough to buy the main system (A 10mhz 8086), but not enough for the monitor.
My solution turned out to be more expensive than the original monitor.
I found a monochrome monitor without an external case at a local electronics store. (Whacky Willies in Portland,OR. They deal in used equiptment and just generally STRANGE stuff.) I tried a couple of solutions for cases (including foil covered cardboard and other tacky looking disasters), but nothing worked.
I then decided to use Legos.
Do you know how many buckets it takes to build a monitor case? I must have spent over $100 in lego over the next few months. And you have to glue them together because the heat causes the whole thing to expand and come apart at inappropreate spots.
I finished it off and used the monitor for a number of months until general fear of radiation burns drove me to buy a real monitor. (This thing was pretty nasty. It was an early green screen that you could practically feel the radiation off the front. Probably why it only cost me $5.)
I still have the monitor in a box in the computer room. It needs some repair after being moved a number of times, but it might even work. Someday I will have to post pictures...
"Trademarks are the heraldry of the new feudalism."
It'd be cool to build a 20 to 30 foot Tux to put in front of TransMeta's Headquarters.. (For Linus, of course)...
-- You can't idiot-proof anything, because they're always coming out with better idiots.
Should we be worried if NASA starts placing large orders?
1. A lego will ever harm a living being unless they step on it in bare feet
2. A lego will obey humans unless it involves taking apart two peices (in these cases it's okay to break rule 1 as well)
3. A lego will attempt for self-preservation, especially when that means trying to hide so that people cant find it.
----
Oh my god, Bear is driving! How can this be?
ADVENTURERS! - ANTIHERO FOR HIRE - CARDMASTER CONFLICT
Build huge lego bricks out of lego bricks. Then make larger lego bricks out of those. Finally argue that at an atomic level, lego bricks are composed of lego shaped atoms.
...then everything can be fractal.
Keeping