LEGO ideas

That is just 3D bullshit to me, regardless of whether it houses an RPi or not, because AFAICT its merely models a cutesy and very low resolution external view of what a Babbage engine might have looked like.

If the project was to use Lego to let any interested person build a working mechanical analogue of a Babbage Analytical Engine (or even a Difference Engine) it would have value, but as it apparently makes no attempt to do that its just junk.

NOTE: when it was first completed, the Science Museum used to demonstrate their Difference Engine in operation. But, now its encased in a close- fitting glass box it can't be run because there's no space to turn its crank, let alone input settings or take and read its output. As there is no published schedule for periodically opening the box and operating the Engine I conclude that nobody will ever again see it in operation. Last time I looked, there was no description of The Method of Differences on which it is based anywhere near it. From this I conclude that the Science Museum doesn't give a flying f*ck whether anybody should be able to understand how it works and therefore fails utterly to fulfil its mission of informing and educating the public on this topic.

This ridiculous Lego project, as it stands, serves to further trivialise Babbage's work.

Fortunately the other Difference Engine reproduction is at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, and it is operational and regularly demonstrated.

Maybe they got tired of repairing it... (:-/) Last time I saw it demonstrated [long ago), they turned the crank, there was a "sproing", and a piece of one of the cams flew off! End of demo.

-- Pete --

Sounds suspiciously like the funding has run out. A great wodge of money is granted to build the thing, the demonstrate/maintain it for, say, a year. After that it's up to the museum to fund the demo/maintenance, money it hasn't got.

"Old school" museum thinking, however it is a museum not a "discovery" place. I remember going to the Science Museum in London as a lad, all of the glass cased, press button for demo, exhibits worked and there was a good explantion of what the "thing" was doing. Went a decade or two later, most of the pres button for demo things didn't work...

A few years back went to the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry. Some interesting exhibts, particularly in the broadcast section, but very little information about them "Used by BBC Manchester in Studio 4" was about it. But then that might be because I used to use, in anger, a significant number of the exhibits...

I'm sorry you're so upset about the concept. I view it as a way to get LEGO to acknowledge that some RPi projects might be worthwhile pursuing as well as a tribute to Babbage and Lovelace. It seems rather impractical to expect them to market a full working model.

That's been done, anyway:

A Very harsh response considering this is supposed to be for Children! (Last time a looked Lego was classified as a toy).

Anything that makes children aware of our computing history has to be a good thing & I often found it advantageous if you can educate them "through the back door" whilst they are playing

Not only that, but when I saw it, the chap demoing it went through a worked example of the polynomial solving.

Sorry to hear we don't bother doing this with the one in the UK.

Wonderful and relevant. I prefer the Meccano one though.

Another Dave