PHONE BLOCKS, have you already seen this?

[Paul Fierlinger]

http://9gag.com/gag/axN0Nr2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It sounds like a perfect idea to me.

[Svengali]

In the 70's, the earliest viable microcomputers promoted something called the S-100 bus, a backplane system which many electronics hobbyists of the day populated with custom designed CPU boards and peripheral boards to create the first microcomputers. Commercial versions were soon released including the Chromemco system based on the Intel 8088 processor. Perhaps the first College Dept. graphics computer artists' lab in the U.S. was built around ten of these machines using a custom paint program written for the school where I first taught (The Fashion Institute of Technology, NYC). One of the other S-100 machines I taught on back in those days was the NorthStar system (based on the Z80A chip from Zialog) with a gigantic 16Kb memory and a punch paper tape storage system (later converted to audio cassette.)

Today, this many years later, the Phone Block idea sounds very much like that early, open system innovation from 35 years ago... Soon Apple and, after them IBM, overwhelmed the S-100 machines, borrowing many of their basic design ideas. The S-100 operating system (CP-M) was the model for another bare-bones operating system written by a young software developer in Seattle who sold it to some guy named Gates who promptly renamed it MS-DOS and licensed it to IBM. The open system hardware approach that IBM used - publishing schematics for the IBM PC and IBM AT - was another reason the S-100 systems died an early death.

Could the Phone Blocks idea work? Many things would have to fall into place for it to happen, but who knows?

Sven

[Thierry]

http://9gag.com/gag/axN0Nr2

It sounds like a perfect idea to me.

I've heard of it a few weeks ago, it looks interesting indeed !

[Elodie]

Great idea !

But with monsters like Apple and Samsung, it will be probably really hard for them to succeed. It's in their interest to have "not durable" devices.

Advantage : you can change what is broken and customize your phone following your needs.
Disadvantage : "if" their idea worked and "if" Phone Blocks became the only phone used on the planet, the guys who invented the technology would be the only ones on the market and could do anything they want.

[slowtiger]

My first association when reading about this was the things we built from Lego - so I fear that device would just fall apart in daily use!

[Paul Fierlinger]

My first association when reading about this was the things we built from Lego - so I fear that device would just fall apart in daily use!

Two screws hold it together, remember. But it made me think of Lego as well -- true, tested and beloved world over. Mine would be the one showed with the picture of the granny. I still use the first one I ever bought.

[Elodie]

My first association when reading about this was the things we built from Lego

I thought the same ^^

[ematecki]

My first association when reading about this was the things we built from Lego - so I fear that device would just fall apart in daily use!

Must have been some clone brand you used, not genuine LEGO :)