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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."
Of course, we well-informed readers of slashdot all know that Al Gore never actually claimed to have invented the internet...
http://www.snopes.com/quotes/internet.htm
Electrical? If Ada Lovelace programmed anything, it would have been Charles Babbage's Analytical Machine, which was fully mechanical.
The BBC had an article on this back in April. I think it was on TV, too.
lol, though it's like taking candy from a baby, I hate to break it to you but he did never actually say that (for both 64k and 640k, which is the actual hoax statement), at least according to Wired News.
The original quote is (cited from my memory, but I've heard the sound file about a million times): "during my service for the United Status Congress, I took the initiative in creating the internet"
Another memorable quote from him is "I'm not an expert on computers".
A monkey is doing the real work for me.
He didn't have a wife! He was gay!
John Fitch (the inventor of the first steam powered boat) tried this design (which failed) before going with his crude "paddle" system (picture six canoe paddles on each side of the boat with an overhead gearing system). Later Robert Fulton (a brilliant engineer in his own right) saw the design and greatly improved it by designing the circular side paddle wheel system.
"And a voice was screaming: 'Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?'" - HST
It'd have to be computationally equivalent to a Turing machine.
This machine was covered in Scientific American magazine a couple months ago.
Non-Linux Penguins ?
he was intimating that he helped foster the environment where the internet could flourish. Unfortunatly, this is probably not true either
Wrong. The two men who, more than anyone else, *can* claim to have invented the internet, back up Al Gore on this one.
babbage Not quite When first concieved in 1821 Babbage could find nobody with the skills to make the machine until 1832 see the rest below for why it wasn't completed.
He also designed the Diffrence engine No.2 which was much simpiler than the original but with the same computing power as Diffrence engine No.1.Saying Apple is better than MS is like saying Botulism is better than rabies.
The strange thing was is that Babbage was likely fully aware of a fairly new invention (for the time), known as the "relay". As a mathematician (of great renown, BTW), he was also fully aware of boolean logic, as well as binary arithmetic. In theory, he could have easily based his machine on boolean logic/arithmetic using relays and electricity - but for some reason, chose not to! It wouldn't be until Herman Hollerith in the late 1800's working in America to calculate the census - using punchcard machine tabulators and electricity, to advance down this road (and much later before more work was done to hook these tabulators together into something like a programmable calculator). I find it strange that Babbage didn't take this next step - and at least marry mechanical bits with electrical bits. It wasn't that his ideas couldn't be carried out with the technology of the day - they could. It was more likely Babbage's grander plans and financial issues (along with difficulties with his draftsman/engineer - Thomas something?) that left him from taking that next step. Had he not abandoned the Difference Engine and built it (by abandoning it, and coming up with the better design for the Analytical Engine - after spending a ton of Crown money for the Difference Engine - I can understand his investors backing out) - he would have gotten money to go ahead with the Analytical Engine in full (or, had he conceived the general purpose Analytical Engine first, etc). Furthermore, if he had taken an electrical/mechanical route - he could have likely saved a lot of money in the building of the machine (less precision needed, less machining needed). Ah well - that's history for you...
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
Mark Rosheim is a well-regarded designer of industrial robot arms. His "Robot Evolution", is a coffee-table book for mechanical engineers. He's strong on the practical issues academics ignore, like preventing gear-tooth breakage and cable damage in factory operations. Some of his designs are quite elegant. So he's qualified to do this. The article makes him sound like a nut.
As for automata, it wouldn't be at all surprising for DaVinci to have done entertainment automata. It was one of the few things you could sell in the court-patronage era of mechanics. Understand that in that era, science, art, and mechanism design were hobbies of the rich. This was because you can make beautiful little mechanisms out of brass with hand tools and time, but to make power machinery that does useful work, you need an industrial infrastructure. That didn't come until much later.
The best early automata are by Jaquet-Droz, and are in a museum in Neuchatel. They still work, being carefully maintained by Swiss watchmakers, and on the first Sunday of each month, they're demonstrated. The Writer writes, with pen and ink, and can be reprogrammed for different messages. The Draughtsman draws, again in pen and ink. The Musician plays the piano. They are all cam-programmmed, and date from the 1700s. Worth a trip if you're in Switzerland. The Writer is probably the best mechanical automaton ever made.