29 Jun
2012
29 Jun
'12
5:08 p.m.
On 29 June 2012 21:39, Mouse <mouse at rodents-montreal.org> wrote:
Second, what is your basis for asserting that "most people" will have
spares of all those things just sitting around looking for uses?
Unless you've actually done studies of large numbers of Pi buyers -
numbers large enough to have statistical validity - to find out what
fraction of them have keyboards, mice, SD cards, etc, lying unused, I
can't see this as any more your spouting your opinions, guesses,
preferences, whatever, than the people you castigate for doing that.
FWIW, I'm hardly a normal user, and have plenty of spare PC bits lying
about, but I have precisely one USB keyboard in the house, which
usually hangs out near the lad's PS3.
Therefore today I bought a new USB keyboard, and an optical mouse for
good measure. Cost me a total of ?7.50 (<?10) from the local
supermarket. I'm powering the Pi from the USB media port on the TV
that it is using as a display! I can't remember where the micro-usb
cable came from, but the HDMI cable was a poundshop jobbie some time
back. None of it is going to break the bank and I think that allowing
use of such commodity items is a Good Thing - even if people don't
have spares, they are cheap enough that the TCO is still not too
expensive. Heck, I spent more on a Leapfrog "my first computer",
which definitely fits into the "toy" category.
Rob