Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Domains

Domain: raspberrypi.org

Stories and comments across the archive that link to raspberrypi.org.

Comments · 313

  1. Flights go from Chile/Argentina to South Africa .. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Flat Earther Now Wants to Launch His Homemade Rocket Into Space (phillyvoice.com)

    Flights go from Chile/Argentina to South Africa and Australia, direct, because it is shorter. Generally, a string and a globe can predict the direct flight path between any 2 points on Earth.

    These idiots are amazingly dumb.

    The cheapest way to get a few of the Earth's curvature isn't with a rocket, it is with a relatively cheap high-altitude balloon. Some helpful software:
    https://www.raspberrypi.org/bl...
    Teachers are being trained in creating class projects around this.

  2. Thermally challenged by DrYak · · Score: 1 · on Ask Slashdot: How Would You Suggest Making Rugged, Weather-Resistant ARM Systems?

    The raspberry pi 3 is thermally challenged at room temperature.

    "Having the thermal throttle kicking in and not letting you have 200fps on whatever thing you're trying to emulate in RetroPi"
        !=
    "I won't be able to take a shot every now and then".

    Also, the poster want to just take a shot every now or then of a street sign.
    A Raspberry Pi Zero (lower consumption, cheaper) would to the job okay.
    It's SoC is qualified for -40 to +85 (source), though you'll have to check if the other chip used (wireless functionality of Zero W for remoting, the chip used in the camera you plug into the MIPI connctor, the uSD card, whatever power solution) can sustain the necessary temperatures too.
    Some parts (e.g.: uSD) should be available in industrial or even "consumer, high endurance" (cf. some Transcend parts) variant.

    And all are dead cheap, meaning that in case of failure, it's simpler replace the box with a spare and then see later on if parts can be salvaged from the dead one.

    Also, Raspberry Pi Foundation has guaranteed that parts will be kept in production for quite some time.
    So if 5 years down the line, the project runs out of "spares", it would be trivial to source additionnal parts.

  3. Hint by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1 · on Ask Slashdot: How Would You Suggest Making Rugged, Weather-Resistant ARM Systems?

    Search for DIY and off the shelf Raspberry Pi trail cameras.

    https://petapixel.com/2018/02/06/motion-detecting-wildlife-camera-made-raspberry-pi/

    https://peaknature.co.uk/blog/how-to-build-a-raspberry-pi-zero-trail-camera--part-1-what-you-need

    https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/solar-powered-nature-camera/

    https://thepihut.com/products/naturebytes-wildlife-camera-kit?variant=28137973841

  4. Immune to speculative execution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1 · on ARM In the Datacenter Isn't Dead Yet (theregister.co.uk)

    Another advantage is that some ARM processors aren't affected by the speculative execution vulnerabilities. In particular the ARM Cortex-A53, which is used in this server

    http://www.socionextus.com/products/synquacer-edge-server/

    is immune to speculative execution vulnerabilities.

  5. Re:Oh, c'mon. Be fair. by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1 · on Amazon To NYC After Reconsidering HQ2 Plans: It'd Be a Shame If Something Happened To Your Kids' CS Education

    Ideally, a starter curriculum should start away from an OS. That you picked one just shows you have a bias, no more.

    So you are going to teach someone to program when they have zero idea how a computer works? any mention of an operating system must be avoided. I don't think so.

    You have to start somewhere. And it makes sense to start simple. A Pi is about as simple as it gets, an Arduino is simpler, but I don't think it is a good learning device for group activities.

    The whole process is charming, from downloading the NOOBS Linux OS to putting the system together, to booting and running. That terminal is Linux is merely what you use to get around some things in the computer.

    Your method apparently is based on writing the code on paper, then someone takes it away to a mysterious secret OS computer, then telling you if it worked or not.

    Sorry, but since all the software based computing devices I know have an Operating system, you have to choose one.

    Side note: You can get W10 for IoT devices on Pi, and a couple others, like RISC OS, (non Linux), or even an OS that boots to BASIC https://www.raspberrypi.org/do...

  6. Re:Excellent by kenh · · Score: 1 · on Raspberry Pi Gets Its Own Brick-and-Mortar Retail Store (venturebeat.com)

    And how will the target market of computer-illiterate school age children that live outside the community the store is located in benefit from this investment?

    The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a UK-based charity that works to put the power of computing and digital making into the hands of people all over the world. We do this so that more people are able to harness the power of computing and digital technologies for work, to solve problems that matter to them, and to express themselves creatively.

    Source: Raspberry Pi Foundation - About Us

  7. Re:Link to Raspberry Pi website by Sarten-X · · Score: 5, Informative · on Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3+ Promises Better Performance, Starts at $25 (venturebeat.com)

    Apparently it is. That's the announcement of the original Compute Module in 2014.

    The new post is more recent.

  8. Link to Raspberry Pi website by houghi · · Score: 3, Informative · on Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3+ Promises Better Performance, Starts at $25 (venturebeat.com)

    https://www.raspberrypi.org/bl...

    Because linking directly to the original source is hard.

  9. Oh noes! by Solandri · · Score: 2 · on Sony Appears To Be Blocking Kodi On Its Recent Android TVs (androidpolice.com)

    Too bad there's no way to install Kodi onto an independent device which plugs into the HDMI port of your Sony TV.

    Crappy move by Sony, but ultimately futile.

  10. The best alternative to Intel machines by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative · on Eben Upton Remembers The Years Before the First Raspberry Pi (techrepublic.com)

    One of the nice things about the Raspberry Pi is that it's immune to the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities because it uses the ARM Cortex-A53 processor.

    https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/why-raspberry-pi-isnt-vulnerable-to-spectre-or-meltdown/

    Of course, it's not the only company producing computers based on the ARM Cortex-A53. Pine64 is another example. But these sorts of computers seem to be the best option for secure computing that's current available.

  11. Build your own open solution by Martin+S. · · Score: 3, Interesting · on Smart Home Makers Hoard Your Data, But Won't Say If the Police Come For It (techcrunch.com)

    This stuff is not rocket science, cheap easy to use controllers such as Pi and Micro:bit are out there now

    https://www.raspberrypi.org/
    https://microbit.org/
    https://www.eclipse.org/smarth...

  12. GTA radio IRL by Layzej · · Score: 1 · on How 'Grand Theft Auto' Is Changing the Way the World Experiences Music (rollingstone.com)

    Here's a GTA radio made real with a raspberry pi and a 1970's RCA radio chassis: https://www.raspberrypi.org/bl...

  13. Only Raspberry Pi computers should connect? by Futurepower(R) · · Score: 1 · on Microsoft Says 700M Devices Now Run Windows 10 (techcrunch.com)

    Please provide a link. I want to try the Raspberry Pi you recommend.

    Only Raspberry Pi computers should connect to the internet? Why Raspberry Pi isn't vulnerable to Spectre or Meltdown

    Intel CPUs are not safe: Intel reportedly gears up to patch 8 Spectre Next Generation CPU flaws. (May 3, 2018)

    Computers running Windows 10 with internet access are not safe. Some of the huge number of shockingly ugly problems with Windows 10:

    Windows 10 is possibly the worst spyware ever made.

    7 ways Windows 10 pushes ads at you...

    Microsoft is infesting Windows 10 with annoying ads.

    Years of bugginess: Windows 10 bugs

    Problems this year: Windows 10 problems 2018

    Update problems this year: Windows 10 update problems 2018

  14. Re:RSS for the masses? by Kris_J · · Score: 1 · on Digg Reader To Shut Down This Month -- Latest RSS Service To Bite the Dust (betanews.com)
    I use TinyTinyRRS on an old laptop I leave running at home and have a variety of ways to connect to it from outside the house. It's my main source of news, and in fact the way I was alerted to this Slashdot article. It consolidates feeds from the following sources, allowing me to quicly keep up with a ton of news and other stuff that interests me in one place:
  15. Re:RSS for the masses? by Kris_J · · Score: 1 · on Digg Reader To Shut Down This Month -- Latest RSS Service To Bite the Dust (betanews.com)
    I use TinyTinyRRS on an old laptop I leave running at home and have a variety of ways to connect to it from outside the house. It's my main source of news, and in fact the way I was alerted to this Slashdot article. It consolidates feeds from the following sources, allowing me to quicly keep up with a ton of news and other stuff that interests me in one place:
  16. Re:Neat, but not really needed... by sl3xd · · Score: 2 · on Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ Launched (raspberrypi.org)

    Am I the only one that still uses the original Raspberry Pi?

    Nope, I still have five or six...

    Though the newer Raspberry Pi B+ models have an improved "hat" hardware interface. which wasn't as robust or standardized with the original Model B.

    CPU speed has never been the selling point of em to me.

    The improvements are far more than the SoC powering the Pi 2 & 3:

    The Pi 2&3 are also able to deliver more power to audio/video interfaces, to USB devices, and to attached Hat's. I don't have to worry about plugging in a USB device and the Pi going into an unusuable state due to the USB device drawing power.

    The Pi 2&3 have better network performance. The Pi 3 even allows network booting (say goodbye to endless boot cycles when the SD card fails).

    The SoC's in the Pi 2&3 use more modern processes, and use less power per unit of work done.

    The Pi 3's SOC (and GPU) is much more suited to running Wayland, and it also has Bluetooth, which opens up a range of IoT devices to fiddle with.

    If you are interested in CPU's, though: I use a Pi 3 to run PiAware, which is an aircraft transponder/ADSB receiver. The original, single-core Pi doesn't cut it, but a multi-core Pi 2 (or Pi 3) runs it without any problem.

  17. Public library or non-x86-64 PC by tepples · · Score: 2 · on Mozilla Tests Firefox 'Tab Warming' (bleepingcomputer.com)

    Or get back to actually doing your job?

    What did you mean by this? A break room computer at work is not the only environment that restricts installation of native applications. Another is a computer at a public library. A third is a computer using an uncommon architecture for which the application's publisher has not compiled the native application, such as GNU/Linux on ARM instead of x86-64. From Google Earth on a Pi? - Raspberry Pi Forums:

    No google only provide downloads for 32 and 64 bit debian and RPM packages.
    Nothing for arm, so it wont work.

  18. Re:I'm sad to say it, but Linux is dead to me. by khz6955 · · Score: 2 · on How Open Source Advocates Celebrated The 26th Anniversary of Linux (linux.com)

    Some anonymous troll said: .. "I had been using Linux from very early on .. But today, Linux is pretty much dead to me .. The GNOME 3 desktop is, in my opinion, totally unusable. The other desktop environments aren't much better." ..

    You're talking total rubbish if you don't mind me saying so:

    Raspberry PI Desktop

    Linux Mint 18.1 "Cinnamon" overview

    KDE Plasma 5.X Review 2015

    Ubuntu Gnome 17.04 Review

  19. Re:Desperately needs a die shrink by Anomalyst · · Score: 1 · on Survey Says: Raspberry Pi Still Rules, But X86 SBCs Have Made Gains (linuxgizmos.com)

    I am wondering if PI might move to a RISC-V in future iterations. https://www.raspberrypi.org/fo...

  20. Code Club/Pi Jams in the UK by hughbar · · Score: 1 · on How Scratch Is Feeding Hacker Values into Young Minds (backchannel.com)

    I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I read the referenced article. Scratch is one of the mainstays (with Python, for older, more advanced kids) of https://www.codeclub.org.uk/ and has been for 4/5 years, at least.

    We also teach it as part of Raspberry Pi Jams: https://www.raspberrypi.org/ja... as well as assorted hardware and robotics projects based on the Raspberry PI.

    Most of this is volunteer supported. I've just finished a year in a local primary, that's probably 1st to 5th grade in the US system. There's a little more of this in the US now, go find some, it's fun. And I agree, not every kid will want to progress, but this is a good way of dipping toes in and finding out.

  21. Re:What the... by OrangeTide · · Score: 2 · on Geek Builds His Own NES Classic With A Raspberry Pi (arstechnica.com)

    Basically it's an article about installing RetroPie, one of many RetroArch/libretro distros available. I consider articles like these on slashdot to be equivalent to articles about people "discovering" Ubuntu. It all seems very pointless, but maybe someone hasn't heard the news on this in the last 2-3 years.

    It's more interesting to packa Pi it into a Game Boy case modified with SNES buttons

    P.S. - Pi 3 is kind of overkill for doing NES. But it's a nice option if you want to do SNES and MegaDrive as well. Audio outputs on the Pi sucks bad though.

  22. Really does look like a shitty product by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on IoT Garage Door Opener Maker Bricks Customer's Product After Bad Review (arstechnica.com)

    The obvious problem here, of course, is that a garage door opener is controlled (and DoSed) by someone else's server. That is totally and inexcusibly insane, and not just a little bit.

    The original customer may have overreacted, but the fact that the vendor had the capacity to DoS the customer proves, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that it definitely is a horrible and unreliable product. You would be making a huge mistake, buying this bad product from the incompetent designer Denis Grisak.

    People, computers are cheap. Cheap as fuck. You don't need to be using someone else's server. The server should be under your exclusive control, serving the interest of no other parties above your own interests. There is no excuse for anything else. The era of "the cloud" has been over for many years now.

  23. Raspbian by Max_W · · Score: 2 · on Ask Slashdot: What's The Easiest Linux Distro For A Newbie?

    on Raspberry Pi 3 computer https://www.raspberrypi.org/ . It is an OS and a computer with the link to the physical world via GPIO.

  24. Re:The Only Important Thing by codeButcher · · Score: 3, Interesting · on Raspberry Pi Zero W is a $10 Computer With Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (betanews.com)

    Can you run Windows 10 on it?

    I know you are joking by turning the "can it run Linux" meme around, but the Raspberry Pi org's download page carries a link to "Windows 10 IOT Core". No experience with it though.

  25. Re:Best uses? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Raspberry Pi Zero W is a $10 Computer With Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (betanews.com)

    I've have two in use at the moment, but I must say, as much as I've been a fan from the beginning, it's a real sod of a thing to work with.

    The Model C makes a great media center. I run the Raspberry Pi version of OpenELEC and with no customisation (just join the network and point it at the SMB shares) I find it works perfectly, even at 1080p and even makes use of MVK files with all the bells and whistles (multiple audio tracks, subs, etc...).

    The P1 Model B that I have is for hobby projects and unfortunately I find it to be severely lacking in this regard.

    I understand exactly that it is supposed to be a computer for education. However, I think it fails on the following points:

      - GPIO pins have an inconsistent naming scheme, with different numbers on the board, the schematic, and in code. Why put beginning students through such pain?

      - GPIO pins are *way* too fragile for students to experiment with. When learning it is much too easy to accidentally short the GPIO pins, which can fry the board.

      - The power issues are mind-numbing and really "unfair" for students to have to chase. Why should a student go to great lengths to get (and keep) their PI running normally. Yes, it's a good topic for advanced students, but it makes it too hard for the beginners.

      - I bought the RPI camera without the IR filter (NOIR) to do some night surveillance. I know this sounds like a simple thing, but I could not find any page offering simple instructions on which way around the ribbon cable goes ON BOTH ENDS. This kind of basic knowledge will cause students to chuck the whole fucking mess out the window.

      - There is no "power safe" way to run it. For students debugging projects this would be ideal. Some flag in the OS that eliminates all caching and makes the file system bombproof, even if it means it has to be read only. That way the student can power the system up and down all day long without any risk to the file system.

      - The SD card file system is much too fragile. I've had multiple images corrupt at random for no reason. This is a known issue with no real fix.

      - Even when exercising great care with power loading, I still find my Model B does not start reliably every time. I often have to power it on/off about 2-3 times in a row before it will boot.

      - In my experience it has been much too unreliable unless doing very simple tasks, in which case an Arduino will be much easier, have better support, be more reliable, and have better (more flexible, better timing, and more robust) GPIO capabilities.

    Don't misunderstand me, I'm not hating on it. I'm just lamenting that in my opinion it has failed at its primary objective as an education platform.

    ---
    NotAPK

  26. Re:Best uses? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Raspberry Pi Zero W is a $10 Computer With Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (betanews.com)

    I've have two in use at the moment, but I must say, as much as I've been a fan from the beginning, it's a real sod of a thing to work with.

    The Model C makes a great media center. I run the Raspberry Pi version of OpenELEC and with no customisation (just join the network and point it at the SMB shares) I find it works perfectly, even at 1080p and even makes use of MVK files with all the bells and whistles (multiple audio tracks, subs, etc...).

    The P1 Model B that I have is for hobby projects and unfortunately I find it to be severely lacking in this regard.

    I understand exactly that it is supposed to be a computer for education. However, I think it fails on the following points:

      - GPIO pins have an inconsistent naming scheme, with different numbers on the board, the schematic, and in code. Why put beginning students through such pain?

      - GPIO pins are *way* too fragile for students to experiment with. When learning it is much too easy to accidentally short the GPIO pins, which can fry the board.

      - The power issues are mind-numbing and really "unfair" for students to have to chase. Why should a student go to great lengths to get (and keep) their PI running normally. Yes, it's a good topic for advanced students, but it makes it too hard for the beginners.

      - I bought the RPI camera without the IR filter (NOIR) to do some night surveillance. I know this sounds like a simple thing, but I could not find any page offering simple instructions on which way around the ribbon cable goes ON BOTH ENDS. This kind of basic knowledge will cause students to chuck the whole fucking mess out the window.

      - There is no "power safe" way to run it. For students debugging projects this would be ideal. Some flag in the OS that eliminates all caching and makes the file system bombproof, even if it means it has to be read only. That way the student can power the system up and down all day long without any risk to the file system.

      - The SD card file system is much too fragile. I've had multiple images corrupt at random for no reason. This is a known issue with no real fix.

      - Even when exercising great care with power loading, I still find my Model B does not start reliably every time. I often have to power it on/off about 2-3 times in a row before it will boot.

      - In my experience it has been much too unreliable unless doing very simple tasks, in which case an Arduino will be much easier, have better support, be more reliable, and have better (more flexible, better timing, and more robust) GPIO capabilities.

    Don't misunderstand me, I'm not hating on it. I'm just lamenting that in my opinion it has failed at its primary objective as an education platform.

    ---
    NotAPK

  27. Unconferences and informal conferences by hughbar · · Score: 1 · on Ask Slashdot: Why Do You Care About Tech Conferences?

    I'm a 40-year industry 'veteran' and have been to a great many conferences. In the main, my employers paid for (usually) expensive tickets.

    However, I often find nowadays that the informal ones, self-organised unconferences, open-source meetups are a great deal better. We talk about things that concern and are useful to us as equals rather than being sold products and being lectured to by 'thought leaders', 'evangelists' and 'horizon scanners' (whatever they are, I'm joking, before anyone tells me). Immediately I see the choppy two-hand motion and the inevitable outpouring of buzzwords, I know I'm in the wrong place. As for the networking, that's often fairly cynical.

    Better, because I'm a Brit, I've been going to and (in one case) organising some Raspberry Pi Jams: https://www.raspberrypi.org/ja... for kids, parents and teachers etc. The levels of enthusiasm and expertise in these put some of the 'professional' ones to shame, ok, agree, that's slightly off-topic. There's a few Saturday the 11th too, look at the calendar further down the page.

  28. Re:Competitors don't get it by Mystic+Pixel · · Score: 2 · on Raspberry Pi Gets Competitors (hackaday.com)
    As much as I like and respect the RPI for what it is, "bomb proof" is the absolute last phrase I would use to describe it.

    History lesson, please

    The price point is important, yes, but this is the kind of thing that separates hobbyist hardware from production hardware.

    Again, to be clear, I do love RPI hardware/foundation/etc but I'm just trying to keep things realistic here.

  29. Re:Nintendo EMU by pr0fessor · · Score: 1 · on Raspberry Pi Upgrades Compute Module With 10 Times the CPU Performance (arstechnica.com)

    The pie 3b about an hour and a half or 15 minutes the second time to stick the pie in a case w/heatsink plug into hdmi and peripherals write the retropie image to an sd card boot the thing up and configure it.... (it's mostly configured just out of the package not including getting roms copied to it) it does all of the nintendos up to n64 very well along with the older stuff atari, mame, celecovision, etc... (if you have a lot of roms you may also want to look into sselp/scraper on git hub)
    if you have trouble with sound from the hdmi... https://www.raspberrypi.org/do...

    It also runs good with raspbian, it would easily make a good little general purpose computer for checking email, facebook, streaming video or music. OSMC works good on the pie 3b and is a snap to configure also.

    I can't wait for the next version.... I hope it has more ram.

  30. Slashdotted by Dark$ide · · Score: 0 · on Raspberry Pi's Linux-Based PIXEL Desktop Now Available For PC and Mac (betanews.com)

    Oh shit, this means https://raspberrypi.org/ is going to get Slashdotted. I hope their ISP has got some spare capacity ready for the deluge.

  31. Re:Okay... by Yvan256 · · Score: 1 · on A $5 Tool Called PoisonTap Can Hack Your Locked Computer In One Minute (vice.com)

    The Raspberry Pi zero dimensions are 65 x 30 x 4.5mm

  32. Best selling computer? by Yenya · · Score: 5, Interesting · on Commodore C64 Survives Over 25 Years Balancing Drive Shafts In Auto Repair Shop (hothardware.com)

    I highly doubt C64 is the best-selling computer of all time. Wikipedia estimates 10M-17M C64s were sold. It of course depends on what is a computer: for example, many smartphones have CPU(s), memory, storage, and even display. According to this page, in 2011 Apple sold 72M iPhones: https://www.statista.com/stati... . Also, 10M Raspberry Pi computers were sold till 2016: https://www.raspberrypi.org/bl.... I guess Arduinos have similar numbers, but they are hard to track because of clones.

  33. Who owns our phones? by aprentic · · Score: 4, Insightful · on Edward Snowden's New Research Aims To Keep Smartphones From Betraying Their Owners (theintercept.com)

    The difficulty seems to be that they're trying to hack privacy onto phones that are not really designed for it.
    The vast majority of phones seem to be designed around the idea of apps, particularly social apps.
    The hardware on these phones are typically black boxes and the software is designed in the interests of the vendors.

    It's not difficult to make your computer private. You can build it from component pieces and put an open source OS on it.
    In contrast, I've found a little information on building your own phone.
    https://www.raspberrypi.org/bl...
    That's the best I could find and it's a long way from being a practical phone.
    For starters I can't find any CDMA circuit boards so you can't use it with Verizon. As bad as they are they have the best network in the US.

    But ultimately being able to really own our phones is the only way to insure privacy on them.

  34. CM or A+ version first ? by Cochonou · · Score: 1 · on A Smaller Version of Raspberry Pi 3 Is Coming Soon (pcworld.com)

    The fundation already announced they were also intending to produce a A+ version of the Rapberry Pi 3 (smaller form factor, no ethernet port, only one USB port). I wonder what will be out first, the Compute Module or the A+ version. In any case, this shows they want to standardise on the Pi 3 platform, by producing all the variants that were only available with the Pi 1 SoC up to now.

  35. Re:Where is the 64-bit kernel? by KiloByte · · Score: 1 · on Raspbian Linux OS Gets Major Update, Adds Bluetooth Support to Pi 3 (betanews.com)

    Only experimental ones, but here.

  36. Say whaaaaat??!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative · on Raspbian Linux OS Gets Major Update, Adds Bluetooth Support to Pi 3 (betanews.com)

    Raspberry Pi 3 can't get updates, LOL. The story is about Raspbian, the Debian-based OS for Raspberry Pi. Here's the official announcement https://www.raspberrypi.org/bl... from where betanews "borrowed" the images and text in the exact same format :/ Note to the editor: if you want to write something, at least make it a little bit different than the official post.

  37. First non-Amazon device was a Raspberry Pi. by strredwolf · · Score: 1 · on Amazon Beats Microsoft In 'The Battle of Seattle' (usatoday.com)

    Too late on the "Echo on a non-Amazon device": Amazon Echo DIY with a Raspberry Pi

  38. No, not the only thing to criticize - RAM lack of by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 1 · on Raspberry Pi 3 Brings Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (i-programmer.info)

    > About the only thing you could criticize in the current line up of Raspberry Pi single board computers is the fact that you have to add a WiFi or Bluetooth dongle

    I don't give a rats ass about WiFi.

    I just want quadcore cpu + 4 GB RAM onboard < $50. I've seen devices north of $125 but nothing for a cheap "cluster" with 4GB RAM.

    What's the point of having a quadcore when you only have 1 GB RAM -- which is split amongst each core. That is only 255 MB / core; not useful for my applications.

    * https://www.raspberrypi.org/he...

    The Pi 2 shares many specs with the Pi 1 B+, but it uses a 900MHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 CPU and has 1GB RAM

  39. Re:Power grab by the big boys by drinkypoo · · Score: 2 · on Microsoft, Intel, Samsung, Other Tech Companies Form New IoT Alliance (techtimes.com)

    Raspberry Pi : a small computer with ethernet and no features to justify it's IoT name, not even it's size.

    Pi Zero is small enough to do most IoT jobs, but there are actually lots of larger IoT jobs where there's lots of room for something like Pi, like major appliances.

    Arduino LLC: An out of the box microcontroller development board which comes with no software at all (kind of the important part of IoT)

    Sigh. What it comes with doesn't matter if you can trivially download what you need. The libraries for the communications hardware available provide for their function. On the other hand, much of that hardware is a microcontroller in its own right, like say ESP8266 which is commonly used simply as a WiFi adapter for Arduino. Unless you need all the I/O of the Arduino, it's better just to use the ESP.

    ARM Holdings: Microcontroller manufacturer who has no hardware IoT devices.

    If R-Pi isn't IoT, nor is Intel. But they both are. ARM is relevant because their cores will be used far and wide, and maybe they should be involved in talks on security.

  40. Re:Can it boot without a blob yet? by bstrobl · · Score: 5, Informative · on Raspberry Pi's Raspbian OS Finally Ships With Open-Source OpenGL Support (phoronix.com)

    An open source blob would mean losing all access to hardware accelerated codecs as well as certain specific features in the power management area. This means it currently has only a very low development priority as most users will not want to give up the additional functionality. https://www.raspberrypi.org/fo...

  41. the Schedules by Dave+Whiteside · · Score: 5, Informative · on Where Are the Raspberry Pi Zeros? (i-programmer.info)

    https://www.raspberrypi.org/fo...
    basically there are 2 re sellers in the UK and 2 in the US
    they get alternative deliveries

  42. Re:The older systems also had more ram and pci by Rob+Riggs · · Score: 1 · on $5 Raspberry Pi Zero Compared To Intel's NetBurst CPUs & Newer (phoronix.com)

    That's my biggest beef with it. It feels like a learning-computer to me, something for a student to use to study very specific aspects of system design. A physical counterpart to Minix. Yet it seems to be touted as something more capable than that.

    -- emphasis mine

    By whom? Certainly not by the Raspberry Pi Foundation. They describe it as a tiny and affordable computer for kids.

  43. Dunno about "recommend" but... by davidwr · · Score: 1 · on Hardware For a Cheap Linux Desktop (phoronix.com)

    ... there are a couple of under-$10 computers out there that fit on my desk.

    One isn't available yet and the other was available briefly but it sold out within $24 hours. Accessories^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^HSome essential items not included.

  44. Obligatory by davidwr · · Score: 1 · on Ask Slashdot: Buy Or Build a High End Gaming PC?

    A Beowulf cluster of these babies might work, and it's cheap, too!

    (no, I'm not being serious, not for a typical gaming rig anyway)

  45. Re:Like a Raspberry Pi, then? by omnichad · · Score: 1 · on InFocus's New Kangaroo: a Screenless $99 Windows 10 Portable PC (venturebeat.com)

    Forgot the link:
    https://www.raspberrypi.org/fo...

  46. Re:Technical stuff. Read if you want real info. by ras · · Score: 1 · on Ditch Linux For Windows 10 On Your Raspberry Pi With Microsoft's IoT Kit

    WinIoT is ... based on WinCE.

    WinCE?

    *shudder*

    Even Microsoft has dropped that basket case, when they moved WinPhone from CE to NT.

    Why anybody would use it when Microsoft is making Windows 10 available for free on the Pi 2 is beyond me.

  47. Re:You've got the important points. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Ask Slashdot: Cheapest Functional Computer For Students?

    The critical question for such a determination is:
    --Do you have anything else you can get get cheaply?
    This very much alters the outcome. Por ejemplo: Given the inexpensiveness of wide screen monitors, the old 17" are thick on the ground at a couple of my work places, used only by interns. If your middle class folk can get you a heap of them for near-free, then yes, the Raspberry Pi2 will work well and keyboards and older mice are found in the same filing cabinet drawers. The Pi2 addresses shortage of CPU that was painful in the previous versions. It's very usable.
    --Do you have shop class at a local school that can make you some cases?
    http://lifehacker.com/make-an-...
    --Are you looking for an amazing set of projects your kids can do?
    https://www.raspberrypi.org/ma...

    If you can't get the monitors cheap/free, then the Pi and even $80 worth of monitor have brought you into the Chromebook range.

    At that juncture you have to choose your poison. If you want consistent and easy to maintain, you'll need to purchase large batches of new chromebooks. If you have a little technical know how, you can pick them up in the $120's all day on ebay and as refurbs on woot.

    I guarantee that every single one of these families has an HD tv in their home. They can use that as a monitor.

  48. You've got the important points. by Art+Popp · · Score: 2 · on Ask Slashdot: Cheapest Functional Computer For Students?

    The critical question for such a determination is:
    --Do you have anything else you can get get cheaply?
    This very much alters the outcome. Por ejemplo: Given the inexpensiveness of wide screen monitors, the old 17" are thick on the ground at a couple of my work places, used only by interns. If your middle class folk can get you a heap of them for near-free, then yes, the Raspberry Pi2 will work well and keyboards and older mice are found in the same filing cabinet drawers. The Pi2 addresses shortage of CPU that was painful in the previous versions. It's very usable.
    --Do you have shop class at a local school that can make you some cases?
    http://lifehacker.com/make-an-...
    --Are you looking for an amazing set of projects your kids can do?
    https://www.raspberrypi.org/ma...

    If you can't get the monitors cheap/free, then the Pi and even $80 worth of monitor have brought you into the Chromebook range.

    At that juncture you have to choose your poison. If you want consistent and easy to maintain, you'll need to purchase large batches of new chromebooks. If you have a little technical know how, you can pick them up in the $120's all day on ebay and as refurbs on woot.

  49. Re:Needs a much lighter OS by jandrese · · Score: 2 · on 'My Name is C.H.I.P. and I'll Be Your $9 Computer Today' (Video)

    Nowadays you don't see nearly as much gain from overclocking. You still get 200Mhz, but that's only 10% more performance instead of 50%.

    Benchmarks. Note the memory score as well as the Integer and Floating point scores. Half of the speedup comes from the cpu crunching, and the other half comes from the memory and GPU.

    But you don't have to take my word for it. If you has Raspbian installed you can try it yourself in like 60 seconds. Just run raspi-config and go into the overclocking menu. You do have to reboot afterward, but that's pretty quick. You will probably be surprised at how noticeable the difference is, especially when working with memory hungry applications like Chromium.

  50. Re:Compute? COMPUTE?- WTF by viperidaenz · · Score: 1 · on Intel 'Compute Stick' PC-Over-HDMI Dongle Launched, Tested

    Intel wasn't the first on the "Compute" bandwagon
    https://www.raspberrypi.org/ra...