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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?
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Take a look at this lineup. Think these folks went to prom?
http://www.lego.com/eng/factory/design/bios.asp
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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.
All they seem to carry around here are the sets that only make one thing and have lots of specialized, only-one-way-to-use-it parts. No more big box of Dacta gears, shafts, beams, etc. Great for 7 year olds who want to make a pirate ship; not so good for adults who want to make a robot/cd changer/whatever.
I wish that more companies would follow the recent examples of Lego and the BBC; instead of just sending out legal threats and public announcements as a reaction to something they should consider why people are doing it. The BBC realised that people were recording and distributing Dr.Who and while they took a hardline on this (as it is, after all, piracy) they also decided that they should make their shows available on the internet as people are obviously looking for other ways to view their favourite shows. Here, Lego have taken the rational direction and thought "how does it harm us?" and have realised it doesn't, it just opens more creative dimensions. Companies rarely have anything to gain by sending constant legal threats (recent examples include RIAA and the MPAA) and may do well to think of why people are doing it in the first place, and how they can change their stance for mutual benefit.
Matthew Grint Midnight Artists
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.
Depending on the mix of bricks in the different bags, this could be an interesting knapsack (partition) problem, as in NP-tricky.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
With the patents of basic Lego (and even 1985 flat pieces, technic and space lego) having expired I hope more Chinese toy makers will make all plastic toys Lego compatible.
Would it not be great if kids who prefer playing with toy soldiers over building with Lego would still use their old lego to build bridges to blow up as the hole on the toy soldiers feet would be compatible with lego. If the interconnects between rockets, rocket-launcer, vehicle and hide-out could be hooked up to any of the other plastic toys?
It's also refreshing to see the word 'hack' used positively by news media.
Is it really possibly to buy too many legos?
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.
Why not just go Open Source?
Sigs are for the weak.
They threatened to sue me... http://www.livejournal.com/users/gthing/78721.html
or else!
When building your robot, just remember to use more of these and less of these. Your body will thank you.
-Rob
Biblical fiscal responsibility
yup.
ceramic
Look Mom! I made a working Lego Tesla co<<<ZZZZAP>>>
"Teleporting Rodents with D-Cell Battery Displacement" theory -- IgnoramusMaximus (692000)
(Not that I wouldn't mind seeing a little competition keep prices lower on real Legos!)
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