"Clive George" wrote in message
o.uk...
On 05/03/2012 00:55, BartC wrote:


"Bob Eager" wrote in message
...
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'm not quite sure what the purpose of this machine is. Low cost? Once
you've added a monitor, keyboard, mouse, memory (and a PSU?), it won't
be far from the cost of a netbook. (Edit: just seen that it plugs into a
TV. Still, you need a spare TV...)

How about for applications where you don't need a monitor, keyboard,
mouse, extra memory? Think automation, control, robots, etc.

Sure. But then maybe they don't need 1080p mpeg decoding support, and they
could have saved a few quid of licensing to these Broadcom people or whoever
supplies that technology. And I would have thought there are enough control
boards out there for this sort of stuff (where you use a normal PC for
developing the software then just download it).

I understand this is mainly for kids but are there really many children now
without access to a computer?

And what's special about it that it took six years to develop? (I used
to build prototype computer boards in a week or so.)

The cost is probably what's special about it. There's a lot of work in
there, probably a significant amount being negotiation rather than simply
technical.

Maybe.

--
Bar