28 Jun
2012
28 Jun
'12
11:38 p.m.
On Thu, 28 Jun 2012, Mark Benson wrote:
I don't talk much on here because most of the time
I am in awe of most
of you guys fixing things and sharing knowledge at levels I don't have
the tools or the talent to aspire to, and hays off it's awesome.
Fact is though, this thread is starting to have echoes of that guy at
HP that said he could only see a market for 5 computers at most.
I have a Raspberry Pi and run it 24/7 as an emulated VAX 3900 using
SimH. It does a damn good job of it too.
I work with a lot of embedded boards these days. Design wise, I rather
like the Raspberry Pi.
My single gripe with the project is their choice of Farnell/Newark as
their retail distributor. Newark as they are better known in the US has an
enormous markup on parts and materials and I've had so many bad
experiences with them (including overnight shipping not shipping out for
3-4 days on /multiple/ occasions) that I will simply not deal with
Farnell/Newark unless there is absolutely no way I can avoid doing so.
With my latest experience with Newark last year, they charged me $18 for a
small heat sink plus $20 for UPS ground shipping (that they -finally-
shipped out about 5 days later) PLUS local sales tax for an out of state
purchase. All total, about $58.00 USD for a small aluminum heat sink that
was less than 1LB shipped. That part was for a rush repair job, and I ate
the cost, but I vowed to never deal with Newark again.
By the time Newark tacks on all their fees, that "inexpensive" Raspberry
Pi is no longer inexpensive by any definition. Until the Raspberry Pi is
available via another distributor, I will not buy one.