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Google Gives 15,000 Raspberry Pis To UK Schools

Grench writes "Search giant Google is providing funding to the Raspberry Pi Foundation to give 15,000 new Raspberry Pi Model B computers to schools all around the United Kingdom. Google Giving's partnership with the Raspberry Pi Foundation is a significant investment in UK IT education; it is hoped this will help turn around the decline in UK schoolkids going on to study IT in colleges or universities. The Foundation said, 'CoderDojo, Code Club, Computing at Schools, Generating Genius, Teach First and OCR will each be helping us identify those kids, and will also be helping us work with them. ... Grants like this show us that companies like Google aren’t prepared to wait for government or someone else to fix the problems we’re all discussing, but want to help tackle them themselves.' 15,000 Model B units at $35 each would run $525,000."

159 comments

  1. Mmm .... Pi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    I like Pi

    1. Re:Mmm .... Pi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I guess its cheaper than paying taxes, if G paid their taxes the gov could give every kid a brand new laptop.

    2. Re:Mmm .... Pi by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 2

      I guess its cheaper than paying taxes, if G paid their taxes the gov could give every kid a brand new laptop.

      $500K is a lot cheaper than Google's tax liability, methinks.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    3. Re:Mmm .... Pi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Google does pay their taxes, so this is either a fractional or complete write-off against those tax liabilities. What everyone is pissed about is that Google, like every major company, knows how to not pay more than they're required to.

      Yes, that means someone actually has to change some tax law if they want more money from Google et al.

    4. Re:Mmm .... Pi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The R-Pi has reliability issues, especially with it's USB I/O and quirky power supply requirements. There's going to be a lot of frustrated school kids if they try to use the R-Pi for any length of time.

      A much more impressive gift would've been 15,000 Cubieboards.

    5. Re:Mmm .... Pi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Google pays assloads of taxes, they just pay them to the place they're incorporated in. Either change the laws or STFU, you wouldn't pay more taxes than you're required to, so why should they?

    6. Re:Mmm .... Pi by TheGoodNamesWereGone · · Score: 1

      Mod up

    7. Re:Mmm .... Pi by TheGoodNamesWereGone · · Score: 1

      I was thinking along the same lines. Kudos and attaboys to Google for doing this, but what this gift unintentionally did was cause the schools to need to buy I/O devices for those machines. Why not 15000 OLPCs, which are 'complete'?

    8. Re:Mmm .... Pi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I can't change the laws.

    9. Re:Mmm .... Pi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Pi's really aren't problematic. They're cheap enough and there's LOTS of people working with them. I don't think it's a problem.

    10. Re:Mmm .... Pi by Viceice · · Score: 2

      You're looking at it the wrong way. The device works, but like most things man made, it has shortcomings. Imagine the learning experience the kids will have in overcoming these limitations.

      What if the next version of the R-Pi contains a fix to these problems developed by a bunch of kids in one of those schools? Wouldn't that be cool?

      --
      Sometimes I wish I was a plumber, then I'd know how to deal with other people's shit.
    11. Re:Mmm .... Pi by julesh · · Score: 2

      I was thinking along the same lines. Kudos and attaboys to Google for doing this, but what this gift unintentionally did was cause the schools to need to buy I/O devices for those machines. Why not 15000 OLPCs, which are 'complete'?

      Because OLPCs have a different focus. OLPC is intended as a general purpose learning tool, while RPi is intended specifically to teach electronics & computer science. Presumably goolgle wanted the latter outcome rather than the former.

    12. Re:Mmm .... Pi by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 0

      social responsibility mean anything to you?

      guess not.

      GIMME MINE AND FARK YOU.

      yeah, I got your number.

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    13. Re:Mmm .... Pi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      1300 cubieboards have shipped so far. Good luck buying 15 never mind 15000 of those things.

    14. Re:Mmm .... Pi by joss · · Score: 2

      yes weebl, we know ... http://www.weebls-stuff.com/wab/pie/

      --
      http://rareformnewmedia.com/
    15. Re:Mmm .... Pi by Ginger+Unicorn · · Score: 1

      it's ok, you're allowed to say fuck on the internet

      --
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    16. Re:Mmm .... Pi by rephlex · · Score: 1

      Problematic is actually a good word to use to describe the Raspberry Pi. It certainly has problems, some of which will almost certainly go unsolved, e.g. its non-standard and woefully inadequate USB controller which can reasonably be characterised as being broken.

    17. Re:Mmm .... Pi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The pi is the perfect upgrade for someone running already deaply involved with hobbyist IT, But that might not make the raspberry platform the magical silver bullet to get kids hooked on actual computer science. there's just too many missing bits(it's way to easy to fry a pi while trying to hook it up to home made circuitry for example). and it does not rally function as a standalone unit.

      furthermore 15k might sound like a lot until you remember that there's about 3 million secondary school students in the UK, distributed among some 3000 schools, so were talking about maybe 5pi's pr school. We really should not let stunt's like this lull us into thinking that someone is actually doing anything real about IT education in the UK, where PC's are not exactly rare.

      If the it administrators running it for the schools decided to use their brain a little they could get better development environments in the hands of far more students with no up front fee at all through simply installing stuff like Virtualbox or qemu, and a bunch of IDE's on the PC's the school already got. I mean just about anyone who learned IT in the past did it without dedicated learning computers.

      It seams like a rather pointless stunt but as advertising goes it's fairly cheap for the good press Google is going to get with this move so i totally see why Google did it. And the stunt alone might raise some awareness that ICT education is not dependent on expensive equipment.

    18. Re:Mmm .... Pi by halfkoreanamerican · · Score: 1

      The government could waste that money on inefficiencies and heat as a result of spinning its wheels. At least the Raspberry Pi Organization has created something people want.

    19. Re:Mmm .... Pi by Muad'Dave · · Score: 1

      I think the majority of the problems were due to a bad batch. I ordered 5 last November and 3 were DOA (USB/network issues). The 3 Newark sent as replacements were good; good enough to play 1080p video streamed over the LAN with raspbmc and not reboot yet (months and counting).

      --
      Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
    20. Re:Mmm .... Pi by Githaron · · Score: 1

      You're looking at it the wrong way. The device works, but like most things man made, it has shortcomings. Imagine the learning experience the kids will have in overcoming these limitations.

      What if the next version of the R-Pi contains a fix to these problems developed by a bunch of kids in one of those schools? Wouldn't that be cool?

      It's not a bug. It's a feature!

      You are in marketing, aren't you?

    21. Re:Mmm .... Pi by rephlex · · Score: 2

      While there have been quality control problems recently which the Raspberry Pi Foundation has downplayed the USB issues are inherently a result of the notorious USB controller in the BCM2835 SoC that the Pi uses. They've actually just hired a Broadcom employee full-time now to address these problems after many months of complaints, see this thread: http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=30764&p=270951

      They are long overdue in taking this issue seriously but better late than never. Hopefully they'll have some success but I would be extremely surprised if the isochronous transfer problems are ever solved.

    22. Re:Mmm .... Pi by Viceice · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I consult on it. xD

      --
      Sometimes I wish I was a plumber, then I'd know how to deal with other people's shit.
  2. Kudos to Google for their geeky naivete by Just+Brew+It! · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I don't see this accomplishing much though. If they're given to teachers for classroom use, most of the teachers aren't going to know what the fuck to do with them, and they'll sit forgotten at the back of desk drawers and supply cabinets for 20 years. If they're given directly to students, we'll see a flood of 14,950 of 'em hitting eBay before you can say "Hey, cool -- these are actually worth real money!" and "I don't know what happened to it, the dog must've dragged it off and buried it!"

    1. Re:Kudos to Google for their geeky naivete by Charliemopps · · Score: 2, Interesting

      When I was in highschool, schools were filled with Macs. Worthless in the realworld, in the buisness world... you know, where you could actually get a job. My senior year physics teacher brought the first PC into the school. Then, those of us that knew PCs came out of the woodwork. The entire school was converted to PC's in less than 2 years.

      If even 5% of these make it into the hands of students that give a shit, it's going to make a world of difference in their lives. In my graduating class of 400, I'd guess than 3 or 4 of us knew shit about a computer. That's less than 1% and my generation created what we now call the internet. All of us with our own small parts. That's was going on here... giving people the opportunity to be a small part of something much bigger. What will come after the internet? I don't know... but it wont get created by people with iPhones and Windows Metro. You've got to give them the tools, and let them loose.

    2. Re:Kudos to Google for their geeky naivete by Just+Brew+It! · · Score: 1

      I sincerely hope I am proven wrong, and that those 50 that don't end up on eBay do make a difference.

    3. Re:Kudos to Google for their geeky naivete by nadaou · · Score: 1

      man, you people are all so negative an synical. it's like.. a bummer

      --
      ~.~
      I'm a peripheral visionary.
    4. Re:Kudos to Google for their geeky naivete by Just+Brew+It! · · Score: 1

      Seeing the state of public education in the US first-hand will do that to you. Is the UK any better?

    5. Re:Kudos to Google for their geeky naivete by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Whining about Macs

      Are you serious you fucking tard? Back then the whole publishing industry was using Mac not to mention post-production studios. Other than that everything was UNIX. I guess you were expecting to get a job with your l33t Doom skillz?

    6. Re:Kudos to Google for their geeky naivete by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      From the Raspberry Pi website

      We’re going to be working with Google and six UK educational partners to find the kids who we think will benefit from having their very own Raspberry Pi. CoderDojo, Code Club, Computing at Schools, Generating Genius, Teach First and OCR will each be helping us identify those kids, and will also be helping us work with them. You’ll already have seen the Raspberry Pi teaching materials from Computing at Schools; OCR will also be creating 15,000 free teaching and learning packs to go with the Raspberry Pis

    7. Re:Kudos to Google for their geeky naivete by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Publishing was a lucky mistake. By the time QuarkXPress made it to Windows and was superior to the Apple version all Graphic designers were belong to a disfunctional computer company.

    8. Re:Kudos to Google for their geeky naivete by hawkinspeter · · Score: 1

      It must be as we know to put 'u' in colour, honour etc. You lot can't even spell 'aluminium' correctly.

      --
      You're a temporary arrangement of matter sliding towards oblivion in a cold, uncaring universe
    9. Re:Kudos to Google for their geeky naivete by ais523 · · Score: 1

      Yes, but not by as much as you'd like, and it's been getting slowly worse over time for a while now.

      The government - whichever party is in charge - has attempted to attribute the steady increase in grades to students being better-taught / cleverer, but are failing to hide the main causes of that, which are that the courses are being simplified and the grade boundaries adjusted so that you get higher grades for the same quality of work from the students. Most of this is subjective, but as an objective example, the year after I completed my Mathematics A-level (exam taken at approximately 18 years old, and the usual qualification used to obtain entrance to university), they pretty much directly removed 1/6 of the syllabus. (Precisely what happened: you had to take 6 exams, 3 of which were compulsory and 3 of which you could choose from a set. They changed the course to have 4 compulsory exams, which together covered the same material as the previous 3 compulsory exams, and requiring the choice of 2 of the optional exams. This lets you drop one of the optional exams, reducing the syllabus you have to cover, while still getting the same qualification.)

      --
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    10. Re:Kudos to Google for their geeky naivete by old+man+moss · · Score: 1

      Maybe you only have experience of bad teachers. At my son's school the teachers are very knowledgeable on technology; and I am often surprised at the detail they go into at even young ages. I'm sure they would love to get their hands on some more equipment and RPis seem like a brilliant tool for learning.

      --
      rt
    11. Re:Kudos to Google for their geeky naivete by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fair comment, but most of us know how old the planet is...

    12. Re:Kudos to Google for their geeky naivete by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In addition to the hardware, the Raspberry Pi foundation has been working with educators, industry experts, and others on having documentation, coursework, and other resources available to teachers. It's been a community sourced project since before the actual hardware was launched. So while your concerns are well met, it is something that was taken into consideration long ago. If you would like to help contribute, head on over to the forums on the official site and dive right in.

    13. Re:Kudos to Google for their geeky naivete by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Perhaps you don't remember the BBC Micro. Most of the teachers didn't really know how to use it, but it was a fantastic tool for students willing to learn. You turned it on and started programming. It had lots of I/O for connecting stuff. Lots of supporting material for teachers and students. Lots of companies producing compatible hardware, complete with documentation on how to operate it.

      That's the point of the Pi. It isn't for everyone, but if some students are interested in, say, controlling a robot or doing some graphics programming they can. No need to buy Visual Studio or learn complex APIs, they can use BASIC or another simple language. There are tutorials to follow, example projects to try. The hardware is fixed so there are no compatibility issues, and crucially it is simple enough to actually fully understand. Sure, you can get a robot arm for your desktop PC, but it will be USB only and a sealed box that you use a DLL to control.

      --
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      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    14. Re:Kudos to Google for their geeky naivete by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That was my experience in the 1980's. Initial investment in IT at school was a couple of Apple ]['s, one monochrome, one color, each with a dot matrix printer. Each had its own little computer room, but they were then moved into the school library, when a new computer suite was created using BBC Model B's daisy chained together. A "Computing" course back then was tacked onto the end of a Mathematics course, since the maths teachers had the most training with programming pocket calculators. But it really just covered generic stuff about mainframes, tape drives, punched cards and disk drives with a list of acronyms like RAM, ROM, EPROM, CPU and RS232, as well as some simple BASIC programming to demonstrate input, output, decision making and variables. Additional theoretical material about email, spreadsheets and work processors was taught, but those were really part of the Economics and Communication Skills courses.

      In the meantime, everyone was buying their own 8-bit home computers, monthly computer magazines, downloading games, demos and development tools and learning about assembly language, interrupts, sprites, fonts, pixelmaps, pixblitting, ADSR sound programming and MIDI.

  3. Google's Philanthropy program is PR genius by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    They get amazing PR from the geek press for contributing spare change in Larry and Sergei's coin jar, and they don't even have to open source their code except for some stray "neat hacks" that have zero business relevance. "Summer of Code" was another example.

  4. What about the USA by espiesp · · Score: 1

    Google, where are the Raspberry Pi for the kids in the United States???

    1. Re:What about the USA by ChrisSlicks · · Score: 1

      They didn't feel guilty enough about their US tax evasion since "all the cool kids do it".

    2. Re:What about the USA by webminer · · Score: 1

      Why not kids in Asia, Africa or any other continent? Obviously, Google does not generate their revenue from US alone. They might be 'US-based' or whatever that means, but the people who work there are from tens of countries around the world and their products are consumed by people around the world. I understand you are American and obviously want to know why your fellow citizens are not benefiting from this. But this is not a zero-sum game. Every bit, anywhere in the world helps!

    3. Re:What about the USA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why not kids in Asia, Africa or any other continent?

      The kids with free R-Pi's will need parents wealthy enough to buy all the add-ons to make it useable. England is a good choice. The average IQ of Africa is too low to expect anything 'interesting' to be invented there.

    4. Re:What about the USA by ChunderDownunder · · Score: 1

      Isn't R-pi a UK company? That could be a factor. Shuffling £ from one british org to another and all the money stays in the country.

    5. Re:What about the USA by Isaac+Remuant · · Score: 1

      I'd prefer Google to focus on third world countries before any of those... I might be biased though, considering I'm living in one. :P

      --
      "Science can amuse and fascinate us all, but it is engineering that changes the world. " - Asimov.
    6. Re:What about the USA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are an elitist jerk for making that statement. When given the technology, kids in Africa do amizing things with it. Your racist, ignorant comment can only be forgiven if you live your life in a bubble. May your ilk die out, and soon.

  5. I gave my teachers by ozduo · · Score: 2

    plenty of raspberry's in my time, they gave me caning's. No you can't see the scars: pervert!

    --
    I got to the chocolate box before you, that's why the hard ones have teeth marks.
    1. Re:I gave my teachers by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 2

      plenty of raspberry ' s in my time, they gave me caning ' s.

      I'm assuming it was mainly English teachers.

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  6. Raspberry or Pork? Raspberry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I guess its cheaper than paying taxes, if G paid their taxes the gov could give every kid a brand new laptop.

    $500K is a lot cheaper than Google's tax liability, methinks.

    How cynical. I prefer money being spent this way as opposed to it going to taxes that gets spent on god knows what.

    1. Re:Raspberry or Pork? Raspberry by nadaou · · Score: 2

      > How cynical. I prefer money being spent this way as opposed to
      > it going to taxes that gets spent on god knows what.

      irony of the week award here -- we have a winner!

      --
      ~.~
      I'm a peripheral visionary.
    2. Re:Raspberry or Pork? Raspberry by tlambert · · Score: 2

      We could have bought 35 cluster bombs at $13,941 each, if this weren't being wasted on education this way.

      Honestly, this was initiated by a group at Google UK, and had nothing to do with taxes.

    3. Re:Raspberry or Pork? Raspberry by Suferick · · Score: 1

      But Google UK has had a hard time recently in the press and public opinion (along with Amazon and *$$) for paying little or no tax

    4. Re:Raspberry or Pork? Raspberry by Goose+In+Orbit · · Score: 1

      I prefer for corporations to pay their share... so I have to pay less

      Unless of course you want to pay my share instead? You obviously have money to spare

    5. Re:Raspberry or Pork? Raspberry by swillden · · Score: 1

      I prefer for corporations to pay their share... so I have to pay less

      Do you work for a corporation, or are you supported by someone who works for a corporation? Do you buy things from corporations, or made by corporations? If so, you fund whatever taxes the corporations pay. If not, you must live in a shack in the mountains and use someone else's computer and Internet connection.

      All taxes are ultimately taxes on individuals, because all money ultimately belongs to individuals -- even money held by corporations, whatever their legal personhood, because corporations have owners (in fact, US corporations are mostly owned by middle-class Americans). Corporate taxes are just one of many ways governments try to hide the taxation of individuals from those individuals. It's one of the more successful schemes, since so many individuals not only don't complain about being taxed in this way, but even applaud it and demand to be taxed harder.

      Taxes are fine, and necessary, but they should be assessed openly and directly, with end-of-year totals being delivered to every taxpayer so that everyone sees exactly how much they personally paid, ideally with some breakdown of how the money was spent. In the event the government runs a deficit, this report should also include an accounting of the individual's estimated portion of the debt. This would enable us to have a more rational, informed, discussion of the costs and benefits of taxation and spending.

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    6. Re:Raspberry or Pork? Raspberry by QuantumBeep · · Score: 2

      The idea that all corporate money eventually winds up being spent by a tax-paying consumer somewhere breaks down under these circumstances:

      - The corporation just sits on the cash
      - The corporation sends the money overseas to a tax haven somewhere
      - The corporation outsources jobs.

      It seems fair - if a corporation wants to have free speech like a person, have rights like a person, and own assets like a person, it should pay taxes like a person. Otherwise, people would be forming communal corporations ("financial guilds", if you will), and running all of their income through them in order to reduce their tax rate to zero.

    7. Re:Raspberry or Pork? Raspberry by sixsixtysix · · Score: 1

      why isn't this income (capital gains) then taxed as high as 'ordinary' income, or, as the comparison is about spot-on, as high as lotto winnings?

      --
      ...
    8. Re:Raspberry or Pork? Raspberry by swillden · · Score: 1

      why isn't this income (capital gains) then taxed as high as 'ordinary' income, or, as the comparison is about spot-on, as high as lotto winnings?

      The theory is that taxing gains at a lower rate encourages investment and increases tax revenues by increasing GDP growth. I don't personally have a position one way or another on that question. I think that's a question to be answered with data, and I don't know what the data says.

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    9. Re:Raspberry or Pork? Raspberry by swillden · · Score: 1

      1. It doesn't matter if a corporation just sits on the cash, sitting on the cash increases the market value of the corporation, which results in asset value increases for those holding the stock, and capital gains when it's sold. Corporations holding cash and stockholders holding stock can temporarily tie up the income, but eventually the stock changes hand, and eventually the cash is spent.

      2. If the corporation sends the money overseas and it gets spent there (e.g. to pay employees), it will be taxed there.

      3. I don't see how job outsourcing is even relevant.

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    10. Re:Raspberry or Pork? Raspberry by swillden · · Score: 1

      Oh, on the "financial guild" idea... doesn't work. If you receive value from the corporation (guild), it's income and taxable as such.

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  7. How about Pi Pis by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wasn't there just a story about Google giving out pi million dollars? Maybe they should give pi million Pis to schools next? Or e million Pis? Or...

  8. Children report being dissastified. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They wanted Blueberry Pie.

    Except the high school kids, they wanted Apple Pie for some reason.

    1. Re:Children report being dissastified. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They wanted Blueberry Pie.

      Except the high school kids, they wanted Apple Pie for some reason.

      I think you mean Cherry Pie.

    2. Re:Children report being dissastified. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Cherry Pie is a royal prerogative.

  9. if microsoft or apple did this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    all you fairies would be whining all day.

    if anybody actually wanted one of those raspberry turds they could just buy one...

  10. Why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I have one question: why?

    They could have easily invested in a dozen existing programs, or made their own. They could have gotten everyone a wicked deal on second-generation laptops or something. Hell, Google could have setup a giant VM farm on their end ("in the cloud") and given everyone free access to their own tiny private networks running whatever it is you're studying about (Exchange, Active Directory, etc). They've certainly got the hardware and the resources to do something like that if they wanted to.

    No, no, let's not do anything useful like that.

    Let's send them a giant shipment of FIFTEEN THOUSAND antiquated ARM based boards that require even more additional hardware to do anything with (monitor, keyboard, mouse, SD card, GPIO breakout board, etc). Yes, yes, I'm sure after the kiddies have dealt with the horrors of trying to configure their own distribution of Linux on the Pi and trying to get X.org to operate in a semi-accelerated way- they'll totally want to get into Information Technologies even more then before.

    I don't get it. Once again, I see the Raspberry Pi being physically shoehorned into a situation that doesn't call for them, or a situation where a problem was created specifically so the Pi could fix it. I don't understand the obsession with this device. The hardware is crap, the software required to drive the hardware is crap. Why does anyone want these and why are people doing their damnedest to push them on everyone?

    IMHO; a laptop (even a second or third or forth generation unit- anything like a Core Duo or Core 2 Duo) would be infinitely more useful to these kinds of kids then a friggin' Pi. Give the Pi to the kid in electrical engineering who might actually know what to do with the GPIOs and turn it into a semi-useful project.

    1. Re:Why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Raspberry Pi is considered cool by the geek community. It's also reasonably cheap. So buying a bunch of them and giving to people their target market (for the "campaign") cares about is probably a cheap PR move thought out by some marketer to test the waters. Chances are it won't give them much PR, but it doesn't even cost a million and has no chance of backfiring.

    2. Re:Why? by DeathElk · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Why the fuck would anybody be "studying" about Exchange or Active Directory? This is intended to lay the groundwork for interest in REAL computing.

    3. Re:Why? by isorox · · Score: 1

      Why the fuck would anybody be "studying" about Exchange or Active Directory? This is intended to lay the groundwork for interest in REAL computing.

      OP is an obvious troll pretending to be a shill pretending to be a troll

    4. Re:Why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I would love to study Unix mainframes.... You just can not find any school actually having such computers or even any company on these days having them available for studying as they are in critical production use.

      Exchange or Active Directory? HAH.... in this rate even 10 year old kids can push a few button in Modern UI panel to create a new user account and allocate some "cloud" storage space and try to experience being skilled.

  11. Which means another .... by i-reek · · Score: 1

    delay for anybody wanting to purchase a Raspberry Pi for personal use.

  12. Read the fucking article ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "If they're given directly to students, we'll see a flood of 14,950 of 'em hitting eBay", Just Brew It!

    I don't know about where you went to school, but most kids are desperately curious about the insides of electronic gizmos. And the teachers are going to get fucking professional help with the fucking devices ...

    "To help ensure teachers and children get the best out of the devices, Google and Raspberry Pi are working with six educational partners, including Code Club, Computing at School, Generating Genius and Coderdojo. They will distribute the devices to schools around the UK".

  13. Google gives 15,000 Raspberry Pi to schools by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 2

    To be precise, Google gave 15,708 Raspberry Pi. That's ten thousands pi / 2. Yes Google likes pi!.

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    1. Re:Google gives 15,000 Raspberry Pi to schools by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pretty sure any money Google paid to the government for schools would go the same place all the other money for schools has gone: political pockets, political cronies pockets, bureaucratic pockets, union pockets, pension funds, and administrative pockets (in that order). If even half the money California collected for education actually got to the schools themselves, kids would not need to share desks or buy their own big red pencils. There is a reason anyone who can afford to sends their kids to private schools instead.

    2. Re: Google gives 15,000 Raspberry Pi to schools by MachineShedFred · · Score: 1

      Don't worry, they're backordered for the next 3.14159 weeks.

      --
      Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
  14. Maybe if it was a US initiative. by tuppe666 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Google, where are the Raspberry Pi for the kids in the United States???

    Maybe because the Raspberry Pi is...an UK project started at the University of Cambridge to solve a UK problem. Computing becoming less about computer science...and more about web design and office.

    Its not a bias thing. The UK is not getting Google Fiber. ;)

    1. Re:Maybe if it was a US initiative. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How is plugging a bunch of peripherals into an antiquated ARM board "about computer science"? If that's computer science then your average sweatshop peon must be Alan Turing.

    2. Re:Maybe if it was a US initiative. by Arashi256 · · Score: 1

      Because it makes a small Linux machine extremely affordable for those who otherwise might not have access to it, you dumb shit.

  15. Kind of the Point by tuppe666 · · Score: 1

    I don't see this accomplishing much though. If they're given to teachers for classroom use, most of the teachers aren't going to know what the fuck to do with them

    The pi was invented to solve the problem of students leaving without computer science skills [only office skills], part of the problem is solved by the raspberry pi, cheap hackable equipment....if the teachers are not capable of teaching as you claim...that is a different problem.

    1. Re:Kind of the Point by hughbar · · Score: 1

      Agree, but that's the 'big' digital divide problem, not hardware/software, everywhere has been flooded with that, but teaching is problem, maintenance of an inventory of equipment is a problem. I live in the East End of London and have seen expensive grant-funded computer suites lying useless because no-one much knows about firewalls, anti-virus, teaching people about phishing, drive-by all the 'elementary' things for the geek-minded. Then when they 'work' there's no cash for teaching and limited access [one hour a week was quoted by a kid who came to one of our drop-ins].

      Teaching and maintenance is more labour intensive and expensive than just giving away a load of stuff to get a little positive publicity. Also, we in the UK are not very keen on Google at the moment, another specialist in fiscal dumping, like Starbucks and Amazon.

      --
      On y va, qui mal y pense!
  16. Balance in education by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's good to see big companies like google donating all these resources to kids. It's great the kids are getting more support but I don't think their fundamental education should be changed/catered to align with google's view/vision of the future (or just, Microsoft/Oracle/Cisco.... any tech giant). It's good to have CS and Math background but it's also important for kids to not just follow the market demand but also pursue what really interest them

  17. ...but they didn't by tuppe666 · · Score: 1

    all you fairies would be whining all day.

    if anybody actually wanted one of those raspberry turds they could just buy one...

    Ignoring your anger issues, They have given *cheap* *open* *hackable* devices, to build platform independent computer *science* skills, which can only be considered wonderful. If they had given out [locked] Chromebooks [or Google Docs] to lock children into their ecosystem, I'd be looking at this the same as the whole Discounted *cough* Apple/Microsoft products for schools we have seen for years, like crack.

    1. Re:...but they didn't by tlambert · · Score: 1

      Ignoring your anger issues, They have given *cheap* *open* *hackable* devices, to build platform independent computer *science* skills, which can only be considered wonderful. If they had given out [locked] Chromebooks [or Google Docs] to lock children into their ecosystem, I'd be looking at this the same as the whole Discounted *cough* Apple/Microsoft products for schools we have seen for years, like crack.

      There's a switch in all Chromebooks to unlock them. There's a boot warning screen when booting unlocked devices, and a delay while the things actually unlock on first boot after the switch is flipped, but after that, they are fully unlocked. You'll get the boot warning screen each time, but you can hit a key to get around that, or just wait the 30 seconds - either way: the thing's fully unlocked.

      One of the OS's that can run on a Raspberry Pi is ChromeOS, sans the hardware key escrow, since a TPM would have made the things non-exportable to 5 countries who restrict their citizens from using strong cryptography (Russia, China, Uzbekistan, etc.).

  18. RTFA that's whole point, not more cubicle drones by raymorris · · Score: 4, Insightful

    running whatever it is you're studying about (Exchange, Active Directory, etc).

    RTFA. The point of the thing is that the young generation knows how to RUN software, but who is going to design quantum CPUs in 2030, or invent the next revolution like the Internet? You don't learn to build new technologies by practicing being an MS cubicle drone running Exchange.

    Hell, with the prodicts you mentioned you're not even ALLOWED to try to figure out how they work. That's called reverse engineering and it's against the license. The whole point of the Pi is to first learn how things work, then use that knowledge to build entirely new and better things.

  19. Google gives 15,000 Raspberry Pi to schools by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    maybe if Google woud pay their f***ing taxes as they should, the schools could afford the Pi's for themselves....

  20. Off-topic by tuppe666 · · Score: 2

    if G paid their taxes the gov

    The fact that you post it in a belief that your supporting your favourite mega corporation is a little sad, I assume you are posting AC because Apple and Microsoft are equally good [if not better] at avoiding paying tax.

    The reality all companies over 100 employees avoid paying any tax, pretending that its *unique* to Google or *new* f**king sickens me, as the problem is the system needs to be fixed.

    1. Re:Off-topic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are sad and sickened? You should take a day off and go smell some kittens!

    2. Re:Off-topic by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 2

      the diff is: MS and apple never EVER claimed to 'do no evil'.

      one could argue that avoiding social responsibility (and making huge profits on the backs of others) *is* being evil.

      we all know that corps are whores. they'll do anything for a buck and not think twice. fine. but when you cry 'we are not evil!' you had better mean it.

      and they clearly are just paying lip service.

      apple and MS are not dishonest in this regard. they are not ashamed of their profit-based mentality. but google tries to have it both ways. that's their fail.

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    3. Re:Off-topic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, I post AC because I don't have a /. account.

  21. Wow off topic again by tuppe666 · · Score: 1

    They killed Youtube. No amount of PR campaigns will win me back after killing the last free voice people like us had.

    Their is still a website where you can look up all the gems of yesteryear :) http://stupid-youtube-comments.blogspot.co.uk/

    I leave this quote from the The Guardian in 2009 described users' comments on YouTube as:

    "Juvenile, aggressive, misspelled, sexist, homophobic, swinging from raging at the contents of a video to providing a pointlessly detailed description followed by a LOL, YouTube comments are a hotbed of infantile debate and unashamed ignorance – with the occasional burst of wit shining through" ...ironically though your posting this AC :)

    1. Re:Wow off topic again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They misspelt "misspelt".

      The irony is not lost on me.

    2. Re:Wow off topic again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They misspelt "misspelt".

      The irony is not lost on me.

      Misspelled is not misspelled.

  22. Poor returns by tuppe666 · · Score: 1

    maybe if Google woud pay their f***ing taxes as they should, the schools could afford the Pi's for themselves....

    They would be better catching up with Apple or Microsoft for Tax avoidence as they have more money squirreled offshore http://www.businessinsider.com/tax-loophole-congress-google-apple-microsoft-2012-12 four times as much as Google.

    I suspect your being a little disingenuous. :)

  23. Re:$4,100,000,000 taxes paid last year, 50% of pro by ahabswhale · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I have my own business and I pay nothing close to this 63% tax rate that you mention and I cannot imagine how you can even get there. If you're paying anywhere near that, then you need a new fucking accountant because your current one is stealing from you. FYI...in the US, over half of all companies pay no taxes (other than their payroll tax).

    --
    Are agnostics skeptical of unicorns too?
  24. Lets buy a Pi by tuppe666 · · Score: 2
  25. From the website. by tuppe666 · · Score: 1

    How is plugging a bunch of peripherals into an antiquated ARM board "about computer science"? If that's computer science then your average sweatshop peon must be Alan Turing.

    From the About us on the raspberry pi website. http://www.raspberrypi.org/about

    "The idea behind a tiny and cheap computer for kids came in 2006, when Eben Upton and his colleagues at the University of Cambridge’s Computer Laboratory, including Rob Mullins, Jack Lang and Alan Mycroft, became concerned about the year-on-year decline in the numbers and skills levels of the A Level students applying to read Computer Science in each academic year. From a situation in the 1990s where most of the kids applying were coming to interview as experienced hobbyist programmers, the landscape in the 2000s was very different; a typical applicant might only have done a little web design.

    Something had changed the way kids were interacting with computers. A number of problems were identified: the colonisation of the ICT curriculum with lessons on using Word and Excel, or writing webpages; the end of the dot-com boom; and the rise of the home PC and games console to replace the Amigas, BBC Micros, Spectrum ZX and Commodore 64 machines that people of an earlier generation learned to program on."

  26. Why only the Pi? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And in one swoop all other manufacturers of hobby board was put out of buissness. "Free" can really hurt the economy and "ecosystem" quite a lot if it is done wrong...

  27. You keep posting this, but you're wrong by tlambert · · Score: 2

    The USB problem is not intrinsic to the chip, it's intrinsic to the board design with a loopback on the power rail. Because of this it wasn't possible to do high speed USB because you couldn't raise the voltage out of the PMU with the other rail effectively holding it to the lower voltage.

    You can ECN it yourself, if you have a microscope soldering station and know how to manually solder BGA devices, or you can just damn well by the new revision of the board instead, it's not like they cost that much. I know this because I ECN'ed mine with a microscope soldering station.

    Either way, this has been discussed in pretty deep detail in the Raspberry Pi forums, along with the fact that weren't going to change the board design during the production run where the board problem was first root-caused.

  28. Ahhh that's why delivery was delayed by OhANameWhatName · · Score: 1

    I was wondering why there was such a wait for deliveries. Now we know, Google bought tens of thousands of them and distributed them to people who'll use them as door jams.

    1. Re: Ahhh that's why delivery was delayed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      raspberry door jams, you mean.

  29. The boards are built in the UK by tlambert · · Score: 2

    Which mens that there are no additional import/export issues, if they are sold and distributed in the UK.

    If you are in some other location in the world, design your own damn board, or just manufacture the Raspberry Pi boards locally from the UK circuit diagrams and get your local equivalent of UL and FCC certifications, and money might materialize for your local schools as well ... or not. This happened in the UK because some UK Googlers were excited enough about it to push up their management chain. You;d also need to get Googlers in your country interested to the same degree, or find some other company you can convince to fund it.

  30. Seriously? by tuppe666 · · Score: 1

    And in one swoop all other manufacturers of hobby board was put out of buissness. "Free" can really hurt the economy and "ecosystem" quite a lot if it is done wrong...

    ...or start a trend, devices like the raspberry pi, are nothing new, but right now, because [not in spite of] the success of the raspberry pi there is a whole host of new boards out there, and in reality like every other market companies have to compete on there own merits, personally the raspberry pi does not interest me. It does not have enough memory or processing power or sata, and I am far from being the only one.

  31. Re:RTFA that's whole point, not more cubicle drone by julesh · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Hell, with the prodicts you mentioned you're not even ALLOWED to try to figure out how they work. That's called reverse engineering and it's against the license.

    Here in the UK, the right to reverse engineer is legally mandated by statute, so they can't take it away with license terms.

    It is not an infringement of copyright for a lawful user of a copy of a computer program to observe, study or test the functioning of the program in order to determine the ideas and principles which underlie any element of the program if he does so while performing any of the acts of loading, displaying, running, transmitting or storing the program which he is entitled to do.

    and

    Article 6
    Decompilation
    1. The authorisation of the rightholder shall not be required
    where reproduction of the code and translation of its form
    within the meaning of points (a) and (b) of Article 4(1) are
    indispensable to obtain the information necessary to achieve
    the interoperability of an independently created computer
    program with other programs, provided that the following
    conditions are met:
    (a) those acts are performed by the licensee or by another
    person having a right to use a copy of a program, or on
    their behalf by a person authorised to do so;
    (b) the information necessary to achieve interoperability has not
    previously been readily available to the persons referred to
    in point (a); and
    (c) those acts are confined to the parts of the original program
    which are necessary in order to achieve interoperability.

    are both parts of our statutes.

  32. Re:$4,100,000,000 taxes paid last year, 50% of pro by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm in the process of shutting down my businesses. That's what the current 63% total tax rate gets you - businesses shut down, people out of work.

    Plenty of businesses are doing fine, so I suspect the problem is not with the taxes, but rather with you. For some reason, you have failed where others have succeeded. Don't worry, you're in good company. Lots of business owners fail.

    I am also a small business owner, and I have no problems with the taxes I pay. It would be difficult for me to run my business without a functioning government. I appreciate that the government provides me with a pool of educated and healthy employees, provides a transportation network that allows me and my goods to travel efficiently and safely, protects me and my money from criminals, and generally provides me with a clean, safe place to live and do business. They even provide me with a safety net so that if my business does fail, I won't die of starvation.

  33. Re:$4,100,000,000 taxes paid last year, 50% of pro by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 2

    yeah, right 'obama is making poor businesses pay for health care of its employees'.

    you know, the things our grandfathers fought for (unions in the midst of horrible working conditions) have been forgotton.

    business has gotton nearly a free ride for DECADES. now, we are trying to do what's right for people and you assholes complain about money. the business SHOULD take care of its people. we are not animals! at least we strive not to be.

    consider this a payment on a bill that went unpaid for a very long time. it 'hurts' but it hurts more when you are put out on the street if/when you get badly sick and the insurance co's cancel you.

    business == freeloaders. and now, the bill is overdue. PAY UP and shut the fuck up.

    --

    --
    "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
  34. Re:I hate google. They killed youtube. by OhANameWhatName · · Score: 2

    They killed Youtube. No amount of PR campaigns will win me back after killing the last free voice people like us had.

    Look on the bright side, you can still troll /.

  35. No user serviceable parts inside--NOT! by dido · · Score: 2

    I'm currently reading Vernor Vinge's Rainbows End, and one of the chapters is entitled "No User Serviceable Parts Inside." That's something that you see a lot in today's electronics (and even software), and it is extremely frustrating for a would-be tinkerer who wants to learn how things work, the way I was when I was a kid. About thirty years ago an aunt of mine got me a C-64, and it was on such a platform that I first learned how to program, first in BASIC, and then later 6502 machine language (by peeks and pokes off a photocopied reference manual and manual relative branch offset calculations, lots of fun!). Until the Raspberry Pi, there existed no cheap system where hacking even close to like what I used to do as a kid was possible. That's what the vision of the Pi is supposed to be about as I understand it. It is intended not to hold the user's hand so much, but to teach them how things work. This is something for those kids that, were they kids 30 years ago, would have taught themselves 6502 machine language from photocopied references and soldered together some TTL circuitry and plugged that into a printer port.

    --
    Qu'on me donne six lignes écrites de la main du plus honnête homme, j'y trouverai de quoi le faire pendre.
    1. Re:No user serviceable parts inside--NOT! by ais523 · · Score: 1

      This still worked 10 years ago. Admittedly, 6502-based computers were quite rare by then, but also very cheap because most people considered them junk. (And my machine code reference manual was a book, rather than photocopied.)

      The putting hand-soldered circuitry into the printer ports came later for me, with Windows (back then I hadn't more than vaguely heard of Linux) and an RS232 port. That's still possible nowadays, although you probably need to get a USB to RS232 convertor (i.e. an RS232 port that's driven over USB) in order to get a computer with the appropriate ports.

      --
      (1)DOCOMEFROM!2~.2'~#1WHILE:1<-"'?.1$.2'~'"':1/.1$.2'~#0"$#65535'"$"'"'&.1$.2'~'#0$#65535'"$#0'~#32767$#1"
  36. How about taxes? by thetoadwarrior · · Score: 1

    Keep your hardware. If they paid the amount of tax it'd benefit the schools a lot more.

    1. Re:How about taxes? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They do pay their taxes. That's why the do business in places with less tax.

  37. Re:$4,100,000,000 taxes paid last year, 50% of pro by Lincolnshire+Poacher · · Score: 2

    I'm in the process of shutting down my businesses. That's what the current 63% total tax rate gets you

    Umm, corporation tax only applies to *profits*. That is, money your business couldn't find a way to spend. Excess cash. Surplus.

    If you are really in the position of paying 63% corporation tax then CONGRATULATIONS you are running a profitable business. Next year, try ploughing additional funds into R&D or more staff so that you don't have so much net revenue.

  38. Re:RTFA that's whole point, not more cubicle drone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    AH, but if you break the license, are you still a "a lawful user"? Also the right to reverse engineer is ONLY applicable to devices you own. If you have a device the is tied in with a license that states that the device is the property of the issuer of the license while the license is active (as with some cable boxes) you are not the legal owner and as such can NOT legally reverse engineer the device. As always, there are law to make sure you comply with almost anything ppl with resources wants.

  39. Re:I hate google. They killed youtube. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No amount of PR campaigns will win me back after killing the last free voice people like us had.

    Well you could run your own website...

  40. Not an excuse by tuppe666 · · Score: 2

    Apple and Microsoft do not get a free pass, and have four times the money off-shore, simply because Google has irrelevant informal corporate motto does not justify your bile.

    *All* Corporations should pay tax, and that includes Google, your post is a reflection on yourself not Google.

  41. Teaching is different? by tuppe666 · · Score: 1

    Teaching and maintenance is more labour intensive and expensive

    I'm sorry, your wishy washy excuses may work in some circles, but for everyone else in the computing industry [every industry] constant retraining, and reactions to current trends is essential. I cannot remember the last time in my life I wasn't in some form of retaining or other.

    As for popularity being a factor. I'm sorry, cutting your nose of to spite your children is a disgrace. As I say everywhere corporations need to pay tax, scapegoating a few corporations, especially when worse offenders like Microsoft and Apple is morally questionable.

    1. Re:Teaching is different? by HuguesT · · Score: 1

      Constant retraining in one's field is relatively easy. It would take most developers only a little effort to learn a new programming language, or the latest trend in web-oriented methodologies. Now you may agree that if one moved developers into management, going them to do an MBA is going to require massive efforts and not inconsequential investment from their company. Yet moving a developer into management without this massive retraining is not unlikely to result in a disaster.

      Now the teachers in elementary and high schools' expertise is in education, not computer science. This is a massively different field for most people. For a start, even elementary logic does not apply very well to most students. Try to organize a class according to some mathematical principle and watch what happens. We are not talking about a little retraining here.

    2. Re:Teaching is different? by mikael · · Score: 1

      One of my relatives are teachers. First thing is, she is absolutely petrified of computers, scared if she presses the wrong key, something will break especially if it is school property and affect her promotion prospects. Can use email but detests using spreadsheets to manage the prescribed teaching objectives of her classes. If she is expected to use or teach any technology related equipment, she expects to be put on the training course, have course and teaching materials provided for her to make sure there isn't anything she has forgotten about during her lessons.

      Perhaps that is the attitude of most people in the government sector. There was always the joke about becoming an "inventory control officer" if you seriously messed things up - they wouldn't fire you, they'd just have you driving round the country, checking serial numbers of staplers, filing cabinets and office chairs, every day of every week until you retired.

      In the 1990's, most departments had inhouse staff training with "trainers" - semi-retired people who were earning $300/hour with the patience to teach applications like E-mail, spreadsheets, SQL databases, and other corporate applications.

      --
      Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
    3. Re:Teaching is different? by hughbar · · Score: 1

      I presume that you are some kind of corporate shill from Google or other unhelpful individual. The 666 in the user name provides a bit of a clue. You've never taught have you? I'm not sure why you are 'in constant retraining' or 'reacting to current trends' either.

      You need to learn the difference between 'scapegoating' and 'boycott' too and some logic too, the fact that one is not boycotting all of them at once doesn't invalidate the process of boycotting one of them.

      I hope it works out for you.

      --
      On y va, qui mal y pense!
  42. Re:RTFA that's whole point, not more cubicle drone by MrNemesis · · Score: 2

    AH, but if you break the license, are you still a "a lawful user"?

    Yes. The whole point of statute, and the ensuing statutory rights, is that the rights they confer upon you can't be negated by a license, EULA, or even a contract signed in blood. The UK has a fairly good history of customer-friendly policies in this regard, frequently to the annoyance of foreign companies.

    http://whatconsumer.co.uk/what-are-my-statutory-rights/

    It gets a bit more nebulous as you describe the "rented device and service" scenario, but I don't believe that's been tested in the UK courts yet. There's certainly a lot of people who've hardhacked things like their Sky+ boxes to do things like add extra storage and migrating recordings off the box are common, and so far there's been no legal repercussions TTBOMK.

    --
    Moderation Total: -1 Troll, +3 Goat
  43. Re:Shilling for Broadcom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yeah. You actually have to sign an NDA just to look at the datasheet from Broadcom! This is about as open as the CIA's budget.

  44. Re:Shilling for Broadcom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The Olimexino is similar, almost as cheap and truly open:
    https://www.olimex.com/Products/OLinuXino/

  45. Re:$4,100,000,000 taxes paid last year, 50% of pro by dominux · · Score: 1

    woosh, as the point goes straight past you. You appear to have done all your calculations in dollars. The problem with Google's tax affairs is that they do lots of business in the UK in pounds and pay very very little corporation tax because they use a double irish arrangement to wriggle out of tax on profit. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Irish_arrangement

  46. Donations never replace real funding. by Ouilsen · · Score: 1

    Great. 500000$ are maybe 20 teachers (without infrastructure) for 1 year. It is indeed great that Google donates money to schools and I do not want to belittle that fact. However phrases like these leave me baffled:

      Google aren't prepared to wait for government or someone else to fix the problems...

    Not Google, nor any other private company or entity is going to fix the education system. That is the whole point of having public schools. Without the state committing to education you are screwed. There is not a single example in history where a private education system succeeded in the long run.

    1. Re:Donations never replace real funding. by backwardMechanic · · Score: 2

      I think Eton might disagree with you. Maybe you're a geologist or something, but it's been running since 1440 - that's quite a long run. I'm not saying I like it, but it clearly works.

    2. Re:Donations never replace real funding. by blackest_k · · Score: 1

      Are you kidding, the majority of MP's in the UK went to Public Schools, Public Schools are in fact privately funded.

      Privately funded education for the masses well that is a different matter, just how much education is needed if the end result is working on a simple production line...

      The situation is a bit different these days in order to be competitive most production needs to be automated and to maintain and create these automated facilities needs a well educated and trained work force. It also needs a creative inventive work force too, maybe the raspberry pi initiative will help, while 15,000 seems very low parents may well fund other devices when they see there is some support framework in place.
               

    3. Re:Donations never replace real funding. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I would disagree, as both are as important depending times.

      Example, if you give donations, it gets easily (often) in hands of greedy leaders directed to totally different projects where schedule and project goals differ totally from idea of the original purpose of school.

      But giving hardware for schools, generates the need for lectures and lessons and when students and teachers start to get their shit together how to keep lessons and what classes are about, they need more money from budget and it generates need for donations what others can then give.

       

    4. Re:Donations never replace real funding. by Ouilsen · · Score: 1

      Ok. But I wouldn't consider Eton as an education system. I do not doubt that it works in isolated cases. Usually even "private" schools receive massive public funding through public research funds.

  47. Ridiculous by gweihir · · Score: 1, Funny

    What's that, Google running out of money? This sum is so low for the search giant that is comes close to being an insult.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    1. Re:Ridiculous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Yes, it's insulting that Google decided to donate over half a million dollars worth of equipment.
      How dare they!!!

      Now let's go back to our tv shows on millionaires who didn't donate over half a million dollars of equipment. They are soooooo coooool!

      (for the mentally challenged: </sarcasm>)

  48. OFFS! by pbjones · · Score: 1

    there will be 14,000 in the rubbish bin within a week. Sorry, I just can't imagine 15,000 kids interested in a device that requires serious interaction. I know it sound like trolling, but they will be used in some contrived 'computer hardware and programming' course which will actually appeal to 1% of the people that participate.

    --
    There was an unknown error in the submission.
    1. Re:OFFS! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That all depends on how they distribute them.
      If they give them all to a few schools to give one raspberry per child, then yes, it will probably be a lot of wasted pis.
      However if they give 10 per school to 1500 school that would be another story. I think you can find a few students in each school that takes enough interest in them.

    2. Re:OFFS! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In addition to the hardware, the Raspberry Pi foundation has been working with educators, industry experts, and others on having documentation, coursework, and other resources available to teachers. It's been a community sourced project since before the actual hardware was launched. So while your concerns are well met, it is something that was taken into consideration long ago. If you would like to help contribute, head on over to the forums on the official site and dive right in.

      Also, take a look at...well..almost any video on the internet that has a group of kids playing with the Pi. They would be aptly described as enthusiastic to the point of being annoying.

    3. Re:OFFS! by halfkoreanamerican · · Score: 2

      In my high school we had to make powerpoint presentations in a shop class about ______ subject, which was completely worthless. If you give a class a few raspberry pis, some breadboards, a manual, and minimal instruction, you can bet you'll see creativity at its best. Show an example of how its used, and some practical tools and by the end of a course some kid will have programmed lights for the theater class' play. It could be a failure, but it could be a lot of fun. Kids like to have some creative time and so do I, even at nearly 30 years of age. Which would you rather have: a) read this article over and over until our 40 minutes have expired; b) find out how to install program x, and give me a 'hello world' program?

    4. Re:OFFS! by mikael · · Score: 1

      That's like the early home computers and the era of DOS programming. You just needed some RS-232 ports or analog-to-digital ports and you could plug anything into your computer - light sensors, pressure pads, thermistors. With DOS programming you set up a couple of interrupt handlers for the mouse and keyboard, one more for the video screen and the rest was up to your imagination.

      --
      Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
  49. Re:Whine about the USA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Thank you for demonstrating what we already knew: American is a country full of selfish, insular people with a massive sense of entitlement.

    Did you ever stop to think that, since Google UK is paying for these things, Google UK gets to decide where to send them?

    Fucking Americans.

  50. Re:$4,100,000,000 taxes paid last year, 50% of pro by rich_hudds · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In England we have free healthcare for everyone.

    It's very popular.

    The media in the US says that we have death panels.

    We don't have death panels. They were lying to you.

  51. It's called eating by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So your solution to not paying 63% tax is to not make money? Just one little problem - if I don't make money, I don't eat.

  52. 'cept we HAD insurance until Obama made us drop it by raymorris · · Score: 1

    You're missing the fact that we provided comprehensive insurance for fifteen years. 15 years. It was only when Obama said the insurance has to cover crap like aromatherapy that it became too expensive to afford, so now our (former) employees have no coverage. Good job, libs.

  53. Similarly in Italy... by xded · · Score: 1

    Last time I checked, it was similar for the Italian law. As long as you own a usage license (be it temporary or not), you can do whatever you want with a program. And you are explicitly allowed to reverse-engineer/modify it as long as it's done to "improve its functionalities", not only for interoperability reasons.

  54. Re:$4,100,000,000 taxes paid last year, 50% of pro by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    PARAGRAPHS MOTHERFUCKER!

  55. Maybe you can read the numbers if they are in colu by raymorris · · Score: 1

    I have my own business and I pay nothing close to this 63% tax rate that you mention and I cannot imagine how you can even get there.

    If you don't know how you end up paying AT LEAST 63% in taxes, this should be educational for you. I guess the numbers in my original post were hard to read because they were mixed with the prose. Maybe better formatting will help you. But first, let's agee on some averge rates to use in our example:

    The first tax we'll consider, corporate income tax, ranges from about 24% to 44% in different places. For example, in California, USA, a medium sized business pays 35% federal, 8.84% state, plus local. In the UK, it's 24% income tax, but then also 20% VAT which compounds to about 35% total VAT.
    We'll use a mid-range number - 30% corporate income tax.

    Then that same money goes to you, the owner, and you pay tax on the same money again. 28% is the UK rate, and it's about the average of the several US rates.

    Then when you spend that same money, you pay tax on it again. 12% if you spend it on gas/petrol, 27% if you use it to pay your mortgage. We'll use 18% as an average.

    For every 100 dollars/euros/punds you earn:
    100 earned
    70 after corporate income tax
    50 remains after owner's income tax
    41 of goods can be purchased after paying "spending that income" tax. (Gas, property, or sales tax)

    So you earned 100, and can buy 41 worth of stuff after taxes. You paid 59% taxes in this example. That doesn't even count the taxes you paid before calculating profit, like business personal property tax, etc.

  56. Re:$4,100,000,000 taxes paid last year, 50% of pro by dkf · · Score: 1

    We don't have death panels. They were lying to you.

    However, we'd be very keen on death panels if they were considering the fates of politicians.

    --
    "Little does he know, but there is no 'I' in 'Idiot'!"
  57. Re:$4,100,000,000 taxes paid last year, 50% of pro by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Care to cite the US media outlet that claims that you have death panels? And I do mean a real cite, not just some off the cuff snap at some news outlet you've probably never visited before.

  58. ROTFL "the private sector is doing fine". by raymorris · · Score: 1

    Plenty of businesses are doing fine, so I suspect the problem is not with the taxes, but rather with you.

    ROTFL. The private sector is doing fine, right? Even you President Kardashian couldn't say that with a straight face. When he tried to say it, he had to come back out and retract that statement, saying "It is absolutely clear that the economy is NOT doing fine."

    I've been in business twenty years. (or 25 if you count part time businesses). I've launched four completely different companies. Our business, and thousands of others, was taken down when Obama launched his attack on business. We were fine under Reagan. We hired people under Bush I. We did fine with the fast and loose economy of Clinton. No problems under Bush II. (Though the last year of Bush II wasn't awesome.) If it was us, we wouldn't have been around that long. In the two years following Obama's election, business failures increased by 40%. 40% man. If you like Obama, fine. Maybe you like his smile. Maybe you think he smells nice, whatever. But don't lie to yourself - he's radically anti-business.

    There's no bigger supporter of Obama than liberal journalist Fareed Zakaria. Zakaria is honest with himself, though, saying Obama is "at his core, anti-business."

    1. Re:ROTFL "the private sector is doing fine". by fufufang · · Score: 1

      In the two years following Obama's election, business failures increased by 40%. 40% man. If you like Obama, fine. Maybe you like his smile. Maybe you think he smells nice, whatever. But don't lie to yourself - he's radically anti-business.

      Which Obama's policy led to your loss? What do you mean by "business failures"?

  59. And accessories? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Did Google also give all the right cables, power supplies, SD cards? Or just the units?

  60. They need future IT help by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    To maintain that massive database created by all the cameras scattered around the country - welcome to the future, Citizen...

  61. Re:$4,100,000,000 taxes paid last year, 50% of pro by Zaiff+Urgulbunger · · Score: 1
    Death Panels:
    Just a few related links here... not sure how credible these news outlets are however!

    I think the whole "Death Panel" thing was just a Republican thing to scare people about Obamacare, as opposed to the sensible policy of only providing good health care to those who can afford it.

    Also, just for the record, there are no Death Panels in the UK. No, it's called the Ministry of Death! ;)

  62. Re:$4,100,000,000 taxes paid last year, 50% of pro by Zaiff+Urgulbunger · · Score: 1

    Apologies for not adding this link to my previous post: Daily Mail article about UK "Death Panels", which is made all the more amusing because in the first picture it looks like President Obama is trying to strangle Stephen Hawking!

  63. You should be! by tuppe666 · · Score: 1

    Now the teachers in elementary and high schools' expertise is in education, not computer science. This is a massively different field for most people.

    Sorry your talking from an uninformed perspective, most teachers take an *extended* degree, which covers a teaching practice, and a specialist subject. An alternative route into teaching is the teach first which are meant to be *on the job* training for *people exemplary in their field. I'm sorry these are the highest paid *worldwide*, and they are teaching children.

  64. Re:'cept we HAD insurance until Obama made us drop by dave420 · · Score: 1

    You are so very ignorant. No wonder you are online arguing against socialised health care. You poor fool.

  65. Tax by ryan81 · · Score: 1

    Not much of a drop in the ocean with all that tax flowing through Bermuda.:)

  66. Re:Maybe you can read the numbers if they are in c by HereIAmJH · · Score: 1

    The first tax we'll consider, corporate income tax, ranges from about 24% to 44% in different places. For example, in California, USA, a medium sized business pays 35% federal, 8.84% state, plus local. In the UK, it's 24% income tax, but then also 20% VAT which compounds to about 35% total VAT.
    We'll use a mid-range number - 30% corporate income tax.

    Then that same money goes to you, the owner, and you pay tax on the same money again. 28% is the UK rate, and it's about the average of the several US rates.

    In the US corporations don't pay tax on salaries. They don't pay taxes on revenue. The pay taxes on profit. Salaries, including payroll taxes and benefits, are deducted as expenses before the tax calculation. Along with depreciation, office supplies, utilities, lease payments, etc. A company could have a billion a year in revenue and pay no taxes if they earned no profit.

    As a 'business owner', how you file is determined on how your business is structured. Partnerships and sole proprietorships are handled differently than corporations. But again, if you are being double-taxed in the manner you imply, you need a better tax accountant. And some of the places you do get double taxed (some sales tax is an example) can be used as a deduction, but is simply too tedious to document.

    --
    Another day, another update to a Google android app.
  67. Re:'cept we HAD insurance until Obama made us drop by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It could have been a good troll. Some *facts* might have helped. Maybe you are referring to some kind of employer sponsored health care (where they pay for most of it, and you pay for a little of it). Or, maybe you are referring to being on some public plan because you could not make enough money, Or maybe, you are so wealthy that you don't really need insurance and feel put out that you might have to help out someone else. Please illuminate us on the incredible health care you had. Who was it, how was it paid for, why did you really lose it?

    Just asking...

  68. Business failures are defined as creditor loss by raymorris · · Score: 1

    What do you mean by "business failures"?

    In economics, "business failures" is defined as discontinuation of operations resulting in losses to creditors. In other words, companies that went out of business AND couldn't pay their outstanding bills when they did. That's easier to measure than just "companies that stopped doing business" because the creditors report the loss, whereas a company that just stops may not report anything.

    Which Obama's policy led to your loss?

    I'd say it was 70% indirect, but I'll give a few examples of direct effects of his policies. We'll limit it to just health insurance policies to keep this from going on for 20 pages.
    We've long had pretty good health insurance, which we were happy with. We paid 100% of the cost even for part time employees. In two years, as Obamacare is being phased in, the base premium increased by more than 50%. Total cost close to doubled, as I'll explain.
    Also, half of our employees have a profit share, they each own a few percent of the company. Under Obama, the law was changed so that we had to report their insurance cost as taxable income on their W-2 AND the company could no longer deduct health insurance cost. (Under Obama everyone's insurance cost is deductible EXCEPT business owners', including 2% owners like our employees. Did I mention he's anti-business.) That penalty for making our employees owners increased cost another 30%, on top of the 50% premium increase. So that's one example, Obamacare nearly doubled our insurance cost.

    Of course his policies were doing the same thing to our customers, doubling THEIR costs, leaving them with less money to by our products. Less sales + higher costs = we're out of business and te employees are jobless. That's the result of making policy based on feelings rather than actually thinking through the results.

  69. USB controller fault is unrelated to 1.8V fault by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The 1.8V track routing fault has nothing to do with the USB controller fault. The latter is part of the silicon in the BCM2835, and can never be fixed, short of replacing the SoC by another one.

    The Raspberry Pi Foundation explained the mechanism behind this hard USB fault on the forums, and they accept that there is no solution available at this time, and probably never will be. It results in USB events being lost periodically, and a total collapse of the USB chain under common conditions.