On Mar 4, 10:09*pm, Bob Eager wrote:
Since the Raspberry Pi will be with us soon-ish (well, about six weeks I
am told, for mine) does anyone have any interesting ideas about what they
might do with it/them?

I've heard of car computers, TV boxes, PBCes as ideas...

Well IBM's future, one reason why Warren Buffett is buying, is the
replacement of IT head count by increasingly automated smart systems.
First was the relocation of anything on an RJ45 to the lowest cost
labour area, next will be relocation to self managing systems - the
whole point of their Service Provider strategy.

On that basis, PIC development, process engineering etc is perhaps a
better target. Plenty of people can do Mech Eng. Plenty of people can
do Elec Eng. The real money as a contractor is when you can do even
basic process-eng, CAD, network of lasercutting & fab, delivering a
single point solution re hardware & software combined. Bypasses the
recruitment agency turds.

That apart, the future is applets, which changes the environment. It
dis-intermediates out software companies paying themselves £60,000/yr
driving a 911 and employing people at £4-8/hr, instead a simple Blade
Runner world website provides the applet and Notification Of Payment
Received arrives in the programmers inbox with zero reproduction cost.
It is therefore about creating sustainable revenue streams for the
telecoms industry... someone has to pay the BT Human Resources
Psychometric Obsessed Imbeciles after all.

Then again.. it could be a ruse to create more Government IT Project
bods... frightening... turn them all off!