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The Real da Vinci Code

Posted by timothy on from the nostradamus-predicted-this dept.

r.jimenezz writes "This month's Wired magazine has a fascinating article about an American roboticist and an Italian scholar who apparently have demonstrated that one of Leonardo's creations, a three-wheeled cart, is actually a 'physically programmable robot'. Very interesting reading."

23 of 235 comments (clear)

  1. Everything but the internet by Big+Nothing · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Leonardo is the Hamlet of art history," says art historian Kenneth Clark, "whom each of us must re-create for ourself." Da Vinci has been credited with inventing just about everything but the Internet."

    It's a shame that we had to wait until Al Gore came along for that one.

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    SIG: TAKE OFF EVERY 'CAPTAIN'!!
    1. Re:Everything but the internet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Of course, we well-informed readers of slashdot know that we don't have a sense of humour.

    2. Re:Everything but the internet by Big+Nothing · · Score: 2, Funny

      "Of course, we well-informed readers of slashdot all know that Al Gore never actually claimed to have invented the internet"

      Next thing you're gonna tell me that Gates never said that 64K should be enough for everyone?

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      SIG: TAKE OFF EVERY 'CAPTAIN'!!
  2. they also found out that robot name was... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Bender!!

    1. Re:they also found out that robot name was... by mog007 · · Score: 4, Funny

      I don't think "Bite my shiny metal ass" would roll off the tounge so easily in Italian.

      --
      Learn something new.
  3. Patent!! by slarshdot · · Score: 4, Funny

    All your technology are belong to Leo.

    --

    I'm not out of order! You're out of order! The whole freaking system's out of order!
  4. Re:Slashdotted already by MavEtJu · · Score: 4, Funny

    Here's the text, I can't see this site holding up much longer.

    Yeah right. Wired is better at this than the average cable modem ISP.

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    bash$ :(){ :|:&};:
  5. Re:I thought the first programmer is by aussie_a · · Score: 3, Funny

    Now, now. We couldn't have a female be the first programmer forever. We've been quietly working on a way to prove someone was before her and now we have. Now I just hope no-one finds out da Vinci stole all his ideas from his wife.

  6. Shameful by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    It's shameful that the royal court was funding Leo's work when others didn't even have decent schools...

  7. Re:da Vinci's flawed invention by OverflowingBitBucket · · Score: 5, Funny

    AFAIK, da Vinci (and other inventors of the time) placed errors and flaws in the schematics of their inventions on purpose.

    I'm a software engineer, and I've been doing this for years. I didn't realise da Vinci also had job security issues.

  8. Babelfish by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Bite my shiny metal ass"

    Translates to:

    "Morda il mio asino lucido del metallo"

    Its even funnier when I translate it back to the Queen's English:

    "It bites my ass I polish of the metal"

    This should be a game... me thinks!

    1. Re:Babelfish by saforrest · · Score: 4, Funny

      Beißen Sie meinen glänzenden Metallesel.

      The funny thing about this is that it uses the polite form of the second-person, Sie. So it's as though you said, "Please, sir, bite my shiny metal donkey".

      A better equivalent would be:

      Beiß meinen glänzenden Metallarsch!

      which Babelfish translates to

      Bite my shining metal ass!

      (Pretty good, really.)

  9. Now all we need to discover... by fremar · · Score: 2, Funny

    ... is that Da Vinci was also the first to obtain a software patent on the software for his programmable robot...

  10. Re:Hmmm by I(rispee_I(reme · · Score: 2, Funny

    Such as The Adventures of Soli-taire.

  11. DaVinci invents BSOD by Linker3000 · · Score: 5, Funny

    In other news, apparently every time the invention didn't work as intended, DaVinci would hide it behind a blue canvas screen so that onlookers couldn't see him working on the mechanics - hence the term "Blue Screen of DaVinci" (BSoD) came in to common use during that era for any mechanical device failure.

    In later years, a manufacturer of popular computer operating systems adapted this 'blue screen' imagery for their own use and programmed their applications to displaye a blue screen on a regular basis in honour of the famous inventor and his work on early 'computing' devices.

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    AT&ROFLMAO
  12. Leonardo's Code by hashwolf · · Score: 1, Funny

    "The notion that da Vinci was some sort of proto-computer geek is not as far-fetched as it sounds."

    How long until someone comes up with Leo's GEEK code? ;-)
    I've tried but I could not make heads and tails out of it:- I don't know Leo *that* far.

    If you're still unwashed and do not know what a geek code is have a look at: http://www.geekcode.com/

    --
    - "They misunderestimated me."
  13. Come on people!!! by JamesP · · Score: 4, Funny

    Someone forgot the question: But does it run Linux???

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    how long until /. fixes commenting on Chrome?
  14. Re:I thought the first programmer is by wagemonkey · · Score: 2, Funny

    That sounds familiar too - was Babbage then the first IT Project manager?

  15. Bush won, you know... by ThinWhiteDuke · · Score: 1, Funny

    Trying to tell us how much this matters, you use the words "intellectual", "Italian", "history", "culture", "invention", "idea", "fact", "logic", "thinking", "progress", "understanding", "world" and "Dungeons & Dragons".

    Not once do you use the words "bible", "faith", "good", "evil", "values", "appropriate", "church", "America", "family", "hate", "terrorist", "abstinence", "God-given right", "profit", "US-led" or "crusade".

    The argument seems to be about wether such research should receive public funding or not. Based on the above and the fact that Bush won, I can say with much certainty : this research IS totally pointless.

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    It would be nice to be sure of anything the way some people are of everything.
  16. Re:Da Vinci's Code by tcr · · Score: 2, Funny

    I am now reading a book called Holy Blood, Holy Grail which is interesting and a good read, even if it does build a house of cards mostly on theories and conjecture.

    That's actually a brilliant encapsulation of the genre... :-)

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    Information wants to be beer.
  17. Stupid Wired by Dun+Malg · · Score: 4, Funny
    Know one of the things that bugs me about the typical Wired writer? Lame attempts to inject dramatic tension in what is, really, just an informational article. Things like this:
    We sit in his office and pore over sketches of the cart on folio 812 recto of the Codex Atlanticus. I reach carefully for the espresso his wife has placed on the table, trying not to spill any on a nearby copy of the Italian mathematician Bernadino Baldi's 1589 translation of Heron of Alexandria's Automata. It is a first edition.

    Wow! I'm on the edge of my seat! Will he spill his coffee on the 400 year old book? Quick! Click the "next page" link and find out!

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    If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
  18. Re:Da Vinci's Code by bmalia · · Score: 2, Funny

    No Way! The Da Vinci Code is the best book I've read in a long time! I liked it so much, I've picked up the Angels and Demons one too. I can't wait for the movie to come out!

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    There's no place like ~/
  19. More dead white males. YAWN. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny
    I realise I am wasting my breath, but why oh why is slashdot such a bastion of racism? It's like, they don't even try to hide it anymore. As an African-American male I find this ethoncentrism especially disturbing, given the underrepresentation of people of color in the IT profession.


    Can we have less "dead white males" and more "news for nerds"?