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TCP/IP Enabled Lego Brick

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the snap-snap-ping dept.

An anonymous reader submits: "Yesterday, Olaf Christ announced that he has the world's first TCP/IP-enabled Lego brick that can be used as a web server. Imagine the possibilities of connecting your collection of Lego Mindstorms to the Internet! He has ported the extremely small uIP TCP/IP stack to the Lego Mindstorms platform. uIP has also been used to run a Commodore 64 as a web server, and is ported to the 8-bit Ataris and laptop keyboard microcontrollers."

4 of 266 comments (clear)

  1. Novelty... by Schrodinger's+Mouse · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Yeah, so it's really cool that he was able to port a TCP/IP stack to the Mindstorms RCX. But isn't this just a novelty act?

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  2. Re:I don't know what's got into my Mindstorms (TM) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Interesting

    I didn't read the article, but I'd like to comment on the whole Lego fanatacism hear on slashdot. Whilst I enjoy building vehicles, buildings and chairs from Legos, it really does make a difference when you get to using the mind-Storm sets. Even Microsoft have developed interfacing software for these things, I should know since I was the lead programmer.

    Ultimately it all boils down to using your Legos for fun and profit, but most of the Lego owning slashdot crowd won't do this for fear that they might make some money on it. Really, what do you have to lose? Build Legos, brush your teeth, grab some lunch and then go to work. Its really that simple.

    For those who don't know, I used to work for LEGO, making those small, 4-post blocks, but I got tired of it and now I work at Estuardo's Burritos on Wheels (a fabulous place to grab some lunch or dinner). I just made some crab enchiladas, chorizo and pork brain tacos for this little old lady and she said to me "Young man, those Legos will be the death of you", to which I replied "Fuck you little old lady. I'll be the death of YOU!". That was when I grabbed Humbertos kitchen towel and strangled her to death.

    Getting back to the point, I am really amazed at the advances in Lego technology but what amazes me even more is how nearly anything can be built with those little blocks. Lots of techniques have been used to construct impressive Lego structures, but one that I'll always use is the good old tried and true block stacking. Nothing else even comes close.

    In closing, I'd like to say that Legos and Linux (and Linux Thorvalds too! he's an impressive programmer) go hand in hand and I'd really like to see some open sourced software developed for Legos on Linux.

  3. Sun's Jini? by atomray · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The concept of adding self-contained "bricks" of hardware/software to build functionality in a system of devices sounds a lot like the goals of Sun's Jini project, not necessarily limited to traditional computing applications though.

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  4. This was used in Lord of the Rings by frohike · · Score: 2, Interesting

    No, this isn't a joke.. =)

    I haven't touched uIP myself, but we're using lwIP (its big brother) in KallistiOS, the DC hobbyist OS project. Adam sent this to me pretty recently and I thought it kicked ass beyond belief:

    lwIP will be used in the post-production of Lord of the Rings 2 and 3
    -Dan Potter

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