The Arduino is absolutely cool, but the reason I recommend it is that it can be a good start to get introduced to <i>analog</i> electronics, that is even cooler for programmers. As after all the arduino itself for a programmer is just a small computer. Cool but nothing completely different especially if you used to write code in assember or C. But... analog programing, creating an AM receiver or transmitter, amplifying using a transistor, creating an oscillator, well, that is <i>magic</i>.
I'm a student in Electrical and Computer Engineering, so Microcontrollers are bread and butter to me, but what really has amazed me about this platform is the number of non-EE's I see and help use it.<p>For engineers, the idea of using a wii nunchuck to control color LED's is trivial. For an artist or a design it can be world-changing. And our local arduino group does just that :-)
For those that want to get one or are on the fence, I'd absolutely suggest it. It's only 30 bucks and you can get into playing with LEDs, motors and more exciting things as soon as you get it. Beautiful community, great resources. Hard to go wrong, really.
Great movie. I am looking to get into Arduino development myself.<p>In a way it reminds me of Rails, in that it inspires a world of DIYers to build whatever they are dreaming about.
Perhaps worth mentioning that the Arduino project is somewhat related to the <a href="http://processing.org/" rel="nofollow">http://processing.org/</a> programming language (basically sugar coating Java).<p>I've had the pleasure of introducing many artists to the world of programming via Processing, and am always amazed by the widely creative works that are produced, almost off the bat.<p>Arduino beautifully extends the same capabilities to analog and digital circuitry. Many artists are greatly appreciative of the new channels of creativity that these two project (as well as others) enable.
Sparkfun is a good place to get one. They have lots of other good stuff.<p><a href="http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9950" rel="nofollow">http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9950</a>
The nice thing about Arduino is that it's open source. Anybody can look at their plans and make their own variant.<p>The most interesting variants for me are the ones with wireless communication. Great for making remote sensor networks.