This is such an amazing story. Cambridge lecturers wondered why the new students they were getting were good at *using* computers but had no idea how to build/program them.
Their parents’ generation had the BBC Acorn and other accessible computers to nurture their skills – so Cambridge decided to design and build a cheap computer, for kids to plug into their TVs. they hoped to sell a few *thousand* and get more kids involved with STEM. 40 *million* computers later, they are a beloved corner of tech.
When it first came out I was like “meh, not for me” as I’m not into programming and things like that. The amount of times I’ve asked something technical and “a cheap computer, like a Rasberry Pi would do the trick” has come up – everything from making a NAS server to DMX lighting control at club nights I run, to all sorts of camera stuff – remote DSLR control, live-stream remoting, home made security cam system, etc
Brilliant little invention.
I’ve been getting into Raspberry Pi’s since Christmas, they’re so much fun, I’d really recommend them to anyone. I didn’t even have a project in mind when I asked for one as a present but now I seem to be thinking of something new every day.
It’s also rekindled/created a fascination with electronics and physics as well as letting me naturally improve my IT skills. I’ve saved the day at work more than once in the past month because of competence I’ve picked up from messing with my Raspberry Pi.
(For some psychological reason it’s so much easier learning to mess with a remote Linux machine when I can hold it in my hand and see the lights blinking etc.)
I studied electronics at uni but then fell into an IT career so I never really got my hands dirty with electronics, then I bought a second hand pi just to control a light I had made.
I now have 5 of them and they run the whole house! Pi + Home Assistant = local ( not cloud) home automation that I control not some huge USA company and no monthly subs.
They’re great little emulators for old games that you can’t buy but can get ROMs for
Edit: grammar
I’ve got so many knocking about my home, some still in use, some languishing in boxes after being retired.
Used for (but not limited to); media server, Remote desktop thin client, home automation control (with touchscreen), security camera server, timelapse controller (for 3d printing videos), 3d printer controller, VPN server, Ad-blocking proxy, NAS server, astro-photography camera (using the PiCamera module and a 3d printed case).
They originally thought that they might make a couple of thousand (original batch was 2000 units), and now they’ve sold 40 million+!
Amazing success.
Finding out recently that the Pi CM4 gives you a PCIe slot that can be split _lots_ of times despite being a single lane was quite the revelation.
Very tempted to try DIY an ARM NAS or Router as a result heh.
I’ve been super impressed with the Visual Studio code experience on my Pi4 4GB – using it to learn a bit of node!
Will always have a place in my heart for Raspberry Pi.
I used one as part of my Comp Sci project at Uni. Combined it with a camera, a GPS tracker, and a high altitude balloon to send it up to capture pictures from the Stratosphere.
A great and cost-effective way to get people into computing, programming and DIY projects involving programming and hardware!
great for hosting Jupyter notebook or something as well
If nothing else, do yourself a favour and use one to set up pihole and pivpn.
They both have good subs here: r/pihole and r/pivpn, where you can get help and support!
Pihole: ad blocking at the router level. Stops ads coming into your house. I have a filter set which means if I watch a C4 program via All4 player, I get no adverts during a show! So good!
11 comments
This is such an amazing story. Cambridge lecturers wondered why the new students they were getting were good at *using* computers but had no idea how to build/program them.
Their parents’ generation had the BBC Acorn and other accessible computers to nurture their skills – so Cambridge decided to design and build a cheap computer, for kids to plug into their TVs. they hoped to sell a few *thousand* and get more kids involved with STEM. 40 *million* computers later, they are a beloved corner of tech.
When it first came out I was like “meh, not for me” as I’m not into programming and things like that. The amount of times I’ve asked something technical and “a cheap computer, like a Rasberry Pi would do the trick” has come up – everything from making a NAS server to DMX lighting control at club nights I run, to all sorts of camera stuff – remote DSLR control, live-stream remoting, home made security cam system, etc
Brilliant little invention.
I’ve been getting into Raspberry Pi’s since Christmas, they’re so much fun, I’d really recommend them to anyone. I didn’t even have a project in mind when I asked for one as a present but now I seem to be thinking of something new every day.
It’s also rekindled/created a fascination with electronics and physics as well as letting me naturally improve my IT skills. I’ve saved the day at work more than once in the past month because of competence I’ve picked up from messing with my Raspberry Pi.
(For some psychological reason it’s so much easier learning to mess with a remote Linux machine when I can hold it in my hand and see the lights blinking etc.)
I studied electronics at uni but then fell into an IT career so I never really got my hands dirty with electronics, then I bought a second hand pi just to control a light I had made.
I now have 5 of them and they run the whole house! Pi + Home Assistant = local ( not cloud) home automation that I control not some huge USA company and no monthly subs.
They’re great little emulators for old games that you can’t buy but can get ROMs for
Edit: grammar
I’ve got so many knocking about my home, some still in use, some languishing in boxes after being retired.
Used for (but not limited to); media server, Remote desktop thin client, home automation control (with touchscreen), security camera server, timelapse controller (for 3d printing videos), 3d printer controller, VPN server, Ad-blocking proxy, NAS server, astro-photography camera (using the PiCamera module and a 3d printed case).
They originally thought that they might make a couple of thousand (original batch was 2000 units), and now they’ve sold 40 million+!
Amazing success.
Finding out recently that the Pi CM4 gives you a PCIe slot that can be split _lots_ of times despite being a single lane was quite the revelation.
Very tempted to try DIY an ARM NAS or Router as a result heh.
I’ve been super impressed with the Visual Studio code experience on my Pi4 4GB – using it to learn a bit of node!
Will always have a place in my heart for Raspberry Pi.
I used one as part of my Comp Sci project at Uni. Combined it with a camera, a GPS tracker, and a high altitude balloon to send it up to capture pictures from the Stratosphere.
A great and cost-effective way to get people into computing, programming and DIY projects involving programming and hardware!
great for hosting Jupyter notebook or something as well
If nothing else, do yourself a favour and use one to set up pihole and pivpn.
They both have good subs here: r/pihole and r/pivpn, where you can get help and support!
Pihole: ad blocking at the router level. Stops ads coming into your house. I have a filter set which means if I watch a C4 program via All4 player, I get no adverts during a show! So good!