I'm a student at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program where Tom Igoe (from the article) teaches. One of our intro courses is physical computing, which

I'm a student at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program where Tom Igoe (from the article) teaches. One of our intro courses is physical computing, which is all Arduino. It really is fun to play and build and learn circuitry for a master's program. :) Especially after mind-numbing analyst work before coming here... So yes, I'd say a lot of people are getting that giddy playful experience through Arduino!