Rendered at 00:12:18 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Cloudflare Workers.
lucb1e 3 hours ago [-]
In case the authors are here, the first sentence contains the bytes e2 80 94 which would be UTF-8 for an em dash, but it has been reinterpreted as 3 bytes using https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows-1252#Code_page_layout and shown on the page as —. Further down, there's a lot of similar errors such as a single right quote (U+2019) in K'nex. Firefox seems to have first removed their encoding configuration menu in version 89, then introduced a new button in version 91, and that one is disabled now as well so there's no fixing this user-side it seems :/
Edit: ah the page is from 2012-03-19, from the <meta property="article:published_time"> tag
londons_explore 2 hours ago [-]
This is probably the case of a bodged migration from one CMS to another.
My blog suffered the same, and going through loads of old pages to check and fix them just isn't worth the effort.
taneq 10 minutes ago [-]
> Why shouldn’t we be able to?
I have no idea why but my brain immediately interpreted this as a Scottish accent, like ‘shouldnae’. Weird.
I run workshops about the use of modular systems in facilitating non-expert participation in architecture. One I did (at the CAAD Futures Conference in 2023) was with Zometool. It was a blast and really successful.
In preparation I also got to interview the late great Steve Baer, inventor of the Zome (among many other things - seriously look him up, he's one of the most brilliant people of the past 100 years imo). It was a huge honor.
The book chapter the organizers were supposed to do about the conference workshops never materialized (hrmph), but I've done other little collaborative build projects since, so one day I'll document them all together.
srean 4 hours ago [-]
Fantastic ! Would love to read more about your experiences.
analog8374 14 minutes ago [-]
yeah I dig it a fair bit. It's good for making jigs for carpenting geometric stuff. Those funny angles.
datawars 5 hours ago [-]
Very cool. Do two copyright infringements (one on each side of the adapter) cancel each other out? I really like it!
croes 5 hours ago [-]
At least Lego‘s patent on the bricks expired. You can’t make mini figures but bricks shouldn’t be a problem
sixtyj 4 hours ago [-]
Well done indeed
I hope that Lego (not lawyers ofc) would appreciate such creativity approach and hire creators. (E.g. similar to acquihire of OpenClaw creator by OpenAI.)
How many of us do think this way?
I am always jealous (in good way) when I see similar projects.
stackghost 3 hours ago [-]
Indeed Amazon is chock full of shitty Chinese Lego ripoffs. The bricks do indeed fit together but the quality is abysmal.
delichon 4 hours ago [-]
These kits can have extraordinary longevity. I was playing with Lincoln Logs in 1967. Turns out they got started in 1918. Lego bricks have been around since 1945. The moat created by seriously delighting your customers at a young age is large.
rapnie 2 hours ago [-]
It is a really nice concept. I had never heard of it. But then as GenX at young age I played with Fishertechnik [0] more than with Lego. Around since 1966 [1].
Super cool, lock-in is very real. We are overflowing with Duplo and Lego sets because I just don't want to deal with another system. There are, of course, other models on Thingiverse, Printables, etc., but knowing these are properly designed to fit and work is a huge plus. Cudos to the team!
tripdout 3 hours ago [-]
Wow, Tinkertoys, I still remember how the wood smelled and the big drum it came in.
flobosg 6 hours ago [-]
(2012)
lioeters 4 hours ago [-]
> Note: all units are in inches.
Not so universal as I'd hoped, but I love the concept and the organization behind it, Free Art and Technology Lab.
timcobb 1 minutes ago [-]
There's this universal constant 2.54 you can use it to divide any value in inches and badabing you get the value in centimeters
qwerpy 3 hours ago [-]
Is this complaint just for the sake of complaining? You print out the pieces, they connect various toys together. The units could be light-years for all it matters.
reaperducer 3 hours ago [-]
There's something about the internet that makes people want to moan in public about nothing.
Whenever I see someone in a current British television show use "inches" or "feet," I'm reminded of the HN metric mafia that insists that the United States is the only place in the world that uses imperial units.
Even Wikipedia will tell you that's false.
vscode-rest 3 hours ago [-]
Every post/comment is selecting across 100,000+ people worldwide for the individuals most likely to complain about it.
There’s no other place on earth I can invite 100,000 people to disagree with me. Exception is maybe a public office. (Which the vast majority of people shy away from, for just this reason)
genewitch 3 hours ago [-]
up until very recently, the only units that made it even remotely "universal" was US customary units. Or, as Arduino Vs Everyone on youtube says: "units that have gone to the moon."
Now, i speak larger measurements in metric if i think the person i am talking to understands or doesn't care; but short measurements i still use "quarter inch" or "teenth" or "thou" pronounced like "wow", from the beginning of "thousandth".
I know km, liters - i drink at least 3 liters of liquid a day, if not 4, but i drink it 1 quart beverage receptacle at a time, odd how that fits!
is it really so hard to have a ruler with both measurements? I have a ruler that lets you convert from font point to two other measurement units to inches, for page layout.
I'm american, from the '80s, and we never used metric day-to-day.
the US will be US customary units basically forever. because we're an absolutely massive geography, and there's hundreds of thousands, if not millions of mile markers, speed limit signs, "distance to" signs, speed warning signs, gas stations, etc.
So 2026 is the year where i finally say: Please, please, shut up about this. No one cares.
soopypoos 46 minutes ago [-]
I can't take seriously anyone who measures butter by volume
pipeline_peak 7 hours ago [-]
When I was a kid I used to rate my uncles and aunts based off who got me Legos or Megablocks.
Idk how I’d feel if they got me this.
andai 7 hours ago [-]
I was so confused recently, when I bought a toy car kit from some German brand which cost 25 euro and came with the pieces all joined together straight from the injection mold, so you had to twist them off one by one, and then the little injection spikes stabbed your fingers while you worked.
Bought an almost equivalent set from Lego (stab-free!) for 9 euro. How does that pricing make sense haha
orsorna 8 minutes ago [-]
With such kits you are generally supposed to remove the parts from the runners with nippers and then sand those nubs down.
sdwr 3 hours ago [-]
Economy of scale, Lego can invest the billions(?) in machines and molds that don't leave connection points (?), partially by reusing pieces between sets.
culi 7 hours ago [-]
That's an awesome project. I'm sure there are many kids that have been gifted LEGO knockoffs that are not compatible with legos from adults that didn't know any better. A similar "interop" project for those would be great
bombcar 7 hours ago [-]
Almost all (back then, I hear the clone quality is much higher now) were "compatible" but had little to no clutch power, a wall built with some of them would inevitably break at the clone bricks.
onemoresoop 5 hours ago [-]
Crappy tolerance in the clone parts. I hear the clones got much better now.
cortesoft 6 hours ago [-]
No Construx? I built everything out of those as a kid.
fwipsy 6 hours ago [-]
Neat idea, but as an adult who builds little machines out of Lego Technic for fun sometimes, the adapter selection seems very limited. In order to make this idea "practical" you would need adapters with a variety of sizes, shapes, and orientations. I guess I'm not the target audience - I can definitely see this being cool for children.
mathgeek 3 hours ago [-]
That’s the joy of 3d printing. You can adapt these to any adapter if you need it.
idiotsecant 6 hours ago [-]
I feel like the only way to summon the corporate lawyers faster would be to put a Mickey mouse on the box.
Rygian 5 hours ago [-]
Mickey mouse is in the public domain, at last!
LPisGood 4 hours ago [-]
I think they would have a very strong case that using the mouse on a product is likely to confuse consumers about the origin of the product and therefore infringe on their trademark.
jadamson 5 hours ago [-]
If you go to the homepage (or look at the banner) the project is shut down since 2015.
Edit: ah the page is from 2012-03-19, from the <meta property="article:published_time"> tag
My blog suffered the same, and going through loads of old pages to check and fix them just isn't worth the effort.
I have no idea why but my brain immediately interpreted this as a Scottish accent, like ‘shouldnae’. Weird.
https://www.georgehart.com/virtual-polyhedra/zometool.html
I run workshops about the use of modular systems in facilitating non-expert participation in architecture. One I did (at the CAAD Futures Conference in 2023) was with Zometool. It was a blast and really successful.
In preparation I also got to interview the late great Steve Baer, inventor of the Zome (among many other things - seriously look him up, he's one of the most brilliant people of the past 100 years imo). It was a huge honor.
The book chapter the organizers were supposed to do about the conference workshops never materialized (hrmph), but I've done other little collaborative build projects since, so one day I'll document them all together.
I hope that Lego (not lawyers ofc) would appreciate such creativity approach and hire creators. (E.g. similar to acquihire of OpenClaw creator by OpenAI.)
How many of us do think this way?
I am always jealous (in good way) when I see similar projects.
[0] https://www.fischertechnik.de/en
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischertechnik
I wish Meccano would get its shit together. I can’t see anything I want on their limited site and there is so much cool stuff that could be made.
https://www.meccano.com/
I spend untold hours failing to build a cable tramway between my mother's dresser and bed.
But at least now I'm an expert at pylon design!
Not so universal as I'd hoped, but I love the concept and the organization behind it, Free Art and Technology Lab.
Whenever I see someone in a current British television show use "inches" or "feet," I'm reminded of the HN metric mafia that insists that the United States is the only place in the world that uses imperial units.
Even Wikipedia will tell you that's false.
There’s no other place on earth I can invite 100,000 people to disagree with me. Exception is maybe a public office. (Which the vast majority of people shy away from, for just this reason)
Now, i speak larger measurements in metric if i think the person i am talking to understands or doesn't care; but short measurements i still use "quarter inch" or "teenth" or "thou" pronounced like "wow", from the beginning of "thousandth".
I know km, liters - i drink at least 3 liters of liquid a day, if not 4, but i drink it 1 quart beverage receptacle at a time, odd how that fits!
is it really so hard to have a ruler with both measurements? I have a ruler that lets you convert from font point to two other measurement units to inches, for page layout.
I'm american, from the '80s, and we never used metric day-to-day.
the US will be US customary units basically forever. because we're an absolutely massive geography, and there's hundreds of thousands, if not millions of mile markers, speed limit signs, "distance to" signs, speed warning signs, gas stations, etc.
So 2026 is the year where i finally say: Please, please, shut up about this. No one cares.
Idk how I’d feel if they got me this.
Bought an almost equivalent set from Lego (stab-free!) for 9 euro. How does that pricing make sense haha
https://fffff.at/rip/