Bricks on the Brain: Rail

I've been sitting on this one for awhile... Speaking with Jake McKee, I offered to bring "Bricks on the Brain" back from the dead.  The original web-site was written in ColdFusion... a language I'm not familiar with, but I have enough experience with PHP and other programming language, it wasn't hard to figure out how it works.  I've decided to tackle a smaller sub web-site called Bricks on the Brain: Rail, that features some of Jake's 9V train creations with instructions.  Check it out and let me know what you think.

Over the next few weeks/months, I'll try to bring back Bricks on the Brain (BotB).  I need to convert the database, rebuild the page templates, then at some point, add a way to submit new content... seems like an easy task, but I'm cleaning the HTML up in the process, simplifying the data stored, and trying to maintain the integrity of the web-site, whilst looking down the road on how to better integrate it with BrickBuildr.

I have a few problems to consider... There are links (URLs) in the database to locations that are now defunct; which is not surprising considering the nature of the web and the age of BotB.  Second, BotB maintained a user list and BrickBuildr has a separate/different user list.  I could start over from scratch, but there are some good information already contained in the old BotB database that I don't want to loose... Once I merge the two user lists, I'll need to write some web-pages to add/modify/delete creations from BotB.

228 Web-Sites Added

I have added about 228 web-sites to BrickBuildr -- look for them under the 'sites' menu on the web-site.  I feel this is still the tip of the iceberg in terms of the on-line LEGO Community.  This list doesn't include Facebook fan sites and Twitter accounts (which I don't feel inclined to add those at the moment, maybe as additional links down the road), or related Flickr groups... I'm trying to build the web-site/Flickr group relationship in the database -- this will take some time to accomplish.

The biggest challenge to creating a list of web-sites, is how to display information in a useful and easy to access... On one hand, I know our group's GFLUG 'brand' is a nightmare of web-sites where our club disseminates information -- we have information on Twitter, a Facebook fan of GFLUG page, a public/private Facebook groups, a public/private Yahoo Groups, on our main web-site, etc.  With some of those web-site have more up-to-date information than others...  Now multiply this by about by 50 LEGO clubs world-wide...

On one hand, I like some of the tools social media gives you... but on the other hand, it's made getting information out a chore -- multiple sign-ins, different user interfaces, no fine-grain control on how information is shared between sites, no concept of public/private information within groups...

AN ASIDE: If you haven't seen it, check out the web-site Swooshable.  It maps LUGs, LTC, LEGO Events, location of LEGO Stores and theme parks onto a interactive Google map.  It's a great resource of information... just needs a little updating.

Thinking down the road, this information is very dynamic; it's constantly changing.  A web-site here today is gone tomorrow... Groups change names and directions... Funding and hosting costs are factors... Lost of interest in the hobby... Blogs change hands from Wordpress to Blogger... Thinking about an interface, information needs to be easily updated without too much hassle.  "Brands" are no longer one web-site, but a whole string of URLs... calendars, event schedule, photos, discussions both public/private, sharing of documents & layouts... Then thinking about information from another perspective, once a new LEGO product is released, or somebody builds an interesting MOC, it's blasted across 20-30 blogs and personal fan web-site... And getting this information from one web-site to another means more data entry -- this no common language for sharing/exchanging these types of complex data relationships with other web-sites...

I'm over simplifying this, but a few years ago at Brickworld, there was a workshop, asking AFOLs what they think the biggest problems facing the LEGO Community; there was talks of fragmentation, lack of a central source for information... From what I gathered afterwards, people wanted a AFOL version of Facebook, thinking this would help.  I thought it was naive.. the real issues is this lack of a common language for sharing multi-dimensional  ideas related to our hobby -- be it information about our MOCs (where you can find pictures of it, textual inspiration, where it can be seen/shown, etc.), to LUGs (pictures at events, where our discussion go on, information about us, etc.), to news affecting our community.

...to be continued...

More Updates

One of my ideas for BrickBuildr is to (down the road) better integrate the web-site with Flickr, Facebook, Google+, and Open ID.  I honestly don't want to store any passwords on BrickBuildr; so you'd simply log into one of the partner services, and if BrickBuildr is an authorized web-site, you'll be redirected back as being logged in, with access to your information... Since most of the 'accounts' on BrickBuildr originate from Flickr, Flickr integration is easy enough to do; so as of last Friday, if you sign into the web-site via Flickr (instead of using the 'join' button), you can by-pass reCaptcha...  

You'll also noticed on the web-site that I removed the list of 'friends' web-site from the left hand side, and I added a drop down item called 'sites' -- all of that information have been moved there.  In it's place, I've added a few images with links to web-sites I enjoy and a few up-coming LEGO (US) conventions.

There are a large number of LEGO fan sites.  If you read through my On-Line LEGO Community presentation, you see I only touch the tip of the iceberg.  The decision to move the list of web-site it's partly spurred by my desire to expand upon that list.  And somehow figure out a way to organize the list... and somehow pull out/highlight some of those web-sites in a better fashion.  For right now, the list is crude -- just the web-site name and URL.  But that should change over the next few weeks.

Using ReCaptcha with BrickBuildr

Updating a iPaB wall just became easier.  After adding the inventory for Legoland Florida, I got tired of entering the two digit code, very quickly!  I figured integrating ReCaptcha into the web-site was long overdue.  :)  

So please enjoy and let me know if there's any problems.

 

Incredible Robot Locates (Electronic) Components on Demand

I LOVE this idea!  It's an Incredible Robot Locates (Electronic) Components on Demand.  I'm thinking it needs to help me find LEGO parts... and it needs to be slightly bigger.  :)  It's voice activated (which is a little wacky, almost circa 1983), but versatile enough to find multiple variations of a component.  


I hope he open-sources the project.  :)

“Little Guys… In Space!”

Many of you know about LEGO's Cuusoo web-site.  On one level, it's a neat way of crowd-sourcing product ideas; separating out the "wants" from a few individuals, from ideas that are potentially in demand. The down-side to it: people's taste are fickle and most of the current ideas proposed are more licensed products (not very many original ideas).  But there have been projects that I do support, for instance the Palette Buckets (a similar idea I had many years ago when I was looking to build larger castle structures), the Buket 'o Plate idea (because honestly who has enough plates?), and LEGO Phineas and Ferb ('cause I like the show).

The Minecraft Cuusoo project reaching it's goal of 10K supporters, really didn't surprise me; I've been playing the game and following it on reddit for some time.  I see how much of a fan following it has, and one word from Notch can make/break a web-site; so by Notch tweeting the project, I knew there would be no problems hitting that goal.  I was a little surprised by the Shaun of the Dead project; other than Simon Pegg mentioning it on Conan, I didn't realize it had a cult following that big.  :)  Don't get me wrong, I like Simon Pegg and Nick Frost films and TV shows, but wow... that's amazing!

On another topic, our LUG had been approached about doing a large scale model; turns out that finding funding to start building the model has been difficult to secure.  One of the ideas I had back in October was to find funding via Kickstarter -- I hope to post more details later if we decide to take this route.  But in general, I think this is a great venue for raising money to help fund future LEGO projects -- in theory, I'd hope they be charitable in nature, but I can see helping out the occasional 'starving artist'.  But I can also see it help fund art projects that a small group of people couldn't accomplish alone... assuming other people believe in the idea and pledge their support.

If you haven't seen this yet, please check out David Pagano's Kickstarter project, “Little Guys… In Space!”

LEGO Foliage

So it recently came up on GFLUG's private Facebook group that a 3rd party is making LEGO foliage in fall colors (orange, yellow, burnt-browns, etc.).  Personally, I like the idea... And I might purchase some in the future, assuming LEGO doesn't hijack the idea.  But thinking a little deeper on the subject, it seems that it's time for an over-haul on LEGO vegetation -- more tree options, shrubs, more leaf options, more vines options, new plants, etc.  Minifigs have gotten a lot of attention lately, why not LEGO foliage?  :)