27 Jun
2012
27 Jun
'12
12:13 a.m.
On 27 June 2012 07:47, Joachim Thiemann <joachim.thiemann at gmail.com> wrote:
On Wed, Jun 27, 2012 at 6:50 AM, Dave McGuire
<mcguire at neurotica.com> wrote:
I think there is a little bit of history repeating - and in part, it's
a deliberate move by the creators. ?In particular, remember the
ZX80/81; technically not very exciting; but cheap enough for anyone to
get it. ?That made it influential. ?The same argument can be made for
the Vic 20.
And the Model A/B tags are definitely deliberate, being a hark back to
the BBC Micro which ended up (probably) as the first computer most
schools had for the kids to actually use..
Moreso in Europe than North America, space _is_ a serious
consideration. ?And also the prices for plain old Wintel boxen I see
here in France are quite a bit higher than I saw in Montreal - where
at points I had trouble giving away P4's that the university was
tossing out. ?Here in Rennes, those still seem to go for about 100
euros. ?(Judging from advertised prices on the local craigslist
equivalent (leboncoin.fr). I haven't needed to sell anything nor any
desire to buy such a machine, so I don't know if those people are
simply deluding themselves.)
Whilst anonymous "old computer"s seem to pop up on freegle/freecycle a
fair bit, second hand P4s from traders seem to go for about ?40-50 it
seems. I'm still trying to find a reasonable power, SFF or
thereabouts, box that will accept a PCI card for a teletext recovery
project I want to get involved in and that isn't outside my budget
(which is much closer to zero than I would like at the moment!) SFF
for the same reasons, space!
I have two Raspberry Pis, (since I ordered from both distributors at
launch) and they are fun to play with. I especially like the
boot-from-SD which means that I can change their use just by swapping
the card - I've got the regular linux setup and an OpenELEC card so
far. No need to configure multi-boot, worry about partitioning discs,
or anything similar. One is earmarked for Tiddler to play with, but
the other will probably stay in the hobby room for XBMC, general
computer use, or just for driving projects!
That's why I am waiting to get myself a R?. ?I can
play with it and if
I break it, it's an inconvenience. ?If I break my phone, I _have_ to
replace it.
Indeed - I keep thinking about the endless tinkering I can do with my
phone, but it's too expensive to replace should I do something wrong,
so I don't.
It is, however, definitely the price point that got me interested in
the Pi - and I know people who //don't actually have a computer// that
are interested in getting one simply because of that!
If I want to mess with a R?, I get it out of a storage bin, do stuff,
put it back. ?A fullsized pentium (or similar) box requires a
permanent place on a bench. ?I do not have that kind of space at this
moment.
I'm similar - I've got a cupboard I'm setting up the hobby room
systems in - a big PC will probably cook itself, and the rest of the
kit, in there..
Rob