Just a head up...

As you may have noticed, or I have at least, that my blog's popularity is finally growing. Last time I checked, it was up to 1004 unique visits! Unfortunately, however, I won't be posting that much this summer. In June and some of July, I'll be at some dumb summer camp, that has a ban on all electronics. So much for smuggling in an NXT! But I'm not here to rant, just to give you a head up. I might try to get a online friend to substitute blog for me. But up till then, I'm here, posting!

1 Year Old...

Today is the day... NXTMonger's World is now 1 year old! Yay!

Coincidently, This is my 100th post.

Coincidently, it is Earth Day.

Coincidently...um....er...well, I ran out of coincidences. :-D

World Fest!

Good news on the team #32 Fire Breathing Rubber Duckies trip to Atlanta: The Duckies' best score was a 370, and they received 2nd place
Robotic Design: Programming!
So, 2 thumbs up to them! GREAT JOB, DUCKS!!!

Anyone coming to Maker Faire?

Anyone coming to the Maker Faire? If you are, leave a comment, maybe I'll see you there! I'll be there May 3rd and 4th with my dad. Last year they had a MINDSTORMS booth and a LEGO setup....
I took some pics last year, look at some of them here.

Great 3-D animation software!

I recently found a great 3-D animation software, called "Alice". It is a very easy to learn, drag-and-drop environment, very similar to NXT-G. There are two versions, Storytelling Alice, for middle schoolers, and Alice 2.0, for high schoolers and college students. I would recommend Alice 2.0, even if you aren't high school+. I'm 12 and I learned it in 15 minutes! And did I mention it's completely free? You can also make simple 3-D games with it. I will send you the game I made if you email me at nxtmonger@gmail.com.

The NeXT Bus

This is my first entry for the Earth Day Building Challenge: The NeXT Bus! It is one of the first robotic public buses, and possibly the first made out of LEGO.
So here is how it helps the Earth:
This bus uses the same amount of energy as a TriBot, right? Well, maybe a little more, but about the same. So what's the point? I'll tell you. This bus easily carries 8 minifigs, but these minifigures are traveling alone, so if they weren't on this bus, they'd be in 8 different cars! So with this bus, you would be using approximately 1/8 of the energy that would have been used.
Admittedly it doesn't look much like a real bus, but at least it is functional! It has rack-and-pinion steering like a real bus, windows etc.

NXTCentral Challenge #1 - Move that Weight!

Snowblader13, ro1000, mini_man176 and I have orchestrated NXTCentral.com's first building challenge: Move that weight! Go ahead and check out the rules and stuff here.

NXTrain - a LEGO Monorail

This is a lego monorail I made that ferries Storm troopers over the ravine between... um ... stoolistan and chairville. Hope you like it. The stop motion isn't that great, but that might be because of my lack of any animation software. Still, I think it's good! The music is by my friend Ben and his dad Mark.

NXTLOG 2.0!

Woo hoo! NXTLOG isn't in beta anymore, it's a fully-fledged 2.0 now! Now you can upload video and many other new features. Check it out! Unfortunately the video has to be under 5mb.

April Fool!

For those of you that didn't catch it... the previous post was a joke! As you may know, yesterday was April 1st!
APRIL FOOL!!!

New Sensor!!!

I just heard a rumor on LEGO.com that they (LEGO) are coming out with an all-new sensor!

"The newest sensor for the LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT® is one that has never before been seen, even in the R.I.S.!  In appearance it is similar to the R.I.S. Temperature Sensor, but in functionality, this new development is entirely original.

Presenting...  The Taste Sensor!  It is not as functional as the human tongue, of course, but it can tell the difference between opposite tastes, for instance mashed potatoes and ketchup."

Cool, eh?  I'll be posting more details when I can find more.

posted by NXTMonger on April 1st