"Hearsay has it that a product range like LEGO MINDSTORMS is no longer in focus. This is not true. On the contrary, MINDSTORMS, CLIKITS and BIONICLE are all good examples of products the company wants to stake on."
SOURCE:
http://www.lego.com/eng/info/default.asp?page=pres s
If everyone who used to enjoy Lego bought a set or two now and then, maybe they wouldn't in this mess.
And most importantly, if you like Lego, do your part to support it. Buy the 8455 Technic Backhoe [$80 USD]. It's the coolest set I've ever seen come out of the company (and I can use all of the parts on MindStorms projects too).
Do you work for Lego, or are you just pulling this out of thin air?
Lego has made electronic pieces for ages - and the sets reflected those costs.
They could go on for a long time without investing in the design of new electronic components.
Also, there has been a considerable amount of independent Mindstorm sensor development (demand has been so strong that they recently re-started production).
If worst comes to worst, Lego could build things based on those designs. And in the Lego community, most people are flattered when Lego brings their creations to mas production (as they did with the MOC product line).
I also think it's a great tactic to bring back limited runs of classic sets. Re-releases should take less ramp-up time than designing a set from the ground up.
I got a set recently with a missing part, emailed customer service, and recieved the part in the mail a few days later.
It's happened twice to me in the past year - but only after 20 years of buying the product.
You cannot say that the club is unbiased - but you do not know that the club is biased either. This is not because it straddles some ambiguous nether-region. It is because you know nothing of the club beyond what you have heard or read. (Come visit sometime, the pizza is for non-members too!)
At the foundation of the club is a set of values that supercedes any corporate affiliation. At the core is the desire to learn about technologies that we are not exposed to in course material, yet may encounter in the business world.
Since Ohio State students are likely to graduate without meaningful technical exposure to Microsoft products, this is often the logical choice when looking for a solution to explore. Undoubtedly we can fall back on the assumption that if we choose a Microsoft solution it will be provided to us free of charge, but this does not drive our selection process as much as an outsider might imagine.
In a recent discussion on source control there were over 60 discussion posts over the course of two days - largely debating the merits of CVS vs. VSS. Ultimately we elected to set them both up and conduct an analytical study of the merits of each. If anything, as with society at large, I've noticed a subtle anti-MS bias among club members.
Later in your post you complain about a professor of yours whom you feel is being tempted by the beast.
You then comment on his apparently poor administration skills (only negligent admins were hit by the SQL worm). Maybe he's still learning?
You also use the term "allegedly" to describe your lack of knowledge regarding the financing behind the lab in question. I suspect that in your unbiased comments regarding the many Unix, Solaris and Mac labs in campus, you replace "allegedly" with "generously" when describing how financing for these labs were secured?
Perplexed at how an instructor might achieve impartiality given all of this bribery, you retreat to the rationalization that Java (with an 7 year head-start) development outpaces development in (1 year old).NET. You sound like a boastful mother bragging that her son can read to the parent of an infant who still needs his diapers changed!
My point is that for someone who seems to continually lace his/her prose with subtle inferences to your distaste for MS, you're not a poster child for objectivity.
Slashdot Mirror
"Hearsay has it that a product range like LEGO MINDSTORMS is no longer in focus. This is not true. On the contrary, MINDSTORMS, CLIKITS and BIONICLE are all good examples of products the company wants to stake on." SOURCE: http://www.lego.com/eng/info/default.asp?page=pres s
And most importantly, if you like Lego, do your part to support it. Buy the 8455 Technic Backhoe [$80 USD]. It's the coolest set I've ever seen come out of the company (and I can use all of the parts on MindStorms projects too).
If you can't afford that, check out the new 8453 Front-end Loader [$20 USD].
Either are suitable for display on top of your monitor.
Do you work for Lego, or are you just pulling this out of thin air? Lego has made electronic pieces for ages - and the sets reflected those costs. They could go on for a long time without investing in the design of new electronic components. Also, there has been a considerable amount of independent Mindstorm sensor development (demand has been so strong that they recently re-started production). If worst comes to worst, Lego could build things based on those designs. And in the Lego community, most people are flattered when Lego brings their creations to mas production (as they did with the MOC product line). I also think it's a great tactic to bring back limited runs of classic sets. Re-releases should take less ramp-up time than designing a set from the ground up.
I got a set recently with a missing part, emailed customer service, and recieved the part in the mail a few days later. It's happened twice to me in the past year - but only after 20 years of buying the product.
You cannot say that the club is unbiased - but you do not know that the club is biased either. This is not because it straddles some ambiguous nether-region. It is because you know nothing of the club beyond what you have heard or read. (Come visit sometime, the pizza is for non-members too!)
At the foundation of the club is a set of values that supercedes any corporate affiliation. At the core is the desire to learn about technologies that we are not exposed to in course material, yet may encounter in the business world.
Since Ohio State students are likely to graduate without meaningful technical exposure to Microsoft products, this is often the logical choice when looking for a solution to explore. Undoubtedly we can fall back on the assumption that if we choose a Microsoft solution it will be provided to us free of charge, but this does not drive our selection process as much as an outsider might imagine.
In a recent discussion on source control there were over 60 discussion posts over the course of two days - largely debating the merits of CVS vs. VSS. Ultimately we elected to set them both up and conduct an analytical study of the merits of each. If anything, as with society at large, I've noticed a subtle anti-MS bias among club members.
Later in your post you complain about a professor of yours whom you feel is being tempted by the beast.
You then comment on his apparently poor administration skills (only negligent admins were hit by the SQL worm). Maybe he's still learning?
You also use the term "allegedly" to describe your lack of knowledge regarding the financing behind the lab in question. I suspect that in your unbiased comments regarding the many Unix, Solaris and Mac labs in campus, you replace "allegedly" with "generously" when describing how financing for these labs were secured?
Perplexed at how an instructor might achieve impartiality given all of this bribery, you retreat to the rationalization that Java (with an 7 year head-start) development outpaces development in (1 year old) .NET. You sound like a boastful mother bragging that her son can read to the parent of an infant who still needs his diapers changed!
My point is that for someone who seems to continually lace his/her prose with subtle inferences to your distaste for MS, you're not a poster child for objectivity.