World DominationTM, on the cheap...

Finally, that army of killer robot monkeys is within my grasp! Oh, and the new LEGO Mindstorms kits sound like they'll be really cool, too...

The heart of the new system is the NXT brick, an autonomous 32-bit LEGO microprocessor that can be programmed using a PC, or for the first time in the retail offering, a Mac. After building their robots, users create a program within easy-to-use yet feature-rich software, powered by LabVIEW from National Instruments. Downloading programs to an invention is easy. Users with Bluetooth®-enabled computer hardware can transfer their programs to the NXT wirelessly, or anyone can use the included USB 2.0 cable to connect their computer to the NXT for program transfer. The robot then takes on a life of its own, fully autonomous from the computer. The inclusion of Bluetooth technology also extends possibilities for controlling robots remotely, for example, from a mobile phone or PDA.

And, according to the Wired article linked above, LEGO is keeping with encouraging hacking and reverse-engineering of their systems. The only problem I forsee is that anyone who wants an army of killer robot monkeys can just go out and build one. There's gonna be competition, so perhaps it's time to start on the Planet Melting Death Ray^TM as well... [x-posted in a more MotHV-specific version from protected static]