Re: One huge problem

The 808 is also quite heavy, so that keeps it more stable. It does take strikingly good photographs.

Re: @ Pete2 --Biscuits or Pi?

Not sure how a device that cost $200 is a worrier to a device that costs $35.

Pi's are being delivered right now. There is a huge backlog, 350k people, but production is ramping very fast and that expected to be dealt with in 2 to 3 months. If you order now, September should be a good bet - then October for order and fast delivery. If all goes to plan with RS and Farnell who are doing the manufacture.

Re: Master Rod...

If not, why not?

Re: bye bye ubuntu

@IGnatius.

No, you don't speak for the whole Linux community, especially me. And no, I'm not paid by Canonical. So basically your whole post is complete bollocks.

Re: @Tom

Odd, I use Unity every day, dev work, browsing, email, video, photos. No problems at all. So, for me, it DOES do everything I need and does it well.

Re: Tech City?

On the other hand there had been a Science Park outside Cambridge (and many companies in the city itself) that has been doing this stuff and more for the last 30 years. When did this suddenly because news? Because it's in London?

@fatchap

If you think that working 20hrs a day (or even just 10, consistently) makes you more productive, I feel you may be sadly mistaken. It's a diminishing return. Although I agree you should be rewarded for results rather than time spent, if the only way you can get those results is working long hours every day, then the employer is certainly not doing it right. Because that doesn't work in the medium/long term.

IMO.

I did Latin

Never did me any harm. In fact, probably did me some good. And I was really really crap at it. And it was compulsory.

QED.

Re: Tinkering

I think I may be wasting my time but...

PC with parallel ports haven't been made for some years and no-one uses them nowadays.

The Raspi has GPIO's, 16 of them. Use them for parallel stuff if you want. Or add a Gertboard for even more HW interfacing options (all the ones you mention)

But my main point is that this is a device intended for teaching programming, cheaply, not necessarily programming HW, and really not intended for real time HW programming (linux isn't great for that). Arduino's and similar are much better at that, but of course, they are not standalone devices, so you need another PC.

Re: Me personally, @ James Hughes 1

Defensive *big* boy thanks very much.

(Well, you would be if you were part of the project and really believed in it, wouldn't you?

Re: Me personally,

@cantenna blah blah

Anything you could do on a 386 with a parallel port, you are most likely (YMMV) to be able to do ona Raspi with the GPIO's or I2C or SPI.

With the added bonus you can actually buy a Raspi.

Re: Where is the Fortran?

GNU Fortran works fine on a Raspi - testing was done by someone who received the device yesterday.

@Pete 2

Small fraction of the HW costs? You do realise that a thumb drive needs to actually plug in to something? Of course, the SD card on the Pi is removable, so works in very much the same way as your thumb driver for taking stuff home, and for a mere £30 you can have a Pi at home to continue your work, rather than a rather more expensive PC.

Since you believe its a far better solution, is there anything stopping you actually going out and doing this yourself? or stopping anyone else from doing it. I think the fact this has been feasible for the last 5 years but hasn't been done must indicate a problem with the idea.

Re: So can I buy one then?

That should be around July/August. Lots of backlog to get through first, and, of course, all the while you are waiting for that elusive next day order, people are getting in the queue, and getting their Pi before you do.

And of course, your last sentence makes no sense - if there is next day delivery, you won't actually need to get in a line.....

Re: Post in goddam £!

And it's priced in dollars as that is what all the components are purchased in. Converting back and forth to local currency is best done right at the end.

Re: Supply Chain Preparation

If anyone can start producing similar devices at a comparable price, they should go for it (and the Raspi foundation will welcome it). By the time you have designed and tested it of course, the Raspi will be in full production. And of course, the Foundation has no profit motive, which may dissuade /prevent competitors getting to the same price levels.

Re: Wuh?

I bung mine in a rucksack and cycle home. No damage yet. Don't even bother putting it ins antistat bag. It is a proto, and a bit bigger than the release version.

However, the educational release will be cased, because school bags (and schools) are a rough place to be.

And therein lies the Raspi advantage

No need to lock down - if you break it, re-image the SD card. Sorted.

As for your quality of teacher - that's a different kettle of fish.

@Shonko

So, which language would you suggest as encouraging the young to tinker? Then ask yourself - is that language available for Linux?

Wuh?

I've always wondered at this attitude. Since when did programming GPIO's become a necessity for learning to program?

As to the educational side, let me think... What could be the educational advantages of a Linux PC that runs off an SD card (easily reimaged if broken) and can be programmed in any number of languages, and can be put in a school bag? That costs £30. Including all the software. Tough one.

Good Grief

I was talking to someone about 20 minutes ago about this EXACT same thing (I mean EXACTLY the same - PV on roof, wanted to dump 'excess' power to immersion heater). Small world.

Raspberry Pi + SPI interface board + opto isolators , which I was talking to someone about about 10 minutes ago!

Poor Barry

He's under the weather. His last stool contained no peas at all.

Re: Drooping Rod

Do you write for the Register? That's some top innuendo there.

Re: Doesn't seem too unreasonable to me.

25mph isn't 10mph more than 15mph if you are talking about the energy required - drag goes up with the square of speed, so to get from 15 to 25mph you need more enerygy than you would need to go from 0-10mph. Quite a lot more.

I'm not that fit, and I can just about average 19mph on my road bike on the pretty flat Cambs Busway cyclepath (max speed about 26 I reckon). The only dangers are the complete nob-end students from Impington village collage who seem to think that walking or cycling 5 abreast across the whole path is a really good idea, and don't look where they are going. Already been sideswiped by one moron and I was practically on the left hand verge. /rant

Re: This is a frickin' joke

I think I'm up to the challenge. It's not that far down.

Marketting

It's interesting what you say about marketing, because apart from blog posts on the website and occasional press releases, very little actual direct marketing was done. It was almost all word of mouth organic stuff. Which is very difficult to turn off - do you a) Take a call from the BBC wanting to talk about it b) Not take a call from the BBC?

Re: This is a frickin' joke

Jesus Christ. Apple have umpteen billion in the bank, and you are comparing them with a project bankrolled some someone re-mortgaging their house? Well, that seems fair.

As to RS and Farnell - two of the largest suppliers in the UK (and worldwide) - clearly a bunch of jokers.

Dev boards are exempt from CE

But unfortunately, the large order numbers means that regarding the first batch as dev boards is no longer appropriate. It was ALWAYS intended to get CE marking for consumer/educational devices, just not for the first couple of batches as they were fully intended as dev board.

Re: Vaporware

I've got one! Not at all vaporous.

Re: A level playing field for developers

It's not 500, it's about 50 alpha boards. And a prototype Linux was already running as that was done by the SoC supplier, so it wasn't a standing start.

All the mag jack problems have been fixed - the boards are done with the first 2k already on UK soil. The remaining problem is the CE compliance for the rest of the first 10k. That's almost complete. Parts stock is ready for mass production as soon as CE confirmed.

Although its thoroughly explained on the Foundation website, for those hard of reading, the original plan was to sell devices as Dev boards ready for the educational release,in a case, with all the required certificates, later in the year. Dev boards don't need CE marks. However, the massive demand means that really the dev board moniker is no longer applicable. Hence the delay whilst it is being gained for the first 10k batch (well most off, 2k still are dev boards)

Re: Earth-like??

Good grief,. I hope those scientists thought of that stuff. You did read the PDF....didn't you?

(No I didn't either)

Re: Fermi

Well, my main purpose in like if to contribute to MY quality of life -which I do by having a job - I don't think they are unique. You have a job too? Does it improve your quality of life? (call centres excepted)

Re: "Ideate"

Anyone who uses the word ideate should be dragged out in to the street and shot in front of their family.

Now do I get that job on Top Gear?

Re: The final frontier. @Sceptic Tank

Crikey - I wonder if they will try out all this tech before putting people on it. Or are they just going to take pot luck and hope it all works first time....Hmmm...

/sarcasm.

No

He has been talking to the large company of extremely talented spaceflight engineers he has built up at SpaceX. The same team who built, in ten years, the first privately owned rocket and capsule that has been returned to earth in one piece at a price so far below the competitors they must be crying in their dodgy beer.

Re: Wahoo....

On the other hand that overrated boy band is the most successful of all time, who almost everyone have heard of, and will continue to have heard off once all the current crop are dead and buried.

And to make your assessment on the lyrics of one (very early in their career) song is, shall we say, rather immature, don't you think?

You don't like them. A lot of people do. Get over it.

Re: SH

On the other hand Leonard got to shag the fit girl from next door, AND the fit girl from India. Is that a joke?

On the other other hand. It's a fecking comedy show. Not a documentary.

Re: Hawking has better delivery than Sheldon...

You know it's not a documentary, don't you?

Re: Fair enough

I use it on the desktop without any problems.

Re: Wagers anyone that..

Had a good look through my 8" last Wednesday. Pretty good, but seeing a bit iffy. Bands on Jupiter, plus Galilean moons, crescent Venus and red Mars. Sprogs were excited, which was the whole point.

Re: Guess what

Thanks for telling us so.

FYI, Chinese shit rates were not the ones paid. The factory chosen wasn't the cheapest by a long way. Like anywhere, there is cheap, there is expensive, and there is the bit in-between. The factory chosen was in-between (and a recommendation)

Re: Not quite the £25 computer in reality

It's $25 not £25. Even the $35 Model B is still less than £25.

Re: No surprise

Everything? When you consider how much work had to be done just to get to this stage, can you really say *everything* has been fucked up?

Yes, its been delayed, yes, the launch day could have gone better (not from a demand PoV, but the servers), yes, this hiccup is a PITA.

You seem though to have completely missed all the stuff that went on between those points.

Oh, and to source management elsewhere would have cost money in outsourcing, Since the current people running the show are all unpaid, that would a price not worth paying.

Re: Pi on their face....

Cockwomble.

Excellent!

Re: It appears

@Aaron. We get it. You don't like. Now STFU and let the people trying to make a difference get on with without whining from people such as yourself.