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Lego Welcomes Hack Of Their Design Program
fdiskne1 writes "We've all heard about big companies suing their customers for hacking a product they purchased. It's about time we hear about a company that welcomes it. One of the most geek-friendly toys has just gotten geek-friendlier. CNet News.com has a story about how the Lego company is cheering the fact that people are hacking their public design program to better fit their customers' needs. Lego has a free program (available for Windows and Mac) that allows a person to put in their own 3D design and the program will tell the customer which Lego 'palettes' they need to order to complete the design. The problem with it was that the palettes each contained a number of bags of different shape and color Lego blocks. If someone needed only one block out of a particular palette, they would end up with many bags of bricks they didn't need. The hack involved someone taking an inventory of how many bricks are included in each bag. The program would then tell the customer how many BAGS of each to order, greatly reducing the number of bricks the customer would have ended up not using in the project. I can think of many companies that wouldn't think of doing such a thing. In fact, I can think of many companies that would intentionally use the flaw in their program to make the customer buy even more."
Don't you think the very reason Lego is popular is because it allows people DYI in many ways? You can make robots, cranes, smart buildings and other things out of Lego and thats the reason the company is alive. Why would they want to force their customers into doing otherwise?
There is a big difference between "not throwing a fit", and encouraging the hacking of an application despite the possibility of less revenue.
loganavatar.com
Is it only a big deal because the LEGO is not throwing a fit? In short, yes. In an age where companies throw a tantrum when you modify the memory contents of your own computer in order to achieve the desired results in a single-player game, or not allow you to play a game because you have CloneCD installed, it's refreshing to see a company not only understand and accept a software hack but actually embrace it.
I am sure that many people only know about this application because of Lego's allowing people to hack it. I had not heard of it until I read this thread. Regardless of how many units they might lose from this hack, they will make money from increased awareness. How many people do you think read this /. thread and tried the program for the first time?
Information wants a fueled airplane waiting at the hangar and no one gets hurt.
Lego is also losing money hand over fist....
Monstar L
It's also refreshing to see the word 'hack' used positively by news media.
Are you kidding? I'd be willing to bet that Lego is absolutely thrilled at this hack. Think about it like this: Your business is toys -- not software, so naturally you know from the start that there's a good chance that the software firm you hired isn't going to quite hit your vision. You release a piece of software that almost represents what you wanted, under the standard business practice of releasing a product that's "good enough" rather then waiting for the product to be perfect -- which never happens. Your customers then fix the most glaring issues remaining in your software for you!
Of course this ultimately represents a zero loss for everyone, because it creates a better overall customer experience -- which would have the natural tendency to drive sales up within that demographic of customers. Therefore, Lego's next logical step is probably going to be to obviate the "hack" by having it incorporated directly into the product itself.
yup.
Well, it's quite simple, really. You see, when the skyscraper detects an airborne vessel on a collision course, it simply springs legs and runs away, thus averting disaster.
Sigs are like bumper stickers.