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Working computer made out of Minecraft blocks
- mulander 16y agoSimply amazing. I really can't imagine how he wants to implement the compiler he speaks about :)
- tomjen3 16y agoAs it get it, it already exists - since the machine is a standard, it should be able to use already existing compilers.
- tlrobinson 16y agoI think he meant he can use the compiler on his regular computer to cross compile things for the minecraft computer.
- DrStalker 16y agoGive people limited tools capable of building a turing-complete computer and eventually someone will... but it's always impressive to see it done. Personally I have a railway to my underground tree farm and lava storage facility, but that's not exactly newsworthy :-)
- ivank 16y agoThe creator talked about it on Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/dk1au/hey_rgaming_i_just_finished_an_alu_the_math_part/c10rnwj http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/dk1au/hey_rgaming_i_...
- guywithabike 16y agoIt's also worth noting that he basically got a job offer right there on Reddit.
- peteforde 16y agoI'd be really excited to see Notch implement some sort of API or bridge to RL within the environment. Then it's only a matter of time before people could offer Heroku-style SaaS deployments on MineCraft clusters for our future generations to enjoy.
- carlos 16y agoIt's amazing. LOL when I saw the pigs jumping!
- pilif 16y agowhile your comment is probably not appropriately worded for this community here, I have to agree: The pigs jumping around in the machine gave the video a new surreal dimension. Consider all the work that went into this creation. Finally - after everything is finished and everything works, the author takes his time to show us around. He's showing all the little details. All the ingenuity in the various components. And then, in the middle of the tour, you see pigs jumping around. I don't know. Maybe I have a simple mind, but I was highly amused - especially knowing what a piece of art the creator of the video was showing us.
- plinkplonk 16y agoThe book (from which he got the ALU specs) http://www1.idc.ac.il/tecs/ http://www1.idc.ac.il/tecs/ and a Google Video based on it http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7654043762021156507 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7654043762021156507
- DanielBMarkham 16y agoThe good: he spent a lot of time learning about logic circuits The bad: he spent a lot of time making a simulation of a logic circuit that has no practical application I can imagine It's probably a net plus overall, since learning and modeling what one knows is a great way to reinforce it, but one is left with the impression that this is a person who can spend a lot of time on things. I hate to be a prude, and everybody loves a hobby, but we keep seeing these stories of guys who spend hundreds or thousands of hours on these very unusual and detailed configurations of virtual goods -- the maximized Sim City guy comes to mind. Something about our praising this behavior bugs me. I guess it's not clear to me the difference between unnaturally focusing in on small things - -like in Aspergers -- and just having a hobby. Aside from this guy, who seems wonderfully well-balanced, I wonder if we're not praising people who might actually need help. I don't know. I probably didn't say that as well as I could.
- kiba 16y agoIt's a lot better than watching TV 4 fricking hours everyday.(That's American statistics) It's a practically a part time job for many people. Better to use that attention span for something else, like minecraft.
- randallsquared 16y agoReally? Why? I can see "learning about computing is better than mindless entertainment", but once we've separated this into "learning" and "building" components, the "building" part seems pretty much exactly the same as being entertained some other way, except for the detail that it simulates achievement, which is arguably a bad thing.
- kiba 16y agoI think building is still a lot better than watching though.
- randallsquared 16y ago
- vault_ 16y agoSee also: working computer made inside of Dwarf Fortress (http://www.boingboing.net/2010/04/15/colossal-turing-mach.html http://www.boingboing.net/2010/04/15/colossal-turing-mach.ht...)
- powrtoch 16y agoThe ultimate end of all this is when he uses Minecraft to compile and run Minecraft.
- Deestan 16y agoUnless I misheard him, he made a working implementation of the Hack ALU, which is magnificent all by itself. Hack is a virtual fully working computer that students build completely from the NAND up during a semester: http://www.catonmat.net/blog/video-lecture-from-nand-to-tetris-in-12-steps/ http://www.catonmat.net/blog/video-lecture-from-nand-to-tetr...
- dstein 16y agoI've never really had any interest in how an ALU works. I use one every day, and I take it for granted. But after seeing what an ALU looks like, in video game terms, the scale and complexity becomes apparent. Now I'm absolutely fascinated.
- lotusleaf1987 16y agoAlso, in the video-game LittleBigPlanet someone made a functional calculator: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiRgYBHoAoU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiRgYBHoAoU
- dzuc 16y agoGiven a complex enough sandbox game and enough time, could one build a computer and version of the game which runs inside the game?
- kurokikaze 16y agoYes, but it will be slow as hell.
- nphase 16y agoAre you listening, pig? For a second there I thought he was talking to me.
- aero142 16y agoThe pigs made me laugh. I don't know much about minecraft, but I wonder if the pigs can foul up the circuitry. You don't get the right answer so you have to go clear the pigs out of the pathways. It's like the original legend about how software "bugs" are named so because a bug crawled into the circuitry and fried it out. In Minecraft computers, the bugs are called "pigs".