DailyDirt: Toys Are Too Cool For Kids

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Wed, Feb 29th 2012 5:00pm — Michael Ho

Technology has come a long way in the last few decades. Just about every computer (or smartphone) we use now is vastly more powerful than the primitive electronics that helped put astronauts on the surface of the moon. Gadgets are getting so cheap that toys are becoming impressively advanced. Here are just a few examples.

Imagine a remote-controlled robot spider that shoots projectiles and wears explosive plastic armor. Help name this toy here. [url]
Kids used to play with everyday objects and use their "imagination" to interact with simple toys. Now there are "augmented reality platforms" -- so kids don't need to use their imaginations anymore. [url]
The Kackel Dackel is a crappy German toy. What kid wouldn't want to clean up the plastic pooh that came out of a toy dog? [url]
Satoshi Furukawa took 2 hours out of his busy day on the International Space Station (ISS) to build a Lego replica of the ISS. They just completely ignored the second rule of making scale models. Do not nest. [url]
To find some more bizarre/cool stuff, check out some things that other StumbleUpon users have found. [url]

By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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Filed Under: augmented reality, imagination, iss, kackel dackel, robots, scale models, sesame street, toys
Companies: lego

14 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 29 Feb 2012 @ 7:55pm

Aracnoid!
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- Watchit (profile), 1 Mar 2012 @ 11:44am
  
  Re:
  That's what I was thinking too, except it has 6 legs not 8, oh well :P
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  - Watchit (profile), 1 Mar 2012 @ 11:47am
    
    Re: Re:
    and for the record I totally want one o.0
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Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 29 Feb 2012 @ 11:22pm

XCKD Non-Free
Just want to point out that XKCD is licensed CC-BY-NC. Is this site �commercial�?
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- Michael Ho (profile), 1 Mar 2012 @ 1:26am
  
  Re: XCKD Non-Free
  I don't see how linking to an XKCD comic violates how Randall Munroe would want his work distributed...?
  
  Munroe even says: "You can post xkcd in your blog (whether ad-supported or not) with no need to get my permission."
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  - Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 1 Mar 2012 @ 2:25am
    
    Re: XCKD Non-Free
    It doesn�t matter what Munroe says, what matters is what the licence says:
    
    You may not exercise any of the rights granted to You ... in any manner that is primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or private monetary compensation.
    
    Now, this site is run as a commercial business, is it not? After all, you have a big �Reasons To Buy� header at the top, and you regularly mention the paid work you do for clients.
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    - Mike Masnick (profile), 1 Mar 2012 @ 4:20am
      
      Re: Re: XCKD Non-Free
      It doesn�t matter what Munroe says, what matters is what the licence says:
      
      That's ridiculous on two different points.
      
      1. It absolutely DOES matter what Munroe says because he'd be the one to enforce any license.
      
      2. Linking to a website is not infringement -- especially when it's the authorized work.
      
      Honestly, why even bring this up?
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      - Watchit (profile), 1 Mar 2012 @ 11:46am
        
        Re: Re: Re: XCKD Non-Free
        Yeah, I'm a little confused how this conversation even go started...
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      - Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 1 Mar 2012 @ 4:38pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: XCKD Non-Free
        >It absolutely DOES matter what Munroe says because
        >he'd be the one to enforce any license.
        
        Does it really? If he was going to spell out the terms of use himself, why does he bother using a canned CC licence at all? How many places are we supposed to look to find out the terms of use?
        
        >Linking to a website is not infringement
        
        That�s not what the judge said in issuing the injunction against linking to the DeCSS code.
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        Michael Ho (profile), 1 Mar 2012 @ 4:53pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: XCKD Non-Free
        Lawrence,
        
        So it absolutely does matter what Munroe says -- because (under the US justice system), only Munroe can take legal actions for violations of his CC work.
        
        (Munroe has not sold the ownership of his work to any other entities in this particular case, so there's no "label" or publisher that could take action for him.)
        
        There's really no point to discussing this further... XKCD has a long history of not caring about piracy or copying.
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Pixelation, 1 Mar 2012 @ 7:59am

"What kid wouldn't want to clean up the plastic pooh that came out of a toy dog?"
Make that pooh into candy and all of the kids will want some.
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- Anonymous Coward, 1 Mar 2012 @ 11:04am
  
  Re:
  Now there is an idea, make a toy dog that needs to be fed so it poops candy.
  You feed him sugar, water and some flavors and it starts pooping.
  
  I think I will go play some game now.
  
  http://www.rigsofrods.com/content/?s=00fa41ac22430f275fb6e1968e6a274e
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Mar 2012 @ 5:06pm

Imagine a remote-controlled robot spider that shoots projectiles and wears explosive plastic armor.

Name: The US Military
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Shine, 29 Mar 2012 @ 4:01am

The toys you are talking about in this post are very expensive. I used to buy the cheap imitations of these toys for my kids but they break in one day.
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