Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

New York City, LEGO Style

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the make-your-eyes-bleed dept.

Obiwan Kenobi writes "I know we've done LEGO links to death, but The Brick Apple is in a class all by itself. Between the 5 foot tall Empire State Building, the 50,000 piece Greenwich village or perhaps the best of all: the World Trade Center, from which this quote was taken: 'Actually, sticking together all those little 1x1 and 1x2 pieces would get VERY tedious, and after a while they would really hurt my thumbs. Each floor had over 500 little 1x1 and 1x2 pieces.' Wow."

18 of 204 comments (clear)

  1. Slashdotted already... by WIAKywbfatw · · Score: 5, Funny

    Looks like his web server's made of Lego too.

    --

    "Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
    1. Re:Slashdotted already... by LoneIguana · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Why dosen't slashdot mirror these pages. I know it has been suggested before, but here is a novel? approach: Slashdot could cache the page before release, then after a story is released it could ping the server every minute or so to see if it has gone down. If it has, then the cached page could be brought up and people would still have access, if the server comes back up the cache would be removed. The caches would also be purged after a couple days or so, when the main wave has passed.

    2. Re:Slashdotted already... by cliffy2000 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Hah! My server is made out of Duplos.

    3. Re:Slashdotted already... by NightSpots · · Score: 5, Informative

      First, there's copyright and common-carrier issues. If you cache pages, you become responsible for their content. Google is realizing this as they get served for DMCA removal requests.

      Second, it's not something a 'ping' will help. It's usually a db / apache tuning issue, where there's too many connections. The server's alive, it just can't connect to the db, or there aren't enough apache processes. To find these types of errors, you'd have to read the responses and grep for errors. This becomes non-trivial, and more often than not, more trouble than its worth given (1).

      --

      --
      Use Vobbo for Video Blogs
  2. Your breath smells like beef and cheese by originalTMAN · · Score: 5, Informative

    This was in the new movie Elf. Will Ferrel decorated Macy's with a lego NYC (among other things) in honor of Santa's visit.

  3. Lego and employment by xactoguy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Although something like this may seem stupid or pointless at first, if I was an employer, the fact that someone had actually completed something like this would be a big point towards me hiring them. Something like this not only takes some serious drive and commitment to actually bring to completion, but especially with some of the larger models, there had to be some serious planning going into them, both excellent thigns to look for... and on a complete other note, I'm not an employer, lego rocks, and these are some serious awesome lego creations... wish that I had enough commitment to make something even a tenth as big as some of those :D

    --


    And so we go, on with our lives
    We know the truth, but prefer lies
    Lies are simple, simple is bliss
    1. Re:Lego and employment by prockcore · · Score: 5, Funny

      if I was an employer, the fact that someone had actually completed something like this would be a big point towards me hiring them

      Only if you were going to hire them to build shit with lego.

      An obsession like that has got to distract them from working.

    2. Re:Lego and employment by Xzzy · · Score: 5, Interesting

      > wish that I had enough commitment to make something even a tenth as big as some of those :

      Not a commitment issue so much as a money one. :p

      LEGO bricks are not cheap, doing things like this (and not recycling the peices into other projects) has to be one of the more expensive hobbies you could pick.

      A 2 second google search reported a price of $40 for a box of 500 bricks, and it was one of those random color/piece collection. $40 times the 100+ floors the WTC had?

      That's a lot of disposable income.

  4. Legos of Mass Destruction by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    One man's Lego NY is another man's detailed 3D terrorist planning tool. We must be ever vigilant against these evil tools of teror. Ban Lego now!!

  5. He's a terrorist! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    See for yourself. He depicted Ground Zero in Lego, months before the real attacks.

    Paging John Ashcroft...

  6. Would you break the Lego WTC? by Aqua+OS+X · · Score: 5, Funny

    When I was a kid I used to love to build giant Lego forts and smash them with lego vehicles. They were one of the few toys you could break and put back together. My Lego men always lived in a state of destruction and war, or reconstruction.

    If I had a giant lego WTC that would seriously mess with me. On one shoulder, a little Lego devil would say "toss a Lego plane into that, you can easily put it back together." And on my other shoulder a little Lego angel would say "Are you f**king kidding me?!"

    What would you do... if no one was looking?

    --
    "Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
    1. Re:Would you break the Lego WTC? by TiMac · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Oh relax. It's not like he talked about the little stumpy-legged Lego people burning in the plastic building, or throwing themselves off it and liquidating/melting on the pavement below...THAT would be distasteful.

      Oh, whoops. :-\

      Seriously people, lighten up. Sure, 9/11 was awful for everyone, and we do need to have respect for those that died and those that lost those they loved. But I and everyone *I* know is pretty tired of the whole world going stoic and stony-eyed anytime someone so much as mentions the events or the WTC. We need to be able to recognize events, learn from them, laugh at them (respectfully, of course) when applicable, and move on. This is a case where it is slightly amusing--I was most amused by the concept of little Lego Angels and Devils on the shoulders.

      So please, chill. No one means anything disrespectful (not yet anyway).

      --

    2. Re:Would you break the Lego WTC? by Texas+Rose+on+Lava+L · · Score: 5, Funny

      Doesn't it take like 30-35 years from something tragic to become truly funny?

      Only one way to find out...

      Q: Why were the Kennedys so happy about Arnold Schwarzenegger marrying into
      the family?
      A: They're hoping they can create a bullet-proof Kennedy.

      Q: What did Lee Harvey Oswald say to Michael Jordan?
      A: Out the book-depository window, over the sign, through the governor,
      nothing but neck...

      more

      --

      Rank Presidents by th

  7. Okay, for the friggin' whiners... by wrinkledshirt · · Score: 5, Informative

    Empire State Building

    World Trade Center

    --

    --------
    Bleah! Heh heh heh... BLEAH BLEAH!!! Ha ha ha ha...

  8. This brings to mind one question... by Cyno01 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Anyone got a Godzilla suit?

    --
    "Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
  9. New York is swell, but... by teamhasnoi · · Score: 5, Interesting
    does it run Linux?

    Seriously, I've always been more fascinated by things that aren't 'just' lego sculpture. Try this, or this

    As for buildings and 'industrial stuff, This site is pretty nifty, this is rather impressive as buildings go, as well as (w0w) this. And what the hell am I still doing up?

  10. Re:Ah legos by Niet3sche · · Score: 5, Informative

    But what I've always wanted was legos that could be remote controlled.
    Aha, but you can. At least, you can if you are willing to build a bit. As part of my CSE X86 series at my undergrad hell-hole, we had to merge forces with all engineering disciplines and build lego robots, controlled through the parallel port. It's actually not as difficult as you would think, and the pinouts are quite freely available. Of course, you'll need a language with low-level hardware access, and an OS without an abstraction layer that will thwart your code.
    Besides that, the rest is reasonably simple - you build the control box, hook the sucker up to your lego creation via an umbilical cord of wires, and viola - you're running via a wire.
    Now, running R/C would be even easier. However, most standard servos that I know of (e.g. Futaba, JR, Hi-Tec) from flying R/C planes aren't likely to be what you're looking for. Rather, you can get high-performance servos for some extra dough, but hey, if it's what you want to do, then go for it. :)
    My personal recommendation on a radio? The Futaba 4-channel digital radio (model number escapes me right now). It's awesome, and you can do flaperons / etc with it, so if you ever want to do R/C flying with fixed-wing craft, you'll be in good shape.
    Hope this helps a bit -

  11. My mother is a professional LEGO builder by Gnavpot · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...and has been so for something like 20 years. Just to put some weight behind my second hand knowledge. (And of course to brag of a mother with an unusual occupation.)

    I can tell for a fact that almost all structures build by the LEGO company are glued together - including the structures for indoor use.

    Further, the largest ones are internally reinforced by welded steel structures. Sometimes because they have moving parts, and sometimes because they would not be able to carry their own weight (not all LEGO structures are just vertical piles of bricks).