Sure, lots of players are building memories and geek tributes in the incredibly popular indie sandbox game Minecraft, but here's something actually functional: a working 16-bit ALU (arithmetic logic unit) designed entirely in the game. The "wires" are made from Redstone, a unit in the game that can carry a fiery charge. So to calculate numbers, creator "theinternetftw" just lights torches representing binary numbers on one end, and then waits to see which torches (representing binary digits) light up on the other; giving him the mathematical answer he's looking for. Crazy? Yes. Nerdy? Very. Awesome? Indeed.
All the hard work must have been worth it -- theinternetftw has been posting about the project on Reddit and reportedly got a job offer out of it. But he's not done yet: He wants to add some memory to the computer and even make it "Hack" compatible, which means it would compile and run actual code (albeit very, very slowly). Said Minecraft creator Markus Persson via Twitter last night, "I saw the ALU, and I wet myself! Seriously, I got a hose and wet myself. With pee."
All the hard work must have been worth it -- theinternetftw has been posting about the project on Reddit and reportedly got a job offer out of it. But he's not done yet: He wants to add some memory to the computer and even make it "Hack" compatible, which means it would compile and run actual code (albeit very, very slowly). Said Minecraft creator Markus Persson via Twitter last night, "I saw the ALU, and I wet myself! Seriously, I got a hose and wet myself. With pee."
