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Raspberry Pi's Eben Upton: How We're Turning Everyone Into DIY Hackers

Posted by Soulskill on from the isn't-that-how-the-borg-started dept.

redletterdave writes "Eben Upton is the CEO of the Raspberry Pi Foundation's trading company, where he oversees production and sales of the Raspberry Pi. In a lengthy interview with ReadWrite, Upton shares how he invented Raspberry Pi, and what's coming next for the $35 microcomputer. Quoting: 'There's a big difference between [just] making a platform like Raspberry Pi available and offering support for it. I think if you just make it available, you'll find one percent of eight-year-olds will be the one percent who love that sort of thing and will get into it, regardless of how much or how little support you give them. ... [S]ince we can afford to pay for the development of educational material, we can afford to advocate for good training for teachers throughout this. There's an opportunity to get more than one percent. There's an opportunity to reach the bright kids who don't quite have the natural inclination to personally tackle complicated technical tasks. If you give them good teaching and compelling material that's relevant and interesting to them, you can reach ten percent, twenty percent, fifty percent, many more. We look back to the 1980s as this golden era [of learning to program], and in practice, only a very few percent of people were learning to program to any great degree. ... I think the real opportunity for us now, because we can intervene on the material and teacher training levels, we can potentially blow past where we were in the 1980s.'"

49 of 90 comments (clear)

  1. It's not the thing... by Rufty · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's not the thing that matters. There are faster, cheaper boards than the Pi. But the community, with examples and workarounds so that the changes are you don't have to beat a path, but just hit google.

    --
    Red to red, black to black. Switch it on, but stand well back.
    1. Re:It's not the thing... by ArcadeMan · · Score: 1, Offtopic

      The Arduino is much cheaper, you can even just run an ATmega328P on a breadboard. And the community is huge too.

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      Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
    2. Re:It's not the thing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It's not the thing that matters. There are faster, cheaper boards than the Pi. But the community, with examples and workarounds so that the changes are you don't have to beat a path, but just hit google.

      There's a faster, cheaper board than the Pi? I've seen similar boards with less power/io at a slightly cheaper price, and I've seen more powerful boards with less IO that are significantly more expensive. But I've yet to see a cheaper AND faster board than the PI with similar IO. Could you link me please?

    3. Re:It's not the thing... by Finallyjoined!!! · · Score: 1

      I think Whoosh applies here for you.
      It's not about the sodding hardware, or cost of said hardware. !!

      --
      If I had an Ass, I'd call it Fanny Bottom, then I could slap my Ass; Fanny Bottom, on the Arse.
    4. Re:It's not the thing... by ArcadeMan · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I don't understand the moderation on my comment nor your reply. We're talking about hardware and communities here, which the Arduino has too. In fact, I'd go as far as saying that the Arduino community, with its dozens of variants, is a lot bigger than the Raspberry Pi community.

      --
      Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
    5. Re:It's not the thing... by Finallyjoined!!! · · Score: 2

      OP said there are faster & cheaper boards available, which is undeniably true, the article specifically says it's about the community & the provision of support for school children (Kids are the spawn of goats) which makes the Pi a better tool for school children, due to the community support - for teaching programming.

      The Arduino may well be cheaper; but the point's moot.

      --
      If I had an Ass, I'd call it Fanny Bottom, then I could slap my Ass; Fanny Bottom, on the Arse.
    6. Re:It's not the thing... by CanHasDIY · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The Arduino isn't a computer, it's a programmable microcontroller.

      There really isn't any comparison between the two.

      --
      An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
    7. Re:It's not the thing... by WilyCoder · · Score: 1

      Can you show me a cheaper board that can decode 1080p video using standard APIs (which are exposed to developers like me) such as OpenMAX?

    8. Re:It's not the thing... by Rufty · · Score: 1

      I was thinking of things like the olinuxino which is cheaper than a Pi and seemed to be building a fanbase when a change from mailing list to web forum chilled the community. Or the Beagle Bone which is more open and technically superior, but has a nasty habit of throwing up problems no one else seems to have ever seen (according to google, that is). Or the Fox G20 which is a nice board and seems to have a good community, but isn't generally well known since the bulk of the community round it is still Italian.

      --
      Red to red, black to black. Switch it on, but stand well back.
    9. Re:It's not the thing... by Walter+White · · Score: 1

      There are faster, cheaper boards than the Pi.

      Can you suggest any? My google-fu is not up to the task...

    10. Re:It's not the thing... by petermgreen · · Score: 3

      There are faster, cheaper boards than the Pi.

      There are boards that are faster than the Pi and boards that are cheaper but I haven't seen anyone come out with a board that is both faster and cheaper.

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
    11. Re:It's not the thing... by Polo · · Score: 1

      But people naturally compare them anyway.

      You have to admit there are lots of tasks that don't require realtime control where people could choose either system.

      I think the Arduino shield system is brilliant, and the equivalent on the Raspberry Pi is not as well thought out. This is the biggest shame of all.

      My top few wishes for the Pi would be:
      - a well-thought-out, open shield system
      - 4 support holes at the corners instead of 2 in the middle
      - maybe a better case design - all ports along one side maybe?
      - an SD card that would insert fully

      The Raspberry Pi is wonderfully standardized, but the Arduino seems to evolve in a darwinian fashion because many vendors can make them.

      The Arduino comes up a little short in tcp/ip connectivity, where the raspberry pi is brilliant from the start.

    12. Re:It's not the thing... by BitZtream · · Score: 1

      Arduino is a different kind of board. Your program an Arduino in the Time Domain - that is, there isn't really interrupts like you have on a traditional computer, they're there but it's more like programming a DSP than a CPU.

      There are multiple OSes for the arduino (well, most atmega chips actually, not specific to arduino). I know, I've written one myself. It most certainly does have interrupts.

      Do you know what an Arduino actually is? I don't think you do because what you're saying doesn't make any sense, I don't think you understand how the hardware works.

      --
      Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
    13. Re:It's not the thing... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      The Arduino may well be cheaper; but the point's moot.

      The two are not even comparable. One is an embedded microcontroller platform with no video, a few k of RAM and flash, has no OS and uses C for writing software. The other is a computer, runs a variety of operating systems and software, can be programmed in a variety of languages and connects directly to a monitor and keyboard/mouse.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  2. Am I getting old? by Dancindan84 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    There was a time I would have jumped at playing with a Pi, and I did take a look into using it as a media device like he mentions in the article. I looked at what it was capable of and what I'd have to do to get it to do what I wanted vs. building a media PC around XBMC... and bought a Roku instead. I just couldn't be bothered. I still love tinkering with stuff programming-wise, but I've completely lost my ambition to tinker with hardware. Am I just old, or what?

    --
    "Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much." - Oscar Wilde
    1. Re:Am I getting old? by Finallyjoined!!! · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I'm 54 this year. I love playing with my Pi.

      But then it's more powerful than the Minicomputers I started on in the late 70's

      --
      If I had an Ass, I'd call it Fanny Bottom, then I could slap my Ass; Fanny Bottom, on the Arse.
    2. Re:Am I getting old? by ArcadeMan · · Score: 2

      A frickin' ATtiny85 is more powerful than a minicomputer from the late 70's. ;-)

      --
      Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
    3. Re:Am I getting old? by hawguy · · Score: 1

      I'm 54 this year. I love playing with my Pi.

      I'm almost as old as you and I've been playing with my pi since my early teens. I still play with it from time to time.

      But when did they start calling it a "pi"?

    4. Re:Am I getting old? by Dancindan84 · · Score: 1

      Well, that's not it then. I'm 34. I work as a computer programmer at a college, so if you'd asked me 10 years ago if I'd be doing programming or hardware tinkering as a hobby I'd have said hardware tinkering, because I wouldn't think I'd have wanted to come home and program after a day at work of programming... but that's exactly what I do.

      It's different programming mind you. I play around with a PHPBB forum coding a custom shoutbox and D&D dicebot for me and my friends to play with, or playing with smartphone apps as opposed to customizing/fixing HR and accounting software, but it's still programming.

      I even had someone else build my last computer. Still custom and I spec'd it out myself, but just couldn't be bothered with actually assembling it myself.

      My other option was time, since I'm now married with two young kids (2.5 and 4 months), but I still find the time to tinker with programming outside work so it's not strictly that either.

      --
      "Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much." - Oscar Wilde
    5. Re:Am I getting old? by Dancindan84 · · Score: 1

      Honestly I thought of that (married with 2 young kids), but I still find the time to program, play video games and D&D. Hardware tinkering's just fallen off my radar, and I never thought that would happen.

      --
      "Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much." - Oscar Wilde
    6. Re:Am I getting old? by Miamicanes · · Score: 2

      No, you've just gotten burned too many times by consumer goods that were value engineered to the absolute limits of low quality.

      Give Arduino a try... specifically, the Arduino boards made by RuggedCircuits.com. They're way too expensive to use for final versions of things you're building, but they totally rock for building your development prototype. Genuine Arduino boards are generally high-quality too, but aren't quite as "idiot-proofed" as the Ruggeduino. I'd recommend against Arduino clones from China that cost less than what you'd have to pay USPS to mail it from New York to Miami -- at least, for your first few experiments -- just because THEIR quality really is no better than an average consumer electronics product from the same anonymous factories in China.

      If you used to be into hardware, you'll feel right at home with Arduino. Imagine what it would have been like to develop software for a Commodore 64... if it ran at 8-20MHz, had 5v-tolerant 3.3v i/o, and modern development tools and Stackoverflow.com. That's basically Arduino. And when/if the Arduino environment ITSELF starts to feel limiting, you can graduate to AVR Studio.

    7. Re:Am I getting old? by nblender · · Score: 1

      Me too. But when it comes to TV, I just bought the easiest thing because when it comes to watching TV, I just want it to work because by then I'm already too mentally exhausted to screw around with it... My mentally-useful hours are spent either working or tinkering with interesting (to me) things... I don't want TV to be a hobby. TV is how I shut my brain off at the end of the day so I can fall asleep.

    8. Re:Am I getting old? by khellendros1984 · · Score: 1

      What I saw was that you made an obvious statement, then got upset at another user that made a similarly-obvious statement. I comprehend that you're being kind of a hypocritical ass, but I'm not quite sure why.

      --
      It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
    9. Re:Am I getting old? by entrigant · · Score: 1

      I feel much like you, and I attribute it to there being nothing particularly interesting or new about the Pi. It's just a small, cheap computer. I've installed and configured linux on a hundred systems big and small, and I learned everything this thing can teach me a long time ago.

      DIY is fun and can be a great learning experience, but it ends there. After that it turns into a time sink just to keep the damn thing going for no gain other than to learn what having a second job is like. If you just want something to use let somebody else deal with the hassle of making sure it works and keeps working. Let someone else design the UI, negotiate relationships with 3rd parties for commercial application support, keep an eye on security issues, fix that random idiotic HDCP issue with that new TV, deal with that bug in ffmpeg, etc.

    10. Re:Am I getting old? by InfiniteLoopCounter · · Score: 1

      Maybe it works for media hosting but what does it really do that a Chromecast doesn't do?

      There's a market for seamless video looping that the pis are starting to fill. I use them for exhibition spaces to push videos remotely on a loop with omxplayer. Dispman_vncserver allows for remote viewing of content as well.

      It's the small size that makes them attractive and I could see them being mounted to other devices than display screens as well. The new compute module and board would fit fine in home-made drones. I was thinking of trying to make a drone with a servo and 3d printer, but my 3d printer isn't up to the task unfortunately (maybe in a couple of years). You just have to use your imagination.

    11. Re:Am I getting old? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Programmers are like porn stars. We go to work and do things all day that bore us to tears, then go home and do variants of the same thing for another 6 hours.

      Programmer: Spends the day writing enterprise productivity apps, then goes home and works on his VR game for Oculus Rift.

      Pornstar: 3-hour skin-chafing blowjob while standing on one leg in a cold shower with puddles of lube on the floor that would give an OSHA inspector nightmares, then goes home and invites a few friends over for BDSM in the steampunk-inspired playroom.

    12. Re:Am I getting old? by gmagill · · Score: 1

      My other option was time, since I'm now married with two young kids (2.5 and 4 months)...

      So they were born 6 months apart?

    13. Re:Am I getting old? by CountZer0 · · Score: 2

      The $35 Raspberry Pi is a myth, but a $100 Raspberry Pi based XBMC box is a reality and takes all of 10 minutes to set up. I have 5 of them and have completely cut the cord from Cable TV now.

      Just grab a Canakit: http://smile.amazon.com/CanaKit-Raspberry-Complete-Original-Preloaded/dp/B00DLUXD64/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1397080142&sr=8-3&keywords=canakit
      and a FLIRC: http://smile.amazon.com/FLIRC-Dongle-Media-Centre-Raspberry/dp/B00BB0ETW8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397080187&sr=8-1&keywords=flirc

      Install xbian: http://www.xbian.org/

      Enjoy!

    14. Re:Am I getting old? by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Eventually your kids'll get old enough that hardware tinkering will be back on the radar -- with the added benefit that you'll be doing it with someone who looks up to you :) Only lasts a few years though.

    15. Re:Am I getting old? by TeknoHog · · Score: 1

      As with everything, it depends on (1) what you want to do now, and (2) your past experience.

      IMHO, you need to separate the need for a media box from a tinkerable gadget. When you sit down after a hard day and grab a drink, the last thing you want to worry about is JTAG chains or something. I like having a few x86-64 boxes to just get something done, even though the idea of little-endian 4004 descendants isn't exactly elegant.

      I still love tinkering with stuff programming-wise, but I've completely lost my ambition to tinker with hardware.

      If you love programming, what's the problem? You're lucky to have something that excites you. However, it's nice to take hacking into new directions every now and then. Try to find an avenue from your software skills into hardware, or whateve else that might be remotely interesting. (As a teacher, I just have to mention http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z...).

      For example, in early 2011 I got into FPGAs, which for me was the perfect union of software and hardware tinkering, having a smattering of experience in both electronics and programming. It was life-changing in some ways, but eventually it's just one of the tools to hack with. For example, designing circuitry to run genuinely in parallel has given me great insight in the software world as well.

      The Raspi always seemed kind of meh, both because FPGAs were already established in the embedded field, and because you'd be programming a chip someone else designed, instead of designing your own ;) Also, having first learned to program on the 1980s BASIC machines, I imagine something like Python (another life-changer of mine) on a regular computer would be much closer to the experience than something that appears to involve hardware hacking.

      --
      Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
    16. Re:Am I getting old? by Collective+0-0009 · · Score: 1

      The pi + arduino makes quite a powerful combo. The pi bridges the gap between microcontroller and network pretty well. We are about to use this combo to connect to our CNC machines to monitor certain variables and the status of the machine. I could see one day where we are adjusting for temperature changes by moving an offset by a thousandth.

      --
      I finally updated my sig, but now it's lame.
    17. Re:Am I getting old? by BitZtream · · Score: 1

      Horrible idea. I've done this already myself. In the end, the frustration with the Pi's USB stack and asstasitic traces for USB power handling (they are hardly big enough to handle its own power demands, let alone something in the USB port that draws more than 10 or 20ma and the fact that an Intel Atom board is only $80 or so, and RAM is dirt cheap just makes the RaspberryPI cost effective if your time has little value.

      Use a beagle bone black. The extra $10 you spend will be so ridiculously worth it that its utterly stupid for you not to do so. Or any other raspberry pi alternative just about, for that matter.

      --
      Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
    18. Re:Am I getting old? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Luckily my Karma is "huge"

      And your ego, too. Shame about your self-worth, though.

      You should have been modded Flamebait, not troll. But negative moderation is what you asked for.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    19. Re:Am I getting old? by Muad'Dave · · Score: 2

      I use a stock $35 Pi running XBMC with no other hardware needed - what did you spend the other $65 on? I use the XBMC iPhone app to control it - no need for a remote. The Pi is taped to the back of the TV with ethernet and power plugged in.

      --
      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:Am I getting old? by Collective+0-0009 · · Score: 1

      Interesting... I am still new to the pi and haven't really looked at alternatives. I guess we need to finish one of these and test it. I'll check out the other boards. Intel Atom has a better brand and might look more professional when we present this plan.

      --
      I finally updated my sig, but now it's lame.
    21. Re:Am I getting old? by CountZer0 · · Score: 1

      Flash card? Case? Power? HDMI and Ethernet cable? All of those items add up. Not using a remote saves you $30 on FLIRC, but I'm sure you've got at least $35 invested in the other items require to actually transform the Raspberry Pi into something more than inert circuitry.

    22. Re:Am I getting old? by Muad'Dave · · Score: 1

      I already had most of the components laying around, but I did buy power supplies for the Pi's. I also have one in the attic running dump1090 and the upload client for flightradar24 - it has no case either, and I'm using a <$15 RTL tuner from nooelec.com.

      Flash Card: $6
      Case: None - taped naked to the back of the TV
      Power: About $7
      HDMI Cable: $3
      Ethernet cable: already had tons laying around, or could make one for $1

      Grand total: $17

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

    Arduino is just a microcontroller with some IO ports, PI is a full blown computer that runs Linux.

    1. Re:Nope by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Learning Linux on a RaspberryPi is like learning about cars by working on a lawnmower.

      That's how I did it... started with two stroke engines and worked my way up to four stroke engines.

      Actually, I started with a suspended tin can with two angled holes in it, some water, and a heat source. After understanding the steam engine and its drive train, the move to a two-stroke engine with spark plugs didn't take much work; then I got to learn about throttles, priming, flow control, etc.

      After mastering these bits, four stroke engines were much less of a mystery. Plus, I was able to build go karts well before I knew the details of the four stroke engine :)

      I think this is precisely the point they're trying to make with the Pi.

    2. Re:Nope by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 1

      No, the Pi was made as an integrated device. Jesus fuck are you people that stupid?

      Whoosh? This has nothing to do with how it was made, but how it is used. It is used as a simplified teaching tool, and still enables you to do cool stuff without having to learn the really technical stuff right at the start.

    3. Re:Nope by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 1

      But now it's harder to get kids to tinker with stuff because there aren't many stores where you can go to buy electronics parts, etc., so things like the Raspberry Pi can be cool at introducing kids to the very *idea* that you can make things for yourself, and not limit yourself to what you can buy off the shelf.

      Yeah; this is the big issue. When I was 6, we had an LED calculator that wasn't working -- I took it apart with a screwdriver, cleaned it, patched up loose wires with electrical tape and put it back together -- presto! it worked! After that, my dad decided it was time to teach me how to use his soldering iron. Between that and the Radio Shack 160-in-1 electronics kit I had to play with, I had basic electronics stuff figured out by the time I was 10. Good luck getting a 160-in-1 kit these days (although I just found one on eBay). ...and now I did some digging and found Elenco. Seems like these kits are still alive and selling! I'd recommend a kid get some of the Elenco kits prior to moving on to a Pi; good to have the background knowledge as well as the programming experience.

  4. "microcomputer"??? by mark-t · · Score: 1

    I had always understood that the rasperry pi qualified as a nanocomputer... a computer that is approximately the same size as a credit card.

    --
    File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
  5. DIY ha ha ha by AndyKron · · Score: 1

    I don't want a $35 computer. I want a $10 computer, or I'll just keep using my chips instead. Everyone a DIY hacker my ass. More like everyone a DIY pipe dreamer with a little less money. Everyone I know who has bought an Arduino, with one exception, has told me it's "sitting at home and I've done nothing with it".

  6. You have become too productive by ranton · · Score: 2

    but I've completely lost my ambition to tinker with hardware. Am I just old, or what?

    As a kid I did far more tinkering with things than I do now. Part of this is because I have a family now, but another big reason is that I am simply far more productive at my core skills. I can do professional level work in my spare time with software related tasks, so tinkering in other domains holds less of a draw. I could either write some piece of software that may get used in the open source community or perhaps even sold as a product, or I could tinker with some robotics that isn't of much better quality than what some high school students could do.

    It is an easy choice for me, even if part of me would like to branch out a little bit more.

    --
    -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
    1. Re:You have become too productive by ranton · · Score: 1

      I'm glad you found your specialization comfort zone early so you'll never feel hungry to learn something new ever again.

      Wow, no hostility there. Also, I am not sure why you think people who are highly specialized never learn anything new.

      I can relate to the sentiment of being "too good to tinker" but I only maintain that attitude towards shit I've done before and would learn nothing educational from doing again.

      I would hope that everyone would have that attitude towards tinkering. Tinkering by definition is performing a task without much of a plan and usually with no useful effect. So if you are tinkering in the exact same way that you have done in the past, and aren't learning anything new, you are really wasting your time.

      I guess there are things that are simply not interesting to me like cooking or sewing but if it's STEM & new: "Bring it On".

      That is a perfectly reasonable way to live your life. There shouldn't be any hostility between highly specialized individuals and jack of all trades types. I was pointing out one possible reason why the GP may not enjoy tinkering with hardware anymore. I wasn't insinuating that everyone who becomes good at something automatically stops pursuing other hobbies.

      --
      -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
  7. Re:Another way by Narishma · · Score: 1

    Power isn't that important at these prices.

    --
    Mada mada dane.
  8. Re:Another way by JRV31 · · Score: 1

    Get a $199 Chromebook, start hacking, install a Linux distro.

  9. Make it so easy in terms of teaching and docs... by LaughingVulcan · · Score: 1

    ...and then all the 1%ers, 8 year old or 60, will move on to something more challenging.

  10. Re:Eben Upton? by psergiu · · Score: 1

    Nope.
    But Eben himself is a good actor - you might have seen some of his movies, his screen name is Jason Statham.

    --
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