In honor of Alan Turing’s hundredth birthday, Davy Landman, Jereon van den Bos, and Paul Klint built a Turing Machine out of LEGOs. And if you like, you can build one too. You can buy the LEGOS on the web, and the three Dutch researchers have posted the machine’s software to GitHub, the popular code repository and software version control service. “The beauty of the Turing Machine is that it is conceptually a very simple device,” Landman tells Wired. Turing would have turned 100 on Saturday. He was 24 when he described his Turing machine — originally known as the “a(utomatic)-machine” — a device that reads and writes symbols on a strip of tape according to a particular set of rules. In short, it’s a computer. The same basic concepts underpin every computer we use today. To build one, you need a tape, something to move it backwards and forward, and a head that reads and writes the symbols. Landman, van den Bos, and Klint built theirs using a single box of LEGO Mindstorms NXT, a set of LEGOs that includes various motorized parts and a mini-computer.
In this case, the tape isn’t really a tape. It’s a set of LEGO “angle connectors” that act as switches. Each connector can move back and forth between two positions, and these positions represent 1s and 0s. A rotating LEGO beam can move the connectors from position to position, and a light sensor reads the positions. Turing described a machine with an infinite tape, but the Dutch team didn’t have infinite LEGOS. They settled on a tape with 32 positions. The team then used LEGO’s simple computer — known as the NXT Brick — to execute instructions on their tape. They wrote these instructions using NXC, a simple language developed by the MINDSTROMS community, and they built an interface for the machine using the Rascal meta-programming language. In addition to open sourcing the code on GitHub, the team would have liked to include instructions for building the machine itself, but Landman says this hasn’t quite happened yet. “We fear that may turn out to be a larger project than the machine itself.”
He admits that the machine hasn’t quite been perfected yet. But that shouldn’t stop you. After all, this is Alan Turing’s birthday we’re celebrating. It’s an occasion to give your brain a bit of a stretch.Weapons BookLego WeaponsGun LegoLego GunsShoot LegoGiacomo LegoArmas LegoLego StuffyJosiah S LegoForwardLego Heavy Weapons--a book with designs for realistic Lego weapons, most of which actually shoot (lego pieces). Fascinating and a little disturbing. A Lego gun is a toy weapon which is made out of Lego elements. There are both working guns (that either shoot rubber bands or bricks), but also replicas that do not shoot and have more for detail. Lego's makers have a long-standing policy of not manufacturing realistic modern weaponry (although swords and medieval arms are available), so hobbyists have sought to fill gaps in the market. Jack Streat has produced a number of rubber band guns, including a replica Lee–Enfield bolt-action sniper rifle.[1] He has produced a book, LEGO Heavy Weapons (No Starch Press).
[2] The SF Gate expressed concern that the book could encourage children into aggression and gun-love. Will Chapman has circumvented Lego's opposition to modern weaponry by casting his own non-functional lego guns: he constructed aluminium moulds from a CNC mill and injection-molded plastic from melted-down Lego bricks. On 29 January 2013 a woman from Hyannis, Massachusetts, USA reported that her 5-year-old son was threatened with suspension after making a Lego gun in an after school class. Badass LEGO Guns shows you how to build five impressive weapons entirely from LEGO Technic parts. With the help of rubber bands, some sanding, and a touch of Krazy Glue, you'll build five complex and functional guns that shoot plastic LEGO bricks or rubber bands at high speed with surprising accuracy. The easy-to-follow building instructions include complete parts lists, assembly tips, and a discussion of general design principles. Thriller, a powerful crossbow pistol with smooth cocking and chambering mechanisms
Parabella, a pint-sized, rubber-band shooting marvel The Warbeast, a sophisticated, fully-automatic bullpup submachine gun Liliputt, a semi-automatic pistol with a nine-brick magazine Mini-Thriller, a folding crossbow pistol The models range from sophisticated to simple, and builders of all ages will find something enjoyable. Toy guns have never been so much fun. BrickWarriors guns are designed to fit seamlessly with your LEGO® Minifigures. They are produced in high quality ABS plastic - the same plastic used by LEGO®. Alphabetical: A to Z Alphabetical: Z to A Price: Low to High Price: High to LowChristmas may be over — deep sigh — but who didn’t love receiving the hottest Nerf gun or a fresh batch of LEGOs as a kid on December 25? The only problem with the majority of LEGO guns, however, is that they rarely actually function. To remedy this issue, one such toy enthusiast decided to recreate his favorite model, the Nerf Maverick Rev-6, out of LEGO.
The result is a fully-functional Nerf/LEGO gun hybrid that actually fires on command. To see the modified Nerf Maverick Rev-6 in action, press play above. So, who’s up for a belated Christmas gift? For more Nerf-related material, see below to watch the world’s largest Nerf gun shoot darts at a breezy 40 miles per hour. Your Daily Dose of Highsnobiety Receive the best in sneakers, fashion and street culture straight to your inbox!PALMER, Mass. — A Massachusetts kindergartener has been given detention and could be suspended from the bus after bringing a Lego-sized gun to school last week. WGGB in Springfield reported that the incident happened on an Old Mill Pond Elementary School bus in Palmer last week.A 6-year-old had the toy gun, which is slightly larger than a quarter, on the bus and it was seen by another student, who alerted the bus driver.The boy's mother, Mieke Crane, said her son had to write a letter of apology to the driver, was given detention and could be temporarily suspended from the bus.“