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Lego Addictions
randomErr writes "Canada.com has an article about Frank Robinson, an man who is into Lego WAY more than the average builder. Frank said "I still get Lego for my birthday and at Christmas, too. So do my kids." At last count the Robinson family's Lego inventory was nearing 100,000 pieces, a majority of which were tallied and itemized by type and colour on a computer spreadsheet." No Lego story would be complete without a link to something large and useless, say, a Lego harpsichord. Okay, it plays, so it's not actually useless. But the Lego Star Destroyer is.
640 pieces should be enough for anyone...
Can I get that in terms a simple consumer like me can understand? How many Lego bricks would it take to build a Library of Congress?
"I think all foreigners should stop interfering in the internal affairs of Iraq"
-- Paul Wolfowitz, 7/21/2003
It's not just a childs toy anymore. Check out this one guys Lego Computer Case. Looks pretty cool.
Somewhere along the line, geek must've stopped meaning "clever and innovative" and started meaning "workoholic masochist". I totally missed it.
I identify with him when he laments about the lack of good pieces. There was a golden age, when space lego got .. lets see .. MTron (the magnets were ultra cool) and Dark Space (was that what it was called) when the right balance between specialized pieces and generic blocks (and suitable colors for cool models!) was found.
Since then, all their forays into branding, that evil of evils, have caused them to have to design all these specialized pre-made pieces. God damn it this world would be better off if it were illegal to position yourself horizontally in the market place.
"Old man yells at systemd"
Lego toilet paper ?!?!? That's gotta hurt ...
Try here here. This guy does Lego construction for a living. A LIVING! I'd build Legos for a living to if it weren't for my lack of opposable thumbs...Oh, well, back to engineering.
There is an MP3 on the site. And it sounds like the worst harpsicord I've ever heard. But when an hippopotumus flies, you don't criticize the lack of grace.
Prime numbers are exactly what Alan Greenspan says they are -S. Minsky
Lego H&K MP5
These are really cool, with working slides, collaspable stock, and removable mags.
Come on, michael - there is no such thing as useless Legos. They're fun, they pique the imagination, they provide an endless number of fun hours. I'm really glad my son is turning 5 soon, so I get to play with real Legos with him (IMHO, Duplos are not really funny for adults). If the cool Start Destroyer weren't so expensive, I'd get it for him (and me :-) right away.
I have so many fond memories of playing with Legos during my childhood, and no model was ever useless. They could all be combined in so many fun and surprising ways that even the hopelessly outdated models I inherited from my father were never useless. In fact, most of the Legos used by my son now is from MY childhood, and a (very small) part of those are from my fathers and uncles' childhood.
In some ways, this goes to show that a carefully designed interfacing system can survive many years and revisions. If only programming API's had the same level of longevity. The C standard libraries, perhaps?
Black holes are where God divided by zero
Can I get that in terms a simple consumer like me can understand?
When I was a kid (yikes), lego sets usually cost about 10 cents per brick. Using that factor, 100,000 pieces is around $10,000 worth! That's not allowing for current prices, either, which are probably a lot higher.
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
This guy better hope The White Stripes are making a second video.
Sorry, this dude doesn't get geek status unless each piece is bar code scanned into a MySQL database with Apache/PHP front end.
mySQL, are you an idiot? Clearly Oracle or DB2 will be needed to scale to such levels!
But wait, mySQL is faster!
But it doesn't support transactions!
But now it does!
Wait, this isn't a database pissing contest? I'll go find a different article, never mind.
Wait for it.......
Lego Girlfriend.
Now THAT'S news for nerds.
There are 01 kinds of cars in the world. The General Lee, and everything else.
In my opinion lego structures are really cool when they stay within the realm of the system. I think every non-Lego piece, substance, or tool you use detracts from the "coolness" value of the overall structure.
For example, first he starts with glue.. thats somewhat understandable, given the size of these projects. Next its unrolling cloth capes to use as dampers. Brass wires? Well, i suppose those were necessary.
Next he crosses the line... using a surgical scalpal to cut and shave down LEGO pieces? Doesn't that defeat the purpose?? I mean, at that point I might as well melt down 100,000 of my own legos, pour them into a harpsichord shaped mold, and say I built an instrument out of legos too! I mean, technically it would be correct.
Perhaps thats an exageration, but I just don't enjoy these models as much when there is so much, well, cheating going on behind the scenes. I suppose those are tradeoffs you have to make to actually make something that isn't just a statue.
Some interesting LEGO links:
The LEGO User's Group Network - started as an offshoot of the rec.toys.lego newsgroup, now the definitive source for info and discussion.
The Brickshelf has a gallery of all sorts of stuff people have done, as well as scans of old catalogs and building instructions (you threw those away, didn't you).
I sorta miss my LEGO sometimes, until I see new LEGO in the store - yech. For the most part, they've really gone downhill (the Sante Fe train engine excepted). Plus, I've got other expensive hobbies - 1/32 slot cars, bicycles, 'puters....
That harpsicord is pretty wack, tho.
Later,
DoC