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The Free Universal Construction Kit

178 pointsby robinhoustonlast Wednesday at 7:20 AM33 commentsview on HN

Comments

lucb1etoday at 9:24 PM

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

delichontoday at 7:45 PM

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.

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datawarstoday at 7:04 PM

Very cool. Do two copyright infringements (one on each side of the adapter) cancel each other out? I really like it!

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sreantoday at 6:50 PM

Any zometool aficionados here

https://www.georgehart.com/virtual-polyhedra/zometool.html

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tripdouttoday at 9:07 PM

Wow, Tinkertoys, I still remember how the wood smelled and the big drum it came in.

lioeterstoday at 7:59 PM

> 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.

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tanvachtoday at 8:04 PM

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!

culitoday at 5:15 PM

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

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flobosgtoday at 5:50 PM

(2012)

cortesofttoday at 6:16 PM

No Construx? I built everything out of those as a kid.

pipeline_peaktoday at 5:25 PM

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.

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fwipsytoday at 6:18 PM

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.

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idiotsecanttoday at 6:20 PM

I feel like the only way to summon the corporate lawyers faster would be to put a Mickey mouse on the box.

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jojomoddingtoday at 7:47 PM

Tell your kids about FUCK, the most fun way to play with them bricks...

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extraduder_iretoday at 5:56 PM

FUCK yeah.

DatumPlustoday at 6:09 PM

[dead]

analog8374today at 5:38 PM

swank and deboner.