construction

Some of my fondest childhood toy memories revolve around Legos. About the time my brother showed up with a Dungeons & Dragons book, we left the Legos behind. Thanks to the thriving world of role-playing miniatures, that sense of building and creation doesn't have to be consigned to the depths of childhood.

It's always been easy to get your hands on miniature monsters and knights, but creating landscapes for them to play in is another matter. The Castle! Kickstarter from Castle Foundry is looking to provide RPGers with a setting that is just as engaging as their carefully painted minis. … Read more

Microsoft wants China to curtail the use of pirated software at four of the country's state-run companies, according to a story out today from Bloomberg.

Microsoft has reportedly already issued complaints against China National Petroleum (CNPC), China Post Group, China Railway Construction, and TravelSky Technology, all of which are run by the Chinese government.

Redmond believes that more than 40 percent of Office and Windows Server client software used by CNPC is pirated, Bloomberg reported, citing information from "three people familiar with the situation."

A spokesman for CNPC declined to comment to Bloomberg on the allegation. A … Read more

Japan's nuclear spring didn't last long. Though the country's nuclear power plants were taken offline following the Fukushima nuclear disaster last year, the government restarted a reactor earlier this month.

But that hasn't stopped a small village some 50 miles from the Oi plant from ditching conventional electricity from the grid and going solar.

Sanno in Hyogo Prefecture, population 42, has become the first municipality to rely on solar power.

Residents of the 11 households have an average age over 60, and the village, like many in rural Japan, is suffering depopulation. Costs for maintaining shared … Read more

This year at the San Francisco Bay Area Maker Faire, trying to juggle my own interests (talk to cool people) and my 5-year-old son's (build or break stuff), we both hit paydirt at the same time when we stumbled across the Grid Beam exhibit.

My kid spent 45 minutes in the hot sun inventing and screwing together a life-size car-like contraption, and I got to dive into the minutiae of the product with its creators, Phil and Richard Jergenson.

Grid Beam is Erector Set meets IKEA. The hardware is standard 2x2 wood beams with holes drilled through every 1 1/2 inches (which is the actual width of a 2x2 beam), and standard furniture bolts that will be familiar to anyone who's ever assembled a futon frame.… Read more

Legos are great, but if you're looking for something a little more animated, you might want to check out Cubelets, a robot construction kit that its creator likens to playing with bumblebees.

Yeah, I don't really get the bees reference either, but Cubelets look awesome nonetheless. Cubelets consist of a set of building blocks that you can interlock together to create a robot. Each cube has a name and a function that falls into one of three categories: action, sense, and think. For example, there is a block that acts as the battery, one that rotates, and another that provides light. … Read more

The award-winning World of Goo is now available in the Android Market.

Previously a hit on the PC, Mac, Wii Ware, and iOS platforms, now Google Android users get to join in on all the ooey, gooey physics-based fun.

If you've never played World of Goo, it's a visually stunning puzzler that lets you create structures out of tiny, elastic balls of goo. Think Apparatus or X Construction, but covered in slime. As you can imagine, it's incredibly challenging to create, say, a structurally sound bridge from elastic gooballs, but that's why this game is so fun. Also, each level only gives you a finite number of gooballs to work with, which teases your brain even further.

With its superb graphics, sound, intuitive gameplay, and superchallenging puzzles, we think World of Goo is a winner. Give the demo version a try, and let us know if you're as addicted as we are.

The World of Goo demo is available for free in the Android Market. The full version, with every chapter, is available for $4.99.… Read more

In the Disney-Pixar animated movie "Up," Carl Fredricksen (Edward Asner) and wife Ellie dream of traveling to Paradise Falls, South America. When Carl takes that trip by using thousands of helium balloons to lift his home right off its foundation, the house takes quite a beating.

A home builder in Utah has created a full-scale replica of that charming home--firmly fixed to the ground--in the city of Herriman, about 20 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.

The builder, Bangerter Homes, has re-created several rooms from the 2009 film in retro detail--down to the wallpaper, light switches, and custom-made fireplace mantel, which is currently adorned with some very "Up"-like knick-knacks. … Read more

Could window and insulation installation specialists be the next plumbers in terms of steady work and good pay?

It's a question triggered by "Opening the Thermal Envelope: Emerging Innovation in Dynamic Windows and Advanced Insulation," a recent report from Lux Research on the green tech construction sector.

Green tech is currently the largest growth sector in the construction industry, according to Lux research.

But the research analyst's latest report focuses on the fact that the emerging technologies involving smart glass and innovative insulation materials are now expected to see the largest growth within green construction.

As … Read more

GeoGebra, the free, open-source mathematics software is designed for math classrooms in secondary schools, but anyone who uses geometry, algebra, or calculus should check it out. It combines a flexible, easy-to-use geometry tool with direct input of equations and coordinates. It can create points, vectors, lines, segments, conic sections, and more using preconfigured tools and handle variables for vectors, numbers, and points. It's available in many languages and is supported by a community of users and developers as well as a useful Web-based Help file, a forum, and a wiki. It requires the Java Runtime Environment.

GeoGebra's default … Read more