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The Curious Case of Dave Prochnow's New NXT Book

By Rick Rhodes
Dave Prochnow has a new book out entitled, "Lego Mindstorms NXT: Hacker's Guide".

Unfortunately, the book has very little about the NXT within it. Most of the book is devoted to a history of LEGO and the old RCX robotics system.

Prochnow's book criticizes Jim Kelly's new NXT book, "Lego Mindstorms NXT: The Mayan Adventure". He calls Kelly's book "belittling, silly and mindless" (page xi).

I'd like to weigh in on Prochnow's comments.

Jim Kelly's book is 300 pages about the NXT--programming, theory and design. Young people, the target audience for the book, will find it a helpful guide for learning all of the basics about NXT robotics. Kelly's book has complete programming and building instructions for five robots, plus a helpful guide for building your own NXT creations.

I invite all of you to head to your local bookstore for a head-to-head comparison of these two books. I know which one I would buy.

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