[meragrin]

Web browsing is more likely to get someone interested in TCP/IP than plopping the RFCs in front of them. I know I've found myself more motivated to learn more of the basics of electronics after working with an Arduino than basic crap I put together for a logic course.

People learn different ways and are motivated in different ways. I'm motivated to learn top down in electronics. Arduino is helpful to that crowd.

[ild]

The problem starts when someone unfamiliar with low level OS details writes a network service; you end up hacked. With arduino people get false sense of knowledge and when they put the things togethe for a real world application, it ends up bad.

> I'm motivated to learn top down in electronics.

Very dangerous and potentially deadly approach (electric shock, battery caught fire, floating inputs cooked the processor etc.) Electronics is not programming: errors have tanible consequences.