Electronics Prototyping Plate Kit Board For Raspberry Pi Coming Soon

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Electronics Prototyping Plate Kit Board For Raspberry Pi Coming Soon

Posted by samzenpus on Sunday April 29, 2012 @02:10AM from the if-you-build-it-they-will-prototype dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Outside of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, it seems work is being done to support the tiny PC with add-ons. One of the companies set to launch such a product is Adafruit, which has just announced an electronics plate kit for the device. The kit is currently in the prototype stages, but once released Adafruit is hoping to encourage people to use the board to prototype electronic circuits and create some embedded computer projects. It's certainly an idea that will excite those coming to the Raspberry Pi who have experience with Arduino."

74 comments

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Where's the Camera support? by JoeMerchant · 2012-04-29 02:22 · Score: 4, Interesting

O.K. - this is a selfish request for info I'm too lazy to look up for myself...
What's the ETA and source for direct connect digital camera support? I know there's USB support through the standard Linux stack, but there's that tantalizing little camera port on the Pi that gets mentioned every so often.
Will it support multiple cameras?
Will it support higher bandwidth than USB?
Will it have any decent general purpose driver support?
Is it just a phantom port like the one on the Beagle/Panda boards where there's not actually any camera on the market that connects to it?
My future four-eyed autonomous rover wants to know!
1. Re:Where's the Camera support? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-29 03:09 · Score: 0
  
  You can buy cameras for the BeagleBoard, from leopard imaging, however, they aren't trivial to get working.
2. Re:Where's the Camera support? by stereoroid · 2012-04-29 03:51 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  You can attach just about anything to the I2C & data busses - ADCs, DACs, controllers ... and cameras. Search for "I2C camera" for examples,
  
  --
  (this is not a .sig)
3. Re:Where's the Camera support? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-29 04:18 · Score: 0
  
  Given the way he framed the question, I don't think he's ready to deal with any of that.
4. Re:Where's the Camera support? by stereoroid · 2012-04-29 05:06 · Score: 1
  
  Then why bother getting a Raspberry Pi at all, if you aren't going to try anything even slightly unusual?
  
  --
  (this is not a .sig)
5. Re:Where's the Camera support? by Nyder · 2012-04-29 05:12 · Score: 0
  
  O.K. - this is a selfish request for info I'm too lazy to look up for myself...
  What's the ETA and source for direct connect digital camera support? I know there's USB support through the standard Linux stack, but there's that tantalizing little camera port on the Pi that gets mentioned every so often.
  Will it support multiple cameras?
  Will it support higher bandwidth than USB?
  Will it have any decent general purpose driver support?
  Is it just a phantom port like the one on the Beagle/Panda boards where there's not actually any camera on the market that connects to it?
  My future four-eyed autonomous rover wants to know!
  It will have all that when you stop being lazy and start programming it.
  fucking slackers.
  
  --
  Be seeing you...
6. Re:Where's the Camera support? by QuantumLeaper · 2012-04-29 05:26 · Score: 1
  
  I guess it would help if I had one, still waiting on mine...
7. Re:Where's the Camera support? by JoeMerchant · 2012-04-29 06:21 · Score: 1
  
  Ordered mine on "release day"... still waiting for delivery. Not much in the mood to do research for a piece of (presently, from my perspective) vapourware. Perhaps a lucky person who can actually work with the things already has the answer.
8. Re:Where's the Camera support? by JoeMerchant · 2012-04-29 06:23 · Score: 1
  
  I'm looking for a packaged camera and driver solution... several will likely exist within the next year, I derive no joy from rolling my own - in this aspect, I'm looking to be a user instead of a developer.
9. Re:Where's the Camera support? by psergiu · 2012-04-29 08:17 · Score: 2
  
  > What's the ETA and source for direct connect digital camera support? I know there's USB support through the standard Linux stack, but there's that tantalizing little camera port on the Pi that gets mentioned every so often.
  Summer-Fall 2012, after production of Models A, B & cases are in full swing (according to the Foundation)
  > Will it support multiple cameras?
  AFAIK only one.
  > Will it support higher bandwidth than USB?
  5 or 8 Mpixel camera module, 1080p recording.
  > Will it have any decent general purpose driver support?
  Yes, as soon as someone from Broadcom writes-it (the camera interface is handled by the GPU)
  > Is it just a phantom port like the one on the Beagle/Panda boards where there's not actually any camera on the market that connects to it?
  You can already plug certain cameras from Sony or Nokia phones in there. But there's no driver yet. Details on the RPi forums.
  
  --
  1% APY, No fees, Online Bank https://captl1.co/2uIErYq Don't let your $$$ sit in a no-interest acct.
10. Re:Where's the Camera support? by JoeMerchant · 2012-04-29 08:23 · Score: 1
  
  Cool, thanks for the summary. I've seen a couple of things on the RPi forums in the past, but nothing definitive.
11. Re:Where's the Camera support? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-29 15:37 · Score: 0
  
  So, the goal is to get higher bandwidth than USB and your suggestion is I2C, which is several thousand times slower? Don't quit your day job.
12. Re:Where's the Camera support? by tlhIngan · 2012-04-29 17:21 · Score: 1
  
  O.K. - this is a selfish request for info I'm too lazy to look up for myself...
  What's the ETA and source for direct connect digital camera support? I know there's USB support through the standard Linux stack, but there's that tantalizing little camera port on the Pi that gets mentioned every so often.
  Will it support multiple cameras?
  Will it support higher bandwidth than USB?
  Will it have any decent general purpose driver support?
  Is it just a phantom port like the one on the Beagle/Panda boards where there's not actually any camera on the market that connects to it?
  My future four-eyed autonomous rover wants to know!
  Don't get too excited. It's a standard camera *module* port. Something you'd connect those itty-bitty camera sensors to that you find in cellphones and the like.
  Yes, it's higher bandwidth, and you need to use I2C to control the camera and maybe autofocus module (if you use it for your lens).
  Other than that, that's all it is. You're not gonna hook your dSLR to it as that's not what it's for (nor do any regular "good cameras" have such a port). It's a plain ol' camera sensor port from the like of Omnivision and like.
13. Re:Where's the Camera support? by rdnetto · 2012-05-04 20:08 · Score: 1
  
  From memory, there are plenty of GPIO pins for use by extensions - those could easily be used for whatever interface you wanted, and since they're literally direct lines to the CPU you're not getting better speed than that.
  
  --
  Most human behaviour can be explained in terms of identity.
And still no mounting holes by niftydude · 2012-04-29 02:35 · Score: 4, Insightful

It's a pretty annoying oversight that the rpi board doesn't have any holes for mounting screws, so you'd hope that an add-on plate like this might correct that oversight.

But nope.

--
You can never know everything, and part of what you do know will always be wrong. Perhaps even the most important part.
1. Re:And still no mounting holes by JoeMerchant · 2012-04-29 02:41 · Score: 1
  
  Perhaps in the future they can spin a larger board (at a ~$5 premium) that includes mounting holes? No re-design required apart from repaneling. Of course, they have connectors coming off from every side, so the mounting holes are going to be making connectors sink in from the edges....
  I'm sure it was a decision for smaller cheaper boards, not an oversight. (smaller boards == more boards per panel == cheaper)
2. Re:And still no mounting holes by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-29 03:02 · Score: 1
  
  Can't it just clip into a plastic case? Thereby reducing the wasted space on the board for screws.
3. Re:And still no mounting holes by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-29 04:03 · Score: 1
  
  Easily solved with a small drill bit and itsy-bitsy bolts. This is a DIY product after all.
4. Re:And still no mounting holes by niftydude · 2012-04-29 04:11 · Score: 3
  
  Easily solved with a small drill bit and itsy-bitsy bolts. This is a DIY product after all.
  It's a six layer board. Pretty hard to find a safe place to drill without X-ray vision.
  
  --
  You can never know everything, and part of what you do know will always be wrong. Perhaps even the most important part.
5. Re:And still no mounting holes by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-29 04:40 · Score: 0
  
  So instead of simply screwing your $35 computer into a $4 project case or fixing it inside whatever thing it's embedded in, you have to 3D print something special at significantly greater cost than the computer itself or hope that someone else is mass producing a case that fits your needs.
6. Re:And still no mounting holes by trjonescp · 2012-04-29 07:24 · Score: 2
  
  It wasn't an oversight - it was a design decision to meet their price target. Mounting holes take up a surprising amount of PCB routing real estate (and through every single layer of the board) and PCB real estate costs money. That's just how budget constrained this concept is.
  
  --
  Only speak when it improves the silence.
7. Re:And still no mounting holes by trjonescp · 2012-04-29 07:25 · Score: 1
  
  They actually have taken X-ray images of the board - I'm know they are floating around on the internet somewhere...
  
  --
  Only speak when it improves the silence.
8. Re:And still no mounting holes by psergiu · 2012-04-29 08:21 · Score: 1
  
  Official & unofficial cases will be produced which will held the board in place using slots or clips.
  The official recommendation for DIY mounting is: http://sugru.com/
  
  --
  1% APY, No fees, Online Bank https://captl1.co/2uIErYq Don't let your $$$ sit in a no-interest acct.
9. Re:And still no mounting holes by ThePeices · 2012-04-29 08:34 · Score: 1
  
  Real Engineers use duct tape.
10. Re:And still no mounting holes by gr8_phk · 2012-04-30 07:11 · Score: 1
  
  It's a pretty annoying oversight that the rpi board doesn't have any holes for mounting screws, so you'd hope that an add-on plate like this might correct that oversight.
  Yep Arduino has similar issues. While it has mounting holes, they didn't use proper keep-outs around them. One hole has a connector so close the threads of a screw would touch it - the screw head has no hope. Other holes have parts too close, but not as bad. All the holes are too close to the edge of the board. Also, the LEDs are in the middle, so they are not visible with shields attached. This is inexcusable for Arduino where there is ample unused board space. Other issues too, but I digress. The PI apparently suffers from the same lack of consideration.
  
  That said, I do look forward to the day someone gets this concept right.
Slashvertisement at its best by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-29 02:48 · Score: 1, Insightful

Seriously, why the hell is there so much shit on /. about the Rasberry Pi? It's like this is their personal advertisement space already.
1. Re:Slashvertisement at its best by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-29 02:56 · Score: 1, Insightful
  
  So you enjoy paying hundreds of dollars to big corporations for every little gadget you want, padding their profit margins and encouraging the slave farms in third world countries where they manufacture them? RPi is a symbol that this shit isn't rocket science and within the ability of many people to do things for themselves for about the cost of you and someone else having a meal and drinks at Buffalo Wild Wings. You don't think that's worthy of discussion?
2. Re:Slashvertisement at its best by TheRaven64 · 2012-04-29 04:25 · Score: 2
  
  Yes, get this geeky crap of Slashdot, we want more stories about Ron Paul and the TSA!
  
  --
  I am TheRaven on Soylent News
3. Re:Slashvertisement at its best by AngryDill · 2012-04-29 04:57 · Score: 0, Troll
  
  I don't know, but the maker's pro-DRM, anti-fair use public position has destroyed any goodwill this particular FOSS-enthusiast once held for their product.
  
  --
  
  I'm Erwin Schrodinger and I approve of this message, and I do not approve of this message!
4. Re:Slashvertisement at its best by CrankyFool · 2012-04-29 05:04 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  You know that the RPi is also manufactured in a third world country, likely in what looks like the other "slave farms" which manufacture electronics, right? They abandoned plans to produce it in the UK.
5. Re:Slashvertisement at its best by gl4ss · 2012-04-29 05:37 · Score: 2
  
  So you enjoy paying hundreds of dollars to big corporations for every little gadget you want, padding their profit margins and encouraging the slave farms in third world countries where they manufacture them? RPi is a symbol that this shit isn't rocket science and within the ability of many people to do things for themselves for about the cost of you and someone else having a meal and drinks at Buffalo Wild Wings. You don't think that's worthy of discussion?
  RPi would be a symbol of that if it essentially wasn't "hey we get these socs from here and have this another company do the boards and assemble them and then these bunch of other companies to sell the thing".
  and isn't this a dupe anyways? I'm pretty sure I saw this adafruit post already(and there's another similar breakout board product going on somewhere else).
  
  --
  world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
6. Re:Slashvertisement at its best by psergiu · 2012-04-29 08:24 · Score: 0
  
  Care to tell us more ? Or you're just a one-line troll ?
  
  --
  1% APY, No fees, Online Bank https://captl1.co/2uIErYq Don't let your $$$ sit in a no-interest acct.
7. Re:Slashvertisement at its best by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-29 08:36 · Score: 0
  
  "Seriously, why the hell is there so much shit on /. about the Rasberry Pi? It's like this is their personal advertisement space already."
  Because this is supposed to be News for Nerds, stuff that matters. And this is stuff that matters, so quit your whiney mewling sounds and harden up.
8. Re:Slashvertisement at its best by ThePeices · 2012-04-29 08:40 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  Hes a troll.
  The Pi board design schematic and PCB layout are all there for the world to see. Theres it nothing new, special or novel about the design itself, its all off the shelf components.
  He *may* be bitching about the broadcom SoC that has some documentation that is not available without signing an NDA ( like the GPU ), but its not a real biggie. Take the issue up with Broadcom, not RPi.
9. Re:Slashvertisement at its best by AngryDill · 2012-04-29 15:35 · Score: 1
  
  Certainly! If you don't recall reading about it earlier here on Slashdot, David Braben has come out publicly against the rights of consumers to resell their used games. You can read it here.
  And here is his rant against people hacking their own property.
  His choice to use GNU/Linux as a kernel in his product notwithstanding, this man is no friend to those of us who value digital freedoms.
  
  --
  
  I'm Erwin Schrodinger and I approve of this message, and I do not approve of this message!
10. Re:Slashvertisement at its best by psergiu · 2012-04-29 18:53 · Score: 1
  
  I understand the man's position given that all the copies of Elite i and my friends played over the years on diferent platforms were pirated and has not seen a dime from us for his work. I don't think anyone in Easter Europe has ever paid for Elite.
  Don't confuse digital freedoms with blatant piracy.
  
  --
  1% APY, No fees, Online Bank https://captl1.co/2uIErYq Don't let your $$$ sit in a no-interest acct.
11. Re:Slashvertisement at its best by L4t3r4lu5 · 2012-04-29 23:32 · Score: 1
  
  Yes, get this geeky crap of Slashdot, we want more stories about Ron Paul and the TSA!
  How efficient would a beowulf cluster of RPis be at mining Bitcoin?
  
  --
  Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
12. Re:Slashvertisement at its best by AngryDill · 2012-04-30 02:05 · Score: 1
  
  I can appreciate your candor, and I understand his position too, but it goes well beyond piracy. He is opposed to the right consumers have to resell their property (games) on nothing other than the grounds that it is bad for his business. He is opposed to the rights of consumers to modify their own property (consoles) in order to play the content of their choice (which could be a home-brew game). He does not believe that the right to free speech extend to those who would disclose the workings of DRM systems.
  Yesy, piracy is wrong, and already illegal. Certainly though, you can see the distinction between just being opposed to piracy, and being opposed to other people's liberties because they might be bad for your business model.
  
  --
  
  I'm Erwin Schrodinger and I approve of this message, and I do not approve of this message!
13. Re:Slashvertisement at its best by AngryDill · 2012-04-30 02:46 · Score: 1
  
  Nope, that was not a troll. I was referring to Braben's very public rants about how people should not be allowed to mod their game consoles, nor have protected free speech when the topic is DRM techniques, nor even be allowed to resell their used games; simply on the grounds that they might threaten his industry's business model. As a developer, I respect Braben's work (Elite was awesome and well ahead of it's time), but I oppose his viewpoints just as I oppose the MPAA/RIAA/BSA and their ilk, and I don't want to further fund his agenda.
  
  --
  
  I'm Erwin Schrodinger and I approve of this message, and I do not approve of this message!
14. Re:Slashvertisement at its best by rthille · 2012-04-30 07:41 · Score: 1
  
  Well, since we can't get low-level docs on the GPU from Broadcom, not very.
  
  --
  Awesome furniture, accessories and cabinetry in Santa Rosa, CA: http://humanity-home.com/
It would be nice.. by mseeger · 2012-04-29 02:49 · Score: 2

It would be nice being able to purchase a Raspberry Pi instead of only "registering your interest".
I hate seeing a product hyped in the media, when it is not available. The Raspberry Pi has the potential of being a game changer. Until now, it's only press announcements from my POV.
1. Re:It would be nice.. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-29 03:08 · Score: 1
  
  I've got one on order, delivery date is 7th May for me. Loads of people have them already, it's just they're already sold out and as soon as the resellers get them in they're being shipped straight back out.
  I registered with Farnell *and* RS on day one. Only Farnell actually let me put down a pre-order on day one, RS was, and still is, just "registering interest".
2. Re:It would be nice.. by aheadinabox · 2012-04-29 03:31 · Score: 1
  
  Hear hear!!! I've searched extensively, hoping mabbe some stock would turn up, but to no avail. Sure seems like a fun dream ,get back to us when there is some available.
3. Re:It would be nice.. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-29 03:45 · Score: 0
  
  Well, can't you buy a 3D printer and print your own Pi? I mean, the technology is so far ahead now that there are 92 cartridges on a 3D printer, one per element, and it can position matter atom by atom, all on a desk in a living room with no stable platform and no air filtering required.
4. Re:It would be nice.. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-29 04:31 · Score: 1
  
  700 people (As RS electronics said in their mail) is not loads. If that's loads, then Linux had "loads" of users in 1991.
5. Re:It would be nice.. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-29 04:36 · Score: 0
  
  The first run was 10,000 units but about 100,000 people want them now. They will be backed up through the summer... Plenty of BeagleBones available! Just pay twice as much and you can have a BB on Tuesday, unless you need video.
6. Re:It would be nice.. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-29 04:45 · Score: 1
  
  RS only took 700 orders because they only had 700 boards.
  Farnell took every order that came in, even if they couldn't ship, and has reported around 100k will ship by the end of June with another 100k shipping by the end of July.
7. Re:It would be nice.. by psergiu · 2012-04-29 08:29 · Score: 2
  
  If you were too lazy to face the DDoS on February 29, you have to wait. It took me one hour of refreshing, swearing and entering my address & CC number again & again in that morning but i managed to order one. I will receive-it next week.
  Shame you got such a low UID and no RPi ... :-)
  
  --
  1% APY, No fees, Online Bank https://captl1.co/2uIErYq Don't let your $$$ sit in a no-interest acct.
8. Re:It would be nice.. by mseeger · 2012-04-29 08:34 · Score: 2
  
  Thanks for the encouragement pal ;-).
  Availibility means for me "With Amazon Prime in my home the next day" and not "Line up with 500 people through the night to have a shot at one of 10 pieces" or "Pressing 2.500 times F5".
  I don't buy thinks for their rarity but to use them ;-).
  On the count of being lazy: guilty as charged your honor.
9. Re:It would be nice.. by KenSeymour · 2012-04-29 08:34 · Score: 1
  
  I ordered one from element 14 / Newark here in the US. Judging from the forum, production is ramping up and I wanted to get in line because interest is also
  ramping up.
  It was back ordered, of course, but I should have a delivery date in a week or two.
  It was cheap enough, I could risk waiting until September if that's how long it takes to get to the front of the line.
  
  --
  "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." -- Albert Einstein
New Slashdot - where 'users' do the editors' jobs by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-29 02:55 · Score: 0

Arduino
Lazy bastards.
LCD, serial ports, WiFi, a case by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-29 03:56 · Score: 1

I was looking yesterday if some company expanding a little on Raspberry Pi. Add LCD, serial ports, connection for WiFi boards and you are on par with many dev boards and SBCs that are sold for hundreds of $$. Put it in a case that leaves room inside for Z-Wave or Zigbee radio boards and you got a product. Anybody saw things like that?
If it's not based off Raspberry this is fine too. Cisco built gateways http://www.wirelessgoodness.com/tag/tes301/ but I didn't see pricing or any venues to buy these. Any suggestions for something similar?
Still at the prototype Stage? by DrogMan · 2012-04-29 04:09 · Score: 4, Informative

They're a bit late then. There are already several kits out there - both breadboard and protoboard with solder holes in them. Get with the times!
Try this: http://shop.ciseco.co.uk/slice-of-pi/
Or this: http://www.skpang.co.uk/catalog/raspberry-pi-cover-with-breadboard-area-red-p-1071.html
etc. I currently have the SKPang one for my Pi.
1. Re:Still at the prototype Stage? by samwichse · 2012-04-29 13:49 · Score: 1
  
  I don't know about those other shops, but any kit I've gotten from adafruit has been top-shelf with good examples/docs, etc.
  Just look at all those nice terminal blocks for I/O.
Oh wow by Osgeld · 2012-04-29 06:23 · Score: 2

you made a perfboard
1. Re:Oh wow by JohnBailey · 2012-04-29 08:18 · Score: 1
  
  you made a perfboard
  Well someone has to.
  You do understand such things to do not magically appear in shops.. Right?
  
  --
  It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it.
2. Re:Oh wow by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-29 08:44 · Score: 0
  
  Oh wow, you made an obnoxious snarky smartass comment meant to show the world how wonderfully intelligent you are for recognising what perfboard looks like.
  Moron.
3. Re:Oh wow by Osgeld · 2012-04-29 11:20 · Score: 1
  
  yea, but they usually dont call it a
  "Electronics Prototyping Plate Kit"
4. Re:Oh wow by Osgeld · 2012-04-30 16:14 · Score: 1
  
  oh wow it was almost as easy as laying out a grid and sending it to china
  oh wow it was almost as tateless as calling someone a moron while hiding behind AC, you ballless twit
Raspberry Pi is mainly a campaign... by itsdapead · 2012-04-29 08:02 · Score: 3, Informative

I was looking yesterday if some company expanding a little on Raspberry Pi. Add LCD, serial ports, connection for WiFi boards and you are on par with many dev boards and SBCs that are sold for hundreds of $$.
...except that will start pushing up the price, which is the Pi's way of grabbing attention.
Let's face it, there is nothing particularly revolutionary, hardware-wise, about the Pi. The important thing is that its so cheap that people will buy it first, and find out what it can do for them later. This is harking back to the days when the British PC market was dominated by British-designed machines like the BBC Model B - which the Pi makers invoke - and the Sinclair Spectrum/ZX81 which are actually more obviously relevant to the Pi because they were incredibly cheap. Actually, the BBC Micro was also incredibly cheap compared with the (inflated) UK price of an Apple II (the sensible comparison - the BBC ended up occupying the same niche in the UK that the Apple II did in the US), but it wasn't as affordable as the ZXs.
A more realistic way of teaching kids to program is to use Scratch, Python or (insert language of choice) on a regular desktop or a tablet - sandboxing it as a web app or a virtual machine if you worry about kids "breaking" things. You have to provide PSU, monitor, keyboard mouse, network to use a Pi, and there are other reasons for getting regular PCs or tablets onto kid's desks. However, if the Pi can generate interest by appealing to the ZX81 spirit then what's not to like?
The fly in the ointment is that its simply not economical to actually make the things in the UK.

--
In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
1. Re:Raspberry Pi is mainly a campaign... by psergiu · 2012-04-29 08:40 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  > A more realistic way of teaching kids to program is to use Scratch, Python or (insert language of choice) on a regular desktop or a tablet - sandboxing it as a web app or a virtual machine if you worry about kids "breaking" things.
  99% of the parents owning a PC would not be able to do this for their kid. Even if they did, there's nothing preventing the kid to delete daddy's documents or install a trojan from some flash games site.
  A RPi is bulled-proof. The kid messed up ? Reflash the SD card using a card reader and a one-click application (which is being developed by the people on the RPi forums).
  
  --
  1% APY, No fees, Online Bank https://captl1.co/2uIErYq Don't let your $$$ sit in a no-interest acct.
2. Re:Raspberry Pi is mainly a campaign... by itsdapead · 2012-04-29 11:17 · Score: 1
  
  99% of the parents owning a PC would not be able to do this for their kid.
  99% of kids who are motivated to learn programming at home could show their parents exactly what to do.
  Scratch is cloud-based: just make sure that your net-nanny software lets junior to get at the Scratch website. If kids can get at Facebook, Wikipedia or their school intranet, they can get at Scratch (or any cloud-based programming environment anybody wants to set up).
  A "Virtual Pi" system would be as simple as (1) install VirtualBox, (2) install a "virtual appliance" containing an x86 version of the Pi image - if that isn't easy enough someone could bundle up the free version of VirtualBox and the image in a one-click installer.
  
  --
  In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
3. Re:Raspberry Pi is mainly a campaign... by psergiu · 2012-04-29 20:57 · Score: 1
  
  You seem to be a techie who never had to deal with NORMAL PEOPLE - the 99% - who count being able to log into Yahoo webmail & Facebook as major technical acomplishments.
  I'm a techie, i managed to teach my dad how to read emails, but for sending them, he still has to call me.
  And you're talking about VirtualBox.
  Also, most of the kids today have NO IDEA that a computer can be programmed to do your bidding and do more that web, boring office stuff & games and there's no one to tell them this.
  
  --
  1% APY, No fees, Online Bank https://captl1.co/2uIErYq Don't let your $$$ sit in a no-interest acct.
4. Re:Raspberry Pi is mainly a campaign... by tlhIngan · 2012-04-30 03:29 · Score: 1
  
  Also, most of the kids today have NO IDEA that a computer can be programmed to do your bidding and do more that web, boring office stuff & games and there's no one to tell them this.
  And how many kids CARE that they can make computers do more? We tech geeks love to think that the public must love computers when they're buying it up by the truckload, but the reality is a computer is something required in day-to-day life. They don't care how it works, what makes it work, etc.
  Take say, a mechanic - he fixes your car, and uses computers to help diagnose what's wrong and to figure out what else needs to be done (work order) and filling in the proper field in the billing app so you get billed properly. You'd be pretty upset if he needed to recompile the kernel on his PC because the diagnostic tool doesn't work anymore (and no, that stuff is NOT free, if you're the unlucky sap, you get billed the hours). But more normally, he'd just expect these systems to Just Work(tm), and would be extremely upset if a change to one of the systems makes him have to learn a new system and be inefficient at the same time. (Eliminating redundancies is good, so he'll be happier if he only has to enter information once, but changing stuff like which screens to enter stuff in and such can be like pulling teeth).
  At best, he doesn't care how it works. If he's inclined he might try to see if there's a way to automate some of his work so he doesn't have to click 100 times to do one stupid thing. If it breaks, he calls in his supervisor and gets him to deal with it.
  It's just like everything else in life - those that are interested will learn, those that don't, won't and forcing them just makes matters worse. Modern society has achieved the progress it has because we've left concerns by the wayside - since everyone doesn't have to be a hunter-gatherer anymore to survive, or have to pump water from a creek, etc., to even rocket scientists not having to worry about fixing their broken PC.
5. Re:Raspberry Pi is mainly a campaign... by hackula · 2012-04-30 03:37 · Score: 1
  
  Last time I checked (volunteered teaching kids to program last year), Scratch was not cloud based. There is a website that has some featured programs, but the platform runs on a local machine with local files and all.
6. Re:Raspberry Pi is mainly a campaign... by itsdapead · 2012-04-30 10:26 · Score: 1
  
  You seem to be a techie who never had to deal with NORMAL PEOPLE - the 99% - who count being able to log into Yahoo webmail & Facebook as major technical acomplishments..
  I've certainly dealt with such people and know exactly how much hand-holding they need to to simple things. Yet somehow you're expecting people who can't log in to a website to re-flash a Raspberry Pi instead? If you can make that click-n-drool, you can produce an equally click-and-drool installer for a virtual machine. Most would run a mile as soon as they saw the current Pi and convince themselves that they'd wreck the TV by plugging it in.
  
  --
  In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
7. Re:Raspberry Pi is mainly a campaign... by itsdapead · 2012-04-30 10:35 · Score: 1
  
  Last time I checked (volunteered teaching kids to program last year), Scratch was not cloud based. There is a website that has some featured programs, but the platform runs on a local machine with local files and all.
  Sorry, you're right, I misremembered. Anyway, Scratch works fine on a regular PC, and its bizzare to argue that people who can't install (or trust their kids to install) an application can somehow set up (or trust their kids to set up) a bare board Linux computer.
  
  --
  In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
Get with the times... by xded · 2012-04-29 08:37 · Score: 2

... This is the era of marketing, not the era of innovation (e.g., people talking of Arduino instead of Atmel, Raspberry Pi instead of Broadcom, etc.)
Which one better? RP or Arduino ? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-29 13:19 · Score: 0

Which one ?
They should just have called it the "coming soon" by Rogerborg · 2012-04-29 20:38 · Score: 1

Because every story about it, ever, has used those words.

--
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Timelines by nilbog · 2012-05-01 04:41 · Score: 1

They'll probably be able to release this months before my Raspberry Pi finally ships!

--
or else!