Hi all,
my name is Giovanni Giorgi, I am a 37 years old software architect (mostly a Java guru).
I have discovered Arduino a month ago. I have never used breadbords, leds and so on.
It was simply too difficult to do stuff, coded them and then test.
Arduino is very easy to use, and I was able to do a small proximity sensor after only two hours of study, trial and errors.
Aduino rocks because it is well balanced: coding and assempling the device is a two-phase activity, and it is split very well. It is easy to understand how to assembly a circuit, and then how to control it.
C++ is not my preferred languages, but I have found plenty of libraries on the Playground.
The Arduino ecosystem is the very added-value: Arduino is easier to code then other stuff I have seen (also in pure IT field).
Also the hardware is very pluggable: you can buy sensors, servo and assembly them in a very fast way.
You can go from an idea to a prototype in minutes, and this rocks!