[GRLUG] another Raspberry Pi article

[Michael Mol]

On Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 2:03 PM, Bob Kline <bob.kline at gmail.com> wrote:
> Good deal.  I'm going to stay on my
> devil's advocate horse for one more
> round.
>
> What makes this a particularly good
> educational platform?  The low price
> is not enough, given that Linux is free,
> and can be run alongside an existing
> PC running windoz.

PCs aren't free, and any school network admin that'll let you
dual-boot a student-poked Linux distro with an OS install tied into
the system network ought to be  fired. I knew several guys back in
*middle school* who could and would have used such as setup to bypass
whatever security restrictions were in place on the Windows boxes.

[snip]

> i.e., what would a student do with any
> of it that has educational value?  Write
> their own USB driver?  I don't think so....

Install and set up a Linux box. The GPIO pins raise it a step or two
above LEGO Mindstorms. This would/will be a great platform for Tech Ed
and robotics classes.

The low power requirements mean you could even use it as an easily
programmable brain for robotics projects.

> Clearly I only see a niche market for
> something like this.  They are used in
> industry, which is why the ads for much
> more expensive units appear in the
> trade magazines.
>
> All said, I might well pick up a couple
> if they show up with a case.  I would
> use one or more of the 160 and more
> GB drives I have, and use it to play
> the endless old radio material I've
> downloaded from archive.org.  Even
> that is a stretch, since I already bought
> an FM transmitter so I can do that from
> my PC.  The Raspberry would have been
> a little cheaper way to do it, but only
> because I already have everything else.
>
> Educational value?  Zero.  Convenience?
> A wash.  Power savings?  A lot.

And that power savings would also lend itself to educational robotics
projects. Less drain on the system battery.

-- 
:wq

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