The Real da Vinci Code

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."

Comments

Everything but the internet

[Big Nothing]

"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.

Re:Everything but the internet

[Big Nothing]

"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?

they also found out that robot name was...

[Anonymous Coward]

Bender!!

Re:they also found out that robot name was...

[mog007]

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

Patent!!

[slarshdot]

All your technology are belong to Leo.

Re:Slashdotted already

[MavEtJu]

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.

Re:I thought the first programmer is

[aussie_a]

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.

Re:da Vinci's flawed invention

[OverflowingBitBucket]

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.

Babelfish

[Anonymous Coward]

"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!

Re:Babelfish

[saforrest]

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.)

Now all we need to discover...

[fremar]

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

Re:Hmmm

[I(rispee_I(reme]

Such as The Adventures of Soli-taire.

DaVinci invents BSOD

[Linker3000]

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.

Come on people!!!

[JamesP]

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

Re:I thought the first programmer is

[wagemonkey]

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

Re:Da Vinci's Code

[tcr]

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... :-)

Stupid Wired

[Dun Malg]

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!

Re:Da Vinci's Code

[bmalia]

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!