Word: legos
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...Lego-like Furniture These award-winning tables and cabinets, by London-based designer Olivier Droillard, are assembled from multicolored fiberboard boxes with drawers and lids that can be stacked to suit your living space. Choose from suggested combinations or take creative control by nominating the size and height of the pieces, as well as the finish and function of each box. Just don't forget which one you left your keys in. olivierandco.com
...Lego has come a long way from the little bricks I played with as a kid. The company now manufactures 15 billion bricks and other pieces a year. The first motorized Lego kit appeared in 1966, and the mechanical Technic systems debuted in the late 1970s. In 1998 Lego teamed with M.I.T. to launch the first edition of Mindstorms, which brought together motors, mechanical parts and a simple programming language for the purpose of--what else?--building robots...
...cracked open was packed with some pretty high-tech gadgetry. For $250, you get 577 pieces, including sensors that can detect sound, light, touch and obstacles (using ultrasound). You can even control it wirelessly with Bluetooth technology. Most robots are fun for a day or two. Lego offers a more lasting thrill; you can build a robot of your own design, play with it for a while, then pull it apart and build something else...
...that's not so easy as it sounds. Lego still uses the word-free pictorial-instruction system I grew up with, yet its world has become a lot more complicated. I rushed right in, of course, quickly throwing together a basic three-wheel bot. So far, so good. But when I loaded the software and started adding sensors and claws, things got dicey. And when I started programming, things got downright horrific. After several hours of frustration, I began to discover the rudiments of how to use virtual blocks of instruction to get the robot to move, respond...
...Although Lego says the kit is designed for kids ages 10 and up, it's probably best for high schoolers--or adults with a teenager or two to give them emotional support...