Tag Archives: toys

Making art for your wall with Lego

Posted on April 5, 2024 | Comments Off on Making art for your wall with Lego

Normally when I think of Lego, I think of using it to make something recognizable (e.g. things from Star Wars). So I was surprised to see this: Piece Together Your Own Wall Art With the LEGO Modern Art Set. If you love Lego and abstract art, then you can make your own art with those kits featured in that article.

Of course you don’t need a kit to do it. Just go to Etsy and you will see plenty of abstract art pieces made of Lego for inspiration, like this piece here shown below:

Neat!

Now all you need is a pile of old Lego. I have just the thing in the basement from when my kids were younger. I should go down and make some art with it.

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Posted in art

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Two great pieces about Lego

Posted on October 4, 2023 | Comments Off on Two great pieces about Lego

First off is this piece, on how Lego is finally sells braille bricks. That’s great. Second is this interactive piece on the history of Lego and the various colors they use for their bricks. It’s really well done, and somewhat surprising.

Both pieces are worth a look.

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Posted in cool

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Why you should not buy insurance for rental cars, toys or video games

Posted on September 29, 2015 | Comments Off on Why you should not buy insurance for rental cars, toys or video games

Sales people asking you if you want insurance at a counter leans on your anxiety and often leads you to end up buying it. Should you? Well, if it is rental car insurance, Vox says no and does so persuasively, here: Why rental car insurance is usually a rip-off – Vox.

Two other places I see people wasting money on insurance is toys and video games. Toys R Us used to push insurance on me all the time. Before you buy it, consider how your child plays with a toy. Chances are, the insurance doesn’t buy you anything. If it is the only toy you are going to buy your child and the only one they will play with for a long time, then sure. But most children will play intently with a toy for awhile and then the interest drops.

Likewise with video games. Perhaps your child will play with it for a year and it will be their favorite game. Most times, I’ll bet they play intently for awhile, and then the interest drops.  During that time, the chance of damage is very slight.

The insurance for toys and video games is low, but it buys you next to nothing. If the store said: do you mind if we charge you an extra 5-10% on this item, you would laugh and say “no!”. Yet that is what they are doing with insurance.

Skip it and use the few bucks to treat your child to a sweet or yourself to a coffee or give it to someone in need.

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Posted in money, vox

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Do your kids love Lego? Then you may want Pley, a Netflix for Lego

Posted on May 9, 2015 | Comments Off on Do your kids love Lego? Then you may want Pley, a Netflix for Lego

Pley is a cool idea and much like Netflix is. You subscribe to the service, you get a new Lego kit. Once you build it and enjoy it for awhile, you send it back and they send you another one. Your kid always has new kits to build, and you avoid having their room fill up with Lego.

For more on this, check out: Cool Tools – Pley.

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Posted in cool, kids, toys

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Two takes on robots that stem from one fact

Posted on September 30, 2014 | Comments Off on Two takes on robots that stem from one fact

Take 1: Over at Make,  A Peek Into the Design of The Robot Anyone Can Afford | MAKE.

Take 2: Over at Kottke is a good post on why we shouldn’t be blase about robots replacing us (Humans need not apply).

The one fact is that as microprocessors get small, cheaper, and faster, the ability to make robots gets easier and cheaper. That means more people can experiment with them, from individuals to corporations. Soon robots will be ubiquitous, just like personal computers and now smart phones are ubiquitous.  And just like now there are fewer and fewer jobs without computers  or smart phones involved, soon there will be few jobs without robots involved.

I don’t think this will result in robots taking all the jobs. My belief is that there will be a mix of robots and people doing work for some time to come, rather than just robots replacing people. But robots in work and play and all aspects of our lives in inevitable and coming soon. (Depending on your work day, you may not see this as a bad thing.)

 

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Posted in ideas, IT

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