heroOfArduinia: the beginnings
13 Mar 2012
Many thanks to my buddy who helped me build this frame/rack! Err, really he did the building. He’s a brain behind woodgivesmewood.com (worth a look, more than once). It’s looking awesome, umm, ahem, spee-roing! which it would not’ve had I gone at it with a handsaw and a dremel, which is what I would’ve done if he wasn’t so kind as to rock his skills and his bad-ass woodshop in the honor of this device.
Here’s an idea I’ve been mulling over. In the most simple terms this is a kind of “abacus for programmers”. I call it heroOfArduinia. It’s based on a concept invented (or improved upon) by Hero of Alexandria. An inventor from around 10AD. He’s best known for his pneumatic wonders, especially his aeolipile (an almost-steam-engine-before-the industrial-revolution).
What I’m most fond of Hero for is, well… Number one is the fact that this guy made inventions which were used as a sort of magic in order to fool temple-goers into thinking the temple they were in was the most divine, or somehow, had the power of the gods. In reality: it was just bad-ass technology for it’s day. Secondly, he invented a device which was used for sequencing. Personally, I think it’s the world’s first cybernetic device.
cy·ber·net·ics/ˌsībərˈnetiks/
| Noun: |
|
Yep, like that. So this is a kind of study of that device, however… Mine is going to be used a kinda turing abacus. For now, I’ll leave it at that, as I’ve got too much to say about it.