Subject:
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Re: Hercules Jr.
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.technic
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Date:
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Thu, 10 Apr 2003 10:34:50 GMT
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Viewed:
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1876 times
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In lugnet.technic, Thomas Avery writes:
> In lugnet.technic, James Loewen writes:
> > In lugnet.technic, Rob Stehlik writes:
> >
> > > Hopefully you are right. I just don't see how my stupid 5 minute micro
> > > walker fits in with amazing cranes and construction vehicles built by people
> > > like TJ and Jennifer Clark.
> >
> > I agree with you, some of the awesome cranes and other projects are much
> > more impressive than something designed to be, literally, as insignificant
> > as possible. On the other hand, I know that sometimes the thought and
> > planning that go into making something simple can take a while (I know for
> > myself that planning the Twirp design took a good bit longer than actually
> > building it).
> I disagree :-) Big, monster creations with a lot of function can be
> impressive. However, something that is designed to be "as insignificant" as
> possible can be just as, if not more, impressive!
>
> If you take a moment and try to understand a minimalist design, then you can
> appreciate the amount of thought and time put into it. For me, it is this
> work and expertise that is most impressive.
I agree completely. Einstein said "Make things as simple as possible, but
not simpler". Making things as simple as possible takes a lot of work
sorting out relevent from irrelevent. That is a lot of mental effort.
>
> I also consider that some people have a relatively small collection of
> parts, and therefore make due with what they have. So it is a considerable
> acheivement when they produce something cool.
Living within constraints is a challenging and creative process. When I was
contacted by Syngress to work on a book based on the Dark Side Developers
Kit, it took me a while to get into the swing of things. My most favorite
of all my robots in the book is Go-Rilla, a fast weight shifting biped. I
consider it minimallistic: http://www.users.qwest.net/~kclague/Go-Rilla. I
also consider http://www.users.qwest.net/~kclague/maniac a pretty
minimalistic weight shifter for an RCX carrying biped.
I *love* all this inspired micro-walker building. Last night I started on a
micro-motor based weight shifting biped.
>
> I hope people realize this. Because I know it's intimidating reading this
> group and seeing MOCs made from thousands of pieces, and then considering
> posting a MOC made from a handful of parts.
When I went to brickswest, I realized that people like to build at different
scales. Eric Sophie's Jama is a wonderful example of building at a very
large scale, and is very impressive. Seeing it in person made me realize
that I really like small scales.
>
> The whole walker thing is quite interesting, and very cool, I think. It has
> certainly caught on and built up some momentum. It's something that's on a
> reasonable scale that most people can participate. I like it!
>
> -TJ
>
> p.s. I'm an engineer, and I'm constantly pressed to design things as simply
> and as cost-effective as possible. It can be very difficult trying to do
> this, and a considerable amount of design work goes into everything no
> matter how small. When you see a finished design, it will seem very simple,
> and the amount of thought and work that went into the design is not apparent
> to an outside observer.
I am also an engineer, but my work does not press me for cost-effectiveness
in the same way usually. I prefer keeping things as simple as possible
because they are less confusing (to me) that way. I often intuit down to
the essence of things because that is the way my brain works. The
irrelevencies just get in the way.
Kevin
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Hercules Jr.
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| (...) I disagree :-) Big, monster creations with a lot of function can be impressive. However, something that is designed to be "as insignificant" as possible can be just as, if not more, impressive! If you take a moment and try to understand a (...) (21 years ago, 9-Apr-03, to lugnet.technic)
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